Machiniplex3

Text Chat from Premiere of Lainy Voom's film "Push"

2009-10-30T22:17:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday's Premiere of Lainy Voom's film "Push" was a very enjoyable and thought-provoking event. We had an excellent turnout to Hathead's new Theatre space in Second Life (thank you, Hathead for providing the space).

This was a different kind of Premiere since all of the conversation was in text chat. At first, I wasn't sure how it would work out, but once we all got going the conversation with Lainy (who was present after the screening to comment and answer questions) grew lively and at times philosophical. Much more open ended conversation in text than with voice. This led to more involvement with the people who attended the Premiere (something I liked very much).

I just loved Lainy's avatar (the one on the left in the above picture). The button eyes and the strange, doll body where something else. She also had some interesting animations built into the character that you could only see if you looked for a while. Subtle touch that. Then again, Lainy is probably one of our most accomplished filmmakers.

Push was a great success (once again) and we screened the film twice. I asked production oriented questions which led to Lainy casually mentioning that she shot the film in sequence, which practically floored us all. She set out to create a film "without thinking about it" and Push was the result. I found it a jazz/dance with a lot of early Cocteau/Dali influence in the imagery. Lainy mentioned that she was trying to express here feelings about time and how inescapable it is for all of us.

I was delighted to Premiere Lainy's Push for Machiniplex. And I'm particularly grateful that Lainy was able to come and spend time with everyone who came. She mentioned that she is working on some poems at present. I know we will all be waiting to see what new and interesting ideas/images she has come up with.

Phil Rice saved the text chat from the Premiere and I've posted it on Scribd.com and here. Only minor changes were made to fix formatting and add photos. It's a bit long, but well worth your time to read. Also, Push has now been added to the Machiniplex rotation where you can screen it or download a very high quality .wmv version to watch at your leisure.

Machiniplex Premiere of "Push": Text Chat

Reminder for Lainy Voom's PUSH Premiere this Sunday

2009-10-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that we will be Premiering Lainy Voom's film "PUSH" this weekend (SUNDAY, October 25th) from 10AM to 12AM (Pacific Time) at Hathead's Theatre in Second Life. We will screen the film then discuss it with Lainy via text.

Hathead's Theatre:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/HatHead%20II/68/125/756

More info on Second Life:

http://secondlife.com/whatis/

Premiere for Lainy Voom's "Push" on October 25th

2009-10-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

Machiniplex is very pleased to announce the Premiere of Lainy Voom's "Push", an experimental machinima film shot inside of the virtual world of Second Life. The Premiere will take place at Hathead's new Theatre space in Second Life on Sunday, October 25th at 10AM (Pacific Time).

Lainy Voom (aka Trace Sanderson) has been creating real time animated films (machinima) since 2004. She has created almost a dozen films since then all graced with her witty imagination and attention to detail. "Push" is her most recent film and it is one of her best.

In an interview at the excellent Koinup blog, Lainy explains the origin of "Push"

Koinup. Push' made a huge impact on the Machinima community recently, visually it has an immediate & dynamic appeal - what is the story behind this ? Is it more than an amazing eclectic visual collection - Does it tell a story?

Lainy. It began as an experiment, what would happen if I just started filming something, not analysing anything and just making the first thing that sprang to mind. I tried to let the film grow organically by itself. It's more a stream of consciousness exercise than anything with hidden deeper meaning. Towards the end of the filming process it began to become more contrived, I ended up scrapping all the later footage in order to bring it back to the initial experiment.

With last months Premiere of Claus-Dieter Schulz's "9" (also an experimental machinima film) we started a conversation about imaginative and abstract Machinima that I think will inform the Q&A with Lainy right after the screening of her film. I'm certainly looking forward to it.

My thanks to Lainy for allowing us to screen "Push" and for giving our Premiere audience an opportunity to discuss this great film with her (and perhaps many of her other films as well). You can pre-screen "Push" along with her earlier films at her website: Voom-Machine.

"Push" will post at the machiniplex.com site several days before the Premiere which will be on October 25th (Sunday) at 10AM Pacific Time. We'll Premiere the film in Second Life at Hathead's new Theatre. The slurl is here:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/HatHead%20II/68/125/756

If you've never been to Second Life, it's a free virtual community that is an excellent place to have screenings and meetings like this. More info on how to join and learn the basics can be found here:

http://secondlife.com/whatis/

http://www.secondlifebasics.com/

We'll be conducting the Q&A with Lainy primarily with text chat, so don't you don't really need a mic. I'll probably ask some questions via voice chat, but the Premiere will be primarily in text.

Feel free to show up a little early and get oriented. I'll be there at 9:30Am Pacific if you need help. Just look for my Second Life name gtoon jun and text me.

Hope to see you there!

Audio & Text from Machiniplex Premiere of "9"

2009-09-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

My thanks to everyone who came to last Sunday's Machiniplex Premiere of Claus-Dieter Schulz's film "9". At one time, I think we had about 20 people participating. Due to technical problems, we had to shift the Premiere from Hathead's lounge to Bree Birke's performance space at the last minute. Thanks to the quick-thinking Hathead and the grace of Bree (an accomplished composer), we had a location that was not only beautiful but worked very well for our Premiere.

gtoon on the left; rohan on the right.

Phil Rice was kind enough to direct folks to the new location AND to record the audio from the Q&A with Claus-Dieter. We were also able to grab the text chat in Second Life. After a bit of editing, I was able to get it into a form that's easy to understand (I hope).

You can listen to the audio of the Premiere right here (Phil composed some wicked music for the opening of the voice chat):

You can download the text as a PDF file here, or read the Scribd version at the end of this post.

9 Premiere Text Chat PDF

The mood of the Premiere was exactly what I had hoped it would be: intense curiosity, interest and finally admiration for the year and half that Claus-Dieter spent creating this short, abstract work of art. Despite his reservations about speaking in English (his native tongue is German) Claus-Dieter did a wonderful job of communicating often complex ideas and feelings.

He discussed the inspiration for the piece and the tools he used to create the often mesmerizing imagery in "9". He places himself squarely in the tradition of the "concrete" artist, that is, the artist who is focused on concrete shapes like lines, points, surfaces and colors. In concrete are there is no attempt to create symbolic imagery, rather each shape is simply what it is, no more no less.

Sol Bartz listening intently. Nice Crowd, huh?

Good questions were asked about the music used (Boards of Canada), the process of creating the film and what the director was trying to say with his film. I was glad people were so interested in this style of art and I hope the event will inspire filmmakers to attempt their own abstract film. Phil Rice created a new film "Responsibility", which is his attempt to create an abstract film.

One of the major criticisms of abstract art is that it lacks an emotional connection with the viewer. I can understand that is the case for some people, but it certainly isn't for me. Like poetry, which concentrates and isolates words to create poetic effects, abstract filmmaking forces the viewer to create their own context for what they see in front of them. And, of course, there is poor abstract art just as there is poor art of any kind.

I think, however, that Claus-Dieter is the real thing. His film "9" is a wonderful poetic work of machinima art that deserves a wider audiences. Amid the stunt videos, and Halo gags, it's a heartening experience to see someone using their imagination to create a very unique style of machinima.

We screened "9" three times. The last time with two screens!

My sincere thanks to Claus-Dieter for putting himself in the awkward position of being interviewed outside of his native language and for his help in putting the Premiere together. Also, Hathead, Bree and Phil Rice were indispensable in getting this event off the ground. And special thanks to Digital Phil who provided these photos and blogged so nicely about the event at his excellent Tekbreeze.com site. Thank you, sir.

Machiniplex Premiere of "9" Chat Text

Last Minute Change of Location for Today's 99/13) Premiere of "9"

2009-09-13T10:33:00.000-07:00

Due to problems with Linden Labs, creators of Second Life, we've had to change the location of today's Premiere of Claus-Dieter's "9". The new location is:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nitida/239/102/228

We will be on hand at the old Hatheads' lounge to steer people in the right direction. So sorry for the inconvenience.

Dragon*Con

2009-09-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I returned home from Dragon*Con. I was there to attend the machinima screenings, which included some of my own work.

Myself with Christina.

The first night was the achievements reel, where I met up with Christina (who did a great job putting together the sessions) and Sarah Howison, one of the cast members of my show. Felicia Day was at Dragon*Con as well and while she was another cast member, she had other things scheduled at the time so couldn't make it. Ben Grussi was also there, much to my surprise and came up to talk to us after the screening was over.

Sarah and I.

Here I am with Felicia.

The second night was a special screening of Stolen Life and the third night was comedy. Sadly I missed that last one as I needed to be at the airport.

However, the first two sessions both attracted a good audience and the films were well received. After Stolen Life, people had requested some kind of discussion so Christina held and impromptu Q&A session which she invited me to take part in. Together we were answering questions from those who wanted to know more about the film and machinima in general. Hopefully we'll see some new people in the community.

There's a complete list of everything that was screened here on the Dragon*Con Film Festival website.

For those interested in knowing what else I got upto there, there is a complete write up on my personal blog and more photos can be found here.

Reminder that Claus-Dieter Schulz's film "9" will Premiere this Sunday

2009-09-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

Machiniplex will Premiere Claus-Dieter Schulz's film "9" this Sunday, Sept 13 at 11AM - 1PM (Pacific Time). Claus will be on hand to comment on the film and answer questions. His film "Liberty City" was recently nominated for a Bitfilm award and his "Ausgedacht (Dreamed Up)" and Desassossego have both been highly praised in the machinima community.

"9" is one of the very few abstract machinima films. Looking back to filmmakers like Hans Richter and Stan Brakahge. I, for one, am very interested in why he chose to make this film and in his production methods. Claus-Dieter Schulz'a website is here. You can watch some of his other films there and catch up on what's happening with him.

Come on by for a screening of "9" (perhaps even two screenings as it's a short film) and a Q&A with Claus afterward.

Of course, our screenings are held at the elegant Hathead's Lounge in SL. Slurl:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/HatHead%20II/68/125/756

If you've never been to Second Life, it's a free virtual community that is an excellent place to have screenings and meetings like this. More info on how to join and learn the basics can be found here:

http://secondlife.com/whatis/

http://www.secondlifebasics.com/

We'll be conducting the Q&A with voice chat, but if you don't have a mic/headphone that's OK because we'll be texting most of the conversation.

Feel free to show up a little early and get oriented. I'll be there at 10:30Am Pacific if you need help. Just look for my Second Life name gtoon jun and text me.

Hope you can make it!

Machiniplex Premiere: "9" by Claus-Dieter Schulz

2009-08-19T18:01:00.000-07:00

Screen capture from "9" by Claus-Dieter Schulz

Machiniplex will Premiere Claus-Dieter Schulz's "9", an experimental film in the tradition of filmmakers like Hans Richter and Stan Brakhage. Claus-Dieter is an important machinimaker who has created several innovative and original films like Desassossego and Liberty City. His Machinima Studios site has his blog and all of his films archived.

"9" is an abstact film which plays with the contrast of circles and lines appearing and disappearing as if in a dream. The effect being somewhat hypnotic and dreamlike. And although "9" is short, it seems much longer because of this effect. Much like the early Modernist experiments with geometric shapes and colors, "9" is unique to machinima. I'm eager to talk to Claus-Dieter about how he created the shapes in a machinima game engine and what how his editing ideas developed. He will be available after the screening for a Q&A.

"9" will post at the machiniplex.com site several days before the Premiere which will be on Sept 13th (Sunday) at 11AM Pacific Time / 8PM Germany. We'll Premiere the film in Second Life at Hathead's Island Lounge. The slurl is here:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/HatHead%20II/68/125/756

Another screen capture from "9"

If you've never been to Second Life, it's a free virtual community that is an excellent place to have screenings and meetings like this. More info on how to join and learn the basics can be found here:

http://secondlife.com/whatis/

http://www.secondlifebasics.com/

We'll be conducting the Q&A with voice chat, but if you don't have a mic/headphone that's OK because we'll be texting most of the conversation.

Feel free to show up a little early and get oriented. I'll be there at 10:30Am Pacific if you need help. Just look for my Second Life name gtoon jun and text me.

Hope you can make it!

Dragon Age and Machinima

2009-07-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

Gamespot have recently posted an article looking at the toolset that will be included with Dragon Age.

As with Neverwinter Nights, the toolset is designed to give players a chance to create their own worlds and adventures. As far as machinima goes, it was used to create Consanguinity and Bloodspell.

But what really caught my eye was how customizable the characters are. Bioware have taken their face editing tool from Mass Effect and applied it not just to player characters in the game but you can use the same thing with NPC characters in the toolset.

The third page of the article talks about how you can use the conversation editor to animate characters and make cutscenes.

It looks very promising for machinima and hopefully we'll see some good stuff.

Check out the full article.

Audio/Pix from Clear Skies 2 Premiere

2009-07-02T18:02:00.001-07:00

Members of the audience enjoying Clear Skies 2

The Premiere for Clear Skies 2 went swimmingly this last Sunday. With about a dozen people attending, we screened CS2 while director, Ian Chisholm, commented via text chat. Watching some scenes that seemed very simple on screen while Ian told us that the scene had a very high level of complexity in the HL2 engine gave us all an even healthier respect for what Ian and his team have accomplished. The difficulty in combining two separate game engines (Valve's Half Life 2 and Eve Online) is great in the idea stage, but the technical obstacles are enormous.

Hathead's great new screening room

Ian felt that Clear Skies 2 is a better film because he had a much better grasp of tools like Faceposer and voice recording. And you can see this in the quality of the film itself. The voices are much clearer (a fan loaned him some good audio equipment to record with) and the style of the film seems smoother than the first one.

Virtual Ian Chisholm relaxing during the Q&A

It was a great pleasure to watch the film in Hathead's new screening room on Hathead Island in Second Life. He's been working hard to re-vamp and upgrade his SL constructions and the place looked great. My thanks to you, Hathead, for providing a space for us to have our Machiniplex shows. Please visit his blog when you get the chance or check out some of his live music sets in Second Life (his King Bee rendition is wonderful). He's a very supportive and talented person. Thank you!

Clear Skies boys have their eyes on the stars it seems

The Q&A after the screening was very enjoyable. With Phil Rice moderating, we covered the making of the film, how it was put together, problems encountered and, something I liked a lot, celebrated just how damn good the film was. Ian was constantly witty and amusing with anecdotes on voice recording, script-development and "star cruiser" wrangling in Eve Online. I challenge anyone to spend an hour with Ian and not understand immediately why his films are so well done and feature characters with such a sense of fun and mischief at the same time.

I was fortunate in being able to record the Q&A. With Phil moderating, I could capture decent audio and after a bit of cleaning and editing, I think it's a decent recording. There are some SL sounds that come and go, but nothing too distracting. For those who would like to listen to the Q&A session with Phil and Ian (about 60 minutes) you can stream it here:

Or, if you'd like to download the mp3 file you can do that here (right-click, save link as). You can also watch and/or download the film in a variety of formats at our Machiniplex site. My thanks to Phil for providing the excellent encoded streaming version of Clear Skies 2. What can't you do, Phil?

Phil on the left; Ian on the right.

At the end of the session, Ian indicated he felt he was at a crossroads with his career. He had learned so much over the last three years while making Clear Skies and Clear Skies 2 that he didn't want to chuck it away and so he's looking to figure out how to work animated filmmaking into some sort of career. He's not sure what direction he'll go in, but with his talent and personality, I have a feeling he'll do very well.

Here's wishing you the best, Ian, and your entire crew. Clear Skies 2 is a film to be proud of.

Clear Skies 2 Premiere this Sunday, June 28th

2009-06-26T22:25:00.000-07:00

Just a quick reminder that Machiniplex will be Premiering director Ian Chisholm's Clear Skies 2 this Sunday, June 28th at 8AM (Pacific Time) / 11AM (Eastern Time) / 4PM (Great Britain) at Hathead's Screening Room in the virtual world Second Life.

We will screen the film (which is about 46 minutes long) and then have a Q&A with the director and members of his crew. We also hope to show some outtakes from the production (time permitting). Phil Rice will be moderating

Clear Skies 2 will be added to the Machiniplex.net collection on Sunday. You'll be able to stream and/or download the film in high-quality formats.

A good site to check the time in your are is here:

World Clock

And the slurl for Hathead's Screening Room is here:

Screening Room

I'll be there early to help those who are new to Second Life. My Second Life name is

gToon Jun

Remember, you can join in the discussion either using text chat or voice chat (if you have a headset and microphone).

See you there!

Machiniplex Premiere: Clear Skies 2 on Sunday, June 28th

2009-06-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, June 28th at 8AM (Pacific Time) / 11AM (Eastern Time), Machiniplex.net will host the premiere of Ian Chisholm's Clear Skies 2 at the screening room on Hathead's Island in Second Life. We will screen the film (approx. 46 minutes long) and then have a Q&A with director Ian Chisholm and members of his team. Ian will be texting a director's commentary during the screening. Phil Rice will moderate the discussion.

For those who haven't seen the first chapter in the Clear Skies saga, James Egan's comments at Massively.com describes the plot quite succinctly:

“Clear Skies follows a trio of down-and-out misfits who've seen no end of bad luck. John Rourke is the obstinate captain of the Clear Skies, a Tempest class battleship manufactured by the downtrodden Minmatar race of New Eden. Rourke's attitude toward his hazardous chosen lifestyle is cavalier, although this does not sit well with his friends among the crew. Solomon Burke is the pessimistic ship's engineer, while Charlie Fodder -- a gunner with an ironic name -- does his best to keep the crew alive. Typical of life in New Eden, Fodder is doomed to remain a rather busy man.

These likeable dropouts from the entrenched corporate lifestyle of New Eden eke out a meager living on trade runs and the odd courier job here and there. Still, they manage to find humor in their grim lot as they narrowly avoid being blown out of the stars by pirates, hired thugs, or whatever threat awaits them on the other side of the next jump gate. This is life aboard the Clear Skies. It's not a comfortable lifestyle by any means, but the crew is free to live and die by their own terms. Of course, their exploits do make for some good stories.”

-James Egan, Massively.com
massively.com/2008/06/09/eve-online-meets-half-life-2-in-machinima-masterpiece

Clear Skies 2 improves on already excellent production values and adds impressive writing and characterization. Ian Chisholm and his team challenged themselves to improve on the hugely popular first film and have done a truly remarkable job. The combination of Eve Online for exterior scenes and Half Life 2 for interior shots is creative and high successful. The Faceposer work alone is at the highest level of machinima animation.

We'll be streaming Clear Skies 2 at our Machiniplex.com site several days before the June 28th Premiere. In the meantime, you can stream our download both films at Vimeo.com. Ian has recently added an amusing "Outtakes Bucket" for Clear Skies 2.

Machiniplex premiered the first Clear Skies film at the first annual Machinima Expo in November of 2008. We are proud to present the second film in an ongoing series.

If you've never been to one of our Premiere's here's how it works: you will need to join up at Second Life (a free virtual community), or simply log in if you are a member. Then you'll need to teleport to the screening room on Hathead's Island. You can follow this link to do so:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/HatHead%20II/72/124/1029

Once you arrive at the screening room, you'll find many other people chatting either by voice or by text chat before the screening. After a while, we'll announce the screening and we'll all watch the film on the large screens in the center of the room (be sure to click your "play" button at the bottom of your SL screen). When the film is done, we will talk about the film with director Ian Chisholm and members of his team. Phil Rice will be moderating the discussion. Feel free to ask questions and/or make comments about the film.

Generally, we talk for about an hour or so and then head over to the dance floor to boogie away (this is where the REAL conversations happen). If you've never danced before, just click on the silver ball over the dance floor to initiate the animations.

If you are a beginner, don't be afraid to ask questions; everyone there was a beginner once and we are happy to help you out.

8AM in Los Angeles (Pacific Time) works out to 4PM in London. If you need a time conversion chart, there is a good one here:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

No Altered States

2009-05-26T21:03:00.000-07:00

Well... as it turns out, I am in Ecuador during the Altered States conference, so I won't be on the panel. So sad... so disappointing in that regard. I won't need to have the pre-conference discussion (although we really should have some kind of event/discussion soon anyway).

I'll be thinking of machinima and altered states and UCLA and this missed opportunity from 20,000 feet (and the farthest point from the center of the Earth, farther than the peak of Everest), though, so don't cry too hard. Just keep making great films! :)

-- Ingrid

State of “Play”: Narrativity and Gaming

2009-05-13T10:52:00.000-07:00

I have been invited as a panelist for the following event at UCLA's first annual Altered States Media Conference next month. In order to prepare myself for an intelligent discussion, I was thinking of hosting a live discussion with machinimators and Machiniplex viewers and anyone else with two cents to contribute on the following topic.

State of “Play”: Narrativity and Gaming
Moderator: Peter Guber (Chairman, Mandalay Entertainment)

Any recent look into the business pages will show a video game industry outpacing the traditional film industry by ever-widening margins. Interactivity is now a common theme whenever discussing the future of narrative storytelling. But concepts such as scarcity, broadcasting, authorship, and predetermination are fundamental to the art of storytelling; can the “narrative” exist in an environment of peer-to-peer authorship? And as stories turn into games, how does one play a story?

I haven't selected a date for the discussion yet but I think 5:00 pm on Sunday, May 31 would work, giving me two weeks (some of which will be me climbing volcanoes in Equador) to ponder and absorb our discussion. I'm not sure if we should do Second Life or something else.

In any case, please let me know if you can attend - and please feel free to send me your thoughts, references, blog entries, etc. related to this panel, or leave a comment.

This panel is Sat. June 13 at UCLA - so if anyone's local, you should consider attending! There are a lot of other very interesting sessions going on and I am definitely going to make a day of it.

-- Ingrid

Looking For New Films to Premiere

2009-05-07T11:38:00.001-07:00

It's been a few months since our last Premiere at Machiniplex, so we are looking for new, quality machinima films that would fit for a Premiere. If anyone has suggestions or has seen a machinima film recently that just knocked your socks off, send us a link either in the comments section here at the blog or to me privately at: rgrove@iliadbooks.com

We are also working to develop the "classics" section of our Machiniplex site. We'll be archiving and featuring classic machinima from the earliest Quake period of machinima up to a couple years ago. Admittedly, the "classic" moniker is subjective, but our desire is to present the best of machinima in years past. Any suggestions are welcome!

-Ricky

Ivy Film Festival 2009

2009-04-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

The Ivy Film Festival Machinima Competition has been through its judging period for both the audience and jury awards, and I just wanted to point out a few of the finalists that I thought were worthy of mentioning.

First is Damien Valentine's Star Wars: A Galaxy in Darkness, jury award winner and by far the highest production value of the group. This fourth installment in Valentine's "Darkness Saga" is worth a watch. In fact, all four of the films are worth a watch (if you have about 3 hours spare), as it shows the five-year progression of a filmmaker's talents as he learns new skills, fine-tunes his craft, and takes increasingly greater advantage of the gaming and modding technologies he is using to create the story, which combines well-written scripts with acting voiced by both professionals and talented amateurs.

A Galaxy in Darkness adds what was most lacking in all the previous films: lip sync. Valentine had recorded most of his footage before learning the technique to create lip sync in Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, after which he had to re-record that footage to include it. Over the previous films Valentine had intertwined the JKA footage with epic space battles using Star Wars: Empire at War and its sequels, which provide high resolution, highly coordinated combat scenarios. Editing the footage from these very different games together results in a well-crafted fan film that is sure to please Star Wars fans, machinima enthusiasts, and general audiences.

Second on my list of watchables is the audience award winner, Flying. This is a short piece that vaguely reminded me of Wall-E in that it is about a robot with personality. The animation of the robot is very well done in that it conveys emotion from what is otherwise a chunk of steel with arms. The theme of breaking free of monotony and following your passion usually works well with non-living subjects, as it does in this story of a robot who wants to get off the assembly line and fly. While I was most impressed by the conveyance of frustration at the robot's ill-fated attempts at liftoff, the light-hearted (and explosive) humor is also well-timed if a little campy.

Congratulations to both these films on their achievement in the Ivy Film Festival 2009.

Two other films in the finalist list worth a watch are Hurt, which is perhaps a bit over-dramatic but entertaining for its five-minute length, and Nintendo Bushido, a mash-up that is well-composited and well-edited if a bit long.

-- Ingrid

Machinima and Copyright Conference

2009-04-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

"Machinima.
...It has been hailed as the art form of the 21st century.
...It is redefining music videos.
...And reinventing the videogame.
...It might be the future of cinema.

But there's a catch: if you make machinima, you might be breaking the law.

Or are you?

Find out at Stanford University. "Play Machinima Law" from April 24-25, 2009."

I don't know if they'll be offering any new information but it could be interesting to see what comes out of here. More details at the site. Thanks to Amy for letting me know about this.

Machiniplex Site Hacked?

2009-03-01T21:54:00.000-08:00

Sorry about all of the duplicated posts in the RSS feed. I think maybe our site has been hacked as I haven't worked on the blog since the 'Saving Grace' post. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to combat this kind of thing?

???

Saving Grace: An Excellent Premiere

2009-02-16T22:37:00.000-08:00

Sisch and her SL avatar.

The "Saving Grace" premiere took place in Second Life this last Sunday. We had a good turn out (about 15 people) and everyone enjoyed the film very much. Sisch (Simone Schleu), the director, gave a text commentary during the screening and afterwards stayed to discuss the film with Phil Rice and then the audience. Phil did a great job running the Q&A for Machiniplex (his first time) and I thoroughly enjoyed finally being part of the audience.

"Saving Grace" is a science fiction story in the tradition of Isaac Asimov and Lois McMaster Bujold (both authors Sisch reads and admires). It's the story of one woman's crises of identity and how the AI aboard her ship, which has been sent on a mission of vital importance to the future of Earth, through an act of devotion and friendship, helps her understand her reason for living. It is a story of choices and of their consequences. A character driven science fiction film beautifully performed and very well written.

Part of the audience watching the screening of Saving Grace

Sisch worked on Saving Grace for about 4 months. She said she struggled over the script, rewriting it many times until she got the story she wanted. Then she put together her voice cast (including her own performance in the lead role) and go the voice recordings first. She smartly waited until she had the other actors performances recorded before she did her own and adjusted her interpretation to fit with the other actors. Sisch mentioned that she wasn't trying to be "realistic", but wanted the style of the acting (and the film) to be real for the story she was telling. A distinction often forgotten not only in machinima, but in commercial filmmaking as well.

She used three different real-time engines to create "Saving Grace": Moviestorm, The Movies and X3: the Terran Conflict. Her background in machinima filmmaking was primarily with The Movies, so she was comfortable with that game and it's various mods. Sisch said she really loved the animation system of Moviestorm since it allowed you to stack several animations to get unique ones that fit perfectly with the internal drama of her characters. X3 was used primarily for space shots and The Movies Game was used for a few dream sequences (to great effect).

Phil on the left and Sisch on the right during Q&A

Sisch spent a lot of time getting the individual animations just right for various scenes. At one point, for the climatic scene between the AI and Grace, she spent 4 days just trying to get Grace's reaction right. Her careful and meticulous attention to detail pays off in making the film one that involves you with the characters and their moral choices. Something you don't often find in many machinima films.

Phil made an excellent point about how the AI characterization works against the cliche of Hal 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey and instead of being the emotionless villain, the AI in "Saving Grace" actually becomes more human, more empathetic in the end. Sisch's decision to make the AI very stiff and artificial at the beginning, then move to a characterization that has more subtle movements (and I think more subtle performance) at the end is the mark of a thoughtful and careful director. In fact, the entire film is so well edited and shot that it's hard to believe Sisch has only been directing machinima for a few years.

And, of course, the fact that the central character, which is usually portrayed as a heroic male, is female. Exploring the nature of female heroism (and her final decision is heroic, imo) is another example of how subtle and intelligent this film is.

Sisch also mentioned that she thought that the story of Grace was complete and that she wasn't considering going back to the story as a kind of series. "What else is there to say?", she said (paraphrased). With the popularity of the film and because both the AI and Grace's characters are so interesting, there has been some interest in her extending the story some. I was very glad to hear that Sisch wasn't interested. Her reasons make so much sense.

Much more was discussed over the 1 hour + conversation, but it's too much to summarize here. We are working (Phil and I) on a way to archive these Premiere's in some fashion, so those who can't make it can at least get a feel for what the event was like. In the meantime, you can screen or download the film at machiniplex.net and if you follow the links there (or here) you can read her interview at the Moviestorm site and on her own blog.

Screen cap from Saving Grace early in the film

It's a testament to the impact of this film that many people asked if the film was going to be screened again on Sunday. Phil was able to set the server to continue to show the film at the Z-Studios Theater continuously through the evening. I know when I signed off there were several people in the audience eager to see it again.

My sincere thanks to Sisch for letting us Premiere her film and for archiving it at Machiniplex. I was also very impressed with here poise and her thoughtful answers to the questions she was asked. Also, thank you Phil Rice for running the discussion and for setting up the film both at Machiniplex and in Second Life.

Machiniplex Premiere: "Saving Grace" by Sisch. Feb 15th, 10AM @ Second Life

2009-02-01T21:39:00.000-08:00

Machiniplex will premiere "Saving Grace", a new machinima film created by Sisch, on February 15th (Sunday) at 10AM (Pacific Time) at Z-Studios Theater in Second Life. Created using a mixture of three separate real-time engines (Moviestorm, The Movies and X3 Terran Conflict), "Saving Grace" has a unique style along with an intriquing storyline that is very well done. It's themes of loneliness, self-sacrifice and human/machine authenticity remind me a bit of the sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick with some Ursula K. Leguin thrown in as seasoning. "Saving Grace" is an excellent blend of style and content.

We are proud to present "Saving Grace" as a Machiniplex Premiere. We will screen the film at 10AM (Second Life time) after which Sisch will answer questions and comment on the making of the film.

We will be posting "Saving Grace" at the machiniplex.net site a few days before the premiere, so you can stream it there or download a copy if you'd like to see the film early.

If you've never been to Second Life before, it's a virtual world where people create things and host virtual events. It's a free download and is fairly easy to learn. You can come early if you are a first-timer and we'll have someone there to help you out. We generally use voice chat for the discussions afterwards, but if you don't have a microphone or headset, we'll also be doing text chat as well.

Here is a link that will tell you more about how to get going with Second Life:

Getting Started with Second Life

In world, you can instant message me (gtoon jun) or Phil Rice (Sol Bartz), and we'll respond promptly. You can also ask any questions here in the "comments" section of this post and I'll do my best to answer quickly.

Hope to see you there!

Ephemeral Premiere Wrap Up

2009-01-18T20:13:00.000-08:00

Dizzy Banjo

I'd like to thank everyone who attended the Ephemeral Premiere today (Sunday, Jan 18). It was well attended and the conversations about the film were excellent. Particular thanks to Dizzy Banjo for coming despite a bad cold (drink that lemon tea!) and to Poid Mahlovich for her comments. And thanks go to Sol Bartz (Phil Rice) for letting us use his theatre and for setting up the video.

Despite having some problems with our video server for the day, we manage to play the film as a file and everyone got a chance to see Ephemeral, although at different times. Dizzy commented on some aspects of the production via text while the film was playing. I've copied and edited the local chat logs, so you can read them here in pdf format (Dizzy's words are in blue):

Ephemeral Chat

To summarize some of the voice comments (we are working on recording the sessions for those who can't make it), Dizzy created "Ephemeral" in Second Life as a way of documenting the excellent work that Poid Mahlovich did on a section of the Princeton University SL site called "Princeton Aspire". He mentions that most of the work on the film was already done (in Poid's build) and he just pointed the camera and recorded. In a session that I remember he said took about a day, he captured footage in Fraps and then edited it in Sony Vegas, which he felt very comfortable with since it was much like the music/audio programs he was used to working with.

Dizzy works as a composer for games, commercials and many Second Life installations like the Ruta Maya region in Mexico's Second Life island. His DynaFleur installation at the Princeton Unviersity Sim is remarkable as well. The guitar music composed for Ephemeral was actually written some time before the film was made and he ended up cutting the piece a bit and re-performing it so that it had a more melancholy feel. All of the other sounds, with the exception of a few weather elements he drew from his own stock sound collection, are a part of the Princeton Aspire setting. He mentions that Ephemeral is an extension of an earlier film he worked on called "Passage to Zhong Fu"

Dizzy mentioned that in creating the film he was trying to depict "the passage of characters through a landscape" with just a little bit of story involved. Poid added that she loves the Narnia
series and brought some of that influence to the world of the film. You can see this in the big cabinet that the main character comes out of at the beginning of the film. The spider at the end perhaps has echoes of the Shelob character in Lord of the Rings.

Screen cap from Ephemeral

Considerable work was done in tweaking the world build in Second Life by adding fog and adjust other elements of how SL renders. It certainly was beautifully done. The lighting in particular is superb. Dizzy initially rendered the film as a jpeg mov file then he compressed the film in quick time pro using the h264 codec, although he wasn't completely happy with the results (some banding issues). He ended up getting the best results, he said, by exporting the film directly out of vegas in the .wmv format. He followed a process created by Torley and documented here.

Finally, Dizzy and Poid reflected a bit on Second Life machinima. Dizzy felt that SL machinima was different than other forms of machinima in that everything in the film is custom content and hand made. SL machinima is influenced by SL culture a good deal, too. This is evident in Ephemeral itself, being the offshoot of a lot of sound/music installation work Dizzy has done in Second Life. Certainly the stories and types of films you see being created in Second Life are often more adventurous in form and content than other types of machinima.

A site both Dizzy and Poid recommended as a good one to see new SL machinima is:

Second Life Showcase

You can read Dizzy's blog here; and Poid's blog here. And here's an excellent interview with Dizzy at the "7" site. He mentions his method of composing music and creating installations. There's also mention of his work on an interesting program called "Parsec" which is a way of creating music/sound in Second Life through gestures and speeach. Dizzy spoke a bit about his goals of creating a kind of music synesthesia for virtual worlds.

Poid has a first machinima posted at her site. It's called "Life is a bowl of...". You can watch it right here, if you like. Congratulations, Poid. Really wonderful work.

Machiniplex Premiere: "Ephemeral" by Dizzy Banjo (January 18th)

2009-01-08T21:44:00.000-08:00

A new Second Life machinima, "Ephemeral", created by Dizzy Banjo will be Premiered this January 18, 2009 from 1oAM to 12PM (pacific time). Dizzy Banjo / Robert Thomas is a composer, virtual media artist and machinima filmmaker. "Ephemeral" was shot in the Princeton Aspire region of Princeton University's Second Life property. Dizzy c0-wrote and directed the film along with composing the wonderful soundtrack. He was assisted by Poid Mahovlich who also designed the film.

The film will screen at Zarathustra Studios in Second Life at 10am. (Here's a time converter you can use) Immediately afterwards there will be a Q&A with the director and possibly some of his collaborators. The slurl for the event is:

Zarathustra Studios in Second Life (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jamville/149/205/23) (map)

"Ephemeral" is a film poem that takes place in an almost fantasy pastoral setting. The two main characters meet and eventually come to a mutual discovery. The tone is dark and strange with a beautiful music and soundtrack. It's one of the best Second Life films I've ever seen and I'm excited that Dizzy, an accomplished musician as well as filmmaker, will be attending the Premiere and answering questions. I can't wait to figure out how he accomplished some of the effects in the film.

If you've never attended a Second Life event before, you can download the software (it's free) and try it out before you come, as it takes a little bit of practice to move around and interact with others. We'll be conducting voice chat primarily, but there will also be text chat going on at the same time if you don't have a mic/headphone. When you are ready, just click the link above and it will take you right to the location. If you get lost just text me in-world. My name there is gtoon Jun. Many arrive early for the Premiere, so don't be afraid to ask questions.

If you have any questions please contact me at: rgrove@iliadbooks.com.

See you there!

Machinima in Bristol

2008-12-05T13:15:00.000-08:00

I was recently invited to the Brief Encounters short film Festival in Bristol for a presentation and panel on the subject of Machinima.

The other two panelists were Grethe Mitchell from The University of East London and Britta Pollmuller another veteran with Machinima.

My presentation served as an introduction to Machinima, included some clips of various pieces that represented the medium well. I also discussed why I first became involved with Machinima, as a means to tell stories through film that I couldn't do live action.

Grethe followed with her research into Machinima and how it takes elements from all forms of media (film, gaming, music etc) and brings it all together.

Sadly, Britta was unable to make it in person due to bad weather but was able to join us virtually via Second Life where she could to walk us through the work she does for Schome.

An excellent day and a chance to make new friends and bring new people into the world of Machinima.

I'd also like to thank Hanna Wirman for being so helpful and Hugh Hancock for setting me up with that.

"Clear Skies" Live Premiere at Machinima Expo 2008

2008-10-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

One film that stood out among the 130 that were submitted to the Machinima Expo competition was "Clear Skies". Beautifully shot in a combination of Eve Online and the Half Life 2 engines, this 30 minute film is a masterful work of storytelling. I was so impressed with the film that I immediately contacted the director, Ian Chisholm, and asked if he would be interested in doing a live Machiniplex Premiere at the Expo on Nov. 9th.

I'm very pleased to announce that Ian has agreed and we will be hosting a live Machiniplex premiere of "Clear Skies" at 1pm (Pacific Time) on Sunday, Novemember 9th at the Expo complex in Second Life. Ian will be present to answer questions after the screening and I suspect other members of the "Clear Skies" team will be attending as well.

Here is the slurl for the Second Life location.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jamville/151/214/23

And here is a site where you can figure the time in your neck of the woods.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

If you've never used Second Life before it's free and a lot of fun. You can download the client
here. Be sure to try it out before you come to the Expo so you'll know how to get around and interact with others. We will have people "helpers" at the Expo who can answer your questions and give advice if you are a new comer to Second Life.

Thanks to Ian for allowing us to screen his film and for taking time out of his busy schedule to attend.

Surgee has a New PC & Other News

2008-10-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

Just finished recording the next Overcast where Phil and I discuss the Montreal Expo debacle and even though we both covered a lot of recent news in Machinima there is still a lot we left out. I thought I'd cover some of it here at Machiniplex3.

The big news is that Daniel Wasiluk (Surgee), director of the WoW film "The Demise" has a brand new PC. If any of you recall, Daniel had some financial difficulties around the time we were premiering "The Demise" and had to sell his computer to make ends meet. I decided right then and there to take up a collection at the premiere and to collect as many computer parts as we could to get him up and running again. He's such a great filmmaker, I just couldn't see him not being able to make movies.

Thanks to a lot of donations and some scrounging around by yours truly, I was able to send him most of the components he needed to put together a decent machinima-making PC, along with some cash as well.

Just got this email along with some pix from him the other day:

Hey Ricky,

I just wanted you to know that I was able to get all missing parts and the PC is up and running.Everything works great! I'm now downloading WoW client (left my CD's in Germany) . On this slow connection it will take about a week with all the updates. When it's done, I'm gonna create some trial accounts (had to stop my subscription,got no time to play MMO's) and will start making new movie right away! I'm working at day time and I plan to find new ways to make this movie bigger and better than last one so it might take a bit long before I will complete it.
You said that you can help out with the sound. Do you have some sound effects library or you take care of equalization? Biggest problem with my movies is that I got no source of sound effects , if you got any and could help out in future that would be great! Good sound is half of success :)

Thanks again for helping me out :)

Daniel

So, thanks to everyone who helped get Daniel his new computer. It's this kind of support that makes our community a good one.

Other News

Just some quick notes on developments in the machinima community recently.

-ZenCub3d has a new October beta out with several fixes and tweaks. I really like this program and the people that created it. Do yourself a favor and check it out. 100% Free.

-Expo submissions are closed as of Oct 13th. We've gotten over a hundred entries and the general quality is very good. I'm actually encouraged by the direction of contemporary machinima. Having the opportunity to view so many films really gives you a perspective you might not have otherwise. Now it's on to picking the films that will be screened and passing on the best of the best to our Expo jury. Yay!

-Antics3D has come out with a new version 5 which includes decent facial animation. Haven't had a chance to dig very deeply yet, but from what I've seen it looks good. One downside we didn't mention in the Overcast ( didn't know at the time), is that Antics has decided to do away with their Free version of the program. No explanation has been given, but comments in the Antics forum are not very positive.

-Ian Chisholm, director of "Clear Skies", has agreed to premiere the film at the Machinima Expo on Nov. 9th. This film was one of those that made me sit up in my chair when it was submitted. I'm so grateful that Ian was able to take time out of his busy schedule to attend and answer questions.

-John C. Martin is at Renderosity.com in the "Spotlight" on the front page. It's an interesting feature where John will answer questions all week from the community. If you like iClone, or are just curious, head over to renderosity.com and ask John. He'll give you the straight dope.

-Lastly, Phil and I have just completed an article for the UK magazine PC Plus about the contemporary machinima scene. Not sure when it will be published but I'm guessing it might be in the November issue. We are also going to write a 2-part iClone tutorial for the mag at some point in the future. Really enjoyed this project and working with Phil was a breeze. My only disappointment was that we had to leave too many things out, but we were limited in space.
I'll update here when our article is published.