SFIFF | Cock Byte: Postmasters of Machinima

SFIFF | Simmons
Originally uploaded by lawgeek.

A late review, but I wanted to comment on a session I went to at the San Francisco Int'l Film festival.  It was a presentation by two members of Red v. Blue, an episodic machinima series that is filmed and takes place in the world of Halo and Halo 2, two very popular Xbox games.

I've seen much of the series and have loved it on and off. It combined humor and insight into human nature with the absurd premises and outrageous violence of the videogame environment. (ed: for those who've never seen it, all visuals are based on actual character and game movements that appear on screen and are directly recorded. In other words, if you can't do it in the game, you can't put it on film.)

In contrast, the presentation sucked.  BIG TIME. I mean, it blew.  We were told that we would be getting previews of the next season plus favorites from years past.  But what they showed us was simply a run-through of the Season One DVD -- a season that was three years old and that most of us had already seen on the web. No special features, nothing.

Moreover, rather than send the actual creators of the show, they sent two guys who did the voices for it.  Now this could be interesting too of course...if they knew anything about making the movies.

But they didn't. Oh, they knew a few general things here and there, but all their answers were vague and lame and pretty much based on hearsay as far as I could tell.  And they were drunk. Which often isn't a problem for speakers especially when it makes them funnier, but with these guys it was almost the opposite effect.  They were jerks. Jerks without answers or information.  How's that for a Q&A? Eww.

So that was that.  I'm still a fan of RvB and find the premise and series hilarious.  But if they want their fan base to remain loyal, they're going to need to start sending folks who can really represent that level of talent when they speak.  Oh, and who remember to bring the right DVD.