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Xbox As An Indie Movie Studio
jhsiao writes "The NYT has an article about machinima and movies set entirely within video games. In the article they interview a number of machinima artists including the folks at Rooster Teeth Productions who brought us Red vs. Blue." From the article: "He created a comedy series called ''Red vs. Blue,'' a sort of sci-fi version of ''M*A*S*H.'' In ''Red vs. Blue,'' the soldiers rarely do any fighting; they just stand around insulting one another and musing over the absurdities of war, sounding less like patriotic warriors than like bored, clever video-store clerks."
It may well be the Monty Python skit of the funniest joke ever told being lobbed into the warring enemy's camp stirred the imagination of Rooster Teeth Productions to bring us "Red vs. Blue".
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
This is why I gave in and signed up for a free account with the NYT with a "created for one time use" email address and set it to remember me.
It may be a "soul sucking registration", but at least I can click on the original link and RTFA.
As a side note... The series this company does called The Strangerhood is also quite good.
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
Relevant to this article, though, I have to say, I don't think this would ever take off as a legitimate source of quality independent films for three reasons:
1. Serious filmmakers would just invest in software aimed specifically at professional 3D animations.
2. If successful independent films started coming out of X-boxes or other consoles at any significant rate, there'd be royalty, DMCA, and/or copyright lawsuits from the console makers.
3. While slow cookers are a convenient way for bachelors to prepare healthy and tasty meals without taking to much time for the prep work, darker beer will always be for us to animate in Hollywood.
Instead of the hollywood mess and foot dragging that has been going on.
Watch out Pixel! XBox, PS3, and Mac Mini's are coming to an apartment near you!
i would of expected something funnier. they just don't troll like they used to.
lameness filter thwarted.
come on, admit it, you posted the parent comment anonymously, and then replied to it, right? Maybe? I guess I can't prove it...but I've done worse things. A guilty conscience can't trust in anyone else, I guess.
Lets see red vs. blue just finished season 3, with a insanely large number of fans waiting for season 4. So basically you are totally and completely wrong. I mean at least visit the website once.
Philosophy.
It actually shows pretty clearly what is wrong with present attempts at continued IP extension; it suppresses innovation and originality at the expense of a fossilised business model.
Kids have always played with dolls and toy soldiers and engaged in imaginative play. This is actually a way of actualising that play in a reproducible manner. It's getting back to a core process of the human imagination, and suddenly making it more than just a transient entertainment for a few children.
Up till now animation has been a relatively expensive process which puts it under the control of studios, or results in tiny cartoons produced with great labor by students. This shows that the process is now ready to be democratised - if it is allowed to happen. Potentially Open Source could do this, by creating Open Source animation engines which work with Open Source avatars - meaning that kids (and people a lot older) could create and release those avatars. The result? Well, if it's like music, where the means did NOT result in talented outsiders getting much exposure via the P2P networks, but does result in a lot of piracy, it will be disappointing. But it would be nice if, for once, educators and others got a clue and encouraged kids to use their creative talent on computer generated animation.
On a slightly relatied topic, I do not believe that the real driving force behind the attack on P2P networks is fear of piracy. Piracy just legitimises the existing pyramid structure of content creation and distribution. They are under attack because of the fear that one day they might result in democratisation of content creation and distribution - which would destroy the recording industry and the movie industry as their "blockbuster" lowest common denominator model had to compete within a huge number of niche markets. That's where freedom (the right to create and distribute without being suppressed by the monopolist) meets Marxist socialism - the idea that citizens rather than capitalists should own the means of production and distribution.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Red vs Blue isn't that great. Sure, it can be funny in a stupid sort of way. But there are far better methods of entertainment out there. Hell, I'd rather read an online comic strip. Or watch something that acually makes use of ANIMATION (like Homestar) rather than just a bunch of talking heads.
Red vs Blue reminds me of the Garfield comic strip. Gee, what's Garfield up to today? Sitting on the table and talking to John? And he hates Mondays? And he steals Johns Lasagna then smacks Odie in the teeth? HAAHHAAHAH friggin Hilarious, that Garfield is such a cad.
Please note that I covered about 99% of all Garfield comics in ONE PARAGRAPH.
Bored, Lazy Video Game Store Clerks: The Game
Buy your copy of the game at the store today to get it autographed by a bored, lazy video game store clerk! Hurry while supplies last.
It's about time somebody started an open source equivalent of Stunt Island, but expanded to the whole range of movie requirements....
That is about completely and utterly wrong. Still going strong after 3 seasons. Funny, but yet not as disturbing as Salad Fingers (total of 6 episodes there). I may have to buy the DVDs. "And I though I told you to stop making up mythological creatures!"
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
Or if you really wanna stick it to the man... www.bugmenot.com !
My friends and I (none of whom were/are stoned) recently finished watching season 2 in our dorm. RvB is hilarious and no, we do not watch the dancing jesus.
This sig has not been evaluated by the FDA. It is not designed to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease.
It was a troll, you must be new here.
1. Copy story location.
2. Paste into google search
3. click on link that appears on the google search page.
4. ???
5. Profit
"It's so convenient to have a system where everyone is a criminal" - A. Hitler
Ironically, the link in the summary apparently contains the neccessary HTTP GET cruft to make NYT think that it's coming from a partner, bypassing the need to register. You could have simply clicked on the link to read the story.
You let your soul be sucked off for nothing. Another Slashbot has succumbed to the NYT side of the Net. But fortunately, the NYT website seems to have forgotten to add a shield before the exhaust port that leads directly to the main article database, and our brave Slashdot editors have gotten their hands on the secret plans; but already the forces of the FBI and their villainous leader, Dark Suit, are in hot pursuit. Will the secret base of the Slashdot editors be found ? Will CmdrTaco be captured ? Will the DMCA be invoked ? Find out in the next exciting episode of... Slashdotted !
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Keep an eye out. Hopefully in about a month I'll be releasing something that should change a few minds. (btw, I created "Ours Again," and am one of the producers referred to working on "Game On" in the article).
Have you tried Bug Me Not. It's a firefox extension.
... the best part is it's free.
Just right click on the "Signup" thing and click "bugmenot" and it goes on the internet and finds you a login. It also works for alot of other sites out there.
Check it out
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This really has nothing to do with MS...lol. It could have just as easily said Gamecube or PS2, but the truth is that most of these machinma shows are made with Halo on an Xbox.
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Referring to the Xbox as THE game console is like referring to the Mac as THE personal computer.
What's up with Slashdot, and these other publications like the New York Times, talk about Xbox like it's what the kids are playing these days? It's selling like 1/5th the rate of the PS2. I don't have either of these consoles, but I'd still like to know why the less successful product in an industry composed of only a handful of competitors get this publicity.
UNIX: A computer user is defined as a programmer. WINDOWS: A computer user is defined as a consumer.
While I'm not 100% certain, I believe machinima began with Quake, yet it's strangely absent from machinima discussions. Arguably the greatest (but certainly the largest and most ambitious) machinima movie for Quake is Seal of Nehahra. It's a background movie to the Nehahra modification (which has extensive cutscenes as well). I think the length is close to three hours. The story was written by a published writer, and it's an expanded version of Quake's originally vague backstory interconnected with Nehahra's own storyline. Custom engine, custom maps, custom music, custom models, multiple voice actors... even before Nehahra and Seal of Nehahra were released, Quake was already forgotten by the rest of the gaming world, so I guess that's why it's never mentioned.
Another movie worth mentioning is Eschaton: Darkening Twilight, which was one of the few attempts at serious machinima (along with Nehahra). I think it had some Cthulhu themes in it. A sequel was made for Quake II (Nightfall), but as far as I know it was discontinued after that.
Quake had a lot of great machinima, far more ambitious than what I've seen these days. I've seen a bit of Red Vs. Blue and it didn't really impress me. Maybe I just watched some lackluster episodes. Over the Counter-Strike had a few funny episodes, but it was really just voice acting in official CS maps. I admit that I don't actively follow machinima, so I don't really know what kind of stuff is being made these days, but the more famous (or "mainstream") machinima like RvsB isn't as good as the older Quake stuff.
The new Half-Life 2 short movie, "A Few Good G-men," is a nice example of what Source can do with its facial expressions and lip synching and such, but I wonder if anyone will take it further by making a longer, original movie.
As for that article, I find it very strange. It makes machinima seem like it was invented by Red Vs. Blue, and that there's something profoundly mysterious and amazing about it. I mean, does RvsB take as much work as making maps, models, music and textures from scratch along with engine modifications? I doubt it. Some of the earliest machinima pieces for Quake were much like RvsB, but they became more complex, and now it seems like we're back at square one.
The key thing you're missing here is that these games don't require you to own the system they play on (unless it's a PC game, obviously).
I personally love playing games (and I mean actually playing them, not watching them) but I find Red vs. Blue to be brilliant in a very smart-ass way. It's another example of using a medium to spoof the medium. A lot of the humor of RvB revolves around making fun of FPS conventions (like that island or whatever from season 2 where everyone talks like those annoying 12 year old online gamers).
Another positive note, you don't have to own the game. For me, this can be VERY good because I cannot STAND Halo, but still love RvB.
Judge a video or series based on its quality, not how it is made (unless you're judging animation QUALITY of course).
Nyet!
1) Your analysis is based on bad assumptions so your result is way off. 2) You're a sick bastard for fucking a horse.
You're late by 3 seasons.
Has anyone else noticed a disconnect between the people who tote rifles into harm's way and the people who write stories about toting rifles into harm's way? Back before Rumsfeld ended the draft (hehe, during the Nixon administration), there was a chance that an future playwrite or author would get drafted and come back writing something like Catch-22 or Platoon or somesuch. And the guys working on the movie with him would have a gut feel for what things are like based on their memories of Korea or Germany, etc.
Nowadays, the guy writing the screenplay for the TV show or movie that features military people doing military things will have no military experience. I cite as an example the stories about a heavy cruiser whose designation was NC-1701. When scripts for this warship were written in the '60s they reflected a passing familiarity with military protocol and decorum. The scripts for the recently cancelled series at the end of this franchise seemed not to.
I'm sorry, you can't show the kid playing with the barbie doll in the movie since you are stealing the design and looks of barbie, hence our intellectual property.
Ah yes, and the color the room is painted in is trademarked by our subsidary.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
In other words, don't touch my troll babies!!
Nobody's gay for Mole-Man.
The counterstrike episode is like that too. I haven't seen many, but that one (I think its 37?) is very funny.
specifying the exact appearance and motions of every single movable part of the human body several times a second for the period of several minutes is an inherently labor-intensive task.
Inherently? Why would it take any more than "several minutes" once the character is modeled, textured, and articulated? Can't an actor put on a highly contrasty suit and act on stage in real time, where video cameras and/or other sensors feed the performance into the computer and turn it into a motion sequence?
And occationally, into you.
Ok Paul Graham. I guess if the reporters used LISP they could generate their own stories.
--
WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
red vs blue is pretty boring actually.
you want funny? the live action pure pwnage is a scream.
a lot of these sites.. they're poorly ran. i saw this one halo2 site that did videos and they're bitching because they got a $3000 bandwidth overage charge. they're pretty much gonna come and go, so basically its not even worth my time checking them out.
lameness filter thwarted.
For not having the draft!
You can do whatever you want. You can choose to download a RvB episode, you can make one yourself, or you can play Halo. Or not.
I think it's kinda funny, you don't, but it really has nothing to do with the game Halo itself.
People purchase computers to do whatever they want with them - not just your rigid idea of what you SHOULD do with them.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
http://extensions.roachfiend.com/bugmenot.xpi
The Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences has announced the 2005, not so annual, Machinima Film Festival. The festival will once again be held at the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York.
Machinima in general has grown in popularity and commercial success since the last festival in 2003 with such recent work as Paul Marino's Half Life 2 music video, "I'm Still Seeing Breen" appearing on MTV2's Video Mods, Rooster Teeth's recent series of shorts for IFC, the Nisha Chronicles for GMD Studios' latest A.R.G. promoting the Audi A3, and The ILL Clan's "Gamer Gags" for SpikeTV.
In all it's been a good year for Machinima, and it's only August.
I, for one, welcome the New York Times to two years ago.
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
I think you're missing the point of RvB.
These guys use the Halo engine to cut together their own comedy show, a technique called machinima. It's similar in principle to using modelling clay and a video camera to produce animation comedy. You download and watch videos of this from their website. You can also buy DVDs of past series. It's not like you're actually playing Halo with them!
If you like their style of humour, you'll find it pretty damn funny.
Try it out, see what you think.
Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
I hope I have time to get the location of the Grail written out before I die.
Here may be found the last words of Joseph of Arimathea. He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle of aaarrrrggh....
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This isn't the sig you're looking for. Move along.
2. If successful independent films started coming out of X-boxes or other consoles at any significant rate, there'd be royalty, DMCA, and/or copyright lawsuits from the console makers.
What makes you think Microsoft owns the copyright to every game played on the XBOX? Those rights lie with the game manufacturer. And where's the defeating of a protective measure that would bring the DMCA into play? This is done by capturing non-Macrovisioned analog outputs. Or is any recording device now considered a circumvention device?
I want to engage in pretenious opinion spewing now.
And someone modded it as Insightful?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Well ... because it's not just for the NYT. Im lazy .. I want my content NOW not after signing up for 3000 things and such.
Why must you come to conclusions mr angry Anonymous Coward ?
Solosoft.org - Your Online Resource to Nothing
... that you'd be smart if you didn't waste your time doing machinima. I'm not going to get into the argument of whether or not something is funny or interesting, what I am going to talk about is ownership.
I can't remember when I read it but Gabe at Penny Arcade explained why you should not use sprite animations in a comic strip. He wasn't talking about drawing your own sprites, he was referring to making a comic from Mega Man sprites or some other game. The fact is you don't own the sprites and while it's possibly fair use to use them to not make any money, what do you do if you actually do make a good comic? Say you get 5000-10000 readers per day or more? What are you going to sell? Penny Arcade and PvP, as examples, sell a lot of different merchandise, from key chains to t-shirts to laser etched prints.
Red vs. Blue sells t-shirts that are mostly softball team shirts (small icon on the front-left, name of character and a number of the back) and probably do ok. But they can never have a shirt with the characters on it because they don't own the characters.
I don't know the licensing scheme with 'The Strangerhood' characters but that show is just lame anyways. If you bought a shirt from that series you are unquestionably without taste.
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" - Patrick Henry
Apparently, you're missing a sense of humor.
"Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die!"
Doesn't the new york times have something better to write about in their sunday mag?
What a god-awful boring story...
I would of probably enjoyed an expose on the lightsaber dude better.
"He created a comedy series called ''Red vs. Blue,'' a sort of sci-fi version of ''M*A*S*H.'' In ''Red vs. Blue,'' the soldiers rarely do any fighting; they just stand around insulting one another and musing over the absurdities of war, sounding less like patriotic warriors than like bored, clever video-store clerks."
M*A*S*H was a war comedy about a medical unit during the Korean War -- wounded soldiers were flown/driven to their location, operated on, and sent back into the war. They were rarely under fire, and rarely carried weapons, although I recall several different "tense" episodes where Bad Things(TM) were going on, and the unit had to evacuate/move to the front lines/etc.
The very core of the show was about the doctors, and quite a few scenes were shot with the docs quibbling to one another over a patient's body. Some episodes, naturally, dealt less with medical situations than others, but even in its more comedic seasons, you would find a large number of episodes involving either patients or the practice of being a doctor.
It's disingenuous to compare Red and Blue to M*A*S*H because "the soldiers rarely do any fighting". M*A*S*H's doctors did do their job. It's just that their job wasn't fighting.
present day... present time... hahahaha...