Contrary to a lot of idle criticism, Bungie's
Halo series of video games has
a surprisingly rich backstory -- a universe complex enough to support
seven bestselling novels,
a wiki with over 7,000 articles, and
one of the most successful ARGs in history (including
a full-fledged radio drama). The series has also turned out sweeping audiovisual work, from the games'
cinematic cutscenes and
epic music (lots of free previews) to
top-shelf anime and the Hollywood-quality short films --
ODST,
Believe,
Deliver Hope,
Landfall -- that were made to promote the games (the latter of which, produced by Neil Blomkamp,
inspired District 9). And that's apart from all the material produced by Bungie's dedicated fan base:
genuinely hilarious machinima from
Red vs. Blue,
professional-level graphic novels (table of contents at the top),
gorgeous artwork,
hours of recorded dialogue,
complete transcripts of
hidden apocrypha, and more
factual analysis,
story speculation, and
casual discussion than you can shake an energy sword at. But most of these pale in comparison to the latest and greatest exercise in Halo beanplating: the
Svmma Canonica, a 40-page, 17,000-word formal treatise on the nature of canon in the world that Bungie built, and how it will fare once Bungie moves on and the franchise is managed by 343 Industries. Discussion
over at Bungie's official site, or at decade-old fan forum
Halo.Bungie.Org.
posted by Rhaomi
on Jan 31, 2011 -
71 comments
Beyond the Real Life is a World of Warcraft fan movie, blending live action and special effects with in-game footage. The follow-up to a 2006 short called
The Edge of Real Life,
Beyond the Real Life tells the story of Tank the warrior and Bubbleballs the paladin on a quest to save Tank's love interest after she is kidnapped by a Horde mage. The acting and writing aren't in danger of winning any awards, but the mix of machinima and live action is very well done, and there are some pretty good gags in there, both WoW-related and otherwise.
(via RPS)
posted by The Pusher Robot
on Dec 16, 2010 -
5 comments
Machinima (muh-shin-eh-mah or ma-shin-i-ma) is a hybrid filmmaking technique where people utilize game engines and environments to create videos. At first, it was little more than screengrabs and screencasts of in-game action, but it has now grown to include sophisticated storylines independent of game action. Shows and entire series have been made from The Sims, Halo, The Movies, Quake, Half-Life, Unreal Tournament and Second Life to name just a few. Actually, some Team Fortress 2 machinima was
recently mentioned (October 9th). Over the years, there have been some really amazing productions, such as the now legendary 100-episode
Red vs Blue series (also previously mentioned) which was created with Halo 2. A lot of machinima can be found and viewed for free on
machinima.com. The Internet Archive also maintains a
machinima section. The recently-released
BloodSpell, a "punk fantasy" from
Strange Company, is believed to be the first feature-length movie released using the
Neverwinter Nights game engine. (
watch online free,
free divx download - 847 MB,
free quicktime download - 903 MB). Two of the people behind BloodSpell, Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram have co-written the just-published
"Machinima for Dummies".
[more inside]
posted by TrinityB5
on Dec 2, 2007 -
32 comments
I am Murloc. Cool World of Warcraft music video. (Note: Impressed me, but I've never played WoW. Might not impress WoW players, I dunno. Won't change your mind if you already hate WoW. Horrible vocals.)
posted by Bugbread
on Jul 17, 2007 -
51 comments
"What are they talking about?" Was it just an April Fools' joke? Are they really gonna end
Red Vs. Blue: arguably the most successful
machinima series ever? Will Blood Gulch be silent of one-liners and snide comments once more, or is this a blatant attempt by
Rooster Teeth to drum up interest in their 100th episode? Considering the fact they started it four years ago
on April Fools Day, it's really hard to tell.
(surprise! no youtube links!)
posted by ZachsMind
on Apr 3, 2007 -
11 comments
Fans of Flight Simulators and Michinima might be familiar with the adventures of Bill and John. If you're not, download episode 1 along with the subtitles and and familiarize yourself with a very funny piece of machinima, even more impressive because it's not only in
Lock On: Modern Air Combat, but in French to boot. Well they're back, winning Best Picture at the
Machinima 2006 film festival,
The Adventures of Bill Et John II. Browse the rest of the nominees and winners on the Machinima.com
festival page.
posted by Lord_Pall
on Nov 12, 2006 -
7 comments
The French Democracy is a short film on the recent riots in France. It was made by
Alex Chan, Parisan-born but of Chinese parents, to "to correct what was being said in the media, especially in the United States" about the riots. He used a
techinique called
machinima--using a video game engine to make his movie.
posted by LarryC
on Dec 16, 2005 -
39 comments
The next wave in Filmmaking? This summer, the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences, along with NVIDIA, will hold the world's first
Machinima Film Festival on August 17th in Mesquite, Texas.
Machinima is, simply stated, filmmaking within a real-time virtual 3D environment.
In an expanded definition, it is the convergence of filmmaking, animation & game development. Machinima is a very cost- & time-efficient way to produce films.
posted by lilboo
on Jul 12, 2002 -
11 comments
