I should have mentioned this on here before now, and the more switched-on of you have probably seen it on BoingBoing by now anyway, but still:

Bloodspell is a feature-length serialised machinima fantasy film. Machinima, in case you’ve been under a rock, or just don’t care about the future, is the art of making 3-d animated films using computer game engines. The product doesn’t look as slick as Toy Story, or Shrek, or anything else, but it can be made by anyone with a little dedication in their bedrooms for an outlay of a few hundred quid for a decent computer and an appropriate game. It is punk animation, and if you can’t see why that’s important, or get past the slightly clunky visuals to see what it will one day be able to do, then you are probably quite stupid.

Bloodspell is pretty much the most ambitious project yet made with machinima, and deserves your attention precisely because it is ambitious. It’s pushing the boundaries of what has done in its field. If people do not pay attention when others do this sort of thing, we stagnate as a culture. This is bad. And also, rather more importantly, because it is a cracking, fast paced action-fantasy film that is bloody good free entertainment.

And as if all that weren’t enough, it’s available on a creative commons license. Check the site for the full info, but basically, you can distribute and remix it however you’d like, for free, so long as you don’t make money off it. There are lots of reasons why that’s good.

Pay attention: this is the future of cinema, starting here. Even if Bloodspell itself isn’t to your personal taste, these are some very sharp people, working out how entertainment media will be made and distributed in the future. Tell your friends, because it’ll make you look clever if you do.

Full disclosure: My mate cairmen is the mad bastard behind this, and I’m listed as a creative consultant on the project. This mostly meant I sat about, got drunk, and talked rubbish, and said “why don’t you try this…” on a couple of occasions.