Machinima
Y'know the art of making movies using a video game's in-game engine? It's called machinima (or sometimes machinema) - a play on words of both 'machine' and 'cinema'.
I was reading the wikipedia entry this evening and was surprised that they suggest that it is pronounced "ma-shin-e-ma" (that is, with an "sh" for the "ch").
I have always pronounced it "ma-kin-e-ma" - a combination, if you like, of 'machina' (as in the Latin phrase 'deus ex machina') and 'kinema' (an early form of the word 'cinema' which is itself derived from 'kinematics', the science of movement). To me, that pronunciation makes much more sense.
How do you pronounce it? And while we're on the topic, do you have a favourite machinima?
Comments
# Euan
18/10/2006 1:14 PM
No all of it sucks.
# mabster
18/10/2006 1:20 PM
Unfortunately I think you're right. "Red vs Blue" is ok, but there's nothing stellar out there.
How is it that still-frame comics like Concerned (hlcomic.com) can be so good, but the video-based ones are all so average?
# Andrew Tobin
18/10/2006 1:33 PM
For the same reason people can be funny writers but aren't comedians I guess.
I mean, for the video ones you've got a lot more elements to get right, tone, inflection, timing... with the written ones you write funny and it's read and interpreted.
# Andrew Tobin
18/10/2006 1:46 PM
Also, you're a lot more forgiving of something that takes you 15 seconds to read than something that takes 5 minutes to download and 4 minutes to watch.
# Euan
18/10/2006 9:23 PM
hlcomic is great. I think that guy is brilliant.
But I think it would take him a considerable amount of time to create those comics. Where as machinima would definately be easier ergo lots of buttheads making crap machinima.
The one thing that really sets hlcomic appart is the facial expressions too. Where as machinima has very little control over the facial expressions if any at all.
Heres the perfect example: http://hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2006-05-31
# Adam
22/10/2008 9:29 PM
Ma-SHEEN-ema
the e in cinema makes an eh sound, not an 'ee' sound. although there is no 'e' in machinima it is still pronounced as a product of both words.
technically its machinema anyway