Man vs. Second Life, Part 2: Watch the Hilarious Sequel to Viral Machinima Hit, Read an Interview With the Creator

Man versus Second Life Part 2 is the LOL-heavy sequel to last year’s viral hit; created by indie filmmaker Sean Krueger, it’s an affectionate, brilliantly produced and directed send-up of SL culture from someone who clearly knows the world. Unsurprisingly, it’s probably not safe for office viewing (which is why I’m posting it at the end of the work day):

(Part One is after the break.) “I've always enjoyed the Man vs. Wild series on the Discovery Channel,” Sean tells me, “Something about a single man demonstrating how to survive in the wilderness was intriguing to me. For awhile I thought, what if this idea were to be brought into a video game?” (As you might have guessed, his Second Life avatar isn’t actually named Adam Steele. “It's Sylar,” he says cheekily, “but the last name is classified.”)

He conceived the first one, he adds, “while taking a virtual worlds class at college, [where] one of our final project options was to make a machinima piece using Second Life.” (He recently got a degree in Media Production from the University at Buffalo.) “I quickly realized that the Second Life metaverse, being user-created and user-run, seemed MUCH more mysterious and perilous to a single man struggling for survival than any fictional game could come up with. Thus, Man vs. Second Life was born.”

He originally didn’t plan on making a sequel, but acclaim from the SL community inspired him to continue the story of Steele’s survival in Second Life:

“Part 2 was an afterthought, believe it or not. My cameraman Hans and I were blown away by the number of views and all the positive feedback we were getting from the SL community. Everyone kept saying I should make sequels... and I was hesitant. I didn't think a sequel would be as funny, or even any good. But after getting over 100,000 views on the first movie in about one year, I wrote down some ideas for possible sequel storylines.”

The challenge was making a mini-movie that would also appeal to people outside the community: “I wanted the storyline to have a common denominator for all Second Life users, both new and veteran. Something everyone could relate to, so that the people watching would understand a lot of the jokes. It came down to what most people, including myself, might experience during their first few hours or days within Second Life: lots of new, crazy, and often scary things all around you with very little context to back them up.”

New World Notes readers in particular will love the references to the “Second Life is not a game” controversy. “I've heard many debates with residents bickering back and forth on how Second Life is or is not a game,” Sean tells me, smiling. “I wanted to bring some of that hard core user frustration into the movie, because quite frankly, I find it amusing.”

Will there be more adventures of Alan Steele? “Part 3 (if it does happen) won't be for quite some time,” Sean tells me, “as I'm still recovering after the meticulous editing process I went through getting Part 2 together. I'm going to let people enjoy Part 2 for a while... though ideas are always brewing for new movies.”

More notes on making the movie:

Special effects:

“For the teleport sequences, I recorded actual in-world teleport particles from Second Life in front of a blank background-- then enhanced them to my liking (color, brightness, position, etc), and combined them with some more unique custom made particles using Adobe After Effects. Then, with some simple editing and consistent shooting, made Adam's teleportation appear seamless from one region to the next. There were some other shots in the film that used post-production effects, but only to achieve shots that were otherwise extremely difficult or impossible to create live in-world-- those were designed so you couldn't tell that effects were being used.”

Shooting challenges:

“The most difficult part was scheduling the shoots. I was working with SL friends and other new acquaintances from multiple time zones, and trying to get them all together at the same time was often impossible. I ended up having to use a few last minute stand-ins to achieve consistency for a couple shots. Then, trying to find time around my work and family schedules was a challenge on its own (considering this entire project was done for fun, with no budget.)”

See more of Sean Krueger’s work on his YouTube page.

Comments

[Paola Tauber]

fantastic!!!! xD

[Mistletoe]

My non-SLer hubby LOLed from across the room at the line "More useless than a flexiprim cock." Then he quickly (and proudly) added, "I got that!"

So well done, Sean.

[Menno Ophelia]

Loved them both a lot. You should really try make a whole serie with this character. Movies like this remind me of SL 4 years ago... And i think everybody really misses stuff like this..
This is SL at it's best.

[Michelle Leckrone]

It was a great project to be involved with and would I do it again yes
I hope the Lindens are watching

[ColeMarie Soleil]

HAHAHAHA NICE :D

[Noirran]

this is so full of awesome.

[Kabalyero]

The Linden are watching this. They love stuff like this and, besides, it's FREE publicity for them too. LOL!