The Mainline

Our latest adult machinima, ‘The Mainline’, released today:

The Mainline - Coming Soon!

I have recently been intensively working on my next adult movie, ‘The Mainline’. It has just entered the final stages of editing and colour correction and I’d hope to release it in two weeks, give or take.

Tonight I worked on creating this movie poster using screen shots from the film while listening to Laz Doghouse performing live in SL.

Watch this space for ‘The Mainline’!

Pixie xx

Lazarus Doghouse - Discovery Tour

Lazarus Doghouse visited my studio for this ‘unplugged’ recording of him performing one of my favourite songs by him.

I’ll have a lot more to say about this film in a future post dealing with post-production and colour correction but in the meantime, please enjoy ‘Lazarus Doghouse – Discovery’ in 720HD:

Machinima Expo: 'Unfinished Paintings'

Klute tries every porta-loo at Burn2 2012

I now have the details for Miron Lockett’s marvellous iClone created ‘Unfinished Paintings’ and, as promised, have embedded it below.

This machinima won the 4^th Jury Prize at last weekend’s Machinima Expo and, additionally, was awarded the much valued ‘Audience Choice’ award.

I love it. Klute, I have a feeling that you will too!

The Machinima Expo was a great, well-organised event which took a lot of work by lots of people. Discoveries like this machinima, made outside of SL, open my eyes to various new possibilities. This may well be the single most important contribution that the Expo contributes to the new genre of machinima.

Machinima Expo: A Good Day at the Races!

Tutsy, Pixie & Nitro backstage at Machinima Expo Award Ceremony

This year’s Machinima Expo has just concluded – it was a good day at the races!

Of the six major awards, Tutsy’s films were awarded three.

The final results are:

The “Open This End” Award for outstanding film making was awarded equally to three films:

          - The Chapelside Deception by IceAxe (UK, Moviestorm)

- Wulf and Eadwacer by Hypatia Pickens (US, Second Life)

- The Last Syllable of Recorded Time by Tutsy Navarathna (France/India, Second Life)

The 1^st and 2^nd Jury Prizes were awarded to:

          - MetaSex by Tutsy Navarathna

          - The Last Syllable of Recorded Time by Tutsy Navarathna

The 3^rd Jury Prize was awarded to:

-      Wulf and Eadwacer by Hypatia Pickens

The 4^th Jury Prize was awarded to:

          - Unfinished Paintings by Miron Lockett (US, iClone)

The Grand Prize Winning Film was awarded to:

          - The Chapelside Deception by IceAxe (UK, Moviestorm)

If you get the chance, I’d especially recommend watching Miron Locket’s ‘Unfinished Paintings’. This is a great, fun high-tone production made in iClone by a clearly extremely talented guy, musically and visually. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to locate the film on the net to embed here, but when I do I will.

Hypatia Pickens’ ‘Wulf and Eadwacer’ is based on an Old English poem and has a great rhythm and beat. Definitely worth watching.

‘The Chapelside Deception’ by IceAxe is a more conventional narrative film consisting of “a beginning, middle and end”. Created using MovieStorm, it tells the story of corruption in a soccer team during the 1970s.

As part of the Expo, Tutsy was asked to produce a video interview based on questions supplied by Ricky Grove. I provided the translation from French to English.

For the first time, we can now release that interview publically.

Enjoy it best in 720 or 1080HD!

'Fwd:Evolution' - Machinima of the Month

I have just been informed that the Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) have selected my ‘Fwd: Evolution’ as Second Life’s ‘Machinima of the Month’ for November 2012!

I am really chuffed and can think of no better excuse for embedding it again here!

(‘Change Quality’ to 720 HD)

'MetaSex' Nominated for MachinmaExpo 2012!

‘MetaSex’ and ‘The Last Syllable of Recorded Time’ by Tutsy Navarathna have both been selected as MachinimaExpo 2012 Jury Nominated films! They will go into competition against eight other films, with the results announced in mid-November.

As mentioned before, what is interesting and significant about the MachinimaExpo Jury Nominated competition is that film entries can come *from* any digital platform, not just Second Life. This year sees five entries from SL, three created using Moviestorm and two using iClone.

Here is the list of nominees and links to the films (where I have been able to find them).

- The Chapelside Deception by IceAxe (UK, Moviestorm)

- The Great Bug War by Damien Valentine (UK/US, Moviestorm)

- The Last Syllable of Recorded Time by Tutsy Navarathna (France/India, Second Life)

- Wulf and Eadwacer by Hypatia Pickens (US, Second Life)

- The Urban Explorer’s Guide to Losing Yourself by theBiz (US, iClone)

- Parlant sans Languettes by Joe Zazulak (US, Second Life)

- MetaSex by Tutsy Navarathna (France/India, Second Life)

- The Four Gods of Folly by Hypatia Pickens (US, Second Life)

- Libre Arbitre by Olivier Romme (France, Moviestorm)

- Unfinished Paintings by Miron Lockett (US, iClone)

Over the next week I’ll get around to watching all ten films and, although I wish each entrant the very best, it is admittedly somewhat difficult for me to be anything but biased.

And on that confessional note, let us yet again take the time to immerse ourselves in the glorious light that is ‘MetaSex’ :

Machinima Expo 2012: Official Trailer

November sees the opening of this year’s MachinimaExpo. What is particularly significant about the MachinimaExpo is that film entries come from many different games and MMOGs, not just Second Life.

Of the hundreds of entries, a 5-person jury panel selects just ten to go forward into competition against each other. The names of the ten selected machinima will be released later this week.

Last year I attended the Expo and blogged the experience here. It was a really very enjoyable evening. As I said at the time, the real eye-opener was realising just how much great machinima is being created outside of SL. The ten nominated films last year included, for example, entries created in Grand Theft Auto and Pro Evolution Soccer. The eventual winner, Phil Browne’s adaptation of the HP Lovecraft's classic ‘The Haunter of the Dark’ was created using iClone.

It would, of course, be remiss of me not to drop in here that Tutsy’s ‘A Journey Into the Metaverse’ was awarded second place.

If last year is anything to go by, the ten nominated films will be of exceptional quality. Personally I would have been proud to have created any one of the ten! We’ll know the ten soon, and I can’t wait to watch them…

In the meantime, here is the official trailer for this year’s MachinimaExpo:

The Official 2012 Machinima Expo Trailer from Ricky Grove on Vimeo.

Burn2 2012: No Bystanders!

“There are no bystanders!”

                                                  - Burning Man and Burn2

Saturday 20^th October sees the opening of this year’s Burn2 festival in Second Life. Burn2 is the virtual world equivalent of the RL Burning Man festival held in the Nevada desert and where Philip Linden received inspiration to create Second Life itself.

Burn2 is a week long celebration of community, art and fire culminating in the burning of ‘The Man’ and ‘The Temple’ on 27 and 28 October, respectively. The theme this year is ‘Fertility’.

Late Thursday night (GMT) a number of other bloggers and I were given the opportunity to have an advanced look around before today’s official opening. Now, it has to be said that the hour we were given was not nearly enough to take in the hundreds of different builds on the six regions devoted to the festival. But it is enough to get the taste and feel of this year’s playa and take a few snaps.

As is my way, I wandered around aimlessly and studiously ignored the site map we were supplied with. I had a vague notion that I wanted to visit ‘The Man’ and ‘The Temple’ and look out for a WOW-factor build. The pictures on this blog-post come from Thursday’s exploring.

I‘ll be returning often during the week to drink-in the 40-odd live performers, 50-odd DJ’s and especially visiting the art installations of this year’s five invited artists: Silene Christen, Pallina60 Loon, Nexuno Thespian, Ub Yif and Fuchsia Nightfire.

Last year I had the pleasure of observing Debbie Trilling and Aleeta Zelin over a number of weeks as they built, scripted and tested their ‘Man’ installation for 2011. I was asked to take the official photographs for promotional purposes. The final 15 min performance was one of the most dramatic and exciting scripted installations I have ever seen in SL (watch the video below; ‘Change Quality’ to HD for best results).

This year ‘The Man’ is closely modeled on the RL equivalent at Burning Man. It is a collaborative build which included input from the RL Man team. The inner structure – called ‘the pistil’ – is constructed from mesh and therefore requires a mesh-compatible viewer to see it.

I am very much looking forward to this year’s Man burn on the 27 Oct, one of the highlights of the festival.

(click pics to see full size)

The Man 2012

‘The Temple’ is the spiritual center of the playa – the heart and the soul of the festival. In contradistinction to ‘The Man’ installation, no attempt has been made to replicate the RL equivalent – it is a unique Second Life installation especially created for Burn2. Another of the Burn2 highlights is the burning of ‘The Temple’ which takes place on 28 Oct.

The Temple 2012

The individual installation which grabbed my attention during Thursday’s tour was created by Ultraviolet Alter. This has a real “wow-factor” and although I have embedded a few pics of it here, it really is worth seeking out to see for yourself.

Created by Ultraviolet

As I wandered around the playa it soon became apparent that not all of the builds have a “wow-factor”. Indeed, some are very simple, some are utilitarian, others’ are psychedelic and/or rather garish. There were even a number which I couldn't make head nor tail of.

But that is hardly the point. The point is that hundreds of SL residents have joined together to create a six-region community festival, despite recent adversities that threatened to end it entirely. Anyone who wished to had the opportunity to get themselves a parcel and simply build and create.

One of foremost joys of Burn2 for me is seeing people simply participate in whatever way they wish to participate. Burn2 is a healthy antidote to the “I Just Stand Here” crowd who infest many of Second Life’s otherwise enjoyable venues.

And that is why one of the key slogans of Burning Man and Burn2 is:

“There are no bystanders!”

Pixie xx

'The Monster Mash': A Halloween Special

Only a few short few weeks ago while discussing the historical, philosophical and spiritual significance of Halloween I asked Tutsy, “Have you ever heard the song, ‘Monster Mash’?”

“Nein, ma chérie une gousse de vanille mûre” he replied, reverting to his native Language of Love, “Tell me more...”

“Oh, you simply must!” I squeal as I paste him the link to the 1960's hit by Bobby ‘Boris’ and the CryptKickers.

Tutsy watches the video while I feed the Indian Internet mice small pieces of Wensleydale and cranberry cheese.

“Mein gott!” he exclaims at the end, “A Masterpiece!  I will make a movie of this for Halloween!”

“YES!”

“Merci, ma muse prune fraises dodues. I will start immediately!”

He teleports off, spending the next week exploring for locations, filming and editing…

And here it is...Please be upstanding for Tutsy Navarathna’s latest machinima, ‘The Monster Mash’ (best in HD quality, click ‘Change Quality’ button):

‘Monster Mash’ was filmed on a number of SL ‘Halloween’ regions but two in particular – ‘Enchantment Island’ owned by BambiTwice Nitely and ‘The HAUNTED MANSION at Nevermore Estate’ owned by Tosha Bergan and Brendan Macarthur deserve special mention for providing us with such fun, laughter and great photographic and filming opportunities.

I would heartily recommend both as part of your Second Life Halloween celebrations.

Pixie xx

Susa Bubble: The Rise of 'Falling'

Congratulations to Iono Allen whose machinima ‘Falling’ (embedded below) has been chosen for screening at this year’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal.

This is a significant achievement by any standard. Over 160,000 people attend this prestigious festival each year and it is also one of the qualifying festivals for the Academy Award for Short Films.

‘Falling’ depicts a chapter in the life of Susa Bubble, the central sadly beautiful character in many of Rose Borchoski’s Second Life installations. We have blogged Rose’s work before of course; once almost exactly a year ago as part of the ‘The Path’ and again more recently with her ‘The Inevitability of Fate’ installation.

‘Falling’ records how Susa is now broken in so many ways that her personality has spilt into 33 different complexes. Susa no longer knows who she really is and consequently is falling…

When Iono originally released this machinima in March 2012, I commented on the YT page “beautiful and moving”. It remains so for me today.

Congrats and good luck to Iono, Rose and of course Susa!

The Rejects of Gor

“In denying our nature we betray no one but ourselves.”

-         John Norman, ‘The Explorers of Gor’

It is always a crime when someone is judged simply by the colour of their skin or the clothes they choose to wear. It is a crime also to differentiate on the grounds of age, physical looks or disabilities.

But we all know this happens, often. Sometimes the discrimination is subtle, quiet and underhand. Other times, like the subject to today’s blog post, the discrimination is blatant and obvious!

Consider what occurred when three innocent and friendly grid-travellers happened upon a Gor roleplay region.

Do you think these intrepid travellers would be welcomed with open arms, comforted and fed? Or despised, spat upon and banned?

Watch the short film below and see if your “guess”…or dare we say, “your bias based upon your stereotyped ideas about Gor”…are correct!

The answer, dear reader, might surprise you!

However, regardless the outcome of this episode, as John Norman correctly says, we can only be true to our own nature regardless of how others’ might treat us.

I bring you now, this special presentation called ‘The Rejects of Gor’:

The Inevitability of Fate

“Sights, sounds and stenches horrible beyond belief,
cruelties so enormous as to be incomprehensible to the normal mind.”

- Colonel William W. Quinn, referring to Dachau in April 1945

Recently I visited the Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London.  The exhibition traces the rise of National Socialism and Nazism from 1933, when Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, and the subsequent persecution and murder of European Jews until to the liberation of the concentration camps by the Allied and Soviet forces in 1945. Using photographs, documents, newspapers, scale models, military footage, personal testimonials and various objects confiscated at the camps (clothes, toys, shoes etc), the exhibition graphically demonstrates precisely how Hitler planned to implement his “annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe” policy.

As you can imagine, the exhibition is really very harrowing and disturbing. It remains with you long after exiting the museum doors.

For me, one of the most upsetting aspects was the realisation that all the people who had the terrible misfortune to get caught up in this horrendous chapter of history were in fact normal everyday folk who could have easily been my next door neighbour, my grocer or hairdresser; my cousin, brother or parents.

And, perhaps even more horrifying, was the dawning awareness that not only were the victims of the Holocaust normal everyday folk but so were many (not ‘all’!) of the perpetrators. A lot of the prison guards, low-grade political activists, train drivers, press reporters and many others were previously living normal, everyday lives. For me, it is a horrifying thought that seemingly most anyone can be turned from an upright citizen into a criminal monster given the appropriate external stimulus. It is a form of vanity, I think, to believe that we personally might be immune to such influences and would have therefore behaved differently.

The controversial psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich explored the mechanisms of how this might occur in his 1933 book ‘The Mass Psychology of Fascism’. Needless to say this book was quickly banned by the Nazis and Reich, realising the danger he was in, fled Germany for Austria and later to the United States (where, ironically, in 1956 he had his scientific laboratory equipment destroyed and his writings burnt in a New York incinerator by the FDA. Reich subsequently died in a US prison).

In one of his TV specials, ‘The Assassin’ (2011), the eccentric and multi-talented English ‘mentalist’ Darren Brown reveals how a previously upstanding member of society with no criminal history could be “conditioned” and “programmed” to assassinate Stephen Fry, whilst Fry performed live on stage. Brown used various “brainwashing” techniques to accomplish this, including Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), hypnosis, aural and visual repetition and a host of other methods – each of which he describes in detail as he carries them out. In another special, ‘The Heist’ (2006), Brown uses these and similar techniques to attempt to manipulate a number of individuals into holding up a security van in broad daylight. After receiving the conditioning three of them proceeded to rob the van of their own accord, voluntarily.

This is an important point, it seems to me. Although the robbery was carried out as a result of their brainwashing – they would not have considered doing such a thing beforehand; the “tendency” or “urge” to act thus having been artificially implanted into their mind – the actual act of committing the robbery was their own choice and not because of any directly given third-party instructions.

As well as being good TV entertainment, Brown’s programmes are often thoughtful and educational. In these particular instances they are also a bit scary because of the potential implications.

All of this brings to mind the now infamous Milgram Experiment carried out at Yale University during the early 1960s, with detailed findings published in 1974. This experiment was designed to observe how everyday folk respond to authority figures. It was specifically motivated to try and understand some of the psychological mechanisms at play within the perpetrators of the Holocaust. The experiment found that 65% of people were willing to administer (what they believed to be) a lethal electric shock to another person, if given an instruction to do so by an authority figure.

Scary stuff.

As I write these words, I am at Rose Borchovski’s deeply moving ‘The Inevitability of Fate’ exhibition in Second Life, after having just re-watched Tutsy Navarathna’s latest machinima of the same name (embedded below).

Rose’s installation addresses some of the same issues as the IWM’s Holocaust exhibition but in a narrative form.

The installation tells the story of Angry Beth and Lot.

Until Lot turned eight years old, everything was happy in their lives. However, when war came everything changed. Lot and Beth were forced to leave their home and became separated from each other. After a long, bitter war Beth returned home but Lot did not.

Beth forever searches for Lot. She has good days and bad days. On the good days, Beth imagines she is flying like a bird, face turned skyward; on her bad days, she knows only anger at her loss.

Beth’s wounds will never heal; Lot was never given the opportunity to become who she was meant to be.

It is a terrifically emotional installation made possible by a combination of the back story, the visual components of the narrative and especially the incredible sound loops that play constantly in the background.

These sounds are tremendously good, frequently giving me shivers and one particularly – the “I miss…” sound loop – bringing me close to tears.

It is beautiful work by an accomplished and experienced artist.

It was fitting therefore that an equally accomplished and experienced artist should decide to make a machinima of Rose’s installation. Tutsy’s film of Rose’s work uses many of the visual and aural elements from the installation itself, plus he brings his own unique flourishes and style to the work.

The IWM’s Holocaust exhibition, Rose’s installation and Tutsy’s machinima all tackle the same highly charged subject matter in their own particular way – and each have added to my appreciation of what happened during those dark days in Europe. Dark days, it should be emphasised, which were *not* at some distant point in history, but within living memory of some of my own family members.

I feel sadness right now. A deep sadness for what happened then and an almost prescient expectation that something similar may happen again, perhaps even within my own lifetime.

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.

Visions Beyond The City

(click to enlarge)

Here is a machinima that I think is especially well done.

I don't know the filmmaker personally - Neodog1 on YouTube and Shaman Nitely in Second Life - but saw the link posted on SLUniverse.

'Visions Beyond the City' opens with a slow and delicate camera track of Hangers Liquides cityscape, where incidentally, much of my own 'Rapture' and Shaman-inspired 'FWD: Evolution' were filmed.  And, like my own treatment of Hangers Liquides for machinima purposes, Shaman Nitely has also subject his raw footage to extensive colour correction. He really does make it look fabulous for film.

I have in mind a future blog-post discussing colour correction in machinima, mainly arising out of conversations with Tutsy Navarathna regarding use of the 'Fast Color Corrector', the 'Three-Way Color Corrector' and the 'Brightness & Contrast' effects. Not a tutorial on their specific usage as such but more a discussion on the importance of colour correction in filmmaking and the role these effects play. I think 'Curves' is pretty well known  and is already being used extensively by the SL Photoshop photography community.

Tutsy's recent MachinimUWA V winning 'The Last Syllable of Recorded Time' is probably one of the best examples of colour correction in machinima that I know of, especially when watched in 1080. Its beautiful and delicate colour palette has been noted by Larkworthy Antfarm, Iono Allen and others besides myself.

The protagonist voiceover for 'Visions Beyond the City', kicking in at just after ten seconds, reveals beyond doubt that Shaman Nitely is English! But more...the voice is strangely reminiscent of someone and it took me a few minutes before I could put my finger on it! The voiceover sounds uncannily like the English 'Reservoir Dogs' actor, Tim Roth! And, that is a good thing! I mean it as a compliment; I like it - it is cool, gritty and real.

The film uses quite a number of lens flares, most usually in an appropriate manner such as the nicely executed tracking of the exhaust valves of the air-vehicles. It has to be said that although I often like the look of lens flares aesthetically, I have personally mostly weaned myself off them - especially since being chastised by a college lecturer for their use in 'Rapture'. Lens flares do have a part to play, but judiciously and prudently, in my and some others' opinions. For the most part, 'Visions Beyond The City' uses lens flares within those boundaries.

Many of the post-production effects are very well handled indeed, and the background sound effects add a further dimension and realism to each scene.

I especially enjoyed the character studies as the camera pans the inner city and latches onto the denizens. That, and the use of the Plague Doctor avatar, brought to mind  'MetaSex' which, incredibly, now has over 4,500 YouTube views and 47 comments.

The voice track that kicks in around 5:11 sounds like a old-timer working class Londoner, and could in fact be a member of my own family on my father's side! The "vision" sequence which starts soon after is very well done, both technically and artistically.

'Visions Beyond The City' presents the traditional dark sci-fi feel in a stylish and stylised manner. It has so much to commend it and is certainly one of the most all-round polished and enjoyable machinima I have had the pleasure of watching this year.

Please take the time to watch Shaman Nitely's 'Visions Beyond the City'...