Well, work has been so busy lately that I have not had a lot of time for regular postings. Unfortunately that means I need to ram a lot of information down everyone's throat. However, this presents a problem in that I myself cannot stand long blog posts. Therefore, in the interests of brevity and knowing that the average person spends 20 seconds on a web page, I present the following 20 second roundup (lol).
1. Creative Movies has just announced a machinima contest. The submission deadline is Feb 7, 2007, and there will be two categories, counterstrike, and open games (everything else?).
2. Speaking of contests, Planet Half-Life is hosting a contest for short Half Life videos. The "Gordie" prizes will be announced after all submissions are are judged (April 2007).
3. The guys who made Illegal Danish: Super Snacks are putting ad content into their films, or so says Vox (with a link to the full report that requires registration, so I cannot verify this).
4. There was a post on if:book about an essay from Walter Ong on the difference between a reader of a book and an audience member listening to an oral presentation (entited The Writer's Audience Is Always a Fiction - PDF link). Interesting when you consider this idea in the age of user-created content and with respect to film/machinima and the recent surge in websites such as YouTube. What is the audience for machinima? Do creative types produce content with the audience in mind or do they simply make what they want with no regard for how it might be viewed or scrutinized? What happens when everyone in the audience is a content creator as well?
5. More4 has a video report on machinima.
6. Britannica Dreams has a holiday-themed machinima, Visiting Scrooge.
7. Variety had an article on how some recent machinimators have been picked up by a few companies (mostly game dev companies).
8. LA Interactiva has a short article on political machinima (reminiscent of the "machinima with issues" panel at the film festival).
9. LuluTV has a best of 2006 post, including some machinima.
10. Overman's Overcast episode 12 includes a retrospective (and possibly a lot of eggnog?).
Speaking of the best of 2006, this is my list for the best machinima of 2006 (from what I've seen of course).
1. The Days After (my favorite of the year).
2. The Snow Witch (this is defnitely growing on me).
3. Male Restroom Etiquette (hilarious - note that number 1 and 3 in my list have something in common).
4. Silver Bells and Golden Spurs (always a sucker for a good western).
5. The Adventures of Bill and John (extremely well done).
Hmmm...none of these were made using a Valve Source game...!?
Happy New Year and may 2007 be better than 2006!
UPDATE! Creative Movies announces that the machinima contest has been extended to Feb. 20th, with an increase in maximum film length and size.
Posts
Why a Woman Bonded With Her Virtual Baby -- Excerpt from the New Coffee
Table Book, SECOND LIFE: The First, Best Metaverse
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As a holiday treat, here's an excerpt of Hari Sutherland's new coffee table
book, SECOND LIFE: The First, Best Metaverse in Words and Pictures: For
many, r...
1 day ago
3 comments:
Congratulations, my reading this post made me aware of the Creative Movies competition, which is is essence, going to delay the originally intended next episode of Civil Protection another 2 months because of their damn exclusiveness rule. I was pretty close to finishing and releasing it too. I'll see what I can do about getting SOMETHING out in the meantime though.
LOL, sorry for that. My favorite part of the rules is.
Creative Movies holds the right to disqualify any movie, change the dates, change the prizes, change/add the rules without any notice, so check back the rules section regularly for any updates.
Caveat emptor.
That doesn't bother me too much, I see that more as covering their ass in case their building catches on fire or something. A lot of ISP's have worse policies than that. But yeah, it would suck if 24 hours before the deadline if you see something on their front page like:
"Uh, yeah, we decided to uh, change the competition rules so that your first name has to be Tyler in order to participate. Hope this doesn't inconvenience anyone..."
Anyway, the next episode is going to be cool, even if everyone has to wait even longer for it now. This IS going to be a series though, so there's no foreseeable end to how many I'll make other than how much time I can spare. Regardless, thanks for making me aware of it, I want to try and win that mouse they have listed in the prizes.
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