I. INTRODUCTION It was the kind of Cinderella success story of which most people can only dream. A group of friends turned their short, unfunded films into a genre phenomenon, with nearly one million viewers eager to watch each new installment as soon as it was released. (1) They received critical acclaim from sources such as the BBC and The Village Voice, (2) held sold out screenings at Lincoln Center, (3) and were hired to create a series of broadcast commercials for Electronic Arts based on their films. (4) They made enough money to quit their day jobs and support themselves as full-time artists doing what they loved. (5) The group of friends, now known as Rooster Teeth Productions, (6) became one of the first breakout stars in a relatively new art form called machinima--a portmanteau of machine and cinema, pronounced maSHEEN-i-ma--that re-imagines video games as a filmmaking medium. (7)
