Duran Duran's Olympics Opening Show for Four Billion Viewers Expected to Feature Second Life

Duran Duran has had an official presence in Second Life since 2006, which a lot of SLers have known, but here's some other people who will get a glimpse of what they do in SL: basically, the whole fricking world. This is because Duran Duran will perform in the opening ceremony of the Olympics next week, on July 27th, and their onstage act is expected to incorporate SL machinima from Duran Duran island, displayed on the big screens behind them. So Olympics viewers will see the place in SL with the giant lipstick and a Duran Duran dirigible and now (as the above suggests) avatars getting into an Olympic frame of mind.

"We shot footage for the stage screens for the Duran Duran appearance in Hyde Park Olympic's opening event," Chrissy Welinder, head of Duran Duran's SL fan group, tells me. They're performing live onstage with folks like Snow Patrol and Stereophonics, and the expected audience for the opening is four billion viewers. So I was not exaggerating when I said pretty much everyone alive, least those with access to a TV.

If it happens as expected, this will be without doubt the most mass market appearance of Second Life. But be warned, lots of unexpected variables are still at play:

The group may decide not to include the SL footage for various reasons, or the Olympic show's producers may decide not to feature it in the live act, or the TV broadcasters may not show it at all. However, what's clear, according to Ms. Welinder, is that they did shoot the SL footage, and it's intended for use at the Olympics opening. And Duran Duran has actually done this before, incorporating SL footage in their global tour last year.

"[T]he band used that footage during their whole world tour," Chrissy tells me. "So this time, we will present the Duran Duran Universe to the whole wide world."

Click here for updates on the group's Facebook page, where I got the screenshots featured here.

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Comments

[Cube Republic]

All we need now is the rain to stop

[Dave Bell]

The only thing is, who will think of Second Life when they see those big screens? It'll be just another computer animation.

[Alazarin]

Never been a great fan of DD, but it would be fantastic for SL if DD's SL footage does get used during their opening-ceremony gig. One thing niggles at the back of my mind though. I remember back in 2007 SL had some super-fantastic hype in the US and n00bs came flooding in like I've never seen before or since.

Unfortunately it coincided with the viewer 1.7 update which ushered in approximately 2 weeks of the 'grey life' experience [a severe texture-loading bug]. Suffice to say that it took a long time for the public perception of SL to recover from that epic ballsup.

So I hope that this time around they've got the infrastructure in place to handle a potential flood of new residents. Viewer 3.3x seems to be reasonably stable so there's a fighting chance that all the chips might fall in place this time around.

So, a toast to the lads at DD if they can pull it off.

[Hitomi Tiponi]

Hopefully it will be shown - apparently rehearsals for the Opening Ceremony have been over-running and some elements (notably the BMX display) have had to be pulled.

[pussycat catnap]

I'm one of those noobs that flooded in during the gray things - in late 2006.

But I'll echo Dave's comment: Who's gonna know its SL?

[jjccc coronet (@JJcccART)]

I made the video the other day at duran duran sim and sent to there art director Nick Rhodes Says he loves it so all the stops are being pulled out to make it fit onto the 9 screens being used at the gig , heres the link if you want to watch it
https://vimeo.com/45779363

[Hamlet Au]

"Who's gonna know its SL?"

People who were told that by a well-funded PR and marketing campaign. Gee, I wonder who would want to pay for that?

[Hamlet Au]

JJ, that video link doesn't seem to work?

[elizabeth (16)]

"who will know?"

we will

previous users of SL who been and gone as well. like 30 million of them so far

new people who go: ooo! thats cool. how they do that?

[Alazarin]

@Pussycat: Was it late 2006? My memory's a bit fuzzy when it comes to dates so you're probably right. The grey life era was totally unforgettable though!

[Dave Bell]

Hamlet, I will believe in well-funded PR pushing SL when I see it. Telling people such as yourself is preaching to the converted.

As for the video, I've mixed feelings about it. There are some very obvious flaws in some shots, such as breast poke-through in Mesh/Sculpt clothing. I'd be embarrassed to let mistakes such as that slip through.

Any publicity value for SL is going to depend on what the TV commentators bother to say. And, unless Linden Labs have some official sponsorship deal, I am not sure that it is lawful to associate them with the event.

In particular there is the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006, which can bring the lawyers down on you if you use some relatively ordinary English words.

A Second Life video being shown at London 2012: you don't even have to mention the Olympics to fall foul of that law. The way the IOC and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games are carrying on, Second Life and Linden Labs are going to be lucky to even get na name-check.

[jjccc coronet (@JJcccART)]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n5aUDv0CiU
https://vimeo.com/45779363
these links should work

[Iggy]

I wasn't too inspired by this video, but I hope it brings in some curious folks who will stick around.

It's at least better than the current "Jersey Shore" themed video at the "What is SL?" link from the main SL site...though that has much better afropop music from an in-world artist.

Sorry, not even a tiny DD fan on this end, or a fan of most of what XTC's Andy Partridge called "Funk Pop a Roll." Now if we could get Tommy Ramone to resurrect his band mates. . . well, gabba gabba hey.

[Alazarin]

@Iggy:

Ah, but it's the London Olympics so we have to have local acts. I'd have thought Emerson, Lake & Palmer belting out Karn Evil 9 (1st Impression Pt. 2) "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends..." would have been a more fitting opener for the Olympic Games even if some of the lyrics are a bit risqué.

[foneco zuzu]

Dear God, how i'd love to see ELP Again!
That woould for sure be an amazinf and daring moment, but it looks like England now is all grey;(

[foneco zuzu]

Still I enjoy DD, i just think England has so much more, why not Paul and Ringo, Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, so many many mush more!

[Seven Overdrive]

I would imagine it would be very expensive to advertise during the Olympics so I would be surprised if Second Life got any obvious name recognition during the event, but I guess that is irrelevant.

With 15,000 - 20,000 new sign-ups per day, SL has no problem bringing in large numbers of people. They just can't retain any of them. LL's efforts need to be directed inward until they can entice more people to stick around.

[Metacam Oh]

I find it funny that SL has been around what 9 years now, we almost look at it as the life and death of a platform, but its funny not once in those 9 years has SL ever once run a television commercial advertising.

[Iggy]

@Alazarin and foneco, I fell out of love with ELP long ago, but it makes me wonder how well the Karn Evil 9 lyrics "Rows of bishops heads in jars, and bomb inside a car! Spectacular!" would go over these days, in London or most other places.

Might start a RL riot.

@Metacam, while we've not see TV ads, the tie-ins on the American "The Office" and "CSI" amounted to ads for SL. I cannot imagine that LL did not participate or at least grant permission to use their copyrighted name. Does anyone know about that?

And in both cases, the shows made SL look like Creepy Loserville.

[Pussycat Catnap]

"People who were told that by a well-funded PR and marketing campaign. Gee, I wonder who would want to pay for that?"

Oh, then in this case, nobody will know.

This is LLs after all that owns SL...

[Metacam Oh]

@Iggy

That's the thing though. We are all sitting around asking where did it go wrong, well where is the blame for never running a solid ad campaign? Even the ones they ran were failures and like you said the CSI and Office cameos were not controlled messages from the Lab.

Where are all the users?

Maybe try some advertising :)

[Kimm Paulino]

As you say, Duran Duran are performing in the live gig going on in Hyde Park as part of the opening Olympic celebrations going on at the same time as the opening ceremony. But I don't think it is actually part of the official opening ceremony, which will be taking place in the new Olympic complex.

So whilst the chance of media coverage is still high, it is unlikely to be as extensive as the actual opening ceremony itself.

Kimm.

[Linda Paine]

You know that "...this show will act as an accompaniment to the opening ceremony" ?
Quote from http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/may/01/duran-duran-olympics-opening-concert

So cool down with the billions.

[Jaques Liverot]

What an amateur looking video. Let's hope there is no SL namecheck.

[jjccc coronet (@JJcccART)]

the video made, was to duran specifications it will be seen on 9 huge screens on stage and other screens arround the park due to the sizes of the screen still tight shots were requested by durans art director, any way im going to hyde park on the 27th as duran durans guest to see the result if it is anything like the dvd that duran duran featured my videos on recently i expect it will look amazing
https://vimeo.com/45779363

[jjccc coronet (@JJcccART)]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQaeFLMYtg4

Duran Duran Live at Hyde Park

[manny bloom]

Not exactly 4 billion people watching, is there?