Machinima from the inside out...

This past couple of days, I had the pleasure of attending New York Law School's State of Play III, which held to its usual standards of great panels, intriguing presentations and, of course, social connectivity (though I missed the pub crawl that came to a crashing halt in a Karaoke bar -then again, maybe its better that I missed it).

I also had the honor of, once again, presenting a Machinima Fest teaser to attendees of SoP, which manifested itself in the shape of a 20+ minute reel, highlighting Machinima films from the past year. I'm not sure if it was the new-found respect for Machinima over the past year, the quality of the films, or the way I edited together the reel, but the audience response was much more positive this year than it had been in the previous two years that I presented. My sense is that it was probably a combination of the three factors - leaning heavily on the film-quality quotient.

During my visit, I was able to speak with the folks from Linden Lab - the company behind Second Life. One obvious item of discussion was using SL for Machinima purposes. I've always felt Second Life has a lot of potential for Machinima creators. There's lots of room for customization (characters, animations, etc.), in-engine scripting and, probably its largest asset, the end user retains IP rights to his/her Machinima. Its not without its problems however. Second Life is first and foremost, a virtual community platform. T0 this, server load and data collection/distribution are the experiential priorities. So whereas, your Sims 2 Machinima creator is expecting 60 fps out of their brand spanking-new NVIDIA 6800 Ultra, you might be able to obtain the same fps in SL - but it depends on a number of variables: the amount of data the server is currently chewing on, your connection, your hardware, etc. Thus to say, a creator is bound to experience shifts in FPS during their SL production - not exactly the smooth constant a director expects when crafting a film. And while MMOs are subjected to similar variables, SL allows for the uploading of user-created content - which can impact the speed of which SL can render out the space at a consistent level.

Still, some are creating some really cool Machinima in Second Life, which will warrant some to consider it as a future platform for their productions. As part of my SoP reel, I ended the reel with one of the finer pieces of Machinima made in SL, a documentary titled Ideal World. Produced and directed by Glenn Thomas and Brad Henderson, the doc focuses on the users of Second Life and how it plays an important role in their lives. One element that elevates Ideal World is that there's a real filmmaking sensibility about the work - which I feel is in part, due to the SL world being as much a subject matter as the people in the film. Beyond Ideal World, there are others SL-based Machinima works - some of which, were covered earlier this year on Machinima.com - here and here - articles created by Hugh Hancock and SL reporter Wagner James Au, who writes for the New World Notes blog. Speaking with Linden Lab (specifically with Philip Rosedale and David Fleck), they see the potential of using SL for Machinima development, and are keen to offer stronger support for Machinima creators.

Still, Machinima creation in SL remains largely untapped, save these few teams who see potential. "Why is this?" I was asked. I believe the majority of first-time Machinima productions are made as a comment on a particular game. Someone plays WoW to all hours, building a character and developing relationships with others in the game, as well as with the game as a whole. At some point, the player might express themselves by creating a Machinima film based on this context - thus, a Machinima made from "inside-out." The game seeds the thoughts, which spurs the gamer to move from viewer to producer. This can also be seen in the films themselves - films made with their own audience in mind, including in-jokes or references to those in-the-know of the game. This would also stand to reason why new Machinima filmmakers tend to remain inside their own community.

Second Life, on the other hand, is largely content-popluated by its own community. And while there are particular quirks and idiosyncrasies to Second Life, the environment is largely germinated by ideas from our real-life world. And thus, the experiences within SL are user- created, and not broad-stroked like in a typical game (WoW=fantasy-setting, Halo=Marines on a mission, etc.) To this, Second Life would appeal to those Machinima creators that are intent on creating Machinima with a personal vision - not those who are intent on exploiting an existing context (unless you're making the aforementioned documentary). With this example, SL Machinima could be considered Machinima "from the outside in."

Linden Lab has hinted at upcoming changes to their software, some of which may make Machinima production much more alluring to the non-game-specific Machinima filmmaker. I hope to share the whitepaper authored by Nathan Moller with the folks at Linden Lab so they can get a sense of what Machinima filmmakers are hoping for in next-gen Machinima software.