Oh, brave new world that has such people in it.
The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] defines "Machinima" (short for machine cinema) today in an article about Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, which is part of an emerging genre of low-budget videogame-generated films. Apparently, there's even an Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences. In Brooklyn. Quelle surprise.
Every week, [Mike] Burns gathers Geoff Fink, 28, and Jason Saldaña, 25, and some other friends to play a videogame called Halo. They edit the on-screen images into roughly five-minute videos that have plots, recurring characters and original soundtracks. Like puppeteers, each man controls a computer-generated character on the screen. They also provide the voices along with friends in other cities, who send in their audio tracks over the Internet. The group distributes the series online and on DVDs. Now on its 29th episode, the low-budget production has attracted a cult following and shows signs of crossing over to a broader audience.[snip]
Mr. Burns's story line centers around nine intergalactic soldiers stuck in a nondescript landscape where the red and blue teams are supposed to fight each other. True gamers would try to gun down opponents and swipe the other team's flag in the Blood Gulch section of the Halo videogame. In Mr. Burns's version, the soldiers are bungling types puzzled about why they are there in the first place. Continuing gags involve a Spanish-speaking robot nobody understands and a tank the characters don't know how to drive. Mr. Burns describes the content as "bureaucracy humor" and compares the form to early film serials such as "Tarzan" and "The Lone Ranger."
[snip]
"Caboose, right there, Tucker, right there," Mr. Burns said during the recent production session of Episode 27, firing virtual bullets into the videogame landscape to show Mr. Fink and Mr. Saldaña where to position their characters. The two soldiers they are playing are involved in a scheme to get the Spanish-speaking robot, Lopez, to repair damage to himself and their jeep. That's complicated by the fact that the ghost of another soldier has possessed Lopez's body. High jinks ensue.
Is it so wrong that the cinetrix really wants Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to pay a visit to these chaps? Thought so.
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