Deus Ex Machinima

It was some years ago that I first came across the web series Red vs Blue. This was really my introduction into the world of machinima, and it was as gentle as being clubbed over the head with a lead pipe. This series was, for lack of a better phrase, FUCKIN' FANTASTIC! For those who are not aware, machinima is the practice of acting out a scene through a game and then superimposing sound, effects, etc. to make a film.

Titled the "Blood Gulch Chronicles", the first series of Red vs Blue takes place in a popular Halo map in which the players have two bases in a box canyon. Though the series started as mere comedy, it quickly grew to be an amazing masterpiece of storytelling, and the growing skill of the creators became more and more apparent. Basically, the videos were created by recording what a "camera character" saw while moving other characters around and later superimposing voices. Simple as it may sound, it takes a lot of effort and perseverance to keep a series like that going, and Red vs Blue made 100 full episodes in its first season, not including PSAs and specials.

I've just recently gone back to their website to see if anything is new, and indeed there is! A new season of Red vs Blue, titled Red vs Blue Reconstruction, has been made, and it absolutely blows my mind. Unlike the Blood Gulch Chronicles, this new series takes place in Halo 3, which means that it's only on the console. Yet, the guys at Rooster Teeth have somehow managed nearly cinematic-quality special effects.



Yeah, I'm gushing, but Jesus Christ, if you've not checked this stuff out, DO IT! Hell, buy the DVD Box Set if you have to in order to catch up--it's more than worth it. My only complaint is that Red vs Blue's creators have this prick notion that no one should be able to embed their videos. This is the Goddamn age of YouTube! Why the hell not? If someone embeds your videos, they're giving others a taste of what you've made, which only increases your own popularity! Quit that shit.

In addition, Rooster Teeth also created the machinima series "1-800-MAGIC" (based on Shadowrun), "The Strangerhood" (based on the Sims 2), "PANICS" (based on F.E.A.R.), and the Halo 3 mod, Grifball. They also run a regular webcomic about their team.

Another machinima series that I've really gotten into is Leet World, which is made using Counter Strike: Source. The series itself is presented like some kind of competition reality show between the terrorists and counter-terrorists, complete with hilarity and drama.



In Red vs Blue, nearly all the characters are either in SPARTAN suits or are awkwardly made to lip-sync (save in Reconstruction, where the lip-syncing is spot-on), so it never looks funny when you see someone talking (the characters just nod their heads to denote speech). In Leet World, however, a number of main characters' models weren't made with lip syncing in mind, so some of them with visible mouthes don't actually move them when talking (although the game show host, played by the G-man, is lip-synced quite superbly). It's interesting to compare and contrasts the different styles that Rooster Teeth Productions and Smooth Few Films use. I love it when everyday people don't let their inexperience hold them back from being creative.

With that said, I leave you with this amazing Half-Life 2 machinima music video of Breaking Benjamin's "So Cold" called "I'm Still Seeing Breen" by Paul Marino.