Strange Company was a group of

machinima Machinima () is the use of Real-time computing, real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. The word "Machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''machine'' and ''Film, cinema''. According to Guinness World Records, ma ...

creators and distributors based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. They are known in the medium as the longest-standing machinima production company, having produced

films since 1997, and for creating the Machinima.com website, which distributes such films on the internet since 2000.

History

''Strange Company'' was founded by Hugh Hancock in 1997, at the time a student at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

and a part-time journalist with an interest in the

computer game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual feedback from a display device, mo ...

'' Quake'', and Gordon McDonald, a commercial film-maker and soundscape artist. Following Hancock's coining of the term "machinima" with Anthony Bailey of Quake done Quick, Hancock and McDonald founded the Machinima.com website in 2000, a hub for machinima producers on the internet. Having worked on commercial animation production since 1999, ''Strange Company'' currently focuses on the creation of machinima productions. The company has produced animation for companies and organisations such as

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

, the

British Academy of Film and Television Arts The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

, Scottish Television and the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. The group has also created several independent releases, including the H.P. Lovecraft inspired ''Eschaton: Darkening Twilight'', and an adaptation of the

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...

sonnet "

Ozymandias "Ozymandias" ( ) is a sonnet written by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. It was first published in the 11 January 1818 issue of '' The Examiner'' of London. The poem was included the following year in Shelley's collection '' Ros ...

". The group spent a number of years working on the "

Lithtech LithTech is a game engine developed by Monolith Productions and comparable with the Quake and Unreal engines. Monolith and a number of other video game developers have used LithTech as the basis for their first-person shooter games. Monolith i ...

Film Producer" project, the first attempt to create a stand-alone machinima production environment, which was cancelled in 2001. In March 2002, they participated in the formation of the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences. In 2006, ''Strange Company'' produced its first feature-length machinima film, ''

BloodSpell ''BloodSpell'' is a 2006 fantasy film produced by Strange Company. ''BloodSpell'' employs filming techniques known as machinima, and is the first feature-length production to use BioWare's Aurora Engine, developed for the role-playing video game ...

''. After two years of pre-production, ''

'' was released in 14 episodes during 2006. In October 2007, it premiered as a full-length feature film at the Machinima Europe festival 2007. In 2008, the film was released as a DVD image under a

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

license. In 2007, Hancock and fellow ''Strange Company'' member Johnnie Ingram wrote Machinima for Dummies, a 400-page reference guide to machinima creation. The most recent ''Strange Company'' release is a short film adaptation of a

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...

poem entitled, "When We Two Parted.", which was featured on the front page of YouTube UK on its release. Many of the ''Strange Company'' team also worked on the Boingboing-featured scientific cookery sho
Kamikaze Cookery
although it is not indicated as an official Strange Company production. In March 2010, ''Strange Company'' announced a high-profile project, a

performance capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for val ...

/Machinima hybrid title Death Knight Love Story, featuring the voices of

Joanna Lumley Dame Joanna Lamond Lumley (born 1 May 1946) is an Indian-born British actress, presenter, author, television producer, activist and former model. She has won two BAFTA TV Awards for her role as Patsy Stone in the BBC sitcom ''Absolutely Fabulo ...

Jack Davenport Jack Arthur Davenport (born 1 March 1973) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the television series '' This Life'' and ''Coupling'', and as James Norrington in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' series. He has also appeared i ...

Anna Chancellor Anna Theodora Chancellor (born 27 April 1965) is an English actress who has appeared widely on TV, film and in the theatre. She received a nomination for BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lix Storm in '' The Hour'' (201 ...

and

Brian Blessed Brian Blessed ( ; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor. He is known for his distinctive bushy beard, booming voice, and exuberant personality and performances. He portrayed PC "Fancy" Smith in ''Z-Cars''; Augustus in the 1976 BBC television ...

. Death Knight Love Story is a short romance/action adventure, and was released in 2014. In November 2017, ''Strange Company'' released the VR RPG game "Left-Hand Path" on Steam. It received "Very Positive" reviews rating on the site. On February 5, 2018, founder Hugh Hancock died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

Releases

* Eschaton: Darkening Twilight (1997) *Eschaton: Nightfall (1999) *Ozymandias (1999) *Matrix 4X1 (2000) *Tum Raider (2001) *

(2006) *Fair Game (2007) *When We Two Parted (2008) *Death Knight Love Story (2014) *Left-Hand Path (2017 Video Game)

References

External links

* {{Machinima production companies Film production companies of the United Kingdom Machinima