Machinima for Mourning

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.

Save Films Mode in Halo 3 = Machinima-tastic!

Update: Bungie posted a simple FAQ about Halo 3 Saved Films on Bungie.NET - Enjoy!

For those of you who have been hiding under an extremely large rock, and even then, that rock would need to be within a really deep cave that had collapsed a number of years ago, Halo 3 will be released next week to the salivating masses (count me as one).

Not only with the Legendary Edition featuring Machinima stars such as Rooster Teeth and Chris Burke, but Halo 3 itself will be a Machinimator's playpen - specifically with the new Save Films feature that records all the action within a game of Halo 3. But rather than I blather on and on about how cool it is (and I could!), Bungie does us a solid by preparing yet another great vidoc (oh, these made-up film terms) that showcases Save Films proper. Additionally, the short shows us Forge, Bungie's game-editing mode that rips a page from the Garry's Mod playbook and makes it a playable feature on top. Talk about cool! Talk about innovative! Talk about excitement and the overuse of punctuation!!!

Ok, enough smarmy chatter. Over to you, Bungie...



If you still haven't had your fill of Halo-based Machinima yet, then sit back after Sept. 25th and let it wash over you like the humidity on a NYC summer day.