Short Cuts

Machinimas of Loving Grace Dept.: If you spend as much time as I used to hunkered down in front of the television wearing your thumbs to bloody nubs while playing Vice City on your Sony PlayStation2, then chances are you already know about next week's Austin Game Conference, which will turn the Austin Convention Center into the universal focal point for all things video-game related on Thursday, Sept. 11, and Friday, Sept. 12. (I say "used to" because the dog decided that Final Fantasy would be better off rechristened Final Poop Explosion, but that's a whole 'nother story.) The GameCon will see the arrival of hundreds of gaming developers, designers, WiFi wonks, and A.D.D. tech heads converging on Austin to see where the next $11 billion leads them. That's right, the gaming industry now commands enough cash flow to rebuild large parts of Iraq (if, you know, the Iraqis were inclined to replace their infrastructure with a series of floating roadways monitored by dancing gorillas in top hats and singing ninja nutria), and no less than the statisticians at Price Waterhouse expect those numbers to grow by 50% over the next five years. Austin, of course, is something of a nexus itself when it comes to gaming wizardry, hence the Con's choice of location. Incoming speakers and attendees to the gala event include Mark Jacobs, CEO of Mythic Entertainment, Ralph Koster, chief designer of Star Wars Galaxies at Sony Online Entertainment, and special sessions by Atari (yes!), Castle Hill Studios, Electronic Arts, GameSpy, Glass Eye Productions, Metrowerks, Mutable Realms, Online Alchemy, UbiSoft, Wolfpack Studios, and Mommy My Eyes Are Bleeding Productions. (We made that last one up, but it fits, don't you think?) Of all the events, however, the most buzz seems to be forming behind the Machinima Films Showcase, presented by the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences, which, for those of you out of the technoloop, involves "filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment." Machinima's 3-D game engines are generally a wonder to behold, and the Con lineup includes top-notch representative work such as the first Machinima video to air on MTV, Zero 7's "In the Waiting Line," produced by Fountainhead Entertainment/Ghost Robot and directed by Waking Life producer (and current NYC pugilist) Tommy Pallotta; ILL Clan's "Hardly Workin'" and "Common Sense Cooking With Carl the Cook"; "Warthog Jump" by Randall Glass; and Ken Thain's "Rebel vs. Thug." Also, there's going to be multiplayer online games tracks as well as developer/publisher pitch sessions. Registration info is available online at www.gameconference.com or by e-mailing [email protected]... The Austin Film Festival has announced the recipients of their 2003 Distinguished Screenwriter and Outstanding Television Writer awards, and they are Frank Pierson, current president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the screenwriter of Dog Day Afternoon and Cool Hand Luke, among others, and Emmy Award-winning television writer Tom Fontana, creator of HBO's Oz, and a longtime writer of the great Homicide: Life on the Street. The 10th annual AFF will take place Oct. 9-16. Registration information is available online at www.austinfilmfestival.com... Finally, SXSW Film Festival 2004 is accepting submissions. Go to www.sxsw.com for all the details.