BBFC and Machinima

Okay, I admit, this blog is somewhat a bit belated as the events in question occurred a week ago but I thought 'I'll do a blog about it at the weekend' and then my life was lost in a world of Photoshop and Illustrator annoyance preventing me from doing it - so here we go.

Last Wednesday we were lucky enough to have not one but two guest speakers come in to our university and talk to us about what they do. There is normally one guest speaker that comes in on a Wednesday afternoon to give their talk which we are 'advised' to go and see for the sake of 'broadening our influences' but most of the time the speakers are for things I really don't care for, thus why I haven't been before - may seem lazy but that's just me, I won't do something that doesn't interest me.

Anyway, one of the speakers this week was a man (who's name I never learnt...) from the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) that provides age ratings for films and, until recently at least, video games in the UK and a man called Johnnie Ingram who is the product manager at a company called Moviestorm that makes Machinima movies. The one I was most interested in was the Machinima one as that tied in closer with video games as  Machinima is basically making movies using game software and engines, however, the BBFC one was a lot more interesting than I would have expected and, at the end of the day, everyone loves films.

The first talk was from the BBFC so I'll talk about that first. The man talked for a couple of hours about who the BBFC were and why they exist - basically they are a group of independant individuals who watch films as they are made and want to be released in the UK and give them an age rating (U, PG, 12, 15, 18 or R18) so that we as consumers know what to expect in the film and are restricted from seeing the film if we are not the appropriate age. It is now part of the law in the UK that EVERY film that wants to be released, at the cinmea or direct to DVD, HAS to have received a certified age rating from the BBFC - so they are quite important - and this is how they make their living as a company; film makers and companies give them a fee to watch and rate the movie.

The BBFC has become a necessity in the British entertainment industry so their work is very crucial and must be carried out in a logical and accurate manor so that films are given the ratings they deserve. To this end, the man told us and gave us copies to look at of the BBFC guidlines that they follow when rating films - if soemthing for an age rating comes up they can check to what it applies to, such as what level of violence can be displayed at a particular age rating.

To round off he then proceeded to show us some film clips and ask us to rate them, this allowed us to see what we make of films and, once we were informed what the age rating was, learn why the decision was made, etc. In summary, the lecture was informative about learning the amount of work the BBFC have to do each year and also how critical they must be at almost every moment of a film - it also works in reverse; how critical film makers must be if they are trying to achieve a particular age rating for their movie.

Now onto the Machinima speaker... well... it was different to say the least. Johnnie Ingram only had an hour to talk to us which made it more difficult right from the off but let's just say the guys a tad eccentric to say the least - in a good way mind you, it made the talk a lot of fun and easier to listen to and take in. Johnnie first explained what Machinima was and how it developed, as said above it is basically making movies using game software, engines, models, etc - they've been around for years but only really picked up in the past 5 years or so.

The thing to make clear is THEY ARE NOT GAMES, you don't play them, you watch them, they are just like any other CG movie (such as one by Dreamworks or Disney Pixar) except they LOOK like games because they are made from the same engines and models as them. We then watched a couple of these movies, one was about World of Warcraft and was made using the creator software for said game - I didn't really like this movie if I'm honest, I dunno why, I just didn't... maybe the pacing of it was off, the plot... I dunno. The second one though was... well brilliant. It was a gangster/noir film made using the Half-Life 2 engine and models about a man who was forced to become a gangster due to his skills and need for money but ultimately couldn't handle all the killing, rebelling and killing his old boss as an act of retribution for the slaughter of his sister. It was something you could imagine could be a film made in any other media but that's why it worked, just because it was made using game engines did nothing to harm it.

He then talked about himself and how he got into Machinima (which was a funny story in itself) and then moved onto his current position with Moviestorm, a Machinima movie making company. He demonstrated the companies software which was interesting to watch - I wouldn't get it personally because, although I find watching Machinima can be good and interesting I could never find the devotion to make one. This was ultimately the full one hour talk.

It was good to hear both these talks as they left me walking away knowing more than I did - knowledge is always a bonus - and they got me thinking more about the processes that all people go through when making... well anything. You have to consider so much, how the viewer might react to stuff differntly to you, how the production of games and films a collaboroative process that even ahs parts out of your control going into it, how games can ultimately lead to more things than the game alone can envisage.

So anyway, that's my post on these talks... they were fun. 'Til next time - that's all folks