JUST VIRTUAL » Creative Collaboration

Machinima ‘Speeding Cars’ Imogen Heap

Gary Hazlitt — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:37:21 +0000

A Second Life Machinima by Gary Hayes

Song ‘Speeding Cars’ by IMOGEN HEAP (used with permission of the artist)

Medium rez 48MB MP4 download here

Special thanks to

Song: IMOGEN HEAP
Animations: Sinewave & Abramination
Dance consultant: Richard James-Allen Physical.tv
Nevada timelapse footage by Gary Hayes & Nadia Warner

Machinimatography, editing, avatanimation & concept by
Gary Hayes

LYRICS by Imogen Heap

Here’s the day you hoped would never come
Don’t feed me violins
just run with me through rows of speeding cars.
The papercuts the cheating lovers
The coffee’s never strong enough
i know you think it’s more than just bad luck

There there baby
it’s just text book stuff
it’s in the ABC of growing up
Now now darling
oh don’t lose your head
cause none of us were angels
and you know I love you yeah

Sleeping pills know sleeping dogs lie
never far enough away
Glistening in the cold sweat of guilt
I’ve watched you slowly winding down for years
You can’t keep on like this…
now’s a bad a time as any

There there baby
it’s just text book stuff
it’s in the ABC of growing up
Now now darling
oh don’t kill yourself
cause none of us were angels
and you know I love you yeah

it’s ok by me..

it’s ok by me..

it’s ok by me..it was a long time ago

it’s ok by me..

it’s ok by me..

it’s ok by me..it was a long time ago

There there baby
it’s just text book stuff
it’s in the ABC of growing up
Now now darling
oh don’t lose your head
cause none of us were angels
and you know I love you yeah

There there baby
it’s just text book stuff
it’s in the ABC of growing up
Now now darling
oh don’t kill yourself
cause none of us were angels
and you know I love you yeah

From Island to Campus – Deakin Arts University Build

Gary Hazlitt — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:25:49 +0000

My build and design of the Deakin University Arts Island almost a year ago in January of 2008. Special thanks to Deakin staff Jenny Grenfell, Fiona Phillips, Jo Raphael and Stephen Seagrave for their guidance. The general brief for this was based around a couple of escher and dali paintings alongside some basic teaching space and gallery areas. The video captures the organic growth of the design ideas – it is still growing as all good builds should do! The island has been in regular use by staff and students but closed to the general public.

Medium rez 105MB MP4 available here. Music composed and performed by Gary Hayes. These images with comments can be seen here.

Video, music & 447 Images © Gary Hayes and Deakin University

Below is the flickr slideshow embedded as an alternative

Another Sensational Machinima in The Wall

Gary Hazlitt — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:28:11 +0000

I spent three early mornings last week capturing three times, in its entirety (a full 43 minutes) CARPs inventive and emotionally driven version of Pink Floyd’s 1980′s album, The Wall. It was a truly international group that spent many hours developing and performing a Virtual Show to music that reaches a new audience every few years. Thanks to NMC as usual for hosting this and other cutting edge Second Life events!I will be editing down the full show in the next few days, in sequence as performed, but this upload is my personal expression of what I experienced.

A well known track from the album was wisely left off by Director Debbie Trilling due to it’s popularity but while I was putting together this ‘mash-up’ compilation I tried a recording of the reunion performance of the Comfortably Numb at Live 8 a few years ago and was entranced by the synergy of visual and song. Hope you do too. Credits after the embed of my film below.

Medium quality (90MB MP4) download available here. Worth playing full screen with the volume up and the lights down

SECOND LIFE – THE WALL V-2 FILM

A special long form promo edit of the Live Virtual Show…Machinimatography & Editing: GARY HAZLITT

SECOND LIFE – THE WALL V-2
Creative Director: DEBBIE TRILLING Producer: VELAZQUEZ BONETTO

Special thanks for valuable contributions from: Haven Colville, Scio Kamanchi, Gypsy Paz, Lyddyn Tzara, Celeste Moonlight, DJ Jenns, windyy Lane, NMC Campus and George W Bush and, of course, Pink Floyd’s incredible album ‘The Wall’

Song selected for this compilation by Gary Hazlitt, The ‘Live 8′ Version COMFORTABLY NUMB (please note: not featured in the live show)

Creative Director: DEBBIE TRILLING
Producer: VELAZQUEZ BONETTO
Wall Design and Build: ELFOD NEMETH
Animated Puppets: DUGGY BING
Animations: CARAVAGGIO BONETTO
Original Music: JUNIVERS STOCKHOLM & JOSINA BURGESS
Stills Photography: ADEC ALEXANDRIA
Dancing & Joyfulness: KLUTE CUPPLOA & SOUTHERN RIPTID

Filmed & Edited: GARY HAZLITT © JustVirtual.com 2008

SECOND LIFE – THE WALL V-2 FILM “Mother Should I Trust the Government” Full 43 Minute Version Available Soon

Love Makes the Worlds Go Round – The Soul of Icarus Video

Gary Hazlitt — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:47:01 +0000

A two world machinima I did this week exploring the themes of a cross-world quest for love, mixed-reality and online game relationships. The song ‘The Soul of Icarus” was composed and sung by Gary Hayes © Cubrisound 2004 and a special thanks to my co-star, SilkCharm for her patience and WoW’ness. There are some nice Flickr film stills here too! and I am really spoiling you now a selection of video sites with the film on here – YouTube, Metacafe, Google and Blip.tv

“Come to the edge. We can’t. We’re afraid. Come to the edge. We can’t. We will fall! Come to the edge. And they came. And he pushed them. And they flew”. – Guillaume Appollinaire

Credits:

Filmed in World of Warcraft and Second Life sims:
CityScape from NBC and Marni created by Gary Hazlitt.
Medium rez download (85MB MP4) available here.
Machinimatography and editing by Gary Hazlitt © JustVirtual 2008

“And once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you long to return…” – Leonardo Da Vinci

Film of the Virtual Pink Floyd ‘The Wall’ Show

Gary Hazlitt — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 06:38:40 +0000

I was asked by Debbie Trilling, the creative director of this show, to be the machinimatographer on the last two performances of Pink Floyd’s The Wall in Second Life recently. It was great listening to music I remember growing up with being performed by a passionate group of people from all over the world who recreated elements of the film, animated sequences and live show in one of Second Life’s most spectacular displays of creative coordination. It was created by The Cybernetic Art Research Project CARP.

There were audiences of 60+ crammed into the NMC sim which slowed things down a touch, but not noticeably (I was still getting 15 fps or so ). I have a lot of footage to edit into a short 10 minute and the longer full 90 minute film but for now I selectively scanned the footage for interesting frames and created 107 medium resolution photographs which capture a little of the atmosphere and thought put into this.

The performances have received rave reviews over the past few weeks and over 2000 avatars have now seen the show…

“Amazing. Not so much viewed as it is experienced” ~ Metaverse Messenger
“All I can say is WOW. GREAT show” ~ Second Arts
“Nothing short of spectacular. A complete immersion” ~ Looking Glass
“Impressive, touching and thoughtful. Second Life at its best” ~ MixedRealities
“Never seen anything like it.20A perfect amalgamation of creativity” ~ sl-newspaper
“Cutting edge art and performance” ~ NMC Observer

Stills (on this page and on flickr link here) – Taken from Gary Hazlitt’s Machinima of CARP’s “The Wall in Second Life” – video available soon. Stills medium ‘video’ resolution.

Production Credits

The CARP Wall Team:

Creative Director: Debbie Trilling (UK)
Producer: Velazquez Bonetto (Germany)
Wall Design: Elfod Nemeth (UK)
Animated Puppets: Duggy Bing (US)
Animations: Caravaggio Bonetto (Austria)
Original Music: Junivers Stockholm (Sweden) & Josina Burgess (Holland)
Stills Photography: Adec Alexandria (UK)
Dancing & Joyfulness: Klute Copploa (France), Southern Riptide (US)

with valuable contributions from:

Scio Kamanchi (US)
Gypsy Paz (US)
Lyddyn Tzara (US)
Celeste Moonlight (US)
DJ Jenns (UK)
George W B ush (US)

Full 44 Minute Machinima of The Wall V-2 in Second Life

Gary Hazlitt — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:51:34 +0000

As promised a full cut of this great virtual stage show. The full version was removed off YouTube because there were other full recordings put up by Debbie Trilling just before they were released. Here is a link to a 512MB version as an MP4 here.

The Cybernetics Arts Research Project – SECOND LIFE – THE WALL V-2

Performed live in front of a audience at the New Media Consortium West sim in Second Life.

Creative Director: DEBBIE TRILLING
Producer: VELAZQUEZ BONETTO
A JustVirtual Film – Machinimatography & Editing: GARY HAZLITT

THE FULL 44 MINUTE EXPERIENCE EMBEDDED AS A YOUTUBE PLAYLIST BELOW – ENJOY.

Features songs: In the Flesh, The Thin Ice, Mother, Young Lust, One of My Turns, The Trial, Goodbye Cruel World, Is there Anybody Out There and an original piece by JUNIVERS STOCKHOLM & JOSINA BURGESS “Break Those Walls”

Filmed & Edited: GARY HAZLITT
© JustVirtual.com 2008

Full Performance Machinima ZeroG SkyDancers “Second Spring”

Gary Hazlitt — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:18:15 +0000

I was lucky to attend another amazing performance, from Dan Coyote and the team, three times and was able to draw on three full length sequences for my edit of the performance. I then set up a Multiclip in Final Cut Pro which allowed me to edit the piece in its entirety as if live with the three parallel continuous shots. The two YouTubes below give a feel for the work but there is also a medium rez 103MB MP4 here. I would have preferred to move the shots and music around a bit as I always have my own take on how the dance, visual and music fit together but this is far more documentary than usual for me. If you liked the other works by the SkyDancers you will not be disappointed by this 16 min special.

UPDATE: We are producing a special DVD so the videos have been temporarily removed for the moment.

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=p5zsCiYHceQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LLMGi5v-oyg[/youtube]

The Full Credits for the above film:

Created by DC Spensley
Produced and Directed by DanCoyote Antonelli
Machinamatography by Gary Hazlitt
Editing by Gary Hayes
Original Score ZeroOne Paz
Technical Director ZenMondo Wormser
Costumes Queue Marlowe

SkyDancers:

Assistant Director Anhinga Chaika
Deborah Stranglove – Prima
Angelique Menoptra – Prima
Lina Lageos
Pyper Dollinger
Buffy Beale – Training Director
Pielady Smalls
Tatiana Kurri – Puch

ZeroG SkyDancers are Produced and Directed by real life artist DC Spensley – below is earlier descriptive synopsis of the work.

Second Spring is a completely LIVE story performance. SkyDancers perform in-flight choreography without the benefit of animations or gestures of any kind following cues given in REAL TIME on a private IM channel. DanCoyote “calls” the show to keep time with the score written and performed by ZeroOne Paz.

DanCoyote and Technical Director ZenMondo Wormser have pulled out all the stops this time and created the most dynamic stage set ever. Set pieces will evolve, vanish and change position as the story plays out.

Production Designer Queue Marlowe has created an incredible array of SkyDancer costumes called “cascades” that change many times over the hour long show.

Set pieces have been created by venerable Second Life artists Jopsy Pendragon and Nand Nerd. Expect the unexpected!

=========Earlier Press Release Jan 1, 2008=========
For Immediate Release

New Media Consortium Presents
ZeroG SkyDancers III – Virtual Flight Choreography

Pioneering Performing Arts Soar in the Metaverse – Again – Under the Direction of DanCoyote Antonelli ††

January 1, 2008, (Second Life) – Avatar DanCoyote Antonelli is accustomed to breaking new ground. Even in virtual worlds he is considered avant guarde. The real man controlling that avatar, DC Spensley, has been wowing virtual audiences since 2006 with art installations that would not be possible in real life, but perhaps the most coveted ticket in all of Second Life is one to a performance by his ZeroG SkyDancers. On January 6, 2008, the premiere of the highly anticipated, third, completely redesigned production of ZeroG SkyDancers will debut.

Second Life’s history making, critically acclaimed world performance group, the ZeroG SkyDancers is a new form of ensemble performance that uses the airspace of this virtual world, resulting in a cross between water ballet and aerial acrobatics, in ways that would not be possible in the physical world. Wearing spectacular, flowing costumes called cascades – that are many times larger than their avatars – the SkyDancers move through space, and become part of the stage themselves. Altering and evolving, their flight triggers audio samples, which provide a unique layer to the original musical score commissioned for the production.††

The production, sponsored by the New Media Consortium (NMC), will introduce an all-new reactive-interactive stage set that is repeatedly and dramatically transformed over the hour long performance. The ZeroG SkyDancers III will formally debut at 9PM Pacific Standard Time, Sunday, January 6, 2008 in the virtual world of Second Life. Seating is limited, but the show will run every week during the first 90 days of 2008, to accommodate the most guests possible. Tickets will cost $10 US ($3000 Lindens) a piece. For ticket information, please contact Spensley directly at dc@spensley.com.

Those with tickets will need to complete a 5 minute registration process with Second Life, http://www.secondlife.com , in order to access the ZeroG SkyDancers III performance.† A basic account is absolutely free, includes unlimited access to Second Life’s tools, events and communities.†Spensley recommends that audience members spend a minimum of 15 minutes learning the basic skills of the Second Life world prior to attending the performance. “Familiarizing yourself with basic navigation of Second Life will add even more enjoyment to the show,” said Spensley.

Gary Hazlitt’s video of a ZeroG SkyDancers II performance is available at YouTube and has received more than 10 thousand hits.†† “It’s difficult to convey the dramatic and immersive effects of the Second Life virtual world in a 2-D web environment, however this video by Gary Hazlitt does convey the overall concept of the performance,” said Spensley.

DC Spensley’s SkyDancer’s “Second Spring” into Life

Gary Hazlitt — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 01:28:21 +0000

As official documenter/machinimatographer for the SkyDancers I was lucky to have been at the dress rehearsal and premier of this groundbreaking new show by DanCoyote’s troupe and created this trailer to help get those virtual bums on seats.

You can download a 15MB medium rez MP4 here. It was fantastic to experience this next generation performance and witness a new layer, a narrative across the three musical movements in addition to what has been visually more abstract in the past. Other exciting elements included the movement by the dancers around the volumous space triggering elements of the soundscape and the long prim cascades they are wearing integrating seamlessly with the more static set elements. A show well worth going to (if you can get tickets) and yes, I know, my little trailer and previous well received captures of the shows only gets half way there in terms of capturing the essence (see bottom of post)…but you who are not in this world are watching/reading this

75 still photos on flickr here. Here is the official blurb

New Media Consortium (NMC) proudly presents:
DanCoyote’s ZeroG SkyDancers Third Production:
“Second Spring”.

Second Spring is a completely LIVE story performance. SkyDancers perform in-flight choreography without the benefit of animations or gestures of any kind following cues given in REAL TIME on a private IM channel. DanCoyote “calls” the show to keep time with the score written and performed by ZeroOne Paz.

DanCoyote and Technical Director ZenMondo Wormser have pulled out all the stops this time and created the most dynamic stage set ever. Set pieces will evolve, vanish and change position as the story plays out.

Production Designer Queue Marlowe has created an incredible array of SkyDancer costumes called “cascades” that are change many times over the hour long show.

Set pieces have been created by venerable Second Life artists Jopsy Pendragon and Nand Nerd. Expect the unexpected!

To be our guest at this performance please send a message to DanCoyote Antonelli. DanCoyote will invite you to join the tickets group. Seating is very limited so only members of the tickets group will be admitted to the performance space.

Please contribute generously to the donation kiosk. A production of this quality and depth takes many hundreds of hours to prepare as well as tens of thousands of Linden dollars to produce. Suggested donation is $3000 Lindens with a sliding scale from $1000 up.

Cheers!

DanCoyote Antonelli, Producer Director, ZeroG SkyDancers

=========Press Release=========
For Immediate Release

New Media Consortium Presents
ZeroG SkyDancers III – Virtual Flight Choreography

Pioneering Performing Arts Soar in the Metaverse – Again – Under the Direction of DanCoyote Antonelli

January 1, 2008, (Second Life) – Avatar DanCoyote Antonelli is accustomed to breaking new ground. Even in virtual worlds he is considered avant guarde. The real man controlling that avatar, DC Spensley, has been wowing virtual audiences since 2006 with art installations that would not be possible in real life, but perhaps the most coveted ticket in all of Second Life is one to a performance by his ZeroG SkyDancers. On January 6, 2008, the premiere of the highly anticipated, third, completely redesigned production of ZeroG SkyDancers will debut.

Second Life’s history making, critically acclaimed world performance group, the ZeroG SkyDancers is a new form of ensemble performance that uses the airspace of this virtual world, resulting in a cross between water ballet and aerial acrobatics, in ways that would not be possible in the physical world. Wearing spectacular, flowing costumes called cascades – that are many times larger than their avatars – the SkyDancers move through space, and become part of the stage themselves. Altering and evolving, their flight triggers audio samples, which provide a unique layer to the original musical score commissioned for the production.††

The production, sponsored by the New Media Consortium (NMC), will introduce an all-new reactive-interactive stage set that is repeatedly and dramatically transformed over the hour long performance. The ZeroG SkyDancers III will formally debut at 9PM Pacific Standard Time, Sunday, January 6, 2008 in the virtual world of Second Life. Seating is limited, but the show will run every week during the first 90 days of 2008, to accommodate the most guests possible. Tickets will cost $10 US ($3000 Lindens) a piece. For ticket information, please contact Spensley directly at dc@spensley.com.

Those with tickets will need to complete a 5 minute registration process with Second Life, http://www.secondlife.com , in order to access the ZeroG SkyDancers III performance.† A basic account is absolutely free, includes unlimited access to Second Life’s tools, events and communities.†Spensley recommends that audience members spend a minimum of 15 minutes learning the basic skills of the Second Life world prior to attending the performance. “Familiarizing yourself with basic navigation of Second Life will add even more enjoyment to the show,” said Spensley.

Gary Hazlitt’s video’s of two previous ZeroG SkyDancers II performances are available at YouTube and have received nearly 15 thousand views. “It’s difficult to convey the dramatic and immersive effects of the Second Life virtual world in a 2-D web environment, however the videos do convey the overall concept of the performance,” said Spensley.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_gT0YDAkec[/youtube]

My Mini Machinima of My Build of a Slice of Melbourne

Gary Hazlitt — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:38:02 +0000

Still playing catch-up on blog posts. Busy, busy as always creating big builds in this world for entertainment properties, real world companies, learning and some just for pleasure – but I still have time to make delightful machinima This one is of mine and a friends (Benjo Zabelin) build of a little ‘piece-of-a-place’ called Melbourne, Australia (still not sure where that is!).
[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=D7iv-lnhmTM[/youtube]

Another Gary, a bio one , managed to take over four hundred images plus hours and hours of sound so I could recreate what it is like to be out there, with you folk in one of your most popular cities. Umm very cramped I must say. Anyway as you can see below it generated lots of Second Life press interest and it was fun creating a few token, Second Life not possible in real life elements.

Here’s a SLURL too. and a load of links…

SL News – Australian city Melbourne Laneways comes alive in SL

Australia SL News Source SLOZ – Virtual Melbourne has arrived

Shhhhhhhh – melbourne laneways in second life. NOOOOOOOO

Second Life Insider – Melbourne Laneways comes to life at ABC Island

Victorian Government – Victoria – Would your Business benefit from a Second Life?

TheProjectFactory – Melbourne Laneways Come to Life for Multimedia Victoria

Boxxet Second Life – Melbourne Laneways comes to Life

Multimedia Victoria – Virtual Worlds (Melbourne Laneways Case Study)

GDay World – Melbourne Laneways in SL

Mal Burns Annex – Melbourne Laneways Comes to Life

Second Life ‘Chances’ – Machinima “In Memory of Lost Love”

Gary Hazlitt — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:06:59 +0000

The virtual stars aligned and I was compelled to make this kind of sad, but moving machinima. The story grew from a combination of 1) a great song, 2) some private sims I am developing, with a new terraform, 3) a space navigator and most importantly 4) a couple of new places I visited. Less than 5 hours later a new machinima was born, you can see the results here.

Also available medium rez 70MB WMV download

The story grew rather organically. I was playing with one of my new Space Navigator joysticks, which gives me unlimited camera control and is great for flying across mountains – I had just terraformed three sims with some ‘placeholder’ vertical interest. So I got Kylie Wollongong to join me on a private sim to do some walking, talking, romantic shots.

About half way through we went shopping to get a new skin. Next to the sims only store was a rather bizarre ‘camping’ area – around 50 avies all sitting around. Not a normal one, it looked positively like a wake, no one chatted, they just sat rather miserably. Gong. Mountain walking plus wake, a story was born.

“A couple in love. It starts with her funeral then flashes back to their recent life, ‘climbing together’. At the funeral again he sits with their friends. Flashback to the decision to be together and then reaching ‘the top’. She walks off by herself and tragedy. Just before she ‘ascends’ they recall a happy moment in Venice, tinged with sadness at the end when she has a premonition of her own short future…”

So I shot some sequences of just me and the crowds quickly and then went back and added some extra elements to the mountain journey – which obviously extended the narrative. I also wanted a few flashbacks of earlier romantic times, so Kylie and I visited Venice for three simple shots.

When I added the music during the edit the whole piece took on extra power and poignency – the emotional quality forcibly reminded me of past lost loves. It became a metaphor for the spirits of love. As it says on my YouTube decription “The story of a couple very much in love whose upward journey ends in tragedy. Flashbacks from the wake and their favourite time in Venice”

Some production stills on flickr here.