Thinking Machinima

Working, working, working

2008-04-16T11:52:00.001-04:00

This week's blog entry is more status than news. I'm revising the blog's design and overhauling the backend - which is an uncomfortable switch from Blogger to Wordpress. There are pros/cons to such a shift, but I think Wordpress is a much more flexible system - a number of my fave sites use (Free Pixel, Overman's blog, The Animation Podcast, etc.) and provides a lot of support by way of community development and discussion. It wasn't an easy decision and took a fair amount of testing to make the final call. The one pretty large task is backing up the previous years Blogger posts and whipping them up into something that WordPress could then digest and display. Thankfully, it can be done-but does require some coaxing.

So tech decisions, along with the hitting the design reset button a few times, had slowed the effort quite a bit. However, things are now moving forward and I hope to have the blog relaunch sometime in May, along with some guest bloggers putting in a appearance or two.

2008 Make Something Unreal Contest!

2008-04-04T11:33:00.001-04:00

Some cool news on the Machinima front. Epic Games has announced their latest Make Something Unreal Contest - an Unreal Tournament 3-fueled follow-up to their 2005 contest of the same (that one was based in Unreal 2 tech). This latest contest, offering $1 million US in cash/prizes, and sponsored by Intel, also includes a Machinima category (in phases 2-4).

The 2005 MSU competition gave us great Machinima works such as Tom Palmer's bot, Folklore Studio's Scrap & Friedrich Kirschner's The Journey.

I highly encourage anyone working in Machinima (or thinking about working in Machinima) to enter. The competition might be tough no doubt, but a fruitful experience as well. More info is available at www.makesomethingunreal.com

Machinima Loses a Pioneer: Peter Rasmussen

2008-03-12T12:35:00.001-04:00

It is with a very heavy heart that I write this blog post. About 15 minutes ago, I received word that Peter Rasmussen, director of the award-winning, groundbreaking Machinima work, Stolen Life, has passed on.

I'm not entirely sure what to say or how to say it. Peter and I exchanged mails just a few weeks ago and I promised him that I would show up for his next Machinima meet-up in Second Life. Peter and I tried arranging a similar get-together a LONG time ago in Counterstrike. It wasn't the greatest of successes then but it was fun converting the game into a community space with someone half way around the world.

I'm sure there's more to say here, but I think I just need to sit with this a bit more.

This Would Never Happen at Black Mesa

2008-02-15T14:59:00.000-05:00

I'm probably one of many who fell in love with the game Portal - it has an insane combination of crazy puzzles, wicked game design, and incredibly cute characters. There are a lot of great machinima pieces out there on the turrets, the companion cube, etc., but the one I included above is strangely reminiscent of the brilliant Red vs. Blue dialog.

Score another one for Garry's Mod and for the machinima creators, the Leet World! Sadly, I have yet to be able to load their site.

Will Wright on Spore Machinima

2008-02-12T17:55:00.000-05:00

Quick blip: N'Gai Croal interviews Will Wright on Spore -- and asks it plain and simple:

Croal: What are the machinima tools like within Spore?
Wright: We have that built in throughout the game where you can capture game footage at any time, photos and stuff. In the Creature Creator--this is another thing we went down the path of, "What would we really want to do with this?"--I can design a creature, have them play all these animations, move them around on either a set backdrop or a black screen which is essentially a green screen, so I can actually mix it in with other footage, and composite it. There's also a one-button upload in that moviemaking feature to YouTube. So I can actually make a movie in the game, and with one click of the button upload it onto YouTube. Again, this is where we wanted it to blend from the game world to the world of Web content so that it felt like this game was another creative tool pouring into some of these sites. Plus you can take pictures, email them to your friends, and all that stuff within the game.

Get the full down-low of Will's interview at Croal's blog.

Reminder: 24-7 DIY Video Summit at USC

2008-01-24T13:18:00.000-05:00

Regular readers of this blog will remember a posting I made last year mentioning the 24-7: DIY Video Summit at USC. Well, we're nearly at that point on the calendar -Feb. 8-10th. I will be presenting a selection of Machinima works, along with several other curators , who will each present works from their respective crafts. The event, will have quite a few great speakers on hand as well, including Prof. Lawrence Lessig, Henry Jenkins and Joichi Ito.

Below are the event details - but also visit the 24-7: DIY Video Summit site as well as their blog.

24/7: A DIY VIDEO SUMMIT
February 8-10, 2008
School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California

Conference web site: http://www.video24-7.org
Blog: http://diy.video24-7.org/

Registration is nearly full for the the academic panels and the
workshops. The video screenings are free and open to the public.
Please help us spread the word about this event.

24/7: A DIY Video Summit will bring together the many communities
that have evolved around do-it-yourself (DIY) video: artists,
audiences, technology providers, academics, policy makers and
industry executives. The aim is to discover common ground, and to
chart the path to a future in which grassroots and mainstream,
amateur and professional, artist and audience can all benefit as the
medium continues to evolve.

This three-day summit features:

SCREENINGS OF DIY VIDEO
On February 8 and 9, there will be screenings of DIY video that are
open to the public. These will feature curated programs on design
video, activist documentary, youth media, machinima, music video,
political remix and video blogging. The video program will culminate
in an evening program and reception on February 9 that will draw from
all of these video genres.

ACADEMIC PROGRAM
Registered attendees will have access to the academic program on
February 8 and 9 that features panels on The State of Research, The
State of the Art, DIY Media: The Intellectual Property Dilemma and
DIY Tools and Platforms. Featured speakers include Yochai Benkler,
John Seely Brown, Joi Ito, Henry Jenkins, Lawrence Lessig, and Howard
Rheingold.

WORKSHOPS AND BIRDS-OF-A-FEATHER MEETINGS
On February 10, the day will be devoted to practical and hands-on
workshops for registered attendees on topics such as intellectual
property, media creation, distribution and new-media design tools.
Attendees will also have the option of organizing their own birds-of-
a-feather meetings to connect with other attendees.

As it was mentioned, we would really appreciate spreading the word about the event (and tell 'em Paul sent ya!). Thanks!

WeGame: A (Better?) YouTube for Gamers?

2008-01-19T13:47:00.000-05:00

WeGame launched just a short while ago, with a tag line of being a "YouTube for gamers". With the recent advances of machinima into areas increasingly closer to mainstream media, I immediately had two questions. Feel free to chime in:

1) For serious machinima, does it make sense to key into an audience of gamers-only?
and
2) Are you tempted to switch?

To put things into perspective, you do get some perks with WeGame. The site actually distributes their own recording software, for free. Furthermore, they have streamlined the process of uploading clips - as you shoot videos, they are immediately available in a little dashboard. You can then upload to the WeGame site. The agile software encodes the video for you and uploads it.

Another bonus: I have not seen the usual compression artifacts that you typically see with YouTube.

I'd love to hear other people's experiences with WeGame. The final quality of my test video made me very happy. I'm curious to try uploading some QuickTime or Windows Media machinima and see how it measures up.

This Weekend: Sleepless in Second Life

2008-01-11T11:13:00.000-05:00

This weekend marks the start of an exciting film event in Second Life. The famous 48-Hour Film project that tours the world is reaching a virtual world. On Friday, January 11th, contestants will be given a character, prop, and line of dialog as base for their machinima. Then, the teams have 48 hours to turn around a complete production.

More information from the 48-hour film Second Life site:

"The competition kicks off Friday, January 11th, at 4:00 p.m. Second Life Time (7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time) with a representative from each team meeting in Second Life to receive a genre, a character, a prop, and a line of dialog to be worked into their film.

Teams have until Sunday, January 13th, at 4:30 p.m. Second Life Time (7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time) to submit a completed entry.

On the following Wednesday and Thursday (January 16th and 17th), screenings will be held "virtually" in Second Life at the New Globe Theater." [To teleport to the event location, click here]

There should be some cool short movies coming out of this contest, hopefully they will also be posted on youtube so we can all watch (outside of Second Life).

Telltale brings the holiday special (and innovation) to Machinima

2007-12-21T12:30:00.000-05:00

One machinima production that I've often wanted to write about, but became equally-oft sidetracked is Telltale's wonderful Sam and Max series. Yesterday (December 19th), they released their Sam and Max holiday special, Sam and Max Nearly Save Christmas, which I found to be a great hoot as usual. The episode, built from the Sam and Max Ice Station Santa game, weighs in at a bit over 20 minutes (an interesting length, given a typical TV half-hour show is 22 minutes long).

Spoiler Alert!
This machinima includes various reveals tied into the Ice Station Santa game.

Telltale deserves some major props for this series. They are one of the few developers, if not the only, who are creating high-quality Machinima episodes in tandem with their game episodes - both of which assist each other in generating overall visibility. I had the pleasure of meeting with Telltale CEO Dan Connors at this year's GDC and he gave me some insights into Sam and Max's production. There are two teams developing content - a game dev team putting together the gameplay episodes, plus their machinima team, which produces their work using all the in-game assets/animations with their own custom Machinima tool. The entire Sam & Max series, is extremely polished--with clever writing, rewarding gameplay and a great visual aesthetic.

The Sam and Max franchise was long overdue for some love and Telltale has really stepped up in that regard. Not only have they revitalized a great property, but they're also paving the way into new territory - one I hope more game developers consider. These grand steps aside, I'm seflishly looking forward to even more Sam and Max machinima in the coming year.

New TF2 Machinima tools on the way?

2007-12-13T12:29:00.000-05:00

An interesting blip over on ShackNews: it sounds like Valve will be releasing some new machinima-focused/friendly SDK tools that were used in creating their "Meet The ____" series of shorts around Team Fortress 2. The post by a Valve employee (signed Robin - I'll assume it's designer Robin Walker) makes mention of the tools, though its timeframe is a bit indefinite (sigh). He doesn't get into specifics around what tools these will be, but I imagine they're most likely pipeline/middleware stuff that allows transparent production between Maya/XSI and Source.

With Hammer/ModelViewer/FacePoser already supporting TF2, that seems to be the missing link in the SDK. However, this blogger is hoping for something more along the lines of Demo Editor/Smoother 2.0 or the like.

The ILL Clan Speaks in Second Life - Will You Be There?

2007-12-09T22:46:00.000-05:00

The ILL Clan, makers of Tra5hTa1k and some recently renowned machinima in collaboration with the Electric Sheep Company (including CSI:NY), will be speaking to a Second Life audience on December 14th at 9 AM Pacific time. Some of the speakers include Frank Dellario, Matt Dominianni, Paul Jannicola and Kerria Seabrooke. For your convenience, click here to teleport to the event location.

For those of you who don't use SL very much, I highly recommend testing your voice capabilities early on to make sure you can both hear and talk using your headset. Occasionally, it takes some time to troubleshoot and you may miss out on participating in the conversation. There is a nice video tutorial on setting up your audio by the Eduserv Foundation or you can check out the voice feature wiki.

Thanks, Rik!

Free Pixel: Sex in Machinima

2007-12-06T13:05:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post about a new entry into one of my fave blogs, Free Pixel. Prof. Michael Nitsche speaks about sex and Machinima - how the subject matter is extremely polarized with either nary a mention, or the full-on explicit.

Read on...

Machinima for Mourning

2007-12-03T10:30:00.000-05:00

One of the virtues I often share about Machinima is how easy it is to reach. Because of this accessibility, it gives people - often not filmmakers by trade or practice - a platform for expression.

This Halo 3-based machinima, posted by Skatedawg27, retells the horrible events of this past April, taking place at Virginia Tech.

Definitively a successor to Alex Chan's The French Democracy from a couple of years back. And brings with it the same unanswered questions about Machinima as form of creative expression: Are the lines between the reflective and subversiveness too blurred? Can we watch a video made in Halo 3 and really feel the impact of the subject matter?

A couple of blogs have surfaced over the last 24 hours with their views on this video and it seems to have resonated for both. For me, it puts picture to the events but strangely, I'm not personally moved by the machinima (even with manipulative music in place) - though the video footage of Cho himself is still profoundly impactful and I find the video as a whole hard to watch. However, I found The French Democracy to be a much more powerful piece, simply because it was Alex Chan's POV and it was created soon after the actual event (which also brings up the question of how time impacts reception).

Granted the student probably wasn't looking to create a subjective work and wanted to let the objectivity be the storyteller - so points for that. Ultimately, I find it rather interesting short and can understand how some would find a message if they were looking for one.

There's a healthy discussion happening over at Hawtymcbloggy.com about the video. Whatever your take, kudos to the filmmaker and his Criminal Justice class piece for giving us all something to consider.

Creativity Group Uses Machinima As a Promotional Tool

2007-11-11T18:01:00.000-05:00

Creative Coffe House, a UK-based networking group for business, academics, non-profits, etc. has recently launched a Moviestorm-based machinima that explains their mission. Not only does this effort demonstrate a deep belief in the medium, but it also sends a strong signal about Moviestorm as powerful machinima platform.

The Facebook group for Creative Coffee House advertised a showing of Bloodspell (organized by the London Metropolitan Business School and the Open Rights Group). If you are in or around London on November 22nd, this sounds like a very interesting event. You can confirm your attendance on a Facebook group set up for this event.

Is There a Future for Machinima-Powered Music Videos?

2007-11-07T22:59:00.000-05:00

I was excited to find the above machinima from LiveEVILstudios as I was looking around for new stuff on YouTube.

Granted, if you're not a hardcore Daft Punk fan, sitting through 7 minutes might be a bit much to ask, but I thought it was an interesting approach. For once, we're not talking about characters, screenplay, or the challenge of infusing characters with expression. The graphics have adapted to the music and took on abstract forms - rhythm and light play become the elements that keep the viewer entranced. The end effect is quite artistic and, more importantly, it matches the Daft Punk style very well.

Looking to a future where machinima is more accessible (maybe through applications such as Moviestorm), there's a lot of potential for independent music performers to produce high-quality videos that reflect their vision, while staying within a reasonable budget.

Valve updates Source SDK to support HL2:Ep2, TF2, Portal

2007-11-07T22:19:00.000-05:00

Valve just announced an update to the Source SDK now supporting Half-Life2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal.

I look forward to the Machinima that will come from this update - with an eye towards Lit Fuse Films and once they get their hands on it. Ciao!

Update: Looks like the SDK is running a bit on the unstable side. I've tried testing out the TF2 models under FacePoser, which after one successful launch, will then crash consistently any time thereafter. There's a rumor that an update will be released tomorrow (11/8), but we'll have to stay tuned to the Source SDK Forums for any news from Mike Durand at Valve.

Machinima Matters: When Is Context No Longer Important?

2007-11-06T15:12:00.000-05:00

This past month, Machinima has had its fair share of high-profile visibility. Between HBO picking up its own Machinima series, CSI:NY in Second Life, The Office using Second Life, RvB continuing onto its own XBLM series, advertisements with strongly branded products, Machinima is finding its place not only within context but out-of-context. Or is it?

Rodica brought up several interesting points in her last post, and though they dipped into questions around public perceptions of VWs in general, they do relate to Machinima's cultural context. That age-old question: how important is context to Machinima? In and out of context is a blurring line - particularly with applications like Second Life, Warcraft, Metaplace, etc., some reaching server-busting numbers. The subject is often its own "rabbit hole" - no one definitive exit or enter - as plenty of people have explored its relevance within Machinima. Friedrich Kirschner's exploration of the subject hits home for me too.

Subject matters are the hook, obviously. But is it compelling because it talks about a game I have quite the affinity for? Or does it provide a wink and a nod to the platform itself? Or my daily life? When does the novelty of technology flatten and we become more focused on the what than the why?

Additionally, I just came across some thoughts of Dr. Henry Lowood - describing code-based vs. object-based machinima (sorry, no direct link - search page for "Lowood") which flirts with the contextual as well.

I normally engage these swirls of discussions with a fair amount of alcohol involved (drinks preceding, of course), but imagine you and I with a round of scotch and you're about to get into why I'm off base....

Machinima at the 24/7: A DIY Video Summit

2007-11-02T17:53:00.000-04:00

Hear ye, here ye, there ya. (c:

Just about a year ago, I met with a great group of prolific academic and video practitioners at USC. We convened to discuss a project - an event celebrating DIY video, exploring the blurred lines between "amateur" and "professional" - or as some have said, "personal" and "commercial" creative expression. That first weekend in December of 2006 was extremely rewarding - not only because I was just resurfacing from the 2006 Machinima Fest for the first time, but because of the people putting this together had come from all walks of life--some very related, some a bit more obscure. However, what made this meeting successful was not only its inclusion of high-profile theorists and critics, but that the event organizers recognized the need to include selected individuals from each video community. From my POV, this alone set the tone for an extremely fruitful event - outsiders and insiders coming together to showcase worlds that none could have tapped into on their own.

This coming February 8-10th, USC's School of Cinematic Arts will host the culmination of this organizational and curatorial work: 24/7: A DIY Video Summit - a weekend snapshot of avant-garde video. The people involved in the organization are some incredibly prolific folks and it was an honor to have just sat across the table from them:

Conference Organizers
Steve Anderson - Conference Chair
Mimi Ito - Conference Chair
Wally Baer
Anne Bray
Howard Rheingold
Adrienne Russell
Aram Sinnreich
Jennifer Urban
Speakers
Yochai Benkler
John Seely Brown
David Buckingham
Francesca Coppa
Marc Davis
Juan Devis
Eric Garland
Mike Hudak
Angela Wilson Gyetvan
Joichi Ito
Henry Jenkins
Alexandra Juhasz
Lawrence Lessig
Fred von Lohmann
Nicholas Reville
Michael Wesch
Curators
Mindy Faber - youth media
Ryanne Hodson - vlogging
Paul Marino - Machinima
Jonathan McIntosh - political remix
Tim Park - anime music videos
Eric Saks - arts/independent video
Laura Shapiro - vidding
Jon Stout - documentary

As per the bullet point above, I was invited to represent Machinima, which is quite the honor. I'm still pulling together the program, and hope I can do the medium some justice in the 80 minutes I have (feel free to suggest any pieces in the comments).

So why is this news only surfacing now? Well, there's been lots of planning happening over the past 12 months and the event program has finally been nailed down - but most importantly, registration is open. Registration closes on January 9th, and spaces are limited so get crackin' if you'd like to attend.

Ok, that's enough text for one day. I'll be poking at the blog over the weekend - mainly with my thoughts to Rodica's CSI posting yesterday, but possibly with a few other thoughts as well.

CSI: NY - The Joy and Perils of Machinima on Primetime TV

2007-10-25T10:41:00.000-04:00

Even though it's been a few days since the premier of the CSI: NY machinima blend piece, Down the Rabbit Hole, I still don't have a very clear reaction to it.

On one hand, the quality of the commercial machinima is incredible and I'm happy to acknowledge that this is a big step forward in mixing the technique with traditional movies/entertainment. Seeing machinima of Second Life on my TV screen was like seeing an old friend!

However, the joint efforts of CSI, Cisco, and The Electric Sheep, are part of a larger marketing campaign. As such, I am left with two large puzzles:

1. A technical issue: The Second Life seen in the CSI episode is the enhanced, Windlight edition, that is not yet available to the general public. Hugh Hancock alluded to it in the Machinima for Dummies book as an improvement on the graphics. Unarguably, it does a lot for the appeal of the platform, but I wonder how many people logged on to discover that the world isn't as pretty or doesn't work quite as seamlessly as it did on TV. Then again, I suppose this wouldn't be the first time television has lied. :)

2. A consistency point: Somehow, the goal of the CSI show seems at odds with the invitation to have people join a virtual world.
I don't typically watch CSI, but these kinds of police shows have an underlying theme -- that some kind of mind perversion is what creates criminals. The machinima section here basically depicts the technology that may enable those outlaws. Although there was a reference to the empowering characteristic of virtual worlds for people with disabilities, the sheer force of the imagery presented is making viewers think "hey, this looks so sexy, I have to try it!" The real murder under investigation starts to feel unreal, if you don't lose sight of it altogether.

Somehow, I'm more excited to see the TV series made by NBC in collaboration with Pierce P. The story line sounds more promising and internally consistent.

I hope Paul will chime in with his views on this moment in history. I'd also love to hear from other machinimists, with their thoughts on the episode and of Second Life as an up-and-coming machinima platform.

Entranced by Bloodspell, The Movie

2007-10-21T15:57:00.000-04:00

Bloodspell, the feature movie production from Strange Company is an epic culmination for one of the most fascinating and groundbreaking machinima series. The main accomplishment? Pure, unfettered entertainment that reaches the audience through powerful storytelling and compelling cinematography.

Hugh Hancock, writer and director, was present in Second Life this Sunday (event produced by machiniplex.com ), to receive feedback and be overwhelmed by excited fans. Countless secrets of the trade were shared with humor, including setting up cinematic dolly shots ("we were using calculus, it was scary!"), the incredible play of color & contrast achieved in post processing("thau shalt not shoot people wearing brown on a brown set"), and badger-based lighting technique ("the best thing we learnt about lighting is 'hey, let's have some!'").

As a deeper statement for things yet to come, the message of Bloodspell is clear. Simply take a look at the Creative Commons tag and the introductory cracks at the traditional, pre-movie legalese we're used to seeing, my favorite:

"Piracy is a crime....so don't steal any boats."

Beyond the technical talk and jokes, the most remarkable feat of the movie was its ability to make me forget that I was looking at a game environment. The only thing that broke my immersion were the character skins, but that can be attributed to being spoiled by the advances I have seen in Second Life. To give you a feel, you can check out a few samples on the Uncanny Valley page, any work by artist Darkdharma Daguerre, or Robbie Dingo's machinima blog.

I highly encourage you to see Bloodspell, make up your own mind about it, and let us know. Download it, watch the streaming video, and give it lots of Digg love!

Machinima Europe 07: Another milestone in the Machinima timeline

2007-10-16T10:09:00.000-04:00

I'm back from the whirlwind trip that was Machinima Europe 07 and what a blast it was. De Montfort University put together an outstanding event - no doubt, due to the extraordinary efforts of Ricard Gras, Toby Moores and Tracy Harwood. Ricard, Tracy and Toby performed Herculean efforts to in order for the fest to be a successful as it was. Much props to them - we could use a few more Ricards, Tobys and Tracys in the Machinima community.

The event kicked off with Friday's presentations to local area students. Here, myself, Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram (Machinima for Dummies), and Toby did our best at explaining, demonstrating and giving time to play with Machinima. On Saturday, we had a similar schedule - this time presenting for the public. Here I presented my "Ten Years of Machinima (and then some)" as well as Hugh's leading up Bloodspell's premiere. Additionally, Burnie Burns and Jason Saldaña of Rooster Teeth Productions (Red vs. Blue) showed off some of their commercial work, as well as a vid produced especially for the Machinima Europe 07 fest.

Saturday night's award event was fun, end-to-end. Ricard Gras lined up The Sancho Plan as the evening's entertainment, which combine live percussive performance with real-time triggered anims. They put on a really great show. The awards presentations were fun as well - with a good mix of unknowns and well-known Machinima works walking away with the top honour. Rodica collected links to each of the winners, which I've posted below (thanks, Rodica!)

Best Story: The Snow Witch - Britannica Dreams
Best Commercial: When the Postman Spits Twice - SL-Inworld Productions
Best Technical: Machinima Island - la.interactiva
Best Experimental: Cirque du Machinima: Cuckoo Clock - Tom Jantol
Best Sound: Innocent Minds - James Dubose
Best Student: Machinima! with Officer Dan - Amorphous Blob
Best Series: The Grid Review - the ILL Clan
Best Visual Design: Stolen Life - Nanoflix Productions
Best Direction: Stolen Life - Nanoflix Productions
Best Picture: Stolen Life - Nanoflix Productions

The evening continued with lots of celebration. Frank Dellario and myself were interviewed, amongst others, by Hugh and Johnnie for the Machinima for Dummies podcast. However, I believe we disqualified ourselves from inclusion as being in an extremely inebriated state. We chose to share not our top 5 favorite Machinima moments as requested by Hugh and Johnnie, but our moments related to Machinima, which quickly turned into extremely M-rated exchange. I guess Laphroaig has a way of making things even the most terrible of stories less terrible.

Sunday's programming dipped into the deeper waters of Machinima, where we discussed Machinima's mainstream potential and looked at Machinima as digital performance. The day ended with Friedrich Kirschner's live performance, which involved creating and sending a Moviesandbox postcard of-sorts to his girlfriend Hannah, who was sitting remotely on Skype. Great stuff, once again by one of Machinima's masters...

All-in-all it was spectacular. We had a great time, had a chance to see one another (and some for the first time - hey Doc, Xavier and the Lit Fuse team!) and share our love for a common practice. It was an incredible experience and acts as a momentum for the Machinima Fest 2008. For those of you who couldn't make it out - stay tuned on news for next year and set aside some time on your calendar - I'm sure you'll have a blast too.

Machinima Present Again at the Emmy Awards

2007-10-15T22:32:00.001-04:00

Following in the footsteps of Make Love, Not Warcraft, two more machinima pieces are in the running for an Emmy this year, one created in Second Life and the other one in There.com.

Showtime's L Word in Second Life for Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for Best Use Of Commercial Advertising on Stand-Alone Broadband Devices (Personal Computers). You can watch the promo here.

and

MTV's Virtual Laguna Beach for Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for Creation of Non-Traditional Programs or Platforms. The promo for this initiative is here.

Both movies have been produced in collaboration with the Electric Sheep Company, who also blogged their recent achievements in this field. Congrats to everyone involved and good luck!

Machinima Europe in Leicester this weekend!

2007-10-10T13:28:00.000-04:00

For those of you within reach of Leicester, UK - please join us this weekend, as the very first Machinima Europe festival will be taking place at DeMonfort University in Leicester. I would highly recommend registering for the event prior to attending - you can do so here. Some highlights from the festival program (erm, "programme" as me mates overseas call it):

Saturday, Oct. 13th

13:30 - Machinima for Dummies Recommends...
Machinima pioneers and authors Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram walk the audience through their fave Machinima works.
14.45 - Legal Roundtable
A panel of legal experts and Machinimators will discuss some of the legal issues around making Machinima, and the latest developments in the gaming world.

16.00 - Rooster Teeth
The creators of the infamous Red Versus Blue series, which recently released its 100th and final film of the series, will showcase their work.

Sunday, Oct. 14th

12:00 - European Machinima
A panel comprising some of Europe’s most celebrated and prolific machinimators will showcase and discuss their work so far. With Alex Chan, independent filmmaker,
Hugh Hancock, Director of Strange Company and author of Machinima for Dummies, and Carl Goodman, Director of Digital Media, Museum of Moving Image (New
York).

13.30 - BloodSpell Feature Cut World Premiere
Hugh Hancock presents his feature length cut of Bloodspell, Strange Company’s ‘punk-fantasy’, which may be the largest and most complex Machinima piece ever produced! The presentation includes an opportunity for Q&A.

14:00 - Machinima as Digital Performance
Artists from different backgrounds discuss their approach, with Frank Dellario, Director of The ILL Clan, recently bought by Electric Sheep Company, and Ricard Gras, former De Montfort University student and now Creative Director of La-Interactiva and member of the European Machinima Board.

16:00 - Live Performance: Friedrich Kirschner
Friedrich Kirschner, multi-award winning machinimator and member of AMAS will perform a live Machinima piece.

Again, these are only some of the events happening over the weekend - check out the full schedule for more. In addition to the other panels and presentations, there will be screenings as well as both Hugh and Johnnie on hand to sign copies of their newly released Machinima For Dummies (excellent read, btw - check out Rodica's review).

I will also be speaking at the beginning of the fest on Saturday morning, leading the audience down through the Machinima memory registers and where I feel the medium is headed.

Really looking forward to the event and hope to meet a few of you there as well! (and remember to register!)

Toyota springs Machinima ad on unsuspecting World of Warcraft

2007-10-08T17:17:00.000-04:00

How popular is World of Warcraft? Ask Toyota. They've recently released a spot that takes place in WoW, where a Toyota Tacoma leads the party into battle against the fire-breathing dragon. The spot itself is a bit of a rip off the Leeroy Jenkins vid, but its still somewhat humorous.

First the GTA/Coke ad and now this. Good call by Toyota, even if its a new skin over an old idea. Give it a look while it spreads like wildfire...

More info about the piece as it surfaces...

Blizzard gives Machinima proper rex

2007-09-25T14:13:00.000-04:00

Amidst all the Halo 3 hub-bub today (you did get your copy, didn't you?), Blizzard posted a neat little section on their site titled simply, Machinima - in their sidebar menu.

The section describes WoW's backround in the Machinima timeline and gives it recognition as a legitimate creative outlet for WoW players (or anyone else who would choose WoW as their Machinima platform of choice). It also links to the recently announced Machinima guidelines by Blizzard as well.

The timing might seem a tad coincidental with MS's announcing of similar terms, as well as the added Machinima features in Halo 3 - but I think there's a very deliberate strategy to it. Naturally MMOs and FPSs grab different audiences, but Machinima is one key element in grabbing new folks. Word of mouth is what makes a game, and what better way to say it, than with a short that shows it?

Regardless, I say "Good on ya, Blizzard." Let's hope others follow suit.