GAMES II
YOUNGBLOOD, MACHINIMA, THE HISTORY
OF FILM AND VIDEO GAMES, AND
ALTERNATE ENDINGS,
TODAY’S DISCUSSION
 Youngblood’s “Cinema and the Code” article
summary
 Machinima Art
 Birth of the Cinematic Form
 Alternative Endings: A Marriage of Film and Games?
Youngblood, “Cinema and the Code”
 Cinema is the art of organizing a stream of
audiovisual events in time—like music
 Four medias through which we can practice
cinema—film, video, holography, and structured
digital code
 Digital imaging as a new cinematic language
 Image transformation
 Parallel event-streams
 Temporal perspective
 The image as object
Youngblood, “Cinema and the Code” (cont’d…)
 Image transformation
 Mechanical cinema is the art of the transition and electronic
cinema is the art of the transformation
 A cut is a cut, metamorphosing operation is open-ended
 Parallel event-streams
 Three possibilities: superimposition (overlay), spatially
separate event-streams (framed and unframed)
 Eg. Split screens in film (optical printing) or floating imageplanes in video
Youngblood, “Cinema and the Code” (cont’d…)
 Temporal perspective
 Wiebel looked to art history as influence for digital media
 Perspective was no longer bound to a static point of view
 Temporal perspective only seriously explored in experimental
film—Michael Snow
 The image as object
 Image processing
Mechanical cinema relies on the frame
 Electronic cinema only deals with its location or position within
the larger frame
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Youngblood, “Cinema and the Code” (cont’d…)
 The image as object (cont’d…)
 Digital image synthesis
We can control the location, the perspective, angle of view and
geometry of the image object in a three-dimensional database
 Conventional editing reconstructs “real” time and “real” space
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Three-dimensional display—binocular (stereoptic) or
holographic
Cinema vs. video games—the spectator is the camera, “a point of
view that is active within the scene”
 Cinema is moving from the two-dimensional image on a screen to
the three-dimensional object in space

Birth of the Cinematic Form
 Birth of filmmaking (1895)
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The Lumiere Bothers, Louise and Auguste, conceptualizes the idea of
the Cinematographe, one of the most earliest forms of projecting an
image.
All of Lumiere short films were considered actualities; films that
portrayed reality. They were considered primitive documentaries
because they would capture its physical environment.
For example, “Arrival of a Train (1895)”, literally depicts a train
arriving and pedestrians walking inside, and “Baby’s Breakfast
(1895)” showing exactly a baby and his/her parents eating breakfast.
Arrival at a Train:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk
 Baby’s Breakfast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW9MR6bz3zo
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Birth of the Cinematic Form (cont’d…)
 Birth of video games (1952)
 “OXO” was the first ‘computer game’ to use a digital graphical
display. It was invented by A.S. Douglas, whose primarily focus
was not to create a videogame. OXO was strictly intended to be
used in his thesis paper on human-to-computer interaction.
• OXO in motion -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCTRWD3DFsA
Birth of the Cinematic Form (cont’d…)
 Decade of innovation (1990s)
 Important time in videogames, as there is a distinct transition
from raster graphics to 3D graphics.
 Myst (1993) was a point and click adventure game. While not
exactly maneuvering in a 3D area, the player can explore the
environment of a game by clicking certain paths and objects.
 Metal Gear Solid (1998), defined a type of videogame that
borrowed cinematic techniques from actual motion pictures.
The narrative is now just as important as the gameplay.
• MGS - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuTmDljP_QY
Birth of the Cinematic Form (cont’d…)
 Technology! (2000 – present)
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Film
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There is a growing popularity of how people want to view their film
(ie. IMAX) Currently, many people expect to see these big Hollywood
budget movies (ie. Avatar). It has even come to a point where all types
of movies are intended to be watched 3D!
Games
Videogames are turning more and more cinematic. For example,
“Heavy Rain” allow players to take control of what happens in the
narrative. There are many paths to take, and each one determines the
outcome of the overall story.
 The “Call of Duty” series perfectly captures the feeling of being at war.
Bullets shoot towards the player, ground shakes as a bomb is thrown.
There is that feeling of being engrossed in the setting. This was
something that game developers weren’t able to do in the past. We are
living in a world where videogames are given the same production
values as big budget films.

New Media Resistance: Machinima and the Avant-Garde
 Machinima: a contraction of machine and cinema
first coined by the “The Strange Company” film
collective.
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Traditional narrative machinima is created by scripting a
story, recording game play within a real time 3D environment
Machinima is unlike animation because the 3D engine that
controls the images exists within the parameters of a video
game.
 For some games like “Simlife”, machinimators allow
for the construction of nearly any environment and
avatar imaginable. Machinima does not need to exist
in the confined of what would be described as a game
Early Machinima
 Gamer-oriented
 Offers practical advice for successful game play
 Machinima has evolved to become a multifarious
techniques with its own distinct genres and
tendencies

“Male Restroom Etiquette”
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzO1mCAVyMw&feature=relmfu

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“Red vs. Blue” (Halo)
“Make Love Not Warcraft” (South Park)
 Machinima is a nascent technological breakthrough
which radically redefines the means of production
associated with traditional narrative filmmaking
Machinima Art
 Machinima resembles found-footage filmmaking in
its appropriation of extent images and sounds;
however, machinima employs digitally appropriated
environments, avatars, background stories and even
pre-rendered sequences
 Machinima art as a critique of video games
 Machinima art as a cheap platform for cinematic
expression
Limitation of Machinima
 Machinimators often attempt to work within the
aesthetic and narrative constructions of
contemporary Hollywood cinema
 Most machinima theorists and pioneers are
fascinated with non-narrative possibilities but they
admit that machinima has a brighter future in its
narrative form
Why machinima is worth of study
 Personal video game consoles have become so
widespread

Over 117 million Americans are counted as “active gamers”
 Machinima = new media resistance
 Radical critique of video games
 Attempt to redefine the politics and ideology of video game
culture rather than praise it
Alternate Endings
 DVDs allow more interaction with film
 Alternate endings in special features allow us to
choose which ending we want to see
 “Heavy Rain” gives ultimate control of characters in
the way a ‘choose your own adventure’ book does
Paranormal Activity (2007) alternate endings
It’s your turn!
 What do you think about the interactive relationship
between video games and their players, and that of an
audience and their ability to choose an alternate ending
of a film?
 Could the alternate ending option for films be a step in
the right direction to complete interactive film?
 Do you think ‘choose your own adventure’ films are a
possibility?
???
Works Cited
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Elijah Horwatt, “ New Media Resistance: Machinima and the Avant-Garde” (Cineaction
73/74 2008) http://cineaction.ca/issue73sample.htm
Heavy Rain. 2.0. [Sony Computer Entertainment.] Quantic Dream. February, 2010.
Video game.
Gene Youngblood “Cinema and the Code.” Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary
After Film. Eds. Jeffrey Shaw and Peter Weibel. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003.
Paranormal Activity. Dir. Oren Peli. Perf. Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat. Blumhouse
Productions, 2007. Film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW9MR6bz3zo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCTRWD3DFsA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswzriFIf_k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS00FyRwR4w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuTmDljP_QY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzO1mCAVyMw&feature=relmfu