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December 16, 2005 4:36 PM

The French Democracy is a short film on the recent riots in France. It was made by Alex Chan, Parisan-born but of Chinese parents, to "to correct what was being said in the media, especially in the United States" about the riots. He used a techinique called machinima--using a video game engine to make his movie.
posted by LarryC (39 comments total)

I saw this a few weeks ago. I think the politics are somewhat trite, and the film making technique could be more refined, but given the limitations that he was working with, I think it's a stupendous piece of work, and bodes well for the future of amateur film making.
posted by empath at 4:57 PM on December 16, 2005

Just what was being said in the US media--that France is a fucked-up place? Can't wait to get this to load to have this notion dispelled!
posted by ParisParamus at 5:05 PM on December 16, 2005

And with that the thread died.

[ golf clap ]
posted by stumcg at 5:10 PM on December 16, 2005

Interestingly, he used a new game from Bullfrog, called "The Movies". It's a good game. It has the classic Theme Hospital feel to it, though of course it's all in 3D.

There is an explicit area of the game that's designed to do exactly what this fellow did... make semi-real movies.

The fundamental problem, sadly, is that all the scenes you can shoot are pre-scripted; you have a large library to choose from, but there's simply no way to say, "No, I need you to stand over there." You can't, in other words, make your own scenes... you can only cut and splice existing scenes into what you want.

Still, considering it's a $50 GAME, it's a rather interesting idea, and people are really knocking themselvs out uploading homemade creations to the web site. As far as I know, this is the only movie (out of thousands) to reach any kind of widespread appeal, but I think it's a strong sign of things to come.
posted by Malor at 5:10 PM on December 16, 2005

Here, ParisParamus comments on something he has not seen, and in addition implies that the thing he hasn't seen almost certainly justifies his xenophobia.
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome at 5:12 PM on December 16, 2005

Could it be more heavy handed? The music is incredibly bad.... god its almost unwatchable. But even with that the ability to make a movie just using a game is impressive.
posted by uni verse at 5:23 PM on December 16, 2005

Yeah, the politics are trite. But it amazes me that you can do something like this with a basic PC and a software game.
posted by LarryC at 5:24 PM on December 16, 2005

No, France is a mess-up place. I lived there.

I watched the video and am very impressed, both with its message and the technique. It actually made me more sympathetic to the rioters (I was somewhat on the fence until now).

I'm very curious about the aesthetics and technique. What is a "game engine"? Separately, I find it interesting that the scenes depicted barely look French or like urban France; more like New York, actually; even the door knobs are not French. If the creator is trying to universalize the thing, I guess that's somewhat fair, but I would find that somewhat disappointing.

Very impressive.
posted by ParisParamus at 5:26 PM on December 16, 2005

Oh, got the "game engine" answer above. Thanks.
posted by ParisParamus at 5:27 PM on December 16, 2005

An interesting idea, but I didn't find it particularly informative, compelling, interesting, or entertaining. I think it's an idea that needs more work, and is worth working on...
posted by blue_beetle at 5:37 PM on December 16, 2005

even the door knobs are not French

I'm not going to start appreciating your comments.
posted by nervousfritz at 5:38 PM on December 16, 2005

Door knobs in France are levers; not knobs.
posted by ParisParamus at 5:40 PM on December 16, 2005

ParisParamus, as Malor said, this was made with 'The Movies', part of which is specifically designed to make producing this sort of thing easy - 'game engine' isn't really the right term to use here in the first place, since it implies that someone's created the scenery and characters themselves around the bare bones of an engine. The reason the street looks generically American (there's a US flag flying at one point) is that all the sets and characters are, as far as I'm aware, generic prefabs that come as part of the game, which makes this a much less impressive achievement than it might seem at first glance. The guy's certainly edited it together and vaguely determined the kind of scene, but a lot of this stuff isn't strictly his own work.
posted by terpsichoria at 5:42 PM on December 16, 2005

Protocols of awesome:

Awesome.

Is xenophobia in the clinical sense a treatable condition?
posted by longsleeves at 5:44 PM on December 16, 2005

thanks. I just assumed it was more "homemade" that it is. I feel kind of stupid, actually. But I still think it's some pretty good work.
posted by ParisParamus at 5:45 PM on December 16, 2005

I dug it and was interested to see someone from outside North America who seemed to think that his country should be a beacon of freedom to the world. We USA'ans sometimes forget that there is another democratic republic that threw of the chains of monarchy not long after we did.
posted by Megafly at 5:45 PM on December 16, 2005

PP: to be honest, I think an awful lot of people who aren't familiar with this sort of thing are having their attention drawn to this film (I've seen it posted in the most unlikely places over the last few days) and are making the same (understandable) assumption. There're loads of machinima films out there that are almost completely home-made, but a hell of a lot of them fall into the 'techy people with no sense of timing repeating jokes they've heard on the net really, really loud' category, so non-enthusiasts never really hear about them. This is one of the first political/current-affairs-themed examples I've seen, hence the sudden wider interest. Not that I'm an enthusiast myself, but I sort of wish the attention had been saved up for a better example.
posted by terpsichoria at 5:55 PM on December 16, 2005

Door knobs in France are levers; not knobs.
posted by ParisParamus at 5:40 PM PST on December 16 [!]

If it helps, you're probably a knob in *any* country.
posted by uosuaq at 5:56 PM on December 16, 2005

I LOVE ANGELINA JOLIE!!1

Site wouldn't load properly for me. It's great to see this kind of thing though. I envy the generation that grows up and gets to experience other people's first hand experiences of worldwide events like this and the coverage it receives throughout the world's news networks. Broadsheet coverage of these riots amounted to a few page 10 spreads for a couple of days. I remember a time before the internet when the insight seemed to end there.
posted by fire&wings at 5:57 PM on December 16, 2005

Megafly, they were largely inspired by our Revolution, in fact, and Ben Franklin spent a lot of time there, consulting with the new government. (and, apparently, really going nuts with the ladies.... into old age he was never hard-pressed to find someone to sleep with. :) )

They gave us the Statue of Liberty for a reason.....and no, not because of ol' Ben's virility. :)
posted by Malor at 5:58 PM on December 16, 2005

Documentary? WTF? Oh. Ok.

I made a "documentary" of what was being said about America in France. I just made it. It's a flip book. The interviews with pertinent French intellectuals is particularly riveting. Especially when the seagull I drew flies by the cloud in the background.
posted by tkchrist at 6:39 PM on December 16, 2005

Who said anything about a documentary?
posted by empath at 6:45 PM on December 16, 2005

This doesn't quite fit the original definition of machinima, which generally implies that the game engine wasn't designed for filmmaking. In addition, The Movies, while quite powerful, is lacking in many of the important features of real filmmaking: the ability to create sets and control actors. It's like painting by numbers, in a sense; making movies via The Movies is a lot easier and more accessible to the layperson than, say, designing an entire Quake3 level, getting a bunch of people on a server and directing them, and editing the resulting server demo. It's also far less nuanced.

The French Democracy is really only notable because it's one of the first films to come out of The Movies with a serious message. But as noted above, it's heavy-handed and simplistic in both script and execution. Sadly, machinima will be an art of extremes for a long time to come. The gulf between the film-by-numbers of The Movies and the difficult-to-stage, technically complex and time-consuming machinima of even a Red vs. Blue (which uses stock character models and levels from Halo), never mind an Eschaton: Nightfall, has yet to be bridged. Judging from the incomplete state of machinima.org, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of interest from the community in bridging it.
posted by chrominance at 6:46 PM on December 16, 2005

Uhh... the French revolution was not significantly inspired by the American Revolution; instead it was the result of poverty, hunger and resentment, like most revolutions. Ben Franklin was nowhere near France at the time (I believe he was in America). Finally, although France threw off the chains of monarchy not long after we did, their history has been extremely tumultuous. If you consider consider Napoleon I and III, it becomes obvious that France did not really throw off the shackles of monarchy for quite some time. Think about Hitler as well.
A recent article in the New Republic made the point well. There is actually a link between the above history and what's going on now. It is not just anger and resentment that have fomented this unrest, but the French romanticizing of violence. I must admit that the whole thing has awakened a bit of Schadenfreude for me... fucking snootty french bastards have finally gotten their comeuppance.
posted by austin5000 at 6:58 PM on December 16, 2005

.
posted by ParisParamus at 7:00 PM on December 16, 2005

Considering the medium, I found the characters remarkably well-developed. And it made me understand the riots a little better too.
posted by sacrilicious at 7:22 PM on December 16, 2005

it was the result of poverty, hunger and resentment, like most revolutions.

Actually, it was a middle class revolution.
Like most all revolutions...

their history has been extremely tumultuous.

as has been the history of other countries....


Think about Hitler as well.

Are you maybe thinking of a different country? Germany maybe?


But it's good to see you're reading the New Republic.
Have fun catching up.
posted by pwedza at 7:54 PM on December 16, 2005

The French romanticizing of violence.

Too bad they can't touch US.
posted by pwedza at 8:02 PM on December 16, 2005

Ben Franklin was nowhere near France at the time (I believe he was in America).

Point being??
posted by pwedza at 8:03 PM on December 16, 2005

Of course, the arguments that the French revolution was caused by the middle class and that it was also caused by hunger, poverty, and resentment are not mutually exclusive. I'm not sure that it's accurate to assert that the French Revolution was strictly bourgeois in nature, but I am sure that bread prices(Middle class people can be hungry too) played an extremely important role in precipitating violence; the Storming of the Bastille occurred, not coincidently, on the day of the highest bread prices during the era. You can argue what you'd like, the French revolution has been interpreted and re-interpreted many times. You might want to cite something a bit more in-depth and sophisticated than "MrDowling.com".
Pwedza: Hitler ruled France during the Second World War, beginning in 1940. Perhaps you believe that the Vichy government was completely independent from Germany's domination, but I think that would require further argument. Thanks for your good wishes.
posted by austin5000 at 8:40 PM on December 16, 2005

Door knobs are the dumbest things ever. Doors should have handles that are easily grasped by greasy hands, or the hands of elderly or disabled persons. You should be able to open them even if they're red hot.

Anything else is just stupid.

I don't care about french politics or amateur film, but I hate bad designs that get widespread use.
posted by spazzm at 8:49 PM on December 16, 2005

It didn't tell me anything I didn't know before but I thought it was very impressive technically. My main criticism is that some of the subtitles flashed by too quickly to read and some of them weren't well translated.
posted by PurpleJack at 2:21 AM on December 17, 2005

If nothing else The Movies gives people who want to do Machinima a very easy to use tool for doing so, and it is another method of free expression open to those who choose to take advantage of it.

The fact a guy like Alex Chan can very easily make the film (even with the technical issues) is a great step forward for Machinima as an art form.

Finally, what I see from The Movies is the future potential of the medium. Now if only Lionhead had made the game a more pure Machinima focussed tool they would have got my $50.
posted by AspectRatio at 7:34 AM on December 17, 2005

Also, the electrocution of the youths that supposedly incited the riots took place in an urban area; not the forrest.

The part of the "film" that rang most true to me is the casual/probable cause-less way in which French authorities stop people. It's one of the things that turned me off to France, and made me really appreciate American constitutional culture.

So, just what is the geographic distribution of door knobs? Which came first? It will be interesting to see if Euro-knobs take over here. You'd think, particularly with a growing elderly population, they would. Or will be move straight to electrically operated ones? G-d, hope not!
posted by ParisParamus at 7:44 AM on December 17, 2005

Chan got away with using the Evil Dead shak for them to run into, because, well, it's the Evil Dead shak. I figured this was made with the Movies game. I've been loving a lot of Machinima lately, but HL2's engine is really the bee's knees for it, IMHO.
posted by Busithoth at 12:20 PM on December 17, 2005

I'm having problems playing the embedded WMV file. Can it be downloaded separately from the webpage?
posted by randomstriker at 5:57 PM on December 17, 2005

try it a few times. It works eventually.
posted by ParisParamus at 6:29 PM on December 17, 2005

The part of the "film" that rang most true to me is the casual/probable cause-less way in which French authorities stop people. It's one of the things that turned me off to France, and made me really appreciate American constitutional culture.

Which America is that, then?
posted by poweredbybeard at 8:06 PM on December 18, 2005

The real one.
posted by ParisParamus at 8:16 PM on December 18, 2005