It Movied!

I was just going to pop on here to say a quick word but found the following I wrote a few weeks back. So I'll let it out even though I didn't follow the thought through. It's a voice though. And interesting enough, this self reflection became the quiet before a creative storm.


Ahh man, whats that post below say? November 2007? Sad, sad. I've been struggling a bit with my place in 'things'. 2007 was pretty much a blur with the development of Mass Effect (mini interview round-up GameDev, MTV and VFXWorld) and shortly after I was done I moved over to Dragon Age to see this project through to the store shelves. Dragon Age is being built from the ground up with BioWare's own in house engine so its been exciting overseeing the development of the machinima tools we need to create cool interactive cinematics for this game.

Also, along with these huge game projects I've been fortunate to travel to 2 other game studios, Pandemic LA and EA LA, to consult on some upcoming titles. With being a cinematic designer with BioWare, a company that is focused on story based games and are pushing digital acting as a major component of storytelling, I've been able to provide valuable feedback into how other studio's are tackling this technology. The latest trip to EA LA was for one of Spielberg's upcoming projects and I can't lie, it was pretty damn cool. And being that close and under the hood of a Spielberg project was a pretty fantastic feeling.

I often have to personally reflect and appreciate the journey I've had from humble machinima hobbiest to consulting on such a major game title (not to mention overseeing a portion of some kick ass AAA titles). How the fuck did I stumble into this good fortune I often ask myself. The answer is simple. Passion, determination and honest hard work. A long while back in my personal studies of Joseph Campbell the one statement that stuck out for me and has been a somewhat mantra is 'Follow your bliss". It seems straight forward enough, almost too straight forward. Life can't be that easy. The key word here being 'bliss' and knowing what that is. That is a big part of the journey, but once your eye is on the ball it seems things just fall into place. I can only speak for me of course, but this is my experience.

Things are in a place right now, as chaotic and concerning some social and global situations are, that its possible to focus full time, and get paid for, producing art (and yes that statement translates to games = art, welcome to the new millennium). It's easy to take this for granted but its like when something good happens and your a little weary of loosing it. The world can change in a second and suddenly just feeding your family can be the most important thing in the world. So I often ask myself, what impact does what I do have on the world, on people? I wish I could make games for games sake, or make films for films sake, but eventually, you have to start looking at what your doing, how you are contributing to community, society, humanity, is something more than empty experiences or meaningless fodder. That's why Alex Chan's film created such huge waves, he took a medium, an art form, and created a message. Spoke to the world. And possibly, in some chaotic, untraceable way, made a difference.

I don't believe Alex Chan set out to do what he did. He was driven to speak to a condition, he was passionate in doing so and with a lot of hard work he created something he released into the social consciousness. Peter Rasmussen was a screenwriter and machinima filmmaker who recently passed away. I had never met Peter but I knew of him. His machinima productions stood out. They were professional, deep and reflective. And I think in some chaotic, untraceable way, Peter made a difference in the world too. Just simply by creating and contributing to the community.

I don't think one has to be conscious in orchestrating changes into our social consciousness, but sometimes just saying something... anything.. you are a voice. And I think by following your bliss, that voice becomes louder and more meaningful to others.


And based on the entries I'm reviewing for the 2008 Online Machinima Film Festival (OMFF) Machinima is becoming a very loud megaphone. :)

So it happens shortly after writing the above I received some clarity of mind and have something pretty fantastic brewing in my spare time. It will be many months before I'll be able to share, but sharing is a main part of the plan, thanks mdot. Watch This Space.

Also, I've been missing out on some great machinima community events run by Machiniplex and Overman. I PROMISE I'll make it to one very, very soon.

The Next Gen of Machinima Has Begun

So I could go on in this space about how fantastic and happy we've been with the release of Mass Effect and how the reviews have been really great. I could also talk about how excited the cinematic design team is with the reception of the 'interactive storytelling' element of the game that we specifically worked sooo hard on. Especially when you get very phenomenal feedback like,

The cinematic design is nothing short of masterful. This is a game that takes the aspects of film that make cinema so compelling and crosses it with the interactivity of games with unprecedented success. Linear storytelling feels quaint by comparison. IGN

And you would think I would be jumping up and down right now saying 'Run don't walk! Go buy Mass Effect!!'.

But I'm not.

Instead I'm going to use this space to mention something else. Something far more important to the machinima community. On Tuesday when you think we would have been celebrating the release of Mass Effect, my co-worker Jon Perry was calling around Edmonton looking for copies of the newly released Unreal Tournament 3.

I think most people interested in machinima knows what this means. Unreal Tournament is a pillar in the history of machinima for the unreal engine it's built upon and its modding capabilities. Right from the days of Quake 2, Unreal Tournament was there with its own set of community based machinima tools. With the release of Unreal Tournament 2003/2004 a new generation of machinima came with it. And now with Unreal Tournament 3 for the PC, built with the Unreal 3 engine, the next generation of tools for hardcore machinima making has arrived. I know this because we built Mass Effect on top of the Unreal 3 engine, which is why a large portion of the cinematic design team was at EB Games today buying among the first copies available in Edmonton, right from the box they were shipped in behind the counter.

Once I got it home and installed, I went straight into the editor and started giggling like a little girl as I saw it all there. Kismet, Matinee, FaceFX, everything. Obviously you wouldn't be able to build Mass Effect with this, but all the base tools and technology we built on top of is there.

This game being released with these tools brings amazing power to the hands of machinima makers. Yes, you will have a learning curve to overcome. Yes, there will be a lot of technology to digest. And yes, there is very little help and documentation right now out there to help you through. But master this engine and tools, and the medium is yours. (ok, ok, that last part is heavy on the cheese, but you get my point).

So Run, don't walk, and go buy this game. Crack it open and start poking around. You'll be on the crest of the next gen of machinima.

Oh, and buy Mass Effect while your there.

;)

The Everseason - Radiohead Mix

The Everseason was a machinima film I did a few years back. The other day I dug it up and replaced the soundtrack provided by Randy Jones with the original song that it was inspired by, Radiohead's 'Exit Music (for a film)' from the album OK Computer.

And then it was done

Well the cinematic design team is pretty much hands off now on Mass Effect. It's going through the development cycle of release candidates until it hits gold and will be on the shelves November 20th.

It was an extremely exciting and challenging journey. I've estimated that if you put all the digital acting we implemented back to back, which includes full voice, body and face performance you would have well over 24 hours of continuous digital acting. And that's not including all the non-verbal performance of the characters around the speaker. A feat not to be taken lightly.

Throughout production the cinematic design team has had some incredibly interesting discussions and gained some very valuable perspectives. Our role in the production of BioWare's games is so unique that we are constantly challenging our assumptions and ideas. Our role at it's most basic form is implementing story content within the game, but, as is recognized industry wide, there is always a question of the how's and why's of 'story' within games. I have some idea's on this based on our experiences that I'm pulling together now the project is done, but my point being that coming in from the machinima world this experience has opened my eyes to a lot of new possibilities in storytelling. Deeper forms of storytelling that touch upon the element of personalized experience and emotional connection that was never possible before. I strongly believe machinima, both as technique and medium, is a powerful device in exploring and achieving some of these possibilities. ..more to come on this topic.

There is a good overview of some of the stuff we did on Mass Effect on the 1UP show, episode 97. Once its loaded in, fast forward to about 18:20.



Now on to DragonAge!

Your Interactive fell into my Cinema! Mmmmm!

I think its time I come up for air to share some cool things. One interesting thing that has almost slipped by under the radar is based on the news from virtual world media company Millions of Us hiring Douglas Gayeton. The tidbit that is most interesting is his documentary film, “Molotov Alva: Video Diaries from My Second Life”, was the first machinima ever screened at the Cannes Film Festival and is the first piece of its kind to be acquired for distribution as a television series. You think as far as the machinima community is concerned this would have been far bigger news than a side note in a new hire press release.


Video of My SecondLife by Douglas Gayeton

Along the lines of my main focus right now, interactive machinima, I recently came across this example. It mixes Half Life 2 and flash into a very avant garde piece made and shot in Gmod. Explore the Shanghai Gallery.

Finally, as I focus on polishing up Mass Effect with the other cinematic designers for its release in November (nice to be able to actually say that now) the cinematic design team has been working hard in getting our kick ass conversations and cutscenes together. The interactive narrative we've pulled off for this game is nothing short of amazing, and we are happy to see other people in agreement with us since our showing last week at E3. Microsoft showed off one of our cool trailers at the event.


Mass Effect E3 tralier

But best of all, totally unexpected by us, one of the conversations shown behind closed doors made it out to the web. This conversation was done by my co-worker Armando Troisi, and as far as machinima goes, its a powerful representation of the level of interactive storytelling that will be in Mass Effect. This is pure real time interactive game footage (and one of the best machinima pieces out there right now in my obviously biased opinion).


Mass Effect Interactive Conversation

Cool stuff. Finally, if your going by a magazine stand, make sure to stop and check out the article and picture in EGM (electronic gaming monthly) of Chris Burke, of 'This Spartan Life' fame. He is profiled as a machinima director. It was very cool coming across this while flipping through the rag. I was a big fanboy of Chris at last year's machinima film fest.

Play the Movie, Experience the Story.

Oh man. This site is like an onion. The more code I pull back the more the site falls apart. Wait.. thats not the saying about onions. Well whatever. The point being I've been plugging away at a new layout for 3dfilmmaker.com for a few minutes here and there over the last few weeks (could it be months? I'm loosing track of time. Omg it is months...). Really all I want to do is post stuff but I can't stand the sight of this site anymore. I'll keep at it with the 5 minutes a week I find myself with.

But with this week's 5 minutes I'm posting. I started reading an early release of the recent Mass Effect book. I find it amazingly cool to be reading this full fledge novel that is a precursor to the game we're working on. I don't know if there is a precedent on a full book being available before a game, but I find it very cool that one can choose to deeply immerse themselves in the mythology of the story before starting their hands-on adventure.

Amazon

Even though I am eating, sleeping and ... drinking Mass Effect right now I still keep a close eye on whats up with the Machinima scene. Lots of cool things going on with MovieStorm, Georgia Tech, etc. But what I'm continuing to see is a strong surge of interest in what is building to be one of the next big steps in 'entertainment' (and I'm obviously biased because I feel I'm working on one of the biggest testaments of it). Interactive Storytelling.

Machinima has always been the convergence of film, animation and video games but interest in this convergence is going far beyond a tasty and experimental mix into a full fledge fusion. Many Internet voices within the gaming community are discussing the role of storytelling in games, and many Internet voices in the film industry are discussing the role of games as cinema. So one strong focus point that is bubbling to the surface is the idea of Interactive Storytelling. I think over the next few years we will see some fantastic examples of this becoming a very real and tangible entertainment venue. And the amazing thing is this method of 'experiencing a story' can be busted loose in an unlimited number of ways.

As foreshadowed by the studio's "Mad World" Gears of War TV spot, Digital Domain won't be using game engines for just games. Also on the agenda will be a series of teen-targeted animated features, which will utilize machinima er, a "new" cost-effective animation method.
Joystick

Now Interactive Storytelling is not a new concept, and its definition can be as vague as that of machinima's. But what I'm seeing first hand is an incredibly exciting new era that the two are bringing about, and machinima is very key to this. People may argue why you should or should not make films using machinima over traditional 3d apps, and you'll always have people on both sides of the fence, but as soon as you change the game (no pun intended) where you have a medium that changes in real-time to respond to the audience, there is no alternative. That is the core, untapped power of Machinima and it quite possibly will usher in a new era of storytelling.

“Halo 3” will set a new standard for interactive storytelling and social gaming by engaging consumers worldwide in Master Chief’s epic battle to save humankind.
Microsoft

As machinima continues to explore itself in all its new and different forms, I truly believe that Interactive Storytelling (aka the Interactive Machinima branch) will take everyone by surprise. And I can't wait to show you why.

My 5 minutes is up. More to come. Stay tuned.

iBlog

Hello...

Hello.... ?

Is this thing on?

Well I hear my voice so it must be on.

Look at this place. It's so old and outdated. Doesn't anyone live here anymore?

Look at all these links.. they're all ancient or broken. And the machinima picks? They're all so like '2004'. That's like the '60's in machinima years. Even the news is old and sparse.

I'm going to look around back and see if I can find anyone. In the mean time, check out this cool machinima vid done in HL2. It ROXS!