Underrated Montage of the Week #8 - Phurion Fluxy 2

Due to copyright issues, I can't embed the video, so here's an old-school link.

Phurion Fluxy 2

Gameplay by: Phurion and Fluxy

Edited by: Phurion

Date of Original Release: 7/11/2010

Current View Count: 38,726

If you haven't been around in the Halo montage community for very long, you should know that Phurion has been making videos forever and is one of the most respected members of the Halo community. His first dualtage with Fluxy (the predecessor to the montage that this post's about) is one of the most-viewed montages on YouTube with over a million views, and in my opinion, he has contributed more to the Halo community than any person ever.

Gameplay: I really don't think that the gameplay in this montage receives anything near the amount of credit that it deserves. Of course, nobody said that the gameplay was bad and the reception was obviously positive, but I remember watching this montage and thinking, "Holy shit, how did he do that?", for at least a good dozen clips, something that didn't happen very often back then and happens even less so now. In fact, I watched this montage yesterday after deciding to feature it in this blog post series, and it turns out that it still has quite a lot of the "wow" factor it had initially in the gameplay department. Anyways, unlike Phurion's previous Halo 3 montages, this montage has a pretty big MLG slant, but, like Phurion's previous Halo 3 montages, the gameplay's still great and easily one of Phurion's strongest productions ever gameplay-wise. First of all, a ton of the clips of the clips are from under immense pressure. MLG kids are always lauding MLG footage, because "the enemies actually know how to shoot back", but ironically, most MLG clips aren't from under much pressure. OutBRing/outsniping at least 3 people of a solid skill level is pretty impossible, which is why most MLG clips are a collection of clean-up kills or a case of right-place/right-time to catch everyone off guard. Moving along from this mini-rant, the MLG footage in this montage is the real deal. There are a lot of no scopes at no shields in this montage, from both MLG and non-MLG settings, a good amount of which are for overkills and killtaculars. Also, a lot of the clips aren't "cookie-cutter" (top-mid spawn camping on Narrows, Pit Snipe 2, Guardian Snipe 3, etc), mainly due to the fact that it's clear that Phurion and Fluxy are playing aggressively in these clips. They aren't sitting pretty on all of those spots I just mentioned; they're rushing in there and wrecking everybody. While this style obviously doesn't work out so well most of the time in-game, it's tremendously entertaining in montage form and is one of the main reasons why I love Roadblock's final Halo 3 montage so much. Lastly, the gameplay's strong in the variety department too. There are a lot of sweet non-MLG clips to complement the MLG ones, and there's ample amounts of rare kills such as the halfway across map triple kill stick on Narrows and the ricochet on Last Resort to spice things up.

Editing: Phurion always comes through when it comes to editing, and like I've said several times before, it's because he doesn't fuck around with over-the-top effects that do nothing to contribute to flow like many editors do. Syncing was clearly the priority for this video, and everything Phurion did with the editing played some part establishing harmony between the soundtrack and the game footage. Simple effects such as cuts, fast-forward, and slow-mo are all used very effectively, and I absolutely loved the theater work in this montage, especially the technique where he zooms into the victim and then back out, which he also used to great effect in Neighbor's and Hysteria's dualtage. The technique set up sync points very well, was smoothly executed each and every time, and was original and innovative. Phurion may not be the flashiest editor, but this just goes to show that he can still bring new, amazing things to the table. Clip placement was good too. The nasty ricochet on Last Resort to start things off was great, and the killtacular extermination followed by the sweet triple was a solid finale clip. I also loved how Phurion paid homage to the 1st dualtage, which ended with a killionaire on Guardian, by using a killionaire choke on Guardian to lead into the last body song.

Flaws:

- Couple dudes standing still here and there.

- Soundtrack was a bit generic IMO.

- Killionaire choke would have been much better as the finale.

40,000-ish views certainly isn't nothing, but seeing how amazingly well the 1st one did and how this montage is still incredibly good, I'm surprised that this didn't get more attention or go further in H3F's second Halo 3 movie competition than it did. I think the fact that it was in SD quality may have been an issue, but it's good SD and definitely good enough that it didn't take away from the montage. Anyways, if you're in the mood for a fantastic Halo video from a montage making legend, check out that link at the top of the page.

Underrated Montage of the Week #7: http://gear61sblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/underrated-montage-of-week-7.html