November 8, 2006 2:28 PM PST
Last Saturday and Sunday, the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City's borough of Queens--just a quick subway ride from midtown Manhattan--hosted a particularly unusual film event: the fourth annual Machinima Festival. Organized by the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences, it celebrated the rising trend of using video games' virtual environments to make movies. While the term "machinima" (a conglomeration of "machine" and "cinema") has not yet caught on much outside the gamer crowd, some examples of machinima certainly have. Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, a comedy series set in the ubiquitous Xbox game Halo, has gathered a large fan following.
Photo by Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com
