This shows us just how many things can go wrong, from finding a location, to debugging on the fly, to the game crashing.

Over the past decade, we may have spent some time watching Grand Theft Auto machinima. While we certainly appreciate the immense editing work that goes into these videos, we don’t always think about it when watching the finished product. According to filmmaker Jordy Veenstra, however, this polished end result tells only half the story. To that end, Veenstra recently streamed two Machinima Dev Streams on YouTube and Twitch. These streams gave viewers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the often chaotic and highly technical filmmaking process in Grand Theft Auto V.

Instead of focusing on a finished project, the streams documented the work in progress. Topics included location scouting, staging scenes, planning camera movements, troubleshooting technical issues, and dealing with occasional game crashes. The streams also shed light on the less glamorous side of machinima production. Veenstra demonstrated the use of tools such as Menyoo and ScriptHookVDotNet while experimenting with directing techniques and in-game programming solutions. Some ideas worked, while others did not. At one point, the game froze completely, forcing Veenstra to restart his computer during the livestream.

Veenstra explains that he came up with the idea for the livestreams after asking himself a simple question. After spending countless hours working on projects alone, he wondered if it would make sense to share the creative process, his train of thought, the difficulties he encountered, the euphoria he felt, his mistakes and how he corrected them, and other events that filmmakers experience during production. The initiative received such a positive response that Veenstra is considering organizing more livestreams. Future broadcasts may cover topics such as framing and depth-of-field techniques or virtual lighting systems within VRChat. In VRChat, creators can use DMX protocols, which are commonly used in physical venues, to create real-time light shows.

“Instead of sharing and reflecting on the final cinematic product, the streams showcased the creative process in real time. Viewers could observe how environments were evaluated not only for their aesthetics, but also for factors such as symbolism, lighting conditions, narrative intentions, and composition. Sometimes things don’t work the way we want, so we have to work around them. In true machinima fashion, the game crashed a few times during the live stream and froze so severely that the stream had to be restarted, all with live debugging. These events exemplify the hands-on, participatory nature of machinima, such as testing, rehearsing, adjusting, and making on-the-fly decisions. I think the streams captured these aspects well from a wide-angle perspective. During future Machinima Dev streams, I hope to share broader creative insights from a variety of technical angles, software, and games in a hands-on fashion. I started this series of streams with a single idea. I was working alone on machinima projects for hours on end and wondered if it would be interesting to share some of my creative process, thought lines, hardships, euphoria, bugs, workarounds, and other events I encounter daily with fellow filmmakers, machinima artists, and other enthusiasts,” Veenstra explains.

Below, you can watch a livestream with all its flaws.

Source: PCGamer