THE SEXIEST® - Nominee Release Schedule

In the last few days I have been contacted a number of times asking when the names nominees for THE SEXIEST^® adult machinima awards will be released.

Below is the schedule of dates when we will release the names of the five nominees for each category.

The nominees will be published by category daily on Emmanuelle Jameson’s blog .

A summary of all nominees for all categories will appear on Emmanulle’s blog and my own blog on 20^th January 2012.

THE SEXIEST^® Best Anal:                      Monday 9^th Jan

THE SEXIEST^® Best Editor:                    Tuesday 10^th Jan

THE SEXIEST^® Best Group Sex:           Wednesday 11^th Jan

THE SEXIEST^® Best Online Couple:     Thursday 12^th Jan

THE SEXIEST^® Best Oral:                       Friday 13^th Jan

THE SEXIEST^® Best Sex Scene:           Saturday 14^th Jan

THE SEXIEST^® Best Special Effects:    Sunday 15^th Jan

THE SEXIEST^® Best Story:                     Monday 16^th Jan

THE SEXIEST^® Best Actor:                     Tuesday 17^th Jan

THE SEXIEST^® Best Actress:                 Tuesday 17^th Jan

THE SEXIEST^® Best Director:                Wednesday 18^th Jan

THE SEXIEST^® Best Film:                       Thursday 19^th Jan

Pixie Rain xx

Ruminating on the PixelX Polls

ru·mi·nate/ˈro͞oməˌnāt/

to ruminate:
1. to chew the cud like a ruminant (example: sheep and goats)


to chew the cud:
1. to chat in an aimless way. Cud is the part-digested food that ruminant animals bring back into their mouths from their stomach to chew at leisure. The image is a slow and meaningless mastication.

Pixie Panda

On her notorious, controversial, sometimes cruel and frequently funny blog, Rayven Baily made some interesting remarks about a much publicised Second Life (SL) porn-industry poll.

Tulsi Clown

The poll in question is hosted at the PixelX magazine blog and is run, at least in part it seems, by the infamous Jumpman Lane.


The winners of each of the categories get awarded real life dollar prizes (rather than Linden Space Bux).


From a drop down list, you can select who you feel should win in a particular category and your vote is counted.


So far, so good.


Except that anyone can cast multiple votes in any category, separated by a 24hour interval. Moreover, voting is open for another six weeks!


A recipe for....well, not "disaster" exactly but certainly "inferior quality".


I remember reading a notecard about this competition and, on seeing how the winners would be judged, deciding to keep at arms length from it. In fairness, however, I am not one for entering contests and I wouldn't have given the matter very much thought before concluding "not for me, thank you".

Rayven goes on to describe some rather strange voting patterns which on the face of it sound absurd.


Now, before we go on, it should be said that Rayven has an agenda of her own here which will be readily obvious to her regular readers - and which Rayven herself makes no attempt to disguise or hide, bless her cotton socks!


I am not particularly interested in Rayven's not-so-hidden agenda to be honest, except perhaps in the morbid sense of rubbernecking a train wreck.

But I *am* interested in the how the chosen election process for this contest has the potential to lead to seemingly weird and outlandish results.


And the way Rayven described it, the results were so bizarre, so ridiculous, so....so unbelievable that Rayven just *had* to be exaggerating. Right?


Right?


I had go to look for myself.

This type of voting mechanism has prior form and is widely employed in such TV programmes as X Factor, Big Brother and many many others.


By allowing multiple voting, someone can feel they are really getting behind and supporting the performer they want to win. The production company get a small income from every vote. Its all good. Its all fun.


In these types of TV programmes, each broadcast episode could expect to generate tens or hundreds of thousands of votes. Some can generate millions.


The number of individual votes and voters involved is so vast that it would be near impossible to viably influence the result using various social networking or crowd sourcing techniques or indeed other forms of voting irregularities. It has been attempted, of course.


However, when such a voting regime is employed in that considerably smaller pool of resources that is Second Life, it becomes entirely possibly to influence the final result, given enough motivation.

When you look at the interim results that this contest has spewed out thus far, it is hard to escape the conclusion that some form of manipulation is occurring of the nature that Rayven describes. In fact, Rayven's reporting on the voting patterns appears to be disturbingly accurate.


This contest certainly has lost all credibility, imo, and I am glad I decided not to enter. It isn't something I think I would really want on my curriculum vitae!


Now, the fact is, this contest - or any other for that matter - has no obligation to be credible! It just isn't a requirement of competitions!


And if winning a contest that has no benefits in terms of personal credibility, respect or self-dignity is meaningful to you - then go for it, I say! Spam all your friends, drag out your alts and get the buggers to vote for you every 24 hours!


And if it isn't the "personal credibility, respect or self-dignity" that is motivating you but instead you are seeing dollar signs in front of your eyes - then, again, go for it! Spam and alt-vote to your heart's content!

While there I voted in each of the categories. I voted as I felt was right and true for me.


In some cases, that meant I didn't vote for someone on my friend's list. Sorry. But there is a simple matter of personal integrity at stake here.


I will not be returning to cast any further votes; I am done there. Nor will I be keeping abreast of developments


For anyone interested, here is who I voted for, and the reasons why.


Pornographer of the Year: Of the sixteen possible candidates, only two could I personally realistically consider -  Emanuelle Jameson or Serenity Juneberry.


Emanuelle's generous and enthusiastic coverage of other people's work on her extremely popular blog allows us to see work which would unlikely ever otherwise come our way. She doesn't have to do this but she does, in a most unselfish and encouraging way. Emanuelle is a great community leader.


Serenity has not only built up an enviable body of high quality work, she is also generous and unselfish as a person. As well as working on her own blogs (count 'um!) she is a regular contributor on Emanuelle's. You see her commenting on many films; she is widely liked and her opinions are highly respected.


It was a hard decision but, finally, I plumbed for Serenity because she has been the more active of the two in outputting new creations in the last year.

Porn Newcomer of the Year: I found this quite a lot easier than some of the other categories. I voted for Collen Criss


I am really enjoying the photography on Collen and Toran's blog. I like their style and the care they evidently put into their work.


Really good stuff.


Female Model of the Year: A tough category, especially as SL now provides so many attractive looking "off-the-shelf" and "generic" avatars.


What I personally find attractive and what I look for in the actors I cast in my films, is an individual "created" look. If I sense a "generic" or "off-the-shelf" look - even if it is attractive or beautiful as many of the "CherryGirl" and "Dr Life" avatars clearly are - I am less likely to be enthusiastic in offering a part.


Sexy and beautiful are "must haves" obviously, that's a given. But the avatar must also be capable of retaining that sexiness and beauty under different Windlight settings, different outfits and different hair etc. I am particularly interested in eyes, lips and facial shape.  I especially check that there is no shadowing around the nose and cheeks.


From a starting field of seventeen, under the above criteria, the numbers quickly get shaved to a more manageable amount.


I finally voted for Arwen Juneberry.

Male Model of the Year: Many of you know I hang out at Old Lars House. The thing is, you see, in my personal life I have a penchant for polite, mature gentleman.


The young stereotypical SL "male hunk" just don't do it for me. 


So, there was really only one choice....Philip Sidek. 


Photographer of the Year: The single hardest category imo. So many good photographers are in amongst the twenty-three candidates.


I eventually ruled it down to Jeanne Sahara, Jinx Jiersen, Philip Sidek and my eventual choice....Debra Stine.


Female Machinima Performer of the Year: I could happily cast my vote to Quinn Ying, Serenity, Arwen but after a lot of deliberation finally decided on Aurora Bentham.


The reason is because Aurora created the one adult machinima that I have watched over and over again this year - Disturbia. I loved that film but unfortunately it isn't on NaughtyMachima any more.

Male Machinima Performer of the Year: I haven't voted yet. I am waiting for Philip Sidek to be added to the list for this momentous performance.


Machinima Director of the Year: I voted for Vanhelsing Svoboda because,  with the possible exception of Quinn's, I like his films more than the others listed,  .


However, after some reflection I wish I had not cast a vote at all.


The list does not include Serenity Juneberry (or Rysan Fall for that matter) and is therefore inherently flawed and incomplete.

Pixie
xx


IMPORTANT EDIT:


Since publishing the above there have been two major developments significant enough to justify an edit:


1) The polls have been changed to only permit one vote per IP address. This is much more sensible under the circumstances but likely too late to repair the damage already inflicted on the contest's reputation.


2) Arwen and Serenity have withdrawn from the competition entirely. See their formal announcement here. At the moment of their announcement, Serenity was leading in two categories ('Female Model of the Year' and 'Female Machinima Performer of the Year'). My feeling is that if the organisers had not removed her name from the 'Machinima Director of the Year' category (whether deliberately or accidently is far from clear) then she would be heading that category too.


Arwen and Serenity really are a class act, both on and off the stage.


Their withdrawal from the contest effectively renders any result from this contest worthless.
   
Now I really want to leave this whole sordid matter behind and recommend we all do something more pleasant and light hearted - like dressing up in tiny avatars and re-enacting the electro-convulsive therapy scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest!


Bagsy I be Jack Nicholson! Serenity and Arwen can fight over who will be Nurse Ratched!


The pictures used on this blog-post were taken by Tutsy and I in our tiny avatars at Madcow Cosmos and Lorin Tone's fun and funny 'Through the Lens of Dreams' region.

Thoughts on MachinimUWA IV

"The Shopping Trolley" - Created by Bryn Oh

The closing date for UWA IV machinima entries is 10th November. The theme is "Create something that will take our breathe away". The judging panel comprises twenty experienced art and/or Second Life (SL) luminaries.


Although I can not be entirely sure I have seen each and every entry, I have seen many of them.


As usual, the standard needed to win an award will be high. And rightly so if the UWA machinima and art contests are to retain the respect and authority that it has gradually and deservedly built up over the last few years.


The UWA competitions attract the best-in-class but, significantly and probably contributing to its success, it also encourages newcomers, beginners and amateurs. Personally, I think it that this is a great thing.


As regular readers may recall, I accompanied Tutsy Navarathna as his guest to the UWA III award ceremony when his 'A Journey Into The Metaverse' won joint first prize.


'Journey' has recently been voted to be part of the exclusive jury-nominated Machinima Expo 2011 contest. The winner will be announced 19/20th November and we wish Tutsy lots of luck!


I have already blogged Tutsy's hotly-tipped UWA IV entry 'Welcome to The Other Side', which I was chuffed-to-bits to appear in. This machinima is also part of the Machinima Expo event as one of the fifty films deemed unique and interesting enough to be screened at the expo. However, it is not part of the prize contest as 'Journey' is. Another of the fifty films to be screened at the expo is Iono Allen's The Red Zone, which I have also previously blogged.


We'll return to discuss Iono's UWA IV entry later in this blog-post, but first, there a few other things I would like to address.


I have been asked a handful of times why I haven't yet entered any of the UWA competitions. My reply always is, "I am not ready yet. I am not good enough." This isn't a false modesty, I mean it.


Only after 'Rapture' did I start to think I now understood enough about the SL viewer, Windlight, frame rate expectations in SL, draw distances, the difference between client and server lag and other such Second Life related technical matters to feel reasonably confident of submitting a UWA-quality machinima.


Generally, contests and competitions don't turn me on very much and so I tend to avoid them. I did, however, have four films entered into THE SEXIEST 2010 adult machinima contest - but only because a sponsor paid the entrance fee!


I cannot deny feeling proud that all four films were nominated in their respective categories and I walked away with a 'gong' - Best Special Effects - for 'Sex With Strangers'.
























The actual award now hangs in pride of place over the fireplace at 'Old Lar's House'. Go see it for yourself! 


However, as I believe most independent and unbiased observers would agree, there is a world of difference in the quality of machinima being submitted to UWA contests and those submitted to the SL adult machinima contests.


And so, with that in my mind, I have not yet felt ready for UWA. However, a few nights ago, Iono *forced* me - yes, forced me - to agree to submit an entry for UWA V, next year.


So, this is my public declaration of that intent, as discussed with Iono and Tutsy, to make it harder for me to back out!


The weekend just gone also saw the first production kick-off meetings for my next SL machinima, jointly produced and directed with Lollie Razor of Eyo Bitch Productions. We are keeping our cards close to our boobs for the time being but I am excited about this film and have been planning it conceptually for the last four months. It is very experimental and it is an artistic risk. It could very well turn out to be a flop and a disaster.


How exciting is that!!


Its release will be my last "adult" machinima for a while, I think. Although there could very well still be sexual scenes in my films, I am becoming increasingly disinterested in SL "porn", mainly for aesthetic reasons.

The point is, after the release of this next film my attention will be fully directed on UWA V.


As Serenity has already posted on Emmanuelle's blog, Pel Beaton and Scooby Mode have submitted entries to UWA IV. I sincerely wish them luck. The gradient is steep. However, one of the great things about the UWA contests is that no one is excluded and that the organising committee - JayJay Zifanwe in particular - is very encouraging. The UWA committee like to recognise newcomers and specifically mention those they see as emerging talent, even if no prize is actually being awarded in that particular round.


Personally, I give respect to Pel and Scooby for entering. I'll be watching their progress with interest and cheering them on!


In Serenity's blog-post I just linked to, she makes an extremely pertinent point but then does not go on to explore the implications of that point. Frankly, I don't blame her. Not publicly anyway!


I am simply going to quote her here and not dig any deeper at this time. I might return to consider it in some future blog-post. I definitely feel that any person making SL "porn" films who wants to move out of the realm of what is essentially roleplay and into the more serious and creative realm of *film making* really should be thinking about Serenity's point and its wider implications:


Serenity said: "When you remove the sex from our movies you begin to see the challenge ahead for creating a winning project."

Let's return now to Iono's UWA IV entry - "Virtual Love".


This machinima is delicately and deftly executed. It is a delight to watch. One can imagine the amount of pre-production planning that went into it.


It is also very, very cool!


Imo, it is Iono's best production thus far. I wish it, and Iono himself, well in UWA IV.


One final thing to say before presenting Iono's machinima. I wanted to thank all the creators of 'The Path' for popping over to my humble blog here and/or for leaving messages in-world. I especially want to thank Bryn Oh for the gift of the  'Shopping Trolley' from her 'Anna's Many Murders' installation (see the first picture on this blog-post) for my SL home. It looks great next to the sack of dung and the latrine!


Okay, okay...enough talking!


Let's watch the film!

When Good Tits Go Bad

Angry Tits

The new avatar body physics layers, discussed here by Serenity, are a good improvement on the Emerald/Phoenix hack used in v1-based third party viewers.


At least now you yourself can can control how your avatar appears to others rather than them dictate how you appear. Also, the physics layers allow for much more accurate fine tuning.


However, the layers are not without significant problems of their own.


Firstly, they are mostly designed for v2 or v3 based viewers. Those still using v1 based viewers - and that is a lot of people - do not always render the physics movements correctly. I am told it can look really quite freakish.


Secondly, the physics layers can look terrible in heavily populated or laggy areas regardless of what viewer version is being used. I always have to remove mine when there are more than a handful people around, which kinda defeats the purpose!


But, when they are working they do look good!


I cannot find the link at the moment, but Serenity or Emmanuelle (or both!) posted about a free pack of 24 body physics layers being given away by Jeanette Doobie


I have been using one of the twenty-four layers for a few months now, only removing in laggy or heavily populated areas. I am very very happy with the look.


However, because of environmental circumstances...and this  is absolutely not a reflection on Jeanette's kind and generous efforts..., the look isn't always quite what one would have hoped.


While preparing my blog-post for 'The Path', I saw this and just had to film it!


Hope it makes you smile....

Rapture - Who Is Watching The Voyeurs?

At long last, we proudly present our latest film production, 'Rapture'.



Special thanks to:

Aleister Priestman
SuicideGirl Evermore
Kitty Sinn
Ehlene Genesis
Jayda Bouevier
Zettho Razor
Aiden Lexenstar

for their time and for their patience with me, and to

Tutsy Navarathna
Serenity Juneberry
Jinx Jiersen

for their indispensible and much appreciated love, support and encouragement.

Click here to read the 'Rapture' feature on Emmanelle Jameson's blog.