Having finished the first draft of a script for what was supposed to be a “little miniseries” (43 pages?), I decided to dig into a couple science fiction treats I’d been looking forward to. They did not disappoint. But first, my only gripe so far with Celtx. (more…)

Most machinima makers end up relying on voice talent they have contacted through the internet. Sims99 even has a very nice feature where voice actors can post audio resumés on their site, which is pretty spiffy. One of the biggest challenges with working with talent over distance is communicating what you want as a director regarding their vocal performance, and even then many times the recording is a “guess” of what is desired, and retakes are not uncommon, each separated by a barrier of bandwidth and time.

Strange Company recently used a different approach that is very interesting indeed. (more…)

One of the biggest challenges facing machinima makers is the issue of using copyrighted material as part of their production. I’m not talking about the engine or in-game assets themselves… that’s a whole ‘nother discussion; and in most cases, the manufacturers are aware (or even complicit) in the use of their game to make machinima, so it’s unlikely that game manufacturers will scream “copyright!” unless there has been a flagrant abuse (i.e. piracy or redistribution of their game or game assets)… or perhaps if the machinima piece is so controversial that the game maker feels obligated to step in and make that stand. Most game developers and even distributors seem friendly at least to the idea of machinima, and I think it’s unlikely that any will step in any time soon to regulate content created with their game for fear of anti-free-speech connotations.

But when you’re talking about copyrighted material from an entirely outside source - music, for example - it’s a completely different story. The music business’ current profit model is structured heavily around the notion of controlling the distribution and use of their music - even on the public airwaves, and certainly on the internet. And a litigious response to unauthorized use of copyrighted music is not unprecedented. So naturally, there has been a recent rise in the awareness of machinima makers about this crucial issue. What usage is “safe” and what is not? That is the question. (more…)

You could rub your hands together and start a brush fire, it was that dry down here, so we definitely needed this rain. But what I could live without are the resultant power fluctuations. Loss of power on my end has resulted in disruption in meetings and deadlines for two production teams I collaborate with, one of which is BloodSpell.

Now, I’m not unfortunate enough to have suffered any data loss or anything catastrophic (thank you, Tripp Lite), but UPSs can only keep this stuff running for so long, and these outages have been significant in duration. Funny thing is, we had less total downtime at my house during hurricane season last year than we’ve had this week from Tuesday forward. But I knew even back then we were extremely fortunate in that and other regards. (more…)

This weekend saw a Battle Royale of epic proportions, I mean the stuff of legends, we’re talking Lord of the Rings the final assault on Minas Tirith. Okay, relatively small scale, but certainly no less emotion, and barely less carnage.

I’ve tried to remain objective (though some don’t want to let me be Switzerland), not as a matter of principle, but because a bold idea was proffered, and I thought it would be a tragic shame to lose hold of that idea just because it was framed in a harsh criticism of a film made by two women I absolutely adore. (more…)

Kotaku is currently featuring a video walkthrough of The Movies: Stunts and Effects, due for release this week. I was interested to learn that, within the context of the game, actors can incur injury while performing stunts, and as such the expansion pack contains a hospital structure you can add to your studio. I’m happy to see the game include a new way for actors to “break a leg”… the de facto method being to fall down drunk, of course.

Mu Nansen’s blog features an insightful write-up on roles for women in cinema / machinima, and on the challenges of writing characters of the opposite sex (for either gender). Good stuff as usual from Mu.

And Paul Marino has a very interesting blog post regarding this story and the likely copyright headaches that may be on the way from our friends at the RIAA regarding music videos which use copyrighted material. (more…)