Machinima: a very broad concept

 

In this piece I tried to show a different way of making Machinima: the actors’ moves generated both the visual effects and sound effects for the movie. The PS2’s processor and the game PLAY was essential to this and although the actors are real people the engine is what makes this short possible -isn’t that Machinima? Anyway, it was good fun to do and the students and staff at Sir Johnny were great. It’s one of the examples I showed in the presentation at the 05 Machinima Film Fest in NY.

 

Since then I have engaged with a number of initiatives and played around with The Movies and SIMS2 but since Feb 05 thanks to a Jim Purbrick presentation I’ve been fascinated with the infinite array of possibilities Second Life offers... I read about SL somewhere before that but somehow the idea seemed too good to be true... I think it’s going to be very interesting to see where it leads to in terms of audience participation and i-content development and for that reason we have been focusing on SL for almost 2 years now.

 

Ok, here’s a list of thoughts I’ve been compiling about Machinima since I started (on-going):

 

Machinima as a cultural/artistic object

 

- Machinima is not only one of the most democratic content development tools there is but a very flexible one too. It doesn’t matter how much mainstream Machinima becomes -it should always be a content creation tool for the masses.

 

- Machinima per se might not provide a clear business model but has allowed me and other Machinimators to gain the following assets/skills/knowledge:

 

a) Experience in directing online performances with several audiences and therefore be pioneers in the use of videogame server spaces for artistic collaboration in real-time.

 

b) When developing SL content we outsourced to third party developers and ended up doing the same for other people... this situation has forced us to become a hybrid between an interactive and a linear media company. Exactly where we want to be.

 

c) Develop a network. YouTube and MySpace had very fragile business models based on networks... or did they?

 

d) And the obvious one: over the past 4 years we have developed animated content quickly, cheaply and via exceedingly flexible processes -we can re-use any of our assets and re-make things with very little cost/effort or pre-visualise content... Any interactive virtual environments we have developed purposely for Machinima are re-usable...

 

- One of the reasons why Machinima shorts have cultural relevance and develop special relationships with audiences is because they use and interpret existing videogames -which have a tremendous effect on those who play them at many levels. Machinima audiences, when watching these movies, recognise the games, the characters and often how things have been achieved so that creates a special bond that you can’t find in traditional animation. When using Second Life I found that this special relationship is broken -SL is great because you can tailor everything to the needs of the movie... but you loose some part of the bond with the audience if they can’t recognise the game that has been used or are unfamiliar with that game. However the benefits of using SL (as far as our work is concerned anyway) do outweigh the disadvantages at the mo.

 

- In the presentations and screenings I’ve organised or attended we generally obtained a pretty good response. I always try and encourage anyone with an idea for a movie or who wants to develop an idea for a game to consider Machinima as a way of pre-visualising stuff, create a pilot or develop the idea fully. However the criticism that Machinima got from audiences over the years has normally come from three clearly identifiable groups: hard-core gamers, (some) traditional animators and (some) games developers.

 

1) At one point I got critisised by hard-core gamers because by Machinimaking I was committing some kind of sacrilege... My response: grow up!

 

2) On the other hand some traditional animators seemed against the whole idea too... I understand their fears but not the magnitude of the preoccupation amongst those who feel reticently towards Machinima. Well, Machinima could be for them what photography became for painters in the 19th century... it could liberate them from the boring bits of their work, allow them to concentrate in other aspects of it... Besides (c’mon!) Machinima is not a substitute for all animation techniques -it’s just a new option. Building 3D worlds where you can roam around freely and re-use characters and animations while you move your camera with a gamepad/mouse is an idea which makes sense anyway: financially and production-wise. Let’s not forget though this is real time stuff so it’s suitable for certain things... I have huge respect for traditional animation and also good CGI -Machinima is not yet providing us with the level of artistry and control that traditional animation techniques do. Besides people like the Henson Creature Shop have been experimenting with virtual pupeteering for ages... Nowadays everyone knows that if you work in the media you have to know about different techniques and production methods: be able to design websites, blogs, create podcasts and, yes, build and/or use games for animation, why not? It’s just another string in the bow.

 

3) Anyway, finally we have the category dedicated to some games developers who think that Machinimators are a bunch of frustrated people who do Machinima because they cannot: a) programme/design a ‘proper’ game; or b) direct a ‘proper’ movie. Needless to say this is a restricted perspective on this phenomenon from people who just value the technical aspects of things and live anchored in an pretty old and obsolete paradigm. There are loads of Machinimators who create their own gaming environments or mod existing ones with considerable accomplishment. At LA-INTERACTIVA we have been developing tailor-made environments for ages for our Machinima projects and we outsource to third parties just like games companies do. The videogames industry has a strong tradition of interacting with audiences creatively and games companies have benefited enormously from this. Machinima is just one of the examples of this relationship and there are many more to come. Thankfully not everyone within the game industry thinks like this and people like Charles Cecil, Fred Hasson,  Peter Molyneaux and many many others regard games with a more dynamic and progressive perspective. Games are not just perfect little pieces of great technical achievement -they are cultural artefacts with global significance that are potentially open to manipulation and re-purposing (explicitly or implicitly), powerful immersive experiences that have social impact, products that cross-over multiple art forms... This male/geeky ethnocentrism in the industry has been harming it deeply. Games used to be developed and distributed in a certain way, which worked fine and gave way to a lot of some fantastic pieces of work. Ok. But now we’re in a world where content is developed looking into different approaches and techniques and using new distribution methods. Machinima is just one of the many things that are arising as a consequence of all these changes -you can embrace them or ignore them at your own peril: Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg do games, games companies develop interactive movies, George Lucas pre-visualises his movie scenes using games, the Arctic Monkeys go from MySpace to MTV within weeks whereas Paris Hilton moves in the opposite direction... we’re all a bunch of media whores... In this state-of-affairs promiscuity is the way forward!

 

 

- At the Bradford Animation fest Tom Woolley (fest director) pointed out that Machinimators are a ‘closed’ community and that it was difficult for him to get Machinimators to submit content onto the fest. Mmm... Somehow I think he’s right, reasons for it?

 

 a) We’re used to looking into other ways of distribution and don’t expect/seek approval/recognition/exposure from established media channels... that could be one factor. Hands up -that’s something we should look into as content creators.

 

b) However most Machinimators don’t have the knowledge/energy/time to promote their own work... and there’s a clear issue with clearances (perhaps the biggest problem) and also there’s the eternal issue with sound/image quality which makes it difficult to tap into these channels. If you’ve ever seen Machinima on the big screen you’ll know what I mean.

 

- Last year I was discussing all this UGC business with an old film exec and he said: “I don’t think that an increase in quantity in terms of production [thanks to the users taking part in the production process] has resulted in an increase in quality -users will never be able to create the stuff we do”. Ok, ok. But users have to right to have a go. It’s a sign of our times. Besides -User Generated Content is fresh, responsive, liberated from many of their political/financial/geographical/cultural constraints... It’s raw and it’s refreshing -it was very much needed. It balances the mare-magnum of media content that comes from established media and it complements it.

 

- Machinima is great for any genre (drama, documentary) however it’s natural space might be comedy. One of the reasons for this is that audiences realise that what they’re watching has been made with a game so they can’t take the animation fully seriously. Besides most games characters are serious-looking, move stiffly and are usually up to violent stuff so when you put these little creatures in ‘normal/daily’ situations their dialogue and actions automatically becomes hilarious: just watch Star Wars, Bouncers, Apartment hunting, Red vs Blue episode I or A day in Liberty city...

 

- That said -Machinima can also be a very interesting artistic tool that can allow literally anyone to have their say on any subject and a truly fantastic instrument for visual artists to explore new ways of developing content. Besides VJ’s and digital performers (wanting to explore the artistic use of games servers) have in Machinima a great opportunity. Paul Marino’s work as curator comes into mind here -it’s his approach that has prompted that people like Jon Lippincott and Ken Perlin to join the Machinima community with their amazing take on all this. Their performances at the Moving Image Museum and their work in 05 and 06 were incredible.