Reply To: Flickr – the Spiff version
I got the picture of the Christmas tree during the Winter Festival over the holidays. I had received an email from a fan named Kytyn who was encouraging me to make this video. I told her all the reasons why it wasn’t likely (where the hell was I going to get a picture of Warren Beatty, for one), but she even came up with a list of possible shots I could use. At the very least, she said, I should take some pix of the Christmas tree since that won’t be up in WoW forever. I took her advice, and actually had shots of the Ironforge tree, the Ogrimmar tree, the snow-covered tree outside the inn at Kharanos, and the tree in Shattrath City. But I just sat on the files until you guys all started talking about your own version of Flickr here on the forums, and it sounded like fun so I dusted them off and made the rest of the video.
Let’s see, strange in-jokes… I didn’t set out to put in things that were too “inside” that someone who didn’t know WoW wouldn’t be able to enjoy the video. In fact, being familiar with the original Flickr video is probably more important than being familiar with WoW. For the most part, my goal was to make images that “felt” right. So, things like the two-headed dog creature was hopefully a satisfying substitute for the “pair of poodles” from the original video. And the war wolf being ridden by the orc with an armored face mask (with its face cocked at the same angle as the original dog’s) is hopefully a satisfying substitute for the “dog with glasses”. If you look at any of my images and they don’t feel like they belong, then I’ve failed.
The “landlord never learned to spell” and “someone put graffiti on the wall” are probably the two most “inside” jokes in the video. Gamer kids can’t spell for shit and they always use so many abbreviations that you can’t tell what the hell they’re trying to say. I actually contacted my nephew and had him send me some gamerspeak so I could put it into the video. And the graffiti won’t make sense to non-WoWers, but then who can read actual graffiti on actual walls anyways? It looks like gibberish!
“A freight train passes” — that plays off of the gamer use of the word “train” which is what happens when a character gets a bunch of monsters mad at him then tries to run away, “training” all the monsters behind him. I changed it a bit to make it into a train of taurens who are chasing down a night elf since Stranglethorn Vale (that shot’s location) is a notorious spot for PvP (player vs. player) combat where if you get caught alone, you’re going to get killed.
“This party’s better than it seems” originally showed an adventuring party where nearly everyone had died, playing off the gamer use of the word “party” to mean a group of adventurers rather than an actual party, and I wanted to show a party that obviously sucked. But the shot I had didn’t match the original at all, and it didn’t feel right, so I changed it to the one with the funny metal hats, which I like better.
The “strange balloon man” shot almost derailed the entire video. Where the hell was I going to get a shot of a “strange balloon man”? There aren’t any in WoW. There are bubbly slimes, but they’re not men. There are goblins who stand where you get onto the zepellin transports, but that’s not a close enough connection to be satisfying. I was stuck. It wasn’t until I dug through all the models in the game that I discovered the zepellin paper airplane models. I didn’t know this, but apparently, you can get a loot card from the WoW collectible card game that will let your character throw little gyrocopter or zepellin-shaped paper airplanes. That was the closest I figured I was going to get, so I had a gaudily-dressed guy who’s obviously having a good time, be surrounded by many flying zepellin (balloon-like) paper airplanes.
My sister-in-law suggested that I have a guy be surrounded by the giant floating beholder/eyeball monsters which look kind of like balloons with tentacles and a mouth. I tried that and it just looked like the guy was surrounded by monsters, so I went with the paper airplanes.
There is one hidden joke that I’m surprised no one has mentioned yet. What kind of pies do you think that tauren lady sells at her shop…?