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Post news Report RSS Live Action Half-Life

Fan film does an exceptional job of porting Valve's best-selling saga into live action!

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You might not have heard of the Purchase Brothers, but after today I think it's safe to say you will. Recently added to youtube is their latest piece called 'Escape from City 17', which is a live action short about a couple of rebels trying to get out of City 17 (from Half-Life 2). Originally made to test production techniques, the Purchase Brothers liked the idea so much they've expanded it into a mini-series with part 2 already on the way.

Purchase wrote: Originally envisioned as a project to test out numerous post production techniques, as well as a spec commercial, it ballooned into a multi part series. Filmed guerilla style with no money, no time, no crew, no script, the first two episodes were made from beginning to end on a budget of $500.



Make sure you subscribe to their youtube channel so you can know when the new epsiode comes out!

Post comment Comments  (0 - 50 of 79)
buy_a_hotdog!
buy_a_hotdog!

(buried)

first post liek omg omg omg

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Drakojin
Drakojin

Great short! Fantsastic effects, and use of game sounds was nice.

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danw13335
danw13335

Saw this on Kotaku earlier today. Awesome job to the Purchase Brothers. It's amazing that this was made on a $500 budget.

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Bird_of_Prey
Bird_of_Prey

That really is very impressive.

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Dnst
Dnst

Where is the Donate! Button? :)

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AJ_Quick
AJ_Quick

yay my hometown did a good

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LIONz
LIONz

Are you from Latvia? :D

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Trylr
Trylr

Most epic short movie ever.

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mike_app
mike_app

yea man this is awesome work y the hell cant a stdio make a movie to great game like HL, aweome work guys looking forward to see what else you guys do. want one of those combine suits!!!
:P

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c3lhas
c3lhas

Be-freaking-utiful!

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Bird_of_Prey
Bird_of_Prey

Great stuff! I look forward to more!

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dlpnd
dlpnd

Good god, this is awesome

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iliketokillagainpl
iliketokillagainpl

That was so friggin epic man...

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Saint_Stan
Saint_Stan

OMG! This is just epic.

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salazam
salazam

Awsome Cant wait for the next!

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Otreum
Otreum

While i'm not exactly a fan of half life 2's gameplay or anything, I have always thought that it would do well for a movie or series of movies.
THIS, is outstanding, i've seen high budget films do some really really shonky jobs of movies as i'm sure most of you have...I mean take the real life Dragon Ball Z movie for example...what a joke! It's like the Mortal Kombat movie but far far faaar worse.

For such a small budget, these guys have started something great.
Now if only a big wig movie director (definately uwe boll XD....jk) would help these guys out to make it into something full blown, and also get valve on board, we could be seeing a full blown official half life 2 movie.
Lets just hope it gets that far, but even if it doesn't, this still rocks :)

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Robok
Robok

That was my first reaction (and opinion on HL2 as well) after watching the video, reminded me a bit of that Omaha Beach Assault short-film that was also made by few guys which also looked pretty amazing.

Really hoping to see what they have in mind next :)

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Fjahgo
Fjahgo

You have a link to that omaha film you mention? Which game is it based on?

Other than that: This HL2 film is amazing. The use of game sounds just completes it.

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Lurker49a
Lurker49a

To Fjahgo, it's not something based on a game. The short was a recreation of the real life invasion of Omaha Beach. Three guys did it using various techniques. Don't have a link to a video, tried looking.

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D3@DM4N
D3@DM4N

OMG I LOVE THIS MOVIE! THIS WOULD BE THE BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!!!!

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ausbushman
ausbushman

That's amazing! Brilliant work.

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tnathan475
tnathan475

Must watch for anyone, half life fan or not. superb work.

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Jesusfreak
Jesusfreak

Amazing... truly amazing.

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Mrksmt9
Mrksmt9

Pretty much spot on awesome

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Fast_Train
Fast_Train

It was amazing!

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RogerRamjet
RogerRamjet

Excellent... wanting to see the next episode... even though that was just a shot... they have done a great job with post production (only once scene, was over green) and even the acting was not too bad.. the shorts at the end look brilliant with the zombine... great work... worth watching in HD on YouTube guys...

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RogerRamjet
RogerRamjet

Man, just tried to got to www.purchasebrothers.com and their account has been suspended... not a good first impression... PB, would be happy to host your site guys!

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Henley Author
Henley

Its because of the bandwidth rape, not anything else :P

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Dremth
Dremth

yea i tried it yesterday :(
that sucks for both us and them

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sk8ordie97
sk8ordie97

this is episode one dude

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Apnissen
Apnissen

Its back up now anyway.

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SinKing
SinKing

(buried)

No script - I see...
First 1:30 are impressive and then when the "story" surfaces it turns out to be a run around a bandwaggon. WHY? Why not ASK for a writer???
At Crew United, etc. people, you find people, who can actually write you a story!

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Daystranger
Daystranger

Go away, whiner.
You're just jealous. :D

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cosypeter
cosypeter

Escape from City 17.

Don't you get it, dummy ?

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Zidclo
Zidclo

If you have ever played half-life 2, and the episodes, and then after finishing them you played through it all again (starting with HL1); then maybe you might understand really well that the last free aspect of mankind were these rebels (like the characters in the video) and the major event that occurs in HL2 is when all of the last free people are trying to get out of City 17.

Sorry, but for a short, this was absolutely true and perfect to the ideals that Half-Life 2 and its subsequent episodes have set for their own story. It felt right.

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Tatsur0
Tatsur0

Really impressive work guys. I will definitely be keeping a look out for your next project and recommend this video for all and not just gamers.

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LORDDEREX
LORDDEREX

My god, my god.

This is far the best movie clip i have ever seen, i really got the "Half-Life 2-Feeling" and $500 budget, its unbelievable.
I really hope we can buy episodes later, so we support the excellent work they have put together!

Truly epic, my god...

Half-Life 2 4Ever, and the mods/movies around it.

I cant remember when i saw something this impressive last time.

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Darth.Hunter
Darth.Hunter

Well captured HL2 atmosphere, love how they mixed real film material with Machinima CGIs. It all becomes one very good composition. A pretty short film though, I hope that the upcoming episode reveals more and also gives the series a little more of a story aspect.

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BladeRunner162
BladeRunner162

Trully epip, great work. cant wait for the second.

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MagicYuri
MagicYuri

Pure awesomeness

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Dnst
Dnst

The film is of a good quality and I liked the nice atmosphere. Do you offer a High-Resolution download?

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gtgamewizard
gtgamewizard

awesome yust awesome wy dont they make a rea movie out of this schould be cool.

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tonypotter
tonypotter

WTF IS GORDON FREEMAN

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Dremth
Dremth

gordon was probably on that train out of there

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mr.renegade
mr.renegade

didnt the citadel explode when they almost left the danger zone? noes D: that means these guys are goners

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stat1cshade
stat1cshade

pretty cool will definately be checking out the rest of it

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FJS
FJS

OMG its EXCELLENT!!!
I just love it.

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$n!p3r
$n!p3r

VEry nice!!!

will be thar any full film ????

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zurf3r
zurf3r

the most epic hl2 movie ever!

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WhiteHawke
WhiteHawke

If these guys made this with 500$, I imagine they could make a real, 1 and a half hour movie, with 500$ per every five minutes - 9000$.

So if these guys had a million bucks, like so many FAILED game-to-movie productions that end up looking like lame cosplays, I can't even fathom the awesomeness it would turn out to be.

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