New Media Consortium’s SL Video
Finally had a chance to check out the video that was produced for the New Media Consoritum, showcasing their campus in Second Life. (Both campus and video were created by the Electric Sheep Company, 3pointD’s only sponsor at the moment.) The video, shot by talented SL machinima-maker Pierce Portocarrero, showcases what is a truly impressive build. The place looks great. Even at five and half minutes, though, the piece feels slightly long, and the narration definitely takes the optimistic view of activity in SL, quoting a few Linden Lab figures, including ones about how many content creators there are on the Grid — figures that don’t really tell the whole story. The video does a great job of showcasing a really professional build, though, and is well worth checking out. The one odd thing about it, to me, is that it isn’t posted on YouTube. This is the New Media Consortium, after all. Start using those new media delivery services, guys — if only because it will do a great deal to spread the word.
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I think the main reason why it wasn’t put on YouTube was that the announcement and post of the video was really targeting their membership base (thus the readers of the NMC Campus blog) rather than the whole world.
Re: the length of the video — well, it was designed for a fairly targeted audience and a specific purpose for the client, so outside viewers won’t be aware of the context. Still, I enjoyed being involved with it and am glad NMC put up a public version for everyone to see.
I think it’s a pretty good little video, in that it shows some capacity of SL that is compelling, like dipping your feet and wriggling your toes in virtual water, seeing a charging bison, and, for extra credit, even panning around Prok’s rentals in Obscure (that was surely an accident ROFL) — by the way, that little Japanese house is vacant again and only $200 for 250 prims for newbies : )
My problems with this movie is more a problem with SL than the movie reflecting it, I guess. They had to chose Torrid or a Torrid sound-alike for the narrator, which gives it that mellifluous British but slightly Orwellian futuristic sound that I personally find faintly creepy.
Then there’s that awful baked porcelain that serves as the ne plus ultra of SL architecture these days. Unless your build looks like the men’s room urinal, you don’t have a build that’s acceptable. I just wonder when this phase will pass and we will get back to greater grandeur and glory. Oh, wait, I guess we’re in the future, and the future is supposed to look like the men’s room.
You’re right, it’s a bit bogus on the content stuff but hey, they can dream, can’t they?
I’m wondering if Walker finds this method whereby you pan on to a website itself in a video, with its tiny print and graphics designed for a 2-D experience, in a 3-D movie about a 3-D world…very workable. I found that one of the oddly annoying things about this film, but then, on the other hand, it more than proves the point that what we’ve got with Second Life is a 3-D web, and that’s what you want to have, eh?
Fuxk me dead…do you like anything in life you negative biatch?
I’m certain if someone asked you if the glass was half full or half empty you would start some long winded diatribe on multiple blogs about inadequate glass design, the fact the milk came from russian cows unaware of their exploitation at the hands of evul commercial interests, dirty marks on the glass from grubby pizza eating tekkie wikanistas…but the one cool thing is the glass is sitting in proks virtual rental sim - which is now free for rental!
I think the glass on this video is more than half full, as indicated. But it reflects SL, it’s media-induced stratification, it’s walled-garden special projects, etc. and that’s just because it’s there to be reflected.
Actual it’s not a “rental sim” and you’d have to have a sense of humour to understand what I indicated here. The camera pans around this great PG sim of Obscure which was built up by some very creative people, some of who have gone on to fame as Electric Sheep and one who has become a Linden. It’s a gorgeous sim and an example of what can be created in SL (at least what privileged and special people). The camera is panning most likely deliberately on Satchmo Prototype’s set for his ingame game called “Riddle City Random,” with a gorgeous oriental theme nestled in the hills of Obscure in the atoll continent. I merely bought a low-patched parcel near that and put some subsidized newbie rentals next to it to sustain more creativity, and I’m glad to see I have in various ways. The rental land is only 5120 m2 or something and is a total backdrop and accident. Anyway, nm, you had to be there.
sorry “Riddle City Ransom” is what the game is called.
Re: narration - there were two takes done for the voiceover, one with the more foreign-sounding female voice (not Torrid btw) and one with a professional actress from the NYC area. By and large the NMC contacts preferred the first option - as they put it, it lent a sense of “otherworldlyness” to the video which kind of cemented the feeling that this was an entirely new space of exploration seperate from RL.
As someone associated with the subject of the video, I have to add that we are NMC are relatively new to Second Life, and thus are not as immersed in all the SL cultural innuendos passed by reference here. The organizations we work with are pretty much people entering SL for the first time as they explore how it can be used for education and collaboration… we are not all eating, breathing SL air on a regular basis (yet).
As far as the initial reference to the video not being in YouTube, it is in the works; we are waiting on the final final version of the movie, and are involved with first sorting out how we will deliver video content.
Finally, the “Consortium” in the name may imply an enterprise of hundreds of worker-bees (the Consortium is our hundreds of member institutions); the people working there number less than have commented on this post, and the number working on the media end is…. well…. the number writing this comment.