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.

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

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!

Wear your underwear to the Expo!

What a time! I really like Phil’s blog post where he says “You are the Expo”. So true. You, the community of filmmakers, artists and animators and underwear wearers. All of you are why we have created the Expo. And most importantly it’s the films that we present for you. Well, ok, we also do it for ourselves, but you just happen to be there too, right?

This kind of experience, getting together and sharing films, advice, knowledge and fun, is to my mind essential for our machinima community. It develops a common goal; to make more and better films. Plus, there are some very cool people that you just don’t hear about, but at the Expo you can stop and talk with them and maybe even agree to collaborate on a project.

And finally, seeing our best films, films that are technically and artistically superior, gives us a solid understanding of what good machinima is all about. And it inspires our imagination.

I can’t tell you how glad I am for putting the Expo together with Phil, Damien and Ingrid. There are times when it’s rough and you feel down, but being at the Expo yesterday and reading what people are saying makes all of our efforts worthwhile.  Truly.

And we thank you for your support. Almost 100 people came yesterday. We are so proud.

So……

Kate and Russell are on their game at the Expo

We are having a Port Mortem on the Expo this Wednesday at 7pm Pacific Time/10pm Eastern Time at the Expo site to discuss what worked and what didn’t at the Expo this year. While we feel we did a good job, there are things we’d like to add to next year’s Expo, plus we want to hear from YOU about your experience. If you can’t make it, please comment here or at our Facebook page about what worked for you and what didn’t.  And if you are more comfortable with a private message send them to

expo[at]machiniplex[dot]net

Our Facebook page is at:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=185438178818

(PS more photos and media coming)

If you need help look for the main help booth or someone with a red Expo Staff t-shirt. Plus, don’t be afraid to ask anyone attending for help as well.

The main slurl to UCSVILLE (exact second life name of Expo location) is:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/ucsville/141/124/25

Welcome to the Expo

]]> http://machiniplex.net/expo/2009/11/22/welcome-to-the-machinima-expo-2009/feed/ 8 http://machiniplex.net/expo/2009/11/20/2009-expo-movie-showtimes/ http://machiniplex.net/expo/2009/11/20/2009-expo-movie-showtimes/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:33:58 +0000 admin http://machiniplex.net/expo/?p=182416408 Approximately 12 hours from right now, at Midnight Second Life Time (that’s Pacific Time – US & Canada GMT -08:00), the two primary screening reels of Expo selections will begin running – and will continue running for the next full week. That means the screenings will not only be going on during the live event, but a whole day before and a whole week after!

Last year, information was a bit sketchy on when certain films were playing. This year, we’re trying something a bit more ambitious: specific, predictable showtimes for EVERY film on these reels, round the clock, for the entire week. This should not only prove helpful for people wanting to surgically watch one individual film, but for those of you who plan to take in all eight (8) plus hours of machinima in multiple sessions, this will enable you to plan your days or evenings with what should be very good precision. Or feel free to organize “movie nights” to bring along some friends and take in some movies as a group.

So without further ado, I present the full Showtimes schedule for the Machinima Expo 2009. It’s a PDF file, so feel free to right-click and save it to your hard drive:

2009 MachinExpo Showtimes (PDF)

Note: This is an experiment. Theoretically, this should work wonderfully, but bear in mind that we might run into the unforeseen. If that happens, we’ll make every endeavor to get the screenings back onto this schedule pronto. Watch our Twitter feed for any status issues related to this schedule.

We’ve also had fun shopping for interesting additions to the island. There are some very cool things that I’m not going to tell you about so that they will be a surprise.  One thing I can tell you; Lainy Voom’s installation is a work of genius. I kid you not. She has outdone herself here by creating an environment for screening her films that is like being inside them at the same time. The installation is a large white globe (when viewed from the front) and is in one corner of the island right next to the Fallopian booth (a very cool design as well). You’ll see a large Alice-in-Wonderland type hole with a red arrow pointing. Just walk across the water (yes, you can) and enter. Wonder awaits you.

How to get around the Expo

The Expo is built on an island with the main building at it’s center. When you teleport in by using the Slurl on the far right column of this blog, you’ll be directly in front of the entrance to the main building and close to the information booth. The info booth has a large green question mark above it and, for the most part, will have someone manning it to help you. We will have a program available which will list the events and locations of the various screening rooms. You will also find a large bulletin board right next to the main building which will have the event schedule and times listed.

Numerous signs have been posted to guide you to wherever you want to go.  Look for them and you’ll be able to figure out where you are and what’s going on at any particular time.

Next to the main building is an old-fashioned theater where we will have the main screening room for 40 plus machinima films we feel were most interesting.  Inside of the main building on the first floor you’ll find the area where all of the panels, presentations and events will occur. As you enter, to your right will be a small stage and mic along with lots of seating. Feel free to sit or using the alt key and left clicking you can re-position your view to anywhere you’d like.

Just beyond the programming area and still on the first floor is the Jury screening room. Although it’s a separate area with no audio bleed, be sure to use only text in the screening rooms as voice chat will be a part of the sound of the screened films. The Jury reel consists of 17 jury nominated films and the UCS Student Reel (very well done, too).

Up on the 2nd floor you’ll find another screening room which has the same Jury playlist as the 1st floor, so if it’s too crowded downstairs just move up to the 2nd floor and you won’t miss a thing. Just off of the 2nd floor screening room is the Jury Gallery where we will have pix from the Jury films along with info on them.

Taking the stairs you’ll come to the 3rd floor lounge. Phil assures me that all of the free food and free booze will be up there, so it should be a lively place. There’s a nice open area on the 3rd floor which allows you to fly out onto the island, so you can use it as a launch pad if you like.

Out on the other end of the island you’ll see Lainy’s installation, the Fallopian booth and a grassy area where you can play with the sheep and giant birds. Keep it clean here, kids.

Across from this area is the Reallusion booth where you might catch John Martin for a chat about iClone 4 and perhaps a video overview of the program. Right next to Reallusion is the “What is Machinima?” booth where we feature 3 outstanding machinima documentaries about…er…machinima! If you have no idea what all the fuss is about, head over to the “What is Machinima” booth and learn.

Here is a small version of the map we are including in the program. Don’t worry there’s a download link underneath where you can get the larger version.

Next post: I’ll provide info on how to sign up for Second Life, how to transport yourself to the UCS island and the basics on how to get around using your avatar.

Download Large Version of the Expo Map

Machinima Screenings

-We will begin the main screening reel with over 40 machinima films hand-picked for the festival at just after midnight this Friday, Nov 20th (Pacific Time). We will also start the Jury, Asian and Student film reel inside the Main Expo building on the 1st and 2nd floors. The reels will run continuously through the weekend and all of next week as well. So, if you are only interested in the films we are presenting or you can’t attend the Expo on Sunday, come by 24-7 and watch the screening reels. We will be posting a schedule at each location of the timing for each film so that you’ll know when a film you are interested in will play.

Final Programming Schedule

(all times Pacific Time)

9AM Tracy Harwood Keynote Speech
Tracy Harwood is the Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Creative Technologies and is well regarded as a machinima scholar. Her recent article “The Machinima Movement” is required reading for those interested in the current state of machinima and it’s future.

9:15AM Awards Ceremony

-4 Jury Prize awards

-1 Asian Film Prize awards

“Special Achievement in Directing” -presented to individual who has contributed greatly to advancing machinima as an art form.

-Grand Prize Winner award

(Photo op at end)

10AM “Women in Machinima” panel. Headed by Ingrid Moon/Dulci. Featuring Tari Akpokiete, Kerria Seabrooke, afterThought, Sisch, Chantal Harvey, and Katy Fosk. This was our most popular event last year and it should prove lively this year. Some of our best filmmakers talking about their work.

11AM Special Edition of “The Overcast” live podcast with Ricky and Phil. We will host a special version of our machinima podcast where we will discuss current events in Machinima like the Unreal SDK, iClone 4, Dragon Age toolset, Blender 2.5 update and more. We’ll also have special guests from the Jury Film directors pool. Iain Friar, director of “Clockwork” is confirmed
at the time of this post. Come and watch us make fools of ourselves yet again.

“Which Machinima Engine is for You? presentations:

Each director will present their machinima engine of choice; giving an overview of the engine, workflow, advantages/disadvantages, with Q&A at the end.

12PM -Iclone 4 with “Wolf and Dulci” & added help from John Martin

1230PM -Open Sim/Second Life with Katy Fosk and Russel Boyd – (Parallel Event: IClone 4 Follow up in Reallusion Pavillion)

1PM -Half Life 2/Gary’s Mod with Ian Chisholm -(Parallel Event: SL Follow up in Dr. Who Tardis)

130PM -Moviestorm with Phil Rice -(Parallel Event: Open Sim Follow up in Dr. Who Tardis)

1:50PM -The Movies, Sims2 and CJ’s GTA with Phil Rice. Q&A afterwards

2:30PM (approximate) Closing street party with DJ to be announced.

Location of Expo

The 2009 MachinExpo will take place in the virtual world of Second Life on Sunday, November 22nd from 9AM to 2PM (Pacific Time). The location is the UCS (University Campus Suffolk) island. You can reach the island by clicking this slurl (second life url) which will open the Second Life program (you must log in yourself) and then transport you to a spot directly in front of the Main Expo building. Signs will direct you from there.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/ucsville/141/124/25

This information is also on the second column of this blog on the right hand side.

The MachinExpo will consist of screening rooms where we will screen films submitted to our annual competition, plus presentations and panels on related machinima subjects. There will also be a “What is Machinima?” booth where you can watch machinima films made to explain the process of making machinima. Lainy Voom will be presenting an installation of her works in a specially designed space. And Fallopian, the recently formed machinima group, will have their own installation area.

We have made one scheduling change to the Expo programming (I’ll post the final schedule of programs tomorrow). We will be replacing the already announced Machinima Premiere scheduled at 11AM, we will be instead presenting a Special Edition of the Overcast with myself and Phil. We’ll be talking to selected jury film directors and sharing current machinima info just like the old days. Now if I can just get Phil to promise not to start drinking early, it should be a fun show. Iian Friar (IceAxe), director of the jury-nominated film, Clockwork, is one of our confirmed guests and will be participating in a Q&A. Here you can see Phil and Iain practicing their Clint Eastwood silent macho stares with each other (at least I think that’s what they are doing). This should be another gripping Overcast.

What's up with Phil and Iain?

Phil, Damien and I spent most of the morning in a tech rehearsal with panel participants and speakers getting technical issues ironed out and going over the programming schedule. As you can see, someone didn’t like their schedule so they blew up about it. We were all embarrassed, but what can you do?

Someone just blew up at the rehearsal

But that wasn’t the end of it. Phil had been working on the site late into the night and the blow up just tied him into knots.

Phil tied himself into knots of worry

We eventually talked him down with Tracy Harwood’s help (you can see her trying to get behind Phil and get a hypo into him).  It didn’t help matters much when Damien appeared and suggested that we try to see how many avatars we could stuff inside his Dr. Who phone booth.

How many avatars can you stuff into a Dr. Who phone booth?

We finally gave up when we got to about 10.  But it was certainly exciting and intimate.  I hope no young children are present at the Expo as scenes like these could be potentially damaging.

And after the crowd left (thank God), Phil and I worked ourselves to the bone getting the sets built and painted. Here you can see me working at the Lainy Voom installation testing the …ah…period chairs.

Testing Lainy's period chairs

Phil and I were amazed at how much we got accomplished today. Eddie Dugan and UCS gave us carte blanche to create the Expo set. Still have some work to do this week, but we are well on the way to having a great opening next Sunday. We did make some slight changes physically to acomodate technical issues, but nothing that participants can’t easily adjust to.

Very excited about the screening rooms. We got a chance to test them out and the films look great. We’ll have over 6 hours of Jury reels, screening reels, Asian jury reels, UCS student reels and maybe some stag films thrown in for good measure.

I’ll be blogging pretty much every day as well approach the Expo opening, so stay tuned for up to date info here.  Information about the festival is on the columns to the right of this post.

This Sunday, November 15th, from 9Am to 12AM (Pacific Time), we will hold a Technical Rehearsal for all MachinExpo 2009 participants. If you are presenting or on a panel, please make time in your schedule to come to this rehearsal. We’ll be going over the programming schedule and telling you how everything will work technically. You’ll have a chance to check your mic and headset, test the “power point” application Phil has set up for presenters and get a feel for the space.

This is especially important for newbies to Second Life. We’ll be able to help you out with learning how to move around and communicate. We might even set up a big “shopping trip” in case anyone wants to spruce up their avatars a bit.

It should be a lot of fun. So PLEASE come to this rehearsal even if it’s only for 15 minutes as it will make a big difference in how smoothly the Expo runs on Nov 22nd.

The event takes place on an island in Second Life owned (and graciously loaned to us) by UCS (University Campus Suffolk). Here is the slurl (once you click this link, it will open your SL application and take you to a page that you click again to transport to the location)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/UCSville/60/173/25/

You may have to log in in order to travel to the island.

Once you are there, look for a large building (the island is small) which is where we will be going over the programming schedule. If you arrive late, you can contact either myself or Phil. My in world name is

gtoon Jun

and Phil’s is

Sol Bartz

Also, if you need to convert your time zone, here is a nice time coverter you can use:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Hope to see you there!

Ricky/Phil