Combining machine cinema creates a new form of video art in which 3-D simulation made on computers with the use of mainly games found, a new kind of emerging videos are produced. Like in a regular production, games are mainly used to start a storyboard of movies, or series that play throughout the internet. Many games have already been made into a machinima, normally the most popular one at the time, like today where Second Life and World of Warcraft have become of the top games being played online while games like Doom and Halo are also used to create machinima.
I watched an episode of South Park once where the characters became so immersed in World of Warcraft that they stopped functioning as little boys and became fat and ugly. In the game world, they were fighting against a character who had the power to kill all other players and was basically killing the game. Cartman, Stan, Kenny, and Kyle joined together to fight off this super player and eventually defeated him in the game. the company Blizzard joined with the creators of South Park to create this episode of machinima where the WOW would combine with South Park's characters to create a spoof on the reality of playing WOW.
An average person can create their own machinima using programs to download the games they play and add their own voices to it to create their own videos.With the proper tools of downloading and create new information, the people who make machinima are hackers in a way. Take for example this video clip made by a group who makes machinima out of different types of games.
http://www.illclan.com/video/gamerGags320x240.mov
They add their own sequence of events into the video and their own voices, but include the game essentials like characters, weapons, and items normally found in online games.
Another famous machinima which has been made following the Halo games, is the show, Red vs. Blue-The Blood Gulch Chronicles. A comedic machinima depicting Halo's Master Chief and his comrades on various missions, each episode lasting only 5 minutes, the show was so popular, it is already in its second season.
The use of machinima is not only used to show videos, the History Channel aired a series called Decisive Battles where they reenacted the historic battles of the past through the use of a game called Rome-Total Warfare. They combined to show the battle scenes where they would show how the battles were fought and where. Like this episode of Hannibal vs. Roman army at the battle of Cannae.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QSnIXBERXNg
3 comments:
Now, I used to play online first-person shooters for several hours a day in high school at various intervals, but nothing would make me want to watch machinima. I remember when Red Vs Blue came out and was surprised that it held my doormmates rapt, quoting it afterwards and generally... liking it. I think because the medium is in its infancy, it has a condition similar to slash fiction where only those who spend a very large percentage of their lives thinking of or playing in these virtual worlds, can appreciate the DIY products that come out.
YES! I remember that episode of South Park. I totally forgot about that and now that I think of it, its a really good example and in fact, probably one of the best examples of Machinima out there, with fans of the two (SP and WOW) being able to experience a creation combining their characters. WOW in particular as a game has been constantly used not only in works of Machinima but also objects of media in the form of television ads and even candy products. It's just another example of how media can affect the society in many ways.
I like your examples, I completely forgot about that episode of South Park until you reminded me! I think it is interesting how people are not only creating Machinima for their entertainment (Red vs. Blue) but for education now. I think it is pretty funny (and clever) that the History Channel is Rome-Total Warfare to recreate historical battles and teach us. I wonder if they are doing this for its entertainment value to draw in younger viewers or if it’s just cost effective? Next time its on however I’m going to check it out. I can tell you this I am looking forward to seeing how Machinima develops over the next couple of years.
~Dan Mahoney
Post a Comment