Machinima Screening and Panel
Stanford University - October 26th, 2006
Presented by Xfire

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Panelists "Machinima: A New Future for Cinema?" Where are the next Steven Spielbergs, Quentin Tarantinos and Martin Scorseses? Could they be the Machinima movie makers of the 21st Century? With hundreds of user-generated movies uploaded online everyday, Machinima movie making is now the hottest new category of independent filmmaking. Xfire has assembled an esteemed panel of scholars, Machinima creators and video game industry experts to discuss the trends surrounding this exciting new movie making art form. Daniel Kayser, Editorial Producer and Host for GameTrailers.com and MTV Networks, will moderate the panel. Participants: Moderator: Daniel Kayser, GameTrailers / MTV Networks Matteo Bittanti, Stanford Humanities Lab Jun Falkenstein, Stone Falcon Productions Ezra Ferguson, Rufus Cubed Christopher Grant, Editor of Joystiq.com Henry Lowood, Stanford History of Science & Technology Daniel Kayser Daniel Kayser's life long passion for gaming has translated into a successful journalistic career within the interactive entertainment industry. Establishing himself as a news and features writer with numerous notable outlets, Daniel is currently the Editorial Producer and Host for GameTrailers.com and MTV Networks. He has hosted event coverage and conducted interviews from around the globe with top gaming companies such as Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft. Daniel is also a contributing feature writer for the nationally distributed magazine Hardcore Gamer. His passion for gaming is only surpassed by his desire to see the industry pushed forward through the entertaining and informative content he seeks to create. More info: www.gametrailers.com Matteo Bittanti Matteo Bittanti's research focuses on the cultural, social and theoretical aspects of emerging technology, with an emphasis on the interrelations of popular culture, visual culture, and the arts. Primary interest is the social and cultural impact of videogames. His areas of investigation include the intersection between cinema and digital games, forms of consumerism, and popular narratives. He is the editor of videoludica. game culture, a series of books that examine videogames from a broad academic and critical perspective. He received a Ph.D in New Technologies of Communications from Libera Universita' di Lingue & Comunicazioni in Milan, Italy. Previously, he received a M.S. in Mass Communications from San Jose State University, in San Jose California, and a B.A. in Philosophy and Media Studies from University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, Italy. He is affiliated with the Stanford Humanities Lab and the "How They Got Game Project". More info: www.mattscape.com Jun Falkenstein Jun Falkenstein has been an animation director, writer, and story artist for the past 15 years. She graduated from USC's School of Cinema-Television in 1991, and has worked at many major studios in both television and theatrical animation, including Walt Disney Studios, Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures, Hanna-Barbera, and Dreamworks. She made her debut as a feature animation director with Walt Disney’s "The Tigger Movie" in 2000. She is still a relative newcomer to the art of Machinima, but, being an avid computer gamer since youth (when there were mainly Apple II’s), she is excited to continue creating films within this new medium. More info: www.stonefalconproductions.com Ezra Ferguson Ezra Ferguson is the co-creator of "Return", the exceptionally popular and critically acclaimed World of Warcraft Machinima piece that took the gaming and Machinima communities by storm in 2005. As a respected actor, producer, and writer, and a dedicated gamer, he brings a uniquely broad understanding and perspective on the genre. Along with his business partner Terran Gregory, he owns and operates the award winning "Rufus Cubed Productions". Their achievements in the last year include 1st Place (Dance Video) for the Xfire WoW Movie Contest, a "Best Off-the-Shelf Mackie" at the 2005 Machinima Film Festival, Honorable Mention in the Xfire Axe Machinima Contest, a "Golden Llama" from the Global Gaming League, Winner in the Blizzcon Movie Contest, and much more. Ezra is devoted to enhancing the story and immersion of gaming and believes they are the heart and soul of a truly memorable interactive experience. More info: www.rufuscubed.com Christopher Grant Motivated by either an unhealthy Messianic complex or a dearth of career opportunities (he never could decide which), Chris put his college degrees in Literature and Cinema Studies to good use as a carpenter before becoming editor of the popular gaming blog, Joystiq. In this role, he spends a statistically impossible percentage of each day writing, exploring the blogosphere and, when he comes up for air, covering gaming for local alterna-paper, the Philadelphia Weekly. If he isn't busy playing or writing about games, he's doing other, no doubt less important, things... though he probably shouldn't be. More info: www.joystiq.com Henry Lowood Henry is curator for History of Science & Technology Collections at Stanford University and lecturer in the Science and Technology Studies Program, Film & Media Studies, and the IHUM Program. He has written widely in the history of science and technology and historical game studies, and directs "How They Got Game: The History and Culture of Interactive Simulations and Videogames," a research project sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Laboratory where he is co-director. He has taught an annual course on the history of computer game design at Stanford and curates the Machinima Archive, which is part of the Internet Archive. With Michael Nitsche, he is co-editing The Machinima Reader, the first academic volume devoted to Machinima as an emerging media form. More info: htgg2.standford.edu

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