Machinima Filmmaking as Culture in Practice: Dialogical Processes of Remix

The topic of game and player culture is addressed herein as individual and socio-cultural processes of authorship in relation to machinima filmmaking. The terms machinima (from machine, cinema and anime) and machinimators (referring to filmmakers) were coined by gamers in the late 1990s. Machinima is a practice whereby game worlds and game play are captured and edited, thereby transformed into a film.
The chapter frames the phenomenon of machinima by looking at it from a view on topics of authorship, media ecology and remix practices. Two case studies are presented herein in order to leverage a discussion on machinima authorship as an example of evolving, dialogic processes circulating in media ecologies. This dialogic authorship involves remix (re-assemblage) and it occurs within the shifts in our current situation of media convergence. The aim in this chapter is to shed light on the dialogic practices of authorship such as machinima and is inspired by the dialogic theories of Russian literary philosopher M.M. Bakhtin.
A three-part structure is used herein: (1) introduction to theoretical concepts, background on machinima and this study, and a review of methodology, (2) data and analysis, and (3) conclusions on machinima as an authorial practice with particular media ecologies and remix issues.