Filmmakers are nothing if not creative. Video games like Halo and The Sims have been used to make short movies and clips for years (a technique called machinima), but a French filmmaker has taken it a step further. Using nothing but Grand Theft Auto 4, Mathieu Weschler has created an 88 minute long feature called The Trashmaster. The film took him two years to create and is based on his own screenplay.
We’re still in the middle of watching the whole film, but Rockstar, the publisher of GTA 4, is pretty impressed. In a blog post, company applauded the new film, calling it a “stunning accomplishment.”
Here’s the plot synopsis: “The “trashmaster” divides his time between collecting garbage and cleaning up other forms of trash fouling up New York City’s streets: dealers, small-time criminals, rapists… When the dancers in his favourite strip club are mysteriously killed, the trashmaster finds himself hot on the trail of a particularly twisted serial killer.”
Next time you play a video game like GTA, take a look at the game through camera mode, or try to imagine recording scenes inside the game. It’s a daunting and difficult task, especially in a game like GTA, where everything in the city is constantly moving and interacting with whatever you do. The guys at Red vs Blue have been doing this since 2003, but even they haven’t made a full-length film and released it all at once. Hopefully this will spawn more filmmakers to use video game engines to cheaply produce films. I’m already imagining a pretty good Red Dead Redemption movie.
Please share links to any other good machinima films or shorts you enjoy.
