This paper studies a relatively recent species of moving image that results from the mixture of playing videogames and producing movies, a hybrid that silently in the underground but massive realm of videogames has lured and inspired thousands to enter its territories. In the late 1990s, devoted players started to use videogame software for experimental movie production. More recently, signs have appeared to suggest that this marginal activity has molded a new narrative medium called 'machinima'.

The paper examines various facets of this phenomenon in order to present the features that make up machinima and how it is relevant to popular culture. The thesis of this work is: machinima attains its status as a novel form of movie production because it is a hybrid resulting from the combination of the real-time puppetry using video game assets and the mimicry of the classical style of narrative film. Additionally, machinima is a cultural phenomenon influenced by the pervasive tendency towards do-it-yourself (DIY) in current media consumption and production.

This paper has three sections, each analyzes a particular aspect of machinima in order to describe the distinct qualities of this phenomenon. What follows underlies the principle of these descriptions: there are forces whose relations are governed by a machinic assemblage. Each section draws on the notion of the machine not as technical device but as the productive assemblage of heterogeneous forces (social, technical, or conceptual).

The first section concentrates on a description of the phenomenon and the manner in which machinima was invented by the accumulation of gradual changes. The analysis and discussion of several definitions of machinima set the groundwork for the creation of a concept that permits the appreciation of the machinima phenomenon as a hybrid medium. The interest is first centered on how machinima has been described, and later on how it evolved. 

The second section takes up two movies, A Puppet Play (2007)  and The Monad (2008). Each movie represents a distinct face of machinima, and by analyzing them from different perspectives, this paper sets forth the features of machinima by outlining the production methods and the final results. The first movie confronts the audience with the live construction of moving image, whereas the second deals with a dark tale about virtual worlds. The analysis of these two contrasting machinimas aims to identify the quality of the aforementioned production features present in machinima, real-time and classical film style. 

The final section focuses on the relationship of machinima to the wider popular culture of the DIY. DIY is a complex social response to the industrialization that fills urban and modern life with a variety of ready-made products that allow little room for homemade objects. Mass media entertainment is part of an industry and has never been produced at home. Today, the concept of being outside of traditional mass media is widespread across the entire media landscape, as a new era in media consumption and production is ushered in, often under upbeat titles such as democratization, everyone-produced-content, appropriation, and participation.

*Edited by Editorial Committee.