Machinima: Red vs. Blue
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
For my project, I will be researching and investigating the uprising, history, and evolution of machinima as a form of film, entertainment, and advertisement. I will also be researching the different techniques and methods that are part of the “machinimation” process. For those who are unfamiliar with the term: Machinima refers to the fairly new method of filmmaking that is created by taking and editing real-time recordings of video and computer games and virtual worlds. The term machinima is also used to refer to the films themselves and is derived from the terms, machine and cinema. Originally, machinima were simple recordings of game play that were captured by gamers to document achievements, stunts, or just really cool footage. Today, machinima have become elaborate, full-length movies or series that are watched, mostly through the Internet, by millions of viewers all over the world.
One specific machinima that I will be examining as a primary source is Red vs. Blue, a machinima series based on the game Halo. RvB, as it is commonly known, is a series with seven seasons and is still growing to date. The creators of the series, or the series’ “machinimators,” make use of Halo’s multiplayer death match feature and what is known as digital puppetry, the manipulation of characters and cameras, to obtain the footage that they need. Once they obtain this footage, they edited it and add dialogue to it to produce episodes that usually range from three to five minutes long. The storylines and dialogue of episodes could be described as crude, blunt, and witty. The series itself has actually been compared to animated series such as South Park or The Simpsons. As with many other machinima, the producers of RvB started off by just recording stunts and normal game play and eventually decided to make films with more substance. Although the concept of making machinima seems quite simple, the final product of RvB is quite complex. Using only the first-person view of a character in the game, the producers were able to construct and achieve amazing cinematic effects with very high quality footage. In my opinion, the plot, dialogue, and cinematography in Red vs. Blue actually surpasses those of many live action films that I have seen.
Comments
I would make the thesis/topic of the blog more focused and refined. As it stands, just comparing different methods of portraying machinima is a very broad topic. I feel that if you gave a twist to this thesis and added nuance to the argument, you would have a lot more to say and could direct the paper better. A comparison of techniques is good, but associate it with a bigger message/purpose.
If Red vs. Blue is the source you are focusing on in this blog entry, could you describe the actual movie plot and logistics of the movie a little more?
The series itself has actually been compared to animated series such as South Park or The Simpsons.
This sentence is a good way to introduce new sources. I might also look into the Final Fantasy movie, which was a full-length machinima movie released in theatres. You might compare how/why this was released in theatres as opposed to other machinima. You could mention how this illustrates how widespread machinima has become and how it has become a part of our generation.
Some things I thought you could focus on are:
Are there different budgets available to the different machinima movies I am analyzing?
What audience are the different machinima movies/shows geared to?
A few things to note:
Avoid switching tense:
Once they obtain this footage, they edited it and add dialogue to it to produce episodes that usually range from three to five minutes long.
Posted by: Bryant Cabrera | April 30, 2009 10:46 AM
Academic Search Premiere has lots of good articles on different aspects of machinima. Try searching there and browsing the results to focus your topic.
Posted by: Chris Bourg | April 30, 2009 05:55 PM
Machinima is a really cool topic aand is also one that I considered. If you really want a good source of information I recommend talking to Henry Lowood. He was my Ihum teacher and he really knows a lot about the subject. Your topic is a little broad, so just like Bryant said, you should narrow it down. Maybe consider machinima as an emerging way of gaming? Red vs. Blue is probably the best machinima to focus on because it has alot of content to work with. I like your essay and good luck.
Posted by: Julio Alvarado | May 1, 2009 12:36 PM
Some machinima is really funny and have a very high production value. You can see thousands on YouTube or machinma dot com.
Posted by: Cooking games | September 4, 2009 05:10 PM
This is the first time I'm hearing about Machinima and I must said I really enjoyed the writing. Machinima seems to be a really involving topic. What I have understood is that it must be having a lot of economic and entertainment value too. Interested in reading more about Machinima.
Posted by: Make money on the Internet | November 10, 2009 06:57 PM