In its hundred year history, the film industry has been dominated by large Hollywood studios willing to spend mega bucks in pursuit of box office success. But now, at the dawn of a new century, film making is being reborn at the hands of some exceptionally creative individuals who use nothing more than a PC, online gaming platforms and their limitless imagination to create some of the most thought provoking films ever made. This is the golden age of a new film industry known as ‘machinima’.
Machinima is a relatively new cinematic art form, classified as the art of using a game engine to create film. It was conceived in the late 1990s, when ingenious players of the earliest online games discovered that they could capture moving images from in game and by adding sounds, dialogue and simple edits, create a high impact movie without even leaving their homes. Now ten years on, ‘Second Life’ is a creative melting pot of some of the finest machinima makers on the planet. In celebration of their pioneering spirit, this year sees the second ever ‘MaMachinima International Festival’ take place in both RL and SL locations.
Initiated by Dutch machinima artist Chantal Harvey, this festival is bringing together over 40 machinimatographers, showcasing 50 original works of film and will allow real life audiences attending the event in Amsterdam to interact with the Second Life participants. Set over four sims kindly sponsored by Linden Lab and with futuristic domes adapted by ‘Pop Art Lab’ acting as immersive movie screens, this seven hour extravaganza of virtual film making will enable the machinima community to promote the very best work from this genre to new audiences unfamiliar with machinimas allure.
So why is this art form, which is still in its infancy, so deserving of such a large and globally recognized event? Chantal Harvey explains “I wanted to create a platform in which machinimatographers could showcase their best work, and share it with the world. I consider it the new media for filming. I come from a RL television background, and discovered machinima in 2007, and haven’t stopped since. I try to improve, grow, and never stick to one genre. I want to show machinima to the world-and the possibilities of it! In RL Amsterdam, people will be able to watch the in world event on a huge screen, and several large monitors are set up to show different angles. They can interact with the SL venue, using stream and webcams-which means that we in SL can see the RL venue too!”
As with standard film festivals, the MMIF will be highlighting work from different categories such as humor, high octane action films, romance and music. There will also be some innovative pieces on show, including a film specifically produced for this festival using 3d technology by Pyewacket Kazyanenko who says “I’ve made a 3d SL movie whereby a real life audience wears red and blue glasses. It’s never been done with SL machinima I’m sure! The work is a short dance video which plays on many aspects of machinima creation- the lone avatar , joyful in creation, the tacky effects, the quick cuts and the celebration of the new 3d phenomenon in a retro-3d way. It’s about the amateur film maker, ready to explore new territory but not altogether pulling it off professionally.”
It’s this sense of fun that seems to define machinima and unite its creators. The majority of machinimatographers also excel in other artistic disciplines and view machinima as another tool for creative self expression, as leading film maker, Colemarie Soleil, who has over 180 pieces of critically acclaimed machinima films to her name vividly describes. “Expressing myself is just what I do” she says “As a person, that is how I am. It doesn’t matter what medium I use; music, particles, painting, sketching, sculpting, Second Life building and design. But the reason machinima became so important to me in the end though, is because of that form of media’s ability to reach further outside of Second Life. To me, it’s a way of holding onto what I view as an extremely transient art form and to share it with people who might not have gotten to experience it. It becomes easier for me to visually show how I view SL too. My own little window to the metaverse I guess”
It’s opening up this window onto the film making of Second Life that the MMIF event hopes to achieve; proving that films created within virtual worlds are just as valid and culturally significant an art form as traditional cinema. And if you think this genre of film making is only taken seriously by hard core gamers-think again. Already, famous Hollywood directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, use machinima in the pre production process of their movies and like any underground artistic movement, Machinima is on course to become the next mainstream success.
Bryn Oh, a revolutionary machinima maker and one of the most prolific virtual artists of our generation, has contributed a video of her real life book the ‘Rabbicorn’ story to this year’s event. She predicts that the machinima producers of today are helping to direct the very future of the film industry itself. “Chantal Harvey has put together an event which will showcase some of the ways people are using the medium of Second Life” she reflects “ It may convince some people outside SL that this medium has a multitude of applications beyond business and leisure- it’s a new frontier in creative expression. I truly believe that we are part of a new movement in art that has not yet been recognized, much of the machinima we are creating may be used, at some point, to explain this virtual art movement in the art history books of the future.”
The MaMachinima International Festival takes place on Saturday 20th February from 11am-6pm SLT.
For more information visit: http://mmif.org/
SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/MMIF4/22/234/29
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The Die is cast, the players are all in line … November 14th is shaping up to be an event you definitely will NOT want to miss!!
