Thursday, 25 March 2010
Sunday, 21 March 2010
MACHINIMA at Phoenix Square, Leicester on Thurs 18 March 2010
Presenters:
Dr Tracy Harwood Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Creative Technologies (real life) – Twitter @tgharwood | Email tharwood@dmu.ac.uk
Ms Chantal Harvey (aka Mamachinima) Independent Film Producer, Amsterdam, NL (live from Second Life) – Twitter @mamachinima | Web www.mamachinima.eu
The evening showcased a range of films that sought to explain and expand upon the traditional definition of Machinima as the ‘creation of original films using 3D computer games engines’, combining artistic skills of storytelling, scenes and scripts with deep knowledge of computer games engines. Harwood explained an evolution that expands in-game modding to mashups and anymation (illustrating with Blackshark’s The 1K Project 2, Lagspike Films’ World of Workcraft and Tom Jantol’s Cirque du Machinima: Cuckoo Clock).
Whilst some Machinima is recognizable as fan fiction and even in-game ‘promotionals’ aimed at other gamers within the same engine, the Machinimas presented also highlighted how it is used as a video response to targeted third parties and for artistic expression (illustrated with Oxhorn’s Behind the Scenes, Pengin’s Jabberwocky and Lainy Voom’s Push).
Sources of inspiration considered the role of mashups, user-generated content and impact of legal constraints upon creative works. Dissemination was also highlighted as a particular focused strategy for some Machinimators (films illustrating these points were Phaylen Fairchild’s DiVAS and Tom Jantol’s The REMAKE – a world premiere for the big screen in Leicester).
Finally, tools and techniques were discussed with emphasis on how Machinimators may take greater control over their creative vision by using tools such as Moviestorm and iClone (IceAxe Productions’ Clockwork illustrated the medium). Chantal Harvey (aka MaMachinima), talking live from her film studio in Second Life, discussed her creative use of Second Life and presented a director’s view of a selection of her films shot on various locations: I Don’t Like the Dark (Liverpool), A Woman’s Trial (Paris) and Joy of Music.
It was especially good to see a number of machinimators in the audience, including Iain Fryer (aka IceAxe Productions) and Roger Strange-Burlong, the presenter of TMUnderground’s Friday Night Rock [Machinima] Show, both whom had traveled for more than 3 hours to get over to Leicester.
More about the films showcased
The 1K Project 2 by Blackshark -
Trackmania
An early machinima made using the in-game shadow tool. Blackshark was a French machinimator who has long since moved on to different things and is no longer part of the community. This piece has, however, been the inspiration for many other films using a similar approach. The film is a visual extravaganza of cars that appear to flow like a waterfall over the race track and uses Moby’s Flower to maintain the tempo.
World of Workcraft by Lagspike Films
World of Warcraft
A collaboration by some well-known WOW film makers, including Oxhorn. The film brings the guild warfare concept to the office with some clever in-jokes for both World of Warcraft and office life in general – how can we achieve 30% more boss satisfaction… lets nerf accountants!
“The writing was done by myself and a long time friend who had played a lot of WoW and knew the game well. The idea started with my observation of the WoW player base. I found watching people play to be more entertaining than the game itself. Many of them had a very strict routine for how they would spend their time. They would log on at a set time, proceed to do a number of tasks, and then repeat everything the following day. The parallels to real employment seemed to grow as people spent more and more of their time on the game. From there I made a big list of office stereotypes and WoW stereotypes and ways to combine them. The best ideas were formed into a short script showing a group of characters going about their typical day. From start to finish it took right around two weeks to make.” Stephen Mullane, Director.
2008 Machinima FIlmfest best writing and best short film
Cirque du Machinima: Cuckoo Clock by Tom Jantol
Motionbuilder
Dr Tracy Harwood Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Creative Technologies (real life) – Twitter @tgharwood | Email tharwood@dmu.ac.uk
Ms Chantal Harvey (aka Mamachinima) Independent Film Producer, Amsterdam, NL (live from Second Life) – Twitter @mamachinima | Web www.mamachinima.eu
The evening showcased a range of films that sought to explain and expand upon the traditional definition of Machinima as the ‘creation of original films using 3D computer games engines’, combining artistic skills of storytelling, scenes and scripts with deep knowledge of computer games engines. Harwood explained an evolution that expands in-game modding to mashups and anymation (illustrating with Blackshark’s The 1K Project 2, Lagspike Films’ World of Workcraft and Tom Jantol’s Cirque du Machinima: Cuckoo Clock).
Whilst some Machinima is recognizable as fan fiction and even in-game ‘promotionals’ aimed at other gamers within the same engine, the Machinimas presented also highlighted how it is used as a video response to targeted third parties and for artistic expression (illustrated with Oxhorn’s Behind the Scenes, Pengin’s Jabberwocky and Lainy Voom’s Push).
Sources of inspiration considered the role of mashups, user-generated content and impact of legal constraints upon creative works. Dissemination was also highlighted as a particular focused strategy for some Machinimators (films illustrating these points were Phaylen Fairchild’s DiVAS and Tom Jantol’s The REMAKE – a world premiere for the big screen in Leicester).
Finally, tools and techniques were discussed with emphasis on how Machinimators may take greater control over their creative vision by using tools such as Moviestorm and iClone (IceAxe Productions’ Clockwork illustrated the medium). Chantal Harvey (aka MaMachinima), talking live from her film studio in Second Life, discussed her creative use of Second Life and presented a director’s view of a selection of her films shot on various locations: I Don’t Like the Dark (Liverpool), A Woman’s Trial (Paris) and Joy of Music.
It was especially good to see a number of machinimators in the audience, including Iain Fryer (aka IceAxe Productions) and Roger Strange-Burlong, the presenter of TMUnderground’s Friday Night Rock [Machinima] Show, both whom had traveled for more than 3 hours to get over to Leicester.
More about the films showcased
The 1K Project 2 by Blackshark -
Trackmania
The 1K Project II from BlackShark on Vimeo.
An early machinima made using the in-game shadow tool. Blackshark was a French machinimator who has long since moved on to different things and is no longer part of the community. This piece has, however, been the inspiration for many other films using a similar approach. The film is a visual extravaganza of cars that appear to flow like a waterfall over the race track and uses Moby’s Flower to maintain the tempo.
World of Workcraft by Lagspike Films
World of Warcraft
Learn more at the WoW Wiki
A collaboration by some well-known WOW film makers, including Oxhorn. The film brings the guild warfare concept to the office with some clever in-jokes for both World of Warcraft and office life in general – how can we achieve 30% more boss satisfaction… lets nerf accountants!
“The writing was done by myself and a long time friend who had played a lot of WoW and knew the game well. The idea started with my observation of the WoW player base. I found watching people play to be more entertaining than the game itself. Many of them had a very strict routine for how they would spend their time. They would log on at a set time, proceed to do a number of tasks, and then repeat everything the following day. The parallels to real employment seemed to grow as people spent more and more of their time on the game. From there I made a big list of office stereotypes and WoW stereotypes and ways to combine them. The best ideas were formed into a short script showing a group of characters going about their typical day. From start to finish it took right around two weeks to make.” Stephen Mullane, Director.
2008 Machinima FIlmfest best writing and best short film
Cirque du Machinima: Cuckoo Clock by Tom Jantol
Motionbuilder
Monday, 15 March 2010
Amplified Leicester - Project Presentation 15 Apr
Amplified Leicester is a city-wide experiment, supported by the IOCT and others and funded by NESTA. The project is designed to grow the innovation capacity of Leicester by networking key connectors across the city’s disparate and diverse communities in an incentivised participatory project enabled by social media. Objectives have been to:
- Develop a transferable model for amplifying a diverse city’s grassroots innovation capacity through connecting diverse communities through key individuals
- Provide practical examples of how collaborative technologies can be exploited in a city context
“A group that thinks in diverse ways will address a problem from many angles.” Charles Leadbeater, The Difference Dividend
In 2009/10 Amplified Leicester offered a small group of participants from across the city the chance to:
• Benefit from Leicester's huge diversity of people and cultures
• Generate new ideas quickly
• Think like a futurist and see the bigger picture
• Organise and collaborate better
• Be persuasive in different social situations
• Share and develop creative ideas
• Manage the stream of information which bombards us every day
• Choose the best people to collaborate with
• Make the most of different kinds of resources – social, economic, creative
Every fortnight participants attended inspiring lectures and workshops and in between meetings worked together via Twitter, Facebook and other social media applications. They filmed interviews in their communities and shared the videos online.
On Thursday 15 April 2010 Amplified Leicester will showcase their work and expand the conversation to include the city and beyond. This one day event at the new Phoenix Square Digital Media Centre will include practical workshops run by the participants themselves, presentations of their experimental projects, and talks by the project team.
Keynote speaker, Andrea Saveri, an independent foresight and strategy consultant based in Berkeley, California, who will locate the Amplified Leicester experience within a global context.
Find out more at www.amplifiedleicester.com
Admission is free of charge. Register early to avoid disappointment.
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