Machinima on high (elevation: 7500 ft)

I'm currently sitting in Einstein's Bagels here in Park City, sipping a cup of coffee and taking a moment to savor some downtime. Having just completed Sundance's "What is Machinima?" panel, I have to say that it was an unequivocal success. We had an extremely well-rounded panel - yours truly as the evangelist, Matt Ross of Fountainhead Entertainment speaking from the production/software development end (whereas FE's Machinima work feels closer to animation production), Jim Banister of Spectrum MediaWorks showing how Machinima fits into new media and new business strategies (really intriguing stuff), and Burnie Burns and the RvB team showing off their production work and how it all comes together (and how close their work is to live-action filmmaking). The panel filled the house with nary an available seat.

Before I move into personal thoughts, a large and loud "THANKS!" go to Jim Banister for getting this panel together. It was only until I landed in Park City did I realize how much hard work Jim did in getting the panel together. Simply said, if it weren't for Jim's constant pitching of the panel, it would have never taken place. Some extra, supersized thanks also to the RvB team for dancing around in Halo costumes the evening before to promote the panel. And of course, a huge set of thanks goes to John Nein, Joseph Beyer, Lisa Kettle and the hard-working folks of the Sundance Film Festival and SOFF - thanks for getting our little community into the world stage spotlight.

The panel kicked off with my showing some Machinima clips (the Zero 7 "In the Waiting Line" music vid, RvB Ep. 01, Game On, No Licence, and a clip from the faceposer music vid I'm wrapping up in HL2). From there, I intro'ed with the definition of Machinima and that started the conversation forward. Jim then presented how the landscape of new media is moving forward and where Machinima fits into that landscape. I hope (and will request) that he puts his presentation online - it was definitely one of the highlights of the panel. From there we moved the conversation over to Matt Ross, who showed FE's portfolio Machinima piece, Anna, and then showed a bit of Machinimation. He also confirmed an upcoming version of Machinimation made for DOOM 3, which definitely got this author's creative appetite moving. And finally, the shining moment of the panel was the RvB presentation, showing off a new and as usual extremely funny clip the team produced for Sundance (produced while they were here at Sundance!), and then went the extra step to demonstrate how they produce their series by producing the very last shot of the Sundance clip in front of the panel audience - very cool stuff. From there, we went into the panel's Q&A session, where the panel fielded a number of questions regarding Machinima as a whole as well some specific productions questions.

Again, I want to thank all the panelists for taking time out of their busy schedules for particpating in the event. Needless to say this is a huge milestone in the Machinima timeline, and it was an honor to be a part of it.

Updates for the HL2 Machinima world...

On the HL2 Machinima front, as I mentioned I presented some work I've been doing in HL2. While the clip wasnt exactly what I had hoped to present, I believe it was enough to give this live-action filmmaking audience insight to HL2's capabilities and a taste of the Machinima road ahead. Unfortunately, I was trying to produce some clips while traveling to Sundance and soon realized that some of the flex sliders in FacePoser have been broken in the lasted SDK update. specifically, the head_updown, head_forwardback and head_tilt sliders. While these are the only ones affected, the production work is on hold for the time being until they can be addressed (I've since written to Valve to make them aware of the issue). To that, I hope to complete my HL2 demo recording tutorials shortly and post them immediately afterwards.

On a personal note...
While I don't usually use a public platform to air personal items, one has shown up that I feel the need to write about.

My father passed away unexpectedly just prior to the Sundance panel discussion. I first thought to cancel in being part of the Machinima discussion, but I know my dad would have wanted me to continue. I'm sure it affected my presence at the panel (my focus definitely wasn't where it usually is), but it would have been a letdown to not have been part of this momentous event. Given how long we've all been promoting Machinima (seven years and counting) and how much we're all being paid (not enough to even file taxes) its these items that act as the compensation for the work. All this said, I'm really sad and am still grieving - its hard being in a place like Sundance where there's a large festive and exciting atmosphere - and you don't feel like celebrating much. I miss my dad a whole lot and still can't believe he is gone. He lived a pretty hard life but was finally in a happier place in his life right at the point of his passing. He gave me quite a few gifts that make me who I am - compassion, kindness, and a good dose of humor, even in times like this. To all of that, I'm extremely and eternally grateful.. I love you, Dad and I will always be thinking of you.

Francis Angelo Marino
May 28, 1936 - January 21, 2005
Survived by his sons, Michael Marino and Paul Marino, and sister, Rose Mary Tretola. Beloved by all - you will never be forgotten.

On our way to Park City

Well, Happy New Year, everyone. It's been nearly a month since my last posting. Haven't posted as nearly often as I had hoped - oh well - I'll do like most - chalk it up to the holidays and intermittent blackouts caused by a little too much merriment.

While I may have awoken in dark alley or two more than usual, there's been one or more cool things in play behind the scenes.

The first and most exciting part of the aforementioned stuff takes place later this month. During the last week of January, I will be visiting beautiful Park City, Utah attending the indy film fest extravaganza known as Sundance. There, I will be moderating the fest's first-ever discussion panel about Machinima. Yep, its true. Honestly. Yes. I swear it has nothing to do with a Christmas dare to maintain a BAC of .491 for 24 hours (well, maybe a bit).

Martini drinking aside (aside drinking being the only way a serious Martini man lives), this is going to be a great panel discussion. We're still in process of confirming the panelists, but I can say that along with me will be Machinima producer par-excellence Burnie Burns and the Rooster Teeth guys - who will be talking Machinima shop and showing off how they produce that wee-little side project of theirs, Red vs. Blue.

The panel will be introducing Machinima to the festival audience, showing off the different production methods as well as the panelists thoughts around Machinima and its future. As the moderator, I may throw in a few curve balls (yeah, like maybe some Quake Movie trivia) - just to keep the panelists on their feet and provide an infusion of screwball comedy at Sundance.

There's a bit more information on the Sundance site (sorry for the indirect link - you'll need feel around in the dark for the actual info). Overall, it should be a great panel and I'm really excited to be part of it. I would definitely recommend stopping by, particularly if you happen to be skiing through.

In other news, I've been toiling away with Half-Life 2 on and off for the past month. It definitely has loads of Machinima potential - particularly with FacePoser in the SDK. I've started a short Machinima project using HL2's various demo recording features and FacePoser - which I will show a bit at the Sundance panel - and post shortly thereafter.

Additionally, I've been playing with a HL2 mod called oddly enough, Garry's Mod, over the last couple of days. The mod allows the user to play with objects and physics of HL2. Essentially you can open up HL2 to any map, spawn a number of different items - furniture, tires, ropes, ragdoll versions of the game's characters, etc.. Once spawned you can use a special version of the grav gun known as the "Manipulator" to move the objects into a desired position. This allows you to pose the HL2 characters in interesting tableaus. For instance, one person took to recreating famous images using the mod - images like the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, Marines raising the flag over Iwo Jima and so on. Believe it or not, some even went as far as putting the characters into suggestive and lewd positions (which gave birth to another mod, i believe). You can also use Garry's mod to construct weird HL2 items, as some of the weapons give you the unique ability of attaching objects to other objects. Thus, you can attach wheels to the garbage dumpster and !Voila! -- instant vehicle. Of course, my textual depiction of "cool" doesn't do this justice so mosey over to the Garry Mod's site to get started. I'm not sure if I'm going to use it yet in my work, but it definitely has potential.

Looks like its time to figure out the title of this post and then off to bed to dream about sleep. I'll post more once my synapses find each other again.