I really enjoyed the lecture on machinima. Although it’s an art form that has pretty obvious limitations, the films we saw were kind of charming in their own way. I suppose it is really the idea of having access to animation technology that makes Machinima attractive.
I liked the whimsical little films of Jim Munroe, the guy who made My Trip to Liberty City. I watched some of his other work too, such as Mario’s Pain, in which elements of a game are intercut with real video footage. The storyline is simple – Mario has a consultation with a specialist about some back trouble he’s been suffering from. The character bounces onto the examination table the same way he bounces along in the game, so it’s a funny little juxtaposition of elements from the game in a really boring, everyday setting. Mario ends up talking about the stress of his job, his recurring nightmare that he’s underwater “with nowhere to jump to, and I just stay there till I drown” and his fears that if he takes time off he might be usurped by Luigi.
Machinima – or what I’ve seen of it, which isn’t much – seems to be all about in-jokes, mostly based on the constructs of the games themselves. The joke in both My Trip to Liberty City and Mario’s Pain is that the 2-dimensional (in both senses) character actually has a lot more normal and complex feelings than the footage from the game alone would suggest. It’s pretty funny to think that Mario doesn’t just mindlessly run and jump but is working hard “for a million bosses” and is plagued by doubts and insecurities as well as arthritis from all the physical work he has undertaken.
That got me thinking about really really simple games, like Tetris or Pacman, and whether you could do something funny with these.
I tried hard to think of some Tetris machinima. Maybe the little blocks are thinking to themselves as they fall? Maybe they can speak, but we just can’t hear them? Maybe the other blocks aren’t so keen to have the new blocks fall on top of them after all.
The best scenario I could come up with was a very slowed down speed, where a block falls into place and says to the other blocks “Hi there, I’m the new guy, I guess this is where I’ll be sitting?” and they all get chatting: “Well, let me show you around…it’s a pretty good level ot work on….this is the coffee machine…you need to buy your own milk…I hear you’re going to be working on an exciting new project…Hopefully you’ll fit right in.” Then they all get cosy, there’s a bit of shuffling around as it slots into place: “Sorry, I’m actually allergic to water coolers, is it ok if I sit over here?” “HR hasn’t said anything about this.” “I hope I don’t need to insist?” “Fine then, have the spot, I’ll move.” “Does anyone know how to add up in Excel?” “Well, yes, you select the rows you want to add up, type in this formula…” “Wow, the new guy is really good.” “I’m so glad he’s sitting on our level.” “There’s so much we can do now, I just wish we had someone who could do stocktake.” “I hear they are recruiting.” “Really? I haven’t heard anything.”
As they are saying this of course a new block is very slowly falling from above ready to slot in. I think maybe it would work if the audio was on several levels and you could hear old conversations fading away as the new levels were built up around them.
I think I would call it “Welcome, Wonderkid”
