Burnt Coffee Chatter

A rose is a rose is a rose.

Dispatches from the front line and amongst recognizeable generals have been parsing this question.

I’ve pined a bit here on the topic, on and off, and stepped into awkward arguments of the socratic kind, but once moreinto the breach we go .

Machinima is ‘just’ a new production technique:

Eh, no, not really.

While I think the puppet masters who crack open an engine and swap zero’s for one’s can make a valid argument for this definition. While, there are those of us more common techn0-slackerz who merely employ the assets of an existing 3D engine, meshes and textures, animations, and artificial intelligence to fulfil our needs. All just looted, borrowed, or repurposed technology.  For this reason, I prefer thinking machinima is more akin to Found Art.

Seeing machinima as another production technique or a toolbox, discounts the signifigance that machinima has earned for being a true artifact of the gaming culture, a migrationary step beyond simple fan fiction and closer to an artistic response to this new culture many of us have, as a first generation, come up in. It is for this reason, that I belive, journo’s and graduate students are excited or interested in what we do. If this sort of classroom semantics is not your cup of tea, it is a discussion not worth having.  

Though the end product may not seem unique, the genesis of a machinima a piece is.

Outside-in vs. Inside-out:

It began with frag videos, and given that the medium has a mostly common start point, it should not surprise anyone that it still begins with frag videos. This is not to put down the clever and still innovative pop shots that creators turn out, but the glut of frag vids sometimes leaves this writer winded. But there exists a certain neat-o factor to many of these works.

Further along this spectrum, there are narratives plied to existing mythologies. WoW machinimators jump to mind. These works are a fine example of more responsive art, a new culture (and WoW is a culture) spawns its own art. I am sure this interests academics the most.

Second Life, lacking a narrative, stands apart as well, its aesthetic being its primary culture. But, I think SL bridges the gap between Outside-In and Inside-Out most clearly, perhaps this is because the ‘game’ lacks a mythology, and is closer to a box of lego’s then it is to a collection of action figures.

But, where ever a film may land. It is machinima. Neither deserving greater praise because of where it may fall on someone’s classification spectrum. Neither more valuable. But if the emergence of game culture interests you, I think the co-existence of both type of machinima is interesting. Games may no longer just be about rescuing the princess, they are just another creative space for us to play. 

The oldest piece of music we know of dates back to between 400-1400 BC, that’s 3000 or so years ago. The oldest game, 4000. What is culture?

Jason Choi, over at Riot Films, recently posted a bit of a lament regarding his transition into the gaming industry.

A commute, plus long hours behind the LCD glow, working the game for an upcoming project, equals less time for working his usual mach madness. Say it ain’t so.

I do know, it’s going to be tough for me to sit back down and work on some personal stuff. Machinima is a time sucker, requiring patience fueled by passion. I’ve long found it difficult to work on two projects simultaneously, let alone the four or five we have floating around on the great board at our studios.  Adding to that mix feels insane.

Who knows? It’s a time of great transition, and I’m not about to write Ernest Rent off yet. I’m just hoping for one of those near sublime moments of inspiration to float my way, the right piece of music, a good film (a fifth viewing of China Town almost did it, while Zodiac did not), or someone else’s machinima piece to stoke the fires.

I sure am in the honey moon period with the new job, it still excites me to walk through the lobby or across the campus. I get a kick out of the new email address. All the dorky stuff a more sophisticated traveler might never feel.

The best part of the transition, and plying my uber-niche skills, is working on machinima projects in a much more immediately collaborative environment. Working with a skilled editor not only enhances the look of the end product, but really helps steer some focus and cuts time (along with some fatty shots).  So I have drunk the kool-aid, or as a cynic may put it, sold out. It’s still new, and I’m riding my own enthusiasm.

After a few weekends of apartment hunting, avoiding hills, and shopping at Safeway, I’ve found a new place. I was strolling through the mission district two weeks ago, and for  the first time after landing in this deceptively chilly city I felt at home. It has got some grit, some color, and a few cozy looking dive bars. And best of all a little patio to call my own. It’s the little things right?

I’d never imagined myself as the having a hobby kind of guy.

Hobbies are for the retired.

And then comes machinima.

Unlike my other passion, a prolonged adolescent indulgence into cinema and crappy movies alike. The up until 3am repeat viewings of Train Spotting, the comfort food fare of Spielberg, Lucas, and Ridley Scott, shutting out the world to sample my worn DVDs, all the anti-social habits I’ve culled over the years seemed to metastasize into this little hobby (a commonality, I think, I share with more then one of you).

Momma I want to sing! Or at least make my own movies, a rainy afternoon lark has taken over my life. Burnt Coffee turned one this year, and it has been one of the most rewarding periods of my life. Being active in machinima is sitting at one of today’s nerdiest Algonquin Round Tables, it’s a privilege.

The size of our little community allows our little voices to be heard, whether it be through a debut short, a snarky review, or over a static rich Skype connection. It is in a word, fun; to be lionized, to be celebrated, or to be castigated. And there were months where it all seemed like a fruitless way to exhaust oneself, where I was just firing up my engines for the same six or seven people.

And so one year later, I feel as though I’ve reached a happy ending, with a new beginning. The road that I’ve egotistically staked out in this blog, capturing the minute perks machinima has afforded me. A mention on the overcast, a recommendation from 3dFilmmaker, producing an ad for the game that fed me, being featured on IFC’s Media Lab, crossing the stage at our film festival, the project for the UK’s ITV (see, I’m doing it again) has led me to a new path.

I’m joining others, in what I think of as Machinima’s Class of ‘06, taking on new challenges and finding a home within the Video Game industry. I’m packing up Burnt Coffee’s New York City mega-headquarters and relocating to San Francisco. I’m joining Electronic Arts’ Sims division in a few weeks. I’ll be working with some great folks, whom I assisted with on the trailer for the new Sims 2 expansion pack Seasons.

So, Machinima changed my life (as have many of you).

Well, I’ve been keeping this one under wraps (like all good presents from Santa.)

 The Fixer, Holiday Special!

Merry Christmas.

ITV Westcountry, a wee tv station from the UK, boldly entered into the world of machinima. Boldly, and I bet a bit blindly, for their Special Report: THe Future Game.

The news program uses The Sims to tell the life stories of three brits. It’s a “let’s guess whats gonna happen in 2020 kind of thing”.  Having worked in broadcast news for a number of years, I’ll qualify myself to say, its a unique (if somewhat gimmicky) way to tell one of these stories and keep the talking heads from putting us to sleep.

Simtacular productions has been kind enough to host the program (in two parts) here. 

Working from a script, three of us from the sims mach community were contracted to provide the ingame elements for the program. After reading the script, man was I worried, tons of urban exterirors, special effect elements, and a reliance of chroma work… putting the broadcaster on screen with our little simlings.

I think the program holds up pretty well, is fairly entertaining, and suggests another commercial use for ingame film work.