Well, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen you, and boy are we ever glad to be back at work! It has been nearly a year since we’ve been in front of the cameras, and in that time, the DiVAS audience has grown steadily with more people discovering the little web comedy every single day.
Just to update you on a few small things! First of all, we still get IM’s asking if we all died at the end of the last episode, which was the season finale. No, we didn’t die… well, not all of us anyway! In fact there is a WHOLE episode that we shot last year that concludes that storyline that you will be seeing in the future. In fact, it concludes the series all together - HOWEVER - we will still be doing seasonal specials indefinitely. This decision was made because the amount of work that many of us, including Kit, Evie, Stampshady, Glimmer, Allatu and myself poured into the series to do it monthly was absolutely consuming AND costly given we never have made anything, nor have we ever solicited on behalf of the show. It became impractical to do it on a regular basis as we had been.
The rumors are true! Evie has indeed left the DiVAS series to pursue other projects and will be deeply missed by all of us, she is irreplaceable and for the rest of us it was a pleasure and a privilege having her participate in the DiVAS vision for so long. You can catch Evie’s farewell performance in the conclusion to last years Season Finale! Good luck in all you do, Evie! Thanks for the memories!
The 2009 Halloween Special reunites the rest of the cast for a fantastic spooky romp that we know you’ll love. Stay tuned here for further details and pictures from the set!
If you caught the second episode of Celebrity tonight, you know already I had to show my mug on screen, which is something I intended not to do when setting out on this adventure… however I don’t think any of us could have prepared for the curve ball thrown at us during that evening.
We literally waited up until filming time and then over an hour and a half beyond hoping with all hope that the two missing contestants would arrive. Ultimately, it became painfully obvious that wasn’t going to happen. The cast was always kept in a public chat and on SL voice while the crew communicated via skype so we wouldn’t impede on their conversations. As you can imagine, with two contestants missing it threw everything off the mark - everything! Our mentor didn’t have a full cast to mentor, and we couldn’t allow any contestant to skip a session… that would have been unfair to those who arrived. I remember Robustus asking everyone on the crew if we should just cancel or reschedule. It’s difficult scheduling everyone to begin with, with so many different calenders to accommodate, including those of very busy mentors who are professionals lending us their valuable time as well as a crew in two different countries - not to mention at all the fact that it would have put us a whole week behind in our own production schedule, it didn’t seem like an option.
The cogs were turning in my head, everyone was waiting, there was still no Micah and no Viktor - so in an impulsive moment I made a decision without really anyone knowing what I was doing. I told the cameramen to put the camera on the doors and told Trinity I was coming in. There was no time to explain, it was already very late. As I walked in I was watching chat and seeing them say “What is she doing!?” but fortunately they trusted me - Heaven knows why… but it seemed the most appropriate thing to do was put the fate of these two contestants in the hands of those who DID show up and who had been waiting for almost two hours for something to happen. It kept us on schedule, and as planned, we were one down, 5 to go…
The last 6 months have been hugely busy for me! And now you know why. “I Wanna Be A Celebrity” premiered on Metaverse Television last night at 10pm EST 7pm Pacific! It was so amazing to sit and watch this things all together in one piece with those who participated - Last night was an awesome opportunity to reconnect with some of them I hadn’t seen in awhile. This was something new to all of us - while i had
been involved in some context with Reality Shows in Second Life in the past (Big Brother) they just seemed poorly executed and missing a key component - that being the value of people character, the insight into their Second Lives. There was nothing intimate about things like Big Brother, we were monkey on Parade accruing votes to stay in the game… I wanted to do something both unique and contributory to Second Life, and I think, along with an incredible team and cast, we’ve made an insurmountable achievement.
Here is the first episode, and here in High Res -
stay tuned until the very end for the trailer of whats to come this season!
You can watch I Wanna Be A Celebrity Fridays at 10pm EST 7pm SLT (Pacific).
Okay, many of you have been asking about DiVAS, whats going on with it, where are the new episodes ect, and I appreciate all the notes, IM’s and emails! Now we’re going to clear the air.
DiVAS will conclude it’s run this summer in a 45 minute Series Finale. We’ve talked about this for some time, discussing possibilities and the implications, but the time is right for us to move on from it and onto other projects. Many of you had suspected the show was done since I (Phaylen) have been working on so many other projects outside the DiVAS universe over the last 6 months, and news has become sporadic and altogether infrequent.
The finale episode will pick up from the very moment the season finale left off. Filming of this episode was completed in the beginning of December of last year, and it took a good long while to decide whether we wanted to continue onward. However, we all wanted to give it a fitting farewell and we (Kit, Evie, Stampshady and myself) worked diligently to ensure that it ended on the perfect note!
BUT!
There’s more to tell you - I can’t just yet until things are set in stone, so bear with me! Will report more soon with approximate dates and our in-world viewing parties!
With the launch of the new production house, this page and it;s contents have now become a network of subpages that are navigatable by going directly to http://www.phaylen.com where you will find even MORE fabulous content! On the homepage you will find
Podcasts with residents in the entertainment and media industry talking with phaylen in one-on-one sessions! Past guests have been Toxic Menges and Vijay Saeed!
Links to other programs in production or in development, including the new reality show “I Wanna Be A Celebrity!”
Information on Phaylens upcoming Art Show featuring 24 portraits!
Videos! Episodes of DiVAS and other projects!
Phaylen’s personal blog! Musings, rants and more!
No Worries, the DiVAS branch of the website will still be updated as information is released concerning future episodes and events!
Phaylen Fairchild, DiVAS creator has announced the inception of an independent production facility within Second Life® that is dedicated to the development and execution of high quality series and films. DiVAS will continue to be produced under the new banner, as well as another forthcoming episodic and feature films to be released in the fall of this year. The new reality show “I Wanna Be A Celebrity” filming now, airing this spring, is being produced under the Phaylen Fairchild Productions shingle and distributed by Metaverse TV. Her production work will also be seen in an upcoming Lit Fuse Films short and the film Zero Hour by Robustus Hax (see trailer below), both created in Second Life.
The idea is to utilize the power of the virtual medium to create mainstream content that will entertain and invest audiences in much the same way television and film does.
Currently, many talented machinimists commit themselves to making creative short films, music videos or sketches. Few do episodics, although there are the rare exceptions (Rooster Teeths Red Vs. Blue shot in the HALO platform, for example) where artists have created long term series with static characters and progressive storylines.
Along with films and series, the facility will also encompass commercial production, such as the one recently produced for Virtual Designer Moxie Polano.
If you’re not doing anything this Saturday, come on over to the International Machinima festival in Second Life which is simulcast LIVE to PLANETART in Amsterdam, Netherlands! Phaylen has been asked to present films produced inside Second Life (SL), World of Warcraft (WoW), Half Life, Crysis, Halo, Grand Theft Auto (GTA), Moviestorm, The Sims, OpenGrid, Playstation Home and more by some of Machinima’s most formidable talents from 6-7pm SLT (PST) on Saturday February 28th. Make sure you come on by and say hello!
Moxie Polano, the legendary fashion designer in Second Life, has had Phaylen film her very first commercial for her clothing line. The commercial stars frequent DiVAS guest star, Glimmer Silverstar. The commercial focuses on the power the designs have to influence or attitudes, and in Second Life, give us to be whomever and adventure wherever we please. Wherever the tide takes us, quite literally in this piece… Enjoy!
The Machinima International Film Festival will be screening over 40 films by machinimists from every platform in an event that crosses over from the virtual worlds to real life at PLANETART in Amsterdam! Real Life viewers, as well as virtual audiences from around the globe can watch films made by filmmakers who use the virtual medium to tell stories.
We are deeply appreciative to Chantal Harvey who asked us to participate, capping off what had been an already wonderful year for the DiVAS who showcased at the Museum of Natural History in Florence Italy this past winter in real life, and now onto the Netherlands. You’ll be able to catch the DiVAS Season Finale in it’s full glory beginning February 28th!
We hope to see you there, admission is free! For full details please check out the Official MMIF Website.
You think we’ve gotten Lazy? Newp! In fact, we’ve been busier than ever. It takes a lot of time pasting all these bits of glitter to the walls of the room we live in. There’s a lot we have to tell you, and some thing we can’t yet! But it’s al super exciting!
Catch Phaylen in the February Issue of AVENUE Magazine available now! Also, there is some HUGE news to share with you about DiVAS… soon. Unfortunately, we have to wait for details to further transpire before we release the Season Premiere, which was originally scheduled for a February 22nd release. You’ve all been so patient this long whats another couple of weeks, right? We promise you, it will be WELL worth the wait and you are in for some serious shocks and surprises. In the meantime catch up on Last years season finale to refresh your memory!
It’s amazing, but after all this time people are still discovering DiVAS online. New viewers are stumbling upon it at various places across the web regularly and we’re delighted many of them have written to share their thoughts, complaint and other interesting tidbits.. “This is for the Redhead, YOU’RE HOT! -John” Kit sends you her thanks John.
See you guys very soon. Stay tuned to the blog for further updates!
