Edgeworks Entertainment
Encyclopedia
Edgeworks Entertainment is a machinima
and new media
production company created by Alexander Winn
and Ryan Luther. At midnight on February 9, 2005, Episode 1 of their new machinima series was released. The Codex crew, which then consisted of Alexander Winn, Ryan Luther, Patrick Malone and Meghan Foster, all got together to celebrate the launch of the The Codex Series. Lauren Jenks joined the crew after a few months, and the series reached 20 episodes before it ended on August 13, 2005, when Episode 20, "The End of All Things", was released. On February 9, 2006, Edgeworks Entertainment announced their new addition to The Codex Series, The Heretic, with the addition of three more members of the staff, and again on February 9, 2007 the first episode was released. In 2009 Edgeworks launched a community-driven review site called Vox Populi and 2010 sees their newest creation, a live-action webseries named Radical.
and The Heretic. Collectively, the series have received over 80 million hits as of April 2008.
series, set in Bungie Studios' Halo
video game universe. Along with its sister series, The Heretic, it is part of the greater Codex Series. It relates the story of a Covenant
invasion of a Human world in order to recover a Forerunner artifact, and the story of the Humans resistance of that invasion. Since its initial release on February 9, 2005, The Codex has earned a large international fan base, and has been featured in numerous print, radio, televised, and online news media such as NPR
, mtvU
, Xbox World 360 Magazine in Britain, and the front covers of the Dallas Observer and Houston Press. In his September 29, 2005 Long Tail blog
entry, Chris Anderson
, Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, described The Codex as the best machinima
he had ever seen and an excellent example of his Long Tail
theory. The Codex is the highest trafficked peer-produced Halo machinima series in existence, ranking second only to the professionally produced series Red vs. Blue
.
series made by Edgeworks Entertainment. Like its predecessor, The Heretic is set in Bungie Studios' Halo
video game universe. It is a prequel
to the popular series The Codex
. The Heretic tells the story of how the Codex was found, and how the various characters in The Codex
came to be involved with it. At 12:01 AM, February 9, 2007, Edgeworks Entertainment released Episode 1: Seeds of Doubt. http://www.thecodexseries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5386
Forsaken was a planned machinima
series by Edgeworks Entertainment, and would have been the group's first to be made in the World of Warcraft
game engine
. According to Edgeworks, the series centered on an "over-the-hill
hero" who "must rise to the challenge when the forces of evil begin their bid for control over the land of Azeroth". The series was announced on April 12, 2006, with a teaser trailer
and was to be written and directed by Malone and co-produced by Malone and Winn. Forsaken would have been the first Edgeworks production not to be written or directed by Winn, and Edgeworks cited the new series as the first step towards making a community for "artistic development and distribution". Unfortunately, due to the series being rendered impossible thanks to a patch released for World of Warcraft, production of the series has halted as of January 3, 2007, and it seems unlikely that it will ever be completed or released.
was released, along with a new forum section and media components. Production will be started late spring 2010 with a release date of the first episode also around that time.
Machinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
and new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
production company created by Alexander Winn
Alexander Winn
Alexander Winn is an American writer, producer, and director of live-action and machinima films. Winn is best known as one of the two founding members of Edgeworks Entertainment, and as the writer, director, co-producer and composer of the award-winning Halo machinima series The Codex Series,...
and Ryan Luther. At midnight on February 9, 2005, Episode 1 of their new machinima series was released. The Codex crew, which then consisted of Alexander Winn, Ryan Luther, Patrick Malone and Meghan Foster, all got together to celebrate the launch of the The Codex Series. Lauren Jenks joined the crew after a few months, and the series reached 20 episodes before it ended on August 13, 2005, when Episode 20, "The End of All Things", was released. On February 9, 2006, Edgeworks Entertainment announced their new addition to The Codex Series, The Heretic, with the addition of three more members of the staff, and again on February 9, 2007 the first episode was released. In 2009 Edgeworks launched a community-driven review site called Vox Populi and 2010 sees their newest creation, a live-action webseries named Radical.
Main crew
- Alexander WinnAlexander WinnAlexander Winn is an American writer, producer, and director of live-action and machinima films. Winn is best known as one of the two founding members of Edgeworks Entertainment, and as the writer, director, co-producer and composer of the award-winning Halo machinima series The Codex Series,...
- Co-Founder, Writer, Producer, Director, Editor, Composer and Actor. - Ryan Luther - Co-Founder, Producer, Webmaster, Puppeteer, Actor.
- Meghan Foster - Puppeteer, Actor.
- Patrick Malone - Puppeteer, Actor.
- Lauren Jenks - Puppeteer, Actor.
- Jeff Guebert - Puppeteer.
- Robert Bruff - Puppeteer.
- John Cottingame - Puppeteer.
The Codex Series
The Codex Series is the name for the over-arching story of the machinima series The CodexThe Codex
The Codex is a 20-episode online machinima series made by Edgeworks Entertainment and set in Bungie Studios' Halo video game universe. Along with its prequel, The Heretic, The Codex is part of the greater Codex Series...
and The Heretic. Collectively, the series have received over 80 million hits as of April 2008.
The Codex
The Codex is a 20-episode online machinimaMachinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
series, set in Bungie Studios' Halo
Halo (video game series)
Halo is a multi-million dollar science fiction video game franchise created by Bungie and now managed by 343 Industries and owned by Microsoft Studios. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of aliens known as the Covenant...
video game universe. Along with its sister series, The Heretic, it is part of the greater Codex Series. It relates the story of a Covenant
Covenant (Halo)
The Covenant are a fictional theocratic military alliance of alien races who serve as the main antagonists in the Halo video game series. They are composed of a variety of diverse species, united under the religious worship of the enigmatic Forerunners and their belief that Forerunner ringworlds...
invasion of a Human world in order to recover a Forerunner artifact, and the story of the Humans resistance of that invasion. Since its initial release on February 9, 2005, The Codex has earned a large international fan base, and has been featured in numerous print, radio, televised, and online news media such as NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
, mtvU
MtvU
mtvU is a division of Viacom's MTV Networks which produces a 24-hour television channel that is available on more than 750 college and university campuses across the United States, as well as several digital cable packages...
, Xbox World 360 Magazine in Britain, and the front covers of the Dallas Observer and Houston Press. In his September 29, 2005 Long Tail blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
entry, Chris Anderson
Chris Anderson (The Long Tail)
Chris Anderson is editor-in-chief of Wired, which has won a National Magazine Award for general excellence three times during his tenure. He wrote an article in the magazine entitled The Long Tail, which he expanded upon in the book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More...
, Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, described The Codex as the best machinima
Machinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
he had ever seen and an excellent example of his Long Tail
The Long Tail
The Long Tail or long tail refers to the statistical property that a larger share of population rests within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a 'normal' or Gaussian distribution...
theory. The Codex is the highest trafficked peer-produced Halo machinima series in existence, ranking second only to the professionally produced series Red vs. Blue
Red vs. Blue
Red vs. Blue, often abbreviated as RvB, is a set of related comic science fiction video series created by Rooster Teeth Productions and distributed through the Internet and on DVD...
.
The Heretic
The Heretic is the second machinimaMachinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
series made by Edgeworks Entertainment. Like its predecessor, The Heretic is set in Bungie Studios' Halo
Halo (video game series)
Halo is a multi-million dollar science fiction video game franchise created by Bungie and now managed by 343 Industries and owned by Microsoft Studios. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of aliens known as the Covenant...
video game universe. It is a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
to the popular series The Codex
The Codex
The Codex is a 20-episode online machinima series made by Edgeworks Entertainment and set in Bungie Studios' Halo video game universe. Along with its prequel, The Heretic, The Codex is part of the greater Codex Series...
. The Heretic tells the story of how the Codex was found, and how the various characters in The Codex
The Codex
The Codex is a 20-episode online machinima series made by Edgeworks Entertainment and set in Bungie Studios' Halo video game universe. Along with its prequel, The Heretic, The Codex is part of the greater Codex Series...
came to be involved with it. At 12:01 AM, February 9, 2007, Edgeworks Entertainment released Episode 1: Seeds of Doubt. http://www.thecodexseries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5386
The Reclaimer
The Reclaimer was planned to be a sequel to The Codex and also the final series in The Codex Series. However, production of the series has officially been halted until further notice as a result of Microsoft's release of their Game Content Usage Rules, which made certain elements of the series impossible.Vox Populi
Vox Populi is the first non-machinima endeavor from Edgeworks Entertainment. It is a community-driven review site, in which registered members can post reviews for, at the time of release, movies and video games. In the following weeks, Edgeworks also added television and book review sections.Forsaken
Machinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
series by Edgeworks Entertainment, and would have been the group's first to be made in the World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
game engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
. According to Edgeworks, the series centered on an "over-the-hill
Old age
Old age consists of ages nearing or surpassing the average life span of human beings, and thus the end of the human life cycle...
hero" who "must rise to the challenge when the forces of evil begin their bid for control over the land of Azeroth". The series was announced on April 12, 2006, with a teaser trailer
Teaser trailer
A teaser campaign is an advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event. These advertisements are called "teasers" or "teaser ads"...
and was to be written and directed by Malone and co-produced by Malone and Winn. Forsaken would have been the first Edgeworks production not to be written or directed by Winn, and Edgeworks cited the new series as the first step towards making a community for "artistic development and distribution". Unfortunately, due to the series being rendered impossible thanks to a patch released for World of Warcraft, production of the series has halted as of January 3, 2007, and it seems unlikely that it will ever be completed or released.
Radical
On 9 February 2010, 5 years after the release of The Codex it was announced that Edgeworks would be creating a new, original, live action web series called Radical. A teaser trailerTeaser trailer
A teaser campaign is an advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event. These advertisements are called "teasers" or "teaser ads"...
was released, along with a new forum section and media components. Production will be started late spring 2010 with a release date of the first episode also around that time.