Introduction

Strange Company's Machinima productions have been featured in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and Wired Magazine. Since 1997, we have produced ground-breaking independent films, like 'Eschaton', 'Ozymandias' (praised by film critic Roger Ebert), and most recently our first feature-length film, 'BloodSpell'. Strange Company is the world's oldest pro 'Machinima' production company, making films in 3D virtual worlds to tell stories that couldn't be told any other way. Founded in 1997 by Hugh Hancock and Gordon McDonald, we have produced award-winning independent films (including the feature-length 'BloodSpell') as well as commercial films for the BBC, Electronic Arts and many others. We have spoken about our work across the world from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, and have been quoted in Wired and the New York Times. Currently we are working to promote and educate about Machinima, as well as to develop and pioneer new ways of telling stories in worlds that don't exist.In 2007, Strange Company's Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram wrote Machinima for Dummies, a 400-page reference guide to Machinima creation from the prestigious 'For Dummies' series.

Provenance

It was founded by Hugh Hancock in 1997, at the time a student at Edinburgh University and a part-time journalist with an interest in the computer game Quake, and Gordon McDonald, a commercial film-maker and soundscape artist. Together they created the Machinima.com website, a hub for machinima producers on the Internet, following Hugh's coining of the term "Machinima" with Anthony Bailey of "Quake done Quick" fame.

Professional Experience

Strange Company is a group of machinima creators and distributors based in Edinburgh, Scotland. They are known in the medium for running the Machinima.com website, which distributes such films on the Internet since 2000, and as the longest-standing Machinima production company, having produced 16 Machinima films since 1997.The company focuses on the creation of machinima productions, having worked on commercial animation production since 1999, and has since produced animation for companies and organisations such as Electronic Arts, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Scottish Television and the BBC. The group has also created highly-acclaimed independent releases, including Eschaton: Darkening Twilight and an adaptation of the sonnet "Ozymandias".They also spent a number of years working on the 'Lithtech Film Producer' project, the first attempt to create a stand-alone Machinima production environment, which was cancelled in 2001.Strange Company participated in the formation of the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences, and is now working on the first feature-length machinima film, BloodSpell, an independent production that is purportedly the largest independent machinima production to date. After two years of pre-production, BloodSpell has been released in an episodic form. It is due to be premiered as a full-length feature film at the Machinima Europe festival 2007.