Propping up some successes

For those of you of are not steeped in the Machinima day-to-day, some recent controversies have stirred the coals within a small section of the community, which is both a bit uncomfortable yet to be expected. Ken Thain's always great 3DFilmmaker.com blog, details out some recent points of contention and gives them a proper overview. Kudos to Ken for doing this. It is unfortunate that communities don't always play nice. But that's opinion for ya - and life wouldn't be exciting without it.

In any case, I chose to focus this post on some of the current successes of Machinima. This isn't to turn away from the aforementioned controversies - more to balance out some of that discussion with some positive events.

So, without further adieu (and in no particular order):

1. Return
The team of Terran Gregory and Ezra Ferguson surprised the Machinima community last year with their late-in-the-running WoW prologue, Return. The film showcased epic storytelling, post production polish and fine voice acting - moving on to win last year's Best Off-the-Shelf Machinima Award. They recently released a trailer for their upcoming "Return: Episode 2" showing off once again the team's superb production values. They also announced last month that they were working with Xfire (now an MTV company) to produce work around this year's E3.

2. Deviation
One of the biggest coups this year has been the inclusion of the Counterstike-based Machinima, Deviation, into a world-respected event, the Tribeca Film Festival. The film directed by Jon Griggs asks a politically charged question in "who's guiding whom?" and resonated strongly with fest jurors. A tip of the hat to Jon for getting his work in such a prestigious event and making his own mark in the Machinima timeline.

3. Red vs. Blue
While RvB might not be everyone's cup of tea, there's no doubt that the Rooster Teeth series has probably put the word "machinima" into the vocabulary of more people than any other series to date. Having recently completed Season 4(!) of Red vs. Blue, Rooster Teeth just announced an RvB mini-series, Out of Sight, being produced exclusively for XBox Live Marketplace. Rooster Teeth continues to push the commercial envelope for Machinima, showing how it can be beneficial to developers, publishers and audience alike. Red vs. Blue was also highlighted recently in Wikipedia's Featured Article of the Day - another feather in the cap of the Austin-based Machinima team (disclosure: this author works with RT on a variety of projects).

4. Bloodspell
Having yielded the reins of Machinima.com to others, Hugh Hancock has pulled his director's cap firmly on and is now focused on his grand vision of Joss Whedon-proportions - Bloodspell - "the largest Machinima production ever created!" While I have issues with hyping the work as such, there's no question that Bloodspell is ambitious and has its strengths in concept and storytelling. It's also released under Creative Commons, which is something I hope more artists/teams embrace. BloodSpell will be delivered in episodic chunks (a very common format these days), but we are promised a feature-length Machinima piece at the very end of its production. BS might not fit to everyone's liking, but there's little doubt that Hugh Hancock and co. are developing an epic - and on their own terms.

5. Tra5h Ta1k live at UCB
The ILL Clan is one of the oldest Machinima teams, and a pioneer in terms of both Machinima production and live performance. They've recently been producing Tra5h Ta1k (Trash Talk for the l33t-speak adverse), a Machinima series that mixes both gaming news and the mishaps of host ILL Will. While the show got off to a rocky start, The ILL Clan has seemed to find its groove, with the past few episodes striking a balance of both pace and punch. The team has also just announced a live performance of Tra5h Ta1k, taking place at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater on June 29th. A showcase for leading improv talent, the mix of UCB and the ILL Clan is another watermark for the medium. (yet one more disclosure: I co-founded the ILL Clan and help them from time-to-time.)

6. Joe Falcione/Reliant Films
Joe's story is one I'm extremely fond of. I had the pleasure of meeting Joe at the 2003 Machinima Film Festival, where his film, The Outcome, had taken the Best Editing Mackie for that year. Joe continued his work, submitting his Battlefield 2 epic, The Objective, at the 2005 Machinima Festival. While the Machinima did not go on to win any awards that year, it did gain significant attention of the judging committee. More importantly, it gained the attention of EA/Dice. As a result, Joe was contracted to produce the trailer for the BF2 Expansion Pack, Armored Fury. Way back in 2002 when we first organized the AMAS and the festival, one of our hopes was that the fest would be a showcase for up-and-coming talent; giving opportunities for the filmmakers to apply their craft not only for personal growth but also for professional. I don't know all the small details behind Joe's tale, but he's become a shining example of how Machinima talent will find its audience and opportunities. (Nope, no disclosure here.)

7. Ken Thain
Ken is definitively one of the "old hands" at Machinima, with his Q2-based piece, Rebel vs. Thug, being the first Machinima music video tied to a mainstream artist (Fine Arts Militia, of which Chuck D was the producer). Ken has continued to produced excellent work, particularly the UT2004-based sci-fi drama, The Everseason. Last year, Ken was snapped up by lead game developer Bioware to help produce cinematics (aka Machinima) for the new UE3-based title, Mass Effect. Ken's story is one more Machinima artist finding a place (and a paid one at that) to continue doing what they love to do.

There are more signs of Machinima's maturation and wide acceptance - Boing Boing's posting of An Unfair War by Thuyen Nguyen, the inclusion of Machinima at several festivals throughout the world, etc. The point is we're seeing more and more of these events and the momentum seems to be gaining speed. I have no doubt that there will be a part 2 to this posting in the near future (keep your eye on folks like Friedrich Kirschner, Jonathan Perry and Nathan Moller).

Back-patting aside, it's very important to note not only our differences of opinions but also how far we've come. What was once a way to record deathmatch, is now a platform for creative expression, live performance and commercial opportunity. How about them apples?!