TV editor and educator Ian Patterson shares his experiences of working with youngsters in inner city Salford, and passes on insights in using machinima in a teaching environment.

John Herd writes about the innovative Wan Smolbag theatre company in Vanuatu, which now use machinima film creation as a way of reaching out to young people in the beautiful, and sometimes troubled tropical archipelago.

We conclude with Claus-Dieter Shulz’s reflections on a German university project using World of Warcraft to teach, amongst other things editing and media production.

It has been interesting to all the authors to realise that despite their diverse environments many of the challenges faced had much in common. We hope that you find this issue a useful insight, and inspiration to take machinima to a new audience. If you know any educators, or bloggers who might find this magazine of interest then please pass on a link.

To view this latest release, please click HERE

A woman finds herself in a strange and oddly threatening world.

NAME:  Anya Yalin

ROLES:  Director, Writer, Producer, Music Composer, Sound editor

PLATFORM: The Sims 2, and real world footage

OTHER TOOLS:

The lullaby in the beginning was created in a simple sound program, of which I can’t recall the name. Editing I did in Sony Vegas 5.0. Real life footage was shot with a Sony mini DV camera.

WHAT ARE YOUR REASONS FOR USING THESE TOOLS?

The Sims 2 gave me the amount of control over characters and the aesthetic that I wanted for this particular project.

YEAR OF RELEASE:  2007

HAS YOUR FILM WON ANY AWARDS, OR SPECIAL ACCOLADES?

I made this movie for school, but haven’t submitted it to festivals or anything. It was selected for screening at my school’s annual exhibit, but no other achievements that I know of.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN CREATING MACHINIMA? 4 years, but very irregularly

HOW DID YOU GET INTO MOVIE MAKING?

I’d been playing The Sims for a while and when the follow-up, The Sims 2, came out, I started lurking in the community. One day I watched entries for a movie contest on the official BBS and was intrigued. I’d never heard of machinima before or knew you could make movies with games. I wanted to try for myself, so I did.

WHAT INSPIRED YOUR FILM?

I made this during my first year at film school and up until that point I hadn’t impressed with anything I’d produced to be honest. Though I still liked editing, the real world film process just didn’t appeal to me. I decided to throw caution out the window and make machinima for my experimental film class. Not knowing how my audience, unfamiliar with machinima, would react, I decided to make a combination of real footage and machinima. This made me think of a game character dropped in the real world, which is the storyline I ended up doing.

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE THE STRONGEST AND/OR WEAKEST POINTS OF YOUR FILM?

I like that I kept it simple and clean. One character, very few environments. I think the simplicity is what helps invoke emotion in this case. On the other hand, though I like the general silence, I feel I could’ve done a lot more with the audio. I also regret not having a better camera back then to do the real life shots.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU OFFER TO ANYONE WHO IS CONSIDERING TRYING MACHINIMA?

If you’re thinking about making machinima, just go for it. The good thing about machinima is that the information is out there, online. Anything you need to know: google, join communites, ask! Certainly within The Sims community I’ve found people very friendly and helpful. Don’t just ask ‘how do you make movies?’ though, but read up on the basics first and then ask any specific questions you may have.

HOW DO YOU SEE THE FUTURE OF MOVIE MAKING?

I think there’s a great future in store for machinima. Games are becoming more and more advanced, which influences the kind of movies that can be made. The surge in online virtual worlds, like World of Warcraft and Second Life, has contributed tremendously to machinima as well. I don’t really want machinima to break out and ‘be like film’, because in a sense I like how it’s a medium for literally anyone to make movies with.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE THE VIEWER TO KNOW?

I’m in Second Life as well. My Second Life name is Anya Yalin and I create content under the name AnnaMayahouse, which is another great creative outlet.

ARTIST BIO & CONTACT INFO

Mrs Pepperpot
Opening Boxes
Eeek a mouse

August 2009

Artsy site anyone?

June 2009

Contact: www.callousproductions.com

Film: Cafe Insomniac

Bio

I’ve been writing stories since I learned to write. In 2005, I started making animated films. I also sing and voice-act, and from time to time, I perform on stage.

My aim is to touch emotions, to explore the human condition, and to make you think.

Email: sisch@Creative-voice.de
Films: http://Lethal-Entertainment.com
Blog: http://sisch.blogspot.com/
TMUnderground: http://www.tmunderground.com/sisch
Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/user997490
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ssisch

Film: Saving Grace

BIO

Treasa aka Anya Yalin aka AnnaMayaHouse

As a child I was obsessed with writing. I remember reading book after book and trying to write my own stories based on what I’d read. I had a big imagination and writing was probably my first creative outlet. I think that’s why I really loathed high school, even though I was a straight-A student. My particular school was so grade oriented that there really was no opportunity for artistic thinking at all.

During my last few years in high school I started making machinima, which sparked a whole bunch of other interests in me. I learned to film, edit, photoshop and now, through Second Life, animate and sculpt. It made me realize that being creative is really what I enjoy and want to do with my life. I also got back into writing. Just now I received my bachelor’s degree in film and will sign up for another year of media studies. Whether I’m doing a machinima piece, a story or an SL accessory, I get such a sense of accomplishment whenever I complete a project. That creative vibe is what I love and keeps me going.

Film: Third

Email: treasa@annamayahouse.com
Website: http://annamayahouse.blogspot.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/AnnaMayaHouse
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/people/annamayahouse/
Koinup: http://www.koinup.com/Treasa/
Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/user699130

BIO

I love storytelling. When my mother first read bedtime tales to me, I kept on altering the tales and endings. And when I went to summer camp and discovered campfire stories–I was in heaven! When camp wasn’t in session, I dragged friends into the school lost & found room, turned on a flashlight, and resumed the tales there.

In college it was creative writing. Yet to me the best medium for storytelling is film/video–it’s a complete experience involving sight and sound, along with the imagination. It doesn’t get better than that (well, at least not until we develop holodecks or “Matrix” mind jacks). Machinima is my preferred medium at present mainly because of the difficulty in getting a comprehensive film crew and cast together for any extended shoots. Oh yeah, it’s also cheaper.

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy the show.

Film: The Shadow Over Innsmouth

Email: josephkw@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.tmunderground.com/my_video.php

I started as a little boy, drawing random stuff on a piece of paper to make the time go by faster in school. After creating my first messy image (few white lines) on ATARI 64XE that took two hours to render, I fell in love with computer graphics (If you would see that image of mine, you would do too!). Few years ago, I’ve discovered Adobe Photoshop and it’s still my favourite application for 2d graphics. Putting my hand-drawn images into life by animating them was just an inevitable evolution. My dream is to achieve world domination by creating the most awesome machinimas out there. I won’t stop on improving untill I reach my goal!

Film: The Demise

Email: chirurg_surgeon@yahoo.com
Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/user593761
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/Surgee

BIO

I’ve been doing animated films since 1998, consciously refusing to commit to any one style or genre. I want to entertain you while engaging your mind.

FILM: Intervention

Email: overman[at]z-studios[dot]com
Films: http://z-studios.com/
Blog: http://z-studios.com/blog
Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/zs
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/zsOverman
Twitter: http://twitter.com/zsoverman