This site provides links to some of the best flight sim movies currently available. The movies are made by filming the action in a flight simulator and editing the shots together in an editing program to make a story. This process can be called Machinima and is a relatively new way of making movies.
The beauty is that almost anyone with a computer can make movies.
The problem is that almost anyone with a computer can make movies!
There are now thousands of home made movies available on streaming sites, so how do you know what is worth watching? Well, this site aims to select the very best flight sim movies from each year to ensure the good ones don't get lost in the deluge. All the movies here are made from flight simulators because, well, that's what we do. Mostly, the movies are from around the World War 2 era, but we are interested in other types.
Anybody can submit a movie for consideration.
The site was first published in October 2006 with the help from the team at Wingmen Productions (the guys who got together to make the epic Faith, Hope and Charity). We are now on the third incarnation, and this has been made possible with a team that has developed from the early days:
and the former member:
December 2011 A “Movie-Making and Videos" sub-forum has been established at the 1C Company official COD forum, strictly for COD-based movies and videos, and related discussions on movie/video making. Here is a link to the 1C sub-forum: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/forumdisplay.php?f=207 It is hoped that the new sub-forum will encourage creation of more Cliffs of Dover high quality Movies, in addition to the plethora of raw In-Game or Gameplay COD Videos found on YouTube.
FSM Director Tinus le Roux (aka biltongbru) was chosen by Oleg Maddox of 1C Company to produce a series of Trailers for the new flight sim “Il-2 Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover”. Tinus produced seven superb and highly praised trailers which can be viewed by subscribing to the biltongbru Channel at Youtube. This is the first time that an IL-2 Flight Sim community movie-maker has been used to produce marketing trailers, as opposed to less effective 1C or Ubisoft trailers produced in-house.
The epic IL-2 movie, “Faith, Hope, and Charity”, first released in 2007, has been added to the IMDb database http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1909764/ It is believed that this is the first FlightSim-based movie to be included at IMDb.
The “Rise of Flight” flightsim-based movie “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” by FSM Director Russell Boyd (aka Joe90), released in July 2010, has been selected for showing at the ARES Film & Media Festival · Siracusa, Italy http://www.facebook.com/pages/ARES-Film-Media-Festival/120459764665059
Tinus Le Roux (aka biltongbru), one of our FSM Board Directors is producing a pilot TV episode intended for possible presentation on South African TV, using the “IL-2 Sturmovik” and “IL-2 Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover” flight sims as the primary source of aerial combat visuals. The 30 minute long pilot episode is tentatively entitled “Pattle” and is intended to be the first in a series of episodes relating the stories of South African WWII fighter aces, in this case RAF Squadron Leader Marmaduke Thomas St. John "Pat" Pattle. Tinus is known in the Flight Sim movie-making community as an expert in composite imaging, using aircraft models as well as game-captured footage, and also green-screening of live actors; this TV production will have extensive live acting sequences by a cast of South African actors. Tinus is producing this TV show with the extensive cooperation and participation of the South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance (AFDA) http://www.afda.co.za/ Another of our FSM Directors, Bruce Wallace (aka Wiley/Doolittle81), is assisting Tinus on this project, primarily in matters of historical research and screenwriting. It is anticipated that the production might be completed as early as June 2012.
The first Golden
Oleg of 2011 has been awarded to Barfly
for his newest movie, “Battle of
Britain: Kanalkampf”. This is the
first Oleg awarded for a “Cliffs of Dover” (COD) flight sim movie. Although hundreds of videos have appeared on Youtube
since the release of “IL2 Sturmovik-Cliffs of Dover” in March 2011, the
overwhelming majority consist of raw game ‘footage’ lacking Story, as well as
exhibiting only limited editing and cinematography techniques. Thus far, only
four “COD” movies have met the high standard for showcasing here at the Flight Sim Movies website.