Machinima

About

Machinima is a group of people who make fanfics/parodies using games, and use the group identity, Machinima, to put it all together. Their videos vary widely in subject; however, most have a point or plot. The official name comes from the combined words of “Machine” and “Cinema” to describe what the group does.^[1]

Purpose

Other than the obvious entertainment purposes, it is a good way for actors to get their start and build some popularity before posting the stuff on their own profiles, which might get them about 30 veiws, as opposed to the hundreds that would come from posting it on machinima

About the Videos

Their videos all have a formula which one should follow to make a successful video. First, take a video of a game you like, this could be anything from any gaming console (e.g. super mario brothers on the NES and Portal on the PC). Then record yourself narating what the people are saying/thinking while you play through. It is most recomended to get some recording software as to not have to just hold a video camera up to the screen (which produces low quality results).

Live Streams

Machinima will often host live streams of various players and groups. These streams will often just include hours of game play and live chatting with people watching the feeds. They have done various feeds of games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops and the Halo series.^[5] Upon the release of CoD: Black Ops, Machinima held one of these live streams continuously until the group reached prestige level 15.

Places on the Web

Youtube

Probably their most noticeable hub is the Machinima youtube channel.^[2] Opened back in 2006, the channel features various videos from all types of games. Popular videos are their Gary’s Mod mixes, many of which are music videos as seen below:

As of August 3, 2011 the Machinima youtube channel has 16,217 videos.

Rooster Teeth

Though not originally a machinima type group, this company is widely popular for their show Red vs. Blue, a Halo comedy series. The shows became so popular that they were featured as a regular in the app Halo Waypoint on Xbox Live.^[6]

Machinima.com

Machinima.com was registered in September of 1999. The website serves as a hub for all machinima outlets including the youtube channel, the official machinima store, the facebook respawn army, a sing-up for their e-mail list, and various other machinima sites.^[3]

Respawn Army

Machinima opened a facebook app called The Respawn Army in which users can track other user’s gaming profiles, achivements, games, and videos. Users of this app have the ability to earn badges and points for completing various task in games. The app also serves as a news outlet/ blog for machinima to feature various videos and machinima events.^[4]

Other Sites

The group has various other sites and apps that are listed here.

External Refrences

^[1] Machinima – About

^[2] Youtube – Machinima

^[3]Machinima

^[4] Facebook – Respawn Army – Info

^[5] Facebook – Machinima Live

^[6]Rooster Teeth