Machinima Expo Panel

I watched the panel discussion on filming documentaries inside virtual worlds like Second Life.  Of the three guests they had talking about the subject, one common theme in all of their opinions was that any virtual world is as real as the real world.  One person said that the graphical representation of a real person inside of a virtual space is enough to make the space real, and that Second Life is just an extension of people’s reality.  Because there is a real person behind the animated characters, filming their actions in the space can be considered a real life documentary.  When discussing the legitimacy of virtual documentaries, one guest said that even though it all takes place in a game environment, it still requires a long stay inside of that environment like a normal documentary.  According to them, making these kind of documentaries come with certain advantages over other forms of media.  The budget for making them is significantly lower than it would be for a real world documentary, probably because there’s less equipment and personnel involved.  Also, they believe that making machinima provides more freedom of expression than any other form of media.  Because of this, they feel machinima is able to reach a wide range of people.  They see positive reactions to older people, while at the same time negative reactions from younger people.  Because some people have different definitions of reality, they can have completely different experiences or opinions of machinima.  Because of all this, they see machinima positively expanding the documentary scene.