The Making of a Machinima Video

This is the second project done for my Film Production class. For this project, the required criteria are it had to be a documentary, synched sound was not allowed, and I was not to be on camera in my own video. All interview answers from the interviewee were to be recorded but cannot be shown on screen talking.

At the time this project was assigned, I was already involved in the final Machinima project for my Machinima class. I figured I would make a documentary on my group for the Machinima project to kill two birds with one stone. I guess in a way, I was a bit lazy but there weren't any rules against it and do two projects at the same time during the semester was a lot of work. I just did what I could to minimize the workload but also do a good enough job to meet the requirements of the assignment.

Originally, I was going to do all the camera work. However, mid-way through the camera shoot, I had to step out to take care of something with the Film Department. Some of the members of my Machinima group were not going to be there by the time I finish so while I was gone, I asked Andrea to take over for me. Unfortunately, she failed to use the tripod that was provided so the majority of the shots that she took were all shaky. I wasn't happy about it but with the time constraint from both projects, I didn't have a choice but to deal with what I got.

The questions being asked are pretty general. Basically all I asked was what their major was and some of the experiences they've had while working on a Machinima project. I used a lavaliere mic provided by the Film Department to record their answers so it was very clean and clear. Everything went smoothly and I didn't really run into any troubles other than trying to steady the shots Andrea made during post-production. Wasn't very successful for the most part on that problem.

At the end of the documentary, I thought it would be great to at least put a finished product of a Machinima video to really give an idea what is being created. With that in mind, I used "The Brake-Up," my second Machinima project, as the example. At that time, my Machinima group was making "Daunting Inferno" but it was in the process of making it and I wanted a finished product so I went with "The Brake-Up" instead.

Overall, it was still a fun experience. It was my first time doing anything like this so it was definitely a learning experience and at the same time have fun with it. My Machinima group were great and were good sports about it too. Most of the people in the group were a bit camera shy and weren't too comfortable with the idea of a camera taping them but I did my best to make them feel like the camera wasn't there like making jokes and such.