Molotov Alva Set to Blaze New Trail on Cinemax
As discussed last fall, the purchasing of the machinima “documentary” series, Molotov Alva, by Cinemax represented a very important moment both in the history of machinima as well as Second Life. Though a number of machinmators have seen some commercial success from their work, this marks the first real substantive support by a media outlet to invest in machinima as sustainable programming for audiences outside of the gaming world. A number of the detractors felt that much of the hype associated with this piece and it geting picked up by Cinemax was due in large part to the growing buzz around Second Life. As companines continue to invest in this virtual space, hoping that it will be the next MySpace or Facebook, there appears to be future possibilities on the horizon for machinmators willing to tackle what some have considered a problematic platform for making machinima. Regardless, this kind of widespread exposure for machinima can only help to engender a new space within the larger media ecology for machinima to grow. While viewers may simply take it in as animated programming, and at the end of the day all machinima is animated filmmakng, the folks at Cinemax can bear witness to the inexpensive production costs that will eventually be the reason why more media producers will choose this form. So be sure to check out the premiere of the series on May 15 @ 8 pm EST on Cinemax. As for the many who do not subscribe to Cinemax, if you wait till about 8:35 EST, the show is only a half hour, I am sure the internet gods will grant your prayers and it will be on You Tube shortly there after.
For those of you aspiring for your very own Cinemax deal, Machinima.com is holding another contest to try and help promote both machinima in general (as they have done so well over the past years) and the Molotov Alva show in particular. You can check the website for all the details. But some of the highlights include the deadline of May 18 and that you do not have to make your film in Second Life. In fact an array of engines are encouraged to try and demonstrate the broad spectrum that machinima has become to represent. The winner will receive $2000 and 2nd and 3rd pay out as well. So if you were one of the naysayers when you saw the Molotov Alva video, before Cinemax had it yanked down, now is the time to prove your salt and maybe make some cash on the side. I’ll even throw on top of all that a guaranteed review and spot on the Machinima Spotlight.
I had on heard about MA indirectly, so I appreciate posting the date of the new show and the background. Absolutely spot on with this development helping machinima. While my own work is decidedly non-commercial, I still admire and promote machinima that is. I do think that the SL buzz had something probably had something to do with the Cinemax deal, but so what. I’m looking forward to the show.
There are some problems with the machinima.com promotion though. Frankly, I think they are more interested in promoting their own site than promoting machinima in general. That’s the reason so many talented filmmakers have pulled their films from the site and do not spend any time there. And have you seen the huge Machinima.com watermark on their youtube channel machinima films? It takes up the entire bottom quarter of the screen for the entire length of the film. Also, if the contest is going to be open to machinima being created in other game engines and a cash prize is involved, doesn’t that mean that the machinima filmmaker who uses, say, Half Life 2 or World of Warcraft has to have the rights to be able to accept cash? I don’t believe the EULA for most games provide for this kind of situation. Second Life is fine with the rights issue because you own whatever you create. But, this could be a very sticky situation.
Thanks again, for the news on this show. I’ll certainly be watching and seeing how it develops.
-Ricky
Machiniplex.com
I’ve got mixed feelings about this, Robert. On the one hand, yay, machinima on TV – not just as a dabble (a la CSI) but the entire show. That’s great.
On the other hand, I’m not quite ready to declare this a victory for machinima until we see how it does ratings-wise. If it’s a massive bomb, it could hurt more than it helps, regardless of how cheap it is to make. So I’m kind of wait-and-see in that regard.
The other thing which dampens my celebration a bit is, well, it’s Cinemax. Not a network with any reputation for original programming (its big brother, HBO, gets all of that, excepting perhaps the cheap latenight softcore stuff). Cinemax kinds of strikes me as cold, two-day old HBO leftovers, and/or the kind of content a bit too sleaze-for-sleaze-sake for the more respectable HBO. In fact, it kind of strikes me like its owners look at it that way too. The “Skin-a-max” reputation has been built over a period of decades, and if they are now aiming to make the network more “respectable” I applaud that desire, but it’s going to take a lot of work to do so.
I sincerely don’t want to poo-poo the deal; I’m very happy for MA’s creators. But I think the show has its work cut out for it, and for reasons other than it being machinima.