Students Screen “Virtual Cinema” Work at Loew Theater

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From an animated interpretation of E.E. Cummings’ poems to a film in which “World of Warcraft” players battle a dragon in Baker-Berry Library, a wide array of works will be shown at the Virtual Cinema Student Screening on August 25. Featuring projects created by undergraduates in Film and Media Studies 49: “Practicum in Digital Culture and New Media Technologies,” Professor Mary Flanagan says the films are examples of “machinima,” which she describes as “machine plus cinema, or virtual cinema.”

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In Leah Nicolich-Henkin ’10’s film “Quest to a New World” a battle for powerful knowledge takes place in Baker Library.

“It’s an art form that’s been around for almost a decade—aspiring filmmakers make movies using computer game engines,” says Flanagan, holder of the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professorship in Digital Humanities. “Using a computer game or virtual environment, one can integrate in-game elements as actors, sets, and scenes. There are seldom human actors used in the making of machinima. Primarily, these types of works feature 3-D characters who ‘act’ via manipulation by human game players. This emerging art form is a mix of puppetry and cinema, and has become a compelling way to make one’s very own ‘Avatar’ style of 3-D film.”

The event will be catered and is open to the public. Total screening time is around 45 minutes.

  • Virtual Cinema Student Screening
  • Wednesday, August 25, at 4:30 p.m.
  • Hopkins Center, Loew Theater
Bonnie Barber