2005 Halo Machinima Award Winners

ThatWeasel writes "It was announced on /. almost two months ago and now, finally, the 3rd Annual 'Rockets on Prisoner' Awards have announced this year's Winners. Several video segments have been produced documenting the Nominees and Winners, along with the acceptance speeches from the lucky few who will be receiving golden Master Chief statues for their excellent work in Machinima. With awards Ceremonies like this, who needs the Oscars?"

A question:

[drsquare]

What is this actually about? It isn't explained either in the summary nor in the article. The title and the summary seem to have nothing in common.

Re:A question:

[Anonymous Coward]

The title and the summary seem to have nothing in common.

You must be new here. Welcome to Slashdot!

Re:A question:

[FidelCatsro]

From the Article

"Welcome: to the Official Website for the 2005 "Rockets on Prisoner" Awards. These awards are given to the best Halo Machinima videos created by the Fans of Halo and Halo 2 on the Xbox and PC"

Machinima is the type of videos , Rockets on prisoner is the name of the awards , Halo is apparently the game

Re:A question:

[GoodOmens]

As per Wikipedia: As a production technique, the term concerns the rendering of computer-generated imagery (CGI) using low-end 3D engines (as opposed to high-end and complex 3D engines used by professionals) in video games (typically, engines in first person shooters games have been used). Consequently, the rendering can be done in real-time using PCs (either using the computer of the creator or the viewer), rather than with complex 3D engines using huge render farms. *More can be found here [wikipedia.org]

Simply put:

[a.different.perspect]

Machinima is a genre of cinema made with video games. In the case of productions like Red vs Blue [wikipedia.org], this involves taking video feeds from a game (like Halo in multiplayer) in which "actors" control characters as per a script and subsequently, on a computer, editing the footage and adding an audio layer for dialogue; in other instances, it can mean scripting a game engine (like Half-Life 2's Source). What it always means is, as I said, films from games.
 
Some history here [wikipedia.org].

Re:A question:

[Deflatamouse!]

Heard about this from a friend before... didn't know it was called Machinima until now.

Basically, they're making film through a game. Each person playing their role, recording their sessions. Maybe another player logged in can be a 'camera man' viewing the whole 'play' (or movie) from a 3rd person point of view (and recording). Afterwards, each actors' and cameraman's sessions can be taken and edited together and that becomes the movie. Dialogue can be added during post-processing I guess.

Imagine making the

Not Quite

[Altima(BoB)]

While they seem to be the big dogs in the genre and have garnered a lot of mainstream attention, looks like they only won a couple of awards. (One of them being a "Best Series" award so I guess it's a pretty prominant one. It looks like some series called The Codex was a bigger winner here, with its 20th episode and 18th episode raking in a lot of awards.

Re:Shocker

[TiredGamer]

Sarcasm is redundant. Yep, this is Slashdot. ;)

Dear lord, those sucked

[Aqua OS X]

I know this may come across as flame bate, but damn, some of those were downright painful to watch.

I don't really have a problem with Red Vs. Blue. Those guys can be fairly funny. But man, I found myself actually felling embarrassed for some of the directors (?) of those machinema flicks.

They weren't good, and they weren't bad enough to be funny. They were just kind of, umm, "uncomfortable" bad.

Now, for good machinema, watch Summoner Geeks [devilducky.com]

Re:Dear lord, those sucked

[biryokumaru]

I believe their script is taken from a classic fake D&D session transcript... I believe remember reading it on a message board a few years back.

Otherwise, the characters' acting is very well done, and the voice acting is marvelous.

Re:Dear lord, those sucked

[raoul666]

Well, it shows up here, with even awesomer graphics! Quite amusing, actually. http://starterupsteve.com/swf/8bitDandD.html [starterupsteve.com]

Re:Dear lord, those sucked

[Tofino]

In the same vein, don't miss out on hoodyhoo.com [hoodyhoo.com].

Re:Dear lord, those sucked

[aarku]

The voice actors and producers of the original audio recording are the Dead Alewives, a Milwaukee Wisconsin-based sketch comedy troupe. I'd link to their site, but it does not appear to exist anymore.

Re:Dear lord, those sucked

[iNetRunner]

I'm sure the original audio can be found on many sites.. Like here [killermookie.org], I think. Funny stuff.. =) (Used as-is in Summoner Geeks?)

Somehow I liked better the clip played by real people who redid this sketch, than the Nuklear Power flash version. (Can't find a link now for the real ppl one.. and maybe I just remeber it was good.)

Anyway, that Summoner Geeks version linked by the original poster is the best. =)

Re:Dear lord, those sucked

[thesnarky1]

I highly reccomend only watching the ones that were nominated for awards, and even some of those are bad. I ended up just watching the winners, be advised not all are in english (a surprise to me).

This is the potential of Machinima?

[joetheappleguy]

Over a gig of videos on that site and the 3 random ones I watched were total shit - Lots of Blue vs Red wannabe clones and some boring footage of Halo matches.

Anything in there with an actual story?

Re:This is the potential of Machinima?

[cellophane01]

Welcome to Halo Machinima.

Watch this one

[athmanb]

http://files.filefront.com/mine/;4157978;;/fileinf o.html [filefront.com]

Not epic but well choreographed and funny.

Aha!

[jotaeleemeese]

Sombeody that knows filmakers have learnt something after 100+ years of cinema: it is the plot, stupid.

Action!

Who Needs Oscars?

[Anonymous Coward]

With awards Ceremonies like this, who needs the Oscars?

I dunno...real filmmakers?

Re:Who Needs Oscars?

[biryokumaru]

No, he said "Oscars," not "Sundance Film Festival." I can see how you might get the two confused. One has scantily clad women and colorful blinking lights, and the other has films.

Re:Who Needs Oscars?

[elrous0]

No, he said "Oscars," not "Sundance Film Festival." I can see how you might get the two confused. One has scantily clad women and colorful blinking lights, and the other has films.

Actually, BOTH now have scantily clad women and colorful blinking lights. Sundance sold-out to the big studios long ago.

If you want to see real films and filmmakers, try the Independent Spirit Awards. No tux's, no Robert Redford ego trips, no union shut-outs--just interesting and innovative movies.

Okay, granted, there is the occa

Bloodspell

[Pyromage]

The RvB guys do some good work, especially considering the tools at their disposal, and have fairly good writing for many of their episodes.

However, I'd like to plug the guys doing a new machinima: Bloodspell [bloodspell.com]. That group has done a number of machinima shorts and features over the years and has constantly been pushing the envelope with machinima. The quality they get out of engines never designed for this is amazing.

Re:Here's one that didn't win

[sentientbeing]

Damn. I clicked the link. Thats 30 seconds of my life I wont get back.

Doom machinima

[sfraggle]

If you want to watch some good machinima, the original Doom has some great stuff done for it. Try this: Imp Encounter [picapic.net].

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

2005 Machinima Film Festival

[Moe Napoli]

A larger appeal (and real-life) Machinima festival [machinima.org] takes place next month in New York. They have their own awards too (the Mackies?).

Not Halo-specific, and hopefully, with a much better offering of works.

Machinima's a great new art form...

[Myself]

I wish I could go attend this! I hope they produce a DVD "best-of" release or something. Because downloading and installing and tweaking all the drivers to render it locally would be a pain in the ass.

Anyway, folks who're into novel uses of existing technology should take a look at Notacon [notacon.org], a yearly tech gathering in Ohio. You know you want to enter the Anything But Ethernet contest!

If there's interest from the Machinima community, I'm sure some projector time could be arranged. If some experienced animator

Re:Machinima's a great new art form...

[Pxtl]

Agreed. I always loved machinima, but watch most of my TV/movies on the sofa with my wife. So surfing and hunt-and-pick is out. But a good machinima disc would be fun.

Re:Hype

[superultra]

Something, apparently.

Here's a thought: lots of people might like things that you don't. Here's another thought: something can be "good" without your approval. I hate GTA, but I can still recognize it as a "good" game because so many other people have, including people I trust.

I have played plenty of FPS on the PC (not the least of which was System Shock 1&2, [insert other good and obscure fps]) and Halo still takes the cake. They just do everything so well, story, graphics, AI, and even controls. I

Re:Hype

[Guysmiley777]

Wrong. Mouse and keyboard will always smoke console controller in shooters. There is a reason they had to make Halo harder when they released it on PC.

You may know some people who can smoke an average keyboard and mouse player, but at the same skill level a controller hasn't got a chance.

The REAL FPS players don't bother with Halo because, well, it's a console game ported to PC (even though it was ORIGINALLY for PC until M$ bought out its dev company and forced it onto Xbox) Take your "uber-controller"

Re:Hype

[superultra]

Behold: a not-so-scientific experiment using the new Xbox360 controller. Guess which one wins? [evilavatar.com]

Re:Hype

[Lehk228]

i'll call bullshit on that. i have played a little halo, have played many FPS games using both paddles and kb/mouse. and i have watched so pretty decent halo tourneys.

unless the mouse is deliberately nerfed or paddles get auto-aim any decent player on kb/mouse will smoke even the best using a paddle.

Re:Hype

[superultra]

Since when does more accurate headshots = more fun? I'd like to see you play Katamari with a mouse and a keyboard. That'd be funny.

Re:Hype

[Lehk228]

i don't care about headshots, the issue is that a joystick makes reacting to an unexpected threat more cumbersome. thus putting more emphasis on who sees who first and encouraging camping.

with a mouse you can do better trick jumps while shooting and take on several lower skill players and win. with paddles if you have to waid for the game's aiming speed two or three opponents together have a huge advantage against one player of higher skill.

Screenshots

[patternjuggler]

I realize they may be receiving a minor slashdotting, but I'm not going to download a video without seeing at least a tiny thumbnail screenshot so I'll know what the hell I'm wasting all this time to see.

Re:Screenshots

[thesnarky1]

Now, this is *just* a guess... but I think you're going to see what appears to be a screenshot of Halo (2). I don't know what exactly you're expecting to see on a screenshot, perhaps a script and a length would be more appropriate to understand what you're getting? On the other hand, if you do want to see a coupla hundred halo 2 screen shots... go for it

Re:Screenshots

[patternjuggler]

I think you're going to see what appears to be a screenshot of Halo (2)

If what you're saying is that any of these movies is so visually undifferentiated that it's pointless to see a screenshot, then I don't really understand the point of watching any of them. The videos should be creative enough that there is going to be some screenshot that makes the video stand out from the other videos and the regular game. If this is unrealistic or impossible then I apologize for showing any falsely placed interest an

The Voice Acting!

[GaryPatterson]

Oh God, I can't erase the memory! It was so awful, so banal to hear dramatic lines delivered in such bored tones.

And those were the winners.

I know these aren't professionals, but is it really so hard to inject some emotion?