The Machinima Filmfest will feature a series of presentations and discussions while screening all of the festival award nominees. Here are brief descriptions of the panels we have planned throughout the day:
November 1st - Panel Track:
11:00 am - Welcome and Machinima 101
After a general welcome message by Eyebeam’s Head of Education and Public Programming, Liz Slagus, and Festival Producer Friedrich Kirschner, the Executive Director of the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences, Paul Marino, will give a brief overview of the history and current state of Machinima.
12:00 pm -Interfacing Virtual Actors
Join us for an hour long discussion on Interfaces and control methods for present and future generations of Machinima characters and toolsets, with panelists Michael Nitsche - GeorgiaTech University, Ken Perlin - NYU Media Research Lab, Matt Kelland - Short Fuze, John C. Martin II - Reallusion and Armando Troisi - Bioware.
1:00 pm - Machinima and Art
Can Machinima hold up as Art? Nominees “Les Riches Douaniers” from this year’s machinima festival together with festival judge and multimedia artist Annie Ok and photographer turned media artist Dan Torop discuss how the medium fits in with the new media art world.
2:00 pm - Grassroots Machinima
Machinima to the people! Join nominated filmmakers from the “Best Student Machinima” category and Eyebeam’s head of Education, Liz Slagus, for a look at the “human” future of machinima.
3:00 pm - Filmmaker’s panel 1: Where to from here?
With the term machinima getting more and more diversified, filmmakers trying to find ways to monetize on their creations and more non-game related machinima tools available than ever - where do you go to survive in the machinima world? Join Machinima Filmfest Nominees Chris Burke, Douglas Gayeton and Frank Dellario as they discuss their approaches to finding an audience and a way to make a living.
4:00 pm - Filmmaker’s panel 2: Game vs. Filmmaker
How do computer games lend themselves to machinima filmmaking? In what way do filmmakers benefit from the game world and what are the limitations they have to face when working within confined spaces? Join a group of Mackie Nominees as they discuss their ways of dealing with these issues.
5:00 pm - Filmmaker’s panel 3: Story vs. Character
What does it take to develop strong narrative and believeable characters over time? Can brilliant actors save a horrible script? And do Halo movies automatically generate a bigger audience? Questions that some of our Nominees for this year’s Mackies are more than happy to answer.
6:00 pm - Sound Production 101
Join sound afficionados Phil Rice and Ricky Grove, producers of “the Overcast” machinima podcast for an intense look at sound production and how it makes or breaks your machinima films.
8:00 pm - Festival Awards Ceremony
The 2008 Machinima Filmfestival Awards will be given to outstanding machinima productions in 14 categories, and to the overall “Best of the Fest” winner chosen from all the Award Winners in the individual categories. In addition, two special Honorary Awards will be given out - the “Outstanding Achievement in Game Cinematics Award” and the “Peter Rasmussen Award for Contributions to Machinima”, in remembrance of the Mackie Award winning filmmaker and writer of “Stolen Life”.
10:00 pm - Festival Afterparty
8bit musician Bubblyfish will provide for a fun and danceable Atmosphere that will help us all celebrate the end of the 2008 Machinima Filmfest!
