A Fascinating Series On Storytelling

People like Henry Jenkins and other talking heads pontificating on the changing nature of storytelling due to technological innovation in today's age. I've just watched five of the short clips (4-8 minutes each) in a row.

Storytelling Part 1: Change of Storytelling from ith storytelling on Vimeo.

It Is Hard To Believe That The DVD Is Only Thirteen Years Old

The first discs were released in the U.S. in 1997.

The release of The Matrix prompted many people to purchase a DVD player.

Thirteen years later, you can rent a Blu-Ray disc at a RedBox kiosk for $1.50.

As of now, there are no movie rental places within 3 miles of where I live. There is RedBox kiosk at a nearby grocery store.

As of last year, all TV broadcasts are in digital format.

The push is on to 3D television. I haven't even bought a flat screen yet.

I can stream more movies to my computer than I know what to do with.

You could jump multiple generations of technological upgrades with a single trip to the nearest electronics store.

Enter The Singulariyy?

Stylistic Animation Based On Call Of Duty

The Call - based on Call of Duty, and utilizing the voice and sound effects from within the game, uses entirely new images and animation to very cool effect. Made by simply 'One'.



Very comic-like.
Originally found via MTV Multiplayer.

Of course, when you make animations based on the game 'Call of Duty' and the title for the videos is 'The Call' and 'Duty', and your name is 'One', then it is extremely difficult to find anything more in the morass of information on the net. If anyone has any more information, it would be greatly appreciated.

Machinima Info Barf #14

Number 14.

I have not done one of these in awhile, and probably will not have time to do another for a few weeks.

Previous Info Barfs listed on the sidebar.

====

Machinima News:

Antics v. 5 released. I have reservations.
ZenCub3d new beta.
Xtra Normal releases online animation tool. I made a brief clip.

Contests/Festivals:

The New York festival is coming up. 99.999% sure I will make it. Nominees and Panels listed. Note, the New York marathon is Sunday Nov. 2nd.
The Machinima Expo lost it's real world appendage, but it's virtual head will reappear in Second Life on Nov. 9th.Pineapple Pictures promo.
Imagina Awards 2009.
48 hour machinima contest. I tried to set up a team but no one seems to have the time. That's too bad because that kind of time pressure contest is an experience everyone should survive.
Suzanne Awards winners announced.

Video Game/Virtual World News:

Political Machine (Stardock). Smear your opponent to appeal to your base. Evade all questions while winking at the camera. Offer no solutions. Just like real candidates.
Linux Gamers release.
Mellanium talks industrial archaeology.
Bioshock2 trailer.
Interview with the maker of the Super Columbine Massacre RPG!. Playing Columbine is a documentary on the whole thing made by Danny Ledonne. (Part I, II, III).

Machinima/Video Clips:

Universal declaration of human rights.
Time lapse tilt shift video.
ill clan releases Tiny Nation.
In a few months this blog post might look like this.
YouSuckAtPhotoshop has gone hardcore ARG.
Fear of the Dark animated trailer looks like a nice collection of darker themed shorts by IFC.
The credit crisis as Antarctic exploration.
Virtualization of the Universe.
Cellular automaton in Second Life.
World animation day. Why isn't there a world machinima day.

Digital Online Video/Cinema/Imaging:

New DSLR can do HD.
Stock photo royalties.
ILoveSketch. 3D curve sketching system.
Five Gimp tricks.
Fake tilt shifting in Photoshop.
Real time raytracing.
Photosynth explained.

Misc:

ReadTheWords.com. Reads aloud typed text (plugins for Firefox and IE available).
This Wired report on Ramayan 3392 AD film has some interesting images.
RIP: Remix Manifesto. Open Source Cinema. Rip the system.
Animation explained. From storyboards to render by Dale Myers.

Distributed Interactive Gaming

Been away for awhile (bet you did not notice). Also busy beyond belief.

This distributed game utilizing YouTube videos and the annotation mechanism provides an interesting look into the future of either interactive gaming or interactive narratives. You be the judge. I could easily see a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style game.

Pork And Beans

Weezer brings teh funny in this short music vid showing some great internet memes.



Wired has some background.

Machima Info Barf #11

Post OMFF party.

Previous Info Barfs links are now on their own sidebar (the list was getting too long).

====

Machinima News:

While some of us were celebrating machinima, some other people were receiving non-takedown notices. A very interesting development (MFD post). I wonder what else they could demand though?
The first every machinima video viewed by a Congressional subcommittee? (Second Life ad video).
Hands Free SL means puppeteering machinima?
Antics3D now works with sketchup. I've been playing with this a lot. Tips and tricks section.
Brief discussion with Gus from RvB down under.
Zach brags about the numbers.
Brief mention of machinima at Nmancer.
NPR talks machinima (around 22 minute mark).
Overman talks about 'machinima'. I will go on record saying I can't stand the term 'anymation'. Period.
The Shisha den talks about machinima.

Contests/Festivals:

OMFF Winners Announced (My Post, OMFF Site).
The Make Something Unreal contest includes a machinima section.
Koinup's SL Music Video Contest winners announced.
Iron Man contest (I got my avatar from somewhere). Here.
Overman's pointing out some Bitfilm gems.
Semi-Finalists for Radiohead's Aniboom Contest announced.

Video Game/Virtual World News:

A list of upcoming PC games with screenshots (that's a lot of eye candy).
Second Life Guantánamo Bay.
Oprah launches own reality.
Meet the Scout is another great Valve intro to a TF2 character.
The Escapist talks about Allegiance - which was a damn fine game that is still going strong.
Free Spore creature editor. This is the wave of the future = outsource your content creation to the world.
Learn about reality from a video game.
You are no longer hard core.
Halotography. Wired's how to miniaturize a scene.
Is modding over? I hope not. Modding paved the way for machinima.
Canadians planning virtual music festival in conjunction with real festival. Damn innovative canuckleheads.

Machinima/Video Clips:

Ross Scott releaed Galaxy Gulp (YouTube) which is a tutorial made for Noesis Interactive (the software company that produces the XSI Modeling Tool). That's a boring description for what really is a pretty damn funny vid.
This flip it video is a blast (Squeeze Me - Kraak & Smaak).
Xanatos and the Janus Syndicate made a western in TF2 (Garry's Mod Post).
Beware the Believers (Dawkins Rap Vid).
Quarantine goes viral (ha ha).
Clone Wars Animated Trailer looks pretty dull actually. Can we please go to some other time and place in this universe.
Transforming Robot Battle.
Bitstream Boogie Machinima.
Charlie Rose interviews Charlie Rose (very odd).
Custom animations in TF2.
Bloodspell making of documentary (behind the chaos there was order).
Cult of Sincerity is the first full length film released on YouTube.
Burning water does mocap for breakdancing Gman.
Topography at Vimeo (Vimeo has some great looking videos).
This machine is brilliant.
Presidential Reality. Forget the first African American or first woman President. How soon before we have an avatar for president?
Team Roomba's Meet The Pyro (the same guys who did the TF2 griefing video as detailed at The Escapist).
PEDS season 3 is starting.
What to do when a girl says she has a boyfriend.
Did old media release the first GTA IV machinima (Conan O'Brien)?
When We Two Parted by Strange Company. Controversy ensues.
Ironman vs. Batman (amusing).
Game Over in stop motion.
Instant City in Moviestorm.
Christian Aid ad using disaster footage shot in ?
Can't afford to shoot a video? There's millions of bloody cameras in the UK, so one band decided to make use of the cloud video.
Thirty minute Battlefield machinima (Hatred).

Digital Online Video/Cinema/Imaging:

Hollywood is going 3D and Wired has some history. James Cameron.
The 50 greatest comedy sketches of all time. Too much SNL in the list. Where's my Monty Python.
The 50 greatest commercial parodies of all time. Ditto.
Not sure where I got this link to Carlos Baena's home page, but he has some great links to animation information, clips, shorts, etc.
Art of the Title Sequence.
Resolution vs. Framerate.
Swooping in Google Earth.
The movies that did not win best picture (not including There Will Be Blood which was robbed).
Hi-res YouTube hacks. And another.
Bjorks' Wanderlust in 3D.
Best macro photos at Wired.
Penny Arcade TV. Watch the process of creation. Forget the behind the scenes footage - make it the scene.
We've all heard about We Are The Strange - now a one woman created animation was shown at Tribeca (Sita Sings The Blues - by Nina Paley).
The 50 greatest TV shows of all time (another skewed list).
Free stock photo site.
Insect Sex and Rossellini.

Misc:

365 Tomorrows has one very short story every day. Some of my recent favorites (Retirement, The Rise and Fall of the First Shi Empire, Hard to Find).
Another interesting legal case mentioned at BoingBoing about the EFF fighting for the rights of 3D modellers.
Schematics of starship interiors. Now all you need is the 3D models.
Trapped in an Elevator. 41 hours changes man's life forever.
Search the web for sounds.
Do it yourself cable organizer.
Soundproof a room.
Have someone read your script for a fee.
Fontbots.
All about movies.
Processing ported to javascript.
YouTube comment snob Firefox extension.

Webby Awards

Winners have been announced. The Onion TV and You Suck At Photoshop at two noteworthy winners. The 30 second Bunnies Starz Theatre is a fascinating find.

Science Machine

I do not know why I find this video so fascinating. Is it the brilliant Portishead music accompanying the video, the frenetic hyper editing (something I usually despise but which seems oddly appropriate to the subject matter), or the act of creation itself? Perhaps the details are simply brought out by watching each section of the image actually being made/destroyed, moved around.


Science Machine from Chad Pugh on Vimeo.

BTW, previous Portishead video I talked about is only available here:

Machine Gun

The two best songs on the album as far as I can tell.

Machima Info Barf #10

Away for a week, so enjoy some links.
Calling this #10, even though #9 was not titled.

Previous Info Barfs (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9).

====

Updated*

Machinima News:

Bloodspell DVD released (thx Hugh).
RvB Boxed Set DVD released.


Contests/Festivals:

I posted about an online photoshop contest. The winners have been announced.
There's 12 videos tagged as 'animated' that are part of the Nine Inch Nails Ghosts Film Festival. There are none tagged as 'machinima'. Hello?!

Video Game/Virtual World News:

Flipside is an interesting premise for a game wherein the player must 'flip' from one side of reality to another (half life 2 net - mod review).
How soon before the Turing Test is passed? An AI has been created in Second Life.

Machinima/Video Clips:

A History of Evil (YouTube).
Lego and Biochemistry (YouTube).
Keiko Takamura sings about Bioshock (YouTube).
This robotic dog is bizarre (YouTube).
Roman Coppola makes an environmental short (nofatclips).
Interesting effect in this Half Life machinima - Message (YouTube).
I like this Portishead video (YouTube).
Low cost multitouch whiteboard (very cool - imagine the possibilities - YouTube).
This video of a TED talk by a neuroscientist discussing what happened when she had a stroke is very inspiring (TED).
Ammo Previz (some clips showing atmospheric previsualization).

Digital Online Video/Cinema/Imaging:

As noted in Indymogul, this composer is offering to make free music for films/videos (forum post).
The secret strategies of viral videos.
Twenty-five brilliant animated shorts.
Photoshop Express is online, but beware the terms of use.
Kloseup is some sort of portal/online movie making platform? Example: (YouTube).

Misc:

Easter Eggs in your software (an amusing list of hidden embedded games and other easter eggs in a variety of programs, DVDs).
Maps and fiction - The 21 Steps. An interesting experiment (game, literature?).
OLPC is offering 8.5 GB of Creative Commons sample content (Wiki).

Sweded And The Rise Of The Fan Film

A collision of driving forces has led us to this, a voluminous array of fan made films in every corner of the internet, and in some cases, even in theaters.

Michael Gondry's Be Kind Rewind (I have not seen this yet) is a movie about people who come together remaking famous movies (Wikipedia). The term used in the movie is 'sweded' (for ridiculous reasons) and it has led to a brief explosion of fan made films, all of which can be found using that word (YouTube search).

Jack Black and Michael Gondry explain 'sweding'.

This has led to an explosion of 'sweded' films. There is a top ten list on Always Watching. There is also a website dedicated to 'sweded' films.

Of course most of the films are ridiculous, but the collision of Do It Yourself culture, the internet, and cheap digital video have made a great collection of innovative, insightful, strange, and comical fan flicks.

Case in point is the 'sweded' version of Terminator 2 (the mushroom cloud kills me).



Or the 'sweded' Star Wars. Love the cardboard X-wings.



Or Lord of the Rings Part 1 and 2.





In some cases people are only remaking certain scenes. Here's the Tron bike scene shot in cardboard/stop motion. And the original for comparison.

Of course fan films are nothing new, but it is only recently that the barriers to production and distribution have dropped to an all time low. There's a website devoted to fan films (Wikipedia).

One recent high profile case is the film "Fanboys" about a group of Star Wars geeks who trek across the country in order to break into Lucas's Skywalker ranch in order to see The Phantom Menace. It may be released theatrically. Lucas has recently embraced some aspects of fan culture including the contest last year (AtomFilms) that I mentioned (post) which is a nice change.

Or the case of the Raiders Adaptation which unfortunately does not look to be released (Wired) that I briefly mentioned (post) but at least the filmmakers donated the proceedings to charity.

What will be really interesting is when some of the more creative types stop making fan films and start making their own original ones.

Unemployed To Web Video Overlord In Months

I talked briefly about Zero Punctuation during my discussion of Bioshock. It's a game review series by a demonic game reviewer who talks a hundred miles an hour with no pauses (hence the name) and does his best to skewer most of the games he reviews. After putting out a few reviews on the web (much to the approval of a fairly large viewership in a short period of time), he was noticed by The Escapist and brought on board (video). He reviews one game a week for The Escapist and his series of reviews have gotten a lot of notice and millions of viewers, making it a win win for both parties involved. Most of the attention is on the game reviews, although check out the two machinima pieces at the end of the last few reviews, especially the TF2 'love story' at the end of the SimCity Societies Review.

Now, apparently, ZP previews will be shown on G4 X-Play (covered in NewTeeVee and Kotaku). That's quite a rise from being self-described as unemployed and bored (NewTeeVee).

Two things: 1) it is quite impressive to bootstrap yourself simply by your talents and YouTube to a gig on cable TV, and 2) judging by Yahtzee's website (fullyramblomatic) he has actually produced a hell of a lot of content, comics, essays, even several short video games, and so his rise has not exactly been an overnight success. Impressive resume there.

There has been another amusing series making the rounds lately called "You Suck At Photoshop" (available on MyDamnChannel, YouTube Episode #1). It is both educational and entertaining (how often does that happen) as an apparently distraught ex-husband and employee in a crappy company uses Photoshop as a therapeutic tool to work out his frustrations at the world (his divorce? his crappy boss?). I am not sure if the stories behind these videos are even true, but there are some interesting things going on (check out some info at LaughingSquid). The videocasts appear to simply be the narrator (Donnie) working at this desk (we see his computer desktop, the photoshop window, and IM program). In episode #6, a brief flash of the desktop shows a company logo (Phebco - also linked at MDC). Well, if you check out www.phebco.com, you find something straight out of Portal. ARG? Someone simply having a lark? It's definitely an example of some of the unique entertainment being generated on the web (and asks the question - can you produce something true entertaining simply by screencasting someone's desktop?) that is also educational (when will the copycats emerge?).

Who needs television when the web is so damn entertaining?

Machinima Info Barf #8

Today's post is brought to you by the word 'Gush'. Stand up and say it loud 10 times. Isn't that a fun word. Then after your family and friends look at you strangely settle back into your comfortable chair and peruse this enormous collection of links.

Previous Info Barfs (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7).

Away for a week.

====

eSports:

The World Cyber Games are taking place this weekend. Coverage at GotFrag.
The Escapist covers fraggers.

Video Game News:

Bungie and Microsoft broke up (more at Law of the Game) from 8bitjoystick. You can send sympathy flowers.
Koster talks about the current game industry (Gamasutra).
Top 10 most influential AI games (via AIgamedev.net). Please, why is Black and White at #1?
In-game ads using discussing historical Monopoly, Monopoly today, and social commentary games like Disaffected (via Gamasutra).
Top 21 Linux Games (from LinuxGames).
The Guardian talks about in-game advertising.
BBspot has a flowchart for those who can't decide to stop playing video games.
McDonald's video game, social commentary? (via Play This Thing). Any game where you pay to corrupt politicians has to be fun?
Minerva single-player mod episode 3 for Half Life 2 released.
Writer's Guild announces video game writing award.
The next 25 years of video games on Cracked.com. Likely to be oh so wrong.

Virtual World News:

Habbo Hotel manager discusses the enormous popularity of this free retro virtual world (via Gamespot).
More on Habbo's development (via Gamasutra).
Habbo's mobile version has 110 000 users (via Virtual World News).
Some strange virtual worlds like The Endless Forest (via Clickable Culture).
Metaversed discusses MTV's 6 virtual worlds.
MellaniuM showcases Skype broadcasting of Second Life. I recently had a chance to talk to Joe Rigby about this, and he used Skype to show some virtual worlds they were creating (using Unreal Engine - see previous post and comments). Fascinating stuff.
Virtual world numbers from virtual world news.
Virtual world venture captial from Cnet.

Contests/Festivals:

Bitfilm voting is over. All machinima nominees are listed here.
Hellgate London is having a contest. Machinima accepted (via What Providence).
Machinima will be shown at U of Wisc.
Machinima Europe is next weekend. Who's going?

Machinima News:

Paraworld movie game for kids.
Blizzard introduces WoW machinima page, recognizing the importance of machinima and coupled with their recent announcements on machinima usage, this is great news (WoWInsider).
Machinima mailing list and wiki for Second Life. Linden labs also realizes the importance of machinima.
Plopp moves sculpted prims into Second Life.

Machinima/Video Clips:

Artist almost drawing dirty pictures and then transforming them into something else (NSFW - WebTVHub).
Burning man time lapse (via O'reilley Radar).
Richard Kelly's Southland Tales trailer shows that the movie certainly looks to raise the bar on the weirdness from his first movie, Donnie Darko. Brazil meets Inland Empire, meets Donnie Darko?
Virtual Guatanamo in Second Life.
NewTeeVee has a list of Nintendo Odes.
When Cell Phones Attack (ad from Argentinian Leandro Fuez).
23 Things We've Learned From Movies (metacafe). Hilarious slide show (the pics are brilliant). There should be a contest to parody all of them in a single movie.
MachinimaCam demo for SL (via SecondLifeInsider).
Game Probe explores video game narratives (Thinking Cinematic, ie. Lucifer Jones, ie. Mike Jones). He also does Motion Sketches which is very impressive.
I'm sick of Halo3, but the Believe ad is well made. Production info on Motionographer.
Wired covered The Sex Life of Robots. Then YouTube pulled the video.
Lego Half Life episode one and two. Remaking HL stories using stop motion lego.
Club Elona hi-res Guild Wars machinima (via Mike Abundo).
More Guild Wars machinima listed here (from Max Damage).
Pirates in Saskatchewan using Everquest (Captain Tractor song).
IdeaWorld documentary on early days of Second Life.
iCloneTV covers Second Life Convention. Isn't that a little strange?
Greek tragedy Oresteia in the Sims2.
Elk Cloner student animation is impressive (via Cartoon Brew).
Terrible video game endings (so 8 bit - via Videosift).
Grouchobeer is back with his bizarre political commentary - Strange Interregnum.

Digital Online Video/Cinema/Imaging:

Some interesting notes on interactive cinema from the 1967 Montreal Expo from Czechoslovakia's entry the Kinoautomat (via Radio Praha).
NewTeeVee lists some new internet video startups. Scenecaster looks interesting (sharing 3D spaces with people?).
Graspr (more how-to videos).
Blade Runner to be released again this December. (Wired, NYT). One of my all time favorite movies, no matter what you think about the ending, the voiceover, or the ambiguity (or apparently not) about Deckard's humanity.
A comparison chart of 3D applications (extremely useful, but damn is 3DS expensive - via TDT 3D).
Flip Animation online magazine.
Digital puppetry (site, video).
David Cronenberg at the Washington Post
BoingBoingTV vs. Wired Science. Fight!
Dataisnature talks about live cinema. Interesting, and Indonesian shadow theater. Cool. (Solu).

Misc:

These images of the reimagining of books are fascinating (book autopsies - from Centripetal Notion). I wonder if it could be done with the world's longest book (million page books? - via
The Millions).

Digital Avant-Garde

Film Comment this month has a short article on Ubu, a digital depository for avant-garde films, writing, and resources. What a fantastic find! It includes over 300 films, interviews and readings (collection of William S. Burroughs mp3s), music, poetry, articles from a number of resources, all of them stretching quite far back in time. I could get lost in here for months.

My only question would be, why is this not yet part of the Internet Archive (warning, this site has problems right now)?

Machinima Info Barf #7

Been busy and have not done one of these in awhile, so the links accumulated.

Time to purge.

Welcome to the future. Grab some popcorn, this one is long.

Previous Info Barfs (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6).

====

Robots:

There seemed to be a lot of news about robots recently.
Artificial boy built.
According to defensetech.org, the first armed drone in Iraq has killed (the MQ-9 "Reaper").
More ED209 news from Iraq.
Is Iraq to be the playground for the military industrial complex R&D divisions?

eSports:

Shocking news, the WSVG is cancelled. I guess they could not compete with CGS.
CGS to give out $1 million in prizes.

Contests:

Amazon and Microsoft team up to allow up to 1000 indie film developers the ability to get their film pressed on to HD-DVD and available from Amazon.

Machinima news:

Oxhorn talks about advertising.
Anthony Bailey posts about the origins of the word machinima.
Adobe is entering real time 3D animation at least as a research project (and ray-tracing). I always wondered when some of the big players would start to enter this turf.
Shaping Youth talks about machinima.
Casual WoW lists some machinima guides.

Machinima/Video Clips:

Thes two clips mentioned at Frames Per Second magazine from the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival are fascinating. The first is Oh Hisse is by Hikaru Yamakawa and is either a celebration of rigidity, conformity, and the human machine, or is maybe a rejection of it, I haven't decided yet. Very Japanese. The second is Mix a Miniascape by Tomonori Hayase which has a cityscape constantly disassembling and reassembling as the viewer passes through it. Very cool (and must have taken a lot of work).
Speaking of lockstep, this human powered animation video is impressive.
Rubberdada episode #2 is released (rubberdada.com). This is just BIZARRE and sure to cause controversy. Juvenile, violent, immature, and yet strangely fascinating as it deals with topics like racism (episode #1 mentioned here). Think of South Park. They definitely seem to hate clowns.
More from the CRC Machinima Collection shot in SL. #1, #2.
This video of a system that allows users to create shadow puppets wherein extra animations are added in real time is very cool.
More Shadow Puppets.
Basho is a very impressive thirteen minute Japanese machinima (with English subtitles) made in Second Life with classic ninjas, shoguns, and the fate of a kingdom in hand at SL-machinima.com. Nice to see some hand-to-hand combat (English translated site; Metacafe trailer).
Someone liked the new GTAIV trailer so much, they remade it using GTAIII San Andreas (too bad the game is delayed till next year).
There's an epic machinima made in Halo called Trinity. I have not watched all of it.
Does what happen in Facebook stay in Facebook? Beware your personal bitstream and who's reading it.
Hallow3en is back with another musical machinima using U2's Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me.
OneJovialSim's Bjork based machinima Akin.
Someone's trying to escape their world. Do they succeed? Infiltrator.
Afonso Cuaron and Naomi Klein's trailer for The Shock Doctrine.
Animation Ramblings lists some iClone examples.
List of Siggraph shorts.

Video Games:

Remember when the specs for Microsoft's Xbox360, Sony's PS3, and the Nintendo Wii were released. Remember how everyone said Nintendo didn't know what it was doing and that it obviously couldn't compete in the high tech arena. Guess who's laughing now as the Wii outsells both the Xbox360 and the PS3, even after being released a year after the Xbox360. Never underestimate the company behind the plumber power Mario.
Neuromatrix is an educational video game where you enter a neuroscience facility and track down the nanobots invading the brains of the scientists within. Made by Morphonix. Check out the video introduction.
There was a report from the Eve Online economist and an interview on Slashdot. It would be nice to see reports from Second Life, WoW, and other MMOGs.
Artificial worlds to be artificial intelligence incubators. Now if only they can obey directions like "no, say it with more emotion".
Artificial worlds are the future of commerce.
The marines are using virtual worlds as training simulators.
VastPark is a virtual world content creation system. Site.
Next week, virtual worlds will do my laundry and wash the windows.

Digital Online Video/Cinema/Imaging:

Steam is a digital content delivery platform developed by Valve. Not only are a wide variety of games available, but apparently steammovies.com has been registered by Valve. If you've seen the recent videos Valve has made for Team Fortress 2 you will realize that high quality video can be delivered via Steam, either for free or after paying (via credit card).
Overman lists some free filmmaking tools. Other freeware/shareware lists specifically for Mac and more general tools here. More DIY list from The Workbook Project.
Revver has paid out $1 million to content creators to at least 25 000 people (the winners are the Diet Coke and Mentos people at $50 000). It may not be MySpace, which just seems to keep picking up new shows, but it is definitely a site to consider.
Speaking of which, NewTeeVee discusses what makes an online hit.
Brand Worlds 3D production for Flash and the web.
3D holographic display developed. Now when can I play Tank War Europa on it.
More 3D image creation using plasma balls.
SciVee brings science to the world of internet video.
IndyMogul talks about Reverse Shot, a film quarterly that goes into detail about film and cinema. Check out this extensive article on "the cut".

Clock Suckers

I just made a joke about someone remaking Dig Dug, now Clock Suckers drops a couple of animated characters in that a slew of other 80's games. The humor reminds me of Robot Chicken (NSFW).

Machinima Info Barf #6

Another huge collection of links all packed with vitamins and minerals.

Previous Info Barfs (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5).

Festival news:

There actually is some machinima being shown in the western hemisphere (see my nanorant on European machinima festivals).
The Second Life Community Convention in Chicago (Aug 24-26) will have a machinima track led by Moo Money.
Blizzcon announced the machinima winners for their contest in Ca. Oxhorn had an extensive post-fest writeup.

Interesting that the two large conventions/events holding machinima are both about virtual worlds/MMORPGs. Would you ever see something like this for The Sims, The Movies, Half Life? With all of these eSports events going on, why don't they showcase some machinima too?

Other festival news.

The International Fertility Film Festival will accept machinima (bizarre).
Bitfilm announces nominees. Now if only they would link the damn movies.

eSports:

New WoW observer mode discussed. Will it help sell eSports to the lay audience? Will it help in machinima?

Games:

A brief report on modding at TechNewsWorld including mention of Microsoft's XNA, and Sony's LittleBigPlanet (bringing modding and development to the consoles).
Unity game engine developers are having a dev contest. Interesting that it is for the Mac.
The Game Innovation DB. Who came up with what first?
Top 100 indie games at GameTunnel and 50 good indie games at Tigsource, and a list of linux games.

Machinima news:

Borg wars report at Nashua Telegraph.
Interview with Alexander Winn (The Codex, The Heretic).
Siggraph 2007 blog briefly mentions motion capture integration via iClone3 and animazoo's consumer-priced mo-cap suite.
Global Kids receiving a Macarthur Foundation award is awesome news. They will also be at SLCC.
Moviestorm to sponsor Mobile Jam Festival. Impressive looking creative festival.

Machinima/Video Clips:

Some referential machinima.
Overman noted that Officer Dan is back. In the extended Machinima vs. Frag Video, there's a riff on Deviation at the beginning.
Someone has cut up This Spartan Life and Red vs. Blue.

Other clips.

This looks like a discussion of machinima in German.
The Information Machine. 1957 cartoon about information.
Fatal Mortality - gamer riff on famous characters from movies and Mortal Kombat. Bizarre. Watch Rainman vs. Jules.
FonejackerTV. Bizarre animated prank calls. Odeon cinema. Flat to rent.

Digital Online Video/Cinema/Imaging:

Apparently someone liked my idea of having multiple YouTube videos playing at the same time so much that they created a site for them (ok, it was already there and I just discovered it). There's even a blog dedicated to split screen cinema.
Lance Weiler from The Workbook Project is interviewed extensively at Knowledge@Wharton. There's a lot of information here on digital distribution and how indie filmmakers can succeed.
A bloody expensive camera presented at Sci-Foo that can capture enough information to produce a 3D image. Forget the mapping potential, imagine capturing the "real world" around you and being able to reproduce in a virtual world.
Save a film. Upload it to the archive.
Digital screens expanding.
Marketing Harry Potter in Second Life (Hollywood Reporter, New World Notes). Successful or not? There has been a lot of discussion lately on whether Second Life is useful for marketing or not, including an article in Wired.
A list of free music sources (free and Creative Commons) for podcasters. Of interest to filmmakers too?
SFGate has an article on Charles Ferguson who made "No End In Sight", a documentary on Iraq. Internet millionaire decides to focus his life.
Anyone heard of Frameforge 3D previz and storyboarding software?

Machinima Info Barf #5

Another deluge of links. I suspect the hyperlink will become the dominate form of communication in the coming century. Overman's already doing it.

Previous Info Barfs (#1, #2, #3, #4).

eSports:

Discussion of the recent CBS airing of WSVG competition.

Games:

Quakecon announcements: Quake library coming to Steam, new iD game Rage (tech demo), Return to Castle Wolfenstein movie, Quake on the web, etc.
Disney buys Club Penguin for up to $700 million (yes, that's right - more than Murdoch paid for MySpace). Are virtual worlds the new dotcom bubble?
The Multiverse is coming. All I see is a machinima playground.

Machinima news:

Matt Kelland from Moviestorm is interviewed on Digital Production Buzz.
Brief slideshow of the history of machinima. In case you need some slides to present to a class.
Machinimasia workshops in July. Did anyone go? Intel sponsor. Quote:

Machinima currently has a community of more than 500,000...

Gotta love press releases.

Free Pixel has an excellent post on pre-viz that everyone should read.
Some sort of machinima film festival is announced on this MySpace page. If anyone has more info it would be greatly appreciated.
Red vs. Blue will release a five episode special series (promoting Halo3).

Machinima/Video Clips:

That was Dennis. Sad machinima in HL2.
Animation done in MS Paint. Not sure if I linked this yet.
Student videos from Johns Hopkins Digital Media Center course (I have not watched all of them).
Visualizing biochemistry in Second Life (where are the damn enzymes).
Quake movies at the Cineplex (old school machinima).
Faith, Hope, and Charity trailer (IL2 movie based on real life events during WWII).
William Gibson visits Second Life to promote his new book Spook Country (I, II).
More from Le Grand Prix MMO Machinima 2007 (have not watched these).
One Piece at a Time. Johnny Cash music video set in WoW.
Second Life videos (have not watched them all).

Digital Online Video/Cinema:

Information on the Miro (formerly Democracy) video player and aggregator.
Tube2SL film producer contest (animation, machinima, real life film).
Jing screen capture tool (from the makers of SnagIt and Camtasia).
Public domain films from the National Archives to be available from Amazon.
BoingBoing post about Polish movie posters.
50 best movie robots. I disagree with the placement. WTF is Kitt at #3. The video links are the best part.

Machinima Info Barf #4

I have not done one of these in a while.
Number 4 in this chaotic mash of info (#3, #2, #1).

Movies/Cinema

Postcards From The Future (via Wired)
Raiders: The Adaptation (DIY remake of Raiders Of The Lost Ark)
Most Powerful Person In The World (awesome! fun look at video games - YouTube)
Star Wars Clone Wars Sneak Peek (so sick of the prequels)
Tintin in 3D: Spielberg/Jackson (WTF?)
Grindhouse Movie Posters (from Somethingawful)

Onine Digital Video

Serial Storytelling
Onine Video Comparison (gigantic, better presentation needed)
Video Conversion/Encoding (this could also be presented in a better format)
The Second Wave (long)
Collaborative Film Making (mashups)

Video Contests

Comedy Central/Atomfilms - Pilots
Halogrid - Affinity Machinima Challenge
Virtual Live TV SL Machinima Contest (apex-high studio sponsor)

Machinima/Video Clips

Half-Life PC vs. Mac (somewhat amusing)
Action Figures Marvel vs DC (HBO needs to do a superheroes series)
The Making Of The Sims 2 (amusing - for the EA "Sims in the Hands of Artists)
The Carioca (also funny - Lionhead's The Movies short for Chrysler competition)
Snacky's Journal #1, #2 (Stage 6 machinima)
Guitar Hero Ad
Sonic's Revenge
The Saddam's Family (from the creator of Dubya and the Monkey)

Impressive Animated Short - CODE Guardian

BoingBoing linked to this animated short made by Cee-Gee called CODE Guardian a very well done animation of nazis, mechs, and fighting during WWII by Marco Spitoni. It sounds like it has been in production for quite some time, made in 3D Studio Max with models from XSI Softimage?

Cee-Gee Downloads (I recommend the hi-res version).

YouTube #1, #2
DailyMotion
(heck, you can find it just about anywhere)

Dev shots from XSI (thread).
Interview with one of the modellers.
CGTalk Thread.