How It's Done: Rockstar Releases Video Production Editor For GTA So Fans Can Make Films
from the bizzaro-nintendo dept
Peruse the history of fan-film posts we’ve done in the past and you’ll be met with depressing results. Too often the makers of movies and video games prefer a restrictive approach to fans using any form of their content. The approach tends to be of the blanket variety, where a default to protectionism often ties up fan-work that is either usefully creative in and of itself, or else beneficial to the original content producers if only it would be allowed to breathe. Nintendo has become famous for this kind of restrictive practice in YouTube recently, but it is hardly alone.
Rockstar, as it has so often before, breaks the mold on this kind of thing. Back when Grand Theft Auto 4 was the latest iteration in the GTA series, some enterprising fans had used video editing equipment, along with the game itself, to create their own brand of fan-film, using game footage as the vehicle for an admittedly simple but impressive story line. The whole thing was 2 hours long and has been viewed on YouTube over half a million times. Rockstar, for its part, not only didn’t take the video down, but it went so far as to provide its own video editing software for fans in the latest PC version of the series, Grand Theft Auto 5.
When Grand Theft Auto V launches tomorrow, it will come complete with a video editing suite that will allow you to make movies from Story Mode and GTA Online footage you capture. The software, the Rockstar Editor, lets you do a number of things [like] record and edit footage and share them with the community. The editor features special camera modes, filters, depth of field and audio customization options, and a Director Mode feature that allows you to create movie-making sequences from a cast of characters from Story Mode.
This, quite simply, is how it’s done. Rockstar/GTA fans expressed an interest organically in something they wanted to do with Rockstar’s product, an emergent use that Rockstar may never have even considered, and, rather than getting butthurt over the use of the content and sending out the threat-letters, the company enabled its fans’ behavior instead.
And why wouldn’t they? After all, far from harm, it would be an absolute boon to Rockstar to see YouTube pages filled with fan-creations in the form of short or monstrously-long creative works, all done within GTA itself. It’s just one more way to have fun within the game, one more way to be expressive with fellow fans of the game, and one more way for the GTA name to be etched into gaming history. This is pure CwF+RtB calculus at its finest.
Well done, Rockstar.
Filed Under: fan films, fans, grand theft auto, gta
Companies: rockstar
Comments on “How It's Done: Rockstar Releases Video Production Editor For GTA So Fans Can Make Films”
How it's not done
While we’re talking about Rockstar/Take 2…
http://www.gamersnexus.net/gg/1916-investigation-rockstar-games-customer-service-calls
Rockstar phone support being instructed to hang up on customers.
Re: How it's not done
They helped my friend who’s Social account has been connected to another persons Steam account.
It took two phone calls but it was fixed that day.
no word as yet when Rockstar is being kicked out of the entertainment industries club for daring to do something not just for it’s fans but for breaking away from the ‘we must keep control of everything before customers start making their own games and stuff’ click? surprising!
They miss the whole point!
It would seem that Rockstar has missed the whole point of making something. They should be trying control it and control the way people use it. Creating something is about wielding absolute control over it.
It is not about the money or the joy of sharing, capitalism is all about control and power. By giving up power over something they just show they are dirty socialist who want to destroy America.
< /sarcasm >
Re: They miss the whole point!
How long before Lester Crest hires Franklin to assassinate the head of Rockstar for violating the rules of copyright protectionism while subtly giving a stock tip to buy shares in EA?
Awesome? Yes.
Useable? No.
Why? Cause Rockstar won’t fix their issues with all the hacked accounts
This is fine, but Rockstar still mucked up the GTA V launch for PC. On top of all the account issues, there are stupid app integrations that make you feel like the game had features removed and placed elsewhere as a gimmick. There are features of the game like selling stolen cars that are only available in online mode (I would guess to punish pirates who can’t play online, but I was on a flight a few days ago and ran into this issue since I wasn’t online). They also aren’t making modding easy, which is the entire reason I wanted to play it on PC. Their original content is okay, but the fan-made mods always add that feature you want or remove that feature you dislike.
Now how about you fix your damn game so people can play? You know that making videos is useless when you can’t be bothered offering basic support so the game works.
Just Google “GTA V PC lobby empty” to see how many problems there are, and how ignored everyone is by these people.
Profit before quality. Shame on you Rockstar.
About you.
Awesome? Yes.Why? Cause Rockstar won’t fix their issues with all the hacked accounts