MachinimUWA V Results

The votes have been counted and the results are in....

For the third time in a row, Tutsy Navarathna wins the prestigious MachinimUWA contest - this time for his beautifully moving 'The Last Syllable of Record Time'.

'The Last Syllable' is arguably Tutsy's finest machinima to date - it is a brilliant synthesis of sound and vision; the colour palette of a true artist.

Congratulations on this marvellous achievement!

Additionally, Tutsy was also awarded the 'CinemaPop Award of Excellence in Film Direction' and Violette Naidoo's poster for 'The Last Syllable' (pictured above) took 1st place in the UWA Machinima Poster Contest.

2nd Place was taken by a machinima I have been raving about since first seeing it - Natascha Randt and Karima Hoisan's 'Seek Wisdom'. A stunning work. Congrats to both.

3rd Place was jointly awarded to Tikaf Viper for 'run RAM' and a number of others.

I am pleased to say that these three films are those I highlighted only yesterday as standing out for me and which I felt would win an award. Now, why oh why didn't I enter the Audience Participation again this year!

For myself, I was pleased to have been awarded a 'CinemaPop Award of Excellence in Film Narrative 2012'.

For a complete list of the MachinimUWA winners, visit the UWA site (link not available at time of this writing).

Congrats to all winners and thanks to UWA for staging the contest.

Here are a collection of pics I took at the Award Ceremony...

(click to enlarge)

UWA 3D & UWA V Grand Finale: $L1.3 Million Prize Pool

Tomorrow is the Grand Finale of this year's UWA 3D Art and Machinima competitions.

There have been ninety 3D Art entries (click here for details) and fifty-one machinima entries (click here for details). The standard is high in both categories.

The total prize pool is L$1,300,000 of which L$785,000 (approx. $3,400 USD) is for the machinima contest, split as follows:

·        1st Prize - L$140,000

·        2nd Prize - L$120,000

·        3rd Prize - L$100,000

·        4th Prize - L$70,000

·        5th Prize - L$55,000

·        6th to 10th Special Awards @ L$30,000 each

·        UWA Special Prize - L$100,000

·       Audience Participation Prize: Three prizes totalling L$20,000

·        Machinima Poster Prize: Three prizes totalling L$20,000

Very healthy!

Last year I came 2nd in the Audience Participation contest - a competition to predict the Top 10 machinima as would finally be decided by the judges. I didn't enter this contest this year for a number of reasons - but mainly time related.

My personal tips for a prize this year would be:

·        Tutsy Navarathna's 'The Syllable of Recorded Time'

·        Natascha Randt and Karima Hoisan's 'Seek Wisdom'

·        Tikaf Viper's 'run RAM' (embedded below)

Now, it has to be said - I have not watched all the entries! But of those I have watched, these three stood out for me.

One thing that did occur to me while watching some of the entries was that, even more than last year, there were quite a number of films that *conceptually* were really very interesting. However, in my opinion the filmmaking/camera/editing was not able to do justice to the original concept. This is simply a matter of "technique and practice" and so I assume we'll see more rounded and polished machinima from these entrants in future years.

Having written the above, it would now be cowardice to avoid saying where I believe my own entry - 'Fwd: Evolution' - falls. Despite many encouraging and enthusiastic comments about this movie - including a dedicated thread on SLUniverse, no less -  having seen some of the other entries, I am unable to rank it in the Top 5. However, of those I have watched, I was in fact able to rank it in the Top 10. We'll see tomorrow!

The Grande Finale ceremony starts at 6am SLT, Sunday. But arrive in plenty of time to secure a place - it is strictly a 'first come, first served' affair!

There are three entrances:

UWA Amphitheatre Left

UWA Amphitheatre Center

UWA Amphitheatre Right

Good luck to all, and give me a call if you see me!

Pixie xx

Tikaf Viper's 'run RAM'...

MachinimUWA V: 'Seek Wisdom'

"A new Art,

A new Social Vision,

A new relationship with Nature, to Feminism, to Ego.

All of these things are taking hold...

And not a moment too soon."

- "Fwd: Evolution", released 1st July 2012

I had intended watching all of the UWA5 entries and posting on this blog those which especially caught my attention.

 You may have noticed that, apart from Tutsy Navarathna's 'The Last Syllable of Recorded Time' which I wrote about in April, I haven't blogged any others.

The reason is simple. Once I decided to enter the competition myself, I just didn't have enough time to watch, review and blog others' films. There was also a fear of introducing an element of bias into my evaluations, as I would unlikely to be as detached as last year when I won 2nd place in the Audience Participation Top 10 contest by correctly forecasting eight of the top ten winning films from a pool of over 80 entries.

I will watch all of the films, but only once my own UWA 5 entry is released on 1st July 2012.

However, a UWA 5 entry has just been released that is so good that I was forced to break off finalising my own film, watch it a number of times and write-up this blog-post.

The machinima in question, "Seek Wisdom" by Natascha Randt and Karima Hoisan is stunning.

Sometimes I can read a passage in a book or a quote, or see a photo, drawing or oil, and think "Geez, I wish I had created that!" However, I can count on one hand the number of times that I have had a similar thought about a machinima.

Natascha and Karima's "Seek Wisdom" is one such time....

I have to close off quickly now and get back to work on my own film, but not before watching this wonderful machinima one more time.

It really has to be a serious contender this year....Enjoy!