When I rezzed in Second Life, on January 8 2007, I had no idea.
I explored, met many people, and ended up working as a host in TJice danceclub, where i made 100 lindendollars an hour for chatting to people. My favorite way of spending time in SL and it paid too!
In rl I worked for a Dutch TV station, a stressful job with lots of ego’s around me. I produced, filmed and edited pretty much around the clock, and spending time in a virtual world was very relaxing.
No filming for me there – but that didnt last for very long. On 06-28-2007 TJice was sold and we were told to pack our virtual bags and leave before midnight.
At that time there was a camera embedded in the SL viewer menu, I experimented with it and made my very first machinima that day, never having heard of that word or genre. All I wanted was to preserve that club, where so many fun hours were spend.
I left that first machinima “thingy” online, its makes me cringe to watch it now, but it is how I started.
I never stopped filming since.
I did leave my tv job behind, and now focus on machinima.
Having made over 200 productions, in every possible genre, I realise how much Second Life has done for me. And, me for them.
I found the perfect way of overcoming the lonelyness that machinima people encounter.
I reached out and started organising community events, emphasysing on film, fun and growth.
I created the MaMachinima Int. Festival, providing filmers from all 3D games and virtual worlds with a cross-media platform to show their best work. (
http://MMIF.org)
I started working as the machinima producer for the 48 Hour Film Project. (
http://48hourfilm.com/machinima)
Together with Toxic Menges and Phaylen Fairchild I started the MachinimaMondays Group in SecondLife, with weekly meetings it is now called the most active machinima group in SL, connecting people and welcoming all. Filmers, writers, artists, poets, musicians, we work together.
Many projects followed, and I discovered that the more I gave, the more I got back.
The machinima community is a growing, open minded, sharing group of people with different cultures and backgrounds, and often a strong vision (and enough sillyness to be fun too). We learn from each other and show support.
I am proud to be a part of that!
Recently I helped organise a new initiative for the LEA.(
http://alturl.com/io5zr)
Remembering the showcase for machinima on Secondlife.com - which is greatly missed by machinimatographers ever since it was abandoned, and we came up with the idea of an inworld showcase on the LEA sims.
So, we launched the Month of Machinima festival.(
http://alturl.com/m96x6) Yay!
Every month, we will set a different theme, and a new maximum lenght for the machinima’s.
Deadline for submitting is the 10th, and the films change every first wednesday of the month.
The showcased machinima’s go on a playlist on youtube, so once a film is shown at MoM, it will be part of its history.
Werner Kurosawa built the LEA theater, of which I will give you a glimps now (the real thing is much better!):
LEA kicks off on May 4th 2011 - at 10 am SL time, with the grand opening of MoM.
For the opening event, 12 3-minute machinima's have been selected out of many submissions. If yours is not chosen for the May showcase, I want you to know that we appreciate every film, we hope you will submit again and will keep your film on hand for future events.
MoM overview
* MoM applications can be submitted through the 10th of each month for consideration in the following month.
* MoM screenings take place in world every first Wednesday of each month.
* You will be notified if your film is chosen.
* Films that are not chosen for one month may be selected to be screened in the future.
* Length of your film is 3 minutes max (unless when stated otherwise)
* Find all of the information and link to the application to submit your machinima information here:
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Month_of_MachinimaMoM Themes for 2011:
* June: Mixed Reality (SL machinima has to be part of your mix) --- 6 minutes max runtime
* July: Games in SL
* August: Design and Architecture
* September: Seasons (in your life, the 4 seasons, or ?)
* October: The 4 Elements
* November: SL Events
* December: Endings, conclusion
Your guideline is SL Art, and about the themes ... be creative, and do take care of copyrights.
The LEA committee members:
Bryn Oh
Chantal Harvey
Dancoyote Antonelli
Dekka Raymaker
Dizzy Banjo
Jayjay Zifanwe
L1Aura Loire
Rez Menoptra
Sasun Steinbeck
Werner Kurosawa
Courtney Linden
Linden Lab is recognising the importance of machinima, and is giving back to the community.
They are supporting and recognising our machinima efforts, and there is more to come.
Machinima is ART and ready to conquer the World!
