Name: nosf
Notable Work(s): Control and Beyond, Clan Arena - Legacy

Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, interests, etc.?
Well, I'm a programmer from Russia and so a lot of my interests lie somewhere around information technologies. I have several small hobbies, most notable of them is playing chess.

Are you self-taught or have you taken formal classes on editing?
I'm a self-taught moviemaker. It all started with fiddling with some moviemaking programs, making short funny clips, and then it transformed to pretty serious involvement in Quake 3 moviemaking.

What software do you use?
I use q3mme, VirtualDub, Audacity and Adobe products (Premiere + After Effects + Photoshop)

When starting a project, what is your approach like? Do you have a specific workflow?
It was all different in each project I did. My first small movie took me one full day to make, so there was no planning at all. When I did Clan Arena - Legacy, I was presented almost a complete plan, which was suggested by other people from Clan Arena community. And when I did Control and Beyond there was years of planning before it.

What has inspired you in your work? Are there specific movies or moviemakers that changed the way you approach your own work?
I was a CPM Clan Arena player for a long time, so I took a lot of inspiration from cool and very fast-paced gameplay of Clan Arena. I also always liked the fragmovies with cinematographics, not just pure frags, take for example Morning Never Came by negoxe and manJu by jibo. Speaking of DeFRaG, I was always inspired by challenging maps, where you don't usually try to finish the map as fast as you can, but you try to finish the map at least once.

Which of your own projects are you most proud of? Which do you think were most instrumental in your development as a moviemaker?
The one movie I'm most proud of is Clan Arena - Legacy, because it remains as a memory of awesome Quake 3 Clan Arena community and its very nostalgic to rewatch it and to see familiar names. Also, Control and Beyond is very special to me, because it presents a quintessence of my DeFRaG career.

There is a range of game movies in terms of editing styles and structure. Some you could call some "old school" (minimal editing) and then there are very elaborate projects with significant amounts of editing. Where do you think your movies fall? In your opinion, is there an ideal balance between editing and content?
Each movie is different and the amount of editing is perhaps not the main criteria to differentiate them. Personally, I think that the most important part in making a movie is commiting to a certain idea, telling a story, not just cutting frags or speedruns just for the show.

There are good examples of such movies with minimal editing, (e.g., hox-run by HOX or Psychic Frags by TCR). I also try to use editing only when it is needed to present the idea of the movie. For example, in Control and Beyond I decided not to make cameras during the runs to make the movie more solid-looking. So, I think that the balance between editing and content needs to be found considering the idea of the movie you want to make.

What do you think the future holds for game movies? Are there new styles/techniques possible?
The game movies are as strong as ever, though their format is changing. A lot of big companies are interested in promoting their brands, and so they make their own game movies, like those from Overwatch. Such movies are done with a big team of very skilled specialists, and so there becomes less space for individual moviemakers to compete with such high-quality production. Also, there is more personality in games nowadays and people tend to watch not just in-game video, but in-game video commented by their favourite streamer, caster, etc.. This affects moviemaking a lot and it will probably be even more significant in future.

What advice do you have for new moviemakers?
Be creative and don't hesitate to make a stuff that nobody has ever done before. Everything is changing very fast and you may succeed in your ideas. It's very important to like your own work and be proud of it, so make the movies as you see it best.

Any last comments/shoutouts?
Thanks everyone who helped me in my efforts of moviemaking and who appreciated my work! Thanks GST (aka gh0st) for believing in my skills and letting me work on Clan Arena community movie, thanks HOX for always helping me with technical stuff like encoding and releasing. Finally, thanks everyone who watched my movies!
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