overcast #011a
Episode 11 is a bit of a break from regular format, as it was recorded “on the road.” I share my personal thoughts at the end of the first day of the Machinima Film Festival here in part A. Part B will be a post-festival wrap-up, which will be released in the coming week.
Thanks for listening! Let me know what you think.
This Week’s Hot List (URLs from the show’s content):
- 2006 Machinima Film Festival
- Overman’s Quest for a Portable Audio Recorder
- The E3 Parody Overcast
- Wikipedia: NYC
- Mu Nansen: Leave It At Home
- Paul Marino // Ill Clan
- Hugh Hancock
- Friedrich Kirshner
- The Adventures of Bill and John
- Jon Griggs’ “Deviation”
- Tra5hta1k
- The Museum of the Moving Image
- Awards Host: Todd Levin / Tremble.com
- Reallusion // iClone
- Garage Games’ Torque Engine
- Short Fuze’s MovieStorm
- Mwrr’s movie-making tool
- Featured Music for this podcast was by Curandero, from the soundtrack of The Fixer (Winner, Best Series, MFF06)
Comment by CoyoteRepublic — November 8, 2006 at 1:48 pm
Awesome cast. Where have I been all this time? I’ll be a regular now.
I’m not so sure about iClone but it does have potential. The games industry will come around. But they will want their share. Right now it costs more for them to answer emails and return phone calls than they will ever make back in rev sharing. First it needs the big hit, the South Park or Toy Story.
Was expecting Psycho theme in the end shower scene…
Ingrid / CR
Comment by John Martin aka Animize — November 8, 2006 at 7:29 pm
Great show, as usual! It was a blast to meet you at MF2006 and I look forward to continuing to fly the Machinima flag with you and all my brothers/sisters in film. Your support and endorsement of iClone is truly awesome and we’ll continue to push the frontier for independent filmmaking at Reallusion. Keep rockn’ the good word and informing the masses about our craft, you’re the voice of our movement.
Thanks,
John Martin
aka Animize
Reallusion \ iClone
Comment by sebsav — November 8, 2006 at 7:38 pm
guy… you should know the difference between a humble person, and someone unable to speak a correct english…
Seb
KBS Prod
Comment by Suhnder — November 8, 2006 at 8:05 pm
Nice episode! Can’t wait for the next part.
Was very nice to meet you, Phil. I regret not being able to hang out with you more!
Comment by HatHead — November 9, 2006 at 1:06 am
Great show Overman! There was one point, when you said “gung ho’, the music timing was perfect.
Catch all the iClone good times at coolclones.com!
Comment by todnyc — November 9, 2006 at 11:51 am
I’ve never been a party to a podcasted dinner before.
I agree whole heartedly, iClone is a serious alternative.
My question is what do we lose when we stray from games into tools?
Comment by HatHead — November 10, 2006 at 12:17 pm
todnyc - we lose the scoring system when we move from games in tools. While a game may provide a universe for a film, machinima has already removed the story from the game - each film is unique, each movie tells its own individual story, each work is its own. In a game, you are measured by how well you do against the maximum potential experience of the overall story, typically ‘finishing’ it in a big climatic resolving scene.
On a more philosphical note, we play games to have fun and use tools to do work. Perhaps machinima is starting to grow up a little. Overman has used a similar metaphor before - ‘the children of anymation’. Both a little sad and exciting at the same time - parents know this feeling all to well.
I think that tools like iClone will allow more people to tell their stories by removing the requirements to defeat the game at some level however it doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the cyberpunk edge that gives machinima its flavour.
Comment by Suhnder — November 10, 2006 at 8:32 pm
One clear thing you lose from the transition is advertising. The nature of game based machinima is that you get free advertising and exposure, especially if it is a popular game.
In a sense it is like starting over and finding a new audience.
But machinima made in games will always exist. It will never go away as long as better looking games with more flexible tools are being released. *cough*UE3*cough*
Comment by gToon — November 10, 2006 at 9:43 pm
What a great impromptu show. How many times have I not been able to figure out a simple shower faucet when I’m at a hotel. I was laughing with you all the way. Wonderful stuff, Phil.
So many interesting topics you bring up. The rights discussion at the festival was certainly a splash of cold water on the face. John Martin’s presentation a bit later was good timing. Having worked with John and with IClone, I think it stands a good chance of becoming a much more popular tool for serious machinima filmmakers. Suhnder is right in that game based machinima won’t go away, but many of the good filmmakers might leave because of the murky rights issues and because of the huge silence from game companies. Paul has been working for the last two years to create a special license for machinimators, but to date there’s only Epic (Unreal) that has a license (and an expensive one at that).
There was talk at the Fest of banding together as filmmakers and sending a letter to major game companies; trying to apply pressure and get them to communicate. If this doesn’t work, I know I will be forced to work in programs that allow me to own my own material. Todd is right in that we may end up losing something with this approach, but I think what we gain will be more than worth it.
I’ll be posting a longer commentary on the fest and these issues in my journal at Mprem.com in the next couple of days. I’ve also got some documentary footage I’m trying to slap together. Will post as soon as I can.
Another great show, Phil. Too bad you couldn’t get your recorder in the theatre. Strange that they let my video camera inside. Go figure…
Comment by John Martin II — November 13, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Thanks again for the cool cast Phil. I’ve uploaded the video from the Machinima Tech Showcase here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=AmiT-3RwvEg
Comment by KradProductions — November 20, 2006 at 11:55 pm
Excellent episode mate. This is actually the first one I’ve listened to (I live under a dark, dank rock). Was it Conan O’Brien who hosted the last Academy Awards? I would have sworn it was Jon Stewart.
Comment by overman — November 21, 2006 at 11:29 am
I think I said Emmy Awards, which Conan did host; if I didn’t, I meant to: Emmys. Not sure on the Academy Awards, I didn’t watch the most recent ones, but I think Jon Stewart did host those.
Comment by Frank Fox aka FLeeF — December 20, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Your latest podcast is the first podcast I have ever lexperienced. You’re enjoyable to listen to. Thank you for turning me on to Iclone.
My instant thought on the tools vs game discussion is that for now I am enjoying making lemonade out of lemons. That is to say that GTA:SA has challenged me to try and make a good film in spite of the limitations of the game and the hacks and the modifications; however, I’m sure that soon I will want to take a break from that battle and work with more cooperative puppets. That’s why Iclone looks kinda tasty.
Thank you again for the narrative on the current events of Machinima.