First European Machinima Festival

Right after the Virtual World Conference (10-11 october) there was the European Machinima Festival in Leicester ( 12-14 october). No less than 3 Second Life production went home with a price:

• BEST COMMERCIAL: ‘When the postman spits twice‘ (SL-Inworld Productions)
• BEST TECHNICAL: ‘Machinima Island‘ (la.interactive)
• BEST SERIES: ‘The Grid Review‘ (ILL Clan)

‘New World Wonder‘ byPlanet Video and ‘Everwind‘ by ARFV Productions were also part of the official festival selection. This year Second Life is rapidly gaining ground in the machinima business.

Number of Award winners by platform:

• Second Life: 3


• Sims II: 1


• MotionBuilder: 1


• Halo II: 2


• Half-Life II: 1


• 3D Game Studio: 3 (same machinima)

With 3 awards the machinima 'Stolen Life' was the big winner of the festival. The machinima's initials SL haven't got anything to do with the platform it was produced on. 'Stolen Life' was produced by the Australian company Nanoflix.

Beware of flying carrots - Lowlands 2007

Summertime is a time to party. In the Netherlands there's the annual 'Lowlands festival', a 3 day music event. This year there's Second Life as extra promotional instrument.

The first promotional instrument is the carrot-rocket that's been present at the Lowlands site for years which has landed in the sim Zandvoort in Second Life and is filled with goodies.

The second element is the tiny little avatar that can be seen in the weirdest places of SL.

Though a small gig, the avatar and carrot, it's been fun to work on says Timbo Urbanowicz of Dutch content creators SLionhead.