Quake II-Based Machinima Short Receives Top Honors At Showtime's Alternative Media Festival

This animated short is now being honored in Showtime's online festival. The alt.SHO.com Festival is Showtime Networks' initiative to bring out independent directors/producers and showcase their work. Each of the festival's nine categories was judged on Innovative use of technology, Design of Entry, and Creativity. "We've been actively involved in the Machinima community for three years and in the year 2000, we finally released the sequel to Apartment Huntin', Hardly Workin'," said Paul Marino, The ILL Clan's Emmy award-winning director of Hardly Workin'. Hardly Workin', which had been the group's free-time effort for the last two years, was released in August 2000. Machinima is a relatively new approach to animation and filmmaking - using the technique of "filming scenes" within the virtual environment of a real-time 3D game. Hardly Workin' used all new characters and environments created by The ILL Clan -- Manu Smith, Frank Dellario, Matt Dominianni, Paul Jannicola, John Clavis and Paul Marino -- and was shot entirely within the PC game Quake II by id Software. Using the multiplayer technology of Quake II, The ILL Clan members controlled the film's characters and acted out the scenes together while another member acted as the cameraperson, recording the scenes from his perspective. The scenes were shot while The ILL Clan members listened to the improvised dialogue they recorded prior to the filming. These selected takes were then edited together with the dialogue, sound effects and music for the final piece.