The six episode series reveals the tense moments before each of the major Airborne invasions represented in Medal of Honor Airborne. Sent in to secure drop zones, Pathfinders were the sharpened tip of the Airborne sword, and were called upon to undertake missions that no other units would even consider. Their actions ensured that Airborne infantry troops would have a greater chance for survival after bringing the war to the enemy's front doorstep.

To create this new series, a team of Machinima artists, writers, and directors are working closely with Airborne's development team. Once creative decisions are plotted out, episodes are "filmed" just like a real movie would be, but completely in the virtual sets of Medal of Honor Airborne's gameplay maps. With actors playing their roles, and a director using his first person view as a camera, the creative team at Machinima record the story shot for shot, tracking each others motions, playing their roles as stealthy 82nd Airborne Pathfinders or as lethal Axis soldiers. Action sequences are meticulously assembled, often times recording a single shot dozens of times to get just the desired effect.

When everyone's pleased with their performances, all of the footage is pulled together and edited into a final movie. Machinima artists add credits, dialogue, and give the episode custom audio mixing, which includes music from the breathtaking Medal of Honor Airborne score, created by the award-winning composer Michael Giacchino.

The final result is a dramatic story-telling series that presents an immediate prologue to each of the operations in Medal of Honor Airborne, and tells the story of these heroic Pathfinder paratroopers and the choices they must make when alone behind enemy lines.

The first episode of PATHFINDERS premiered on www.Machinima.com on August 22nd, and tells chronicles the recon mission in Adanti, just minutes before Operations Husky. New episodes will air every Wednesday through early September.

Machinima is the convergence of filmmaking, animation, and game development using a real-time, 3D virtual environment and/or video-game technologies. Machinima productions are typically produced using the tools and resources available in a videogame. This process is an example of emergent gameplay, a process of putting game tools to unexpected ends and of artistic computer game modification. The real-time nature of machinima means that established techniques from traditional filmmaking can be reapplied in a virtual environment.