Don't Give Up, Uru

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This music video is a machinima, with footage captured in video games called Myst Uru: Complete Chronicles and Myst Online: Uru Live and synchronized to Don't Give Up, a song by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush from Gabriel's album Shaking the Tree, Copyright © 1985 by Geffen Records. The video was assembled using Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0. Myst Online: Uru Live was a multiplayer adventure/puzzle game from Cyan Worlds, the makers of MYST and Riven. Originally incarnate as "Uru Live", it was aborted before the completion of open beta in February 2004. In 2006, GameTap announced it would restart the venture as Myst Online. The service ran for about one year before GameTap cancelled it, and the servers went offline in April 2008. Problems viewing this movie? Help is available. If you are unable to view the WMV version after reviewing the help, try this version. If you are unable to view the QuickTime version, please upgrade to QuickTime 7 or later. Like this video? More Uru Videos here. See the Original video of Don't Give Up (YouTube). If you like this song, please support the original artists.

The Making of Don't Give Up

• Very early in the planning for this video, I decided to make it with all still images instead of video. This was both a stylistic choice and was needed for a specific scene - the dancing scene between Tai'lahr and Wyn in Eder Tsogal, meant as a tribute to the original video of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. Tai'lahr and Wyn also appear in other scenes throughout the movie.
• This movie would have never been completed without, in particular, the help of Tai'lahr. I had reached the end of my energy and enthusiasm for Myst Online, and I even cancelled my account months ahead of the scheduled shutdown. Tai'lahr convinced me to stick around, and provided a way for me to visit for those final weeks. Furthermore, Tai'lahr was able to capture images to help complete the movie - a side benefit to producing the video in all stills that I hadn't anticipated - and she chose some excellent shots.
• The photo of lightning behind Relto required many snapshots to catch.
• The different names of Uru were customized for me by the ever talented Moiety Jean. She also made the grayscale versions of the Ubisoft and GameTap logos, and the colored embossed Guild logos.
• All of the news articles presented are actual website captures, although some layouts were altered to fit the format of the film.
• My alternate avatar, Al Derem, can be seen throughout the video - he touches the Minkata stone to bring daylight, and later he leaps into the fissure on Relto to land in the Cleft.
• The shot of Minkata appears in reference to a forest that has burned down. Although Minkata's scars are not actually tree stumps, it seemed appropriate given the release of Minkata at the time of Wheely's death.
• I have no idea how Kat and Mouse managed to wave in near-perfect synchronicity.
• One of my two favorite shots contributed by Tai'lahr is that of Dagda and D'Ara at the end of Ahnonay, giving the OK signs.
• My favorite shot contributed by myself is Dagda giving the begging look in Payiferen.
• The shot of Cate Alexander linking out for the final time was contributed by JWPlatt.
• Professor Askew provided the Lord of the Rings image. Rusty0918 gave me the image from Second Life. I think the Guild Wars image came from Lord Chaos. My "Significant Other" provided the image from World of Warcraft.
• My other favorite picture contributed by Tai'lahr is the one with a group gathered in stormy Ahnonay, looking sad.
• Some of the images, like the cheering group in Minkata, look a little less crisp because they were accidentally captured at 400x300 instead of 800x600 resolution. Also, the Minkata shot is actually a photomontage of several photographs, as I was not happy with any single shot.
• The quotes are from the Myst Online forum where I solicited feedback for inclusion in the video.
• The avatars in all of the final shots are myself, in fan ages imported into Myst Uru: Complete Chronicles.
• The disclaimer about no cones being harmed in the production of the film was added at the request of slider.

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