The Drax Files : World Makers Episode 2 – 1920’s Berlin has won an award for best machinima at the New Media Film Festival in Los Angeles. Unfortunately Draxtor Despres couldn’t be there in person to pick up his award, which is a shame because we have no pictures of him schmoozing with the stars. There’s also no footage of Draxtor doing a video thank you, but this is a very good award.
The blurb for the festival tell us :
An International Festival based in Los Angeles, the New Media Film Festival celebrates the ever-changing world of new media. Declared “worth the entry fee” by MovieMaker Magazine and hailed for making “the cutting edge accessible” by Huffington Post, New Media Film Festival accepts new media entries across a variety of categories.
The jury includes reps from Pixar, Fox and The Caucus, among others. A total of $45,000 USD in awards will be presented at the 5th Annual New Media Film Festival.
Quite impressive praise and jury. However what of the episode itself? I reviewed it back in March 2013 and rather spookily I said the following :
I’ve mentioned before how good a medium this is for promoting Second Life and how it would be good if Linden Lab got in on the act. I’ve also pointed out that there are issues such as editorial impartiality for Linden Lab that Draxtor and others don’t face, so it’s trickier for Linden Lab but I hope they are taking note of the positive nature of these videos. They are at least aiding the promotion by blogging about it.
As Linden Lab now sponsor the production, it seems they were paying attention. They have also promised editorial impartiality will continue, I should have charged a consultancy fee!
The actual episode combines real life and Second Life footage brilliantly, with Frau Yardley making a brilliant contribution as overlord of 1920’s Berlin and the real life virtual world enthusiast. Frau Yardley also revealed she’s a bit of a technophobe as she doesn’t have a mobile telephone or television. Therefore Frau Yardley might not have seen The Netherlands stunning World Cup victory over Spain this evening, however I did!
The Drax Files is well worthy of the praise and recognition it is now receiving. The episodes are short at around five minutes but they capture so much in those five minutes. Draxtor Despres deserves this and Jo Yardley certainly played her role in this episode, narrating most of it and putting Drax in his place.
All of The Drax Files episodes so far have been wonderful and I really couldn’t pick a favourite, I mean I have my own personal bias but I’ve enjoyed every single episode and that’s the beauty of these shows. You can view them all here.
I’ll embed the award winning episode now.
Thank you so much for the kind words! I do hope folks can see for themselves with the current episode [#20 – last one before summer break] & the 5 scheduled ones coming through the rest of the year that editorial impartiality is secured. Nice pic with me and Susan and audience reacting to the film coming soon [I was piped in through UStream]
Congrats for a more then deserved victory!