Machinima Discussion

I was very skeptical about the whole concept of machinima before watching some of these clips and seeing what can be accomplished with the programs machinima has to offer. After viewing some of the videos that won Mackie Awards I realized that in order to make an accomplished and respectable production of machinima the director/creator must make the scene as realistic as possible--or conversely completely absurd that it is funny opposed to unrealistically stupid. In order to generate such a film there needs to be a variety of camera angles and camera shots. If a film remains static it quickly becomes uninteresting and uncaptivating.

The variation in voice, fluctuation and emphasis, is necessary due to the fact the characters mouths cannot be animated in the same way as a real human actors is capable of doing. Everything from emotion to tone is emulated through the speech and therefore is very key in the production process. Additionally, I thought it was interesting to see how dialogue does not necessarily need to occur when a character in in the frame. You can speak even if there is not a close-up on the character which I think will be important to remember during filming and editing in case a shot desired is not able to be filmed.

One of the major notes I gathered from the screenplays was the amount of detail included in each and every screenplay. I gather that the more detail there is in the screenplay the easier the filming process will be. In some cases there was as much non-dialogue as there was dialogue itself. It is important to note the desired lighting, time of day, action of supporting characters and what type of shot is being taken.

I feel like having a machinima that is realistic and relatable is going to be key to intriguing audiences and allowing them to enjoy and connect with the short film. An idea I had was to continue the game of Harijuku Fun Madness or potentially creating an escape from Treasure Island. Possibly another idea would be to continue the love triangle of Van, Darryl, and Marcus and create a kind of melodrama/soap opera episode of what would have happened if Marcus and Van had gotten involved and when Darryl was released his coping with that etc. This would be a more absurd take on Little Brother with the concept and theme of relationships at the center of the idea.