New Movie: Order in Chaos

Just finished a new Abstract Machinima Movie, which I made for the MachinimUWA II: Art of the Artists challenge in Second Life.
Machinima makers in SL were asked to create a Machinima of between 2 and 5 minutes in length that featured some of the winning artworks from the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge. They had more than 35 artworks spread across 4 floors, from which to choose.

This movie is featuring December 2009 Winner of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge: CHAOS IN ORDER by Igor Ballyhoo
Filmed and edited by Rohan Fermi
Music by Kirsty Hawkshaw
Creative Commons by-nc-sa v1.0
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

How to make money with Machinima.

Sorry for the catchy title and sure this is no post on how to get rich with making machinima movies. I just want to write about an idea I had a while ago and which came back into my mind through the start of the Flattr service. Flattr is a social micropayment platform that lets you show love for the things you like. One of the main restriction we have with Machinima is that we are not allowed to use it commercially since most of the time we use games or content that doesn't allow that. We are happy that at least we can publish our movies, but earning any income from them is tough. Most of the time we don't care about that because we make movies because we love it and earn our money elsewhere. But wouldn't it be nice to be able to pay some bills with money income based on your creative work we like that much and maybe some day make a living just by by creating machinima movies?
So how does it work? The basic idea goes back to an interesting talk on Linux and Open Source development at a conference years ago. It draws a close connection to Open Source and 'Gift economy'.
"A gift economy (or gift culture) is a society where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards". Of course I don't want to see the society as a whole to change, nor do I want to replace money (maybe it might need some changes how money is used in our society). The main point about a gift that is important is that what we receive (the gift) is in no direct connection to what we create (the movies). And we are already part of kinda gift econony, since all our movies, blog posts etc. are already gifts to the society. So we only need to extablish a way that others are able to send us gifts (money prefered) as well to support us. It's different from asking for money (support) for a next movie project or in exchange to any benefit like access to bonus, HQ version , etc. It has to be a pure gift and as the said above 'without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards'. Only that way any commercial relation to the movies is removed. That way we can create our movies using any game/tool we like and still have the opportunity to pay our bills.
The main problem is still how to rise the awarness about this new way to support our work. A platform like Flattr might help, but maybe we find other ways to establish different, more creative way for others to make them aware that we are accepting gifts as well. This will not solve any problem with machinima, we are still bound to IP based problems when we want to send the to some festivals or even show on or sell it to TV. And of course there are some things I don't like about the Flattr platform, but I see it as a start and I hope more services like this will arise that will help us making some money with machinima.

Edit: I actually managed to get part of Flattr beta. If you like you can now Flattr me below. Thank you for your support. Let me know if you need an invite to test this platform as well.

New Movie: the Graveyard. (NIN version)

I still love the original version, but from some comments I got and from my own impression I recognized some flaws. By making the choice to use the song from the original game this imposts a much faster pace to the editing than was good for the film. And since the song is in a not widespread language (Flemish) I had to put subtitles on. At the end it's a bit an information overload. You have to watch, listen and read at the same time. This could kill the mood that could be set by the film. Although I recognized that very soon after releasing the movie it needed one of those miracles to help. By random listening to tracks on my iPod, I came across that Nine Inch Nails song. I didn't remember to have ever heard it before, but did know instantly that this is the right music for that film. It had the right pace, set the right mood and has no text on it's own that puts some kind of interpretation to the film. Since my work on abstract film, I love the idea to let the viewer be part of the story and leave enough room for his/her own interpretation. I hope you like this new version and look forward your reviews, comments, critics.
Enough words. Let the movie speak for itself.

New Movie: the Graveyard.

After playing the game for the first time at the start of this, I wanted to make a movie with it. Tale of Tales "the Graveyard." is a very short computer game designed by Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn. It's more like an explorable painting than an actual game. An experiment with realtime poetry, with storytelling without words. I was really happy, when Auriea and Michaël gave me the ok to use their game for making a machinima movie with it. Unfortunaley I had to put that project on hold right after the start, but after the release of "9" I finally was in the right mood again to finish that movie. Too many words already. Here it is:

the Graveyard.
An old lady - A graveyard - Memories.

Abstract Films

Here is the list of some excellent abstract films I found on YouTube. I hope you find them as interesting and inspiring as they are to me. Hope they will not be removed as fast as the last film I recommended on my blog.

Hans Richter - Rhythmus 21

Hans Richter - Rhythm.21 (1921) (without Music)

Hans Richter - Rhythm.23

Filmstudie - Hans Richter, 1926

Viking Eggeling, Olga Neuwirth: Symphonie Diagonale

Marcel Duchamp - Anemic Cinema

Lichtspiel, Opus 1 - by Walther Ruttmann

Stan Brakhage, "Mothlight" (1963)

Stan Brakhage - Preludes # 01

Stan Brakhage - Delicacies of molten horror synapse (1990)

Oskar Fischinger, in "Fantasia", Walt Disney -1940

Fischinger, Radio Dynamics, 1943

John Whitney-Permutations (1966)

Whitney, James, Yantra, 1950

László Moholy-Nagy's Light-Space Modulator (1922-30)

Le Retour A La Raison by Man Ray 1923

Machiniplex Premiere

I really looked forward the Machiniplex Premiere of "9" and it was a great experience for me. I've never expected that much interest in this kind of filmmaking and was surprised how many of you actually showed interest and participated that event. The tough part was indeed answering all the interesting questions. Tnx a lot to the Premieres hosts Ricky and Phil who guided me through that event and set up a place and mood where I felt save. I hope at least I could give some solid answers. If you still have some open questions about the movie or the production, just let me know and I'll do my best to help.
I apologize for the last minute chance of the location. But thanks to Phil, HatHead and Bree (for providing such a nice spot in SL), I guess we got everyone in place for the Premiere. If you got lost or want to listen again to the Premiere's audio and chat, Ricky and Phil have recorded the session and will put the tracks online after some editing. If you had problems watching the movie in SL or just want to view it again, it's now online at the Machiniplex Website. Thank you again for showing up at the Premiere your interest in my filmmaking.

Reminder: "9" will Premiere on Machiniplex this Sunday

Machiniplex will Premiere my film "9" this Sunday, Sept 13 at 11AM - 1PM (Pacific Time). After the screening I'll will be on hand to comment on the film and answer questions.
The Premiere is held at the elegant Hathead's Lounge in Second Life.
Slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/HatHead%20II/68/125/756

Film before film

An interesting and inspiring documentary about the prehistory of film by German filmmaker Werner Nekes:
Film before film - What really happens between images

"9" alternate soundtrack version

I've just uploaded an alternate version of "9". This version uses music made by my friend and coworker on that project Martin Gürtner. I'm happy to have now an IP free version of that movie as well. I know it might be a bit confusing when listen to it. It's easy to get hooked to the Boards of Canada soundtrack. I hope you give the new version a look and hope you like my choice and Martin's music as well.

New Movie: 9

It's finished, my first abstact film inspired by the work of Oskar Fischinger, Hans Richter, Stan Brakhage. It's a motion graphics experiment I have worked on together with my friend Martin Gürtner (who did the sound for my movie 'Desassossego'). For sure it's on an extreme edge of what maybe one could call machinima. Even I'm not sure to call it a machinima movie, but I have strong arguments it fits into that genre. But who cares. I hope you enjoy watching it.

Liberty City at the Bitfilm Festival

From Bitfilm:
"congratulations! Your film Liberty City has been nominated for a Bitfilm Award in the category MACHINIMA!"

I'm happy 'Liberty City' made it into Bitfilm this year. I've not seen a list of all the nominated films so far, but some of the other great films in the Machinima category I know of so far which got nominated this year are:

'Intervention' and 'Blast Supper' by Phil Rice
'The Terrible Old Man' by BiggsTrek

and some more:

'Clockwork' by IceAxe
'Shelf Life' by pixel eyes production

The making of: Waltz with Bashir

Last week I got this amazing animated movie on DVD. Guess most of you have seen or heard of Waltz with Bashir already. So I don't want to comment that much on the film itself which is indeed one of my favourite animated films, but on the little gem I've found on the DVD. My version came with an 'Making of' for that film which even for it's own sake is worth buing it. I rarely have seen such and informative and fun to watch documentary on how this film was produces. It covers every aspect from the idea to the final presentation at Cannes festival. It covers artwork, animation, effects, sound and music and adds some nice backround details about the whole creative process.
It's amazing to see how such a marvellous animated feature film is created by such a small team in a short time. The way they did the animation (cut-out technique done in Flash) is just bejond imagination.

"HOME" released today

Today on World Environment Day, "HOME" by director Yann Arthus-Bertrand, is simultaneous released in over 50 Countries, and free of charge, release on every format: movie theatre, TV, DVD and Internet.

"HOME is an ode to the planet's beauty and its delicate harmony. Through the landscapes of 54 countries captured from above, Yann Arthus-Bertrand takes us on an unique journey all around the planet, to contemplate it and to understand it. But HOME is more than a documentary with a message, it is a magnificent movie in its own right. Every breathtaking shot shows the Earth - our Earth - as we have never seen it before. Every image shows the Earth's treasures we are destroying and all the wonders we can still preserve. "From the sky, there's less need for explanations". Our vision becomes more immediate, intuitive and emotional. HOME has an impact on anyone who sees it. It awakens in us the awareness that is needed to change the way we see the world. (HOME embraces the major ecological issues that confront us and shows how everything on our planet is interconnected.)"

HOME official website
Home on YouTube

This is an amazing project and movie. Reminds me a bit on "Koyaanisqatsi"
If you have the chance watch it on the 'big screen' in a cinema nearby. Unfortunately I've not found a direct download site for the HD version so I've to watch it on YT. You can skip the first minute which is advertising in some sense. I would love to be able to disable the narration and maybe even the music, just to enjoy watching the pure images.

Sims 3 Machinima

Finally Sims3 is released here in Germany as well. I don't know yet if I'll buy the game and use it for an own movie project. Neverthless I found some interesting stuff on the net on Sims3 machinima I wanna share.

Sims3 Review on Gametrailers.com

3 Sims Machinima filmakers on the Sims 3:
Spotlight on The Sims 3 Player: Decorgal
Spotlight on The Sims 3 Player: Baconandeggzie
Spotlight on The Sims 3 Player: TheSidDog

With Sims3 they released an online 3 movie mashup tool where you can edit and share your movies. It's very simple to use allows editing you own clips or preproduces clips from, add transitions, music and title pages and some effects. Unfortunalely you cannot upload any own music, voice-over to be included in your movie. Nearly 5000 movies have been released so far.

Sims 3 Movie Mashup Guide / Tutorial
Sims3 Movie Site

There is as well a Sims3 movie channel on YouTube. Right now they have started THE SIMS 3 "LIVE THE DREAM" CONTEST. Deadline is June 22, 2009

Sims3 Movie Channel on YouTube

On her blog, Sims2 filmmaker Decorgal has some in debth informations on how to use the camera tool in Sims3 (and why she does not have Sims 3 yet)