Last week on Thursday December 15, the made in Second Life movie (or machinima) "Waarheid" premiered at the "Film Threat" theater. Scheduled to start at 10AM SL time, the 100 second countdown started at 10:30. There were over a hundred people in the sim.
The movie is a dystopian sci-fi tale of which the script was written by Huckleberry Hax, who has also done over a dozen novels and numerous short stories in Second Life, the most noted being "AFK", and also plays the part of the antagonist, Belletristik. Caitlin Tobias is the actress behind the protagonist Erika Janssen/Waarheid. Other roles played include AvaJean Westland, Ylva (Soulfullife ), Boudicca Amat, Lydia Lindemann (Lydiadecremorne), Mich Michabo, and Strawberry Singh (Strawberry Linden). The movie is a sequel to Stomol, Huckleberry's first major SL film, which debuted in July 2020.
The movie starts with Waarheid / Erika trying to track down the location of the man who nearly killed her, recalling what happened to her, losing her arm, and her recovery. But things do not quite go as she planned. She eventually wakes up in what apparently is a very sophisticated virtual reality simulation, placed there by someone who says she wants to help her accomplish her tracking down her attempted killer, but wants her to trust him, which she's reluctant to do.
The movie ended with applause, and afterwards much of the cast and audience went to a club to celebrate at an afterparty, Huckleberry saying at one point, "We have this amazing venue tonight due to the generosity of Amelie (amilee34) and Ylva - please show your appreciation to the venue and DJ."
Yours truly doesn't want to give too much away about the movie, though with her in an ultra-realistic virtual reality simulator comes the question how does she truly know she's out of it (Total Recall anyone?) I was pleased with the ending. A lot of work was done on the movie and it was well-done.
A few days before on December 9, Strawberry would interview Huckleberry, Caitlin, and AvaJean in a Lab Gab episode. Huckleberry would say he didn't plan on doing a sequel to Stomol at first, but hearing what people thought eventually came up with the idea for Waarheid. It was filmed in a number of locations, some of which are no longer around. Huckleberry spoke that he has no plans for a sequel to this, though he won't say "never" either.
To see the movie, head to Film Threat (48/126/23). It should be there for a few more weeks. Exactly when the theater's next movie is scheduled to be up is unknown.
Some sad news for fans of sci-fi themed sims. According to New World Notes, the "Hangars Liquides" sims will be closing at the end of the month.
The area, now consisting of five sims of tall buildings high in the sky
with a gritty, run-down theme, what owner and creator Djehan Kidd called "Cyberpunk City, Technopunk, Dystopian Noir," has been in Second Life since 2007. In
2014, it was featured in a video in The Guardian. But unfortunately, a change in the Terms of Service mean that as a nonprofit, the sim can't rent spaces to help pay for it's upkeep. “As a cultural nonprofit organization,”
Djehan explained to Hamlet Au, “Second Life has become unsustainable for me. Several
months ago, I was told that the new Terms of Service for nonprofits did
not permit us to offer rentals anymore; as a result, the city couldn't
pay for itself any more.”
According to Hamlet, Djehan has been in contact with Linden Lab, and there is talk about making Hangars Liquides an exception to their new rules. But as of now, there's nothing agreed upon. Unless something changes, the city will close at the end of the month.
