machinima ideas

Our next project requires a wide variety of research before it can be accomplished. We must be able to know about camera angles, types of characters, and issues/genres we want to focus on. There was a hand full of machinimas that particularly inspired me. In Secret Lives, I was moved by the fact it used topics that are controversial in our society. It focused on two gay couples and their problems. The story included camera angels from above the characters and from the stairs which made it seem like a movie. When words won’t necessary, the story used a song instead of dialogue. At the end of both episodes, there was a cliffhanger in order to keep the viewer hooked. Finally, it used blurry images to show a certain scene that occurred in the past. Addiction was my personal favorite machinima since it involved a real issue that affects thousands; gambling addictions. It used dramatic music and close ups of his face to show his desperation and pain. Even thought the character isn’t real, the viewer feels compassion for him. Better World has one narrator who talks about the protest on Second Life. Even though the piece is obviously one sided, it does show that many people are involved in the protests and the power they have. My Second Life tells a powerful story of a man who went missing and was found on Second Life. He left his “straight world” behind, referring to it as a useless appendage, in order to live in Second Life. He liked the idea he could be whoever he wanted. The Fixer is a brutal story of a hit man. The plot and characters were very similar to any sort of action movie. It was in Europe which is a new location I haven’t seen before and used a black screen while the main character talked for dramatic effect. Other things I noticed in machinimas I haven’t mentioned yet were uses of robots instead of people, camera following a piece of paper, the use of a music video, and using black and white.
For my machinima on “Little Brother”, I want to add a scene that gives a different perspective to a character. In this new scene, Van desperately hands off the story to Barbara Stratford. Therefore, I am not only adding a scene but changing the main character to Van and analyzing her feelings. Adding this scene makes Van seem physically and emotionally stronger. At the end, she would make her final decision to stop communications with Marcus showing her strength. Also, I am thinking about changing the setting to Nazi Germany. Though this would be disturbing, I think it would add an intensity that the book doesn’t have since San Francisco is known as an accepting city. Marcus and the Xnet would be anti-communists while the Nazis would be Homeland Security. The use of technology couldn’t be as prominent due to the time change, but the characters and events would remain similar.