Ben's Machinima

Because I am not highly skilled with computers, I would like to make my machinima as simple as possible. There would only be two characters in it (I suppose more could be included, but only two would have main roles), and it would be comment on American society. The machinima would take place in a large city, one character a taxi driver and the other would be a person waiting for a taxi (anything from a fashionable woman to a college guy would work). Props would include a taxi and headphones for the two characters. Finally, two different music tracks will be needed, each suiting the appearance for the character it goes with.

The storyline is very basic: the movie opens up with a person waiting for a taxi on a sidewalk in a big city. All that can be heard is loud music (no city/ambient noise can be heard). The scene will then go to the taxi driver, cruising on the road, also with loud music playing. The taxi driver will pick up the person, and the music will pause while the person gets in and tells the driver where to go (in the fewest amount of words as possible). Both tracks will then click on again, and they will both remain silent for the duration of the car ride (there might be some shot changes, showing each person listening to his or her own music, and then showing both in silence, the only noise coming from the car). The movie will end with a pause in the music, an exchange of money, and the rider exiting the vehicle, music resuming as he or she does.

It is almost impossible to walk around a major city (or SCU, for that matter) without seeing someone listening to a portable MP3 player, stuck in their own little world and largely oblivious to everything around them. Places where social contact used to be inevitable or at least common—places such as gyms, coffee shops, and subways—have become less so due to personal technology. I am hopeful that my machinima will highlight the ridiculousness of this reality, that it motivates people to interact with others in public places instead of confining themselves to their own little world.