YOUNGBLOOD, MACHINIMA, THE HISTORY OF FILM AND VIDEO GAMES, AND ALTERNATE ENDINGS,

GAMES II

TODAY’S DISCUSSION

Youngblood’s “Cinema and the Code” article summary

Machinima Art

Birth of the Cinematic Form

Alternative Endings: A Marriage of Film and Games?

Youngblood, “Cinema and the Code”

Cinema is the art of organizing a stream of audiovisual events in time—like music

Four medias through which we can practice cinema—film, video, holography, and structured digital code

Digital imaging as a new cinematic language Image transformation Parallel event-streams Temporal perspective The image as object

Youngblood, “Cinema and the Code” (cont’d…)

Image transformation Mechanical cinema is the art of the transition and

electronic cinema is the art of the transformation A cut is a cut, metamorphosing operation is open-

ended

Parallel event-streams Three possibilities: superimposition (overlay), spatially

separate event-streams (framed and unframed) Eg. Split screens in film (optical printing) or floating

image-planes in video

Youngblood, “Cinema and the Code” (cont’d…)

Temporal perspective Wiebel looked to art history as influence for digital

media Perspective was no longer bound to a static point of

view Temporal perspective only seriously explored in

experimental film—Michael Snow

The image as object Image processing

Mechanical cinema relies on the frame Electronic cinema only deals with its location or position

within the larger frame

Youngblood, “Cinema and the Code” (cont’d…)

The image as object (cont’d…) Digital image synthesis

We can control the location, the perspective, angle of view and geometry of the image object in a three-dimensional database

Conventional editing reconstructs “real” time and “real” space

Three-dimensional display—binocular (stereoptic) or holographic Cinema vs. video games—the spectator is the camera, “a

point of view that is active within the scene” Cinema is moving from the two-dimensional image on a

screen to the three-dimensional object in space

Birth of the Cinematic Form

Birth of the Cinematic Form (cont’d…)

Birth of the Cinematic Form (cont’d…)

Birth of the Cinematic Form (cont’d…)

Technology! (2000 – present) Film

There is a growing popularity of how people want to view their film (ie. IMAX) Currently, many people expect to see these big Hollywood budget movies (ie. Avatar). It has even come to a point where all types of movies are intended to be watched 3D!

Games Videogames are turning more and more cinematic. For

example, “Heavy Rain” allow players to take control of what happens in the narrative. There are many paths to take, and each one determines the outcome of the overall story.

The “Call of Duty” series perfectly captures the feeling of being at war. Bullets shoot towards the player, ground shakes as a bomb is thrown. There is that feeling of being engrossed in the setting. This was something that game developers weren’t able to do in the past. We are living in a world where videogames are given the same production values as big budget films.

New Media Resistance: Machinima and the Avant-Garde

Machinima: a contraction of machine and cinema first coined by the “The Strange Company” film collective. Traditional narrative machinima is created by scripting a

story, recording game play within a real time 3D environment

Machinima is unlike animation because the 3D engine that controls the images exists within the parameters of a video game.

For some games like “Simlife”, machinimators allow for the construction of nearly any environment and avatar imaginable. Machinima does not need to exist in the confined of what would be described as a game

Early Machinima

Machinima Art

Machinima resembles found-footage filmmaking in its appropriation of extent images and sounds; however, machinima employs digitally appropriated environments, avatars, background stories and even pre-rendered sequences

Machinima art as a critique of video gamesMachinima art as a cheap platform for

cinematic expression

Limitation of Machinima

Machinimators often attempt to work within the aesthetic and narrative constructions of contemporary Hollywood cinema

Most machinima theorists and pioneers are fascinated with non-narrative possibilities but they admit that machinima has a brighter future in its narrative form

Why machinima is worth of study

Personal video game consoles have become so widespread Over 117 million Americans are counted as “active

gamers”

Machinima = new media resistance Radical critique of video games Attempt to redefine the politics and ideology of video

game culture rather than praise it

Alternate Endings

DVDs allow more interaction with film

Alternate endings in special features allow us to choose which ending we want to see

“Heavy Rain” gives ultimate control of characters in the way a ‘choose your own adventure’ book does

Paranormal Activity (2007) alternate endings

It’s your turn!

What do you think about the interactive relationship between video games and their players, and that of an audience and their ability to choose an alternate ending of a film?

Could the alternate ending option for films be a step in the right direction to complete interactive film?

Do you think ‘choose your own adventure’ films are a possibility?

???

Works Cited