Although I have not really had much exposure to this new(ish) type of media-mixing, I thought the concept sounded pretty interesting. I think it is really amazing what people have done with video games, and similar to fan fiction, I think it offers a unique outlet for people to explore their creative potential. Beyond learning video production techniques, Machinima could even also potentially encourage students to start writing. After all, these short clips require dialogue that people will actually enjoy or find amusing if they are to become popular.
The most interesting thing about Machinima is the fact that (as the article mentions), nobody is being brought to court for copyright infringements. Thompsons writes, “they’re gleefully plundering intellectual property at a time when the copyright wars have become particularly vicious. Yet video-game companies have been upbeat — even exuberant — about the legions of teenagers and artists pillaging their games.” I think it is strange that companies are so upbeat about the use of their “intellectual property”, especially when the Red vs. Blue creators are making so much money. When we talked about fan fiction, the line seemed to be draw at making revenue; however, this apparently is not the distinction between okay and not-okay when it comes to creating machinima. What is the line then? I’m under the impression that only a few people are successfully creating machinima right now, and perhaps this has to do with the fact that companies are fine with creators making profits, but I’m really very unsure.
The article wrote that machinimists hope to “break out of machinima’s geeky subculture and vault into the mainstream.” I do not really see machinima breaking out of geeky subculture because I think that the geekiness is something very intrinsic to the success of the movies created. If it were to go mainstream, I think it would lose something about special about it. The mainstream, while it may increase your audience, isn’t always a better thing. Sometimes to become more mainstream you have to lower your idea of the quality of your product, which I believe is something very unfortunate that any creator/artist must go through. Stay true to your roots machinimists!
As a little side note, when I read this article I thought of something that could have possibly been a stepping stone towards the creation of machinima. I remember playing Super Smash Bros. Melee when I was younger and the video game gave you an option of capturing a screenshot of your fight. I don’t know if they put that into the game because they thought people would like to take screenshots of their really cool moves, or just as a random fun feature; however, I do remember seeing screenshots appear on the Internet of scenes that people had set up between the characters in various locations of the game.