Machinima Roadshow

Programs ranging from one-hour theatrical screenings to weekend workshops, as well as themed performance workshops complete with costumed actors and escapist theatrical lounges where visitors can get away from sensory overload.

Best way to reach us is by email at contact at MachinimaRoadshow dot com or call 213-210-2344.

The Latest Roadshow

Another successful event in Montreal, Canada!

It may have taken us a few days to really get into the swing of things, but at Festival Arcadia 2007 in Montreal (Nov. 9-11), we had an amazing experience presenting both scripted machinima workshops with MovieStorm and puppeteering style workshops using Jedi Academy. We screened 20 short machinima films continuously between workshops and had feature presentations of Bloodspell, Borg War, and Star Wars: The Darkness Saga, which drew the attention of both the people in our mini-theater and the diners seated in the concession area next door.

Jedi Academy was a big draw. All the workstations were connected to a private LAN in our booth and gamers were anxious to have a turn, with lines behind the workstations sometimes 2 and 3 deep. The puppeteering workshop was particularly fun, as Ingrid conducted/directed from the front using a lightsaber as a pointer, and Damien controlled the camera from the back. All participants were “actors.” We performed a basic demo of how to set up and capture video, and then edited the footage and posted the results from two of the workshops on YouTube the next day.

Star Wars: Arcadia and Star Wars: Arcadia 2

The MovieStorm demos brought in a wider range of people, from young girls to professionals to university directors. When we left those workstations running between workshops, people would come in and play with all the controls on their own. It was difficult, however, to compete with the JA LAN going on at the same time. We met a few very interested people, and we provided information on how to download this wonderful, free program.

In addition, Hugh Hancock came for a separate 2-hour presentation in the Academic Zone, which was quite entertaining as well as informative. He talked about machinima’s background, what it is, showed some great examples, then went into the making of BloodSpell, and finished off with a quick how-to demo using World of Warcraft. All this followed a special screening of BloodSpell in the booth.

All in all it was a great trip. The Arcadia organizers were fantastic and very helpful, and we are very appreciative of National Bank (Canada) and all the sponsors who made this possible for us and for the 25,000 gamers who attended Festival Arcadia.

Making Machinima

A quick overview of the techniques we used to create the two Star Wars workshop movies – or – how to create your own machinima.

1. Run FRAPS or Snagit or whatever video capture software you like. Notes: Not all programs can capture in-game footage. Some games come with their own cameras & video capture capabilities.

2. Line up some loyal friends.

3. Get a LAN or online session set up using your favorite multiplayer game. In this case we used Jedi Academy. (Why? Because we had it on us.)

4. Modify your settings so that your “camera” (usually a player, or you as a player) doesn’t see any HUD or text chat displays. If you have god-mode cheats, run those too so that your actors don’t accidentally die in the middle of your shot.

5. Get your actors/participants to download any special mods, character models, costumes, etc. that you have created or downloaded. (Make sure you have the modders’ permission to use their mods in your movie!)

6. Get everyone “costumed” as your characters. Gather them in one place.

7. It’s pretty boring standing around waiting for others to finish their takes, so let others go off an fight or something until you need them.

8. Shoot your shots. Frame up your shots as best you can, and tell your actors to move, jump, walk, look, shoot, or whatever. (Don’t forget to roll camera! – F9 in FRAPS)

9. We recommend you do a few takes of each shot, a couple from the same angles and a couple from different angles.

10. Shoot shoot shoot and shoot. It helps a lot if you’re following a script and/or storyboard.

11. When done, view all your footage one by one and make some notes about which takes work best. Note filenames.

12. Launch your editing software. Windows Movie Maker is free and comes with most installs of MS Office. However, it’s not very sophisticated, and has limited options for titles, etc.

13. Save early, save often.

14. Drag or import the shots/takes you like into the editor and start piecing them together, trimming the bad and extra footage out, and so on, until you have a rough cut.

15. Record dialog, if any is needed to tell your story.

16. Create any title slides or credits you want to display.

17. Select and/or create your musical score.

18. Pull these into your editor and start putting them together in the right places.

19. Trim it all into a nice final cut and voila! You are now officially a movie director!

20. Post on YouTube, Machinima.com, and anywhere else you want to share it.

Watch the "finished" movies below, which were made with the Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy and Star Wars: Empire at War games.