Fantastic Arcade

****FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE****

Austin, TX-Tuesday, September 7, 2010-Fantastic Arcade, the new independent games festival presented by America's largest genre film festival Fantastic Fest, today announced the addition of Halo Waypoint as sponsor of their debut 48-hour Machinima Film Challenge. The challenge kicks off on Friday, September 10 and concludes on Sunday, September 12. Prize packages feature sweet loot from Halo Waypoint, plus hardware and software from event partners Dell and AMD.

Halo Waypoint, official event sponsor of Fantastic Arcade, is the online destination for "Halo" fans around the world, providing access to the latest "Halo" news and exclusive content ranging from interviews, trailers and screenshots to new insight into Halo's epic narrative and exclusive, never-before-seen, original series you won't find anywhere else. Additionally, Halo Waypoint will be announcing a new relationship with an Austin animation production company and will debut their new Halo Waypoint trailer at Fantastic Arcade on Sunday, September 26. After the Halo Waypoint premiere, members of the Halo Waypoint team will be on hand to host a post-screening Q&A and give away Halo prizes.

In addition, Alison Stroll, programming and community director for Halo Waypoint, will serve as judge on the official 48-Hour Machinima Film Challenge panel and will participate in the machinima film panel sessions and screening on Sunday, September 26.

Alison has worked on franchises such as Street Fighter, MechWarrior, Conker, Viva Piñata, and now Halo. At Halo Waypoint, she spends her days watching machinima and TweetBooking while simultaneously doing totally grown-up stuff like leveraging the synergistic zeitgeist, taking this rathole offline, and scheduling stand-ups to drill-down. Alison is responsible for soliciting and selecting all machinima content for Halo Waypoint, working closely with Rooster Teeth and This Spartan Life.

Beginning at 7 pm CST on Friday, September 10, 2010, production teams will have 48 hours to conceive, direct and edit a short film, four minutes or less in duration, using their favorite video games. The crew behind Fantastic Arcade 48-hour Machinima Film Challenge will provide a line of dialogue and a genre to each team at the start of their production launch. The main criteria for challenge entries is that each team demonstrates visual storytelling made within a real-time virtual 3D environment, utilizing a game engine. Interested teams can sign up online now at: www.fantasticfest.com/arcade/machinima.

The free-to-enter Fantastic Arcade 48-hour Machinima Film Challenge has been developed and organized by award-winning machinima production group Rooster Teeth in Austin. Machinima gurus in their own right, Rooster Teeth are world-famous for their online web series Red Vs. Blue, as well as other popular machinima works, The Strangerhood, PANICS and Supreme Surrender. Judging will be led by Red vs. Blue creator and machinima pioneer Burnie Burns, along with a panel of industry professionals in games, media and film.

Burnie Burns, owner of Rooster Teeth Productions and creator of Red vs Blue, offers, "The power of machinima lies in its accessibility. Millions of people have a movie studio in their very own homes without realizing it. Using just a videogame console and a typical home computer, they can create animated shorts or full length features. It's an amazing technique for filmmakers -- especially our young storytellers -- who otherwise would not have access to advanced production tools. And with world-class venues like the Alamo Drafthouse and Halo Waypoint showcasing the work of these artists, I can not wait to see what the contestants produce."

In addition to acknowledging the best machinima productions entered in the 48-Hour Machinima Film Competition, the fine folks at Rooster Teeth have added a new competition category by recognizing excellence in machinima acting, the Best Actor/Actress Award. Rooster Teeth is offering an awesome prize! The winner of the Best Actor/Actress award will have a chance to perform their very own walk-on role in an upcoming Red vs Blue episode. Your ticket to Internet stardom awaits!

The winning challenge team receives a Dell XPS 7100 PC including Eyefinity triple-monitor capability and hardware, plus 3 graphics cards ($ 2,500 value). The second place team receives a Dell Inspiron M501R notebook and three graphics cards ($1,500 value). Both team will also receive loads of valuable swag from Halo Waypoint. The winning machinima films will be screened at Fantastic Arcade and on the big screens at Alamo South as part of Fantastic Fest on Sunday, September 26.

Challenge semi-finalists will be announced online on Monday, September 20, while winners will be announced live at the Fantastic Arcade Awards Show at 7 pm on Sunday, September 26 at the HighBall Ballroom, followed immediately by the Fantastic Arcade closing night party.

Attendees at Fantastic Arcade will have a choice of a single day pass for $20, with access to all Fantastic Arcade films, panels, parties, happy hour and game demos for one day, or a basic $10 pass that provides access to the game demos and arcade for a single day. The VIP Fantastic Arcade Pass for $60 provides access to everything for all four festival days, plus a limited edition Fantastic Arcade T-shirt. Fantastic Arcade tickets can be purchased online now at www.fantasticfest.com/tickets-2/.

About Fantastic Arcade

www.fantasticfest.com/arcade

More than 4,000 attendees are expected to visit Fantastic Arcade over four days for hands-on gameplay action in a fun, high octane environment at top Austin entertainment venue, the HighBall. Fantastic Arcade sponsors include Alienware, Dell's premiere high-end gaming PC division , Microsoft Game Studios, Halo Waypoint, G4, AMD, Dell, 101X, Austin Chronicle, The CW Austin, Devolver Digital, GDC Online, GL33K Audio, IGDA Austin, Playtechtonics, Semi-Secret Software, SXSW Screenburn, and The Guildhall at SMU. Tournament sponsors include Arcade UFO, ASICS, Epiphone Guitars, Game Over Videogames and Moviestorm.

About Fantastic Fest

www.fantasticfest.com

Dubbed "The Geek Telluride" by showbiz bible Variety, Fantastic Fest is also known as the "Comic Con of film festivals." Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the United States, showcasing eight days of offbeat cinema from independents, international filmmakers and major Hollywood studios. The 2009 edition hosted over 70 world, U.S. and regional premieres of the latest sci-fi, horror, fantasy and cult films from around the world. Fantastic Fest is scheduled for September 23-30, 2010.

For more into or to secure a media pass for Fantastic Arcade, contact Fiona Cherbak, ThemePark Studios, (512) 916-9633 or fiona@themeparkstudios.com, or contact Mike Plante, Fantastic Arcade creative director, at mike.plante@fantasticfest.com. For more information, visit www.fantasticfest.com/arcade.