MachinUWA III: Journeys (3rd UWA Machinima Challenge - 2011)

The 3rd Machinima Challenge put forth by the University of Western Australia (UWA) has just been announced.
The theme is simply 'Journeys'. What the journey is, will be left to the Machinimatographer. A journey through Second Life. A journey of self discovery. A journey within. A journey from SL too RL, or vice-versa. A journey through space, through time, a journey of hope, a journey of despair. Your own journey, or a journey by someone else seen through your eyes... or... through Second Life in 80 Days, whatever you can imagine.

More informations on their Blog:
MachinimUWA III: Journeys - It Begins!!

DEADLINE: Submissions are open between NOW (Feb 2011) till 1st May 2011

Celebrating 2011

I hope you all had a good start in 2011 as well. This year it's time to celebrate 5 years of my Machinima movie production. Although early work can be traced back til '99 it took several more year until my serious work on Machinima started. So what is planned for 2011?
Besides the usual 1-2 movie releases (don't know yet which one will get actually finished so far) I'll re-release some of my early movies, which so far were only published at strange places, to my YouTube and Viemo channels. As well it is planned to release some footage of movies that never made it to a finial movie but maybe are interesting to watch. Thank you all for your interest in reading and commenting on my movies and blog and good luck and success with your own movie productions in 2011.

E.V.A. - Experimental Video Art , Spring Screening

Just got informed that my first non-machinima experimental movie 'Saltlight' will be screened at E.V.A. - Experimental Video Art Spring Screening in Salzburg, Austria. Experimental videos in all genres are screened there - animation, abstract, narrative, documentary, found footage etc.
The video screenings will take place in 12 different sessions during March and April 2011 and participating works will be presented in The Visual ARTBEAT Magazine's 7th Issue ( July 2011). If you have an interesting experimental movie, deadline for submissioms is 4th February 2011.

How to Screencast Live

You have plans to run your own Live Machinima workshops or tutorials, or want to Live review Machinima movies? There are many applications for Live Screencasts. My favourite Starcraft Live caster Sean "Day[9]" Plott just released this wonderful article on pcworld.com with video tutorials about setting up your own Live Screencast.
Screencast Live: How To Make Your Own Web TV Show

Atopic Machinima Festival Update

The contest page on Dailymotion for the audience prize is online awaiting your votes at: Atopic Festival Prix Machinima

The prizes evening will take place in la Géode, Paris, December the 20th at 8:30pm (CET)
You can also come to the festival. 17th and 18th at Hotel Scribe (1, rue Scribe Paris-Opéra), Paris, France. Free entrance.
Conference on MAchinima : 18th from 2pm to 4pm (CET)
More informations and Conference Steaming on Atopia TV on the
Atopic website

New Movie: Saltlight

A while ago I did this short experimental animation. Not Machinima at all this time, but hopefully you find it interesting as well. It's inspired mostly by work from Stan Brakhage and Man Ray. If there is interest I'll write a bit more about how this movie was made. Right now I'm looking for your feedback without you knowing too much about the production process.

ATOPIC, Machinima Film Festival - official selection by the Jury

Atopic Machinima Film Festival just published their official list of machimima movies selected by their Jury. I'm happy to see two of my productions ('the Graveyard' and 'Order in Chaos') selected.

"The international dimension was in the richness of the final selection. This selection shows that Machinima has matured in the use of the tool and was able to develop a narrative and aesthetic quality. "

23 films were selected :

55 Sounds To The Sky // Christine Webster et Balthazar Truffaut
A change of art // Luxaeternam
Clear Skies 2 // Ian Chisholm
Ctrl,Alt,Del // Trace Sanderson
Dagon // Trace Sanderson
Fears - [ The Story of Susa Bubble - An Installation by Rose Borchovski ] // Iono Allen
Gcity // Marco Manray
GTAlphaville // Mutatis Mutandis
Incubus // Kate Lee & Sherwin Liu
La Crise // Panda
La fuite de l'empire Aryen // Yälrok
Lovely Family TV // The Lovely Team
mAdvertising // Pooky Amsterdam
Order in chaos // Rohan Fermi
Over Data // Marco Manray
Panic Radio // François Pallin
Stop, Rewind // Harrison Heller
Terra // Rod Pulsar
The Graveyard // Rohan Fermi
The Trashmaster // Mathieu Weschler
Unheimliche // Delbos, Gaudillere, Le Roy, Mutton, Van Lissum
WB Yeats - An Irish Airman Foresees His Death // Russell Boyd
What a night ! // TGO GMBH

The 13 members of the Jury:

Julien Aubert, Transmedia/ARG Executive Producer, Bigger Than Fiction
Thierry Falcoz, Video Games News Director of Nolife TV
Caroline Piras, Director
Laurence Herszberg, Manager of Forum des Images
Catherine Lottier, Journalist
Vincent Ravalec, writer, director and screenwriter
Stéphane Natkin, Manager of ENJMIN School in Angoulème
Benoit Labourdette, Pocket Film Festival
Geraldine Gomez, Hors Pistes Festival, Centre Pompidou
Isabelle Arvers, New media Curator
Jean Menu, Video Games Representative, Universciences
Moira Marguin, In charge of Animation Department, Ecole des Gobelins
Margherita Balzerani, Curator and Art Critic

The criteria on which the jury deliberated were : the originality of the script, staging, quality of the soundtrack and editing, the technical and aesthetic qualities linked with the diversion of the game. The choice was difficult, the debate alive. The diversity of films and the skills of the members contributed to the interest and the uniqueness of this selection.