The
Janus Syndicate is a long-lived machinima group famous for its movies made with Garry's Mod and other Source engine games. They made movies such as "Soldiers of Misfortune", "Source Wars", "Counter-Strike for Kids", and series such as "Gman Squad", which has been featured on GarrysMod.com in the past.
"
mm3guy" has had a little interview with them, in a nice chat format, check it out below:
mm3guy: Alright, guys, thanks for being here today! So, to get this interview started, can you all tell me a little about your group?
Xanatos: Well, we're the Janus Syndicate, a Machinima group that started back in late 2005. We focus our Machinima videos almost entirely in the Half-Life 2/Source engine, and we try to cover as much ground as we can in terms of encorporating different Half-Life related games and Source mods into our movies. For those who haven't seen any of our stuff, I'd say most of our videos fall under a genre entitled "absurd comedy". It's like Tim and Eric for gamers.
STEV: wow tl;dr
DMGaina: totally
Crackbone: i hr tht
mm3guy: So, how did you guys first get together? Did you all sign up somewhere to join the Janus Syndicate, or did you all meet on a server and experience love at first sight?
STEV: I'll take this one.
STEV: I don't mean to be a commercial here, but It all started one day at my local Culver's restaurant. I looked at the menu and noticed they had an item called the "ButterBurger." At first I believed it to be a burger, but instead of meat, it was composed entirely of butter. I WAS WRONG! It was comprised of complete awesome. I gobbled the burger quickly after ordering. And lo, it was love at first sight.
mm3guy: By burger do you mean Xanatos, and by Culver's restarant do you mean a bar?
Xanatos: mm3guy, pardon him, he has a tendency to only read parts of questions. Stev, the question was about how we got together - not what love at first sight was for us. WAIT, WHY AM I A HAMBURGER?
STEV: you're juicy like a burger
STEV: a tasty burger
Xanatos: Anyway, we started back in 2005 with a handful of people from a source mod community. The only person still around from when we originally first began is Boris. Stev and I are friends in real life and around the time we made Dr. Strangeman I got him involved in the scene, DMGaina and I knew each others work and eventually began collaborating together, and we met Crackbone in a game of Zombie Panic. I hope he's here, he has a tendency to go AFK a lot randomly for hours at a time for things like "to get a drink". Bah, he probably went AFK again...
Crackbone: ur rng xanatoes
Crackbone: ur soe rng
STEV: crackbone, this is supposed to be professional
Crackbone: fk u
STEV: how about you don't write like an idiot
Crackbone: drnk tme
DMGaina: I just wanted to add that this asshole forced me to join his vent against my will.
Xanatos: NOT TRUE
DMGaina: YOU BEGGED ME TO JOIN!
mm3guy: Alright, guys, calm down! Now, can you tell me what it was like to make your very first film? Was it hectic, or did everything go well?
Xanatos: It was definitely a hectic process when we first started out, and although we've learned a lot after progressively making a handful of videos for a number of years, it still is a hectic process each time we start a new project. Working in Garrysmod and in the Source engine has a ton of benefits, and I would always recommend its use, but working with people online in real-time isn't easy. Just look at these guys for the reason why.
Boris: GEE THANKS XANATOS!
mm3guy: What's your typical pipeline for getting a movie from an idea to something you can post on youtube?
Xanatos: Usually we'll come up with a vague, overall idea for a project based off of a few splinter ideas. Or sometimes, in the case of the Gman Squad series, that originally started as an inside joke (we ran around in the pointless, not-at-all-played Half-Life Deathmatch Source, claiming to be a clan for it) but eventually we thought it would branch out quite well as an actual joke machinima series. Or many times, we'll take past, unused ideas and adapt them to something else. Like our old Team Fortress 2 western movie - about a year prior to making that, we originally wanted to do that same idea in Counter-Strike, but making it in TF2 was obviously the better choice. Lastly, Counter-Strike for Kids was truly a group collaboration effort in which we all wrote ideas for it and discussed what we thought the final product should be. I think we went through four or five different versions of it (with/without the Crackbone sequence, with/without the George Lopez bit at the end, etc). So we look for a full-fledged idea that we think can make a good final product, and then go out and shoot it.
DMGaina: It's more a combination of scripting and improvisation.
STEV: yeah, for example, the people with brains and acting abilities get lines, and the others improv their lines (case in point: crackbone
http://www.facepunch.com/fp/emoot/argh.gif). not trying to name any names here!
mm3guy: So have you ever had to dump a project due to technical difficulties, or any other reason?
STEV: well, there was this one movie. it probably should have been dumped. no new ideas, BUT it still got released! Perhaps you've seen it, it's called "Crackbone's Telethon hosted by Source Mod Todd".
Xanatos: Someone's a little biased, but no, we haven't really dropped any project during its production due to technical reasons or creative differences among the group. However, there's a lot we haven't attempted that would be difficult for us to accomplish technically. As open ended Garrysmod is, a lot of what you may wish to do with it is still easier said than done (even though FncyPntz makes it look easy). But we're getting there thanks to a lot of modding assistance we've had lately.
DMGaina: Me and Mr. Sentual do some modding work, and I also brought aboard my talented friends don.banane, simkas, kuno, and some others. We've been contributing a lot of work to the Machinima videos since Soldiers of Misfortune. I really think some of the projects were never possible without them.
STEV: OH GOD - IT'S OBVIOUS ENGLISH ISN'T YOUR FIRST LANGUAGE.
STEV: I think you mean "Mr. Sentual and I," also "would never have been" instead of were.. GEEEEEZ!
Xanatos: To go with what DMGaina said, absolutely. Soldiers of Misfortune was one of those videos that I originally thought wouldn't be possible to make due to all the custom map and modelling demands. Thanks to him and all his talented friends though, we managed.
DMGaina: IT'S OBVIOUS THAT YOU ARE AN IDIOT STEV! I am waiting since 2 hours for this interview, it's 4 in the morning for me!
mm3guy: Now, you guys gather a lot of hits on your videos. Ever since your Gman Squad videos, you've been getting a lot of requests to join your group. How often do you encounter someone who wants to join the Janus Syndicate?
Boris: Back when we made counter-strife like 3 years ago, which was just like a satirical guide on how to play the game, a bunch of people thought we were a counter-strike clan and messaged us about it. Then this foresight carried over when we made the Gman Squad. People thought we were a serious HLDMS group when we just needed a name for a series of movies. Dicks.
STEV: ASDFGHJKQERTCB
Xanatos: Thankfully though, but unfortunate to them, since we upload all of our movies over to the machinima.com side of things, they're the ones that usually get most of those private messages now. Jeff McFarland over at Machinima.com said that they received an incredible amount of youtube private messages asking silly **** like "what Crackbone's gamertag was" after the release of the Zombie Killer Competition Source Mod Todd video. I guess that's one way to look at it.
mm3guy: So, Xanatos, Phil "Overman" Rice mentioned in my interview with him that you encouraged him to try out Garry's Mod. Can you tell me a little about you and Overman?
STEV: I GOT THIS ONE
Xanatos: Wait Stev...you know Overman?
STEV: Well you see, we first encountered Phil Rice at the 2005 Rice convention. He was unveiling his new brand of rice: codenamed "Phil Rice." I said to him, "What kind of a name is that?" He said nothing and picked up his phone to call his butler. His butler was quickly at his side with robots in tow. I said, "WHOA, PHIL. BRO. CHILL OUT." BUT THE BATTLE HAD ALREADY BEGUN.
STEV: One robot came at me swingin' and I caught his arm and swung robot #1 into robots 2 and 3. Robot 4 said "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME I HAVE A FAMILY" in a robot voice, to which I replied, "I SHOW NO MERCY ROBOT DEVIL!" Phil Rice took off his coat (completely made of rice) and revealed that he too was made of rice! As I dodged the rice pieces he threw at me I slowly lured him over to the giant pan in the
middle of the room.Fortunately, the pan was covered in teryaki (sp????) sauce eventually I had to eat him and it was pretty good too. So the launch of "Phil Rice" was a smashing success.
(STEV has been ejected from the conversation)
Xanatos: ok, STEV just wanted to take that opportunity to say whatever.
(STEV has joined the conversation.)
STEV: wow guys, not cool. i pour my heart out and this is how you treat me?
Xanatos: But yeah totally, I had known of Phil Rice ever since he made Male Restroom Etiquette, and afterwards we knew each other online a little bit. We met each other at the New York Machinima Festival last November and in Florida last March. He e-mailed me a few months back about a Half-Life 2 machinima idea he had, and so I pitched using Garrysmod to him. I'm incredibly avid of using Garrysmod for anything source machinima-making related as it definitely the tool to use, and is a shortcut method to the learning curve that is the Source SDK. I'd be looking forward to collaborating with him sometime in the future!
mm3guy: Have any of you guys ever worked with other machinima groups?
Xanatos: Not in terms of a direct collaboration, however we've gotten help from a number of people in matters of voice-over recording or behind the scenes help. Steinmann of Lit Fuse and TFG (Clan Wars, Militia 2) both provided a quick voicerole in our experimental Dr. Strangeman movie back in the summer of 2007. FncyPntz helped us out tremendously by creating two contraptions for us in the Kill Bill reminiscent scene in Soldiers of Misfortune, and more recently, Eddy of Smooth Few Films lended a cameo in Source Wars: CS vs GMOD. Big fans of all those guys. I've also done a couple voiceovers for Nefarious Guy's machinimas and DMGaina's. Way back when, we submitted a clip of one of our first movies to Ill Clan's old TrashTalk machinima series, and they incorporated a bit around it. But that's pretty much the extent of our collaboration, nothing like an actual co-op video project yet. I hope to get more machinima-makers in the community involved with cameos, voiceroles, and the like though with our videos in the future.
DMGaina: I am sometimes voiceacting for some smaller machinima groups and I help Djy1991 sometimes out.
mm3guy: Alright, it's time to wrap up this interview. Is there anything you guy swould like to add, like a shameless plug about one of your upcoming films?
Xanatos: We're just about to begin filming on the second episode of Source Wars, which will have Day of Defeat: Source & Hidden Source fighting each other on dod_argentan.
A scene from
Source Wars: Counter-Strike vs. Gmod
STEV: well, as a counterpoint to the js, i make rl movies that appeal to the same folks who would like js movies. some of my humor is directly related to js movies (responses to zombie competition movie, rl mod todds) while some of it is my own (how to survive a zombie outbreak, some upcoming stuff). this past semester ive been real busy with school, so i hope to do some more work with movies in summers. i'm uploading a special edition of the "how to survive a zombie outbreak" video as we speak.
Xanatos: and after these, we have a couple brand new Garrysmod and DOD:S ideas in mind. Then of course, those will be followed by Gman Squad Episode 8.
Crackbone: lrght m bck
STEV: GREAT!
Crackbone: fk u
STEV: (SARCASM)
Crackbone: i gt sm ppr sndwchs
Boris: Hi Crackbone
STEV: no one cares crackbone
mm3guy: Crackbone, would you like to say something about your experiences as a JS member?
Mr. Sentual has been added to the conversation.
STEV: hey mrsentual
Crackbone: wr w tlkn bout hgh fnanc?
mm3guy: Who's Mr. Sentual? Another JS member?
Mr. Sentual: Glad I could make it guys.
STEV: the gangs all here
Boris: How's life Sentual?
Mr. Sentual: Am I in time for the interview? Sorry, I was watching Gran Torino.
mm3guy: Yeah, you are a little late, I'm trying to wrap up this interview
DMGaina: too bad it's over now AHAHAHHAHAHAHA
Xanatos: That's cool, Gran Torino eh?
STEV: yeah that clint sure is racist
Xanatos: Now I don't wanna give away the ending here, but at the final scene Clint Eastwood dies
STEV: FUK YOU
DMGaina: WOW
Xanatos: And not only does he die, he dies with his arms and legs in the shape of a cross.
STEV: I WAS GONNA WATCH THAT WITH MY PARENTS TOMORROW
Xanatos: Why does director Clint have to ruin a perfectly good movie at the end with bull**** christian symbolism?
STEV: more like cunt eastwood UH OH CENSORS PLZ
Xanatos: **** you
STEV: WHOA
Boris: more like Clit Eastwood
Xanatos: How dare you talk **** ABOUT CLINT
DMGaina: are we even allowed to say ****?
STEV: pardon you
Xanatos: HE'S THE MAN
STEV: what's a clit?????????????????????
mm3guy: Guys, calm down, this is getting out of hand.
Xanatos: HERE THIS IS CLINT EASTWOOD
Xanatos: LYING DEAD IN GRAN TORINO
STEV: what's a clit?????????????????????
Xanatos: GET IT GUYS ITS JESUS
STEV: wow
Xanatos: BIG WHOOP
STEV: TOO FAR
Xanatos: **** THAT KIND OF SYMBOLISM IN MOVIES
DMGaina: So... at the end the racist old grumpy man was Jesus?
mm3guy: STEV something tells me you will never know what a Clit is.
Crackbone: i hr tht
Mr. Sentual: Okay we can begin the interveiw now
Xanatos: oh btw those were spoilers
STEV: WOW MM3GUY
STEV: I GET MORE LADIES THAN ANYONE EVER
mm3guy: Well, that's all for this interview, folks
Xanatos: Thanks mm3guy for the opportunity. Appreciate it! Anyone who wants to check out our stuff, the link is
www.youtube.com/jsxanatos and you can find all of our videos in the favorites box. You can become a fan of us on
Facebook or check out our website as
www.jsclan.com
Mr. Sentual: Marry Christmas
STEV:
mm3guy: No, she's ugly
STEV: WOW
DMGaina: Apparently everything he can get
STEV: as soon as you send a pic mm3guy of YOU with a REAL girl THEN WE CAN TALK
mm3guy: That's all for now, BYE!!
Some relevant links:
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