Ending With Andre

'Ending With Andre' investigates the emerging media form known as machinima, a convergence between computer games, filmmaking and the internet. It uses 3D game engines and networked environments to produce work that is primarily traditional, linear and narrative. Highlighting the shifting relationships between old and new media, machinima also raises important issues around digital aesthetics, intellectual property and authorship within the contemporary media environment.

3D computer game engines increasingly have a level of programmed complexity and randomness that allow the machinima production process to meaningfully employ documentary film or improvised drama processes. 'Ending With Andre' explores the improvisational possibilities of machinima as a site for creative innovation within the broader field of screen production. Like China Tracy's 'i.Mirror' and Alex Chan's 'The French Democracy', the film is an attempt to push the boundaries of machinima in relation to narrative content, structure and style, beyond the media satire and fandom that characterizes much work produced this way. While most mainstream machinima (such as Rooster Teeth's 'Red vs. Blue' series) reflects a production process focused on control over the action, the production process of 'Ending With Andre' explored the creative possibilities of what literary theorist N. Katherine Hayles sees as the ability of humans to construct narratives from the surface complexity and programmed randomness of digital virtual environments.

This creative work was part of a broader research project that included a critical viewing of machinima works, a review of relevant literature a refereed journal article, published in the International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society (Vol 4, No 2, 2006). 'Ending With Andre 'screened as part of the 2005 Machinima Film Festival at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York. It is also available for download on the internet, as befits the form.