Archive for April, 2008

Oh Yeah… People!

More amazing work from Draxtor Despres:

Non Profit Commons: the Second Coming of SL – While corporations may be fleeing SL, the non-profits are coming in droves….One group in particular has set out to coordinate the efforts of over 60 socially active organizations from all over the globe. So: as the SL brand is still evolving, they might be at a short-term disadvantage compared to other virtual worlds built around already established brand names. But Draxtor Despres is hopeful and sees a future of more than just shopping.

Drax did a perfect job here as usual, but I just wanted to add one thing. I’ve ranted about this before, but I’ll say it again: the difference between a successful v-world build and a failure is in how well it services the community. It’s not about your product, it’s about YOUR GUESTS!

’nuff said.

We Are The Strange – The Entire Film

Original version of the animated feature film “We are the Strange” 88 minutes : Presented in Str8nime

Get the 2 DVD set here!
http://www.filmbaby.com/films/1961
or here
http://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Strange-M-dot/dp/B000V6LT8U

All other language versions here
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=1BD10C7B6DA3385E

Accolades and awards:
Sundance Film Festival Official Selection 2007
Golden Prize “Most Groundbreaking Film” Fantasia Film Festival Montreal 2007
Silver Prize “Best Animated Film” Fantasia Film Festival Montreal 2007
“Best Feature Film” HDFEST 2007
Director Selected “25 new faces of independent film” Filmmaker Magazine 2007

M dot Strange Film SkooL
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=16E6B479232C7529

Talk to other weirdo’s at the We are The Strange forum
http://wearethestrange.aceboard.com

Get involved with my next film here!
http://www.indiegogo.com/project/view/111

http://www.wearethestrange.com

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This looks great streamed through your Opera browser on the Wii!

Anyhow I’ve blogged about this one about a billion times now, but at long last here it is for you to watch, for free, for fun. If you feel like making your own cool “We Are The Strange” themed video, he’s made a ton of media and assets available for you to do so.

Buy a DVD. I think you’ll agree that there is nothing, absolutely NOTHING like this anywhere else! There is nothing stranger.

If you have watched this film in its entirety, your brain has now melted. Welcome to the New Media.

Frozen Moments In The Virtual World


Visit Mexico, Ruta Maya

Machinima by Kronos Kirkorian

Music by Dizzy Banjo

This is a fun promo put together for a Second Life® project from the Mexico Tourism Board. For those of you having gone through the experience of wandering Second Life not finding anything impressive, hopefully this will point you in the right direction. (Well, this and SL Things To Do.)

Kronos did an amazing job here, which is to be expected at this point. The first time I saw his work was in the hilarious skit “Lip Flap” which, if you haven’t seen it yet, you absolutely can’t miss. I had the good fortune to work with him on the original promo for the vBusiness Expo. We had four locations and I don’t even know how many actors, and he coordinated them all like a seasoned professional.

This latest clip for Mexico shows off his editing talent. You’ll notice that it’s mostly stills, but hardly feels like a boring old slide-show. That’s not exactly an easy thing to pull off!

The whole thing is set against Dizzy Banjo’s soundtrack which, as usual, completely nails it. He did the soundtrack for the vBusiness Expo too, but you might also remember his name as being the audio architect behind the shockingly transcendent experience of Parsec. Here he is again, avoiding the pitfall of competing with the content and instead complimenting it to enhance the whole.

When I look at a clip like the one above, I’m reminded not just of good times and familiar faces, but of the incredibly talented professional artists that you run into around Second Life®. I count myself very lucky to have met folks like these, and might never have done so had we not all taken an interest in this bizarre virtual world experiment.

(Side note: speaking of Parsec, a special thanks to Eshi Otawara for creating the gorgeous build of Parsec that became my blog’s backdrop.)

Zebra Corporate Is Here!

Zebra-Corporate-Release_018

It feels great to finally properly unleash this on the grid. When all was said and done, the official release of Zebra Corporate included:

  • A 60-seat amphitheater
  • A mini version of the 60-seat amphitheater
  • A 120-seat amphitheater meant to straddle two sims
  • A small office building
  • A large office building
  • A “galleria” (a curved building good for displaying content)
  • A landscape pack that includes planters, outdoor furniture, and paths
  • A desk bell that pages as many people as you like
  • An object giver
  • A drop box
  • Zebra Presenter – a fully developed slideshow and video tool

The best part? It’s free! Take it, change it, remix it and hand out your new creations or even sell them if you like! It’s all under GPLv3, which is a license built specifically to promote open source and still keep the content useful.

Want your own copy? You can pick one up at Zebra HQ, or over on the SLExchange.

10 Simple Steps to Your Very Own Virtual Sweatshop

“Invisible Threads”

10 Simple Steps to your very own Virtual Sweatshop with Telematic Manufacturing

Original Concept by Jeff Crouse & Stephanie Rothenberg

Video Directed by Annie Ok, Jeff Crouse & Stephanie Rothenberg

Machinima by Annie Ok

Live Footage by Stephanie Rothenberg & Broken Branchez Productions

Invisible Threads installation at New Frontier on Main at Sundance ’08

Invisble Threads was made possible by the kind support of Eyebeam & Sundance

Large Format Printer provided courtesy of Hewlett Packard

Song by Kraftwerk

Second Life® and Linden Lab® are trademark of Linden Research, Inc®. Invisible Threads is not affiliated with or sponsored by Linden Research®.®®®®®®don’t sue me for mentioning you in a blog post Linden Lab®®®®®®®®®®