Closing out the 2009 Machinima Expo

The 2009 Machinima Expo is over. The response over the last two weeks has been excellent. I’m so glad so many of you not only took the time to come, but chose to blog about the event a post your photos. Thank God we got something right again this year.  Here is a link log os some of the most interesting photos/blogs/conversations about this years Expo:

Ricky’s Flickr Set
Overman’s Blog – Expo 2009 Wrap-up
Machinima Expo Blog Comments
Overman’s Flickr Album
Russell Boyd’s Flickr Album
Pineapple Pictures Comments & Photos
Thebiz’s Comments
Dulci’s Photo Gallery
Darth Angelus’ Comments
Hathead’s Comments
Wolf & Dulci Hour Machinima Expo Discussion w/ John Martin & Gabe
Wolf & Dulci Hour Machinima Expo Pre Discussion w/ Ricky, Damien, and Phil

Please feel free to let us know of any we may have missed and post them in the comments section of this blog post.

While we feel overall that this year’s Expo was a success (especially the screening set up and selection) we want to do a better job next year on the physical arrangement of the events and in organizing them. Part of the reason we held a Post Mortem several days after the Expo (and sincere thanks to those who came to share their ideas and criticisms) was to get an idea of what can do to improve the event in these areas. When you work on something for a long time you often lose objectivity and we wanted to see what others thought. Well, the response to the Post Mortem was fantastic and we have an entire list of things we plan on discussing and trying out next year. Although I can’t share them all (we don’t want to announce something we aren’t going to do yet) some of the highlights for next year’s Expo include:

• Making the 2010 Expo a two-day event
• Staying at the UCSville island, but moving the event into a Skybox
• Creating a unique Second Life HUD for the event
• Using a more linear schedule instead of having events compete
• Providing breaks in the programming; creating special socializing events
• Orienting people to Second Life better throughout the year
• Creating SL Video Tutorials specifically for the Expo
• Finding alternate outside of Second Life to bring the Expo to people.
• Focusing more on Machinima Production next year
• Increasing the staff of the Expo

Phil, Damien and I would like to thank all of those who made the 2009 Expo a success. The Expo is about machinima and the people who make it. After seeing so many ups and downs in the community, it encouraging to see our community come together at the Expo. We had many new visitors, shared promotion with the Asian Shooot Festival and presented almost 8 hours of machinima films. We could not have done any of this without you and your enthusiasm for this great, new art form.

This coming week I’ll be lecturing on machinima at an animation school in San Francisco. One thing I’ll be telling the students is that now is the time to create machinima because the tools are there and the community is strong. Couldn’t say that if it weren’t for you.

Thank You.

Expo Post Mortem Tonight (11/25)

The organizers of the Expo (Phil, Damien, Ingrid and Ricky) will be holding a Post-Mortem on the 2009 Machinima Expo tonight at 7PM Pacific Time. It will be held at the Expo site in Second Life (UCSville island). We are looking for ways to improve the Expo experience and suggestions for better content and programming. Come and help shape the 2010 Expo!

Post Mortem for the 2009 Expo @7PM

Location:

UCSville Island in Second Life

We apologize for not scheduling the event at a better time for European attendees. We promise to plan a better time next year. However, if you have comments and can’t attend please send us an email or post here at the blog.

Women in Machinima panel at the Expo

2009 MachinExpo Jury Prize Winners Announced

On Sunday, November 22nd, winners of the 2009 MachinExpo Jury Prize were announced. The results are as follows:

Special Achievement in Directing – Lainy Voom

Jury Prize – Hardy Capo (”Cafe Insomniac”)

Jury Prize – Ian Chisholm (”Clear Skies 2″)

Jury Prize – Lainy Voom (”Push”)

Jury Prize – James Spencer & Jon Sortland (”Shelf Life”)

Asian Jury Prize – Krrish Spyker (”SCRIPTED”

Iain Friar, director of Clockwork, at the Overcast part of the Expo

Jury Grand Prize – Iain Friar (”Clockwork”)

Winners of the Jury Prize (and Special Award) receive a free copy of Reallusion’s iClone 4 Pro + 3DXchange . The Grand Prize winner recieves free copies of iClone 4 Pro, 3DXchange and Crazy Talk 6. Our sincere thanks to Reallusion and John Martin in particular who have already delivered the prizes to our winners.

We congratulate all of this years winners!