Future film historians might look back on the past decade and pinpoint it either as the beginning of the medium’s demise or its evolution into something vital, egalitarian and ubiquitous. Of course, the very notion of “film” is already antiquated seeing as the vast majority of moving pictures are now created digitally (even the term “digital video” sounds quaintly redundant). Where the culture critics of tomorrow may think today’s directors jumped the shark is in the realm of “machinima,” a video subgenre that emerged in the aughts in which would-be directors realized they didn’t need a camera or even actors to put the power of cinema in their hands—literally—by way of a game-controller.
