Here's a luminous, gorgeously realized version of Lewis Carroll's immortal poem about a boy, a blade, and a burbling nemesis just begging to get his ass capped with a well-placed snicker snack. It was created by Stephen Bentham and inspired by bad weather. A digital animation student, Bentham was assigned a poem adaptation for his film editing class, and originally meant to go outside and get footage for a Robert Frost poem. "[B]ut local weather and scenery weren't cooperating," he tells me by email, "and I thought it might be a good time to give serious machinima a try." Already juggling multiple projects, Bentham worked fast. "What you see here was conceptualized and shot in about six hours, with almost literally no planning, and for under L$1500."
His partner Caliah Lyon helped assemble costumes and locations, and also helped prepare several WindLight presets for different locations. Footage was shot with a SpaceNavigator 3D mouse in the sims of REZ [direct SLurl teleport link here], Templum Ex Obscurum [direct SLurl teleport link here], Quaddryl [direct SLurl teleport link here], Chakryn Forest [direct SLurl teleport link here], and Barad Caristar [direct SLurl teleport link here]. "No post-processing was used," he adds, "and editing was kept to simple timing and fades." The hero was based on a freebie avatar from Boxed Heroes [direct SLurl teleport link here], appropriately enough, the old man from KTG [direct SLurl teleport link here]. The great audio reading was taken from Project Gutenberg. To no one's surprise, he adds, "The Jabberwocky and the other fantastical creatures were all brought to life with wonderful avatars from Grendel's Children." [Direct SLurl teleport link here]
SL friends of Mr. Bentham may be surprised by this literary turn. "After being known mostly for humor, spoofs, and fashion (and apparently having a cute avatar) I finally attempted something serious." However, after completing "Jabberwocky", he exited SL indefinitely. "So I suppose it's a bit of a final send-off." Then again, he adds, "This project inspired a strong creative itch in me and I think I'll be back someday to give Machinima another shot."
Best. Machinima. Ever.
WOW !
I would have added captions, though. For me, Carroll's words are designed to be seen (read), not only heard.
Never mind that. WOW !!
Posted by: Nahasa Singh | Wednesday, April 01, 2009 at 08:38 AM
He said, "After being known mostly for humor, spoofs, and fashion (and apparently having a cute avatar) I finally attempted something serious."
I had to smile reading that, because when Carroll wrote Jabberwocky, he was purposefully trying to write a non-serious example of bad poetry.
Ironically, it's so bad it's memorable, and therefore, in a sense, good. LOL
Posted by: Troy McLuhan | Wednesday, April 01, 2009 at 06:21 PM
Which is why it was perfect! :P
Posted by: Stephen Bentham | Wednesday, April 01, 2009 at 07:05 PM
Wonderful machinima, loved it. Glad to of created a forest you could deem worthy of such a brilliant video.
-Andrek
Creator of Chakryn
Posted by: Andrek Lowell | Thursday, April 02, 2009 at 12:51 PM
I went to Project Gutenberg to hear the original audio recording (sans music) and found that they have over 30 recordings of Jabberwocky, including a great Brooklyn version! See http://bit.ly/FZpRX
Posted by: Troy McConaghy | Friday, April 03, 2009 at 01:59 PM
Heh, that's a good one, Troy. You could use it to make another machinima where Jabberwocky gets whacked by the mob.
Posted by: Hamlet Au | Friday, April 03, 2009 at 02:23 PM
lmao... I came really close to using either the Brooklyn one or the other one by the same guy and making a quirkier/light-hearted version.
Posted by: Stephen Bentham | Friday, April 03, 2009 at 05:49 PM
Wow, Stephen. It's a wonderful collaboration with Caliah. I was sorry to see you leave, your plurk posts were some of the rare insightful / serious ones. But as a farewell shot, this machinima takes the cake.
Posted by: QiQi Michigan | Sunday, April 05, 2009 at 03:52 AM
Man, it's so great to see my gargoyle in that machinima. Made me smile big :)
Posted by: Barney Boomslang | Wednesday, April 08, 2009 at 04:48 AM