SL Video: "Women's Digital Cinema - Pooky Amsterdam"

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From Glasz Movies on November 6, Pooky Amsterdam speaks about her machinima-making, with scenes from "Time Travelers."

SL Video: "The Drax Files - World Makers Episode 40 - Bernhard Dörries"

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The latest "Drax Files" video from Draxtor Despres on Sept 1, "This episode of the Drax Files focuses on 88-year-old Bernhard Dörries. A successful German film director whose prolific career spans more than 50 years and 129 films, Bernhard continues to explore storytelling and creativity through Second Life.

"In Second Life, Bernhard’s avatar is Bernhard McIntyre - a youthful representation of his creative intellect, as well as a vehicle to cope with the emotional and physical challenges of moving into an assisted living situation.

“'My avatar is co-creator, equal partner in sharing feelings, co-owner of feelings and emotions,' he says.

[**** please choose your subtitles in the lower right corner by clicking "cc" and for an English transcript go to http://bit.ly/tdf40_english ***]"

Einstein's Avatar, and "The Virtual Marathon for Medical Research" Machinima

Made by BobE Schism and Susan Writer, this machinima is about a fundraiser for the IMRIC (Institute for Medical Research for Israel and Canada). With a marathon theme, "each avatar runner represents a condition or disease that is the subject of IMRIC research and funding in partnership with Canadian laboratories and universities."

The machinima itself was started during the fundraiser, but not finished until the results were known, BobE shooting multiple endings ahead of time and selecting one only after the winner was officially announced.

Hamlet Au talked to BobE, whom told him his objective was to dramatize the outcome of the fundraiser, "The avatars represent real-life people who were raising money for medical research in real life." He did his best to make the avatars at least somewhat similar to the donors, which often had them looking a bit weathered instead of fresh young athletes, "Originally I was just meant to make ten 'representations' of the real-life people, but on review of the test shots, I was asked to make them as close as possible to the real thing, which ultimately made them much more endearing and believable than the ten young superfit aves I had originally created."

To add to the challenge, not everyone showed up at the same time, "At most there were four of us logged in, controlling ten to eleven avies, sometimes scripted, sometimes manually." He credited Elizabeth Calderwood and Katje Jewel for helping him out. Despite the help, much time was lost due to various SL bugs from avatars going off-sim, lag, and the runners sinking into the ground.

"No avatars were harmed in the making of this film, though some might have shed a few pounds."



Also in the video was an Albert Einstein avatar, also designed by BobE Schism. Approved by those in charge of the great physicist's estate, it is the official Albert Einstein Avatar in Second Life, created for the purpose of helping out with the Marathon. The voice of the avatar was the only German speaker BobE knew, who used special effects to lower his voice, "now every time I speak to him on the phone, it sounds like I'm speaking to Albert Einstein on helium."

Sources: New World Notes, IMRIC

Bixyl Shuftan

SL Youtube: "Mesh Noir," "Flufee on a Meshion - Episode8":

From Pooky Amsterdam and Draxtor Despres, "Raymond Chandler and his writings especially stories featuring detective Philip Marlowe have fascinated our hero Flufee since his early childhood. As expected it was not long before he inserted him and friends into a noirish black & white mesh-up of semi-epic proportions...."

Interview with Chantal Harvey

Recently, Second Life Newser got a chance to interview noted Machinima filmmaker Chantal Harvey. Her name often mentioned when film in Second Life is, she has appeared in many machinima-related events in Second Life. In the interview, she discusses how she started, the film festivals she recently attended, and her current project with R2D2 creator Tony Dyson.

Read more in People.

MachnExpo 2011 this Weekend

MachinExpo 2011 Programming Schedule

Meet Afsaneh Metaluna: Artist, Filmmaker, and Storyteller

Our reporter Grey Lupindo recently met up with Afsaneh Metaluna. A resident of Elf Circle in the Falathrim sim, she has proven to be a great storyteller, artist, and filmmaker in real-life. Now she brings those talents to Second Life.

Read the story in People.