SummerMovieContest
Latest
WoW Moviewatch: That's the World of Warcraft That You Play
I wouldn't have thought it would be possible to pack so many sweeping class generalizations into a single video -- but I have been proven wrong with this one. This was another entry in the Summer Movie Contest and landed 3rd place in the Music/Dance category.
Stanford machinima panel recap
Thursday's WoW machinima event at Stanford showcased the winners of the World of Warcraft Summer Movie Contest. Following the screening of the best videos, Daniel Kayser of GameTrailers.com hosted a panel discussion with a few Stanford professors and other machinima luminaries. Also, Joystiq's Christopher Grant sat on the panel.For an hour, Kayser led the group through questions about the state of machinima, its history, and its future. In general, the participants anticipated a bright, creative future for machinima, but they were uncertain how the art would change once corporations tried to exploit the style.Matteo Bittanti, from Stanford's Humanities Lab, commented on the continuing shift of machinima from in-jokes to a general artistic tool; many of the contest winners relied on WoW jokes, but the grand prize short, The Edge of Remorse, bore no direct relation to WoW as a game. Bittanti anticipated that the balance would continue to even out, with more machinima stories unrelated to games able to find a broader audience.Machinima's practical definition was another topic. Ezra Ferguson of Rufus Cubed Productions said that a feature-length machinima production is inevitable, especially as the game tools continue to evolve to show facial emotions and better acting. Animation director and one of the night's winners, Jun Falkenstein questioned the point at which those machinima tool updates would change the technique into a standard animated movie. Are the rough edges in machinima part of its definition?Henry Lowood, Curator of Stanford's History of Science and Technology Collections, also stressed that accessibility and rapid production are the root of machinima. He mentioned French Democracy, a story created with The Movies that responded almost immediately to last year's riots around Paris. He said that this method of quick reaction is "a power we really have never had before."Will machinima become regular-old animation once the results mirror other computer animation tools? Are accessibility and quick response the real root of the style?
WoW Moviewatch: The Ballad of the Noob
Another finalist in the Xfire Summer Movie Contest, The Ballad of the Noob is the tale of an intrepid newbie venturing outside of the safe confines of his starting zone. Okay, maybe it sounds silly, but it's very nicely done, so take a look-see.
WoW Moviewatch: The Anti-Elf Anthem
Maybe I'm just letting my Horde colors shine, but I think this is hilarious... And, even if you're a Night Elf fan yourself, there's little in the world that's more amusing than a singing Tauren. In all seriousness, however, this is one of the finalists for the Xfire Summer Movie Contest.Update: I noticed the video link was no longer good, so I fixed it. Yay.
Xfire Summer Movie Contest
While the contest only appears to be linked from the EU site, Xfire's own rules seem to allow entry from movie-makers from both sides of the globe. This is the second time Blizzard and Xfire have teamed up to offer some incredible prizes to would-be filmmakers - and, if you missed the first one, do go check it out, because the movies are all excellent. If you're a would-be film-maker yourself, this is a great opportunity to give it a shot, with the chance of winning (of course!) fabulous prizes. For my part, I'm going to sit back and wait to hope the resulting machinima is as good as last year's.
