History of OTSS

I've decided to keep a production journal of my productions from now on. This way I'll be able to look back and remember everything I did, especially since I have a terrible memory. I think I will also make this public after each film's release, so that other people may read and learn from it. Perhaps if I can write it in such a way that does not reveal too much about the film, I can make it public before release... but we'll see. I will try to update on a daily basis, or at least every day that sees production. I should be taking this time to actually work on the film, but I know I will thank myself later for having written this.

A brief history about Only The Strong Survive and how the sequel came to be. It all started on a trip to New York, December 2003. On that trip I was in the planning stages of editing my Max Payne 2 tribute (on paper). This was still early in my decision to pursue film. I haven't shot anything besides a silly home movie done with friends that never got finished. I've done two trailers before this time, a Matrix Revolutions fan trailer and a Max Payne tribute. I knew I wanted to do the Max Payne 2 tribute very early on. I considered the first two trailers to be practice for the Max Payne 2 tribute, because I wanted this one to be amazing. I wanted to blow people away with it.

Only The Strong Survive was originally concieved of as a live action Matrix fan film. As a huge fan of the Matrix trilogy, I was very disappointed in the quality of the fan films avaliable on the subject. Instead of complaining about it, I wanted to take action into my own hands and make a film I wanted to see. I was such a newbie then; I knew absolutely nothing about film. And yet there I was, imagining an ambitious action blockbuster and expecting to do it with no crew, no actors, no budget, no experience, and no knowledge.

Fortunately, I reconsidered. So as I was working on a shot list for the Max Payne 2 tribute in New York, something clicked. Realizing that the Max Payne games were very much influenced by the slow motion techniques of John Woo and the Matrix films, and realizing that I had set up action scenes with an external camera for my Max Payne tribute, I put two and two together. I realized that I can use the game engine in that fashion to create the film that I wanted. I had already planned to do some impressive action shots for the Max Payne 2 tribute, and so I thought, all I had to do write a script, and make the entire film in that fashion.

Around the same time, Rockstar Games announced a modding contest for Max Payne 2, with a machinima category. Machinima? What's that? I read the description and realized that it was exactly what I was planning to do: a movie shot in the game engine. Worried that I might not win or be considered due to copyright issues, I quickly changed the idea from a Matrix fan film to an original idea. Thus, Only The Strong Survive was born.

Then I discovered machinima.com. I had seen the old Quake movies back in the day, but I hadn't realized they still existed. I had no clue there was an entire community doing this stuff. I was very excited, but a little afraid - now I had an audience for my film beyond the undersized Max Payne community. I met Ricky Grove through the forums of machinima.com, explained my plans, and met him in person a month or so later. That's when I felt the project become much bigger than what I had planned. In terms of scope, the film itself always remained the same. But the idea of it, the plot, and the characters, just grew on their own.

The final line of OTSS was there from the beginning ("I'm going to find the Organization..."), but the entire end sequence was changed to better suit a sequel (and to make more sense).

The very, very first version of OTSS (that no one has seen) had Andy and Ryan as brothers. Brown and Andy go through the chase, and corner the target in the apartment. The target reveals himself as Andy's brother. Andy has to choose between shooting his brother, Ryan, or shooting his partner, Brown, who wanted to shoot Ryan regardless of blood ties. Though I think it was a decent idea, it lacked the depth to go any further and I could not come up with a decent ending.

In the first complete version of the script, I liked it much more but there wasn't much conflict. The standoff happens as it is in the final film. At the climax of the standoff, Brown and Ryan reveal that Andy was set up because he asked too many questions and knew too much. There was no "test". As they explain what's going on, Andy becomes infuriated and shoots Ryan before he can react. Brown fires on Andy, and they have a short, violent battle. Andy kills Brown, and Andy vows vengeance on the Organization for brainwashing his partner and best friend.

You can see how the ideas evolved into what it is now.

During the standoff Brown and Ryan explain everything about the Organization and what they do. Later in production, we decided to cut this line out and make it more mysterious, and save the explanation for the sequel. I'm glad we did, because it was not a very good description.

Much of what changed for the final version of the script came through in rewrites and rehearsal sessions with the actors, including the idea of the "test". With the rewrites, there was now much more character and purpose for revenge. It was never as ingenious as I wanted it to be, but overall I liked the script very much, and it all worked.

I had such a great time during production that it was almost certain that I wanted to do the sequel. To be honest, the trilogy was a random idea, but as I began thinking of scenarios, I realized that I needed two more films to tell the story. Unless I wanted to do a feature length production, but I wasn't ready for that. I'm still not. Shortly after the release of OTSS, I began brainstorming for ideas for the next installment. I asked many people what they thought would happen in the sequel, but I didn't get much input.

I've been brainstorming ideas to this very day. Although I've started the treatment three months ago, I still don't have anything set in stone. I have a very rough idea of the beginning, middle, and end for both parts 2 and 3, but the details remain unclear. I hope to have the treatment done in two weeks so that the script can be written and we can start production this summer. Maybe I should stop hoping and start doing, but unfortunately I have like 10 other things I need to take care of.