Saturday, April 09, 2005

Machinima: Tools for Library Promotion, User Education & Storytelling?

Learnt something new today -- something called Machinima (via David Weinberger's blog). Before you read this post further, I encourage you to visit Paul Marino's Thinking Machinima blog and view/ download the machinima music video he created. You'll have a better idea of what I'm talking about below...

... OK, I'm intrigued by this statement from David's post: "He says that machinima's future is the democratization of animated storytelling." It struck me that Machinima, or "filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment", holds promise for libraries as (1) a publicity/ promotional tool, (2) a teaching aid, and (3) for expanding the traditional of storytelling.

In my prevous post "The Legend of Bukit Merah (or How Redhill got its name): Part 1", I explained that "Libraries have a strong association with storytelling and folktales, or more precisely, the communication of ideas and thoughts through words, sounds, and pictures."

Imagine getting the many talents out there -- in our schools and among private individuals -- to produce machinimas based on the various myths and legends associated with Singapore. The library could then collect them as part of our Singaporeana collection and offer it online (creative commons license applies).

Found only 1 book in NLB collection:
3D game-based filmmaking: The art of machinima/ Paul Marino (c2004). "The complete hands-on guide to creating animated real-time 3D films on your PC."
cover
Call No.: 005.369 MAR [COM]
The book comes with a CD-ROM (find it on the open-shelf where the Computer & IT CD-ROM attachments are located).


More machinimas at http://www.machinima.com/
There's more at http://www.redvsblue.com/ (Really funny stuff. Characters based on Halo).
This is what you'd get if you search for "machinima" in Technorati, if you want to look at more blogs on machinimas.


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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:57 pm

    Yes, there was a public service video done for some european country using the game called "The Sims" to show a girl juggling her life with a baby. She starts to go nuts as she has to multitask while looking after the baby and the in-game video ends with something like practice safe sex. Sorry I can't find that link for some reason, but it's a good example of Machinima used in a mainstream television setting.

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  2. Oh, I saw that one before. Thought it was a promo for The Sims though. I remember it started with a young couple making out and being the most romantic couple in the world. Then they had babies and basically showed they had no life (for some reason, one of the kids kept setting him/ herself on fire). But after their kids grew up and left, the couple had a love life again. Kinda sexist that it's always the woman who jumped the guy. But I found it funny.

    Bet they wouldn't show that in Singapore cos it will only reinforce the negative stereotypes about married life and negate the govt efforts to get Marrieds to have more babies.

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  3. Anonymous1:51 pm

    Not quite, That was the 1st Offical trailer for The Sims 2, the video that Kevin is referring about, was done for the goverment of Belgium to help discourge Teens Pregencies.

    http://www.fileplanet.com/151847/150000/fileinfo/Teenage-Mom---The-Video-Game

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