Machinima...

Our topic for this week (or was it last week?) is machinima. The term "machinima" combines "machine" and "cinema" to refer to moving image works made with game engines, such as the Quake or Halo engines. You can find out more in the Wikipedia entry or the machinima.org FAQ.


We'll view these examples:
- Episode 1 of Red Vs. Blue, nicely described here.
- The French Democracy (and here's a nice essay on the project by Josh Lee)
- This Spartan Life, nicely described here. We'll view the interview with McKenzie Wark, since we're also reading excerpts from GAM3R 7H3ORY, but the interviews with Bob Stein from the Institute for the Future of the Book, as well as experimental filmmaker Peggy Awhesh are highly recommended.
- CBS' machinima Super Bowl commercial

Things to consider:
- Why create a critical project in machinima? What's gained and/or lost in that choice?
- Would The French Democracy be stronger in another form, for example?
- What about the interviews on This Spartan Life?
- French theorist Michel de Certeau, in his book The Practice of Everyday Life, talks about tactics, by which he means in part our ability to remake the commodities around us to suit our own ends. We've also talked in class about moving from being consumers of media to producers of media. Where does machinima fit into this discussion?