Machinima In Action

Machinima's versatility as a delivery method in the classroom means that any instructor who wants to use it, can use it. Any content course, any lecture, any area for creativity is a space for a machinimated film to be used in the classroom. Students learn more when entertained. If you make information memorable because it is delivered in an innovative way, is comical, or because students can relate to the medium it was delivered in, they will learn it faster and retain it longer. To aid my readers, I will give the URL of a couple different machinima videos -- different in their aim, different in their filming platform, and different in the amount of time spent in their creation.

http://www.machinima.com/film/what_is_machinima

"Machinima!" is an informational video is filmed in the first-person shooter (FPS) game Counter-Strike: Source. It was created solely for educational purposes, yet is entertaining. The production time for this five minute film is unknown, but more than likely created in under a month.

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/stream.php?id=97157&stream=1&h=bc1f3a6c2290d32038cbfda7ae468a94

"The Craft of War: BLIND" uses the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft to film. However, unlike the previous example, the machinimator of "BLIND" imported and exported the models into a 3D application to make them behave as they could not inside the game. This action film was created solely for entertainment value and the production time was several months.

These two examples are drastically different, and yet exemplify how machinima can fill a niche in the classroom. Whereas educational films can put students to sleep or contain irrelevant/outdated material, machinima can be made by the instructor. She can choose how to portray the information and what information to portray.

In an English classroom, for example, students can watch machinima to strengthen their analytical skills (observe the various connections between the game and the movie, etc.), view a lecture on style (how the creation of the machinima is like the craft of writing: it's all about choices) and so on. The boundaries aren't limitless. Time is the elephant in the room. Production quality should be high for students to best learn, and that means time spent learning the artform and medium, and even more time spent creating.