Week7 Videogames: User-Generated Content & Machinima September 3, 2008
Posted by guans01 in Seminar.trackback
Readings
[1] Peter Price, BBC news: “Machinima Waits to Go Mainstream” 16.20.2007.
[2] Harrison Heller, Promotinf Machinima: “Experiments in Machinima“,Introduction,16.08.2008.
[3] Paul Marino, Machinima:”Filmmaking’s destiny”, O’Reilly: Digital Media. 08.09.2004.
Machinima was defined by filmmakers-a merging of three creative mediums: filmmaking, animation, and 3D game technology. And it is the art of producing films using graphics rendered by computer games. It can be viewed as a young medium. BBC News talks about the Europe’s first Machinima Festival at the De Monfold University. They emphasis that this new medium brings so many game creativity, and production techniques and it also brings a large benefits to filmmaker production.
Harrison points out the experiments in “Machinima” are an exhibition of experimental Machinima films. There are some developed Machinima productions(ICone and Moviestorm), previsualization(Antics3D), or3D animation(MotionBuilder). He also picks up some typical Machinima to show us its features and forms such as2184 person, Febles and Men and The Dumb Man.
Paul depicts that “Visual Cinema is inevitable” because it is a filmmaking destiny. The first Machinima film was creatived in 1996; its path becomes easier to see, based on past experiences and expectations. the software and hardware were utilized by Machinima is a kind of stepping stones of Innovation. Dr. Perlin represents features for future Machinima software, it speaks directly to the creative flexibilities that Machinima affords. Characters can capable of interaction-not only with enviroment, but also among themselves. Furthermore, as far as the creators themselves, it should think about the setting a Machinima Standard? How it grows up and features of future.
Guys, when you complete these readings, please think about these questions.
[1] Does Machinima produce a revolutionary in Filmmaking? (Much is about of Machinima, does it destroy the game or create the game, what kinds of benefits would it brings in Machinima industry?)
[2] How do you understand Machinima’s narratives, realism, and genre and its features in light of2184person, Febles anf Men and The DumebMan. ( When you click to the link , seeing the game video, do you like story in that video, deeply think about in your standpoint?)
[3] How does the Machinima develop now and in the future, in your opinion?(Mentioning whether could we set up its standard, in software and rules, and searching the target audiences and markets.)
[4] How does Machinima relate to broader trends in participatory culture? (Compared with YouTube, Flickr and so on.)
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I do agree that Machinima is revolutionary in filmmaking. However as it involved copyright issues, it would not be as popular or widespread as the conventional filmmaking process.
In my opinion, Machinima does not destroy or create a game. Rather it presents another platform or choice of viewing the game. It gives the community of youngsters or game players a taste of piecing together their version of the game. It is like the concept of the participatory culture. It is not a new creation as the charaters still look like the original versions where they were taken. And since the players recorded or take the actions from the games, the actions would not be created but copied.
The stories or narratives in Machinima is kind of dark and spooky. Personally, I do not think that I will be able to appreciate that type of genre. I still prefer to go for the conventional movies or animation series. How about you guys?
Hey, guys thank you all of you for helping me in the seminar.
Considering Machinima, I also agree with tang that Machinima is revolutionary in filmmaking. and it is a very young art form medium, so people sedom have changes to recognize it.
Machinima is the fusion words of machine and cinema which is defined by the filmmaking with three main elements ( filmmaking, animation and 3 D game technology) so it is a creative and fresh stuff.
much is made of the history of Machinima, Diary of a Camper, which became the first machinima film to be widely viewed and distributed. This short, 100-second demo file contained the action and gore of many others, but in the context of a story, rather than the usual deathmatch. Although its narrative was simple, it established the machinima genre; so-called Quake movies quickly became popular. Dedicated demo-processing tools, such as Uwe Girlich’s Little Movie Processing Center (LMPC) and David “crt” Wright’s non-linear editor Keygrip, were developed; the latter became “known as the Adobe Premiere for Quake demo files”. Distribution and review sites for Quake movies appeared; among these were The Cineplex, Psyk’s Popcorn Jungle, and the Quake Movie Library. Notable works include Clan Phantasm’s Devil’s Covenant, the first feature-length Quake movie; Avatar and Wendigo’s Blahbalicious, which won seven Quake Movie Oscars;and Clan Undead’s Operation Bayshield, which used simulated lip synching.
Talk about the narrative in Machnima, sometimes it is totally different from the conventional narrative. Because in the Machinima, most of Characters are mute and pensive, and then the spectators should guess what these charactors tell us , what is this story? and some Machinima still express the game or animation.you just appreciate the games,but not play the game.
conserding Machinima, it can convey storys give us flexibililty and at the same , they do not hamper us with the constraints that the real world gives us.
eg. The dumb man is visual interpretion of the cryptic short story, I think the narrotar attempts to tell his tale in the form of a highly and abstract, untraditional narrative. what you guys think about the narratives?
Hi, the Machinima is quite new concept for me, to be honest ,i have no idea about it. However, i am interested it now, because i like computing game. Like siyang showed examples which are some kinds of Machinima , it looks like pretty like movies rather than games as i saw.Also, like Tama explained in the tutorial, it began from the films. So I am thinking about that it maybe has more closed relationship with film not the games? In the reading, people have discussed the Machinima and the game, i think the Machinima maye destroy the game in some ways. First of all, the software and hardware of the new technology are limited, not everyone can access it easily , so it will stop the way of people involved in this kind of activity; secondly, the fun for me when i playing computer game is go through all the sections to win at last, so i do not want to creat new story genre when i am playing, it is not necessary and complex , if some people like me, will definitly stay far way this kinds of creative games……
guys, there has a website, if you are interested in Machinima, please go there and enjoy!( I have watched some shows, i am sure they are scared for me…..sorry….)
http://www.machinima.com/
From the snippets of machinima we saw in class last week, it seems that the genre is quite dark and fantasy driven. Is this because of its relationship with computer games? Or was it just the exerpts we saw? Does anyone know?
Annaw77, as machinima is primarily based on its originating source (a particular game), the characters (i.e. colour schemes, ‘look’, overall feel, etc) would most likely be aligned to their roles in the games which they were ‘taken’ from. This is my best guess.
I’d take a popular example. I’m assuming we know, to varying degrees, who (super) ‘mario’ is. I would say ‘he’ is usually portrayed as a ‘neutral’ or ‘positive’ character in most of the games that ‘he’ has been featured – but rarely or never as an evil character. Therefore, I’d assume that should any form of machinima be created of him, it’d most probably not feature him as the ‘big bad wolf’. While it could be refreshing, it’d be totally ‘off’. I’m not sure if I’d like to watch that. : )
Good point Alvin, thanks. Although, I always think there’s room for some subversion. Why not make some machinima with a big-bad super mario?
I might be able to answer my own question though: mario needs to be recorded in the game environment, which doesn’t have the capacity for him to be a baddie. Right?
I think there’s still possibility to make neutral and positive mario’s character become “big bad wolf”. It depends to the construction of the narrative and editing process in creating machinima. Just take example; you can record the super mario game when you play mario violating all the games rule. You add appropriate backgrounds music to sustain crime action. It will probably end up with big-bad super mario machinima. (I just think another possibility ☺ )
Do you think it make sense guys?
Super Mario in the analog computer game in the 80’s and early 90’s was fun but making it into a modern “machinima would be cool, I am a big fan of Super Mario but i prefer it to still be the hero who rescues the princess at the end!
Machinima is very interesting coz there is so much role the players and computer enthusiasts in creating this new genre of film. It gives creators, artistry and expose their imaginative skills on writing or creating a story and manipulation of the media technology through the creation of this modern movie genre. Though seeing the examples of machinima it is still very obvious that it is in its infancy, thus given a span of two years with international conventions about machinima it will definetely grow on its own that we might just know that its a new way to creat a blockbuster perhaps the SUPER MARIO that Rouli, Anna and Alvin is refering to.
Indeed Machinima is still at the stage of infancy. I would also like to add that it is a form of participatory culture not suitable for those who are faint hearted ie not for the average audience. Although anyone who has access could view it or give comments, the technical aspect of the production requires someone who has patience and skills. So in order to convert the conventional Super Mario into the form of Machinima takes a special interest, animation and computer skills.