Video games as film and vice versa
Perhaps you’re familiar with machinima that peculiar branch of “animation” that makes short films by adding a voice track to video game footage. And it makes sense: Video games have become so sophisticated and customizable that enterprising would-be filmmakers often find it easier to use Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog in place of living actors.
The practice is gaining in popularity; in fact look no further than Red Vs. Blue a complete machinima DVD series available in stores now for an excellent introduction to the form. It’s all just a recording of various Halo characters running around in multiplayer mode but with ridiculous plots and funny dialogue added for good measure.
So that’s machinima. Now what are we supposed to call live-action (or animated) films that re-create video games down to the smallest detail? Anti-machinima? If we don’t call the process anti-machinima we should at least call it something because people are starting to do quite a lot of it.
Anti-machinima — should we stick with the term — works best as a sort of short-form sketch comedy that affectionately lampoons the various unrealistic qualities of classic video games. A classic example would be the Futurama episode in which the Omicronian fleet attacks the Earth in the manner of Space Invaders with its alien leader continually ordering his ships to “Increase speed drop down and reverse direction!” Space Invaders for its part also inspired another comic moment in Robot Chicken in which two of the game’s infamous pixilated aliens have a conversation about how poorly the battle is going.
“Whoop — there goes Carl!” says one.
“Oh he had two kids right?” asks the other.
“Three. A boy and two girls. I’m their Godfather.”
Of course Futurama and Robot Chicken are both animated series but the art of anti-machinima really shines when it’s done in live action. Nintendo 64 classic GoldenEye 007 is ideal for this sort of thing. Sure it features somewhat realistic human characters but the game is old enough to look goofy to modern eyes while still holding considerable nostalgic appeal. A quick glance at YouTube reveals dozens of home movies that re-create the stiff-legged shootouts that Nintendo fans fondly remember to this day.
But the most professionally made GoldenEye anti-machinima I’ve seen is GoldenEye Stand-Off a gleefully funny short that’s exclusively available on collegehumor.com . It starts out as a standard James Bond parody but as it progresses the characters make more and more in-jokes about game play.
“Have you completely lost your mind?” shouts Bond crouching behind a pillar in a gunfight. “We both agreed you couldn’t use OddJob. He’s too short! He’s impossible to shoot!”
“Is it really so hard to look down James?” hisses Trevalyan.
Further when Bond’s partner “Arctic Commander” turns up (after getting lost) he brags about putting proximity mines all over the facility.
“Excellent. Do you remember where?” asks Bond.
Of course he doesn’t.
GoldenEye Stand-Off is filmed like a standard Bond film — in fact only during its closing slap-fight do any of the characters behave like they’re in a video game. Indeed each character looks like they’re in a film but talks like they’re in a game — and hilarity ensues.
The other GoldenEye films on YouTube tend to eschew the cinematic approach in favour of faithfully re-creating the game at least visually. My favourite among these is the awkwardly titled Nintendo 64 007 GoldenEye Facility Remix a 10-minute film that’s as amusing to GoldenEye players as it is utterly incomprehensible to everyone else. A full level of the game is re-created with amateur actors and it’s almost entirely shot from a first-person perspective — like the game it follows a hand holding a gun as its hero blasts his way through a building full of soldiers. When Bond lines up a headshot on an unsuspecting guard little red crosshairs get dangled onscreen attached to a bit of wire. Dead soldiers evaporate into thin air leaving behind their guns and ammo. Freed hostages run towards the camera in a ridiculous loping fashion often bumping into walls or directly into the protagonist. Best of all when Bond picks up the Klobb he fires an entire clip at an enemy without hitting him once.
Geez remember the Klobb? Man that gun sucked!
