I'm Co-Judging a SL Machinima Contest With L$300K in Prizes -- Here's 5 Things I'm Looking for in My Selections

I'm proud to announce that I'll be co-judging a Second Life machinima contest sponsored by The University of Western Australia in Second Life, with L$300,000 in prizes for the finalists -- go here for all the submission details. The contest organizer, JJ Jega, has assembled a large panel of SL luminaries to help judge, so my input is just one among many, but here's five things that make for great SL machinima, that I'll be looking for in this contest, and in general:

• Visually or thematically arresting in the first 5 seconds: Convince me this machinima is worth watching immediately -- with a powerful visual, or sound/music/dialog cue, or even eye-catching titles. Generally speaking, if a machinima does not do that in the first 5 seconds, it won't do that in its remaining time.
• Full use of all Second Life's visually rich features: Dynamic shadows! Customized WindLight settings! Physics! Mesh, mesh, and more mesh.
• Minimal use of lip sync: I never tire of saying this, so I'll put it in caps: EXCESSIVE LIP SYNC IN MACHINIMA LOOKS HORRIBLE AND IS HORRIBLY DISTRACTING. Facial animations that convincingly simulate speech have still not been attained, not even in a next gen game like Deus Ex: Human Revolution.  Not only that, but they tend to be a lazy way of conveying narrative which could otherwise be conveyed visually.
• Narrative structure: This doesn't just have to be a story per se. Even a montage that has a unifying theme or visuals can suffice. Simply turning the camera on and shooting footage, no matter high quality, does not a great machinima make.
• Superb editing with no lulls in pacing: I often say a machinima should generally be less than 3 minutes, but really, that mainly applies to montage/music videos. The truly important thing is this: Every single second of the machinima must be important and worth watching. "Harbinger", for example, is a great SL machinima, and it's 15 minutes long.

All that said, I can't wait to see all the entries that arrive. Deadline is November 10. Go here to submit your best, and good luck!

Comments

[Douglas Story]

I had to chuckle at the line, "Simply turning the camera on and shooting footage, no matter high quality, does not a great machinima make."

One often sees aimless, meandering machinima that are just beauty shots of a some sim strung together over eight or nine minutes. Zzzzz...

These videos always make me think of a story about Truman Capote. When asked what he thought of Kerouac's writing style in the then brand-new "On the Road," Capote sniffed and said, "That's not writing, that's typing."

I wish I could come with an equally pithy slogan for machinima of the ilk described above.... but "That's not film making, that's turning on Fraps and panning around with a 3-d Space Navigator" just isn't very snappy, is it?

[Jjccc]

So what you're saying is you want a video that gives you a blow job and makes you come in less than 3 minute and then she pays you 50 bucks on the way out, that video i want to see lol

[Hamlet Au]

"'That's not film making, that's turning on Fraps and panning around with a 3-d Space Navigator' just isn't very snappy, is it?"

Haha, how about, "That's not machinima making, that's Frapping!"

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of great SL *footage* out there which I enjoy blogging to reference a sim or some event or whatever, but that's a different beast.

[Rowan Derryth]

Welcome to the party. My criteria is simpler: don't make me want to turn it off in the first 30 seconds.

[Lap]

I to was a judge in this event. As I'm also an organizer of it. I just want to say I removed myself as such, because I didn't want to have to compare what i thought of a Machinima, to somebody else. Watching a Machinima as a viewer, rather then a critic, let's me know if I simply like the film or I didn't. Having said this, Am I to believe any of the above terminology, or my lying eyes?

All are created with effort, and are worthy of credit. :)

[Jjccc]

Machinima is in its infancy, as it was back in 1930's when Fritz Lang's Metropolis 12 hour epic came out. If we listen to the critics and only make what they want to see or adhere to there limited attention span we can only expect bite sized videos with no real content but a tease of what is possible in a snap shot of a moment. It will never be the job of a critic to tell us what to make or how to make it, only to tell us what they think of the finished result

[Douglas Story]

Machinima is indeed in its infancy, but cinema is not. The language of cinema is well established, and the budding machinima maker would do well to go to school on the techniques that the hundred-plus years of film history have shown us: composition, narrative, sound design, pacing, editing....the list goes on.

The only thing new and different about machinima is the way the footage is captured. For everything else, the same techniques that John Ford used apply.

As far as short attention spans go, I personally am all in favor of longer machinima, ==IF== the film maker has the skill to present a compelling story that sustains interest over the running time of the piece. I give you "Gaz of the Desert" by Gazira Babeli, which is 23 slow-paced minutes long and utterly riveting all the way through.

[Hamlet Au]

Well said. Though I'm not even sure machinima is in its infancy, the first productions were made in the original Quake and other games in early 90s, 20 years ago. The problem, seems to me, is most "machinima" is really just gameplay footage. Consequently, the people who mainly watch machinima are the fans of the game it was shot in. To get a broader audience, I think the project needs all the cool stuff Douglas is talking about.

[spyvspyaeon]

Filming andd using fraps, it's the root of the machinima, when it was created in Quake. But machinima ISN'T in the infancy, THAT IS NOT CORRECT or NEITHER CLOSER! I am debating this for more than 2 years, the definition of Machinima, what is game frapping, although the frapping can be engaging when A machinima creator know how to keep the viewers attention (editied landscapes, well selected shots etc). I agree with lipsync comments, and I say the same, less lipsync used on Second Life Better result!!!!! Or else u spend a lot of time re editing on crazy talk if you have even money to buy it. Fact is A WELL DONE MACHINIMA ISN'T ONLY THE MACHINIMA THAT KEEPS YOUR ATTENTION ON THE FIRST 30 SEC, BUT RATHER A WORK TOUGHT IN THE EVERY TINY DETAILS, CONTENT AND VIEWER IMPACT! All this combined and well review makes it a good work.

FYI - Judge do not never put their personal taste in relevance to judge anyone work! but an impartial assessment. eg even if the music or story does not give you that feeling of "ahh I like this song, although this is only a video camera flying!"

[Eliza Wierwight]

Beautiful poster ~laughs~

~SMACKS Jayjay~

[Corcosman Voom]

JJ - Jayjay Zifanwe in world - has done an amazing job, with the able assistance of quadrapop Lane and FreeWee Ling, of presenting the monthly 3D Art Challenge at The University of Western Australia for the past two years and last year's machinima contest.