'Fragments'- The first episode of a series of interactive machinima films set in the not too distant future ...

'Fragments' - the first episode of a series of interactive machinima films will be released on May 17th at an Second Life premiere at the Infused Canvas site. If you are inworld now, click the link to TP there.  Fragments will be a story told in a number of episodes streamed online on YouTube and in Second Life.

'Fragments' is set in the near distant future in a place called Midian City. The protagonist, Aiden McKenzie, was part of a militia group that took down a large corporate organisation responsible for the events collapsing Midian twenty years earlier. The return to his former home will bring back old memories, as we begin to realise that he is suffering from serious trauma. This will cause a stir in the city as old mistakes are about to be uncovered...

Written and directed by Twisted Surface and Nathalia Parisi, the story took shape and was filmed all in the space of three months. 
The idea behind "Fragments" is to bring the viewer into the world of the character and then give them a chance to contribute to the story.

Twisted Surface says:

"We want the viewer to play an active part of the story and determine what happens next. There are so many real life feature films out there that people watch and think 'Well what if it went this way?'

"We want our films to induce that question in everyone's mind and tell us what to do next. We feel that we need to take machinima back to the drawing board so that it's more about the continuing story, rather than a hubbub of special effects. Of course, we like to use our fair share of that too!"

"Fragments, is not an exact account of what the Midian City back-story may have been but it's loosely based around the original concept written up by Baal Zobel and Jade Steele. We decided to take that story and animate it from a particular angle. We have been in the role-playing scene in SL ourselves for a while now and respect all aspects of role-play here. What we want to do is to initiate role-play through our films. They provide the platform and the scene to tell a bigger story"


There will be a competition held by Infused Canvas which will give storytellers and screenwriters to work with the directors of the film.
Winning suggestions and entries will be implemented into the next part of the film as the saga carries on. Budding machinima artists are invited to assist in the creative process as well as musicians and builders for set design.

Barerose Tokyo and Tango New York have agreed to assist for some of the clothes in the films, but other clothing labels are invited to work for the next parts of the series, as well as animators and skin designers.

The premiere for the film will be on the 17th of May 2008 at the Infused Canvas Café for the first screening in-world. The first screening in-world will be at 1pm SLT. There will be an opportunity to meet the directors of the film and ask questions, following by live performances and a tour of the new studio space.

This is not the first machinima film that Twisted Surface and Nathalia Parisi have done based from a role-playing environment. In 2007 they were involved in a project called 1001 Nights. A concept based around the classical Scheherazade stories. See
http://1001virtualnights.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/finally-the-film-has-been-finished/

GaiaGirl's Photo & Media Studio

As my Second Life friends know, I work as a photographer / journalist in RL & 2L and am happy to do a new profile portrait for you, photograph your event, party or fantasy situation, or work with a stylist to do a fashion shoot for that magazine feature or prepare your photos for a model competition ~ this is the website to collect photographs or order your photo session.

My photographic studio in SL is well equipped, with hundreds of pose balls, animations, backdrops, lighting and three stages: a portrait stage with multiple backdrops, a model stage for large dynamic pictures and a white cyclorama for easy photoshop pics (if you want me to put your portrait onto any background image) – in other words its well equipped to handle almost any assignment from product photos to fashion shoots.
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Also, if you require a special build, we can go into the RL to make custom photos of buildings, vehicles and textiles to bring individuality to your Second Life item.

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