The RuneScape Machinima Contest

Well this is brilliant, on August 25th I go onto the General forum of Tip.It to find out the first ever Jagex-official machinima contest. This was a bunch of firsts for me:

1) Never has machinima been actively pursued by the RuneScape player majority nor by Jagex

2) Never have I heard the words "RuneScape" and "Machinima" together, it was always "RuneScape movie"

3) There is a crap load of talent I never expected to be there.

Lets focus on Point 3, because since the days when I played RuneScape back in 2006 and 2007, there really was only a couple of good RuneScape machinima, not being a PvP video or Bank show-off video. Two that comes to mind are "The Lost Scroll" and "The Quest"... if all. After I stopped playing RuneScape in late 2007 and started to play WoW, RuneScape machinima was slightly increasing but I never gave a thought on how big it would become. During 2008 I've saw some of Tehnoobshow's movies and thought it was pretty alright, not the best but definitely an improvement from the past nothingness.

Then out of the blue, I look at this thread and find some amazing talent! The days of live-action machinima is being replaced by blue-screens! When I made Pasta Wars and Fresh Off the Boat, the only known form to make a movie was to film and type it in the real game. Sped up the parts between actors typing and merged it all together to call it a completed movie. Now however there is NO speeding up of clips, because the text is ".png'ed" into it! Effects like blue-keying are being used to create movements or things not possible in the regular RuneScape. Compared to what I knew of RuneScape machinima in the past, this was of a very, VERY big surprise. Never again shall I underestimate RuneScape machinima folks. Never again.


Unfortunately, August 25th was the deadline of the contest. If I would of known earlier, I would of definitely entered.
-
If you're interested in seeing some work, here is Excl's (apparently a well-known RuneScape machinimator? Add that as #4!) favoruates, and I have to mostly agree with him. My comments are between ( ).

Here's a few of my fav's. Going to be a real tough contest indeed. Lots of really talented people out there.

ant1venom's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV1Ie0TboIM
tehbumshows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLsmozLfw34 (a nice parody on the Gods)
HellsEnemy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecQLGNan7es
JinSr: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQX02RNq46s (The bloody patience to make this!)
Chiszle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCGxnLcodAw
Sparc Mac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4bpTMmrjnU&feature=sub
Arrow Gun 99: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98t_wihDMQY
BoomerTwins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwB-jAWThBs
D00m100: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrvVma0901I (Voice acting was EXCELENT)
MrTheB0ss: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFtrbiM7mPs (Awesome)
ThePerfectEffect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HH2FVVEXHI

The RuneScape Machinima Contest

"From Underground to Mainstream" by Erunno

Today I read this brilliant article by Erunno. This guy tells a lot about Machinima and is quite correct about it. Today I released this man speaks absolute truth.



"Every person is like an unique snowflake" or like I like to say it: "People make mistakes and talk rubbish". I'm here to filter that rubbish and tell you how wrong you really are.

Some people say machinima is the new mainstream art form... Okay, let's play your game then.

Rest of the Article

Hats off gentlemen, that was a brilliant article.

The Professionalim of Machinima

Hollywood, the highest filmmaking status we can think of. It boasts the highest level of professionalism and the most viewed: your audience can reach in the millions and even in the hundred millions.

And machinima is starting to be just like it.

Machinimas nowadays are becoming more impersonal and professional. The days where a group of friends create machinima are being replaced by working with strangers.

Voice acting is a large part of the machinima process and it's one of the most impersonal. Voice actor recruiting requests are polluting machinima forums and websites throughout the internet. With the average upcoming machinimator most likely a teenager, machinimas are getting negative feedback when they use teenage voices. Recruiting some actors for special characters and/or parts is one thing, but when the cast list is entirely from strangers from the internet, a question has to be asked: Are machinimas nowadays expected to use professional voice actors?

It seems that we are taking machinima too seriously; this level of professionalism is adding more pressure to the uprising machinimators. Machinimas, even the most popular machinimas, started as small groups making simple movies for fun. As time grew on, they knew what they wanted to do and added more professionalism into their work. This is perfectly fine and normal. Who doesn't want to improve on their work? But when we criticize new legitimate machinimas, with some level of decency, as awful only because they did not have spectacular effects or voice actors over the age of 24, does it not mean that we are being hypocritical? Or to those who are not as advanced in machinima as the "top dogs", is that not hypocritical to yourselves and your favorite machinima group?

The next topic is music. Some folks see custom music as a leading indicator to a good machinima, but I cannot see it as such. A good machinima would show a good flow of music, going through the scenes elegantly. So that rules out Numb from Linkin Park on a sad scene, but I disgress. Custom music should not be an automatic indication that a machinima is good. But rather, the flow of music, custom or not.

We are placing these things on such high pedestal that some can make the claim its reaching almost Hollywood and that we are forgetting where all successful machinimas came from: the small groups of visionaries.

But how can we let these visionaries show their works if we are criticizing their lack of effects, their lack of professionalism, their lack of things that can only come though experience and time.

The point of any machinima, and films in general, are it's stories. But when we are so focused on noticing the effects or the voice actors, we are forgetting the true work of the creator and ultimately the underlining theme of machinima:

We are making films out of video games. A game should not be taken seriously. And I believe, machinima shouldn't be taken as seriously as Hollywood considering what we are basing machinima out of: a game.

-Nicolas Giordano