Deviation (film)

Deviation is a 2006 short film that was the first short film in the machinima genre to be premiered in competition at a major film festival, the Tribeca Film Festival.

Deviation almost didnt make it to the Tribeca Film Festival since, shortly before the films premiere, the game manufacturer of Counter Strike, the Valve Corporation, refused to give permission for the film to be distributed for commercial use. Valve maintained that as intellectual property owners of Counter Strike, they had definitive rights over its distribution. In response, Griggs informed Valve of his intention to release a protest video version of Deviation in which all of Valves intellectual property was removed, leaving just the actors voices, music and story, and replacing the visuals with simple words and pictures depicting Griggs struggle with Valve, and a call to viewers to support him. Valve eventually backed down and the allclear was given for the motion picture to be released onApril 2006 at the Tribeca Film Festival in front of a live audience of over 4,000 people.The motion picture is accompanied by an original score composed and performed by Nicholas J. Sumner, original sound design by Neil Fazzari and actors voices to deliver the dialogue. The opening credits to the film announce that this is a virtual film created online...with virtual actors performing across different U.S. States...who have never met each other in the real world. ........

Source: Wikipedia