EVE Fiction

OP, if I were you, I'd:
-Check out some of the specific capture and editing tools people mentioned. Practice with them and see what ideas you get, and how much of a commitment your project would require.
-Then, outline a short, simple plot.
-Then, try executing it in machinima.

From there, you may get inspirations for something epic, or you may decide to scale things back. Jumping in and doing helps avoid "analysis paralysis."

There are some unusually interesting ideas in this thread, so I'm going to chim in again.

When you create using tools (such as video tools, audio editing tools, paints and brush, or musical instruments), the saying "the medium is the message" becomes true. Example: A musician has a melody idea in his head. If he sits down to play with it on a grand piano, the dramatic timbre, resonance, and strong/soft dynamic range of the instrument might lead his ideas one way. If he instead sat down at an electronic synthesizer, the instrument's ability to produce customized tones, to infinitely sustain a note, and to store and repeat passages, speed up and slow down passages, etc. might lead the guy's ideas an entirely different way. The melody, as initially conceived, naturally changes and develops according to what inspires the artist while working with the specific tool.

(The U2 guitarist The Edge shows this in the documentary "It Might Get Loud." He plays a typical U2 riff straight to the amp, without using any effects. It sounds pretty embarrassingly primitive: 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, etc. Then he switches on his usual echo and delay effects, it sounds like a fully composed riff. That's because he incorporated the echo line in as a part of the composition itself. The echoed notes stand as independent notes themselves, and the composition is only complete if are there. Without the echo pedal, there would just be a portion of melody. The tool (the echo pedal) ended up being integral to the composition-- pretty much throughout The Edge's career as a songwriter. (He says in the documentary: "I was fascinated by this device that was playing extra notes that I was not playing")).

It's different if you're composing written-word fiction. Then it's a matter of developing a story and using language to convey it to reader, hopefully in an artful or at least interesting manner. No significant interaction with tools is involved. Which, in my opinion, makes fiction writing more challenging than audio or visual arts. You don't have the luxury of just noodling around with your tools (paints, guitar, video editor, whatever) and following the serendipitous inspirations as they emerge. But anyway, doing something like machinima does involve using a lot of tools. Both video and audio to be composed, each of which ought to offer a lot of creative challenges and a lot of fun. So I'd think doing some offline plot development, but some immediate composing via hands-on use of the tools, would be the way to go.

Those are good points, AK. Machinima involves telling a story, and if you don't have at least a pretty complete skeleton of the plot assembled before you start, you could run into serious trouble later. You might have an excellent idea later that changes the plot so much that already written/produced passages have to be thrown out or redone. (I've had this happen myself, and I'll admit that it put a serious dent in my enthusiasm for bearing down and completing the project). Not to slam Steven King, but his "one word at a time approach" might be the reason that a lot of people criticize the endings of his books. Going with the flow of specific ideas and atmospherics, he arrives at a point where he has no good way to wrap up the story. (For example, the kind of deus ex machina spider alien that pops up to resolve the plot at the end of It). But he sure has some great ideas along the way...!

I suppose machinima is pretty much the same as cinema. On the macro level, you have to start with a good script. On the micro level, you make creative decisions and get ideas while working with production tools and their capabilities. There can be brilliant spots in the production, but if the story in junk, there's no way it can be a great film.*

*tl;dr
Some cinema examples of weak script, brilliant production:
Many Japanese movies. Beautiful visuals and microscopic detail in the sound production. But the plots can seem like it's not a story, but just a theme or setting, with characters moving around in it doing things episodically. Examples: "Ronin Gai," "The Burmese Harp." But the mood and atmospherics can themselves still be very memorable.

Werner Herzog's "Aguirre." Brilliant cinematography in the Andes and South American jungle. Intensely good acting by Klaus Kinski. But the script seems to have been improvised along the way, so the movie kind of just meanders. Could have been a great one, but instead is kind of an example of "the medium is the message" gone somewhat wrong.

And? Any feedback?

Ha, forget the nuance and theory and just have fun, mate.

Update?

What did CCP say?

I'm writing a script for EVE, have been for a while.

I hit a bump in the road recently regarding a point of logic, wherein the Characters were making logical choices, but the scenario they were makin them in wasn't logical. I then bounced some ideas around on how fix it and sadly had to scrap 300 pages I wrote over a week, and, rethink the motivation and subsequent arc(s).

Like all good relationships, you need to htfu and let you partner talk, because I've always found there is underlining reasons for them talking, and it isn't always what they say.

Sometimes they just want to blow off steam, and then they can get back to more important matters, like torturing someone for information.

Issue this poses is the dialogue runs on and I dread the day when I'll have to cut mass amounts of dialogue out because the script will be 700 pages when it needs to be 90-120.

Writing is great though, and I remember when I finished my first spec script; I balled my eyes out and rolled around on the floor in a sobbing fit complete with running nose and itchy eyes.

Reason: the characters had told me their story, had bared their souls to me, and then it was time to say goodbye, forever, like a psychological birthing.

AK

Storyboards are always built after the script, even if the script amounts to no more than descriptions of shots, bookended by scene descriptions.

AK