JUST VIRTUAL » Performance

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

Run SilkCharm Run in Alpha City Berlin, Twinity

Gary Hazlitt — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:02:39 +0000

I am continually beta testing up coming virtual worlds and one that is showing early promise is Twinity. Although lacking many of the ‘detailed’ features of Second Life it has its own specialities that I will cover in a longer post. One thing that is very impressive off the block is the scale of the world built, unlike Second Life, at scale and gives a real sense of distance in comparison with the real world (which Twinity is focusing on).

So for this next Gary Hazlitt machinima I fiddled with SilkCharm‘s avatar (or is that SilkCharm herself?) uploading some portrait faces to map onto the face & body and equipped her with suitable running attire fore this ‘Run Lola Run‘ lookalike (and big soundalike thanks to Twyker’s music). The film features Franka Potente running around the backstreets of Berlin trying to get some money for her criminal boyfriend (and goes back in time twice). SilkCharm though was just getting some exercise…or as she suggested in the comments on the video ‘in desperate search of chocolate’ ! Enjoy…oh before that one interesting effect in here. At one point in the recording I fell off the world and started hurtling south/down or just out of the sim – the running SilkCharm began to ‘break up’ slowly. As I still had the record on you can see the effect at the start and end of the movie which is quite an attractive ‘inworld’ effect

A Machinima by GARY HAZLITT starring SILKCHARM
‘Run SilkCharm Run’ Filmed in the Beta Virtual World TWINITY (Alpha City Berlin) – more info on the Twinity site

MUSIC “Believe” by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil Feat: Voice of Franka Potente from the film ‘Run Lola Run’

Filmed & Edited (in 3 hours) by GARY HAZLITT

Shot in the ‘massive’ Berlin simulator in Twinity featuring areas around Brandenburg Gate and Alexanderplatz

Many thanks to SilkCharm & A ‘New World’ Twinity

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]

Haunted Goth Dreams, a Halloween 2007 Second Life Machinima

Gary Hazlitt — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:51:14 +0000

It’s that time of the year where avatars wear pale skin, dark make-up and generally scare each other to relog. So armed with a secret camera in trembling hands, Kylie and I ventured into the darker recesses of Midian City, Liquid Heat and City of Lost Angels to make a rather special film. I personally love the avies that frequent these wonderfully crafted places, avatars full of character, individuality, unique clothes, deep role playing (whatever that is) and strange protruding teeth. Sprinkle on one of my favourite songs, Haunted by Poe, a little sneeky editing and voila…enjoy, but make sure your not alone!

“A machinima by Gary Hazlitt based on and using as background, the great song “Haunted” by Poe. Special thanks to the creators and inhabitants of City of Lost Angels, Liquid Heat and Midian City sims, you are wonderful people. Avatanimation, filming and editing by Gary Hazlitt. A JustVirtual Production © Gary Hazlitt 2007″

Dancing with Angels – ZeroG SkyDancers One Year Birthday Video

Gary Hazlitt — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 16:19:34 +0000

[youtube]c_gT0YDAkec[/youtube]

I was lucky to be contacted by my friend DanCoyote Antonelli to go along to the last two performances of his invigorated ZeroG SkyDancers as part of Second Life’s 4th birthday celebrations. After my popular one take video film and article “The Organic Beauty of Hyperformalism” from last year I had a much deeper understanding of the group’s vision and this time, 6 months later, captured what I believe to be film that ‘really’ gets under the surface of these wonderous experiences – but thats just my opinion. I edited the film out of order from the original performance to hopefully enhance the structure of the piece, to make it build and grow and look forward to DanCoyote’s take on it. It is very hard to put these immersive surround experiences into a 2D linear environment – but I am getting better and about two and a half minutes in things start to happen!

The ZeroG dancing troupe are now a year old and it showed with much greater synchronicity between the the music, the voluptuous large scale hyperformalist moving art and the flying dancers – the flyers particularly demonstrated amazing feats of acrobatics and sublime balletic motion than in previous performances. Anyway the video goes some way to capturing the “oh you really had to be there” statements, while I was filming this and travelling along through the air with the dancers at high resolution, it really felt like I had a privileged glimpse throught the matrix to the next level, I was ‘dancing with angels’.

Credits approved by DanCoyote from the video.

ZeroG SkyDancers Spring 2007 Production June 29th 2007 at Ars Simulacra, NMC Art Showcase in honor of the Second Life Fourth Birthday Celebration and the ZeroG SkyDancers 1st year anniversary.

Created by DC Spensley

Produced and Directed by DanCoyote Antonelli

Machinamatography and Editing by Gary Hazlitt

Original Score ZeroOne Paz

SkyDancers:

Assistant Director Anhinga Chaika

Assistant Producer Callypian Christianson, Deborah Stranglove

Prima Tatiana Kurri, Angelique Menoptra, Lina Lageos, Kensai Uriza

House Manager Onyx Bijoux

Technical Director ZenMondo Wormser

Costume Designer Sabine Stonebender

Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life