Making more out of Machinima

You know you're slipping into the stream when the work you've championed starts to become the foundation of others.

Case in point, a couple online literary works have surfaced over the past year, that use Machinima as a springboard to our less-Hollywood, more-HollyCPU future. These two works are "Moving Pictures", by Mike Hoefflinger of Packet Switched Press and "Give the Dog A Bone" by Patrick Kolan of JumpButton Magazine. Both pieces use Machinima as the reality of filmmaking to come. To me, its just very cool, if not a bit surreal. Kolan's piece is of article length, and tells the story of a digital actor auditioning for his next Machinima role. Hoefflinger's work is more ambitious, a Creative Commons-licensed piece that falls into the novella category with 77 pages (PDF also available) - the tale of a small Machinima team aspiring to knock the cinema industry on its collective arse (not entirely fictional if you speak to some current artists). Both works are extremely entertaining, and highly recommend them if you have the time to indulge.

In addition to fictional prose, comes something more akin to Machinima itself - Gamics. Gamics are online comics made using games for the visual assist (old timers to the Quake scene will remember one of the very first, Dank and Scud). One of my faves is the always well-done (and consistently funny) Half-Life 2-based Concerned: The Half-Life and Death of Gordon Frohman by Chris Livingston. Concerned follows the Half-Life 2 storyline, but rather than focused on the main Gordon Freeman character of the game, Chris follows the day-to-day of a less extraordinary person, Gordon Frohman. Frohman is following in the footsteps of Freeman, but he's not out to eliminate the Combine and Dr. Breen, only to get by and make friends. Obviously, being familiar with the HL2 story line is pretty important (which is available on the site for those who aren't).

Another great HL2-based gamic is Apostasy, a quality gamic with a bit more of a serious bend (actually, Apostasy kickstarted the HL2 gamic scene I believe). Apostasy can be found on PHWOnline.com, who supplies shelter for quite a few Half-Life 2-based gamics and Machinima. For a more diverse set of gamics, visit Gamics.com, as nearly every popular game has a gamic.

Machinima has proven itself as a way to be creatively expressive. It's great to see that its now finding pop culture value, even if these associated artists never touch a game engine themselves.