   Project Manager (Machinima Director) wanted
  Hello!I'm actually fairly new to the world of machinima, but I'm not new when it comes to the world of games technology. I'm an industry experienced programmer with a hearty interest in design, and a standing specialisation with Unreal technology, and plenty of experience working collaboratively over the Internet. At present, I've been flexing my writing muscle, and although not previously 'my thing', I'd like to look at the potential for turning my writing into a high-quality machinima project.Given my lack of experience in this realm, I'm looking to talk to a director - preferably one with experience and the ability to demonstrate it. I'm looking for someone who has worked with an asset based pipeline (modelling, animating, importing, arranging and so forth) and has the reasonable skills require to maintain a small team of people on an arduous task. I'm also looking for someone who isn't afraid to experiment with new things; highly dynamic camera work, experimental rendering styles and the works. I'd also like someone who has the ability to lend creative input, and solve problems as they arise.What can I provide? Naturally, a screenplay - and a fairly reasonable one too. It still has a fair bit of work to be done to it, but I want to allow plenty of time to actually talk about the project instead of diving headlong into the process of trying to achieve it. On top of that, I'm capable of dealing with most of the inner workings of the Unreal editor, assisting those that are less familiar. I'm also capable of working with shaders, materials and special effects. I can also lend contacts, make introductions and find valuable assistance where it'll later be required.So, if you're a capable director, looking to potentially try something gritty and insanely cool, please drop me a line - and feel free to ask questions.Apologies for not conforming to the mandatory template, but it really didn't seem prudent since I'm not a team, nor am I looking to necessarily form a team for a specific project or end - I'm just looking to talk stuff out with someone experienced in a field that I'm not, and take things from there if there is some potential.Thanks,Luke   
  Love the idea of experimenting with machinima, if it's not being borrowed (stolen) from another game. From what I've seen, I feel there are to many limitations on what a directer can do with it legally, at this time..like entering it into a contest or festival with a cap on the prize limit :(  http://gamasutra.com/blogs/JhypsyShah/20090427/1264/Integration_of_film_and_games.phphttp://kingdomofyet.webs.com/kind of a side project of the integration of film and games where the players and audience can be the same. Decided earlier this year to drop the game part because there is interested in picking up the cartoon..it sucks but no-one really likes new ideas untill they are proven successful as a general rule.   ;  Yeah, there are a lot of limitations, especially if you're looking to achieve some amount of commercial success. Either way, I'm perfectly happy to explore both commercial and non-commercial routes; although I'm obviously presently unfunded and not offering funding - that'd be something to discuss and work out at a later point, after considering the feasibility of such a misadventure.Integrations between games and film can certainly be interesting - which is why I'm still keen to see how Lorne Lanning's Citizen Siege fares out, although I've not heard a great deal of it in a little while now.   ;  Commercially I would think it would be alot less headache to just use your own content, storyline, art and maybe a physics/game engine if possible and not have to deal with any of them. For a series just submit a pilot with the season ready before signing a contract..I think the bonues would be that ya could use the low res animation when -ever possible to ensure a successful contract, cause it's fast. Ya wouldn't have to deal with the politics or the silly black and white debates that go on in the game industry either. Seems like ya could even broadcast it realtime (with a short delay) if ya wanted to with other scenes set-up. Beta testers, multigame guilds and groups. I see it as endless possibilites tho'..non-commercially, I'd assume that ya'd use other peoples games, I don't know how much creative control ya'd have over it. Some of those companies say they are all about machinima but when I have requested permission to use it just to make sure..and they never wrote back.  Before they shut down, I asked gameflood about using their site for machinima studios and other media to accent the game projects and they considered it but said they just didn't have the funding but they said it was a very interesting idea..  sometimes new ideas just don't fit into a template, don't be surprised if this thread is gone. I wish ya well on your machinima endeavors tho'!-J   ;  The plan is to definitely go with 100% own assets, but to use an existing game engine and tool-set to act as both renderer and tool for rapid prototyping of things such as experimental camera work and such - a modern game engine, such as Unreal 3 or CryEngine 2 can easily be abused to output some very reasonable visuals. If I were aiming for a commercial product, I think I'd work with producing a short teaser trailer, and knocking out one or two of the more interesting scenes, then see if there's actually anyone out there that'd be willing to fund the project, and license the software / engine. I lean towards Unreal 3, because this is where my experience lies, and I have some knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes with licensing in that regard. I'm mostly interested in doing shorts, and preferably, features rather than a series - it allows subsequent projects to differ as much as they may, without anything going stale as far as the potential viewer is concerned.The concept of broadcasting in real-time is certainly a very interesting one, and very feasible. It'd take a bit more work, but it's definitely not something I've seen before. Limited user interaction via an online, 'game-level' would certainly prove different. Something to scribble down and look into, I think.Non-commercially, if you go with Unreal as an example, I know full well there won't be any issues with distributing such content for free. Epic are fairly lenient with user generated content, and decent machinima is only yet another shining example for potential future licensees to take a gander at.But that's just a pipe-dream for the time being; a screenplay is a screenplay, and actually producing something is a very different matter :)   ;  sounds awesome.I wouldn't wanna do a feature myself, just a preference tho'. I see alot of untapped potential for machinima. Especially being able to write one with static world in mind (series or feature) with the openess of being able to direct actors (players?) real time within an online game..Seems added media could really enhance the experience of a game world..in soo many different ways. I believe that keeping this in mind as you write could prove to be groundbreaking later..never know. Ya should keep us updated on the announcements or something that would be cool.   