Marlin the Elite
From Halo Machinima
Marlin the Elite is a popular machinima made by Thomas Productions Inc. using the Halo 2 and 3 engine. It is based around Marlin, an Elite that some may call dumb. It would be placed in the Comedy genre of machinimas. For more information on Marlin the Elite and other works by their creators, you can subscribe to the Thomas Productions Podcast (called the TPCast) on iTunes, or go to their website (www.Thomasproductionsinc.com) [1]. To view the episodes, click here.
The machinima came to attention of www.gruntsrus.com [2], which sponsored the series up until it's shutdown (after it reopened, the same deal was struck and GRU still sponsors Marlin). It is also sponsored by 24 Pack o' Shrooms (a machinima community) and the Halo podcast Halo Amplified, as well as the Forging community H3 Artificer.
Introduction
Marlin the Elite follows the story of Marlin, as he goes on crazy adventures throughout different places with different people. The Marlin series has a relatively large fanbase. The episodes are usually around 7-10 minutes long, and the shorts are usually around 2-6 minutes long. Each season (the show is currently in it's second) is ten episodes long. In every episode, someone that Marlin meets will die, whether it's an explosion, or something more humorous. This excludes Lemon Man and Marlin's grandmother.
Characters
Each episode features Marlin and other characters, some exclusive to that episode. The following are just the main characters. For a full list of characters, please see here.
Marlin
Marlin has appeared in all episodes. He is really dumb, and comical without knowing it. He is the star of the series. He is played by Layne.
Grandma
Introduced in episode 7 (but briefly mentioned in episode 6), Marlin's grandma is an old purple Elite who carries around flame grenades wherever she goes. She loves Marlin, but doesn't really care for anyone else. She was seen in A Message From Marlin: Thanksgiving at her house in Guardian, and was last seen in episodes 9 and 20.
F'Andre "Lemon Man" Norman Klaus
Lemon Man was first seen in episode 9. He pulled a prank on Marlin by sending him to a closed area, but became his friend in episode 10. He has appeared in every episode since (but did not appear in episode 16). His real name, as revealed in episode 14, is F'Andre Norman Klaus.
Seasons
Marlin the Elite is a seasonal show, with ten episodes per season. The first season, often viewed as the most classic, started in Spetember and was finished in December. The second season is over halfway done, and a third season has been announced and is in the planning stage.
Season 1
The first season of Marlin the Elite showed off ThomasProductions's machinima techniques, as well as their ability to produce a comedic character and a slight-storyline show.
The slight storyline is season 1 is that the mayor of Marlin's town kicked him out for destruction, and he moved to a new, more quiet but small town called the Pit, where he met a new friend.
Season 1 contained:
- Marlin the Elite (original airdate: 9/4/07)
- Ep. 2: The Dunes (original airdate: 9/5/07)
- Ep. 3: Marlin gets a job (original airdate: 9/8/07)
- Ep. 4: Marlin's Road Trip Vacation (original airdate: 9/11/07)
- Ep. 5: Roberto's Avenge (original airdate: 9/11/07)
- Ep. 6: Moving (original airdate: (original airdate: 9/15/07)
- EP. 7: Marlin's new house (original airdate: 10/26/07)
- Ep. 8: The dealership (original airdate: 11/17/07)
- Ep. 9: The playground (original airdate: 12/5/07)
- Ep. 10:The Elite in pink (original airdate: 12/14/07)
Season 2
Season two, which is not yet over, kept the series going uphill. It was highly anticipated by fans.
Season 2 has no main over-arching storylines to it. Supposedly, one of the episodes near the end of the season will play a role in season 3. It also gave fans the chance to participate in an episode (14). It also contained the "best/funniest episode" (according to fans), which is episode 18.
Season 2 contains/will contain:
- Ep. 11: Tryouts (original airdate: 2/9/08)
- Ep. 12: A Real Job (original airdate: 3/7/08)
- Ep. 13: Unlucky? (original airdate: 4/11/08)
- Ep. 14: Candy (original airdate: 4/30/08)
- Ep. 15: The Chopperz (original airdate: 5/9/08)
- Ep. 16: Marlin of the Dunes (original airdate: 5/16/08)
- Ep. 17: Rap Trap (part 1 and part 2) (original airdate: 6/13/08)
- Ep. 18: Hot Air (part 1 and part 2) (original airdate: 6/21/08)
- Ep. 19: Friendly Neighborhood Neighbor (original airdate: 7/12/08)
- Ep. 20: Agent Marlin (original airdate: 7/19/08)
Season 3
Season 3 is scheduled to begin Spetember 4th, 2008. The only thing known publicly about Season 3 is that a new permanent character will appear. Season 3 will contain:
- Ep. 21: Drafted: 9/4/08
- Ep. 22: Escape: 9/13/08
- Ep. 23: TBA
- Ep. 24: TBA
- Ep. 25: TBA
- Ep. 26: TBA
- Ep. 27: TBA
- Ep. 28: TBA
- Ep. 29: TBA
- Ep. 30: TBA
Episode Chronology: Season 1
Episode 1 (Halo 2)
Marlin gives a tour of his penthouse, and then heads over to his friend's house. It turns out that his friend doesn't like Marlin very much, and ends up getting killed because of Marlin. It was the only nameless episode.
Episode 2: The Dunes (Halo 2)
Marlin takes a train ride to a local city that is host to some dunes. Marlin, being as reckless as possible, totals the car he is given in the dunes. He is given a fine of 600 McBillion dollars, a running gag in the series.
Episode 3: Marlin Gets a Job (Halo 2)
Marlin, realising that he needs some furniture, sets out to buy some. It turns out that he needs money to buy some, so he gets a job as a construction worker, but ends up in a small drug-related company. Realizing what must be done, he takes action and destroys the drugs, killing the dealer in the process.
Episode 4: Marlin's Road Trip Vacation (Halo 2)
Marlin realizes that he has been going on almost a killing rampage, so he decides to take a vacation to get away from the madness. He checks in a hotel, and clogs the hotel's famous Manurefall. When it ends up unclogging itself, Marlin accidentally kills the hotel owner. He flees, and gets run over by a train.
Episode 5: Roberto's Avenge (Halo 2)
After the trauma of getting hit by a train, Marlin checks into rehab at a beautiful rehab center. He is then relocated to a much lower-grade facility, where he meets his friend's Billy Bob's brother, Roberto. Roberto wants to avenge his brother, by killing Marlin, but ends up killing himself.
Episode 6: Moving (Halo 2)
Marlin wants a new vehicle, so he steals a military tank. He uses it to destroy the town, and the mayor stops him. Marlin is then evicted from his town.
Episode 7: Marlin's New House (Halo 3)
Marlin's grandma helps him look for a new house. He looks in Valhalla, where trades one of his precious Warthogs for a Mongoose, and then finds a small, cozy room in the friendly neighborhood of The Pit.
Episode 8: The Dealership (Halo 3)
Marlin is teased for being an Elite and owning a Mongoose, so he is pressured into going to a dealership. He ends up destroying all of the Ghosts there, and the Ghost dealer is also killed.
Episode 9: The Playground (Halo 3)
Marlin's new neighbor, nicknamed "Lemon Man" for his yellowish appearance, tells Marlin about a new playground. Marlin's grandma drives him there, where he is shot at a lot but not killed. He and his grandmother are kicked out of the playground.
Episode 10: The Elite in Pink (Halo 3)
Lemon Man tells Marlin about a new crashed Pelican. He goes to check it out, where he meets a pink Elite. He chases the Elite around, thinking that it's a cute girl, and asks to be friends. The Elite ends up being a man, and Marlin runs away.
Episode Chronology: Season 2
Episode 11: The Tryouts (Halo 3)
Lemon Man tells Marlin about the age-old sport of "Rocket Baseball". Marlin is up for tryouts, and journeys to Standoff for them. When he incredibly makes the team, he spoils it by killing the team captain during practice on the day of the big game. The coach is also killed a few moments later, by Marlin again.
Episode 12: A Real Job (Halo 3)
Marlin learns that he needs to pay off his first mortgage, so he gets a job as a high school chemistry teacher. He doesn't know a thing about what he's supposed to be teaching, so he takes the teens out to teach them about rockets. The roudy students end up killing each other, and Marlin is fired on the spot.
Episode 13: Unlucky? (Halo 3)
This episode was released simultaneously with another Marlin video (see Fan episode below). It starts out with a crook from the Pit stealing Marlin's Mongoose. Lemon Man aids him in getting it back, but when it explodes, Marlin realizes that he has bad luck. So he goes to a scientist so that tests can be performed to see if he really is unlucky.
Episode 14: Candy (Halo 3)
Marlin and Lemon Man win a tour to a candy factory. After the agonizingly boring but extremely funny tour, they learn that most of the workers there are actually slaves. Marlin then leads a slave revolt, and all paid workers are required to "shoot the slaves on sight". This was the fan episode.
Episode 15: The Chopperz (Halo 3)
The Chopperz Gang (a 3-person gang who ride Brute Choppers) terrorizes the Dunes that Marlin went to. They were remodeled, and Marlin invited back to try it again on a Mongoose. But after he accidentally destroys the Chopperz' Choppers, they strand him and leave him to die. Episode 16 will continue this story.
Episode 16: Marlin of the Dunes (Halo 3)
After wandering around, a tribal assistant finds Marlin. He is taken to the leader, who ropes Marlin into a plan to destroy the Chopperz. They use a TTV (Tribal Transport Vehicle) to attack, and end up destroying it along with the chopper gang.
Episode 17: Rap Trap (Halo 3)
This episode is so long, that it was split into two parts, and a deleted scenes video was made as well. A producer and manager for a famous rapper (named the Rapping Crapper) recognizes Marlin's talent as a rapper, and so he makes Marlin and the Rapping Crapper do a record together. But RC is used to doing albums solo, and when their duet album becomes #1 on the charts, he wants it taken down. Marlin fans attempt to run them out of town. A number of songs were created by Thomas Productions for use with this episode. Extended versions are up on thomasproductionsinc.com for download.
Episode 18: Hot Air (Halo 3)
Lemon Man comes to Marlin for help with a Hot Air Balloon contest, then Marlin bets that he can beat the worlds fastest Hot Air Balloon Racer, Cory Von Sexy. It is unclear who won or not, but Lemon Man ended up having to pay off the damages. Among fans, this is the best episode.
Episode 19: Friendly Neighborhood Neighbor (Halo 3)
This episode, filmed alongside episode 20, takes place entirely in the Pit. A new neighbor, named Virgil, moves in. He collects weapons. Marlin sneaks in to look at the weapons, and ends up being chased by Virgil. Virgil explodes a warhead on accident and is killed.
Episode 20: Agent Marlin (Halo 3)
Marlin's plasma pistol is stolen. He and Lemon Man go to find the culprit. Their search takes them all the way to Guardian, where they find that Marlin's grandma stole it so that she could give it to him as a birthday present.
Season 3
Episode 21: Drafted (Halo 3)
Marlin and Lemon Man try to join the army, but Lemon Man leaves and Marlin in captured by the enemy.
Episode 22: Escape (Halo 3)
In this episode, Marlin and his new jail buddies, Cotton Swab and Tattoo, try to escape from a POW jail. After Tattoo is executed, Marlin makes a comment that makes the Iraqimanestein leader angry. When the leader comes to Marlin's cell to punish him, the audience learns that the leader is actually Cory von Sexy. Marlin's grandmother rescues him, and they go home. Meanwhile, it is presumed that Von Sexy dies when he rides off the edge of a cliff on his flaming Mongoose, screaming at the top of his lungs. A new permanent character, Cotton Swab, was introduced in this episode.
Episode 23: The Scary (Halo 3)
As more and more salespeople visit Marlin's house, he ends up hiding in a corner. Lemon Man tells him that the only way to get over his fear of salespeople is to go to Sales Con '08, a salesperson convention where Marlin can see that salespeople are regular guys who just want to sell him useless junk. When Marlin doesn't have enough money for the plane ride home, he ends up having to go door to door selling cell phone socks.
Shorts
Marlin the Elite is also famous for doing short episodes for each holiday. These shorts are called "A Message from Marlin: (Holiday Name). So far, only Layne has been in a Marlin holiday short; the other two people that make the Marlin show (Kevin and Kyle) are not present in any of these. "The Light" features Kevin, but Kyle's part was deleted.
A Message From Marlin: Halloween
Marlin, dressed in a Halloween costume, attempts to teach you how to be safe while you Trick-or-Treat.
A Message From Marlin: Thanksgiving
Marlin's grandpa catches a good dinner, and he, Marlin and Grandma have a Thanksgiving dinner.
A Message From Marlin: Christmas
Marlin quizzes Santa Claus to see if he is real or not.
A Message From Marlin: Valentine's Day
Marlin counts down the top ten things people are looking forward to on Valentine's Day.
A Message From Marlin: St. Patrick's Day
Marlin finds all of the things that are green in The Pit, and then runs into a Leprechaun.
A Message From Marlin: Easter
Marlin hires a British man to help you find Easter Eggs... or find people.
An Announcement From Marlin (a.k.a. A Message from Marlin: April Fool's Day)
Marlin announces the sad news that the Marlin series is ending. After explaining that that is just an Apirl Fool's joke, one of Marlin's neighbor's from the Pit pulls pranks on everyone. Marlin tries to stop him by coming up with the best prank of all time... but is it not a joke at all?
The Light
The first short that isn't a Holiday short, this was made while filming episodes 15 and 16. It features the Chopper gang finding a light and proclaiming that it is a gift from the gods. Then one of the members are killed.
Messages For Marlin
Marlin's fans send him messages, and now we get to see and hear them.
A Message from Marlin: Fourth of July
Marlin tries to help out with the 4th of July planning committee, but ends up destroying the whole set up.
Ways Characters Have Died (CONTAINS SPOILERS)
- Ep. 1: Billybob was blown up in a car accident.
- Ep. 2: A Warthog exploded in front of the man at the dunes and kills him.
- Ep. 3: The drug dealer explodes with all of his drugs in a pool of exploding drug barrels.
- Ep. 4: The Hotel worker is stuck by Marlin while inspecting the manure-fall.
- Ep. 5: Roberto accidentally kills himself with a mini-nuke while trying to kill Marlin; the Nurse blows herself up with a grenade, thinking it is fruit.
- Ep. 6: One Spartan kills himself with a fusion core, the other killed by Marlin in a tank. The Mayor is killed with Marlin's Brute Shot.
- Ep. 7: One Spartan is splattered by Marlin.
- Ep. 8: The Ghost dealer is killed by a Ghost explosion, and the guy who thinks he's cool is killed by a sticky exploding next to some fusion coils.
- Ep. 9: One cop is shot in the head, and after that, he is flamed by Marlin's Grandma.
- Ep. 10: The Tour Guide is splattered by the pink elite, and then the pink elite gets a tank dropped on him.
- Ep. 11: The Scottish guy is killed by a rocket, and the coach and the team member are killed by stray Marlin rockets that he hit with his hammer.
- Ep. 12: Marlin's students all end up killing each other while fooling around.
- Ep. 13: Dr. Science and Dr. Bottletry go up a man cannon in a Warthog and Marlin kills them with a Missile Pod.
- Ep. 14: The tour guide is killed by one of the slaves, and the slaves are blown up while escaping in Hornets by Marlin.
- Ep. 15: No character was killed in this episode. It was saved for 16.
- Ep. 16: The Chopper Gang explodes in the Tribal Transport Vehicle.
- Ep. 17 (part 2): RC and the producer are chased off a cliff by fans, then the fans jump off as well. FABIO
- Ep. 18 (part 2): When CVS's Balloon lands on the announcer's stage, there is a big explosion and everyone in the Balloon, and the announcer, die.
- Ep. 19: Virgil exploded a warhead, which killed him.
- Ep. 20: Nobody dies.
- Ep. 21: The military leader, Hank, is blown up. The other two green soldiers are killed by weapons fire.
- Ep. 22: Although it was never shown, Tattoo was executed. Cory Von Sexy's Mongoose caught on fire and he rode off of a cliff.
Episode Production Process
The process of creating an entire episode can take up to a few days, and consists of three major parts.
Part 1: "Puppeting"
The creators of the show already have a list of the episodes for the season. They look at what episode they are to film next, and talk about what details should go into the episode. From there, they load up the Forged maps and start to act out all of the scenes for the episode. About 10% of the material they film does not end up in the final episode. Acting out these scenes is called "Puppeting".
Part 2: Editing
Layne, the head of Thomas Productions goes into Theater mode and films all of the scenes needed for the episode. He then captures all of the scenes in the puppeting stage onto a digital video camera, and uploads those scenes from the camera to a computer. He then uses a special editing software to edit the episode, while trying to keep it under 10 minutes. This is where unneeded scenes are cut.
Part 3: Voices
Layne, who voices Marlin, does all of his voices after editing is complete. He then calls over the other two members of Thomas Productions, and they record their voices for the characters that they played in the puppeting stage. Once this is complete, the episode is watched to make sure everything looks okay, and then it is released on YouTube.
Running Jokes
This show, along with many other shows, hase running gags, or running jokes, that they use on the show.
These jokes are:
- Every time Marlin has to pay money, it's 600 McBillion dollars.
- Talk shows are mentioned.
- After the credits on episode, there is something funny that happened while filming.
- Every time Marlin comes to a door or wants to know if someone is near, he shouts "Ding-Dong!"
Lemon Man's E-Mail
Lemon Man recently got an e-mail account, so fans can e-mail him with questions and comments. The e-mail is:
lemonman@ymail.com
Shutdown of gruntsrus.com
GRU sponsored Marlin the Elite for the reason that oriol003 (the creator of GRU) liked the series.
On June 9th, 2008, GRU shutdown due to hackers. That meant that Marlin the Elite would be losing many of its views. But they still have other sponsors/partners.
Trivia
- The creators of Marlin the Elite decided to make a machinima in the summer of 2007. One of the creators made a test video, which apparently includes Marlin going crazy, and then telling the audience that he will give a tour of his house. This video takes place in the Halo 2 map Coagulation, although in the actual series, Marlin's house is in Headlong. Very few people have seen this "Intro to the series".
- Episode 4 was one of the longest episodes, so the editor had to cut some of it out. Deleted scenes from this episode were released on YouTube shortly after episode 4 was released.
- Thomas Productions apparently has a paper with short overviews of all the episodes they have planned to make for Season 2, and also have said that there will be a third season.
- Lemon Man's house was created in Forge, in the same map as Marlin's house, however, Lemon Man's was Forged long after the original map was created.
- Thomas Productions Inc knows what every episode will be up to the end of season 3. One cast member even made a map recently for a season three episode.
- Marlin's emblem is a happy face. Lemon Man's emblem is the skull king. Grandma's emblem is a radioactive symbol (this was done on purpose as a joke).
- Due to the fact that Kevin and Kyle (co-creators of the show) are not in any of the Holiday shorts, Layne (creator of the show) sometimes plays some of the recurring characters. For example, Kyle plays Marlin's grandma, but Layne played her in the Thanksgiving short. Kevin plays Lemon Man, but Layne played him in the April Fool's short.
- Episode 12 had more scenes cut than any other episode, and to get as many scenes as possible into the episode, the Marlin theme at the beginning of the episode was altered slightly so that it was shorter. This was also done with episode 13.
- A Marlin the Elite Season 1 Compendium is currently being written by a member of Thomas Productions and will be up for download on thomasproductionsinc.com. It will feature all 10 episodes in the first season written in book form, and will include
- Episode 13 has to do with being unlucky. This was done on purpose.
- The movie 1408 was referenced in episode 4. This was the number of the room Marlin resided in.
- Thomas Productions has stated that the map "Valhalla" is used as the all-purpose map. It has, so far appeared in episodes 7, 8, 10, 13, and 14.
- Although Layne used his own account for the fan episode, Marlin has his own XBox Live account.
- Episode 14 had a goof. The tour guide's first appearance in Valhalla featured him in Mark VI armor, but during the tour, he had CQB.
- Marlin has it's own shop where you can buy products with the logo on it: [3]
- In episode 15, the guy in the Chopperz gang with the Mk. 6 helmet armor was actually the MarlintheElite account, only changed.
- Marlin 16 was originally called "Gone Tribal", but a last-second change of idea made it "Marlin of the Dunes", a reference to George of the Jungle and Lawrence of Arabia.
- Episode 8 was originally planned to be episode 4.
- The idea for episode 17 was thought up during the production of the first season.
- On May 25th, the TP team had a big day thinking up ideas for Marlin episodes. What had been planned for episode 28 was liked so much after a brief discussion that it was moved up into season 2 as episode 18.
- Season 3 will contain a character from a holiday short and will also feature another member of Marlin's family.
- TP has been thinking about releasing a "Behind the Scenes" video of making an episode, but nothing yet has been confirmed.
- The "in flight" movie in Cory's Balloon is "Commercial Sabotage, a live-action video Thomas Productions made earlier in 2008.
- While filming episode 22, Tattoo was actually executed. The scene was captured, but was deleted for unknown purposes.
Gallery
Marlin's emblem. |
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Marlin talking to his friend Lemon Man in episode 13. |
Marlin at his grandmother's house. |
 The Rocket Baseball coach explaining the rules to the team. |
 The Rapping Crapper talks to his manager. |
