The author examines the quintessence of machinima, suggesting that the main difference between machinima and any other CGI technique lies in the playable real-time image that informs it. The implication is that machinima’s artistic, cultural, and even commercial future is rooted in this specific flexibility of the image as it opens up a new opportunity for the development of a procedural media format in visual culture and in the history of the moving image. However, the author warns that machinima might actually lose the unique chance it inherited from the underlying video game technologies to become a new media platform if creators disregard its peculiar, intrinsic computer-driven nature.
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Marino, P. ( 2004) 3D Game-Based Filmmaking: The Art of Machinima. Scottsdale, AZ: Paraglyph Press.
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McKenzie, J. ( 2001) Perform or Else: From Discipline to Performance. New York: Routledge.
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Nitsche, M. and Thomas, M. ( 2004) ‘Play It Again: Film Performance, Virtual Environments and Game Engines’, in C. Beardon and G. Carver (eds) New Visions in Performance: The Impact of Digital Technologies, pp. 121-39. Lisse: Swets and Zeitlinger.
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Ryan, M.-L. ( 1991) Possible Worlds: Artificial Intelligence and Narrative Theory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
