Making movies in video games: why the film world is finally ready to take ‘machinima’ seriously

• The term has been defined as “films made by real-time three-dimensional computer graphics rendering engines”, but it essentially means films made using video games.
• My own machinima film is titled We Are Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On.
• The exact origins of machinima are debated, but it’s generally agreed that the first machinima film was Diary of a Camper.
• In 2003, the production company Rooster Teeth created a web series Red vs Blue using the video game Halo (2001).

Machinima’s critical reception

• I think a closer look at Ebert’s comments on machinima reveal the biases and misapprehension around video game culture that explain this.
• While recognising the revolutionary potential of video games as a filmmaking technique, Ebert saw machinima as “visually impressive but empty”.
• He thought it was restricted by its associations with the style and themes of video games, forever existing outside the realm of “cinematic art”.

The future of machinima

• This year also marks the first time that a major international film festival has presented an entire programme of machinima.
• Oberhausen may not have the global brand recognition of Cannes or Venice, but when it selects its programme, the film world sits up.
• Oberhausen’s sold-out programme of films made within video games can be seen as the moment when machinima transcended its gaming subculture, to become a mature artistic medium in mainstream visual storytelling.