Tag: Machinima

Second Life machinima wins Expo 6 Jury Grand Prize

Posted on by Inara Pey

machin-expoThe Machinima Expo 6 was held on November 17th. As reported in this blog, the Expo, which features machine of all genres drawn from a variety of platforms and software tools, showcasing them to a global audience.

This year again saw strong representation from Second Life, with entries from the likes of Steve G. Hudek, Hypatia Pickens, Draxtor Despres and Joe Zazulak.

In all eleven films were nominated for awards, to be voted on by a special jury from outside of the machinima community. Three went on to win Jury Prizes:  The Amazing, Fantastical, Electrical Adventures of young Tesla Episode #2, by Mark Pleasant (platform: iClone); Remember Me by Kate Lee & Sherwin Liu (iClone) and Civil Protection: The Tunnel by Ross Scott (Half-Life 2 / Source).

However, it was Tutsy NAvArAthnA’s Narcissus, the only nominated film to have been created in Second Life, which won the jury’s Grand Prize.

Narcissus, as the name suggests, is a retelling of the classic tale of Narcissus and Echo, from Ovid’s Metamorphoseon libri.  It’s a moving piece, beautifully composed and which stands as a magnificent example of machinima at its best, and well-deserving of the jury’s recognition.

For those wishing to see all four prize-winners, there are available on the Machinima Expo 6 blog (click on the images to view the films), and all the showreels and jury reels will remain available on the Expo’s uStream channel until November 24th.

Related Links

With thanks to Pixie Rain.

The Machinima Expo 6: showcasing machinima from around the world and from SL

Posted on by Inara Pey

machin-expo

Update November 19th: As per Pixie Rain’s comment, Tutsy NAvArAthnA’s Narcissus, the only Second Life entry to be make it to the Expo’s Jury-selected showreels, went on to win the Jury Grand Prize. Congratulations to Tutsy!

Linden Lab brings word of the 6th annual Machinima Expo which will be taking place on-line on November 17th, 2013.

Showcasing 38 films varying in length from just over a minute to over an hour in length from all over the world and filmed in various formats, the Expo is a showcase event for machinima makers of all genres.

Second Life features in a number of the Expo Screening Reels, with pieces such as Steve G. Hudek’s Simulacra, Hypatia Pickens’ Slow Light (see below), Episode 2 (Jo Yardley) of The Drax Files by Draxtor Despres, Joe Zazulak’s The Mirror Lies and Inevitablity of Fate by Iono Allen, to mention a few.

Second Life also made it into the Expo Jury Reels as well, with Tutsy NAvArAthnA’s Narcissus (see the English version below) in with a chance of winning a Jury Award, further demonstrating the recognition the platform has as a medium for machinima making.

All of the showreels can be seen at the Machinima Expo 6 uStream page, while further information on the event as a whole can be found on the Expo’s website. Events on November 17th commence at 10:00 SLT and run through until 17:00 SLT. They will  include presentations on various aspects of machinima making, the Jury award announcements and more. Everything can be seen on-line via the Expo’s uSteam feed (see the link above) or via the Expo’s Facebook page.

Following the on-line event, there will be a special Machinima Expo party in-world in Second Life, which will be starting at the unusual time of 17:20 SLT.

Related Links

MOM: August

Posted on by Inara Pey

The August Month of Machinima kicked-off on Wednesday 3rd August, but way too late for me to get to the LEA theatre – 7:00pm SLT, so here’s a belated look.

Eleven entries are on offer this month, with the theme being: “Design and Architecture”.

The entrants cover a broad range of topics within the over theme, encompassing an examination of an international project encompassing students in the USA and Egypt, The Kansas to Ciaro Project #2; through homages to some of SL’s most innovative, quirky and/or thought-provoking builders and artists, AM Radio, Alambra, Off the Wall, Two Ways of Looking at You, What isn’t Underneath, presented in various forms from musical tours, to history-within-a-tale to storytelling; through to questions on the nature of perception, The House that Self Built. Along the way we pass the more esoteric with Relevant Search and Democracia Virtual Ya, and encounter the story of a wandering robot, Copy Design.

After my slight disappointment last month, the August collection makes for interesting viewing, although I admit to being somewhat lost with Demoncracia is concerned; I’m probably a little too literal.

As per usual, the films are all available for viewing at the LEA Theatre (Surl), or can be seen on the Month of Machinima YouTube channel. I’m also including my personal favourites for the month below, each of which demonstrate, in different ways, the power of Second Life.

July MoM – whither the theme?

Posted on by Inara Pey

The theme for July’s Month of Machinima is “Games in SL”.

Or at least, that’s the theory; and tbh I’d been looking forward to seeing a set of films showcasing the magic of games and role play in Second Life, and perhaps even learning about elements of rp or other games in SL I’ve not previously encountered. As the very least, I was anticipating seeing glimpses of stories involving fantasy, science-fiction and the rest. Sadly, this was not to be.

Don’t get me wrong, the entries on show this month at the LEA Theatre are visually impressive, and demonstrate skill and artistry I probably couldn’t hope to master; it just that – well, almost none of the have anything to do with Games in SL.

In The Red Shoes we have a superb demonstration of Second Life as an outstanding medium for storytelling, as we do with Someone Called – but to my mind, storytelling isn’t really related to games in SL. Similarly, Travelling presents an excellent travelogue to Second Life – but travelling through SL, seeing the sights and the means of transport isn’t directly related to games in SL. I’m honestly not at all sure what to make of bRaiNwasHer, but it’s hard to frame it in the conext of games. The Wavey Sea is a great music video, but  – well, you can guess where I’m going.

Dedication gets somewhat nearer the mark, insamuch as it tells a story that might be said to be framed in a role-play environment, and again, it is a fabulous piece of work in itself, but I still cannot help but feel something is missing…

To me, games in SL offers up an opportunity to highlight the deep, immersive richness of game playing within SL: role-play, steampunk, combat – dare I say, even Gorean. There are many other forms of games in SL – Tiny Empires and the like – which could, with a little imagination, form the foundations for revealing and entertaining films. Arcade Boy and When Warriors Gather go some way towards this, but there still seems to be something missing.

Again, I’m not blaming the film-makers for this lack of game-related depth: as I’ve stated, every film in this month’s entrants is skillfully executed and worth watching. I’m also not necessarily pointing the finger at the LEA judges; MoM is an excellent idea and worth pursuing; and truth be told, it’s hard to guarantee that what will work theme-wise. Even so, it’s a little disappointing that more did not rise to the challenge and present films more directly related to this month’s theme – I’ve certainly seen a fair few films on subjects such as combat games and RP in SL elsewhere, so it’s not for lack of potential content.

In the meantime, here’s Dedication, by CadenceDVE, which I really like as a story and which comes close to the ideal of the theme in a visually impressive manner. You can see all the entries above on the MOM YouTube channel.

June MoM Review

Posted on by Inara Pey

Thanks to real life getting in the way, I didn’t make the June premiere of Month of Machinima, and have only just this weekend managed to sit down at the LEA with a small bunch of people and watch this month’s offerings on the theme of “Mixed Realities”.

Before getting to the films themselves, LL have added a further means to view movies; as well as the LEA theatre itself and the YouTube channel, you can now pick up an AviewTV pack scripted to play back the entries. For optimum viewing, however, I still recommend YouTube.

Now I have to say that “mixed realities” to me suggests films that combine mediums and ideas: machinima and real life; the “reality” and “fantasy” to create a visually compelling short film.  A pity then, that of the month’s entries, there are two that come across as promotional videos – one for the sim in which it was filmed, the other for an in-world group of musicians. While undoubtedly skilfully executed, they seemed to fall wide of the mark when it comes to the month’s theme; as do a couple of other music videos which also seemed to fall wide of the mark, theme-wise.

In fairness, I have no idea how much support the event is getting – it could be that there were insufficient entrants that met this month’s criteria and the judges fell back on entries from May; however, with due respect to all concerned, I sat down to watch this month’s selection with a high degree of anticipation and came away somewhat disappointed.

RockseaTV offers a short film that is a lot – to me – closer to the mark, presenting and avatar’s daydream of falling into the real world. BaySweetwatertakes things a step further in Domo Arigato, Roboto-san, where we see footage of the Fukushima disaster, where robots were used in the aftermath, together with footage of a robot scooting around in Second Life – a celebration of both the use of automated machinery in the role of life-saving and the potential for Second Life to act as an immersive training environment for such tools and equipment.

My personal favourite for the month, however, is Magical Glorious Morn – a tale of an old man living in the bayou, who just might be plagued by unseen – and malicious – laughter. Is someone playing a prank? Are there in fact leprechauns tormenting him? Or is he simply going mad in his isolation?

Above: Domo Arigato, Roboto-san; below: Magical Glorious Morn

Next month: Games!

June MoM premier and LEA bits

Posted on by Inara Pey

This week sees the premiere of the next set of entrants in the Month of Machinima event. June’s theme is “Mixed Reality”, and the films will be shown at the LEA theatre prior to being available on the MoM YouTube account.

Full details:

  • Premiere:  “Monday 1st June”, 10:00 PST (that’s from the official blog post, so look out for it on either Monday 30th MAY or WEDNESDAY June 1st!)
  • Theatre teleport points: LEA 1, LEA 2, LEA 3, and LEA 4.

LEA Avatar Games

Also kicking-off on Monday are the LEA-sponsored “Avatar Games” – aka running an art-related obstacle course – on the LEA 3 sim. These games will take place at the somewhat inhospitable for non-US users time of 16:00 PST (a time when most of Europe will be either in bed or heading that way, while Australia & the Far East will be heading for work).

For those wishing to enter the event, you’ll have to submit an entry form and hope you get picked – the event is limited to 10 competitors a week. It’s unclear as to whether those not selected one week will be carried forward to the next, but I’m going to presume so.

Spectators are welcome at the games, although no actual Surl for the event was included in the official announcement, but if you wish to watch, the link given above for the LEA-3 sim should get you to the right place. There is also a wiki page on the event.

LEA Sandbox

Opened rather quietly on May 20th, the LEA Sandbox has been created to give (quote) “Residents space to build and play and experiment with the tools of Second Life as a medium for artistic expression”. If you want to find out more on the Sandbox:

  • There is a wiki page on the subject you should read
  • The Sandbox itself is on LEA 5.