I would definitely recommend putting in the effort for preproduction like SpookRecon is suggesting . Take a look at the difference between RoosterTeeth ' s early forays into Machinima and . well , the rest of early webdistributed machinima . They set a standard because they had production value out their ears . And yes , that includes their punchy comedy . If you think all those timeless jokes were improv , you have another thing coming . Especially if you want to go serious with it and do an a c t ionadventuredramathriller and not just rely on comedy , you need to take the time to build your characters . In today ' s world of instantgratification , you have about 15 seconds to capture your audience . You can do this with comedy easily , but if you want someone to stick around for a 10 min actiondrama you need to do what storytellers have been doing for thousands of years , and make them care . Use the 10 % rule . Take the first 10 % of your time to establish your characters and their goals . Introduce us to the setting and what ' s at stake . At that 10 % mark though , hit us with your conflict , and make it impactful . This is where your crewmate turncoats and activates the virus that shuts down the engines , just as radar gets a ping from enemy vessels , this is where the first stealth ship goes hot and the crew gets hit by the torpedo they never saw coming . If you ' re gonna focus on a single shiptoship battle like Vengeance for the Damned then 10 % is where the battle needs to start . Any earlier and we , the audience , just don ' t care . Any later and you ' ve lost us to the ADHD of the internet . Flesh our your characters . Make us care . Pump up your conflict and what ' s at stake . Keep us intrigued . Most importantly Don ' t have your writer , director , and editor be the same person ! You need at least a second or third set of eyes building this story . The product of only ONE person above the creative line usually suffers under the blindspots and personalvision of that one person . Write the script better yet , write it in a team , it definitely helps hand it off to a director to compose the shots and scenes , then hand off both to an editor who actually builds it . All three can be part of the process the whole way , but having it move across three hands and through three minds and hearts will give you a far more impactful and lasting film . On that note , Good luck ! Hopefully the new camera systems and some netcode fixes come soon enough to help out !