A recent event worth noting: On Thursday, a forum hosted by the Gronstedt Group in the virtual world of Second Life, discussed the collaborative machinima work of IBM Senior Fellow Grady Booch and machinimist Ariella Furman. (Embedded video of one of their latest project below.)
What was most striking about the event, which was attended by around fifty professionals in corporate, government, arts and machinima production, were the types of questions being raised. Topics included: Unionizing of both machinimatographers and avatar actors; and hiring professional actors who are experienced in blocking and direction. The focus is not just to get video shot in virtual worlds but to produce professional quality video.
There are some critical issues here. For example, some of the misperceptions about virtual worlds being simplistic or facile are perpetuated by machinima that present a pixelated, low-resolution version of virtual worlds that is not representative of the experience of the people who work and participate in them. The recent PBS Frontline's Digital Nation on which DIP appeared demonstrated this with the pixelated machinima video they used. The fact that Frontline did not hire a professional, hi-resolution machinimatographer illustrated a misperception on the producer's part that the medium is not mature or, certainly, not television ready. In the videos DIP has produced we worked with Ill Clan Animation Studios, who produce machinima video in high-resolution and high-definition: The kind of images that look good on television.
A second major problem with the video that PBS Frontline used to portray virtual worlds was the content of the video: Avatars dancing and meeting at bars. This kind of stereotyping does a disservice to the kind of meaty projects that are going on in virtual worlds. There are a number of fascinating projects going in Second Life that demonstrate how far beyond bars and dancing the virtual world experience is. For example, take a look at these two reports written by Rita J. King that as explore case studies, complex uses of virtual worlds (which would have made excellent examples for PBS to have focused on):
- Simulation Training and Prototyping in Virtual Worlds: Northrop Grumman in Second Life
- Preparing for a Disaster Without Disrupting Patient Care: The Children’s Memorial Hospital Chicago in Second Life
All that said, the Gronstedt gathering was an exciting development in the machinima industry!
Ariella Furman and Grady Booch's latest production.
8 comments:
Thanks for this post! I was so amazed that people from so many different ventures came together and took an interest in this panel. I hope it opened up people's minds to the values of machinima.
Thanks Ariella! What do you think of the Manpower Machinima that Rita J. King wrote and directed?
hey I have seen the Manpower machinimas!
I am a fan of Draxtor and his journalistic approach-- I think that piece offered a lot of good angles, different perspectives, good production values. I like the news-show approach!
Thanks for your kind post, it was an awesome meeting, great crowd and very good conversations. We'll ahve recordings up shortly: http://gronstedtgroup.com/f_about.htm?s_about_train_for_sucess_audio.htm~sectionFrame
Hi Ariella ~ I'm talking the recent Manpower Machinima posted here: http://eurekadejavu.blogspot.com/2010/02/evolution-of-virtual-workplace-manpower.html
This machinima was written and directed by Rita J. King in collaboration with Ill Clan Animation studios, who filmed and edited it.
Thanks for your note, Anders! I've been a fan of your gatherings for some time. I'm pleased to be on the membership list. Looking forward to attending future events.
Would the Hollywood film industry's unions be unreceptive to machinimatographers joining them? I know voice actors for cartoons and such still are part of actor unions - what is it about machinima that requires a separate set of unions?
Could unions be created when so much is across country lines? Would unionized machinima basically price themselves out of desirability?
There's a lot of questions I have about how unions should be approached by machinimatographers and performers. However, your comments about the overall need for mainstream media outlets to recognize and utilize a higher quality of machinima is RIGHT ON.
So how are we going to make them see? Does this need to be embarassment campaigns, where "professional" works by outsider media are shown side-by-side with experienced machinimatographers? What's the best way to change minds?
Привет, статья хорошая ,но что то с отображением шаблона твоего блога.
В Опере проверь свой шаблон!
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