Machinima is a modern word coined to describe movies made in a simulated world by its residents ~ film makers inside a simulated set ~ this genre is entirely new creating its own problems and solutions ~ one problem is the backgrounds are always in focus and there is no depth of field (try stretching the textures on the backdrops to make them fuzzy or shoot against light pastel colour ~ images that fade away :) Lock onto your subject and let the camera pan with them - Where do we start with machinima? Fraps

1EarthMedia machinima blog  June '08

[18:40] Rysan Fall: what types of machinima do you put on your website?
[18:41] GaiaGirl Pearl: anything but porn - LOL
[18:41] Rysan Fall: lol
[18:41] Rysan Fall: will you look at my stuff?
[18:41] GaiaGirl Pearl: sure
[18:42] Rysan Fall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFwYk8OXPGs
[18:42] Rysan Fall: I will give best 3
[18:42] Rysan Fall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbNmvCJ2_KY[18:42] Rysan Fall: they are short
[18:43] Rysan Fall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KHj_P2Ndz4

My name is Rysan Fall. I have been a member of Second Life since Dec 2nd, 2007. I have only been doing machinima since February 2008 and already the response to my work has been overwhelming.

I got the idea to do it because I am novice video editor in real life and I thought Second Life would be a great place to practice shooting some scenes in real world. I would like to thank two people for helping me get my start... Aeris Masala and Raven Bechir. Raven told me of the progams to get in order to film and Aeris performed as a model for my early work. In fact, I use her to practice all the effects you see in my videos.

I am basically a one man production company, producing commercials, short films and personal videos for customers inworld. I would have to say the video that got me noticed was "Number one crush" (Aurrora's present for Diaz) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFwYk8OXPGs

She wanted me to make a video of her for her "partner" on Second Life. The response to my work after that was overwhelming with people wanting special personalized videos and commercials for businesses inworld. I started "Fall Films" in March of 2008 and since then I have completed 10 videos which can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/FallFilms

People tell me that they have never seen machinima quite like mine. In all my videos I have one common element, I try include a piece of reality in every single one. I film, direct, and edit everything myself along with coming up with the concept for each video.

I love machinima ...I was doing it before I even knew there was a whole new genre of video dedicated to it. And I hope to be as good as some of the other seasoned machinimators Ive seen out there such as Madame Zhora and Baron Soosdon, to name a few. I was really impressed with Trace/Tracechops/LainyVoom for her work on "The Dumb Man." Simply incredible.

I am inspired by them. Thats why I will always try to top my last video...because if I can do that , I will only get better. I am proud be part of this new and exciting style of film making.
 

Rysan Fall

Machinima by Twisted Surface

1EarthMedia machinima blog  May '08

'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/

Interview with film maker (machinima maker)
Twisted Surface on 17th May, '08

Twisted Surface (TS): hello there :)
GaiaGirl (GG): interactive machinima? - so you show a segment, the viewer chooses response a,b,c or d - and you show corresponding clip next?
TS: well its episodic. So what the viewers decide. everyone comes together and sticks it on script and happens in next part of the story.  They see it being made, sets being built, things being created - not behind the scenes like a lot of the machinima
GG: ah - so the viewer makes a choice, and then his choice is then filmed live? sounds very labour intensive?
TS: well yeah, it's a collaborative process. We get amateur writers, roleplayers etc.  What it does it keep the story alive and in the hands on the viewer.  If you want the fate of the character to change, you come along.  Very experimental.  We're not sure exactly how it'll turn out.. but we think it could be something that could work.
GG: and the fate - is this decided democratically amongst the audience - how does the script selection process work?
It's experimental - but exciting
TS: we hope so :P  The process of episode one was basically I wrote up a makeshift script, a very bad one at that and I got to working with Nathalia Parisi, who is also with me in the project, so we'll be leading the actual implementation of the script to the story as we'll have to see the logistics of the movie but we'll hold writing workshops, machinima workshops..
GG: how many crew do you have working live to produce this - and what size audience do you expect to be driving it?
TS: in all honesty, we have no idea. We're going to broadcast this onto our youtube channel as soon as it airs. Our working machinima crew is quite small, actually just the two of us :D  We can both build fairly well and have a dynamic between us. We will outsource help from places should we need it
GG: the two are the core of the film unit , with the audience participating in the whole process as well
TS: pretty much
GG: so how do you make the decisions - throw around ideas and the best one is decided upon?
TS: bingo.   I can write scripts and I know about the industry in rl.. I've dabbled there. However I find it's usually best to throw things on the canvas and see how it turns out.  Call it modern art or something!
GG: its like a video game but made to order - live?
TS: well Midian City at the moment IS an actual role-playing city, so the movies we do.. can potentially drive the story there.  That's the idea. to spark off fragments (kerching) of creativity
GaiaGirl Pearl: the stills images on webpage http://1001virtualnights.wordpress.com/2008/05/12/finally-the-film-has-been-finished/ are they from your first production?
TS: oh.. those are taken by someone else. we have fans from other places. Our last project was a 1001 Nights based one, fantasy arabia
GG: Is 1001 Nights on YouTube - where can people see it?
TS: www.youtube.com/3vilmuffin thats my portfolio
GG: you're influenced by movie Blade Runner?
TS: for this particular project yes :)  a mixture between the worlds of Blade Runner and possibly the Matrix - we're going to cover some complex themes
GG: post-apocalyptic?
TS: yes, but the idea is to study 'how' that happened
GG: how the future happened?
Twisted Surface nods
TS: Midian City was a surveillance society, it'll be touching on areas that a lot of people want to write about but using fiction as a platform.  The series is an active participation of the viewer with Aiden. We discover things with him. There will be some background research involved because I love viral marketing.. and want people to go places.. ask questions :D
GG: how do you relate viral marketing to movie making?
TS: its not really movie making.. more story writing. Because this place actually exists in SL, don't you want to go over to Midian City and see things for yourself? :)  We did that with 1001 Nights
GG: its already the 17th where I am - so tomorrow is now for me
TS: yeow down under eh.  Better head to sleep, was very nice to meet you :)
GG: yes - and check out my 1st Life - influenced by Blade Runner here too :)
TS: wow :) we're due for some chattering over a little virtual coffee sometime then.  you'll like the movie ;)
GG: I wrote thesis on Blade Runner when I was at Australian Film & TV School - even after 20 years that movie still holds up, 25 years!
TS: I wrote one too :D which inspired me to do this.  The sleepless nights in the library ...
Twisted Surface shudders
GG: :) TY
TS: you're most welcome

Our Top 10 Machinima
(in no particular order)

This isn't machinima, but its the funniest take on Second Life we've seen

Chase Speculaas his machinima

Rysan Fall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFwYk8OXPGs
Rysan Fall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbNmvCJ2_KY
Rysan Fall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KHj_P2Ndz4

1001 Nights. A concept based around the classical Scheherazade stories by Twisted Surface

Jolly Bonne Anne
battle ensign & interviews with
Chase Speculaas his machinima

GaiaGirl is modelled on Pris of Bladerunner fame - Daryl Hannah's first major role

1EarthMedia
PO Box 64
Crescent Head
NSW Australia 2440

As my Second Life friends know, I work as a photographer / journalist / PR 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.
I am also available to do photos on your location.

I am happy to work for Lindens, although please be aware that an hourly rate starts at L1000 (a few dollars) and photo sessions are minimum L500 ~ only occasionally I will reduce my fee if the assignment & you are worthy. IM for details! I do not pay for uploading to you, but am happy to send the photos as we make them to your email, or I prefer to save them to my disk, work them in Photoshop to make sure they are OK, and then make them available for you to pick up anonymously at a secure place on this website soon after the photo session. Please IM me!

The 1EarthMedia team is also available to build any item for your Second Life - from castles & palaces to telescopes & clothing.

Our full time Second Life staff can also organise and promote your event or sim location - combining photography, machinima (inworld video & movie making), journalism and website design.

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.

Contact GaiaGirl Pearl in Second Life or email

 

1EarthMedia produces the GaiaGirl.com.au website and is the copyright holder of all images on this website, except those provided by PR companies or interviewees for the purpose of illustrating a story.
If you wish to use any images for any purpose please send GaiaGirl an IM ~ we are realistic and generous (usually) in their usage, but PLEASE ASK.

Yes, the kids can use my images for their homework!

Please link to this webpage if you're in the film business - what goes round come round.