It’s been a quiet few weeks since the festival ended. Quiet on the blogs, quiet on the boards, and relatively quiet on the release front. I think, by and large, it’s just the reality of the holiday season, it’s a busy time of year for all. Some might be post-festival exhaustion, for those who attended. Or the unique fatigue that can wash over you after completing an enormous project.

While I’ve been part of the relative quiet, I’ve been whiddling down that task list for December. I left one item off, which I got taken care of this weekend: I wasn’t happy with how z-studios.com was serving its visitors. Too many clicks to get to content, too much confusion from the long lists of versions and mirrors (which were also a pain to maintain). So this weekend, I converted the entire site to a database-driven environment, and added the resulting new navigation system to all the pages. It should be MUCH easier to watch or download the film you want… fast. Let me know what you think of it, or if you run into any problems.

While you’re at it, check out the Father Frags Best Trailer, keeping in mind that while the trailer shows a release date of New Year’s Day 2008… it’s actually 2007. It’s not a joke or gag or anything… just a mistake I noticed WAY too late, and it just doesn’t seem worth the effort to re-encode all the different versions, at least not right now.

Speaking of versions, you will find that many Z-Studios films are now available in QuickTime MOV format, and all future releases will include this format. I’ve been very impressed with QT’s quality-to-filesize ratio.

I’m also starting to offer films in iPod-ready M4V format. At this time, the films available for iPod are: Male Restroom Etiquette, MRE: Outtakes, and the FFB Trailer. So, armed with your iPod and M.R.E., men are now equipped with the evangelism tools necessary to spread the word and avoid unnecessary tragedies.

Rellik has had a sudden surge of activity with Machinima Review; episodes 5 and 6 were recently released, almost back to back. Word on the street is they are his best work in the series by far. Go check it out, give him your feedback, and get the skinny on what’s hot in machinima right now.

The Overcast #011B is recorded, it just needs assembly and it’s ready to roll. #012 will follow on its heels, kind of a greatest hits of Machinima Live and The Overcast for 2006. Looking forward to getting those out to you very very soon.