Watch “A Journey Into the Metaverse”, a Beautiful Short Combining SL Machinima & Documentary Footage from India

UPDATE 5/7: Bumped up for weekend viewing -- enjoy!

“A Journey into the Metaverse” by Tutsy Navarantha is easily among the best narrative Second Life machinimas I’ve ever seen, with a compelling story that’s perfect to the medium, and beautifully told with rich dreamlike visuals which inspire comparisons to filmmakers like Jeunet and Gilliam. Watch:

A filmmaker originally based in Paris, Mr. Navarantha combines real world documentary footage he personally shot in India to tell the story of an avatar whose identity becomes so strong, he reshapes the identity of his owner. In the process, the story brings us back to the origin of the word “avatar”, from Hindu theology, for “godly incarnation”.

Tutsy explains his inspiration for the short:

“The relationship between an individual and his avatar necessarily poses many questions about our psychology and also our future,” he tells me. For many reasons (social, political, cultural), he believes virtual worlds will continue developing. “This will create a new kind of social relationship,” altering even our romantic and sexual interactions. As that happens, “We can say today that the boundaries between these two worlds slowly fade.”

A friend showed Mr. Navarantha Second Life three years ago. “I was immediately fascinated. Computers, cyberworlds and all appearances of new art forms have always been a passion for me. It was natural [fit].” And so he’s used his filmmaking skills to make many machinimas, which you can see here.

As for Tutsy Navarantha, I said he was originally from Paris, but as it turns out, he followed the trajectory of the avatar and his owner, from the movie: “I just made the choice to live and work in South India,” he tells me.

Comments

[Nyoko Salome]

:0 applauds!! very, very well done, and interesting 'meta' or whatnot to contemplate... ;0 always like "human nature" movies.

[rikomatic]

Wow, breathtaking. The best example of what I see as the rich potential of mixed-media virtual and real world cinema. Bravo, Tutsy Navarantha!

[Ann Otoole InSL]

That is the message that needs to be spread far and wide.