November 2013 – Ciaran Laval

November 29, 2013November 29, 2013

More News On The Blackened Mirror Season 2

Blackened Mirror poster should be here — The Blackened Mirror Poster

Season 2 of The Blackened Mirror draws closer. This Second Life based machinima drama will soon be coming to a website or maybe even a sim near you soon. The new season launches on Sunday December 1st and features names from Second Life as well as people who have worked on the stage, TV, film and radio.

From Second Life we have the likes of Saffia Widdershins of prim perfect fame. Saffia is the executive producer and director. Also from Second Life is the assistant director in the shape and form of Honour Macmillan …… wait wait wait, when did this happen? Nobody told me Honour was assistant director! Damn there’s an interview waiting to happen! Honour is also an excellent photographer and wordsmith as she knows there’s a U in Honour.

From the world of Film and TV there are quite a few actually, amongst them are; Scott Simpson (Second Life’s Zander Greene), who has appeared in over a dozen film and TV appearances as well as being a voice actor and a massive star in terms of Second Life’s Relay For Life effort. Then there’s Christy Grantham who has been in the acting game for over 25 years. Gameela Wright who has been involved in acting for over 15 years. Then there’s voice actor Juliet Cesario who has voice acting credits for Sesame Street amongst other projects.

Then there’s Peter Jurasik who played Sid the snitch in Hill Street Blues (Editor, mention the other role!) oh ok oh yes he played Londo Mollari in Babylon 5.

There are more people involved whom I haven’t mentioned, very interesting team involved in this.

Continue reading “More News On The Blackened Mirror Season 2”

November 29, 2013

The Drax Files Episode 14 – Rose Borchovski

I suppose it was inevitable really that The Drax Files would change its signature theme tune one day, that’s the inevitability of fate. Which brings us nicely on to this latest episode of The Drax Files. Episode 14 features Rose Borchovski. All the images I post in this post … really don’t like the way that sounds (no time to change it EDITOR), anyway all of the images in this post are from Rose Borchovski’s art installation entitled “The Inevitability of Fate”.

The installation can be found at Two Fish, Cariacou in Second Life

SLURL: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cariacou/127/27/1026

Now back to the post! This week’s Drax Files is a visually stunning affair where Drax strolls through Rose’s world of art as if he’s some sort of trouble maker, you keep waiting for something to break, but it never does. This is quite an immersive episode, I could watch this with the sound turned down. However as sound is an important part of Rose’s work, I wouldn’t encourage you to do that if you visit her inworld installations. Also if you turn the sound down on the video, you won’t hear it … hmm I haven’t thought this through very well!

However the real story in this week’s episode is Rose and her work. Additionally how Second Life is used to bring her work to life inside and outside of Second Life. Rose is also quite the storyteller, and as I’ve said previously, I’m a big fan of storytelling, in all its forms.

This episode kicks off with Rose talking about her creation of Susa Bubble, the girl who went to bed single and woke up double. Susa Bubble sprang to life because Rose wanted to write a story for her daughter, who at the time was very sick. The story itself is not all pink fluff, it’s rather dark in parts and demonstrates good and bad, it’s closer to a Grimm’s fairytale in many ways than a happy children’s tale.

However one big theme from this week’s episode is the power of a virtual world such as Second Life to add an extra dimension to the artistic experience. The sounds, noise, 3D models and immersion within the Second Life art installation add extra richness to the exhibit, it’s powerful stuff.

Continue reading “The Drax Files Episode 14 – Rose Borchovski”

November 27, 2013

The Blackened Mirror Season 2 Starts Sunday December 1st

Noir, 1930’s detective thriller, sci-fi story, Lovecraft inspired, Steampunk laden is how some critics described season one of The Blackened Mirror. Some claim that some critics mean me but I can’t comment on that! However, season 2 will begin rolling out on Sunday December 1st.

Picking up where season one left off, which was on a cliffhanger, the new season will reunite the viewer with familiar characters as well as have more plot twists than a twisty turny thing.

Now if you’re not familiar with The Blackened Mirror, I’ll provide some links:

Website: http://www.theblackenedmirror.com/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/theblackenedmirror

The website has some fun ideas on it and is currently running a poll to see where you’d like to travel with some of the main characters.

Continue reading “The Blackened Mirror Season 2 Starts Sunday December 1st”

November 27, 2013

Questions About New Tax Requirements For Second Life Garners New Information

When Linden Lab recently blogged about new tax requirements people still had several questions regarding many matters relating to those questions. Chief amongst those questions was what exactly a transaction is.

Over at SLUniverse Desmond Shang has posted some details from a response he received from Linden Lab:

“Thank you for contacting us with your concerns. As mentioned in the blog post Required Tax Documentation – Second Life, the reporting criteria for 1099-K is 200+ transactions AND $20,000+ in a calendar year.

Transactions are currently defined as sell orders placed on the LindeX and applies per person not per avatar. How that order is filled does not currently impact the transaction count. For example, if you place a sell order for L$5,000 and that order is matched with three different residents while being filled, it counts as one transaction.

Separately, IRS criteria on withholding taxes is only on the transaction count itself; withholding is only required if we do not have a valid W-9 or W-8BEN on file.”

So that clears up what a transaction is

Continue reading “Questions About New Tax Requirements For Second Life Garners New Information”

November 26, 2013

[Vengeance + Vengeance] Shows Why Machinima Growth Could Be Good For Content Creators

I love the art of storytelling, in all its forms. I’d love to have been able to present a story within Second Life, to direct it with my own vision. There are other places where this is more feasible and I’m currently liking the look of Cloud Party for this sort of venture.

However for a good story you need good content too, especially when it’s visual. This is also true for those who make machinima. I have recently been looking at a science fiction machinima short entitled “[Vengenace + Vengeance]“.

This wasn’t shot in Second Life, although Second Life is home to many good examples of machinima. [Vengeance + Vengeance] was created with the Unreal Development Kit 2010-08-Beta , Autodesk Maya 2011, Adobe CS5 Master Suite and ZBrush 4.0. However many of the props could be used in Second Life style machinima, some of the effects and certainly the facial character animations aren’t what you’d see in Second Life but the content, textures, etc they could certainly be at home in Second Life.

One of the things with machinima, due to the fact that it’s often a short production, is to try and find some background to the story. There won’t be much time for character development, especially in a story that lasts less than twenty minutes. Fortunately this example has a synopsis:

“In a world where technology has leveraged politics and military is controlled by corporations, only the cleverest or most brutal survive. The Resnick Corporation through advanced genomic research stands poised to control weapon development with an advanced soldier prototype. The only problem, the prototype has gone wrong.

[Vengeance+Vengeance], a contemporary adaptation of “The Hunter” by Richard Stark (AKA Donald E. Westlake) places an Asian female in the role of the main character Parker. It’s a world set in a dystopian future where human life is a commodity to be toyed with by the powerful. Science has become the key to domination and those who control it the rulers. Lily, our protagonist is blessed with natural talents of athleticism and intelligence. A research scientist who’s specialization is in nanotechnology and its use in biomimetics and organic synthesis is employed by the Resnick Corporation. We find her discarded in a hostile wasteland where the results of diabolical genetic engineering have produced a distorted population of mutants. Who has put her there and why? Using brute intelligence and raw violence to overcome her adversaries Lily finds that all is not as it appears. Her efforts have been distorted and corrupted. Is she the only one who can set things straight?”

Reading that will help you to get more out of the story if you find the time to watch it, you can view the movie and more about it at the link I’m about to post now:

http://vengeancevengeance.com/index.html

Continue reading “[Vengeance + Vengeance] Shows Why Machinima Growth Could Be Good For Content Creators”