Stranger 109

Last Friday a new website sprouted up on the machinima scene dedicated to playing what the creators of the site consider to be premium machinima. Richard Grove, Ingrid Moon (who were featured in The Days After) and Jason Choi have setup a rather slick looking site called Machiniplex. So far the site only features seven films but promises more to come; however, the emphasis here seems to be one of quality and not quantity. Given that most of the titles are fairly well-known, it is clear that they want to set themselves apart from the more commercial and more “democratic” Machinima.com. High caliber machinima like The Snow Witch, The Edge of Remorse, and Male Restroom Etiquette certainly deserve to be spotlighted and this site aims to do just that. The one thing I would suggest to them though would be to offer some more information on each piece. Background info on the directors and the studios from which each film comes would add a nice dimension to the otherwise stripped down layout. Plus it would make it easier to watch the rest of the work by these talented machinimators.

Continue reading ‘Machinima Spotlight: Morning Run Amok’

I recently had an opportunity to chat with Hugh Hancock about his recent addition to the machinima world, Machinima For Dummies. He and co-author Johnnie Ingram started the book last fall and it just came out this month. We talked at length about the book and a large portion of that conversation follows bellow. I will also be reviewing the book alter this week so be sure to look for that as well.

For those who are unfamiliar with Hugh, he is a staple of the machinima scene. As one of the two who coined the term (Anthony Bailey is the other), Hugh holds machinima particularly dear to his heart. His contributions to the culture of machinima both through his early role in Machinima.com and his current place at Strange Company more than qualify him as being one of the experts on machinima. In addition to promoting the book, he will be speaking on panels at this year’s Machinima Festival Europe as well as premiering his feature length machinima film BloodSpell.

In other interviews you’ve talked about your start in machinima as incidental. Could you talk a little bit about that process that so many machinimators go through, transitioning from playing a game to using the technology to make a film? What compelled you to do that? And what do you think compels others?

Basically there’s a concept of Machinima called “Inside-Out” vs “Outside-In” Originally developed by Eddo Stern, I think, and popularized by Paul Marino.

There’s a continuum on which machinimators tend to live. At one end is “Inside Out” machinima where creators tend to make movies from with in the game. They are fans of the game who learn that you can make movies with the game. And they make movies about the game, referencing the game. So you’re talking about stuff like Red vs. Blue, you talk about a lot of the Warcraft movies like ‘Can’t PUG KZ’ which came out a little while ago and is really cool. And so there’s a lot other really cool stuff coming from within the gaming community.

Continue reading ‘Interview: Hugh Hancock on Machinima for Dummies’

Today I had originally planned to spotlight the Molotov Alva film that was the center of this week’s big deal between HBO and Douglas Gayeton but was surprised to find that it had been taken down from the original site as well as YouTube. The only version available is one that I found with Spanish subtitles which does not appear to be an official release. I certainly understand HBO making moves to protect its investment; however, pulling it out of the viral loop seems like a mistake given the increased exposure it would have otherwise generated. Nonetheless, this just allows me to bump up the next film on my list which also takes place in Second Life. As I have indicated before, I am huge proponent of the political uses of gaming technology, particularly machinima that tries to do more than entertain. Therefore, I want to focus today’s attention on a film from the Global Kids’ Digital Media Initiative entitled A Child’s War.

Continue reading ‘Machinima Spotlight: A Child’s War’

Yesterday New World Notes was the first to report on what has become the biggest story for the world of Machinima. HBO has apparently offered a “six figure sum” for the rights to a machinima series set in the Second Life universe that began back in March. Entitled My Second Life: The Video Diaries of Moltov Alva, the first episode in what has been described as a “documentary” series was created by a multimedia artist by the name of Douglas Gayeton. According to an email sent from Geyeton to New World Notes some of the highlights of the deal were:

“HBO purchased the North American television rights.”

“They have decided to first submit it for an Oscar in the Animated Short Subject category.”

“They are then hoping to premiere it at Sundance. It will probably screen next spring on HBO.”

Continue reading ‘HBO Signs Big Deal for Second Life Machinima’

Aside from Jim Munroe’s well-known My Trip to Liberty City, there are few notable machinima films that utilize the GTA franchise. And the vast majority of films that have used the virtual worlds of Liberty City, Vice City or San Andreas mainly consist of stunt videos that fully exploit each game’s physics engine and multiple camera angles that track the vehicles as they bound through the air. While the stunt video aims to tantalize the eye with unbelievable jumps set to fast-paced music, Munroe chose to juxtapose the hyper-violent world of GTA with the banal form of the home movies one shares about their travels. With a dry and matter of fact tone, he narrates his adventures through Liberty City, discussing his participation in random acts of violence as tourist attractions. Though Munroe’s intent here is clearly comedic, the piece also calls attention to the absurd degree to which violence is trivialized in the game. Andre Pesch’s The Days After departs from both of these two examples that typify what comes from the GTA engine.

Continue reading ‘Machinima Spotlight: The Days After’

In a previous spotlight I highlighted the winner of The Ataris music video contest. As I have mentioned, these sorts of contests offer a great opportunity for machinimators to have their work viewed by many as well as demonstrate machinima’s commercial viability. Machinima.com has made these competitions a regular part of its campaign to promote machinima, and I applaud their efforts. If you have not watched much machinima before I would urge you to go give a few of the entrants a look. These sorts of contests that provide a specific piece of audio and ask the creators to create either a music video or movie trailer highlight the range of what can be achieved in this medium. The talent varies as with any competition of this sort, but there are strong entrants in both of the current contests. If you are already familiar with the contests, I would then simply urge you to vote on your favorite to help support fellow machinimators. So as not to impact the voting either way, I will reserve my opinion until after the competition and spotlight the winners for each at a later time. But here are outlines of each and the links so you can check them out and vote.

Bourne Ultimatum Trailer

Using the same exact audio from the actual trailer as well as the title graphics, these pieces use varying games from The Movies to HALO to recreate the moody feel of the Bourne trilogy. Final submissions were in by August 20 and voting continues through September 2. Click here to watch and vote.

Strata - Game Over Contest

To promote their new album The End of the World, Strata has offered up four tracks to accompany either a traditional music video or narrative film that features the “most memorable in-game death.” The creator can either chose to use one of the songs or up to all four throughout the piece. Final submissions were in by August 23 and voting continues through September 12. Click here to watch and vote.

Last week’s announcement of the change of rating for Rockstar’s Manhunt 2 by the ESRB from AO to M has sparked several debates within the gaming community. Obviously the Jack Thompson’s of the world were less than pleased at the outcome because this spells big bucks for Take Two. Add the recent success of BioShock, and it was just not Jack’s week. The more interesting concern came from Ian Bogost’s argument comparing what it means for a game like Manhunt 2 to have an AO rating versus Ang Lee’s upcoming film Lust, Caution to have a NC-17 rating:

There are a number of reasons why Take Two is in a different position than Focus. For one, first-party licensing in videogames creates another layer of censorship that makes it impossible to release Manhunt 2 on consoles, since the manufacturers refuse to license (and therefore manufacture) games at the AO rating. Lust, Caution may suffer from reduced distribution thanks to the NC-17, but the film will still physically play on projectors at any theater. Same with DVD, which they can release for direct and retail sale.

Continue reading ‘Manhunt 2 Spurs Ratings Debate’

Continuing with the theme of political applications of machinima from last week, I wanted to feature a film made within a military FPS. As a gamer, I particularly enjoy shooters, especially the Call of Duty franchise. However, as one who studies games, I find the manner in which the genre typically depoliticizes the military action and reduces it to a mere good vs. evil scenario rather troubling. This past April I had an opportunity to speak on a panel that touched upon this very issue at MIT’s Media In Transition conference. Joseph DeLappe also spoke on the panel about his work on the DEAD IN IRAQ series. Signing under the gamer tag of dead_in_iraq, he would join multiplayer games online in America’s Army and rather than fight with the other players he would just use the onscreen texting to write out the names of the most recent U.S. casualties. Part protest, part memoriam, DeLappe’s work attempts to appropriate a space where death is a mere inconvenience and give weight to the true consequences of being a member of America’s army. He described how the responses to what he does tend to vary. More often than not, he gets kicked out of the game because he does not fire a single bullet and becomes a defensive liability. However, he has also encountered other gamers who believed in what he was doing and have circled around his character and protected him while he continued to type the names of the dead. Aside from the short video he filmed to demonstrate his process, this exists largely as an online performance piece and thus would be hard to classify as machinima proper. Regardless, those who value the expressive capacity of gaming technologies should find his work inspiring.

Continue reading ‘Machinima Spotlight: An American Baby in Iraq’

I recently discovered a forum community dedicated to making machinima with the Half-LIfe 2 SDK and Garry’s Mod called Facepunch Studios (FPS). If you enjoy machinima made with this game as much as I do, I urge you to check it out. There’s a rich community of machinimators sharing in skins, textures and techniques for making the best possible films. In addition you can find a wide selection of films that you may not find on Machinima.com. Today’s film was one I came across while browsing the site. Mike Munson’s The Tyrant is over a year old as far as I could tell from the posting and cannot be found on any of the other machinima sites I frequent. As I have indicated before, I am very much interested in the political applications of videogame technologies. And though machinima offers a great resource for expressing political viewpoints, the medium has not been utilized for that purpose on any large scale. Aside from Alex Chan’s well-known The French Democracy, the number of political machinima films account for only a handful of what is out there. Other examples include An Unfair War, Korea Condemned and the various works of Eddo Stern. Continue reading ‘Machinima Spotlight: The Tyrant’

Today I wanted to take a break from gaming and address an article from the new Wired that just came out. As a technophile, my subscription seems almost obligatory, though upon seeing Martha Stewart on last month’s issue baking a Wii cake I nearly canceled it. That is not to say that I don’t enjoy the magazine because I certainly do. It’s probably the only recreational reading I do anymore that actually consists of ink on the page. Not to mention I’m a big supporter of Chris Anderson’s Long Tail theory of digital distribution and have used it in my classes on many occasions. But as a new media scholar, I have had trouble with their often celebratory take on the the emancipatory potential of digital media. Without a doubt, they love to hype. And I do too on a occasion, hence the subscription. However, I also see the need to take a step back and critically engage new technologies and their cultural implications. Which is what leads me to today’s post.

Continue reading ‘Wired Tells Cautionary Tale of IM Affair’