Independent film producers Wingmen Productions have just produced a virtual movie entitled Faith, Hope and Charity – a machinima film that tells the story of those who defended Malta during World War II.

The film production took two years to complete and the storyline is set in motion with the events as they unrolled after Italy declared war on Britain on 11 June 1940 and the Italians began a prolonged campaign of aerial bombardments over Malta.

Although the film tells a story that is inspired by real people and events, it is not a documentary, as certain facts were changed for dramatic purposes. It makes use of sketches by James Dietz, an award-winning military and aviation artist.

Faith, Hope and Charity may be downloaded at http://www.wingmenproductions.com/content/movie.html and it is also available on DVD.

It highlights the early phase of the conflict as it follows the lives of three RAF pilots: George Burges, John Waters and Timber Woods.

The pilots flew Gloster Sea Gladiator biplanes in the heroic defence of the island against more modern Italian fighters and bombers. In all, about six Gladiators were involved in the fighting – some were cannibalised for parts – but only three could ever be scrambled for a single sortie. The legend that arose from that conflict immortalised three of the Gladiators, nicknamed Faith, Hope and Charity.

The machinima technique used in the

production of the film uses real-time three-dimensional rendering engines that are

nowadays used in high-profile computer games.

This allowed the producers to record animation live and speed up the process. It is saved as a digital video file and a number of aspects like camera angles and additional effects could be tweaked in post-production.