Machinima: What it means to be human in video games. 



My recent trip to the beautiful city of Trondheim was the first time I was in Norway, where I participated in an incredible little film festival called Minimalen. 

It was also the first time I discovered a new (to me) form of cinema. Machinima. And I instantly fell in love.  

According to Guinness World Records, Machinima is the art of making animated narrative films from computer graphics, most commonly using the engines found in video games. 

I watched short films that were shot entirely within different video games, and some moved me as much as any traditionally short narrative short would.

From reciting Shakespeare in the violent world of Grand Theft Auto to discovering a spiritual experience while going off map in Red Dead Redemption,  the shorts ultimately explored what it means to be alive... even inside a game. Maybe especially more so, considering being alive is the ultimate zero-sum game.

But a game nonetheless. 

Here are some of my favourite Machinima films. 

We Are Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On / Sam Crane

The Grannies / Marie Foulston

Hardly Working/ Total Refusal 

Happy New Year Jim / Andrea Gatopoulos