My name is Adam and I started my Quake journey against bots in Quake III from as far as I can remember. I migrated to Quake Live in 2010 and it was the first game I started playing multiplayer online. I took my e-name "creep" in early 2012 because my previous name "EnergyMassacre" was too long and I wanted something more memorable. It has stuck with me to this day even though I have heard many times it doesn't suit me at all. These days I wish I had more time to play Quake (or video games in general) but I'm prioritizing other things in life such as paying my rent and walking my dog.

Everything with video creation have I learned myself the hard way through testing and YouTube tutorials. However, I did a computer technical line in high school where I learned the most basics in Photoshop which I have had much further use of in my videos.

I always work with the same programs as learning new software is both time consuming and expensive. My go-to tools are:

Sony Vegas 13 pro
Photoshop cs5 exteneded
WolfcamQL
VirtualDub
Blender

I always start with mixing the songs I want into a mixtape together with studying the frags in my selected demo folder to get an easier grasp of what the overall outcome will look like. After that I spend a great amount of time customizing my config to a look which will suit the art direction I want to go and make it stand out from others and my earlier works.

When I think I have enough action for a complete movie and a config I'm happy with I go on with the part I call the "puzzle laying", which is basically start editing and fitting the right action somewhat synced with the music. The way I do this is I start with the most intense and memorable moments, and place them on the upbeat of the music track (e.g., a good flag or quadrun will often go very well with a guitar solo). After the most important parts are done I add the more casual frags as fillers where they fit on the timeline, and lastly I add cameras or fade effects to get a smoother transition between scenes.

Other than that my work may take the time it takes to get done, sometimes I take a month break because I'm tired of working on a project or got more important stuff in life to deal with.

Ever since I was a kid and hit airrockets on the bots in dm17 I remember how cool I thought it would be to highlight the best plays. When I started playing Quake Live I always admired the moviemakers at the time for their work, and spent countless of hours watching fragmovies on youtube. That is also one of the reason I started reading ESReality, as I noticed this site had a great movie sharing platform, with new fragvids popping up regulary.

One video that particularly stood out for me as an inspiration was qpig's ctf4 tricks collection, and that even got me as far as starting tricking SpaceCTF myself, and finally upload my first movie, Quake Live: Space CTF Tricks.
My favourite Quake movie of all time is Defraging is not a crime by breacH, and I guess I have taken some inspiration from his work even though I'm not as good as implementing such editing details in my own videos.

I am proud of all my movies, and I can still watch and enjoy them to this date even though they are full of flaws and horrible music. I think my most important movie that lay the ground for my moviemaking "career" is my first fragmovie Lost in space, because it was posted on ESR without my awareness by Kapiter, and got very good response when I really expected none, which of course motivated me to do more.

The flick I am most happy with its outcome is SPACEWARD as I think it represents my style of editing the fullest, and it was also my first ever collaboration with another player, mouse*.

I think my editing style is very mediocre and falls closer to the old fashioned frag-after-frag edit with few cameras and special effects, but with a big effort to highlight certain moments through the music, which I assume is what gives my movies its charm and character.

A movie isn't necessarily better just because there is tons of editing put into it. In fact some "raw" movies are just pure satisfactory to watch such as twister's "some frags" series or MrHollyDriv3r's hour long defrag compilations. With that said, some really bad content can be done interesting with some slight touches, and vice versa can good content be completely destroyed with the wrong editing, but it's hard to put a finger on an "ideal editing" as it in the end of the day comes down to the moviemakers way of telling his story.

It's pretty clear Quake Champions shot itself in the foot with not implementing editorial content, such as demos. Just look at CS:GO and its movie community, still going strong in 2018 and is highly appreciated worldwide. Gaming movies is one of the best promotion a game can get as it comes from the heart of the community and really shows the limit of what the game can offer, on all levels.

As for different styles and techniques I think there is much more to explore, it's just hard to break comfort zones and have the creativity to come up with something new, as it's much easier to look at other peoples creations and work in a similar manner.

Start small and take your time. It's more fun to watch a one minute video with interesting content rather than a 3 minute video full of fillers and casual play. Don't have too high expectations on the first try, and take the criticism with a grain of salt, especially regarding the music. At the end of the day it's your movie, so don't be afraid to experiment and do you, as long as you like it that's what matters. Lastly, don't be afraid to ask for help, there are many people out there who is gladly going to help you succeed with your first movie. Good luck and have fun!

Apart from the people mentioned in my answers I would like to thank lolograde for this interview, GrandBolus for nagging me about upcoming productions (it really is good motivation), and NastyTime for sharing ideas and being a close e-buddy. I would also like to thank realster for eating all of my rockets.

I also happen to have a Quake Live community fragmovie in the works, and if you want to be part of it you can send me your best gameplay to [email protected]. Read more about it HERE. Thank you! :)