Many people love both movies and games, but not everyone knows that they can mesh the two together. Making movies using games remains popular in both the US and China.
The machinima genre has actually been around for years. Some may remember Diary of a Camper, a short film made using the first-person shooter Quake way back in 1996. Perhaps better known is Red vs. Blue, a comedy series that originated as a simple voiceover of the Xbox game Halo: Combat Evolved. Started in 2003, it’s the longest running episodic web series.
Machinima has continued to evolve over the years and has spanned continents. Here are some of the games popular among machinima artists today.
Total War
If you watched the Battle of Winterfell in the final season of Game of Thrones, you may have noticed that the screenwriters lacked some knowledge about war strategy. Some “professional armchair generals” decided to fix it by playing out the battle again — this time in the game Total War.
Some took things even further by showing how the Battle of Winterfell would look in Helm’s Deep from Lord of the Rings.
Total War is a great game for history buffs and a good way to show off epic movie battles. Chinese users have noticed this, as well.
One gamer in China turned Total War into an entire documentary series showing off how Chinese dynasties fought battles and armed their men throughout history.
Minecraft
In this hit sandbox game, blocks aren’t just used to build things like buildings and trees. They’re also used to make movies.
Minecraft has spawned many pixelated hits. There are Minecraft renditions of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. You can even watch the Titanic sink, and this time the raft definitely has enough blocks to hold Leonardo DiCaprio!
Chinese gamers have also gotten in on the Minecraft movie-making action. Blocky remakes of Wandering Earth, China’s biggest sci-fi blockbuster, have been especially popular.
Minecraft has also been used to produce completely original movies. Life of a Hunter is a short movie about trying to survive the winter while Life of a Minecraftean explores a life of loneliness… in Minecraft.
Those that can’t be bothered with actual plots can also just explore movie settings. Chinese gamer Azztter used 370 million blocks over the course of a year building this massive cyberpunk city reminiscent of the 1980s cult classic Blade Runner.
Grand Theft Auto
Why just cruise through Los Santos when you could be making movies? GTA’s hyper-realistic visuals makes it a great medium to make movies, as shown by films like Overheat and Outbreak.
The wide array of modifications available for GTA make the game even more fun. You can play as James Bond or as Iron Man. There’s already an entire sit-com made with an Alien mod. And of course, a GTA version of Wandering Earth.
But when real Hollywood directors get involved, that’s when the magic happens. Director Matt MacDonald made a GTA version of Taxi Driver called Not Normal. It’s dark. It’s gritty. It’s perfect for GTA.
