Saturday, January 30, 2010

Recognizing "Magnum" Machinima

A few thoughts to get us started....When I began to contemplate a name for this review blog, I played a bit with alliteration. MMMMM...what works with M.A.G. Well there's MAG.NET. A search produced sites on magnets! and a fairly bland machinima site focused on Halo (and even Halo looked boring on that site). MAGNET sounds like a great social networking site among MAG members. Not only are you an attractive lot, but your works will attract many to this site! And don't be surprised if I play off of MAG Net in the future. haha.

Then I came across MAGNUM. it means Great (Latin), and refers to many things, such as a type of gun, a British band, a band member of a Finnish group, boots for police and fire/rescue services, a brand for cars/trucks, a brand for electric guitars/bass, a condom, ice cream for those warm days in Tampa!, a type of computer workstation, a rocket, a satellite, a professional wrestler, the main character in a popular American TV show, among others and my favorite - Multicolor Active Galactic Nuclei Monitoring (MAGNUM) - a telescope.

All this brings me to my point! MAGNUM means Great! PRO MAG is intended as place to showcase the best machinima works, drawing from those game engines that allow machinimakers to tell stories and draw upon our emotions (yes art, too). The goal is intention - the intention to relate to each other through machinima! and to do it in great ways! Audiences sometimes have different perspectives than creators on what makes a machimina great - so watch the following link from Wagner James Au's New World Notes (from 2008 but relevant to my point) and think about what might make this machinima "great" to him and others...http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2008/07/great-machinima.html. Don't read too much into this video, I only use it as an example of the varying definitions of what triggers a "magnum" response from a viewer.

Aha! so now, I look toward PRO MAG, and put a call out for comments by Pro Members (and reviewers are welcome to comment) - what makes machinima great to you?! Who are the top machinima makers of all times? or even last week! Be concise, for many of you have to get back to making machinima. This site is intended to motivate, not distract you!
Please feel free to email me with tips on names and sites of MAGNUM machinima makers that the reviewers might invite to submit their works for inclusion on this site. sonicityfitzroy@yahoo.com. Let's keep it MAGNUM!
- Soni