Crazy Horses!

JayJay Zifanwe – a guy whose name is re-occurring on this blog more times than can possibly be healthy for a happily married man – circulated a notecard stating that the UWA Grand Finale Artworks for 2009/10 and 2010/11 would be on display at the UWA Winthrop region until end of January 2012.

Naughty Nataly & I went along for a look-see.

Now, whereas I can be pretty opinionated about what I like and don’t like, Naughty Nataly can be downright caustic.

I have seen grown artists brought to tears as she pummels them with her rapier-like bluntness!

I like my virtual 3D installation-art to be immersive and engaging. I do not want to stand and simply “look” at a piece of work.

I want to sit on it and walk on it.

I want the hear it.

I want to collide with it, I want to touch it.

I want to be sensed and detected.

I want to engage with it. And be engaged by it.

I want to immerse.

There is much work in SL which accomplishes this. Equally, there is much that does not.

A certain amount of virtual 3D art consists of rotating prims containing a texture animation script. The complexity of the prims might differ from installation to installation, as might the size. The intricacy of movement will likely vary too. Similarly, the texture and its accompanying animation script will differ.

But, unfortunately, when I see such work, not only do I fail to be excited or motivated but I often think “we’ve seen this all before.”

SaveMe Oh – l’enfant terrible of the SL art world – has aptly, and really rather astutely in my opinion, labelled such work “screensaver art”.

Now, that’s not to say that SaveMe and I will necessarily always like the same art. Not at all. Further, I strongly suspect she would not like my own work at all, if only because of the use of After Effects, but on the question of "screensaver art" – and a number of other issues – we are certainly in agreement.

With all this in mind, Nataly & I fly around the UWA Winthrop region quickly discounting various installations and investigating others.

And then we came across ‘The Wild Wild World of Illusion’ by RazorZ – and stop dead in our tracks.

This is a fabulous installation.

It ticks off all the boxes on my personal checklist of what an ideal virtual 3D installation should be, and - importantly - should *do*.

It is also great fun with a gentle but skilful “Keystone Kop” type sense of humour.

RazorZ uses the installation to compare Second Life with the Wild West of the old USA and more recently ‘spaghetti western’ films. I totally get that and toyed with similar concepts and sentiments in my machinima ‘Showdown’.

In ‘Showdown’ I used clips from Michael Crichton’s ‘Westworld’, Lawrence Kasdan’s ‘Wyatt Earp’ and Sergio Leone’s ever-classic ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ to reinforce the spaghetti-western-type “showdown” that was about to occur in Second Life. RazorZ himself cites ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ as an influence in his installation.

I made a short film of ‘The Wild Wild World of Illusion’ (embedded below) but would like to say that to really *experience* the dynamic energy of this installation, to be properly deceived by the skill of its illusion, to see how detailed and fun it truly is – well, y’all just have to go teleport over and see it for yourself. But hurry, it will be gone at the end of January!

Nataly enjoyed this installation *so much* and had *so much* fun that she almost stopped being naughty for a few minutes!

Almost.

“Pixie-Squeak,” she said, “I want to rugby-tackle those horses to the ground and take them home and have their babies.”

“Nataly!” I said for probably the twentieth time that day, “That is *so* naughty!”

Pixie xx

Being Bobo Puddlegum

"The reason I will not exhibit this picture is

that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul."

Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)

(click to enlarge images)

For at least a year Bobo Puddlegum and I have been kicking around ideas for a machinima loosely based on the 1999 black comedy-fantasy ‘Being John Malkovich’ – a film which, seriously, if you haven’t already seen you really should make the effort to track down and watch.

It is brilliantly original, funny and, in parts, really quite bizarre.

Just like Bobo himself in fact!

However due to schedule conflicts, other project commitments and RL generally, none of these ideas have managed to come to fruition.

Three nights ago though, I had a dream!

Usually my dreams involve giving finite but infinitely-expanding blowjobs to respected UK physicist Brian Cox – a name which has more Freudian connotations and psychoanalytic comedy-value than anyone truly deserves, no matter how bad their karma. Whenever I dream of Cox, I always wake suddenly when, just as I approach the event horizon, Brian prematurely ejaculates down my throat at the speed of light.

I dream some weird shit sometimes.

But this particular dream, which dear reader I assure you I have no intention of boring you with, managed to combine elements from Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’* with ‘Being John Malkovich’, Bobo Puddlegum and, significantly, the forthcoming 2012 MachinimaUWA V machinima contest.

Like I said, I dream weird shit sometimes.

Because of encouragement from Iono Allen, Glasz Decuir and Tutsy Navarathna, last month I finally committed to entering a machinima into the UWA 5 contest.

The dream of three nights ago provided the broad conceptual subject matter for my MachinimaUWA V entry. No! It doesn’t star Brian Cox (although I am sure I could find an opening or two for him!) but rather a film which is to be entitled “Being Bobo Puddlegum”.

Bobo & I will need to work out the details and finalise a script. We’ll also need to know what the MachinimaUWA V theme will be. However, there are some things which are already clear:

1)    It will not be disrespectful to other peoples’ art work. Although, most likely it *will* be irreverent this will be done in a respectful and humorous way.

One day I intend writing about the work of SaveMe Oh who frequently walks the precarious tightrope between irreverence and disrespect. The debate rages which side of this equation she most often falls!

2)    It will not be a porn movie. I cannot rule out nakedness – Bobo’s natural state – but it most certainly will not be pornographic and very unlikely to have any sex scenes.

I understand and accept the fact that this almost certainly means that this particular film will be of no interest in certain circles. This is fine.

3)    It will essentially be a comedy. We hope. Or light-hearted, at least.

With all that settled, Bobo & I thought it only right to give Jayjay Zifanwe fair notice to organise a Plague Doctor,  because that pandemic pestilence that is the Puddlegum’s are about to befall the previous piety and purity that is MachinimaUWA.

Sorry.

Bobo & Pixie Puddlegum xx

* 'The Importance of Being Earnest' is subtitled 'A Trivial Comedy for Serious People'

The 'Being Bobo Puddlegum' poster created by Bobo Puddlegum.

All other images by Pixie Puddlegum.

The 'Plague Doctor' performed by Tutsy Navarathna at Innsmouth region

MachinimUWA IV - Award Ceremony

Sunday 6am SLT is the MachinimaUWA IV Grand Finale Awards Ceremony.

It is a RSVP event and I will be attending as Tutsy Navarathna’s guest.

Tutsy’s “A Journey into the Metaverse” was joint-winner of MachinimaUWA III before then going on the take second place at MachinExpo 2011.

As Chair of the Judging Panel for THE SEXIEST^® adult machinima contest, I must be demonstratively impartial and unbiased in that particular competition. This is obvious, stands to reason and is only right and proper.

However, as an audience member for MachinimaUWA, I can be as biased, prejudiced, unfair, partisan and opinionated as I blooming well want!

So, even though the competition for IV is very very tough this round, I’ll be getting right behind Tutsy’s entry - “Welcome to the Other Side” -  which I am delighted to have appeared in.

Come Sunday night, I will be dressed in my favourite Cheerleader outfit, waving my pom-poms in JayJay’s face and charging the audience to:

“Give me a ‘T’! Give me a ‘U’! Give me a ‘T’….” ad nauseum.

Well, perhaps not.

But I am gonna have a great time, regardless of who wins!

I am really, really looking forward to it and will embed the winner here after Sunday's ceremony!

In the picture above, the comic-book speech bubbles are gifts from BobE Schism. They were props from his extremely popular and fabulous first-ever machinima - “Hanging Out To Dry”.

Hanging Out is not in MachinimaUWA but, I love it so much, I just wanted an excuse to embed it!

UWA IV: $L20,000 Audience Participation Event

Tutsy Navarathna Joint-Winner UWA III - Photo by PJ Trenton

MachinimUWA IV has attracted over 80 entries. Pretty impressive!

A $L20,000 prize pool has been allocated to the three audience members who most closely decide the order of the top ten finalists as decided by the judging panel.

Simply email your top ten to jayjayaustralia@hotmail.com or drop a notecard on Jayjay Zifanwe in-world.

Here is my personal Top 10 (listed alphabetically by film name)  Two of the entries have already been posted on this blog:

1. Tutsy Navarathna's Welcome to the Other Side (which I am proud to appear in!) 

2. Iono Allen's Virtual Love.

I believe each one of the machinima listed below have something valuable to offer - for learning from and for improving our own work.


All are definitely worth watching, if only because they are good films!

What order I finally rank the ten will forever remain a secret between JayJay & I!


Before I get to my list, I especially wanted to draw your attention to the entry from Nina Camplin (Fuschia Nightfire in Second Life). It is both unique and stunning.


Nina is a mural artist from the UK. Her UWA IV entry had her deconstruct "the art of the artists" and reconstruct them into RL paintings. She filmed the painting process as it progressed and used the footage to create this truly amazing machinima.


If you decide to watch only one of the eighty entries, then this is the one I would recommend. The soundtrack, incidentally, features  the singing voice of CoMa whom we blogged in June 2011.

My Top Ten (Alphabetical by Film Name)

• A Placid Ocean of Uncertain Liberties - Cecil Hirvi
• Art of the Artists - Nina Camplin
• Artwashers - Friday Siamendes
• Dual - Veruca Vandyke
• Futurism Vs Art of the Future - Spiral Silverstar
• Qubit: Cognitive Distortion - SpyVsSpy Aeon
• Sad Robot - Urban Steampunk
• Virtual Love - Iono Allen
• Welcome to the Other Side - Tutsy Navarathna
• Yeah - Hypatia Pickens

Good luck to all contestants!

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!