Most Elite Dangerous players are still waiting for access to Update 2.3, the upcoming patch that will introduce Multi Crew and other long-awaited features. But one EDH fan made the absolute most of their early access last week, by creating a short machinima film with the new camera suite introduced in Elite Dangerous Update 2.3.
Players have been using their favorite games to create their own short films, serials and movies for more than 20 years. But we haven’t seen much from the Elite Dangerous community since Frontier Development’s space sim debuted back in 2014. At least, not until Vindicator Jones (who requested we not use his real name) published a short film, “The Hamilton Incident,” on Sunday morning. The video is a stark departure from the tips and explainer videos available on his YouTube channel. Jones said the film took five days to create, working two or three hours per day, and cited his love of The Twilight Zone and other science fiction as primary influences.
“I have always enjoyed animated shorts and vignettes that explored topics that elicited an emotional response. The biggest influence for ‘The Hamilton Incident’ comes from a movie called Screamers ,” Jones told iDigitalTimes. “I prefer the kind of stories where you cannot see the monster, where your imagination fills in the blanks. And with ‘The Hamilton Incident,’ I wanted the audience to make up their own minds about what happened and generate their own feelings based on that. Each person's imagination suddenly becomes their own interpretation of the story. And I love that.”
Capturing footage for the film wasn’t nearly as enjoyable. Jones says he needed 146 takes to finish ‘The Hamilton Incident.’ And many were reshoots completed after he realized the footage he’d just captured didn’t quite match the script. The budding filmmaker doesn’t have any plans to revisit ‘The Hamilton Incident,’ or create a sequel, but does say he’d like to create other short films set in the Elite Dangerous universe. Jones also hopes his creation will inspire other ED players to create their own movies.
“I would love to see more story base pieces come from the community. We have such a rich and detailed galaxy to play in, but it is extremely lacking in any story-based content,” Jones said. “But when the new 2.3 camera system goes live for everyone in the next update, I am expecting many people to take full advantage of it. I am looking forward to seeing what other commanders do with it.”
If you’ve got time, and didn’t already skip down to watch the video, take a few minutes to watch ‘The Hamilton Incident’ in its entirety. Then hit the comments and let us know if you want to see more short films from Vindicator Jones and the rest of the Elite Dangerous community. Those interested in supporting Vindicator's ongoing video work can do so via Patreon.
Elite Dangerous is currently available on PC and Xbox One. The game hits PS4 later this year.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes and follow Scott on Twitter for more Elite Dangerous news in 2017 and however long Frontier continues supporting Elite Dangerous .
