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Machinima (/məˈʃiːnɪmə,-ˈʃɪn-/ ⓘ) is ananimation technique usingreal-timescreen capturing incomputer graphics engines,video games and virtual worlds to create a cinematic production. The word "Machinima" is aportmanteau of the wordsmachine andcinema. According toGuinness World Records, machinima is an art of making animated narrative films from computer graphics, most commonly used by video games.[1]
Machinima-based artists, sometimes calledMachinimists orMachinimators, are oftenfan laborers, by virtue of their re-use of copyrighted materials (see below). Machinima offers to provide an archive of gaming performance and access to the look and feel of software and hardware that may already have become obsolete or even unavailable. Forgame studies, "Machinima's gestures grant access to gaming's historical conditions of possibility and how machinima offers links to a comparative horizon that informs, changes, and fully participates in videogame culture."[2][3]
The practice of using graphics engines fromvideo games arose from the animated software introductions of the 1980sdemoscene,Disney Interactive Studios'1992 video gameStunt Island, and 1990s recordings of gameplay infirst-person shooter (FPS) video games, such asid Software'sDoom andQuake. Originally, these recordings documentedspeed runs—attempts to complete a level as quickly as possible—andmultiplayer matches. The addition of storylines to these films created "Quake movies". The more general termmachinima, ablend ofmachine andcinema, arose when the concept spread beyond theQuake series to other games and software. After this generalization, machinima appeared in mainstream media, including television series and advertisements.
Machinima has advantages and disadvantages when compared to other styles offilmmaking. Its relative simplicity overtraditional frame-based animation limits control and range of expression. Its real-time nature favors speed, cost saving, and flexibility over the higher quality ofpre-rendered computer animation. Virtual acting is less expensive, dangerous, and physically restricted thanlive action. Machinima can be filmed by relying on in-gameartificial intelligence (AI) or by controlling characters and cameras throughdigital puppetry. Scenes can be precisely scripted, and can be manipulated duringpost-production usingvideo editing techniques. Editing, custom software, and creativecinematography may address technical limitations. Game companies have provided software for and have encouraged machinima, but the widespread use ofdigital assets from copyrighted games has resulted in complex, unresolved legal issues.
Machinima productions can remain close to their gaming roots and feature stunts or other portrayals of gameplay. Popular genres include dance videos, comedy, and drama. Alternatively, some filmmakers attempt to stretch the boundaries of the rendering engines or to mask the original 3-D context. TheAcademy of Machinima Arts & Sciences (AMAS), anon-profit organization dedicated to promoting machinima, recognizes exemplary productions through Mackie awards given at its annual Machinima Film Festival. Some general film festivals accept machinima, and game companies, such asEpic Games,Valve,Blizzard Entertainment andJagex, have sponsored contests involving it.
1980ssoftware crackers added custom introductory credits sequences (intros) to programs whose copy protection they had removed.[4][5] Increasing computing power allowed for more complex intros, and thedemoscene formed when focus shifted to the intros instead of the cracks.[4] The goal became to create the best 3-D demos in real-time with the least amount of software code.[6][4] Disk storage was too slow for this, so graphics had to be calculated on the fly and without a pre-existinggame engine.[6][4]
InDisney Interactive Studios'1992 computer gameStunt Island, users could stage, record, and play back stunts. As Nitsche stated, the game's goal was "not ... a high score but a spectacle."[6] Released the following year,id Software'sDoom included the ability to record gameplay as sequences of events that the game engine could later replay in real-time.[7] Because events and not video frames were saved, the resulting game demo files were small and easily shared among players.[7] A culture of recording gameplay developed, as Henry Lowood ofStanford University said, "a context for spectatorship.... The result was nothing less than a metamorphosis of the player into a performer."[8] Another important feature ofDoom was that it allowed players to create their ownmodifications,maps, and software for the game, thus expanding the concept of game authorship.[9] In machinima, there is a dual register of gestures: the trained motions of the player determine the in-game images of expressive motion.[10]
In parallel of the video game approach, in the media art field,Maurice Benayoun's Virtual Reality artworkThe Tunnel under the Atlantic (1995), often compared to video games, introduced a virtual film director, fully autonomous intelligent agent, to shoot and edit in real time a full video from the digging performance in the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary art in Montreal. The full movie,Inside the Tunnel under the Atlantic,[11] 21h long, was followed in 1997 byInside the Paris New-Delhi Tunnel (13h long). Only short excerpts were presented to the public. The complex behavior of the Tunnel's virtual director makes it a significant precursor of later application to video games based machinimas.[12]
Doom's 1996 successor,Quake, offered new opportunities for both gameplay and customization,[13] while retaining the ability to record demos.[14]Multiplayer video games became popular, and demos of matches between teams of players (clans) were recorded and studied.[15]Paul Marino, executive director of the AMAS, stated thatdeathmatches, a type of multiplayer game, became more "cinematic".[14] At this point, however, they still documented gameplay without a narrative.[16]
On October 26, 1996, a well-known gaming clan, theRangers, surprised theQuake community withDiary of a Camper, the first widely known machinima film.[17] This short, 100-second demo file contained the action and gore of many others, but in the context of a brief story,[17] rather than the usual deathmatch.[15] An example of transformative oremergent gameplay, this shift from competition to theater required both expertise in and subversion of the game's mechanics.[18] The Ranger demo emphasized this transformation by retaining specific gameplay references in its story.[19]
Diary of a Camper inspired many other "Quake movies," as these films were then called.[15] A community of game modifiers (modders), artists, expert players, and film fans began to form around them.[6] The works were distributed and reviewed on websites such as The Cineplex, Psyk's Popcorn Jungle, and the Quake Movie Library (QML).[20] Production was supported by dedicated demo-processing software, such as Uwe Girlich's Little Movie Processing Center (LMPC) and David "crt" Wright'snon-linear editor Keygrip,[21] which later became known as "Adobe Premiere for Quake demo files".[20] Among the notable films were Clan Phantasm'sDevil's Covenant,[20] the firstfeature-lengthQuake movie; Avatar and Wendigo'sBlahbalicious, which the QML awarded seven Quake Movie Oscars;[22] and Clan Undead'sOperation Bayshield, which introduced simulatedlip synchronization[23] and featured customizeddigital assets.[24]
Released in December 1997, id Software'sQuake II improved support for user-created 3-D models. However, without compatible editing software, filmmakers continued to create works based on the originalQuake. These included theILL Clan'sApartment Huntin' and theQuake done Quick group'sScourge Done Slick.[25]Quake II demo editors became available in 1998. In particular, Keygrip 2.0 introduced "recamming", the ability to adjust camera locations after recording.[25] Paul Marino called the addition of this feature "a defining moment for [m]achinima".[25] WithQuake II filming now feasible,Strange Company's 1999 productionEschaton: Nightfall was the first work to feature entirely custom-made character models.[26][27]
Borg War, a 90-minute animated Star Trek fan film, was produced using Elite Force 2 (aQuake III variant) and Starfleet Command 3, repurposing the games' voiceover clips to create a new plot.[28]Borg War was nominated for two "Mackie" awards by theAcademy of Machinima Arts & Sciences.[29] An August 2007 screening at aStar Trek convention in Las Vegas was the first time that CBS/Paramount had approved the screening of a non-parody fan film at a licensed convention.[30]
In January 2000,Hugh Hancock, the founder of Strange Company, launched a new website,machinima.com.[31] Coined by Anthony Bailey in a May 1998 email to Hancock,[32] the term is a misspelled portmanteau ofmachine cinema (machinema) which was intended to dissociate in-game filming from a specificengine. The new site featured tutorials, interviews, articles, and the exclusive release of Tritin Films'Quad God.[31] The first film made withQuake III Arena,Quad God was also the first to be distributed as recorded video frames, not game-specific instructions.[31] This change was initially controversial among machinima producers who preferred the smaller size of demo files.[33] However, demo files required a copy of the game to view.[6] The more accessible traditional video format broadenedQuad God's viewership, and the work was distributed on CDs bundled with magazines.[33] Thus, id's decision to protectQuake III's code inadvertently caused machinima creators to use more general solutions and thus widen their audience.[34] Within a few years, machinima films were almost exclusively distributed in common video file formats.[34]
Machinima began to receive mainstream notice.[35]Roger Ebert discussed it in a June 2000 article and praised Strange Company's machinima setting ofPercy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet "Ozymandias".[36] AtShowtime Network's 2001 Alternative Media Festival, theILL Clan's 2000 machinima filmHardly Workin' won the Best Experimental and Best in SHO awards.Steven Spielberg usedUnreal Tournament to test special effects while working on his2001 filmArtificial Intelligence: A.I.[37] Eventually, interest spread to game developers. In July 2001,Epic Games announced that its upcoming gameUnreal Tournament 2003 would include Matinee, a machinima production software utility.[38] As involvement increased, filmmakers released fewer new productions to focus on quality.[38]
At the March 2002Game Developers Conference, five machinima makers—Anthony Bailey, Hugh Hancock,Katherine Anna Kang, Paul Marino, and Matthew Ross—founded the AMAS,[39] a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting machinima.[40] AtQuakeCon in August, the new organization held thefirst Machinima Film Festival, which received mainstream media coverage.Anachronox: The Movie, by Jake Hughes and Tom Hall, won three awards, including Best Picture.[39] The next year, "In the Waiting Line", produced byGhost Robot, directed byTommy Pallotta and animated by Randy Cole, utilizing Fountainhead Entertainment's Machinimation tools, it became the first machinima music video to air onMTV.[41] As graphics technology improved, machinima filmmakers used other video games and consumer-gradevideo editing software.[42] UsingBungie's 2001 gameHalo: Combat Evolved,Rooster Teeth Productions created a popular comedy seriesRed vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles. Theseries' second season premiered at theLincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 2004.[43]
Super Mario Clouds from 2002 is a multi-channel video installation byCory Arcangel in which he modifies the 1985 Nintendo gameSuper Mario Bros., removing all game assets except the blue sky and white pixelated clouds.[44] The work eliminates visual elements such as characters, platforms, and background objects, leaving only the slowly scrolling clouds across a blue background.[45]
In January 2019, Machinima, Inc., which hadshifted its focus away from machinima-based content into generalvideo game-related fare in its later years, abruptly discontinued theirYouTube channels, with all their videos set to private.[46] This came shortly after then-parent companyWarner Bros. (via its owner,Time Warner) was acquired byAT&T; leading to the subsequent formation ofWarnerMedia.[47][48] On February 1, 2019, Machinima officially announced that it had laid off its 81 employees and ceased remaining operations.[49] The company stated that certain employees were being retained to work for AT&T'sOtter Media holding company, and that Russell Arons was "assisting with transitional activities as she explores new opportunities".[49] The closure resulted in 81 layoffs from the company.[50]
An opinion piece fromWired UK blamed the company's collapse on an "obvious misunderstanding of what Machinima actually was, or what traditional media companies were even buying when they purchased a [content network]", with the possibility of future machinima distribution networks of that size emerging being slim.[46]
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On March 6, 2024,Rooster Teeth general manager Jordan Levin notified employees that the company would close over the next several months. In an email, he cited reasons for the shutdown including "fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms, advertising, and patronage", with it being reported that the number of subscribers to Rooster Teeth's "First" service had dropped to around one-quarter of their peak and that Rooster Teeth as a whole had been unprofitable for a decade. Then-parentWarner Bros. Discovery (formed from the sale of WarnerMedia from AT&T into aReverse Morris Trust merger withDiscovery, Inc. in 2021.[51]) would gauge interest inRed vs. Blue, and the studio's otherintellectual property (includingRWBY, andGen:Lock).[52]
Within the timeframe between Machinima Inc., and Rooster Teeth's respective closures, Australian animator Luke Lerdwichagul would gain prominence from hisSuper Mario 64 andGarry's Mod-based comedy series,SMG4. He would eventually form the independentanimation studioGlitch Productions with his brother, Kevin, while continuing to work on the series.[53][54][55]
Sara Sadik[56] is a French digital artist known for her use of machinima to explore themes of masculinity, identity, and the experiences of young men in theMaghrebi diaspora.[57] Utilizing video game engines likeGrand Theft Auto V, her works blend fictional and documentary elements to create narratives that highlight underrepresented voices.[58][59]
In recent years, Minecraft machinima,[60] referring to films created within the virtual environment of the video gameMinecraft, has attracted increasing attention in contemporary art and film discourse.[61] It is notable for its do-it-yourself ethos and a potential to challenge conventional ideas of authorship, cinematic form, and game-based narrative. Due to its accessibility and creative flexibility,Minecraft has become a widely adopted platform among young filmmakers, educators, and artists.[62]
The AMAS defines machinima as "animated filmmaking within a real-time virtual 3-D environment".[63] In other 3-D animation methods, creators can control every frame and nuance of their characters but, in turn, must consider issues such askey frames andinbetweening. Machinima creators leave many rendering details to their host environments, but may thus inherit those environments' limitations.[64] Second Life Machinima film maker Ozymandius King provided a detailed account of the process by which the artists at MAGE Magazine produce their videos. "Organizing for a photo shoot is similar to organizing for a film production. Once you find the actors / models, you have to scout locations, find clothes and props for the models and type up a shooting script. The more organized you are the less time it takes to shoot the scene."[65] Because game animations focus on dramatic rather than casual actions, the range of character emotions is often limited. However, Kelland, Morris, and Lloyd state that a small range of emotions is often sufficient, as in successful Japanese anime television series.[66]
Another difference is that machinima is created in real time, but other animation is pre-rendered.[67] Real-time engines need to trade quality for speed and use simpler algorithms and models.[67] In the 2001 animated filmFinal Fantasy: The Spirits Within, every strand of hair on a character's head was independent; real-time needs would likely force them to be treated as a single unit.[67] Kelland, Morris, and Lloyd argue that improvement in consumer-grade graphics technology will allow more realism.[68] Similarly,Paul Marino connects machinima to the increasing computing power predicted byMoore's law.[27] Forcut scenes in video games, issues other than visual fidelity arise. Pre-rendered scenes can require more digital storage space, weakensuspension of disbelief through contrast with real-time animation of normal gameplay, and limit interaction.[68]
Like live action, machinima is recorded in real-time, and real people can act and control the camera.[69] Filmmakers are often encouraged to follow traditional cinematic conventions,[70][71] such as avoiding widefields of view, the overuse ofslow motion,[72] and errors invisual continuity.[73] Unlike live action, machinima involves less expensive, digitalspecial effects andsets, possibly with a science-fiction or historical theme.[69] Explosions and stunts can be tried and repeated without monetary cost and risk of injury, and the host environment may allow unrealistic physical constraints.[69]University of Cambridge experiments in 2002 and 2003 attempted to use machinima to re-create a scene from the 1942 live-action filmCasablanca.[74] Machinima filming differed from traditional cinematography in that character expression was limited, but camera movements were more flexible and improvised. Nitsche compared this experiment to an unpredictableDogme 95 production.[74]
Berkeley sees machinima as "a strangely hybrid form, looking forwards and backwards, cutting edge and conservative at the same time".[75] Machinima is a digital medium based on 3-D computer games, but most works have a linearnarrative structure. Some, such asRed vs. Blue andThe Strangerhood, follow narrative conventions of televisionsituational comedy.[75] Nitsche agrees that pre-recorded ("reel") machinima tends to be linear and offers limited interactive storytelling while machinima has more opportunities performed live and with audience interaction.[76] In creating their improvisational comedy seriesOn the Campaign Trail with Larry & Lenny Lumberjack and talk showTra5hTa1k with ILL Will, theILL Clan blended real and virtual performance by creating the works on-stage and interacting with a live audience.[6] In another combination of real and virtual worlds, Chris Burke's talk showThis Spartan Life takes place inHalo 2's open multiplayer environment.[6] There, others playing in earnest may attack the host or his interviewee.[6] Although other virtual theatrical performances have taken place inchat rooms andmulti-user dungeons, machinima adds "cinematic camera work".[77] Previously, such virtual cinematic performances with live audience interaction were confined to research labs equipped with powerful computers.[78]
Machinima can be less expensive than other forms of filmmaking. Strange Company produced its feature-length machinima filmBloodSpell for less than£10,000.[79] Before using machinima,Burnie Burns andMatt Hullum of Rooster Teeth Productions spentUS$9,000 to produce a live-action independent film. In contrast, the fourXbox game consoles used to makeRed vs. Blue in 2005 cost $600.[80] The low cost caused a product manager for Electronic Arts to compare machinima to the low-budgetindependent filmThe Blair Witch Project, without the need for cameras and actors.[80] Because these are seen as lowbarriers to entry, machinima has been called a "democratization of filmmaking".[81] Berkeley weighs increased participation and a blurred line between producer and consumer against concerns that game copyrights limit commercialization and growth of machinima.[82]
Comparatively, machinimists using pre-made virtual platforms likeSecond Life have indicated that their productions can be made quite successfully with no cost at all. Creators like Dutch director Chantal Harvey, producer of the48 Hour Film Project Machinima sector, have created upwards of 200 films using the platform.[citation needed] Harvey's advocacy of the genre has resulted in the involvement of film directorPeter Greenaway who served as a juror for the Machinima category and gave a keynote speech during the event.[citation needed]
Kelland, Morris, and Lloyd list four main methods of creating machinima.[83] From simple to advanced, these are: relying on the game's AI to control most actions,digital puppetry, recamming, and precise scripting of actions.[83] Although simple to produce, AI-dependent results are unpredictable, thus complicating the realization of a preconceived film script.[84] For example, when Rooster Teeth producedThe Strangerhood usingThe Sims 2, a game that encourages the use of its AI, the group had to create multiple instances of each character to accommodate different moods.[84] Individual instances were selected at different times to produce appropriate actions.[84]
In digital puppetry, machinima creators become virtual actors. Each crew member controls a character in real-time, as in a multiplayer game.[85] The director can use built-in camera controls, if available.[85] Otherwise, video is captured from the perspectives of one or more puppeteers who serve as camera operators.[85] Puppetry allows for improvisation and offers controls familiar to gamers, but requires more personnel than the other methods and is less precise than scripted recordings.[85][86] However, some games, such as theHalo series, (except for Halo PC and Custom Edition, which allow AI and custom objects and characters), allow filming only through puppetry.[87] According to Marino, other disadvantages are the possibility of disruption when filming in an open multi-user environment and the temptation for puppeteers to play the game in earnest, littering the set with blood and dead bodies.[88] However, Chris Burke intentionally hostsThis Spartan Life in these unpredictable conditions, which are fundamental to the show.[6] Other works filmed using puppetry are the ILL Clan'simprovisational comedy seriesOn the Campaign Trail with Larry & Lenny Lumberjack and Rooster Teeth Productions'Red vs. Blue.[89] In recamming, which builds on puppetry, actions are first recorded to a game engine's demo file format, not directly as video frames.[90] Without re-enacting scenes, artists can then manipulate the demo files to add cameras, tweak timing and lighting, and change the surroundings.[91] This technique is limited to the few engines and software tools that support it.[92]
A technique common incutscenes of video games, scripting consists of giving precise directions to thegame engine. A filmmaker can work alone this way,[93] as J. Thaddeus "Mindcrime" Skubis did in creating the nearly four-hourThe Seal of Nehahra (2000), the longest work of machinima at the time.[94] However, perfecting scripts can be time-consuming.[93] Unless what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editing is available, as inVampire: The Masquerade – Redemption, changes may need to be verified in additional runs, and non-linear editing may be difficult.[93][95] In this respect, Kelland, Morris, and Lloyd compare scripting tostop-motion animation.[93] Another disadvantage is that, depending on the game, scripting capabilities may be limited or unavailable.[96] Matinee, a machinima software tool included withUnreal Tournament 2004, popularized scripting in machinima.[93]
WhenDiary of a Camper was created, no software tools existed to edit demo files into films.[16] Rangers clan member Eric "ArchV" Fowler wrote his own programs to reposition the camera and to splice footage from theQuake demo file.[97]Quake movie editing software later appeared, but the use of conventional non-linear video editing software is now common.[98] For example, Phil South inserted single, completely white frames into his workNo Licence to enhance the visual impact of explosions.[98] In thepost-production ofRed vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles,Rooster Teeth Productions addedletterboxing withAdobe Premiere Pro to hide the camera player'sheads-up display.[99]
Machinima creators have used different methods to handle limited character expression. The most typical ways that amateur-style machinima gets around limitations of expression include taking advantage of speech bubbles seen above players' heads when speaking, relying on the visual matching between a character's voice and appearance, and finding methods available within the game itself.Garry's Mod andSource Filmmaker include the ability to manipulate characters and objects in real-time, though the former relies on community addons to take advantage of certain engine features, and the latter renders scenes using non-real-time effects. In theHalo video game series, helmets completely cover the characters' faces. To prevent confusion, Rooster Teeth's characters move slightly when speaking, a convention shared with anime.[100] Some machinima creators use custom software.[101] For example, Strange Company uses Take Over GL Face Skins to add more facial expressions to their characters filmed in BioWare's 2002role-playing video gameNeverwinter Nights.[101] Similarly, Atussa Simon used a "library of faces" for characters inThe Battle of Xerxes.[102] Some software, such as Epic Games' Impersonator forUnreal Tournament 2004 andValve's Faceposer forSource games, have been provided by the developer.[101] Another solution is to blend in non-machinima elements, as nGame did by inserting painted characters with more expressive faces into its 1999 filmBerlin Assassins.[103] It may be possible to point the camera elsewhere or employ other creative cinematography or acting.[103] For example, Tristan Pope combined creative character and camera positioning with video editing to suggest sexual actions in his controversial filmNot Just Another Love Story.[104]
New machinima filmmakers often want to use game-provideddigital assets,[105] but doing so raises legal issues. Asderivative works, their films could violate copyright or be controlled by the assets' copyright holder,[106][107] an arrangement that can be complicated by separate publishing and licensing rights.[106] Thesoftware license agreement forThe Movies stipulates thatActivision, the game's publisher, owns "any and all content within... Game Movies that was either supplied with the Program or otherwise made available... by Activision or its licensors..."[108] Some game companies provide software to modify their own games, and machinima makers often citefair use as a defense, but the issue has never been tested in court.[109] A potential problem with this defense is that many works, such asRed vs. Blue, focus more onsatire, which is not as explicitly protected by fair use asparody.[110] Berkeley adds that, even if machinima artists use their own assets, their works could be ruled derivative if filmed in aproprietary engine.[111] The risk inherent in a fair-use defense would cause most machinima artists simply to yield to acease-and-desist order.[112] The AMAS has attempted to negotiate solutions with video game companies, arguing that anopen-source or reasonably priced alternative would emerge from an unfavorable situation.[109] UnlikeThe Movies, some dedicated machinima software programs, such as Reallusion'siClone, have licenses that avoid claiming ownership of users' films featuring bundled assets.[107]
Generally, companies want to retain creative control over theirintellectual properties and are wary offan-created works, likefan fiction.[111] However, because machinima provides free marketing, they have avoided a response demanding strict copyright enforcement.[113] In 2003, Linden Lab was praised for changing license terms to allow users to retain ownership of works created in its virtual worldSecond Life.[114] Rooster Teeth initially tried to releaseRed vs. Blue unnoticed byHalo's owners because they feared that any communication would force them to end the project.[115] However, Microsoft, Bungie's parent company at the time, contacted the group shortly after episode 2,[115] and allowed them to continue without paying licensing fees.[116]
A case in which developer control was asserted involved Blizzard Entertainment's action against Tristan Pope'sNot Just Another Love Story.[117] Blizzard's community managers encouraged users to post game movies and screenshots, but viewers complained that Pope's suggestion of sexual actions through creative camera and character positioning was pornographic.[118] Citing the user license agreement, Blizzard closed discussion threads about the film and prohibited links to it.[117] Although Pope accepted Blizzard's right to some control, he remained concerned about censorship of material that already existed in-game in some form.[119] Discussion ensued about boundaries between MMORPG player and developer control.[119] Lowood asserted that this controversy demonstrated that machinima could be a medium of negotiation for players.[120]
In August 2007, Microsoft issued its Game Content Usage Rules, a license intended to address the legal status of machinima based on its games, including theHalo series.[121] Microsoft intended the rules to be "flexible",[122] and, because it wasunilateral, the license was legally unable to reduce rights.[123] However, machinima artists, such asEdgeworks Entertainment, protested the prohibitions on extending Microsoft'sfictional universes (a common component of fan fiction) and on selling anything from sites hosting derivative works.[124] Compounding the reaction was the license's statement, "If you do any of these things, you can expect to hear from Microsoft's lawyers who will tell you that you have to stop distributing your items right away."[125]
Surprised by the negative feedback,[125] Microsoft revised and reissued the license after discussion with Hugh Hancock and an attorney for theElectronic Frontier Foundation.[123] The rules allow noncommercial use and distribution of works derived from Microsoft-owned game content, except audio effects and soundtracks.[126] The license prohibitsreverse engineering and material that is pornographic or otherwise "objectionable".[126] On distribution, derivative works that elaborate on a game'sfictional universe or story are automatically licensed to Microsoft and its business partners.[127] This prevents legal problems if a fan and Microsoft independently conceive similar plots.[127]
A few weeks later, Blizzard Entertainment posted on WorldofWarcraft.com their "Letter to the Machinimators of the World", a license for noncommercial use of game content.[128] It differs from Microsoft's declaration in that it addresses machinima specifically instead of general game-derived content, allows use of game audio if Blizzard can legally license it, requires derivative material to meet theEntertainment Software Rating Board's Teen content rating guideline, defines noncommercial use differently, and does not address extensions of fictional universes.[129]
Hayes states that, although licensees' benefits are limited, the licenses reduce reliance on fair use regarding machinima.[130] In turn, this recognition may reduce film festivals' concerns about copyright clearance. In an earlier analogous situation, festivals were concerned aboutdocumentary films until best practices for them were developed.[131] According to Hayes, Microsoft and Blizzard helped themselves through their licenses because fan creations provide free publicity and are unlikely to harm sales.[132] If the companies had instead sued for copyright infringement, defendants could have claimedestoppel orimplied license because machinima had been unaddressed for a long time.[133] Thus, these licenses secured their issuers' legal rights.[133] Even though other companies, such asElectronic Arts, have encouraged machinima, they have avoided licensing it.[134] Because of the involved legal complexity, they may prefer to under-enforce copyrights.[134] Hayes believes that this legal uncertainty is a suboptimal solution and that, though limited and "idiosyncratic", the Microsoft and Blizzard licenses move towards an ideal video gaming industry standard for handling derivative works.[135]
Just as machinima can be the cause of legal dispute in copyright ownership and illegal use, it makes heavy use ofintertextuality and raises the question ofauthorship. Machinima takes copyrighted property (such as characters in a game engine) and repurposes it to tell a story, but another common practice in machinima-making is to retell an existing story from a different medium in that engine.
This re-appropriation of established texts, resources, and artistic properties to tell a story or make a statement is an example of a semiotic phenomenon known asintertextuality or resemiosis.[6] A more common term for this phenomenon is "parody", but not all of these intertextual productions are intended for humor or satire, as demonstrated by theFew Good G-Men video. Furthermore, the argument of how well-protected machinima is under the guise of parody or satire is still highly debated. A piece of machinima may be reliant upon a protected property, but may not necessarily be making a statement about that property.[136] Therefore, it is more accurate to refer to it simply as resemiosis, because it takes an artistic work and presents it in a new way, form, or medium. This resemiosis can be manifested in a number of ways. The machinima-maker can be considered an author who restructures the story and/or the world that the chosen game engine is built around.[137] In the popular web seriesRed vs. Blue, most of the storyline takes place within the game engine ofHalo: Combat Evolved and its subsequent sequels.Halo: Combat Evolved has an extensive storyline already, butRed vs. Blue only ever makes mention of this storyline once in the first episode.[138] Even after over 200 episodes of the show being broadcast onto the Internet since 2003, the only real similarities that can be drawn betweenRed vs. Blue and the game-world it takes place in are the character models, props, vehicles, and settings. YetBurnie Burns and the machinima team atRooster Teeth created an extensive storyline of their own using these game resources.
The ability to re-appropriate a game engine to film a video demonstrates intertextuality because it is an obvious example of art being a product of creation-through-manipulation rather than creation per se. The art historianErnst Gombrich likened art to the "manipulation of a vocabulary"[139] and this can be demonstrated in the creation of machinima. When using a game world to create a story, the author is influenced by the engine. For example, since so many video games are built around the concept of war, a significant portion of machinima films also take place in war-like environments.[137]
Intertextuality is further demonstrated in machinima not only in the re-appropriation of content but in artistic and communicatory techniques. Machinima by definition is a form ofpuppetry,[140] and thus this new form ofdigital puppetry employs age-old techniques from the traditional artform.[141] It is also, however, a form offilmmaking, and must employ filmmaking techniques such ascamera angles and proper lighting. Some machinima takes place in online environments with participants, actors, and "puppeteers" working together from thousands of miles apart. This means other techniques born from long-distance communication must also be employed. Thus, techniques and practices that would normally never be used in conjunction with one another in the creation of an artistic work end up being used intertextually in the creation of machinima.
Another way that machinima demonstrates intertextuality is in its tendency to make frequent references to texts, works, and other media just like TV ads or humorous cartoons such asThe Simpsons might do.[142] For example, the machinima seriesFreeman's Mind, created by Ross Scott, is filmed by taking a recording of Scott playing through the gameHalf Life as a player normally would and combining it with avoiceover (also recorded by Scott) to emulate aninner monologue of the normally voiceless protagonistGordon Freeman.[143] Scott portrays Freeman as a snarky,sociopathic character who makes frequent references to works and texts includingscience fiction,horror films,action movies,American history, and renownednovels such asMoby Dick. These references to works outside the game, often triggered by events within the game, are prime examples of the densely intertextual nature of machinima.
Nitsche and Lowood describe two methods of approaching machinima: starting from a video game and seeking a medium for expression or for documenting gameplay ("inside-out"), and starting outside a game and using it merely as animation tool ("outside-in").[6][144] Kelland, Morris, and Lloyd similarly distinguish between works that retain noticeable connections to games, and those closer to traditional animation.[145] Belonging to the former category, gameplay and stunt machinima began in 1997 withQuake done Quick.[145] Although not the firstspeedrunners, its creators used external software to manipulate camera positions after recording, which, according to Lowood, elevated speedrunning "from cyberathleticism to making movies".[146] Stunt machinima remains popular. Kelland, Morris, and Lloyd state thatHalo: Combat Evolved stunt videos offer a new way to look at the game, and compareBattlefield 1942 machinima creators to theHarlem Globetrotters.[147] Built-in features for video editing and post-recording camera positioning inHalo 3 were expected to facilitate gameplay-based machinima.[148] MMORPGs and other virtual worlds have been captured indocumentary films, such asMiss Galaxies 2004, a beauty pageant that took place in the virtual world ofStar Wars Galaxies.[149] Footage was distributed in the cover disc of the August 2004 issue ofPC Gamer.[149]Douglas Gayeton'sMolotov Alva and His Search for the Creator documents the title character's interactions inSecond Life.[150]
Gaming-related comedy offers another possible entry point for new machinima producers.[145] Presented as five-minute sketches, many machinima comedies are analogous to InternetFlash animations.[145] After Clan Undead's 1997 workOperation Bayshield built on the earliestQuake movies by introducing narrative conventions of linear media[151] andsketch comedy reminiscent of the television showSaturday Night Live,[152] the New-York-basedILL Clan further developed the genre in machinima through works includingApartment Huntin' andHardly Workin'.[153]Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles chronicles a futile civil war over five seasons and 100 episodes.[153][154] Marino wrote that although the series' humor was rooted in video games, strong writing and characters caused the series to "transcend the typical gamer".[42] An example of a comedy film that targets a more general audience is Strange Company'sTum Raider, produced for theBBC in 2004.[155]
Machinima has been used in music videos, of which the first documented example is Ken Thain's 2002 "Rebel vs. Thug", made in collaboration withChuck D.[156] For this, Thain used Quake2Max, amodification ofQuake II that providedcel-shaded animation.[157] The following year,Tommy Pallotta directed "In the Waiting Line" for the British groupZero 7.[158] He toldComputer Graphics World, "It probably would have been quicker to do the film in a 3D animated program. But now, we can reuse the assets in an improvisational way."[159] Scenes of the gamePostal 2 can be seen in the music video ofthe Black Eyed Peas single "Where Is the Love?".[160] In television, MTV features video game characters on its showVideo Mods.[156] AmongWorld of Warcraft players, dance and music videos became popular after dancing animations were discovered in the game.[161]
Others use machinima in drama. These works may or may not retain signs of their video game provenance.[162]Unreal Tournament is often used for science fiction andBattlefield 1942 for war, but some artists subvert their chosen game's setting or completely detach their work from it.[163] In 1999,Strange Company usedQuake II inEschaton: Nightfall, a horror film based on the work ofH. P. Lovecraft (although Quake I was also based on the Lovecraft lore).[164] A later example is Damien Valentine's seriesConsanguinity, made usingBioWare's 2002 computer gameNeverwinter Nights and based on the television seriesBuffy the Vampire Slayer.[164] Another genre consists of experimental works that attempt to push the boundaries of game engines.[165] One example, Fountainhead'sAnna, is a short film that focuses on the cycle of life and is reminiscent ofFantasia.[165] Other productions go farther and completely eschew a 3-D appearance.[165] Friedrich Kirschner'sThe Tournament andThe Journey deliberately appear hand-drawn, and Dead on Que'sFake Science resembles two-dimensional Eastern European modernist animation from the 1970s.[165]
Another derivative genre termedmachinima verite, fromcinéma vérité, seeks to add a documentary and additional realism to the machinima piece. L.M. Sabo'sCATACLYSM achieves a machinima verite style through displaying and recapturing the machinima video with a low resolution black and white hand-held video camera to produce ashaky camera effect. Other element of cinéma vérité, such as longer takes, sweeping camera transitions, andjump cuts may be included to complete the effect.
Some have used machinima to make political statements, often fromleft-wing perspectives.[166] Alex Chan's take on the2005 civil unrest in France,The French Democracy, attained mainstream attention and inspired other machinima commentaries on American and British society.[167][168] Horwatt deemed Thuyen Nguyen's 2006An Unfair War, a criticism of theIraq War, similar in its attempt "to speak for those who cannot".[169] Joshua Garrison mimicked Chan's "political pseudo-documentary style" in hisVirginia Tech Massacre, a controversialHalo 3–based re-enactment and explanation ofthe eponymous real-life events.[170] More recently,War of Internet Addiction addressedinternet censorship in China usingWorld of Warcraft.[171]
After the QML's Quake Movie Oscars, dedicated machinima awards did not reappear until the AMAS created the Mackies for its first Machinima Film Festival in 2002.[172] The annual festival has become an important one for machinima creators.[173] Ho Chee Yue, a founder of the marketing companyAKQA, helped to organize the first festival for the Asia chapter of the AMAS in 2006.[174] In 2007, the AMAS supported the first machinima festival held in Europe.[175] In addition to these smaller ceremonies, Hugh Hancock ofStrange Company worked to add an award for machinima to the more generalBitfilm Festival in 2003.[176] Other general festivals that allow machinima include theSundance Film Festival, theFlorida Film Festival, and theNew Media Film Festival.[173] TheOttawa International Animation Festival opened a machinima category in 2004, but, citing the need for "a certain level of excellence", declined to award anything to the category's four entries that year.[177]
The Milan Machinima Festival (MMF)[178] is an annual event in Italy focused on machinima, spotlighting filmmakers who use video games and real-time technologies to create moving image works. Dedicated to exploring the intersections of video art, cinema, animation, and gaming, the festival presents a curated selection of machinima works chosen by an international jury for their cultural significance, artistic innovation, and experimental approach, alongside an open call for emerging creators and a program of lectures, seminars, workshops, and publications.[179]
The 69th Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen[180] that was held from April 26 to May 1, 2023 presented“Against Gravity. The Art of Machinima” as itscentral thematic programme, the first major film festival to dedicate extensive programming to machinima.[181]
Machinima has been showcased in contests sponsored by game companies.Epic Games' popularMake Something Unreal contest included machinima that impressed event organizer Jeff Morris because of "the quality of entries that really push the technology, that accomplish things that Epic never envisioned".[173] In December 2005,Blizzard Entertainment andXfire, a gaming-focusedinstant messaging service, jointly sponsored aWorld of Warcraft machinima contest.[182]
Machinima has appeared on television, starting withG4's seriesPortal.[183]MTV2'sVideo Mods re-creates music videos using characters from video games such asThe Sims 2,BloodRayne, andTribes.[156]Blizzard Entertainment helped to set part of "Make Love, Not Warcraft", anEmmy Award–winning 2006 episode of the comedy seriesSouth Park, in itsmassively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)World of Warcraft.[184] By purchasing broadcast rights toDouglas Gayeton's machinima documentaryMolotov Alva and His Search for the Creator in September 2007,HBO became the first television network to buy a work created completely in avirtual world.[150] In December 2008, machinima.com signed fifteen experienced television comedy writers—includingPatric Verrone,Bill Oakley, andMike Rowe—to produce episodes for the site.[185]
Commercial use of machinima has increased.[186][187]Rooster Teeth sellsDVDs of theirRed vs. Blue series and, under sponsorship fromElectronic Arts, helped to promoteThe Sims 2 by using the game to make a machinima series,The Strangerhood.[186]Volvo Cars sponsored the creation of a 2004 advertisement,Game: On, the first film to combine machinima andlive action.[188] Later, Electronic Arts commissioned Rooster Teeth to promote theirMadden NFL 07 video game.[189] Blockhouse TV usesMoviestorm's machinima software to produce its pre-school educational DVD seriesJack and Holly
Game developers have continued to increase support for machinima.[190] Products such asLionhead Studios' 2005business simulation gameThe Movies,Linden Research's virtual worldSecond Life, and Bungie's 2007 first-person shooterHalo 3 encourage the creation of user content by including machinima software tools.[190] UsingThe Movies, Alex Chan, a French resident with no previous filmmaking experience,[191] took four days to createThe French Democracy, a short political film about the2005 civil unrest in France.[192] Third-party mods likeGarry's Mod usually offer the ability to manipulate characters and take advantage of custom or migrated content, allowing for the creation of works likeCounter-Strike For Kids that can be filmed using assets from multiple games.
In a 2010 interview withPC Magazine,Valve CEO and co-founderGabe Newell said that they wanted to make aHalf-Life feature film themselves, rather than hand it off to a big-name director likeSam Raimi, and that their recentTeam Fortress 2 "Meet The Team" machinima shorts were experiments in doing just that.[193] Two years later, Valve released their proprietarynon-linear machinima software,Source Filmmaker.
Machinima has also been used for music video clips. The first machinima music video to air onMTV is that ofZero 7's "In the Waiting Line" in 2003, animated in theid Tech 3 engine by Tommy Pallotta.[194]Second Life virtual artistBryn Oh created a work for Australian performer Megan Bernard's song "Clean Up Your Life",[195] released in 2016.[196] The first music video for 2018's "Old Town Road", byLil Nas X, was composed entirely of footage from the 2018Westernaction-adventure gameRed Dead Redemption 2.[197]
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