What's in a name? (or Please, Stop It.)
Quite often Machinima producers/machinimators get pulled into the quicksand that is the "What is Machinima?" question. I've often sunk deep into this pool as well.
The question shows up in a number of ways. A producer will begin a Machinima project and find they are customizing so much of the production, that the benefits of Machinima begin to fall away. This starts to make the producer question why they began down the Machinima path in the first place. This further casades into "well, if I'm doing all of this animation-like work, is it Machinima? and then finally, "btw, what is Machinima?" And so on... Friedrich Kirschner recently posted his thoughts about Machinima and its context over at Free Pixel, which lends even more discussion into the "What" dialogue.
Furthermore, some folks (mostly non-producers) will bucket all game-related videos as Machinima. It's understandable why this is, but unfortunate. A recent posting over on Kotaku was guilty of this, though I believe it was more the organizers of E3 than Kotaku itself or even the film's production team, PES Films - who I had the pleasure of meeting at the Florida Film Festival a few years back.
PES Films' stop motion production "Game Over"
I'm sorry. Machinima tends to have fuzzy borders in its current state, and kudos to the PES team for Game Over, but a stop-motion videogame-influenced short is NOT Machinima. Machinima is working within the confines of a real-time 3D virtual space and using it to develop a visually-based narrative. E3 folks, if you're listening, please make the correction and become acquainted with the Machinima wikipedia page or the AMAS "What is Machinima?" FAQ. Ok? Thanks.
The art of Machinima is clearly an ongoing inquiry. It has definition, but it rides in fringed territories. However, any movement starts off in a period of relationship that is hard to define in the black and white. I'm sure the first artists delving into perspective had no idea they were to be part of the Renaissance.
Gripe session over.
Paul Marino is currently writing an essay for the forthcoming Machinima Reader on Machinima and its place in culture.
The question shows up in a number of ways. A producer will begin a Machinima project and find they are customizing so much of the production, that the benefits of Machinima begin to fall away. This starts to make the producer question why they began down the Machinima path in the first place. This further casades into "well, if I'm doing all of this animation-like work, is it Machinima? and then finally, "btw, what is Machinima?" And so on... Friedrich Kirschner recently posted his thoughts about Machinima and its context over at Free Pixel, which lends even more discussion into the "What" dialogue.
Furthermore, some folks (mostly non-producers) will bucket all game-related videos as Machinima. It's understandable why this is, but unfortunate. A recent posting over on Kotaku was guilty of this, though I believe it was more the organizers of E3 than Kotaku itself or even the film's production team, PES Films - who I had the pleasure of meeting at the Florida Film Festival a few years back.
PES Films' stop motion production "Game Over"I'm sorry. Machinima tends to have fuzzy borders in its current state, and kudos to the PES team for Game Over, but a stop-motion videogame-influenced short is NOT Machinima. Machinima is working within the confines of a real-time 3D virtual space and using it to develop a visually-based narrative. E3 folks, if you're listening, please make the correction and become acquainted with the Machinima wikipedia page or the AMAS "What is Machinima?" FAQ. Ok? Thanks.
The art of Machinima is clearly an ongoing inquiry. It has definition, but it rides in fringed territories. However, any movement starts off in a period of relationship that is hard to define in the black and white. I'm sure the first artists delving into perspective had no idea they were to be part of the Renaissance.
Gripe session over.
Paul Marino is currently writing an essay for the forthcoming Machinima Reader on Machinima and its place in culture.
posted by Paul
at 1:33 PM
2 Comments:
A rare rant from Paul! Well said, sir.
I'm currently working on visual effects for a live action short in my spare time, and the director was describing this shot we have to do... a pov shot walking down a very long hallway, and as he's describing this hypothetical, high-contrast, very noir sort of hallway, I sighed. I said, "You know, I've got the perfect location for that shot. Exactly as you described it, except for the floor. I'd have to tear up the carpets and replace them with hardwood... maybe swap out the wallpaper for some cracked paint... but that'd take, oh, 2 minutes. The only problem is: It only exists inside a videogame."
Oh boy, nothing makes me want to do machinima like working on photorealistic rendered stuff. I wait an hour or more for a good, photo-realistic render of a single object, and then I go, "Hmm, nah, I think I want the grain on that brushed metal a little tighter." With machinima, you don't have to wait. You can see what your art looks like at full production quality, immediately. When things need tuning, you can iterate much faster. The faster you can iterate, the better you can maintain your creative flow.
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