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Shot Composition
Virtual Lenses
Spatial Conventions

Camera Movement
Pans and Tilts
Dollies and Cranes

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Welcome to Digital Mise en Scène

Digital Mise en Scene is an online resource for Moving-Image Makers, dedicated to exploring the conventions of Visual Language in Storytelling, through using Second Life.

What is Machinima?

In a nutshell, Machinima is creating Digital Cinema using Video Games Engines. With Ingenuity, a player can use the viewpoint of their character or in game camera, as a virtual camcorder Recording this material to the harddrive of the computer, or wiring up the game console to a video deck, footage can be captured and edited into Digital stories. Recent games now include sophisticated replay functions, allowing the player to direct the scenes in the game itself. Using the characters, props, sounds and situations of the game means there is a ready made Hollywood production studio at hand, - without the million dollar budget. Second Life takes this idea one set further...

What is Digital Mise en Scène?

Though strictly it is not associated with 3D animation, in film theory Mise en Scene refers to everything that appears in front of the camera and its arrangement, this includes the actors, the sets, the costumes, the props, the lighting, and the camera placement. As Second Life is a persistent virtual world created and populated by its online residents, creating Machinima in its realms, is the same as any organizational and artistic endeavor a Film Director would face in the Real-World. Sets and props need to be built and arranged, actors need to learn their lines and be given cues, and cameras need to be placed and shots composed. To this end Second Life is a ready made film studio...