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Machinima With A Political Voice

Posted by Zonk on from the say-something dept.

Moe Napoli writes "While machinima has long promised itself as a way to democratize animated filmmaking, it might finally be finding its way out of the steady stream of crass comedy and frag videos. Filmmakers with a desire to express their political views are using machinima as way of articulating their perspectives. One film that's gaining a lot of attention for its political message is The French Democracy, a machinima about the suburban riots in France, and made with Activision's recently released game/machinima app, The Movies. Additional commentary about the film is also on Clive Thompson's Collision Detection and Paul Marino's Thinking Machinima."

20 comments

  1. I knew this would happen... by JamesInsomniac · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I knew people were going to take "The Movies" and make actual movies. Before, making machinima was hard and annoying. You needed a couple friends, a couple of X-Boxes, and a lot of free time. Now with this game, it has become so much easier to make machinima. I hope I see more political pieces like this. Maybe, just maybe, Machinima will be looked at as a higher art form...

    Probably Not...

    1. Re:I knew this would happen... by Seumas · · Score: 0, Troll

      I didn't know people who bought SIMS and The Movies games had a political voice. Or at least, one that reached beyond what soda is king.

    2. Re:I knew this would happen... by bluemeep · · Score: 1
      I didn't know people who bought SIMS and The Movies games had a political voice. Or at least, one that reached beyond what soda is king.

      Er... Why wouldn't they have views on politics? Not everyone that plays The Sims is a bored homemaker or 9-year-old giggling that they can make two girl models kiss each other. What does enjoying a particular genre of gaming have to do with politics?

    3. Re:I knew this would happen... by Seumas · · Score: 0, Troll

      Maybe it's just me, but I've never met anyone who "enjoyed" the sims line of games any differently than a junkie enjoys her crack. That is to say, there's no sim playing and then there's "disrupting my life" sim playing. I don't think I've seen anything in between.

      I happened across some documentary about SIMS players the other night on MTV or some channel like that. The people they profiled actually SCARED me.

    4. Re:I knew this would happen... by wheany · · Score: 1

      You can make two girls kiss eachother? Hot damn! I've gotta get me that game!

  2. Re:windows users only! by Seumas · · Score: 1

    Same here using Camino on OSX. Note that the FAQ on the site does say it works in FF if you have WMV configured properly (I do) and that if you have any problems to contact them so they can try to work it out. It's not like they're not trying or at least giving the impression of trying to work across multiple platforms.

  3. Re:windows users only! by Ailure · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Funny, when I tried it in Firefox it didn't work... yet other sites I use works with WMC.

    And when I tried it in IE, the plugin itself loaded but it was like the content didn't get downloaded... Why not supply a simple download link?

  4. So how long did this take? by mbourgon · · Score: 1

    I've seen Machinima before, and with a few exceptions, it's very obvious that they're using a video game to do this. I think The Strangehood(?) got around that, but this.... this was amazing. Like a low-fi CGI movie. How long did this take to script? To "shoot"?

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    1. Re:So how long did this take? by Moe+Napoli · · Score: 1

      FWIH, the film took about a week to script/shoot. The filmmaker purchased the game specifically to make this film - though having a game as part of the machinima application was the icing on the proverbial cake. ;-)

  5. Uhm..... by Premo_Maggot · · Score: 1

    Your browser is not configured correctly to receive WMV streamed video Please refer to our FAQ

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    Good karma sticks to me like velcro on a piece of plexiglass.
    Move along, citizen.
    1. Re:Uhm..... by belg4mit · · Score: 1

      Yeah, crappy design. There's a text link to download on the lower left of the image though.

      --
      Were that I say, pancakes?
    2. Re:Uhm..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It needs... ActiveX? To stream video?

  6. This is news? by belg4mit · · Score: 1

    Seriously, what's the point? It's an oddly gesticulated recap of recent events. Think "dramatic renactment" from Unsolved Mysteries
    and you get the idea. Wahoo, or should I say Youpee (sic).

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    Were that I say, pancakes?
    1. Re:This is news? by Ape_the_Dog · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think the news is that machinma can be used to spread political ideas now. Arguably, this is not the kind of movie I would watch for my own enjoyment, as the acting is a bit stale, but still, it's there now, and available to all - where before it was only available to those who really wanted to put a lot of effort into the thing.

      It's also not entirely a gesticulated recap of recent events, as the movie shows you what happened, but also gives you background stories to three characters lives - detailing where the frustrations of the kids came from - something that whilst it might have been mentioned, had never been shown the news. Maybe you didn't watch the thing?

    2. Re:This is news? by belg4mit · · Score: 1

      Oh I watched it (hence the misspelled French as a dig),
      and the ability to recognize it as a "dramatic reenacment".
      I want my 20 minutes back (it's 13 but the crap site setup
      ate additional time)

      --
      Were that I say, pancakes?
    3. Re:This is news? by pudge · · Score: 1

      I just saw this and I think you're too kind. It's not only a boring recap, it's a boring recap that seeks to in some way justify the unjustifiable. Oooo, I spent a night in jail because of a stupid law or stupid cops, so now I am going to destroy the cars of my neighbors who had nothing to do with it! Lookee me, I am irrationally lashing out at society!

  7. picking the nit by Jesrad · · Score: 1

    I'd just like to point out that France is not a democracy, but a republic. Thank you for your inattention.

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    Maybe we deserve this world ?
    1. Re:picking the nit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, our country is quite curious in that we abandoned the monarchy -- for a republic in which the President has just about the powers of the king. Oh well, as long as the socialists don't get to power, all's fine.

  8. The Future of Film pre-Production by writerjosh · · Score: 1

    I don't think Machinima will take off as a higher art form simply because it only has one basic look. It would be really interesting to see if the makers of The Movies could add more and more options for stylized looks (lighting, color schemes, action sequences, etc). Now that would be interesting.

    Also, I don't see why a live-action director couldn't simply use The Movies to layout their entire film before every shooting a single frame of film. This way, the director can visually articulate his vision to his/her crew in a very economical way.

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