Archive for the 'Music' category
Another Sensational Machinima in The Wall
August 31, 2008 7:28 pmI 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
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
© JustVirtual Productions 2008
http://www.justvirtual.com
Film of the Virtual Pink Floyd ‘The Wall’ Show
August 25, 2008 4:38 pmI 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 Performance Machinima ZeroG SkyDancers “Second Spring”
June 8, 2008 11:18 pmHiding and Seeking in Second Life, Cyborg Style
March 23, 2008 12:45 pmDC Spensley’s SkyDancer’s “Second Spring” into Life
January 8, 2008 11:28 amAs 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 ReleaseNew Media Consortium Presents
ZeroG SkyDancers III - Virtual Flight ChoreographyPioneering 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.
New World Expectations - Seventh Heaven ‘Windlight’ Machinima
December 26, 2007 12:18 pmI was in the middle of putting together an end of year compilation of some of my builds and sim developments and as I have regularly been using the Windlight viewer and I saw my creations in a whole new light, literally. So I got a good bio friend of mine, Gary Hayes to do a quick grand piano and classical guitar improvisation so I could put together a film that promises a bright new future for our Second Life world in 2008.
Some creation details for those who like that kind of stuff: I used the wonderful space navigator for nearly all the ‘tracking/pan/crane/dolly’ type shots combined with fraps PAL capture, then converted using Canopus Pro 3 to PAL Quicktime DVs for a final edit in Final Cut Pro. A final save out to DV at same resolution and converts down to MP4s for online distribution. The whole process, capture, processing, editing took just over six hours - I know, I am slacking! The builds and sim terraforms took significantly longer (!) but the music a quick 35 minutes in two single takes, so excuse a few ‘bum’ notes!
A Second Life ‘Windlight’ Machinima, Filmed and Edited by GARY HAZLITT
Higher rez 95MB MP4 640/480 download available here.
Steinway Grand Piano and Classical Guitar improvisations both performed, in one take, by GARY HAYES
All featured sim builds and terraforms created and designed by GARY HAZLITT (some unamed builds still in development)
Gary’s builds or sim creations featured include: Esperance, The Pond, ABC Island, Cog Island, Marni, Thursday’s Fictions, Melbourne Laneways and others.
A Just Virtual Video Production © Gary Hazlitt/Hayes 2007
Haunted Goth Dreams, a Halloween 2007 Second Life Machinima
October 16, 2007 9:51 pmSecond Life ‘Chances’ - Machinima “In Memory of Lost Love”
October 1, 2007 3:06 amThe 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.
Avatanimation, Machinimatography, Editing, Story Written, Directed and Produced by Gary Hazlitt - Copyright 2007
Posted by Gary Hazlitt from inside Second Life ©2007
The Virtual Wedding, The Plan, The Charity and The SLUV
August 6, 2007 2:17 amAs a belated follow on from the previous article you may recall Polly and Steve about to get married. Well a couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of committing the event to video and subsequently editing it and adding some of my music. The YouTube embed I think captures the key moments of the three hour event as two people give their vows of love and commitment in front of friends and family. I copy below some textual elements from the video (which deliberately scrolls past or is on screen for too short a time - you are encouraged to hit pause on the first three busy text screens). This opening statement is from Annie Barnard who ran the proceedings
Greetings to all of you that have gathered here today to acknowledge and celebrate the love and joining of the hearts of Scubasteve and Pollyanneke. They have invited all of you, friends and family, to witness their declaration of love and commitment. They have asked me to pass you a message today … They would like you to know that their friends are a big part of second life. They know that you are all here for them and helped keeping them together in the hard times. Second Life is never easy for relationships but with good friends like you they know they will make it. I am sure that you, dear family and friends know far better than I do just how strong their love for one other is.
Often people feel that when they meet it is by chance. However, I do not feel this way and for Scubasteve and Pollyanneke meeting was not by chance. They met each other in a pond building area in April 2007. together they like to laugh, explore second life, find places to ride their horses and making a nice home at Vero Beach. Alone Scuba likes to come up with surprises for Polly and Polly like to find cozy spots for them to come back together to visit. Polly likes to call scuba ghost and subca like to call Polly Muse. Their persistence and determination to not be over come the forces from within and outside SL that would otherwise stop them from seeing each other had made the relationship resilient and magical in every sense of the word. One day they will even find the answer to the ultimate question in every avies mind can sluv conquer lag? Only time will tell.
This text is the actual statements and vows during the actual ceremony, again captured in the video, but may be too fast for some to read as it crawls across the screen in the romantic middle section.
Steve: Pol.. from the moment we met my sluv for u has grown and grown and together we have overcome so many hurdles together and now that we have a beautiful son together, my life is truly fulfilled, u are and always will be my sl babe we are synergy and u are truly wat sluv is all about. Everytime i see u it takes my breath away and leaving u each day is so so hard ur my angel, my ladyhawke and i’ll be ur Navarre together forever… eternally aprt. I so sluv u Pol
Polly: Oh Scuba i so sluv and adore you. You are so patient and kind especially when i am trying to build
Annie: Scubastive and Pollyanneke, as you slip on your rings, notice that they are a never-ending circle, as your love is for each other. The rings have no beginning and no end. They come together as a symbol of your love for each other. Polly, please repeat after me…
Polly: I, Polly. take you Scuba, to be my husband. I promise to love and support you, to honour and respect you, to make you laugh, and to explore with you not only the beauty of this world around us but the beauty that lies within your heart as well
Steve: I, Scuba, take you, Polly, to be my wife. I promise to love you and support you, to honor and respect you, to make you laugh, and to explore with you not only the beauty of this world around us, but also the beauty that lies within your heart as well.
and the final decree from Annie telling the SL world that these two are now a couple…
Annie: Scubasteve and Pollyanneke, you have declared your love and commitment in front of your friends and family today. If you agree with this union of your hearts please respond by saying I do.
Polly: I do
Steve: i do babe
Polly:
Annie: Scubastive and Pollyanneke, as you have declared your love and promises today, and by the powers vested in me, I pronounce you husband and wife. Fill each day with love, laughter and light. Dear friends and family, I am honored and pleased to introduce for the first time as Husband and Wife, Scubastive and Pollyanneke.
It was a great celebratory event for all concerned and since then Steve and Polly have been contacting me with more information on their plans to use Second Life as a force for change in many worlds. The text below is from both of them detailing how one area, namely SL couples adopting Real Life children will work and some scripting help they will need. Good luck to them and this initiative.
As a couple in SL, Pollyanneke Pera and Scubasteve Canning decided to have an SL baby.
what we deicided to do though was to make a real life difference in the third world
by sponsoring a child through World Vision. In this was, we share the joy of having
a virtual baby together, but also are making a real life difference to a boy in India.We want to share that experience with other couples in SL who are thinking about having
a SL baby together. That way, thousands of needy children will benefit as a direct
result of couples in SL. Here’s what we are proposing; Couples in SL who want to have a baby (and there are thousands of them) currently can do so through a couple of options….
- they can get a scripted object that comes with an hud to interact with the mother the object will whisper phrases such as need changing or feeding etc.
- they can ‘adopt’ a child which is an adult who role plays as a child for a couple which a monthly fee is paid to the ‘adopted child’.
The concept of an SL child is a means for a couple to share their ’sluv’ for each other
on a higher level. However, our thoughts are that this could be better served by
making a difference in the real world. Hence we felt that a donation to a children’s charity
would go that step further in making a difference. In that same vain we wanted to give
something back to the couple in return for their donation. The best way is a symbolic
gesture such as a scripted object not unlike the scripted SL babies that currently exist.Specifically, it would work like this.
- Couple goes to a SL ‘maternity hospital’ and chooses a baby. the amount would be the equivalant of $40 US. when the couple touches the object to pay, the money is transferred to the charity via a URL link. The charity can then convert the Lindons into US currency or if possible the money is automatically converted via a Lindon exchange and the US dollars deposited directly to the charity. The URL for the donation is http://www.christianchildrensfund.org/donate/donate.aspx more specifically, we have chosen the Child Alert Emergency Fund from Christian Childrens Fund.
- When the donation is made, the couple recieve a scripted baby object as a symbol of their genoristy and sluv.
- The couple can choose to go back to the ‘hospital’ in a few months for a ‘check up’ this would give the couple more options for their child such as being a bit older, the ability to walk etc. this would require another donation to the charity to occur.
Therefore, we need some scripting help with this project. firstly to provide a scripted baby object, then the URL link to convert the payment into US dollars which would automatically go direct to the Christian Childrens fund. Finally to provide additional scripts for the growth and walking etc.
This is the organisation that we would like the money to go to.
- Christian Childrens Fund. More about this charity at http://www.christianchildrensfund.org/content.aspx?id=104 The specific fund within the organisation would be;
- Child Alert Emergency Fund. Wars and natural disasters create emergency situations that put already vulnerable children in grave danger. The ChildAlert Emergency Fund helps CCF act quickly to provide for the immediate needs and long-term recovery of children in emergency situations, whether natural or manmade. Recently, our Child Alert Emergency Fund has provided resources to help thousands of children affected by the Asian tsunami, the India earthquake, Sudanese refugees living in Chad, and other emergencies in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Afghanistan.
This is purely non-profit but a way in which thousand of children can be saved through scripting in SL. IM Pollyanneke Pera or Scubasteve Canning if u can help us to help thousands of needy children.
Posted by Gary Hazlitt inside Second Life © 2007
