New World Notes

Making "Molotov": How The Man Behind The HBO/Cinemax Special Created His Avatar-Based Documentary, And Why

When Douglas Gayeton began creating the documentary short that airs tonight in the US at 8pm on Cinemax, he wasn't even sure what people meant by the word "machinima".

"I had heard the term," Douglas told me last weekend, "but didn’t even know what it was.  I thought it was a Second Life culture."  In 2006/early 2007, the Dutch production company Submarine had hired the seasoned filmmaker to create a documentary about Web 2.0 culture, specific topic unspecified.  But his wife Laura had just given birth to their first child, and he was loathe to leave their goat farm in Petaluma.  (Laura runs a popular organic goat milk ice cream company-- a story in itself.)  "That’s when I realized I could stay in Second Life and not have to leave the house."

The result was "Molotov Alva and the Search for His Creator: A Second Life Odyssey", and the story of its viral ascent into a major cable network was covered here.  Since writing that post last year, I should say by way of full disclosure, Douglas and I have become friendly.  But I was enthralled by "Molotov Alva" the very moment the first part aired last March on YouTube, and having seen the whole film since, that sense is only heightened: dizzying, funny, profound, it's a fever dream vision that perfectly captures the essence of Second Life.  (I'm hardly its only admirer.)

In creating it, Douglas more or less invented a new technique to shoot machinima, waded through 100 hours of footage, and wound up with a movie that challenges the very definition of "documentary".  After the break, he talks about that, the surprising (and spoiler-laden) plot twists that were added at the last moment, and where Molotov goes from here.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: TASRILL SIEYES

Maria Rimbaud told me that Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase" had taken on avatar form, and so naturally, I had to know more. 

When I finally caught up with Tasrill Sieyes, the Resident who had made Duchamp's legendary painting come alive, I found out this abstract avatar was only the beginning-- or rather, the summation in a long career of abstract avatars as a medium of expression.  And, of course, a furry with octopus arms. 

After the break, my profile of Tasrill, avatar artist. 

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: SLADE ONIZUKA

For the last few years, Slade has been a renowned crafter of exoskeleton-based avatars; we fell out of touch for a time, but while doing interviews for the book, I caught up with him in the legendary city of Nexus Prime, in his ornate apartment jutting out of the city in mid-air.  Onizuka told me about his new avatar, the identity he's trying to project with it-- and its role as a shield from certain aspects of SL culture.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: CIRR MARAT (TSL)

CAM-501 in Mainframe

I first spotted Cirr Marat showing off his teen grid space station, so when I noticed he'd sent in a submission to my Teen Avatar Expo, I lept to check it out.

"This is the second version of the avatar I made since a few months after joining [Teen Second Life]," Cirr Marat, 16, tells me.  "It has the 'official' name of CAM-501-- Corvian Automated Mechanoid 501. The 'Corvian' part came from old plans for a multigadget that never came to fruition, and 501 is just an arbitary number. It's a robot bird. Not a robot fish or a robot fly, as some people seem to think, but then, the bird parts aren't really that obvious.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: KAZUHIRO ARIDIAN

I first saw Kazuhiro Aridian at a corporate car promotion, of all places, where she teleported before me as a dark and metallic blur.  When she fully materialized in all her horrible splendor, my jaw went agape: entirely incongruent on a sunny island shore, Kazuhiro was a human avatar whose whole body had been fused into a multi-function, robot exoskeleton.  (As it turned out, I wasn't the only one who had noticed her.)  Embodied in such an alien form that was so lovingly, almost erotically detailed, there had to be a story behind Aridian-- and the person who made her real. 

So naturally, I wanted to know more.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: CHAV PADERBORN

Chav in Babbage Square

I spoke with Chav Paderborn, a pigtailed waif who fends for herself with an abacus computer and an informal support network of fellow urchins who make their way in places like Babbage Square (direct teleport here), a smoggy, steampunk city resembling a Victorian London that never was.  When I found her, I noticed her profile biography read thus:

"Chav Paderborn was found in a street in 1801 was found in a street in 1801 and put to work in a factory where she was bonsaied to remain forever small enough to crawl under looms. In 1832 Chav led a worker's revolt that burned the factory to the ground and since then has walked the streets of Second Life unionising workers, freeing slaves, and scavenging for scraps."

Naturally, I had to know more.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: ROLAND UDAL (TSL)

From the mists of the Teen grid, a warrior rides through:  Roland Udal, elegantly detailed and loaded for bear.  He tells us about creating his avatar after the break.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: AYEAKA REINSCH (TSL)

Ayeaka Reinsch, 16, offers her steely avatar "K9U.exe" for the Teen Avatar Expo.

"K9U.exe," she tells me, "is the product of a boredom-induced doodle at school during a lecture... In these screen captures, I am in Sand Box Island 4, roughly 500 meters into the air. I custom-built the surroundings for 'camera purposes.'"

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: STELLA COSTELLO

I noticed acclaimed 3D artist Stella Costello in the bleachers of Kula, just a touch to the left of the svelte Ivy Darrow.  Since Stella seemed decidedly more full-figured than when I saw her last, I asked her if she'd changed.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: VGM GOBO (TSL)

"I am a basic scripter," vgm Gobo tells me from Teen Second Life (pictured here in the TSL region of Tenshi).  A 14 year old Resident, he's also my first entry in the Teen Avatar Expo, an adjunct to the "All About My Avatar" series exclusively for those in what's colloquially known as "the teen grid".

"I was insipred to make my avatar," Gobo explains, "because of a friend's novel/story (in progress) called Dynasty." It is a story about six young kids starting a virtual reality game that takes place in medieval times and they get stuck in the game and have to find a way out.  I have a character in it, and that is what the avatar looks like: green hair, leather outfit, and red headband."

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: IVY DARROW

Ivy Darrow was an attractive redhead standing in the upper bleachers of Kula coliseum, and I was struck by how much her avatar resembled the young flame-haired woman in her First Life profile, and so naturally, I had to know more.

ALL ABOUT MY AVATAR: PENNY PATTON

I spied Penny Patton sitting in the upper bleaches of Kula's Roman coliseum during the guidebook appearance, and I was so struck by her, with her flying ace pilot goggles and her belt of World War I-era handgrenades, that I had to know more.  In fact, Kula's audience was so diverse, it inspired me to launch a new semi-recurring NWN series:  "All About My Avatar", profiles of fascinating SL personae, and the people behind them. 

Which begins with Penny, after the break.