One of the book series I’ve enjoyed was the Copper Crown series by Patricia Kennealy-Morrison — The Copper Crown, The Throne of Scone and The Silver Branch (actually a prequel), which blend science fiction, medieval fantasy, adventure and romance into a fantastic whole. Part of the story was derived from Preiddeu Annwn, or The Spoils of Annwn, a medieval Welsh song-poem. There’s lots of puzzles in this piece, and it’s beauty holds up well in the translation I’ve heard recited of it.
I heard it recited here in Second Life, specifically. An exhibit built by a class at the University of Rochester celebrates this poem in high style and multimedia. Teleport to the sim and follow the instructions carefully to enjoy the whole experience!
When I did the original article “The Carnival Is Over” back in April, I strung the photos I selected to the lyrics of an old Seekers song, and included a clip from an Australian television show at the bottom to give everyone the chance to hear the actual song, one of my favorites.
But I had all these photos that I shot — I try to take at least 15 photos for any session I do, other than landscape and candid work, so I can pick the best from the collection’s contact sheet for use in an article, as well as on Flickr. And, while I was fiddling around the other day with things, I realized I have the tools to make a sort of video from all those photos; and so I said to myself, “Self,” I said, “you’re gonna make that video!”
The sad thing is that Mignonne region, where I did the camera work, is now closed and sunk beneath the tides of the Great Virtual Sea. I wanted to go back and see if I could do some more work to better fill in the story, but that was now impossible. However, I think I did a respectable, if not Oscar-worthy, effort with the 30 photos I did have, and I offer it to you for your enjoyment. Please tell me what you think!
Second Life is about more than fashion, than sex, than dancing and parties. Second Life is about what you make it — completely and truly. Fashion and pretty vistas are mostly my thing (especially because I don’t have the tools or time to do the creations I’d really like to attempt), but others have done far more creative work. For instance, The Basilique Performing Arts Company has produced a movie, based on their very popular performance of Bunyan’s Paradise Lost. You can find out lots of juicy details here, including how to win a shot at L$20,000 in a photo contest!
An excellent and seasonal piece to go with the season — I encourage you to read the whole article and watch the machinima’s first episode. As Jo says at the end of her piece, “Frohe Weihnachten!”
Well known artist Ole Etzel, who was the subject of an excellent ‘Drax Files’ episode, moved in to a small dirty damp apartment in our 1920s Berlin sim and created a wonderful machinima in the dark streets and alleyways.
‘A German Tale’ tells us the story of an old man looking back at his childhood in Berlin.
I’m extremely excited with the end result and proud that Ole picked the city I build for this production.
In RL I’ve been to Filmschool, owned a tv/movie production company and have been a writer and director and I’m very impressed with this video, it makes me wish I had the time to start making machinima myself.
I started the 1920s Berlin Project because of my passion for history and saw in Second Life a way to share and even contaminate people from all over the world with this love for the past…
I love getting notices on blog articles from my colleagues; there’s so much good stuff out there. Check this out (with thanks to Iris Ophelia at New World Notes):
I’ve just watched this myself. As Iris says, this is one of the smoothest machinima I’ve ever seen, as well as a crackerjack promo vehicle for The Secret Store. Applause and props to Maylene for making this piece!!!
Back to the Olympic theme as the fortnight of the London 2012 Games winds down. Here’s the teaser commercial the BBC was running before the Games began; I was lucky when the Beeb’s embed code wouldn’t work in WordPress, because it forced me to search it up on YouTube, and find a full-length version.
The great thing about this, besides the sheer spectacular beauty of the entire concept, is that it’s all done in the box as a machinima. There isn’t a live frame in it anywhere! It wasn’t filmed in Second Life; I’d love it even more if it had been. The idea, of course, is that the whole of London, and even England, is the backdrop for the Games. You have fishing trawlers laying down lane floats for swimming; boxers in a ring at a cargo port; runners racing down an East End street (with the finish line in front of a shop with the sign Photo Finish); a gymnast doing floor exercises on a pedestrian bridge in the City; an athlete using the south-shore beaches as her sand pit for the long jump…. And all around in the background, you see the upper edges of the Olympic Stadium, showing that the whole country is watching. Take a look at this thing — you’ll get the idea.
The BBC liked this so much that they use still and partially animated concept frames at the bottom of each of their Olympic Web pages. If you want to see them (a few of them pop up only rarely), run off to their site and go to the bottom of each page.
This was done by Kobuk Farshore for the University of Western Australia, and is absolutely fantastic! Look at the smoothness of the camera work, and the overall concept.
Second Life® with Harper, Conan, Jem, Diana and Morgan
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