How Mario and Friends Changed My Life
- Brandon Miracle
- Dec 11, 2015
- 4 min read
When I was three years old, a Super Nintendo was introduced to my home. My dad took my sister and I into my bedroom and popped in Super Mario Kart. All I can remember is being in seventh place and trying to steer Mario by turning my controller (I must have been a revolutionary).
The very next game I played was Super Mario World. This ended up being one of my very favorite games of all time.
What my dad thought would be a fun distraction ended up being an obsession for me. I never had much desire to go outside. I was far more interested in continuiing my journey through Dinosaur Land and the land of Hyrule. This ended up turning my dad away from video games forever.
Growing up I relied on video games to distract me from all of the things in life that were difficult. If I was ever sad, or stressed from school, I would pop in my favorite game and be whisked away into another adventure. As a kid, it gave me a sense of purpose. In every game I was tasked with doing the impossible. It made me feel like I could do anything.
Fast forward to the Gamecube era and Super Smash Bros. Melee. It was around this time that my own creativity started to take over. Rather than playing the game the way it was originally intended, I would start an exhibition map, pick Mario and pit him against Bowser. From here, I would start the match, pause the game, and then move the camera and pose my character.
This is where every story began. It was here that in the world of Smash, Mario would be presented with some great evil that he had to overcome. I would use the in game camera and act out my scenes to myself. I know this sounds relly corny, but the characters in the game were essentially my action figures. I would do this for hours at a time. Mario has been on hundreds of adventures.
As time went on, I started paying attention to my composition and the shots I was getting while playing my little game. It's weird, but having my little game sessions like this is what inspired me to make videos.
By the time of Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii, I got a computer, a capture card, and a microphone. So, I took my little story telling sessions to YouTube. I would hack the game to allow me to change the camera while unpaused and change other elements of the game. I'd even change entire battlefields to green and key out the in game backgrounds so I could bring the characters to new places. I started makingfull videos in this fashion. This was my first time working in video and voice acting.
Later on, I started voice acting in other people's "machinima" videos, as they were called. Apparently, I wasn't the first person to have this idea. This is really what got me into the world of the Internet and networking. I met a lot of people online who shared the same passion and interest in creating. I collaborated with many of them to make more videos.
Eventually, I realized that pointing a "camera" at video game characters and making them "talk" was a really limiting (and admittedly nerdy) way of making videos.
Finally, this is what inspired me to take to the field and do live action video. That's when I realized there was a ton that I didn't know how to do. I didn't know how to stage in the real world, light scenes, or anything about cameras So, I enrolled at Greenville College's Digital Media program to start really learning everything.
So, that's the real story of my inspiration for my career. I owe a lot to Mario and friends. He taught me the basics of composition, how to edit video, how to structure (very childish) stories, and ultimately that video was something I loved to do.
In the future, I'd like to give back somehow. One of my dreams is to continue making original video content online. Video games will undoubtedly be a big part of that. I also really want to be in game's journalism. I know one day, it's all going to come full circle.
Looking back, I made a lot of crappy videos. But, all of the crap is what trained me to start making less crappy videos. I'll never forget where I started. That's why all of those videos still exist on my YouTube channel. I'll probably never take them down.
Well, that's it for now I suppose. If you want to cringe through one of my old videos, take a look below here. I'm sure you won't make it through the whole thing!
This is one of the last one's I ever made:
This video features hacked battlefields and in game camera tools. Interestingly enough, the voice actor playing Captain Falcon is now a professional voice over artist. He's been in video games, commercials, and even anime!
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