This Spartan Life

Here's something a little old that I just found and enjoyed. It's a machinima called This Spartan Life. This will take a lot to explain. Today video content is written, acted, recorded (on video, film or digitally), edited, and distributed (broadcast or shown in theaters, etc.). Think about all the steps in making a movie or a TV show. In some cases, there isn't a lot of writing, e.g., in an interview. Ok, now think of a Pixar movie (just cause they currently do the best animated films), all the steps are the same, but instead of acting, computer animators render the written scenes (characters and scenery) digitally using software. Now think about an online computer game like Halo or World of Warcraft. Using that software people manipulate avatars through a virtual world and watch the rendered results. Now imagine if instead of playing, they had their avatars act out pre-written dialog and actions and then recorded the rendered results. It's similar to animation but uses different software for the rendering. It's also closer to traditional filming because there are actors controlling each character and people controlling the cameras to capture a performance. That's machinima.

This Spartan Life is a machinima talk show. It's created in Halo 2, so all the characters appear as armored warriors with weapons. But they are in fact, a host, a DJ, guests, and even dancers. There's a point-counterpoint style debate (one was on gun control!) with two characters shooting at each other. Other avatars act as cameramen, recording the characters from their viewpoint. They just look funny. Remember this is recorded from the live game. The actors are logged in from all over and their avatars are in the same place in the virtual game. But others are in the game as well, and Halo is a violent game. Part of the fun of the show is seeing our cast avoid being killed by others "on the set". It's almost performance art. In the second episode there's a bodyguard competition. Most of the guests seem to be gamers and other machinima pioneers. I enjoyed the first episode but after that it got old, which is probably why they stopped. Nevertheless, I get the sense I saw the start of a new form of filmmaking.