Sunday sees the third annual
THE SEXIEST® adult machinima award ceremony. I am really looking
forward to it! The previous two years have been high-toned fun and enjoyable,
without doubt one of the highlights in my Second Life calendar.
Last year I presided as Chair
of Judges and therefore could not enter any of my own films
into the contest. This year I had intended to enter ‘The
Mainline’ but unfortunately it was not finished before the submission deadline.
I do however feel well represented because Tutsy’s ‘MetaSex’
has been nominated in three categories.
This year the film
categories have been rationalised down to eight and, in my opinion, this is a
very good improvement. With the possible exception of ‘Best Newcomer’, the new
arrangement allows us to concentrate on those aspects of adult machinima-making
which really are important rather than being distracted by appealing but
nonetheless peripheral considerations.
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| Bert Jedburgh’s ‘Bus Stop’ |
I think there is also a
valid argument for amalgamating the ‘Best Film’ and ‘Best Director’ categories
into a single ‘Best Adult Machinima’. Last year quite of number of the judges
sought advice of how to differentiate these two categories. Two judges in particular struggled
understanding the difference between the two categories. I guided as best I could but was
very mindful that – in the case of a Second Life machinima rather than a Real
Life film – the director not only “directs” but also decides the cast, decides
the storyline, films, edits, decides credit priorities and so on. It is
therefore a difficult division to make. One would naturally expect that the
same films/people which are nominated in the ‘Best Film’ category would also be
nominated in the ‘Best Director’ category. And, indeed, that is precisely what has happened
this year. For
the record, last year four of the five nominations per category appeared in
both categories; and the winner of ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Film’ were in fact
the same film.
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| Hard Rust’s ‘Seams and Dreams Burlesque’ |
Logically then it would make
sense to amalgamate these categories. However, *emotionally* it does not make
sense! By combining these categories I think we would risk reducing the amount
of fun, excitement and, yes, let us be honest here, ego-stroking that THE
SEXIEST® awards provide. And the loss of any of those important elements
would be a great shame in my opinion. ‘Best Actor’, ‘Best Actress’, ‘Best
Director’ and ‘Best Film’ have long been considered the traditional “Big Four”
in film award ceremonies. There is nothing wrong with THE SEXIEST® mirroring
this tradition.
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| Thorgal MCGillivary’s ‘So You Wanna Be a Pornstar?’ |
We do however need to be
mindful that, although not necessary a “false dichotomy” as such, the differentiating
line between of these two elements of making a single machinima is very thin
indeed.
As for those five individuals
nominated for ‘Best Film’ and ‘Best Director’ this year, three were also
nominated last year:
· - Bert Jedburgh’s ‘Bus Stop’ is an attractive and
atmospheric offering showcasing Bert’s distinctive trademark delicate camera
work and visual dexterity.
- Hard
Rust’s ‘Seams and Dreams Burlesque’
is a well-constructed 1920’s style burlesque romp with a great storyline which
successfully captures the feel, sexual tension, suppression and experimentation
of the era. Great musical accompaniment too!
- Thorgal
MCGillivary’s ‘So You Wanna Be a
Pornstar?’ is a gorgeously filmed tale of sexual ritual initiation, with
subtle camera movement and scene transitions. Beautiful actors and actresses.
The other two nominee’s are newcomers
to the THE SEXIEST® awards, although in the case of Tutsy Navarathna
at least, the word “newcomer” is probably somewhat misplaced! I don’t intend
discussing ‘MetaSex’
in this blog-post as my feelings are well-known enough to not need any further
amplification here!
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| Tutsy Navarathna' 'MetaSex' |
The final nominee is Nikki Arlington’s
‘Sketched – Episode 1’. This is a
superbly constructed “cartoon comic” style machinima which uses the same (or
similar) effects plug-in to that which made the outright winner of the 2012
Machinima Expo ‘The Chapelside Deception’ so
popular. However in my opinion, ‘Sketched’
is much more deftly and effectively handled.
There is not a single
nominee that would not deserve to walk away with the winner’s gong. The
standard is tremendously high.
Click
here for the full list of nominees in all eight categories.
The one name that is conspicuous by its absence is of course Serenity
Juneberry. Serenity, joint-winner with Arwen Juneberry of both last year’s ‘Best Film’ and ‘Best
Director’ awards has this year sacrificed her right to enter the contest
and instead chaired the panel of judges alongside Louise Silverweb. I know from
experience just how much of a time consuming exercise this role is!
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| Nikki Arlington’s ‘Sketched – Episode 1’ |
As I write this, the judge’s
names have just been posted on The
Pornstars blog. There are some familiar names to me, as well as some less familiar.
In all cases, they have devoted time and energy to this often thankless task.
It really is not easy.
Emmanuelle Jameson has again
taken responsibility for organising the build and decoration of the venue, as
well as all the other many sundry things she does! If the previous years’ are
anything to go by, it’ll be a great event.
I can’t wait and would thank
organisers and participants alike for this fun, uplifting event!
Good luck to all!
