NY 2008

Update*

Slideshow




Final update.

That's a wrap.

Free pixel has more coverage.

More pics and post festival thoughts at the end.

Away for a week. See everyone in Second Life for the Machinima Expo Sunday Nov 9.

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Should be there Friday night some time. No cell phone, so email is the best way to contact me.

Update #1.

Traffic sucked so was late into Manhattan. Went to Eyebeam but it was locked up like a prison in lockdown.

Now in Queens. Nice neighborhood.

Wired has some coverage of the festival.

At the festival now. Met Ken Thane from Bioware and talked briefly to Phil (Overman).

Opening address started. Friedrich Kirschner and Liz Slagus (Director of Education - Eyebeam) welcomed the audience, and then Paul Marino took over and introduced the concept of machinima and then showed some clips.

Diary of a Camper - Ranger Clan - Quake 1
Waking Life - Foundtainhead Entertainment - Quake 3 engine
Warthog Jump - Randall Glass - Halo
Red vs. Blue - Rooster Teeth - Hale 1, 2, 3
Dance, Voldo, Dance - Chris Brandt - Soul Caliber
Person 2184 - Friedrich Kirschner - Unreal Tournament
French Democracy - Alex Chan - The Movies
The 1K Project II - Guillaume Klein - Trackmania
Ignus Solus - Lit Fuse Films - TF2
Mass Effect - Bioware - Bioware Artists

Machinima Future
Audiene evolution, creative evolution, hardware evolution, software evolution, and the Age of Ubiquitous Creativity (quote from Hugh Hancock).
This sign makes many a curious onlooker (why not explain it to the masses?)















Touch sensitive interface showing on screen the effects of manipulation of the interface















Opening address















iClone demo showing vehicles














The interfacing virtual actors panel was interesting especially the statement about Bioware releasing some of it's cinematic tools for The Dragon Age (not sure this is correct?).

Missed half of the "Is Machinima Art" panel, unfortunately (really needed caffeine).

Talked to Armando Troisi (Bioware) for a bit. Interesting ideas on cinematics and interactive narratives.

Now the Filmmaker's panel #1, "Where to now" is on (Paul Marino, Chris Burke, Frank Dellario, and I believe Douglas Gayeton, the creator of Molotov Alva?).

Is this correct? machinima.com has 28 million hits a month (through YouTube, etc.)?

Met Ricky Grove and Xanatos.

Second filmmaker panel (gamer or filmmaker). Formal filmmaker conventions are becoming altered.

Third filmmaker panel (story vs character). Writing! Tiny Nation, Snacky's Journal, and As The Hamster Wheel Turns (would be nice to have panelist's names on a permanent sideboard during the panels). Interesting that the woman who does Snacky's Journal works in the animation industry.

Sound (Ricky Grove and Phil Rice). Pay attention to sound to create environment.

Awards ceremony about to start. For some reason there is a delay.

Friedrick Kirschner is now opening the awards ceremony. Introduces Todd Levine (spelling?) - host for 2008 Mackie awards.

Lol, "thanks for turning the cut scene into an artform".

The awards (unofficial list - see disclaimer).

Best student film:

Azerothian Super Villians - Beckman Movie Productions

Best original music:

Ignus Solus - Lit Fuse Films (Lars?)

Best sound design:

Chevauchee Nocturne - Les Riches Douaniers

Best voice acting:

The Monad - Polygon Fiction

Best direction:

The Ship - Egils Mednis

Short little hilarious political machinima in WoW.

Best virtual performance:

The Monad - Polygon Fiction

Best writing:

World of Workcraft - Stephen Mullane

Best editing:

Tales of the Past III - Martin Falch

Best cinematography:

The Monad - Polygon Fiction

Best visual design:

Apocalypsis ex Machinima - Andrzej Kozlowski

Honorary Award to Peter Rasmussen which will now have his name associated with this award (in memoriam).

A scholarship for filmmakers working in the Sydney Film Festival (sparked by the above award). has been announced.

Best technical achievement:

Leaving The Game - American Film Institute - Digital Content Lab

Outstanding game cinematics:

Mass Effect - Bioware

Best long format:

Clear Skies - Ian Chisholm

Best short format:

World of Workcraft - Stephen Mullane

Best independent machinima:

The Ship - Egils Mednis

Best series:

This Spartan Life - Chris Burke

Best of the festival:

The Ship - Egils Mednis

Cool - machinima at Siggraph in Asia in Singapore.

That's a wrap. Congratulations to all nominees and winners. Time for beer. More pics later.

Disclaimer: Any mistakes are likely my own.

Bioware and Lit Fuse Films















Bioware and Ill Clan















Bioware denies that they are 'harvesting' machinimators for their nefarious northern plans but I think the images speak for themselves.
Xanatos from Janus Syndicate















Ricky and Phil discuss sound















Story vs. character panel















What's a machinima awards ceremony without a furry?!




















Awards ceremony about to start















Afterparty #1















Afterparty #2















Afterparty #3














Final thoughts.

Good job Friedrich on organizing the festival and thanks to Eyebeam for hosting.

Zach Scott - expect some new films by the end of the year. Motivational speaker of the year!

Phil Rice - after the Machinima Expo expect more films.

Ben - may know more about machinima than all of us combined.

KBS Productions (Machinima Festival 2006 winners with Bill et John) had a very cool clip of some new machinima (on their iPod). I cannot wait till this is released.

Pierce Portocarrero - working on some new technology for machinima.

The man who is bringing machinima to Siggraph in 2008 in Singapore says that machinima will be more strongly affiliated with Siggraph in the future. Very impressive news. Machinima will have to push the envelope.

Frank Dellario - Ill Clan - showed some new Tiny Nation clips. This looks like it will turn out to be a great series.

I found it very interesting that so many people who actually work within the film and animation industries are turning to machinima to explore ideas that they have but cannot direct/produce/create in their normal day jobs. Whereas most machinimators appear to come from the gaming culture, this infusion of talent from film/television/animation media may have a profound effect on machinima. Interesting times indeed.