Hidden Levels #4: Machinima

The Hidden Levels Original Soundtrack is now available everywhere!

“Machinima” is a portmanteau of “machine” and “cinema,” which refers to movies filmed inside video games. This tradition is decades old, but its present era is exemplified by projects like Grand Theft Hamlet.

Created during the pandemic by professional actors, the documentary feature was filmed entirely inside the notoriously violent virtual world of Grand Theft Auto 5. The team auditioned strangers from the streets of San Andreas and used the in-game cell phone camera to create cinematic shots, proving that a major film could be created within an active, real-time virtual environment full of real people’s avatars.

While Grand Theft Hamlet is the first time many viewers will be encountering machinima, the idea first gained a foothold in the late 1990s, with the groundbreaking show Red vs. Blue and a group of animators and filmmakers in New York City who called themselves the Ill Clan. Looking for a faster alternative to the days-long process of rendering animation, the Ill Clan discovered they could puppeteer characters instantly inside the video game Quake. Since the characters were permanently equipped with axes, the Ill Clan decided to make their first film, Apartment Huntin’, about lumberjacks. Using the game’s engine, they had a designated “cameraperson” teleport between locations in the game to create cuts and shots from different angles.

This novel form of filmmaking quickly gained in popularity. Early successes included the Halo-based sitcom Red vs. Blue and the creation of machinima.com, a site which became a central viewing hub before the rise of YouTube. The medium found its way into mass culture when South Park filmed a famous Emmy-winning episode inside World of Warcraft. This golden era of the form included milestones like the launch of Halo 2 in 2005, which allowed for in-game voice chat, which in turn led to a revolutionary live talk show called This Spartan Life—in which interviews took place inside an unpredictable virtual world, often interrupted by other players attempting to kill the guests.

But machinima.com eventually pivoted to simpler gameplay videos, shutting down entirely in 2020 and erasing its entire archive. The original artists felt sidelined, though many parlayed their talents into related endeavors, like making “cut scenes” for video games.

Today, however, machinima is experiencing a significant resurgence, particularly in documentary filmmaking. Award-winning movies like Knit’s Island and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (which recreated a teenager’s life in World of Warcraft) underscore a revival in the medium’s cultural relevance and highlight its potential for democratized creativity.

This episode can also be seen in its full machinima glory below: