As I was working last night on putting together the pieces – quite literally – of my main protagonist for this short film, I had to stop for a moment and ask myself if I was in way over my head. It’s fair to say that my unique position has given both me and those interested a genuine look at the progress and evolution of a virtual filmmaker. From my first to my last, there is a measurable difference that is quite startling. I think it’s quite similar with all film-makers. Each outing is a new learning experience. trials present themselves and you muddle through having gained a lesson in the interim. But, was I ready for something as substantial as this. Suffice it to say, I have had my moments of doubt.
For the first time, on approaching a project, I actually questioned whether Second Life was the proper platform for such a complex, character driven story. In that past, my process, while daunting, I grew quite comfortable in. I know what works, what doesn’t, what can be reasonably achieved and what can’t. Expressions are limited, so is range of motion; Always been a magnificent hurdle. Because my series was entirely comedic, I had plenty of room for error… in fact, the results often made it even funnier. It’s a significant stretch going from screwball comedy to something more cinematic and intense. I don’t feel that the same liberties can be taken, and the new demands I’ve placed on myself are intimidating. My expectations are much higher in terms of what I want from this in terms of production standard and performance.
Putting together the lead character was the first clue that it was going to be much more challenging than I had initially anticipated. For example, just giving the woman the proper hairstyle was daunting. I never noticed before that such an overwhelming portion of hairstyles in Second Life were exclusively intended for younger people, those being in their early 20′s to mid 30′s. Obviously this makes creating and outfitting a character of that age much simpler, but when piecing together a old woman – well, the creativity stops at a default system hair and a sphere primitive shape for a bun. Now, this is expected given that fact that Second Life is a world where even the 80 year old woman can be 26 again, but I suppose I had just never really noted the lack of diversity until I went looking for something “diverse.”
The expressions we’re capable of utilizing are truly exaggerated. They lack subtlety. Oftentimes they boarder on ridiculous, which is why I believe they were so appropriate for an over-the-top comedy. So, there is no question that I will have to use a lot of creative handiwork when filming expressions.
Second Life’s strength is not in Avatar manipulation. There is no such thing in SL as one step… an avatar takes about 5 long strides, so hitting marks has always required me to use walls and boxes to nudge an Avatar into a specific position. That said, the platform remains unsurpassed in environment creation. From the landscape to the interiors of an antiquated 1800′s farmhouse, there is no doubt in my mind that I could never have achieved such a high level of realism anywhere else.
I’m beginning to think that’s why Second Life’s premiere machinimatographers avoid in-depth character driven stories and instead harness the platform for the surreal, art-house shorts that are more reliant on imagery than people for impact. Truthfully, an environment can amplify a character when one is discernible as well as reinforce emotions when intended to. While the art-house crew have their place in film, that’s not what I do. It’s not what I want to do. My goal is inherently different by design and desired result.
Which takes me full circle. I’ve discovered so many weaknesses that I was unaware existed, but my questions about the content that have originated from this platform have been uniformly answered. Despite all the animation makers and prim hair-stylists, there’s still so much left wanting.
With that in mind, I acknowledge that in any platform, negotiations have to be made in terms of these expectations. One must be realistic when dealing with a world that is unreal – Which is why so many of us have exploited that in our films. That’s why we see so many barely lucid/color saturated acid trips on YouTube from machinimists in Second Life. That why my little comedy is allowed to be so blatantly ludicrous. We work with what we’ve got, and at this point, the tools we use are entirely detached from anything that could be used to represent anything proposed to a viewing audience as real. So when an artist wants to achieve something in the manner of simple storytelling, the are met with far more resistance unless it lends itself to that surreal, exaggerated place. Simplicity doesn’t exist there. Everything is amplified to the 9th degree. In that, we are really restricted in terms of what we can do – and what will be embraced. Until those restrictions are lifted, I imagine we’ll see plenty more slapstick, absurdest comedies and dreamy, abstract films. And I’ll most certainly stand proudly amongst them because that community is still breaking new ground, but what we do will inevitably become more repetitive and less relevant.
So, my challenge stands before me, and it’s kept me up at night as I craft each seen figuring out how to get around a particular movement of relay an emotion without using those standardized emoticons which make better punch-line reactions.