If You Can Say 'Machinima,' You Win Eyeballs

November 29, 2005 - WebProNews

There has been much debate on the merits of motion pictures based on video games. Tomb Raider and Mortal Kombat will satisfy at least two aspects of your anima, but often are met by the scornful eye of the critic-which almost makes it art automatically. But what of online movies made with video games? Well, one-frame-at-a-timers, Gumby has just been booted, and a new medium is picking up steam.

My friends and I in high school achieved some local notoriety through a series of puppet monkey movies (notoriety means our girlfriends didn't break up with us). My friend Dave (the genius director) would guide us (the largely unrecognized acting crew) through comedic romps like "Life of the Urban Monkey" and "Doctor Monkenstein."

We hadn't really tinkered with the Internet yet. And we hadn't graduated past Sega Genesis either. But had we the high-tech offerings of today (daggum kids can do anything nowadays!), we certainly would have loaned our talents to video game animated movies like the ones on the marquis at Lionhead Studios.

"Machinima," they call it, a mash-up of machine and cinema. And just as user-generated content in the form of weblogs and consumer reviews are transforming how we do business on the Internet, so will creative outlets like machinima.

Created through Activision Inc.'s computer tool, "The Movies," released a couple of weeks ago, aspiring filmographers can create a movie with custom-designed movie stars, dialogues and action sequences.

After the movie is finished, it can be uploaded to the TheMoviesGame website, run by Lionhead, for others to check out.

The hippest online marketers haven't missed the opportunity. Targeted ads are popping up where these movies can be seen.

"On the streaming video site Heavy.com, for instance, a machinima called ‘Pimp My Weapon,' made from Sony's game ‘God of War,' got six million streams in its first week," informs Media Post's Shankar Gupta. That's a lot of eyeballs.

Now just think where Doctor Monkenstein and his monster (played by yours truly) "Jimmy Changa" would be if we'd known there was a world beyond strapping two VCR's to a handy-cam!

By Jason Lee Miller

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