When the Harlem Shake meme started to swarm YouTube like crazy, I had a hunch it would hit Second Life about as hard as "Gangnam Style", maybe even harder, so now courtesy of Bouncer Criss, here it starts:
The meme itself is highly formalized, and as you can tell, ideally suited for SL -- let Wikipedia explain:
The videos last 30-something seconds and feature an excerpt from the song "Harlem Shake" by electronic musician Baauer. Usually, a video begins with one person (often helmeted or masked) dancing to the song alone for 15 seconds, surrounded by other people not paying attention or unaware of the dancing individual. When the bass drops, the video switches to the entire crowd doing a crazy convulsive dance for the next 15 seconds.
As for how Mr. Criss made his machinima, he just explained to me: "It was not that hard to be honest. You need a bunch of friends that want to act silly for a few minutes and want to be videotaped." And here's his machinima-making particulars:
"To record in-world, you can use a couple of programs. I have FRAPS and ZD Soft Screen Recorder, both have their advantages and disadvantages. When I filmed my Harlem Shake, I used ZD Soft Screen Recorder. I shot about a minute or two of us dressed how we normally do in SL, then I had everyone change into a goofy/dorky outfit. Once everyone was changed and rezzed, I shot another minute or two of all of us doing dorky/quirky animations.
"To edit the film, I used Windows Movie Maker. I have another program (Sony Vegas Pro) but it wasn't working correctly so I had to use WMM. (Sony Vegas Pro is a very quirky program that likes to crash a lot). The good thing about Windows Movie Maker is it's very easy to use. I edited the two film clips, added the music, made sure the timing was correct, and the video was done.
"Using Windows Movie Maker took me about 10 minutes to finish the video. It is really that easy to learn and use."
So there you are. And now that you know, I expect to see many more SL-based Shake videos drop, the stranger the better.
Hat tip: "Tymmerie" on Reddit.
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