With the May entrants for the Month of Machinima now available, it’s time to look ahead to upcoming months.
May was pretty much free format in terms of theme, the major criteria (other than the obvious copyright and inevitable content rating considerations) being that not single entry should be longer than 3 minutes. For June – and probably beyond – this has been extended to 6 minutes, although longer film lengths can be submitted by prior arrangement.
The themes for the rest of the year have been announced, and film-makers are doubtless already looking at June and beyond:
June: Mixed Reality (SL machinima has to be part of the mix)
July: Games in SL
August: Design and Architecture
September: Seasons (the four seasons, season of your life, etc.)
October: Elements
November: SL Events
December: Endings, conclusions.
Full details on Month of Machinima can be found on the SL Wiki.
The inaugural Linden Endowment of the Arts (LEA) Month of Machinima (MoM) kicked-off today at the LEA theatre. On show were the entrants for the May competition, a bewildering array of films covering a wide range of subjects, some dark, some humorous, some musically inclined – all of them outstandingly brilliant. While it is somewhat unfair to single any single film on offer out, I have to admit there were two that I really did like rather a lot… of which I’ll return to in a minute.
Courtney Linden at the inaugural MoM
The event was well-attended, despite the loss of one of the sims serving the theatre as a landing point (LEA 3 was offline), over 50 people were in attendance, with Linden Lab represented by, among others, Courtney and Blondin Linden.
The finalists were all largely present at the event, and it was good to see Toxic, Draxtor and Crap there – and to get a few words in with Crap, who produces some of the most irreverent and funny machinima in SL – as anyone who has seen “Vinnie Linden” will attest.
A section of the audience
Machinima is a powerful demonstration of what can be achieved creativity in Second Life – and in a form that can be carried outside of the virtual boundaries enforced by SL and other similar grids. The talent on display during the opening demonstrated this in full force – even if some of the resultant films were a little bewildering in terms of message and content.
Such is the power of Machinima and the depth of talent available in SL, I’m now more than ever convinced that Linden Lab needs to properly harness the available talent to help them fully and properly promote SL to audiences outside of the grid – something I’ve touched upon previously, and passed mention of while chatting with Courtney Linden, albeit briefly, yesterday.
Inside the LEA theatre
As it stands, the MoM has had a great start; and I hope LL will continue to push it throughout the month, not just via the official YouTube account and upcoming playlist, but through further showings at the LEA Theatre. I certainly hope that future MoM events will be given equal (or even greater) exposure by LL.
For those that missed the event, be sure to check-out the official MoM YouTube account – the playlist will be up shortly (if it is not by the time you read this).
So, which movies did I particularly like? Well – first there was Bakerman’s Trip:
Then there was Crap Mariner’s brilliant Oscar Goldberg Speaks Out:
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 