Chapter 1: Introduction

 

PRESS START: THE DEFINITION OF MACHINIMA

 

Machinima is a little-known term in the outside world, but in videogame-based circles of the internet, it holds a lot of passion, creativity and fond memories. The word is a mashup of machine and cinema. This is to represent the formula in which machinima films are created – Through the use of videogames and the tools provided by them.

William Brown and Matthew Holtmeier (2014, p8) state “First, we argue that, far from being a medium that is separate from film and gaming, machinima is inextricably intertwined with both of these media.”

Machinima bridges a gap between the passive nature of film and the interactive nature of videogames in order to bring a new form of entertainment to viewers, appeasing people who love independent stories, as well as the videogames they are created in.

The past twenty years on the internet has seen the rise of a new medium of entertainment through content created by regular people, rather than high-budget production companies. One of the genres we see within this new medium has been responsible for hours of entertainment, thousands of jobs, and propelling seemingly ordinary people into cult stardom.

Machinima stems from taking footage from videogames, in which players utilise the game world and their in-game characters act out the roles of other, self-crafted characters. This is then enhanced using clever script work, voice dubbing and editing in order to create a narrative often shown through short films, shows, or livestreams on popular videogame content-streaming platforms such as Twitch or YouTube.

In the creation of Machinima, utilising one’s in-game digital character to represent the actions of a new person within a new story is known as ‘body acting’. This is mainly due to the fact that in many cases, body actors and voice actors for Machinima are different people – Much like the difference between animators and voice actors in classic cartoons.

The videogames industry is a large, multi-billion-dollar industry (Estimated around the value of $4.85bn) which according to the BBC in a 2019 article has reportedly been making more money than film and music combined, with Grand Theft Auto V (2013) breaking financial records and becoming the fastest and highest-grossing entertainment product in history. Yet, strangely performance in videogames isn’t seen with the same respect as that in traditional mediums – Even less so when one takes their attention from the main content within videogames, and looks towards the player-generated Machinima content.

One key element in defining Machinima, however, is understanding everything that it is not, and why it needs to be seen as its own medium with it’s own definitions of classic theatrical practices. Due to its entirely digital nature, a lot of the already established theatre techniques and terminology simply cannot apply to Machinima – But this does not make it any less of a valid form of art.

Throughout this peace, I intend to draw on theories of performance to gain a clearler understanding of Machinima as a genre and appropriate these theories to justify Machinima as its own space within the industry. To do this, I will primarily be using three very different types of Machinima, performed in three different ways, with different target audiences and different games used as their host. On top of this, I will be discussing traditional elements of theatre, such as liveness, communitas and liminality and how their theories could fit within the Machinima space.

Due to Machinima’s nature of being a relatively new medium within the performance space, there aren’t many writers who have covered the subject. I have touched on works by Brown and Holtmeier, but a large sum of my research is based in works surrounding either videogames or performance and appropriated to this hybrid genre.

 

THE HISTORY OF MACHINIMA

 

The founding of Machinima can date as far back as the late 1990s, but the rise in popularity can mainly be attributed to the success of Texas-based studio Rooster Teeth’s web series Red vs Blue – First started in 2003 and continuing on through nineteen main canon seasons, PSAs and miniseries until the present day, firmly placing it as the internet’s longest running show. Red vs Blue, or as it’s commonly known, RvB, was originally entirely filmed using the popular science fiction first-person shooter videogame series Halo – Where the creators would link up several Xbox consoles into a private match, and use their in-game characters to represent people in their own short story. Several years later, thanks to the hiring of the late Monty Oum, Red vs Blue, began to utilise classic 3D animation methods through motion capture to enhance certain combat scenes outside of what is possible within the videogame.

Footage was originally obtained from computers using capture software, or through creators setting up cameras to their monitors in order to capture the movements in real-time. Later, the process was made easier through the use of special devices known as capture cards, which recorded the footage directly from the screen and saved it to a hard drive, allowing for much higher quality gameplay to be caught.

Machinima has grown through the years across several videogames that allow for player expression and creativity, but there are a few which stand out more from the rest.

The first is the Halo series, with entries spanning from 2001 to 2021. Being the game which helped pioneer the genre thanks to Red vs Blue, many “copycat” shows were released throughout the franchise’s peak in the late 2000s, including Playtime (2011), Captain Assassin (2010), and the now-lost Master Chief (2009) series from Guitarmasterx7. The majority of these were filmed within the game’s Theatre Mode, which was first introduced in Halo 3 (2007). This allowed players to retroactively view previous matches they had partook in with a free-flying camera. Recording this footage onto a capture card meant there were fewer restrictions in the possible shots and angles.

Another game almost synonymous with Machinima is Minecraft (2011) thanks to it’s highly customisable nature – From the ability to create one’s own character skins from the ground up pixel-by-pixel, to building entire sets from cubic meter blocks of different colours and materials, it had the perfect suite of accessible tools for gamers to create a variety of shows spanning different genres and target audiences.

A third game, which most would be surprised by, is Grand Theft Auto V (2013) which with it’s 2015 PC-port, introduced a set of tools named the Rockstar Editor and Director Mode which allowed players to set up their own scenes and shots to be retroactively edited with new camera angles and custom camera paths, transitions, effects and music. This is undoubtedly one of the most powerful Machinima creation kits to date in any videogame. Grand Theft Auto V (2013) has been used to create Machinimas in numerous genres, from action crime movies to political thrillers and apocalyptic horror movies.

One more game series that has been popular for Machinima is The Sims with it’s numerous titles releasing between 2000 and 2014. The detailed Create-A-Sim character creator and Build/Buy property creator meant it was perfect for aspiring Machinima makers to tell new stories, particularly in the drama genre.

 

THE PIONEERS: ROOSTER TEETH AND RED VS BLUE

 

Red vs Blue having began in 2003, before the founding of YouTube, didn’t have any large platforms to spread across meaning the series’ success was largely obtained by word-of-mouth and people sharing the show through email. Internet virality was much harder to achieve than it is today, proving the overall quality and potential of this new medium which Rooster Teeth had become pioneers in. Originally planned to be a short six episodes, the demand for Red vs Blue caused its creators to expand into making several hundred episodes, DVDs, sponsored adverts and even their own convention, as well as expanding into larger offices with hundreds of employees as they tackled newer and higher-budget productions, including two feature films, live action series and an original anime.

Being originally made for easy sharing on the pre-streaming internet, Red vs Blue was very much restricted by the file size it could be. Anything too large would lead to long upload and download times, meaning it would be unlikely to be watched – However, lowering the amount of bytes (A unit used to measure the size of digital files) each video file was made out of would result in the overall quality being diminished and ruining viewer experience. This meant the creatives of early-day Rooster Teeth needed to strike a balance that allowed for easy viewing without sacrificing video quality. Thankfully, with the introduction of YouTube and high-definition video streaming on the internet, this is no longer a concern for Machinima creators and they are only restricted by the storage available on their computer and their internet bandwidth (The speed and capability for an internet connection to upload and download information).

Red vs Blue saw a variety of multi-season story arcs across its lifespan. This began with The Blood Gulch Chronicles named after the Halo: Combat Evolved (2001) map it was originally filmed on. This mostly had the protagonists bickering over petty squabbles purely for the purpose of comedy, with some larger overarching stories coming in the later seasons of this five-season arc. This was followed by The Recollection which saw the series move from Halo 2 (2004) to Halo 3 (2007) which brought all-new tools for Rooster Teeth to use. Halo 3 (2007) introduced new character armour customisation with several alternate options for helmets, shoulderpads and chestplates. This meant characters could look different from one another outside of just their primary and secondary armour colours. However, one change which was the most important of all was a level editor called Forge Mode. This allowed players of the game to make changes to any of the in-game maps, moving props around and adding new ones to their hearts’ contempt. This meant that Rooster Teeth could greatly enhance their sets and add new props to expand the potential narrative. This was immediately utilised by Rooster Teeth, as they began using it for the Recollection arc covered the sixth through the eighth seasons of the show and dealt with large plot twists, including revealing that one of the main characters was unknowingly a genius artificial intelligence cloned from the brain of a corrupt military project all along. Following this, there was the two-season Project Freelancer arc which tied up the plot threads set up in the Recollection between in-game Machinima scenes and high-quality fully animated flashback sequences. This is where most people thought Red vs Blue would end, but it continued on with a new arc from seasons 11 through 13, known as The Chorus Trilogy. This arc saw a new lead writer, Miles Luna, take on the characters for the most emotionally mature and complex conflict the show had seen. Red vs Blue: Season 13 (2015) was widely regarded as the best season among fans, with it’s heartbreaking sacrifice and cliffhanger in the finale. The fourteenth season was a standalone, anthology series exploring other parts of the Red vs Blue universe across a variety of art styles from different areas of Rooster Teeth – Some was in classic animation, some was in the well-established Machinima format, and others explored new areas including live action film and stop motion animation using the Halo line of Mega Blocks. The fifteenth through to the eighteenth seasons weren’t given an arc name, but fans often refer to them as The Shisno Arc in reference to the in-universe slur aliens had for humans.

From Red vs Blue: Season 15 (2017) the show saw a notable drop in quality, which gradually continued through to the nineteenth season, known as Red vs Blue: Zero (2020) which shifted focus to a new cast of characters who were immediately shunned by a majority of the audience. Red vs Blue’s loss in popularity lead to some claiming the show should have ended after it’s most popular thirteenth season which completed it’s run in late 2015.

 

CAN’T BEAT THE CLASSICS: THE WASTELAND THEATRE COMPANY

 

Rooster Teeth’s way of creating Machinima through recording ingame actions and retroactively dubbing over them with voice lines for vide-based entertainment was one of the only forms recognised by videogame communities for nearly two decades, until a new perspective was brought to the area by The Wasteland Theatre Company. This group of Machinimators (The term frequently used for a group of Machinima creators) utilises the Online RPG Fallout 76 (2018) developed by Bethesda Games Studios. However, their performances are not their own unique or original stories – but rather famous classical Shakespearean plays. The cast build small theatres within the digital realm using the game’s Construction and Assembly in a Mobile Platform (C.A.M.P) system, each of these are inspired by those original Shakespeare plays were performed in. Here, they perform Shakespearean plays live to other people within the game lobby and are frequently joined by Fallout fans curious about Shakespearean works. The juxtaposition of Fallout’s retrofuturistic apocalypse and the classical, post-medieval era in which Shakespeare wrote his plays creates an interesting contrast for everyone involved in both viewing and partaking in the performance.

Interestingly, the original purpose of Fallout 76 (2018)’s C.A.M.P system was for players in the game to create their own survival bases. Whilst most people build something from a small outpost to a massive castle or floating monstrosity, the Wasteland Theatre Company decided to dedicate their portable homes to the performing arts. These classic theatres were imagined in various locations across the game’s world in unique locations one would not expect to see such a structure – From overgrown swamps, to crimson bogs and ashy quarries. The new theatres undoubtedly helped bring life and culture back into the destroyed world, and helped encourage exploration of the surrounding areas for players after seeing a show.

A notable element of the performances from the Wasteland Theatre Company is that the body actors and voice actors are indeed the same people. This helps give a better performance as they are able to move freely within the game space to match the vocal performance that they are giving.

Contradictory to our traditional understanding of liveness, the Wasteland Theatre Company doesn’t only perform their take on Shakespearean plays live in sessions – They also stream them live on Twitch and re-upload the broadcasts to YouTube in order to reach a wider audience. This is likely due to two reasons; the first being that Fallout 76 (2018) has a limited server capacity of roughly 24 players, which can be slightly stretched if people join the session through invitation from a friend. That means the group would not be able to achieve as high as a viewership as they wish. The other reason is that they mainly play on Sony’s Playstation consoles, meaning that any Fallout 76 (2018) players on Xbox or PC devices wouldn’t be able to see the live performances either. This livestreamed and reuploaded nature allows more people to experience their unique take on both Machinima and theatre, whilst the concept of a whole excellently showcases the potential and versatility of Machinima creation.

 

A BIT OF BOTH: THE DREAM SMP

 

Combining the live ingame performance element of the Wasteland Theatre Company, and the prerecorded entertainment seen on external websites of Red vs Blue – The Dream SMP was performed in real-time using the game Minecraft (2011) in order to tell stories to viewers across the world, with numerous members of its cast livestreaming their own in-game perspectives and personal sublots simultaneously. This created a large world in which fans could not experience all at once, with interconnected stories and an ever-evolving world.

Traditionally, ‘SMP’ stands for “Survival Multiplayer” and is a term generally used for online survival games in which a group of friends play together doing their own thing in a shared survival sandbox (An open game world in which the player can explore anywhere and must utilise the world’s resources to survive, there are no other set objectives). This was the original goal of The Dream SMP until one user by the name of Wilbur Soot joined with the intent of adding roleplay and story elements to the game. Originally starting a small ingame crime syndicate selling potions, he grew his character into starting the nation of L’Manburg which quickly snowballed into more scripted and thought-out plotlines of betrayal, civil war, rebellion and destruction. Some of these, including the L’Manburg Election, included audience interactivity in which members viewing the streams could vote on the new leader of their country, which in turn dictated the direction the plot followed.

Much like the Wasteland Theatre Company, the Dream SMP’s body actors and voice actors are the same people – They’re playing exaggerated versions of themselves, whilst interacting with their audience of usually several hundreds of thousands viewing through Twitch. This means that whenever they’re not partaking in the story, but rather just playing the game (Something they do frequently as new story is being written up) they still have the sense of familiarity and belonging with the audience. Separating the SMP’s rich lore from the regular game experience has also meant that friends can play together and collaborate on in-game projects even if their canonical counterparts are rivals or have been killed off.

In his book Theatre and performance in digital culture: from simulation to embeddedness (2006, p.4) Causey states:

I challenge the usefulness of thinking sacrificially, suggesting instead via the writings of Alain Badiou, a subtractive logic of a theatre minus theatre that can mark a new place of an indiscernible event (a truth).

The nature of the Dream SMP is inherently based within the roots of theatre, most notable being a real-time performance with beats of audience interaction. It, however, is definitively not theatre. With the obvious differences aside, the practicality of having a theatre show with sometimes over ten entirely different unique perspectives of the same events by the same performers, being viewed at once by different audience members is highly impractical with the closest possible comparison being something akin to theatre of the round.

When telling its story, the Dream SMP clearly brands their members’ livestreams as “canon” events – Meaning everything that takes place is cemented within the lore of the world they are building. Otherwise, the Performers are free to play the game as usual in between these canon streams which creates an interesting sense of liminality for viewers, seeing rival factions freely play together and in what could only be considered “enemy territory” with no narrative consequences.

 

 

Chapter 2: Production

CHAPTER INTRODUCTION

 

My aim with this section chapter is to explain the process of creating a Machinima and lay out some of the areas in which doing so is similar to traditional television, and where it differs. This is where I will use a variety of behind-the-scenes examples of different types of Machinima.

I will then apply my understanding of performance theory and film theory to analyse the most popular season of Red vs Blue to discuss the quality achievable when people who understand film and performance work within the Machinima space.

 

MORE THAN A GAME – THE WORK REQUIRED

 

Much like any other form of Performance-based artistry, high-quality Machinima requires an extreme amount of work and care to be put into it, with unique considerations when in comparison to regular film or theatre.

Machinima scriptwriting is unique in the sense that the writer must consider what actions are logically able to be played out within the videogame they are using as a tool for their work. Some characters may not be able to show their face or move in certain ways to convey emotions. This leaves a lot of the tone of the scene to be reliant on the performance of the voice actor, as well as how the body actor chooses to convey the movements. One such example of this would be the “head bob” in Red vs Blue – Where the body actors would make their characters quickly look up and down to convey which helmeted soldier was the one speaking in the scene.

Rooster Teeth Animation uploaded Machinimating Red vs Blue | Red vs Blue (2018) showcasing some of the work required for the Machinima segments of the show, including set building, layouts and synchronising the aforementioned “head bob” to the previously recorded lines of dialogue. The video showcases detailed, complex layouts for each character during the set representing the Machinimator’s goal for blocking each of the digital avatars. They also show how many devices are required in order to get all of the avatars in the scene. For example, every character is on their own Xbox One console priced at their original retail price of $450USD – With up to eight characters on screen at any given time, that adds up to a minimum budget required of at least $3600USD, before adding the costs for monitors, recording computers and equipment, paying talent, studio rent, and the electrical bill required to run it all.

Rooster Teeth Animation also posted Behind the Scenes with Joe and Minni | Red vs Blue (2018) in which a writer and producer discuss the process of creation. Not only do they mention being on day 104 of production with 9 days left., but the typical weekly schedule of beginning production of an episode on Monday and Tuesday, and trying to complete it on the Friday. On his personal blog, Emmy-award winning producer Ken Aguado (2015, paragraph 2) claims producing a show “will take about 12 – 16 months” – Given this is from original conception, we can see that the production time for the much shorter five-to-ten minute episode long Red vs Blue series can still almost match the time and effort required to produce a full length, full budget television show.

Videogames have a limited amount of world space to perform in, and very few allow users to create their own sets or maps. This means that when creating a Machinima, the writer must be well aware of the spaces they have access to, and any limitations those spaces may hold. For example, if the creator is not able to turn off AI combat, it could lead to the digital avatars being attacked in game, which would in turn ruin the scene.

As a part of IGN’s documentary, The Weird and Wonderful Fans STILL Playing Fallout 76 | IGN Inside Stories (2022), at the 19:40 mark, the Wasteland Theatre Company gives the interviewer a tour of one of their in-game theatres which is inspired by the Regent’s Park Theatre in London. Not did this only have to be built in-game using scavenged resources from across the Wasteland, but the theatre had a working lighting booth wired up to the stage – This requires further in-game resource management, but more notably a decent understanding of basic electrical engineering and circuitry in order to make all of the lights and effects function correctly, whereas in a real-world theatre this would have likely been installed by a professional electrician rather than the director and performers themselves. Interestingly, at 20:33 in the same documentary, North - the founder of the Wasteland Theatre Company discusses the notion of theatre in the apocalypse and its ability to survive conflict. He mentions a backlash to their project from a popular Fallout content creator who hadn’t enjoyed the latest instalment and made it clear he felt theatre wouldn’t exist in the post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland. North expresses his feelings of how theatre has already survived conflict for years, and how he believes this means that people aren’t forced into becoming raiders and survivalists – Art will always outlive us. This showcases his understanding and knowledge of the history of theatre and performance, and further bolsters the work and care put into Machinima.

The work of having to build one’s own sets from the ground up is reminiscent of independent movies and theatre made on a shoe-string budget, but with the resource gathering and luck of finding said resources within the game worlds added on top of this opposed to buying them outright in the real world, and then working around the limitations set by the videogame such as a restricted building palette or the inability to place things exactly where one may wish to do so adds a new sense of accomplishment to the final product of creating a Machinima.

 

THE FINAL CHORUS: ANALYSIS OF RED VS BLUE’S THIRTEENTH SEASON

 

Undoubtedly, the most popular season of Red vs Blue narratively, is the thirteenth. Not only is it the most technically impressive, it ties up an overarching story which had been told over the past three seasons, which overall was known as the Chorus Trilogy. Narratively, this arc followed the events of a mercenary-sponsored civil war on a distant planet which was perpetuated to create an extinction of the population in order for a corrupt private military billionaire to collect unique technologies from the planet left over by an ancient alien race.

To analyse Red vs Blue Season 13 (2015) I will use Rooster Teeth’s reuploads on the Rooster Teeth Animation channel. Here, over the early 2020s, the company uploaded every season of RvB in their complete feature-length form which was previously only viewable on their DvDs. Utilising these reuploads means referencing and sourcing elements from the series will be much clearer as it is only two separate longer videos opposed to 23 shorter ones.

Here, I will use different scenes in chronological order in order to discuss different elements of film and performance.

Mis-en-scene: The opening scene of Part 1, straight from timestamp 00:00, begins with a fade-in to space, with suspenseful music and an ominous beeping of a ship’s distress beacon, setting tension. As the music builds, the camera pans down to reveal the ship with the beacon. It’s a small troop carrier, familiar to Halo fans as a Pelican. An older man’s voice is heard as he finally finds the Pelican with his ship. As he calls out to it, a large ship engulfs the background and entirely dwarfs the Pelican. The camera then cuts to a wider angle, showcasing the larger ship to be a prison transport known as the UNSC Tartarus. Narratively, the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) has been ignoring the civil war on the planet the show has been set on recently, so seeing them brings intrigue to those who have been following the show. This entire sequence is also entirely custom-animated with no Machinima being used which helps set the scope for this season of Red vs Blue. Whilst assets from the Halo universe are still being utilised, Rooster Teeth’s animation team have recreated them at a higher definition to enhance visual fidelity.

Character arcs: As is Red vs Blue tradition, the protagonists are Red Team (Consisting of Sarge, Simmons, Grif, Donut and Lopez), Blue Team (Consisting of Church, Tucker and Caboose), and the Ex-Freelancers Agent Washington and Agent Carolina. Aside from the much more capable Freelancers, the much more established Red Team and Blue Team are introduced as their normal annoying and selfish selves. For example, Grif is seen advocating for his rights to second helpings of the army’s food rations, Simmons is constantly acting condescending to his peers and lower ranking soldiers in the armoury, and Donut seemingly cares more about the army’s fashion and aesthetics. This sets ups the arcs our teams will go through, taking them from bumbling selfish idiots into becoming the war heroes who saved the planet of Chorus.

Attention to detail: At the 18:25 mark in Part 1, Church turns around 180° whilst talking to Carolina. This does not seem like a major detail to the casual viewer, but is something much more complex to those aware of the notorious struggles of Machinimating in Halo 4 (2012). For context, within every Halo game there has been what the community lovingly calls “Machinima controls” – A combination of buttons pressed at the same time in order to make the player’s character lower their weapon to a more relaxed pose. This is normally a unique selection of buttons which would never be pressed together in normal gameplay, and no official Halo sources exist to point players to this combination, so it’s almost a secret. In Halo 4 (2012) however, when a player lowers their weapon, it’s much more inconsistent to the point where player characters turning around, walking or crouching will cause them to raise their weapon again as if it were to fire. This, of course, greatly ruins the immersion of any shot it’s noticed in and looks ridiculous in most scenarios which is why it lead to a lot of backlash to the game development studio 343 Industries, who had only recently taken over the Halo franchise from Bungie. To combat the weapon raising, which would most certainly look out-of-place for a holographic artificial intelligence projection like Church, Rooster Teeth opted to animate the character turning themselves to keep the weapon lowered as the shot transitioned from one angle to another. This small detail, although unnoticed by most, means the show overall has a much more polished feel.

Colour theory: Throughout the series, the mercenaries working for the antagonist forces of Charon Industries are seen in a repurposed alien temple they are using as a base. This fort is bathed in a dim red light, which emits a feeling of villainy, and really emphasises the immorality of the mercenaries.

Subversion of expectations for comedic effect: At the 1:02:07 mark of Part 1, numerous members of the team have been tested by an alien artefact to see if they are a true warrior. Only is it when the cartoonishly stupid comic relief character known as Caboose is put to the test, the team passes – Largely due to his immense physical strength and “mental clarity”. When the wise, all-knowing artificial intelligence is revealed from the artefact, it speaks of gifts left by its creators it now oversees, and its mission to find new worthy people to bestow them upon. This is why Caboose lovingly names it Santa after the popular children’s Christmas myth resulting a hilarious juxtaposition between children’s icon and an alien artificial intelligence in charge of weapons of mass destruction. The comical name is, begrudgingly, taken seriously by the rest of the cast – “straight man and funny guy” archetypes alike. When characters call one another over the radio claiming to have “found Santa” it creates an amusing running gag throughout the season.

Cliffhanger: At the 1:34:20 mark in Part 2, Church begins his monologue as he sacrifices himself. The Reds and Blues are trapped in a ship with enemy forces about to break in through the only exit, and they have geared up to fight their way out. Church, being an AI, simulates the fight in his head and discovers that he would need to fragment himself into smaller versions of himself in order to allow his friends to escape, which would inevitably kill him. As his fragments are splitting off, he records a message to be heard by everyone after the battle. As his message comes to an end, he signs it off with:

There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day, and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after. But the hero never gets to see that ending -- They’ll never know if their sacrifice actually made any difference. They’ll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith. Ain’t that a bitch? (Season 13 (Part 2) | Red vs. Blue Complete 1:35:48)

For the final sentence, the screen cuts to black and the season ends. This instils an excitement for what may come next for the series and allows viewers to discuss what they think the outcome was. It is also worth noting that the fight is never actually shown in Red vs Blue¸ and only briefly mentioned as characters talk about their last moments with Church in Red vs Blue Season 15 (2017). This further builds the mystery of the moment, and the finality of Church’s sacrifice, whilst really hammering home the idea that he doesn’t get to see the effects of it – As he so eloquently put it, “Ain’t that a bitch?”

Ultimately, there are several more examples of professional high-quality talent in Red vs Blue Season 13 (2015) but for the sake of being concise, I have limited it to six key elements from throughout the season, from the first scene to the final and each displaying a different element and talent being used. These examples should prove how a film made utilising a videogame is still worthy of recognition as a piece of performance art, and worth watching even for those who haven’t played the games relevant to the Machinima – or even aren’t gamers at all. There is a reason Red vs Blue grew to such popularity, and its thirteenth season is the ultimate story which encapsulates every one of these elements beautifully. It is better experienced when the viewer has seen all twelve prior seasons, and each of the short bridging miniseries such as Recovery One (2007) and Relocated (2009).

 

RED VS RED, BLUE VS BLUE: THE FALL OF ROOSTER TEETH

 

In the year of 2020, numerous allegations came out about Rooster Teeth being a hostile work environment, many noting cases of higher-ups allowing racist and sexist comments from fans to remain on their website – taking the stance of simply ignoring the comments. After a large number of complaints were raised publicly, Rooster Teeth apologised and stated that they had set in motion a variety of new measures to improve these working conditions.

Two years later, an LGBTQ ex-employee of the company by the name Kdin Jenzen brought to light more abuses that had taken place within their workplace, citing homophobic nicknames, being used as a “transgender diversity quota” for Pride events whilst being side-lined elsewhere, and a set of pay disputes where they were not correctly compensated for providing any additional acting work on top of their regular job at the company. This was due to how Rooster Teeth work contracts featured a vague responsibility of being labelled as a “content creator” as a part of the regular salary. (Gach, 2022)

Jenzen detailed all of her experiences on a TwitLonger (2022) (Where Twitter users make posts using more than 280 characters, frequently used for official statements) with the original Tweet linking to it gaining over 60,000 likes and 14,500 Retweets, as well as an outpour of support from other mistreated ex-employees. (See Appendix. 8)

With Machinima being a new medium without true industry recognition, there isn’t an official union or many laws surrounding workers rights and its creation. This is also furthered by how Machinima is shared online as a form of digital content creation rather than traditional broadcasting or in cinemas.

Chapter 3: A New Medium, New Definitions

WHY WE MUST CONSIDER APPROPRIATING TRADITIONAL TERMS FOR MACHINIMA

 

With the arrival of a new medium of entertainment, traditional terminology frequently needs to be adjusted and appropriated to fit in with how that media operates – Machinima is no different to this. Here, I shall discuss potential changes to liveness, communitas and liminality.

It is important to discuss terminology and how it may need to be adjusted when used in relevance to Machinima because of its distance from other forms of performance, and how it closely ties to gaming spaces. Simply applying the current definitions of common performance-based notions will lead to frustrating contradiction and confusion among academics and creators.

Machinima’s proximity with gaming grants it a unique characteristic of it’s interactivity, accessibility, art style – and most importantly, how it gives voices to many more people. Adjusting current definitions to represent Machinima’s unparalleled role within performance spaces will help combat out-of-date gatekeeping terminology put into place before the rise of digital spaces.

As I mentioned in my Dream SMP section in Chapter 1, Causey’s (2006 p.4) words on theatre without theatre creating a new event entirely bolster this idea that the terminology needs to be created in order to support Machinima as a practice. For this, using phrases and practices which are already well established within the space of traditional performance mediums allows a sense of familiarity and accessibility to those curious to enter the digital realms of Machinima.

Throughout this third chapter, I will use three examples of traditional terminology surrounding performance which is already relevant to the are of Machinima, discuss it’s traditional meaning, how it can be applied to Machinima, and propose a new standard definition for discussing this term in relevance to Machinima.

The first I idea I will discuss is the notion of liveness, and how I believe that it is facing the biggest change with its definition and understanding due to the very closed-off definition it currently has in performance spaces. I believe that Machinima has the potential to tackle the current understanding of liveness and defeat the gatekeeping-like nature surrounding it. Here, I will use the three reoccurring examples of different Machinima in how each of them can interpret liveness in a different way.

The second shall be communitas, which is a highly important notion already within videogame spaces – particularly those of the online nature. Using a recent event that happened within the Destiny 2 (2017) community following the passing of a beloved member, I shall talk about the importance of performative communitas within these spaces.

The third, and final area I will talk about is liminality – An idea which within Machinima spaces could mean many things and covers a broad spectrum of ideas. I shall discuss three of the potential understandings of liminality and how they can be condensed into one broad definition which allows leeway for each of these ideas.

 

THREE LIVES: A TRIO OF EXAMPLES REDEFINING LIVENESS

 

Traditionally, a live performance seen as a form of performance which is not recorded – It must be seen as it is happening. Wurtzler and Altman (1992, p89)  explain the traditional viewpoint of liveness:

As socially and historically produced, the categories of the live and the recorded are defined in a mutually exclusive relationship, in that the notion of the live is premised on the absence of recording and the defining fact of the recorded is the absence of the live.

Of course, this is a hard thing to achieve in the terms of Machinima – but thanks to the examples of creatives pioneering the genre, we can extract a new definition for the term when used in relevance to the subject.

The Wasteland Theatre Company brings Shakespeare to Machinima, hosting large plays in the permanently-online post-apocalyptic roleplaying game Fallout 76 (2018) complete with their own sets inspired by Shakespeare’s theatres, audition proceedings, and frequently a live in-game audience as well as hundreds watching from home on Twitch.

These sets and theatre halls are built in Fallout 76 (2018) using the game’s CAMP mechanic – A tool that would normally be used to allow players to set up their own base-of-operations in the Appalachian wasteland, but here is used to recreate the stages that classical Shakespearean plays were originally performed in.

Not to mention, as Fallout 76 (2018) is an online live-service game – A title that is always available to play, and is constantly receiving new updates and changes – This means that not only can the performers have their in-game avatars attacked by both other players and the in-game mutated monsters alike, but the studio could also make changes to the game that would perhaps make portions of their plans impossible.

Another form of what could be considered as a live Machinima performance is what is widely known as The Dream SMP. Aimed towards younger audiences, a large collection of online Minecraft (2011) players have been building an original overarching narrative to their private in-game world, telling stories of individual people, countries, heroes, villains and sacred relics – All whilst playing the game in real-time. There is no controlled environment or sets. This leads to a variety of accidental disasters and story beats happening due to elements of the videogame out of their control, of which the performers usually take in stride and implement into their story plan.

For a short Red vs Blue special episode, they had their character Caboose pay a visit to the main campaign of Halo Reach (2010) in which the character was seen in a variety of the story’s pre-determined in-game cutscenes. A cutscene is the short, more cinematic part of a game usually implemented to separate missions and move the story forward, with players being separated from their character for a brief period. For this episode, Rooster Teeth dubbed over the existing dialogue and action providing new context and story for comedic effect.

The importance of creating a new definition for liveness in Machinima comes from the need to understand all of these different scenarios in which it can be filmed or viewed live by an audience, and the current understanding of liveness in theatre leaves a closed door to this possibility. With the varying types of ways the performance can be interrupted, changed, or made to go wrong – liveness in Machinima is just as valid and risky as it is in the theatre.

When discussing liveness within Machinima, a suitable new definition would be “A machinima performance created within a live videogame space, rather than a controlled environment – Where certain elements of the digital world are out of the performers’ control and can lead to new unique hurdles and challenges.”

 

NEW WAYS TO EXPRESS COMMUNITAS THROUGH THE PERFORMATIVE NATURE OF ONLINE GAMING

 

The unique experience of online gaming allows people to come together as they take a personal role in the developing narrative, as if they were real people in this world. As events in the game universe unfold, everyone reacts to them together as a community with more control over the world than one would see in television or theatre. In a way, this could be seen as a form of immersive performance. Adding Machinima into the mix helps build up the narrative as it evolves the canon to include the creative works of many more artists – Those works could be set within the set game’s universe, or their own one, creating a multiverse of events in which the players can choose which they identify most with.

Communitas is the feeling of community without structure – Where everyone is on the same level. This is a notion commonly experienced in multiplayer games when players come together to commemorate an event. In late March 2023, actor Lance Reddick unfortunately passed away at 60 years old. Reddick was popular for many roles across film and videogames, including appearances in the John Wick series, the Horizon series and both Destiny games. In Destiny (2014) and Destiny 2 (2017) across the games’ yearly expansions and updates, Reddick played the role of the stoic Titan Vanguard Commander Zavala, whilst also playing the game in his personal time. Upon the news of his untimely death, Destiny players gathered around Commander Zavala in the game’s social hub saluting, kneeling and lighting candles around him as a sign of respect. Taveras (2023) for GameSpot reported on many people sharing their pictures of the tribute online, bolstering the community together as they grieved a voice they had heard consistently for the past nine years. Whilst not a form of narrative performance like our previous discussions of Machinima – it was certainly a performative event in which a sense of community was bolstered as all present arguments and disagreements about the game were put to the side to pay respects to a beloved icon.

When discussing communitas within Machinima, an appropriate new definition would be “A performative event in gaming, scripted or other, which brings community together to participate in sending a unified message or experience the same feelings.”

Whilst this is close to the original understanding of communitas, it is important to make the slight alterations and cement it as a definition within Machinima performance in order to share the somewhat underrepresented sense of community within gaming that already exists. This is a space where people build friendships, take part in large performative acts, and create unforgettable memories together in a medium quite incomparable to any other. Within its ties to Machinima through understanding how performance itself can be many things, we see the bond between Machinima and communitas begin to form.

 

LIMINALITY REDEFINED: DUALITY IN ROLES, AND HOW WE INHABIT SPACE

 

Firstly, to understand the traditional definition of liminality, it is best to look to Turner (1969 p.359)

The attributes of liminality or of liminal personae (“threshold people”) are necessarily ambiguous, since this condition and these persons elude or slip through the network of classifications that normally locate states and positions in cultural space. Liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention and ceremonial.

Taking this definition into consideration, that gives us at least three suitable ways liminality could be applied to Machinima.

Filming machinima almost always requires a camera man – Whilst some games allow players to record the actions taken within a game to be replayed later with a freely-moving camera, most games don’t have this feature. This means one of the people involved in making the Machinima must act as a cameraman. This may be a unique player not partaking in any of the “body acting” for the Machinima, or someone who has a second device to allow for the inputs of another character. This means that they would in theory be playing both a character and the camera man as they operate in between two separate spaces in the game.

Similarly to this, tying back to our discussions of the Dream SMP in Chapter 1, when the actors are out-of-character but still playing Minecraft (2011) on their cooperative online world, they play the game together as if the story does not exist. This means that people who play heightened versions of themselves for the story once again are friends with their narrative enemies and are free to wonder across the game world without any strain on the story. Examples of this have been seen when characters have supposedly been in prison, in exile, or in closed-border countries within the confines of the story. Outside these scheduled events, everyone regularly played together. This was beneficial as it reminded the audience that everything they saw in the story was indeed fake, much like wrestling, and that everyone was in fact friends with each other. As the internet can be a place of intense rivalry and people who take things far too seriously due to parasocial relationships (The notion of feeling like one is friends with a celebrity or internet personality who may not even know who they are) this is a very helpful case of masterfully handled liminality which will indeed quell some of the potential toxicity which would come from the space otherwise.

On a completely different side of the spectrum, liminality could also come into play when one takes into consideration on how a game world is used. In Machinima, fictional videogame cities are often used to represent similar-looking real world counterparts creating an interesting new iteration on a well-known location. For example, numerous Machinimas created using Grand Theft Auto V (2013) are filmed in the game’s world of Los Santos – A parody city of Los Angeles. Machinima directors, however, frequently write Los Santos into their stories as the Southern Californian city.

Ultimately, these three scenarios are all entirely valid ways to consider liminality in Machinima performance, and must be worked into our new understanding of the theory. The importance of covering all basis when discussing the notion of liminality stems from the need for consistency, but also flexibility with terminology and how it can be applied to a variety of different areas (As is the purpose of this chapter, after all) – Liminality can cover many areas in traditional performance surrounding the performer or the performance space, so it would be appropriate to apply the same logic here.

When discussing liminality within Machinima, a suitable new definition would be “The dual purpose of digital elements in creating Machinima – In relation to either the performers and creators’ dual roles in creation, context, or the use of an established digital space representing another location or context for said location entirely.”

 

 

Chapter 4: Conclusion

THE ROOSTER LOSING ITS TEETH: THE DANGERS OF CRUNCH, HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENTS AND UNDERPAYING STAFF

 

Crunch is a term used to describe periods of intense work with little or no break in between, commonly used to hit approaching deadlines. It is widely regarded as an immoral practise due to its poor impact on productivity and employee mental health.

We have seen that much like regular media, without unionisation and clear work contracts, Machinima can take a toll on employees’ physical and mental health. After spending over a decade pioneering in the space, Rooster Teeth quickly lost their reputation as a studio due to the treatment of their employees.

The Wasteland Theatre Company, who hasn’t had any controversies surrounding this subject, has made it clear they would be interested in unionisation. On their official Twitter account, @76Theatre (2023) stated:

And as an aside: if we were not an amateur voluntary digital theatre troupe made up of scattered gamers from around the world with zero revenue, we'd 100% be part of a union.

Every worker (including culture/gig workers) have the right to fair treatment, good wages & benefits.

The Wasteland Theatre Company are still a small group of volunteers, creating for a love to create, opposed to the large corporation Rooster Teeth has become. This seems to cement the idea that most Machinima creators are not prepared for large success and fame, perhaps due to the lack of support agencies available for this new form of success that can come to people. Such agencies are unlikely to come to fruition without proper recognition and support for Machinima in performance spaces.

In an article on gamedeveloper.com, Knoop (2022) reported on the effects of crunch culture, showcasing various negative side effects on productivity, performance and employee mental health. With the retroactive knowledge of a growing culture of poor employee treatment, underpaying staff and indeed the intense crunch at Rooster Teeth – In not only the Red vs Blue teams but numerous other departments, it explains the inevitable downfall in the quality and popularity of the studio and their various productions. As Rooster Teeth purchased and merged with numerous other internet content creation studios such as ScrewAttack, Cowchop, Funhaus and the Yogscast, employees from each of these companies mentioned a more negative experience at their work – with Los Angeles-based Funhaus being the only exception, still seen as a positive place to be.

Whilst Rooster Teeth began as a small group of friends, much like The Wasteland Theatre Company, their growth and transition into being a publicly traded company is what has driven them into a profit-inspired corporation which lacks the soul and comradery it once had. Out of the original core members that began creating Red vs Blue in a bedroom back in 2003, only three remain – with two of them taking a back seat out of the spotlight. Perhaps this speaks to the dangerous effects of late-stage capitalism, but it’s a result of a new industry gone without regulation or care from external bodies.

 

THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON FOR RECOGNITION: UNIONISATION

 

Ultimately, the best way to combat the poor and traumatic treatment of employees at studios such as Rooster Teeth is to ensure that the company is pressured into improving policy and casting out any negative influences. Whilst this is entirely possible through the court of public opinion and social pressure from the internet, it is much more achievable through the tried-and-true method of unionisation. If digital content creators, and thus Machinimators, could unionise – their companies would be more pressured into becoming a positive environment. In order for Rooster Teeth’s employees to be recognised as performers to join their relative unions, however, Machinima itself has to be recognised as a form of performance. This argument is perhaps the most important out of everything I have written, as it pertains to the rights and wellbeing of workers across the globe who have been underpaid and mistreated. Fundamentally, this needs to change in the name of workers rights and obtaining justice for everybody who has been stepped on within this new space and preventing this from happening again. Rooster Teeth began pioneering a genre, with passion and love and has ended as what feels like a villainous footnote in hopefully a long history of a beautiful new art form yet to truly spread its wings.

There have been attempts to create unions for digital content creators, such as The Creator Union, but none have been widely successful or as popular as performance-based unions such as Equity, or the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Widely known just as ‘SAG-AFTRA’) due to a lack of respect or understanding for how people are able to perform on or monetise the digital realm. Allowing these creators to join performers unions would not only benefit them with a wide array of new rights and protections, but also bolster these unions as they would have new voices and people speaking for them for violations and strikes across all performance-based areas.

 

LOGGING OFF: FINAL SUMMARY

 

Throughout this piece, I hope I have effectively introduced and described the concept of Machinima, its origins and how it is created, and showcased the potential it has to grow in the future. On top of this, I have shared the skill and understanding required to truly become a master in the area, how Machinima can adopt our existing areas of performance for itself, and the importance of recognising Machinima and its practitioners as true performers within the industry. I believe utilising my three main examples of the Wasteland Theatre Company, Red vs Blue and the Dream SMP, I have provided a broad example of varied Machinimas to showcase my beliefs.

Most of all, I hope I have inspired anybody reading this to give Machinima a chance, regardless of your experience with performance or videogames. Red vs Blue’s narrative arc truly begins to kick off around Season 6: Reconstruction (2008), making it the perfect place to begin for those new to Machinima, and is sure to surprise anybody watching.

To conclude: Machinima is performance, performance is art, and art is work.

 

 

 

 

Reference List

 

Aguado, K. (2015) How a TV Series Gets Made. Available at: https://ken-aguado.medium.com/the-timeline-for-the-making-of-a-tv-series-3b1fcb7f8448 (Accessed 26 April 2023)

Brown, W. and Holtmeier, M. (2013) Machinima: Cinema in a minor or multitudinous key?, in Ng, J. (2013) Understanding Machinima: Essays on Filmmaking in Virtual Worlds London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Causey, M. (2007) Theatre and performance in digital culture: From simulation to embeddedness London: Routledge.

FalloutFive-0 (2021) MACBETH FINAL PRODUCTION 24 October. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb7Y9A3wLIQ&ab_channel=FalloutFive-0 (Accessed: 10 June 2023)

Gach, E. (2022) ‘Former Rooster Teeth Director Says She Was Underpaid And Called Slurs’, Kotaku (October). Available at: https://kotaku.com/rooster-teeth-achievement-hunters-crunch-kdin-bragg-1849667921 (Accesed 1 May 2023)

Gaming is worth more than video and music combined (2019) Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46746593 (Accessed: 13 June 2023)

IGN (2022) The Weird and Wonderful Fans STILL Playing Fallout 76 | IGN Inside Stories 22 October. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0wccxcmrlA&t=3s&ab_channel=IGN (Accessed: 14 June 2023)

Kdin Jenzen @KdinJenzen Twitter Account (2012) Twitter post (2022) Available at: https://twitter.com/KdinJenzen/status/1581345151821021184 (Accessed: 14 June 2023)

Knoop, J. (2022) ‘Humans aren’t machines: Exploring the physiological effects of crunch’ (March). Available at: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/gdc2022/humans-aren-t-machines-exploring-the-physiological-effects-of-crunch#close-modal (Accessed 14 June 2023)

Rooster Teeth Animation (2018) Machinimating Red vs Blue | Red vs Blue 26 July. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdOex0goqZg&ab_channel=RoosterTeethAnimation (Accessed: 1 May 2023)

Rooster Teeth Animation (2018) Behind the Scenes with joe and Minni | Red vs Blue 2 August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py0fpOYfIRs&ab_channel=RoosterTeethAnimation (Accessed: 3 May 2023)

Rooster Teeth Animation (2021) Season 13 (Part 1) | Red vs. Blue Complete 23 October. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbOti-xKYNE&ab_channel=RoosterTeethAnimation (Accessed: 14 March 2023)

Rooster Teeth Animation (2021) Season 13 (Part 2) | Red vs. Blue Complete 30 October. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw4iHi5C6yU&ab_channel=RoosterTeethAnimation (Accessed: 16 March 2023)

Taveras, M. (2023) ‘Destiny 2 players paying tribute to Lance Reddick’s Commander Zavala in-game’, GameSpot (March). Available at: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-2-players-paying-tribute-to-lance-reddicks-commander-zavala-in-game/1100-6512463/ (Accessed: 26 April 2023)

The Wasteland Theatre Company @76Theatre Twitter Account (2021) Twitter conversation thread (2023) Available at: https://twitter.com/76Theatre/status/1665404030544224260?s=20 (Accessed: 4 June 2023)

Turner, V. (1969) Liminality and communitas in The ritual process: Structure and antistructure Chicago: Aldine Publishing

Wurtzler, S. (1992) "She sang live, but the microphone was turned off" : the live, the recorded, and the subject of representation, in Altman, R. (1992) Sound Theory Sound Practice Oxford: Routledge.

 

 

Appendices

 

Aguado, K. (2015) How a TV Series Gets Made. Available at: https://ken-aguado.medium.com/the-timeline-for-the-making-of-a-tv-series-3b1fcb7f8448 (Accessed 26 April 2023)

Brown, W. and Holtmeier, M. (2013) Machinima: Cinema in a minor or multitudinous key?, in Ng, J. (2013) Understanding Machinima: Essays on Filmmaking in Virtual Worlds London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Causey, M. (2007) Theatre and performance in digital culture: From simulation to embeddedness London: Routledge.

FalloutFive-0 (2021) MACBETH FINAL PRODUCTION 24 October. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb7Y9A3wLIQ&ab_channel=FalloutFive-0 (Accessed: 10 June 2023)

Gach, E. (2022) ‘Former Rooster Teeth Director Says She Was Underpaid And Called Slurs’, Kotaku (October). Available at: https://kotaku.com/rooster-teeth-achievement-hunters-crunch-kdin-bragg-1849667921 (Accesed 1 May 2023)

Gaming is worth more than video and music combined (2019) Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46746593 (Accessed: 13 June 2023)

IGN (2022) The Weird and Wonderful Fans STILL Playing Fallout 76 | IGN Inside Stories 22 October. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0wccxcmrlA&t=3s&ab_channel=IGN (Accessed: 14 June 2023)

Kdin Jenzen @KdinJenzen Twitter Account (2012) Twitter post (2022) Available at: https://twitter.com/KdinJenzen/status/1581345151821021184 (Accessed: 14 June 2023)

Knoop, J. (2022) ‘Humans aren’t machines: Exploring the physiological effects of crunch’ (March). Available at: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/gdc2022/humans-aren-t-machines-exploring-the-physiological-effects-of-crunch#close-modal (Accessed 14 June 2023)

Rooster Teeth Animation (2018) Machinimating Red vs Blue | Red vs Blue 26 July. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdOex0goqZg&ab_channel=RoosterTeethAnimation (Accessed: 1 May 2023)

Rooster Teeth Animation (2018) Behind the Scenes with joe and Minni | Red vs Blue 2 August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py0fpOYfIRs&ab_channel=RoosterTeethAnimation (Accessed: 3 May 2023)

Rooster Teeth Animation (2021) Season 13 (Part 1) | Red vs. Blue Complete 23 October. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbOti-xKYNE&ab_channel=RoosterTeethAnimation (Accessed: 14 March 2023)

Rooster Teeth Animation (2021) Season 13 (Part 2) | Red vs. Blue Complete 30 October. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw4iHi5C6yU&ab_channel=RoosterTeethAnimation (Accessed: 16 March 2023)

Taveras, M. (2023) ‘Destiny 2 players paying tribute to Lance Reddick’s Commander Zavala in-game’, GameSpot (March). Available at: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-2-players-paying-tribute-to-lance-reddicks-commander-zavala-in-game/1100-6512463/ (Accessed: 26 April 2023)

The Wasteland Theatre Company @76Theatre Twitter Account (2021) Twitter conversation thread (2023) Available at: https://twitter.com/76Theatre/status/1665404030544224260?s=20 (Accessed: 4 June 2023)

Turner, V. (1969) Liminality and communitas in The ritual process: Structure and antistructure Chicago: Aldine Publishing

Wurtzler, S. (1992) "She sang live, but the microphone was turned off" : the live, the recorded, and the subject of representation, in Altman, R. (1992) Sound Theory Sound Practice Oxford: Routledge.