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Cinemassively: Rock 'n' Troll trailer
If you're a fan of cheesy B-movies of yesteryear, then you'll love Rock 'n' Troll. Kilh clearly spent quite a bit of time "researching" films to get the right look and feel. Despite it being his first experience with Adobe After Effects, this is the kind of project that will be an instant classic.The storyline is a confusing web of bankers, rockers, rapters, and murlocs. There's also blood everywhere and not a trace of WoW lore in sight. It's refreshing to see a story come out that isn't tied to the game in any way other than principal filming. With no final deadline in place for the full movie release, I'll be anxiously pacing the floor!
Cinemassively: Sunwell trailer spoof
World of Warcraft machinima favorite, Ian Beckman, has created a parody version of the Blizzard trailer for Sunwell. In his world, everything is "awesome," "cool," "fun," and "happy." Don't worry about it being all rainbows and puppies, though. There's actually a story behind it.Blizzard's version, however, is awesome on it's own. Kael'thas Sunstrider determines that the Sunwell will make his people sick, so he sets out to destroy it, not realizing how dependant everyone is on it. Seeking guidance, he turns to Illidan Stormrage, and from there, lives are changed forever.Does your ideal patch 2.4 contain fury, or a pool of awesome?
Cinemassively: Interactive Science Lab
The days of science lab fires are over. The STEAM, or Science and Technology Enrichment for Appalachian Middle-schoolers, project lets middle school students experiment with science through Second Life. Teen Gridders that are part of the Ohio STEAM sim will be able to put on a HUD, or Heads Up Display, and receive everything they need to complete their lab work.While some educational programs, such as Global Kids and Eye4You Alliance, are open to the TG public, others, like the Appalachian K-12 program, are closed to only their students. I really enjoy seeing videos of the progress that these communities make. If you enjoyed the Interactive Science Lab video, check out the rest of their videos, or their project website!
Cinemassively: The Making of Second Life
Newer Second Life residents may associate the popular blog, New World Notes, with Hamlet Au. The oldbies, however, know him as the former Hamlet Linden. He was hired five years ago by Linden Lab to be an embedded reporter in-world. He left a couple of years ago to write a novel about his experiences.Now he's telling those stories in his new book, The Making of Second Life. In this machinima, by Lainy Voom, a female narrates several storylines that are illustrated for the viewers. Presented comic book style, some of the topics covered are cheating lovers, activists, and adult entrepreneurs. The book went on sale in February.
Cinemassively: GigaOm interviews Philip Rosedale
(Disclosure: Some of the raw footage in the background was commissioned by Linden Lab for news agencies. I was the machinimatographer on the project.)Before Philip Rosedale announced his intention to resign as CEO of Linden Lab, he sat down with Chris Albrecht, of the GigaOM Show. Chris starts off with other news, so to tune in to Hamlet Au and Philip Linden, skip ahead to about 2:45. The duo discuss what SL was like back in the day, how large it has grown, and whether there's a backlash.Proving that you can't believe everything you read on the internet, the show reports that, according to Wikipedia, Second Life has over 20 million accounts. However, if you check out the economic statistics page on the official site, SL is at just under 13 million. Again, they mention transparency. That word is starting to sound like fingernails on a chalkboard.[Thanks, Melissa!]
Cinemassively: Stroker Serpentine Interview
(Given the fact that this is a morning show, language, nudity, and anything potentially offensive is missing.)When I first met Stroker Serpentine, the king of adult products in Second Life, at SLCC 2006, I was expecting someone creepy. However, he was one of the kindest people I've ever met. He was supposed to speak at SXSW last week, but ended up cancelling due to this CBS Early Show interview.In the video, Tracey Smith asked Stroker some candid questions about his profession in SL. What struck me most is that they portrayed it objectively, instead of sensationally. They even featured viewpoints from escorts and a cyber law expert!
Cinemassively: Asuka Martin turns 18
Every few months, I highlight a teen that recently turned 18 and transferred to the Main Grid. Last week, one of the most successful Teen Grid residents made her journey to the other side. Asuka Martin was the grid's #1 skin maker, taking her island and creations with her when she left.Wicked Loudon prepared this sad video for his good friend. You may remember him from the heartbreaking video he made for Kit Axon last year. In his homage, they dance, play, and enjoy her teens for just a little bit longer before she goes.As I've mentioned before, the Main Grid has a low retention rate for teen transfers. According to Snapzilla, Asuka isn't having too much fun on MG. If you have a little extra time, send her an IM and make her feel welcome!
Cinemassively: Philip Rosedale on transparency
After being literally stunned silent over Tateru's blog entry about Philip Rosedale stepping down, I've decided not to post a machinima today. Instead, I found a video of Philip at the Davos convention. He was asked the Davos Question, which involved what he would do to make the world a better place in 2008.Given today's announcement, you may be surprised to hear that his answer was transparency. Considering that there is no blog entry yet on the Official Second Life Blog, I can tell they're already starting off 2008 with a bang! Does this news come as a surprise to you?
Cinemassively: Game Over
In late 2006, an artist by the name of Pierce Portocarrero would change Second Life. Machinima was growing more popular every day, and Linden Lab had produced their hype machinima, Silver Bells and Golden Spurs. Yet Pierce's film, Game Over, looked nothing like SL. It was almost as if it were a dream world.Game Over is a love story between two creatures that find themselves facing an environmental disaster. While quite tragic, the cinematography is beautiful. Pierce himself explains how he storyboarded the film, which ended up nominated for multiple awards and winning the Open category at Machinimasia. It's a shame that he's not producing machinima much these days.
Cinemassively: The Invasion of Artificial Isle
Once upon a time, Caledon, Darkmere, and Artificial Isle were allies. However, Zatzai decided to attack Darkmere and challenge them to battle. What follows is an accurate accounting of the events leading up to Zatzai's capture and burning at the stake.IredescentEye and crew took an interesting approach to battle videos. They introduce you to a resident watching the Second Life History Console to learn all about the Invasion of Artificial Isle. Keep in mind that this is a SL roleplaying video and events like this do not happen seriously there.[Thanks, Lucifer!]
Cinemassively: Roller Skates
With the buzz surrounding Nylon Pinkney's camera videos heating up, Moopf Murray asked her to create a machinimercial for his line of skates. She came up with a video that featured a guy alone at work whom decided to have some silly fun after hours. A surprise visitor almost spoils his fun, though.One of the things that I adore most about Nylon's work is her unique creativity. Most machinimators probably would have featured a roller rink for a video about skates, but she really went all out. She manages to find ways to make Second Life interesting and fun.
Cinemassively: Video Camping
Before the Wrigglesworths ever moved into town, Nylon Pinkney was working on her special cameras. She created a 35mm camera, a Polaroid camera, and a video camera. Each one had a coordinating machinima commercial to go with them.In my favorite video of the three-part series, two women on a camping trip are documenting their experience with video. When one witnesses something, she must go on the run. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, so check out Video Camping! It was an early indicator of the incredibly talented Nylon's work.
Cinemassively: How Not to be Seen
It's not like I haven't proven a few times that I'm an absolute freak for all things Monty Python. That's why when I saw this video re-make of the classic skit How Not to be Seen a while back, I added it to my favorites for sharing on a future rainy day. (With Moo out for SXSW, that rainy day would be today!) True, it's not the best video ever, and the "effects" aren't anything stunning. (It is two years old, after all...) It also won't likely land on the extras DVD like the Lego Camelot video did, but it's certainly worth a giggle if you like Monty Python or World of Warcraft.
Cinemassively: Meet the Wrigglesworths
Oh, what I would give to spend a day in the mind of Nylon Pinkney. Her creativity really knows no bounds. Over the next few days, I'm going to be highlighting her body of work, starting today with her latest film.In Meet the Wrigglesworths, a group of fun-loving retirement community members wreak havoc in their neighborhood. Not only are the cinematics great, but that place looks like it could be fun! I'm hoping some of these items are for sale in Tableau. Down with 20-somethings!
Cinemassively: DiVAS, Episode 4
The DiVAS crew must have worked overtime to learn all the new tricks they employed in this latest episode of their series. Not only do they have special guest stars, such as Kate Hanks and Misty Rhodes, but they have some amazing special effects.In this week's episode, The Fairy, The Furry, and The Phaylen, she mistakes a tutu-wearing visitor for an intruder. When the fairy attempts to seek revenge, Phaylen will have none of that. This is a series that gets better with every episode. I can't wait to see it in another six episodes. It may win an Oscar!As an aside, they now use original music in their series. They found that the inclusion of copyrighted music eliminated them from competitions. Great job, guys![Thanks, stampshady!]
Cinemassively: Lip Flap
Today I'd like to take you back to almost two years ago, when a fairly new Second Life resident, Kronos Kirkorian, began working on a curious set on the island of Lukanida. I remember watching him build out his set after my machinima lesson one day. I had no idea that he'd come up with something of this caliber, though.Kronos blew us all away the day that he released Lip Flap. He managed to infuse humor into the skit, while deflecting the problem with lipsynching. More importantly, he taught us that sometimes you have to use smoke and mirrors to get what you want out of SL machinima. That's worth getting nostalgic for!
Cinemassively: The Edge of Real Life
We're covering today for our regular diva of all things machinima, Moo, who is gearing up to bring us great MMO Moonews from SXSW! Today's Cinemassively is an older piece that is perhaps one of my personal favorites for the ability to blur the lines between MMO and real life in a humorous way. But as the video says at the end -- all things in moderation. If you're playing so much of any MMO that chat bubbles are popping up over your head, seek help.For those who would like to check out the high-quality version of this movie so that you can see just what's in those chat bubbles, the file is available over on beyondmovie.net. While you're there, drop 'em a note on the forums and let them know that you're also interested in seeing the follow-up to this project.
Cinemassively: Zebra Presenter
Clever Zebra has released another product, aimed at businesses and educators, to their lineup. I'll admit to being a total gadget geek in Second Life, so I've researched products like this quite a bit, yet I've never seen anything as sleek or advanced as this. The best part is that it's released under the GPL 3 license, so it's totally free!I'm not here to talk about the product, though. The machinima is so beautiful that it makes me weepy. Skribe Forti is one talented machinimator, and it shows. The smooth transitions, lipsyncing, tutorial style, and lack of user interface all add up to form a magnificent video. Please make more of these product highlight videos, Skribe![Via YouTube]
Cinemassively: Female wrestling in Second Life
Well, this is something that you don't see every day ... unless you have cable. Apparently there's female wrestling going on in Second Life. In a world of 3d avatars that can't get a scratch on them, that still looks pretty painful!tonyb Hax created a mat in SL that allows residents to get in the virtual ring for a girl fight that doesn't look very fair. According to the video comments, there is a male version as well. I thought that the video was really well done and totally captured the spirit of a real match!
Cinemassively: How not to make a machinima
It's that time again where I discuss how not to make a machinima. Two months ago, I awarded Crap Mariner the 2007 ZOMG! That Sux! Award for his video effort. This month, we'll be checking out a training video of sorts that was designed to prepare the machinimator for his first real World of Warcraft film.Before there was the award-winning The Grind series, there was Oblivious Hardcore. When Macheath wanted to learn how to use Adobe Premiere Pro, he packed every possible transition and effect in, resulting in a cluttered, but funny video. If you check out Oblivious Films, you'll see that this exercise definitely pointed them in the right direction, but this video lives on as a testimony for overindulgence.[Thanks, Drewbie, for letting me use this as an example!]
