Lyric Lundquist's Machinima is "Boundless" -- Notes on the Latest From a Master of Expressionist Second Life Machinima

Lyric and her real life owner

Every time Ms. Lyric Lundquist makes a machinima, I stop what I'm doing and watch. Not just because her expressionist montages are so visually original and arresting, but because of the creative process she brings to her projects. Her latest, "boundless", is sexy, strange, primitive, inspired by her wanderings through two worlds -- in the surreal rural dreamscapes created by the SL artist known as AM Radio, and Lyric's own walks through Brooklyn snow.

Dim the lights, blast the sound, and watch:

"Making 'Boundless' was very visceral for me," says Lyric. "It happened during a time when I was habitually hibernating in AM Radio's 'The Quiet'. Every time I had the chance to log into SL, I always found myself feeling strangely attached to the sim. I never wanted to leave to wander and explore other places, which is what I typically do when I'm in-world. Instead, I TP'd in friends to sit with me between the trees on the hill and stare out across the pixel snow. The simplicity was calming and refreshing, a sweet detour from what I usually gravitate toward in Second Life. It reminded me of where I grew up in upstate New York."

The Quiet gave her a location, but in yet another example of Second Life's bebop creativity, it was a new fashion line, Le Letuka's "Ultra" collection, that raised her imagination another level.

"After not spending a DIME on SL fashion in months, I went on a wild shopping spree and basically bought the entire collection. I can not get enough of mixing and matching the corsets, armor, gowns, and headgear. One night, I was tromping around The Quiet in a particularly striking Ultra combo and thought I would try to make a more simple, beautiful, high fashion type of video to highlight the collection in one of the most beautiful sim's SL has ever seen."

More notes on how Lyric Lunquist made "Boundless" and some of its most striking visuals-- with great advice for other machnimators:

"One of the techniques I used in the video was attaching a prim to the center of my screen and then using a variation of 'old film' textures that were given to me by Jewell Larfalomou (Distressed Jewell on Flickr). I think it gives the footage a more authentic feel, rather than trying to achieve the same gritty texture effect in post-production.

"The second technique I toyed with, was right at the very end of the video, when you see four Lyric Lundquist's clawing at the screen. For this, I had to film the same clip four different times, just slightly moving my avatar over with each take. Then in final cut I cropped the clips and lined them up jusssst right so that the tree line connected, creating the final illusion.

"The song [for 'boundless'] is by The Knife and called the 'Colouring of Pigeons.' As usual the song played a big part in the inspiration. I was walking my dog around Brooklyn in the snow, listening to it on repeat for possibly the tenth time, when I decided I had to make a machinima to it. I actually had to do some audio mixing because the opera-esque singer that comes in around 1:50 is actually at the end of the ten minute song, but is my favorite part. And we all know, NO ONE is going to watch a ten minute video.

"Which brings me to another, slightly off topic point, but I think restraint is important when making machinima, and music videos in general. I went to an experimental film festival in Williamsburg this weekend that turned out to be torturous because (in my opinion) most of the projects were about five minutes too long. I can only take one, MAYBE two minutes of watching a stop motion video of over exposed crumpled paper moving while listening to heavy breathing. Anything over that and I start having to stifle laughter like a 10 year old in church. I had to separate myself from my friends, so I wasn't rude.

"ANYWAY," Lyric Lundquist tells me, laughing, "I always try to keep my videos relatively short while still communicating my vision."

See more great Lyric machinima in her YouTube profile.

Comments

[M Linden]

This is marvelous!

[Ann Otoole]

Try subscribing. That way you get an email when new vids are released.

Lyric's: http://www.youtube.com/user/lovetothelyrics

ColeMarie's: http://www.youtube.com/user/rockerfaerie

Also check out Bryn Oh's: http://brynoh.blip.tv/

Worth watching these channels. In fact we need a centralized catalog for this type of art. SL so lacks a metadata repository/catalog.