DiVAS’s Episode #4 is still being scored, and we apologize profusely for the wait, but we have a few goodies to tide you over until it is finished. DiVAS will now be broadcast in Second Life exclusively by MetaNetwork Media on the SL Tronics Media portal. It is an amazing piece of technology that allows you to access programming on the line-up on demand! While you can still watch DiVAS at your favorite webspace like Youtube, blip or myspace, it can soon be enjoyed from the comfort of your own Second Life. Get together with friends or have a party and watch DiVAS episodes on your own SL Tronics Television, which will be made available FREE this weekend ( A $L3,000 value) and for only a limited time! Don’t forget to pick yourd up here! This broadcasting agreement provides license for MetaNetwork Media to exclusively air the show within the Second Life medium and they have been incredibly supportive and enthusiastic about the series. It is an amazing opportunity for us as well, as a show still in it’s infancy, to have the chance to reach a wider audience of Second Life residents who may not have heard of us previously!
MetaNetwork Media is an an integrated media company specializing in the development, production, and marketing of superior quality 3D virtual news and entertainment content to the ever expansive online Metaverse audience. Along with us, they have launched a campaign announcing our arrival on their network. Take a look at the first advert and let us know what you think!
Okay, okay, we know you’ve been waiting, writing, instant messaging, emailing, dropping notecards, “Where is Episode 4?” Well here is an update just so you know the status. Episode #4 finished filming, technically, on February 8th. However, the Phaylen has had to go back twice for reshoots for two seperate scenes due to consistancy issues. (It was a hair thing, her and that damn wig always changing colors!) After reshoots were complete the footage went to post production effects, that took a signifigant amount of time, then it went into editing and was cut together but ran approximately 1 minute past youtube’s time limit of 10 minutes. This required scaling down. Remember, a minute out of an hour is nothing, a minute in a slient film thats only eleven minutes long to begin with is signifigant. At the same time, a brand new composition is being written for the score. You will remember in past posts that we said we were removing any non-self created audio content from the shows, well we were serious and it began with this episode. This is an entirely new field and it has to be perfect! If you know any composers who want to join in this endeavor, feel free to let us know!
So much hard work has gone into this episode that we know it will be worth the wait. Even without the score it made us laugh out loud when we saw the rough cut. It is better than we imagined. Also, in the coming weeks we will be announcing our spring project, so keep a look out for that, in the meantime the cast and crew are gearing up to begin shooting episode #5 this week. Just be patient with us, we are not on hiatus yet, we have not stopped making episodes (quite the opposite, we work everyday!) so rest assured that very soon you will have a brand new serving of your DiVAS online!
Here at the show we are often made aware of the bits and bobs people write about us in the blogsphere. We really appreciate the time taken and effort made to raise awareness about our fun little program. In return for the amazing support extended, we are going to extend a special invitation to bloggers who have written about the show since it’s inception.
The invitation will be for a special pre-screening of DiVAS: Episode 4 on our secret set with the cast members including Phaylen, Evie, Kit, Stampshady, Bedero, and Allatu. They will also receive a special gift bag of some truly fabulous, exclusive items- which I’ll keep a surprise. This is an invitation only event, so if you know someone who has blogged about DiVAS that we may have overlooked or be unaware of, please let us know in the comments section.
Episode 4 has risen the bar in production quality, and we are keeping to our tradition of “Each one better than the last.” Episode 4 most definitely delivers on that ethic. We also understand that many bloggers who have written about the show do not participate in Second Life, and to those we say; why haven’t you joined?
We hope to be seeing many of you in the very near future, and promise you an evening to die for!
Tonight the cast filmed the final scenes for Episode #4 of DiVAS and much celebration ensued! This has been an incredibly enthusiastic endeavor that required a ton of technical requirements and the crew had to learn multiple professional tier external programs to achieve the necessary goals that could only be accomplished in post production- most of which has been ongoing, and continues from here on out. Needless to say, the bar has been raised significantly for the DiVAS. We are in our infancy as a show, and the production quality improves with each effort. We are extremely proud that you can visibly witness an evolution of our skills with every release. We are novices in this field but share an intense passion for storytelling in virtual worlds. That said, we are progressing with leaps and bounds as we tackle new production challenges every day.
As this episode moves into post, we have decided to remove all musical selections used that were not created by us. That’s right, on top of everything else, we’re learning musical composition. As much as we love the artists we have featured in our previous episodes (Mika has, in fact, watched both episodes in which his music was included and given us a resounding pat on the back) we think of every facet of DiVAS as a creative opportunity for us, and we want to expand on our knowledge in every element of production, and music is the last great frontier.
So to the people who say to us, “Why don’t you release one episode per week?” Well, there you have it. Often a single ten second scene can take us a week to shoot depending on the complexity (and more relevently, Second Life’s behavior.) We have an exceedingly high standard when it comes to putting our name on a finished episode. We HAVE to be satisfied and excited by it, it has to make us laugh and the story has to be clear and concise. While we have an insane amount of fun at the same time, we take DiVAS very seriously.
There are two episodes left for Season one, and we intend to go out with a bang before we begin production on our as-of-yet unnanounced spring production (Which we promise will blow your socks off.)
Enjoy this pic of the cast who were involved in our final scene. We call this The Tequila Shot!
Last week we were paid a visit by the delightful Phoenix Psaltery of The Metaverse Messenger, one of the longest running and widely read professional publications about Second Life. Covering entertainment, finance, culture and community, current events and everything in between, the Metaverse Messenger has literally set the bar in virtual reporting. We were excited to have Phoenix visit the set and snap a shot of Phaylen and Evie in action. Make sure you run over and have a look. We’re on page 18 of the latest issue!
Thanks to Phoenix and his amazing staff for working hard to bring us the headlines each and every week! Tell them we said Hi!
That’s what you have to look forward to in episode #4 -due to hit the webwaves just before Valentines Day. For the first time we’ve had the opportunity to work on a large scale, complete with dozens of extras, special guest appearances and loads of fun! Second Life was behaving like a Diva itself last week and wouldn’t allow us to add our extras who had been added to the list actually teleport to the set. The crew was left with no other choice than to make the sim public for the duration of the evenings shoot. It turned out to be a good thing, as our furry friends (and some non-furries) descended upon us in droves to appear in the show (Special thanks to Axeonous Fluffball of Furnation who helmed the effort) and everyone was absolutely magnificent. We also had two remarkable women arrive on set for their scheduled cameos, the stunning Misty Rhodes, famously known throughout the Second Life community as Misty “F*ckin’” Rhodes and the brazilliant EnCore Mayne, renowned fashion blogger and very dear friend. We are indebted to them endlessly for their time, doing takes and retakes without a single complaint, and staying for the entire duration. Filming DiVAS is not an easy task and takes careful coordination and can be incredibly tedious. They were conumate professionals and a joy to work with!
During the latter part of the shoot as everyone was making their way to their mark, Phaylen moved down the city street and a little yellow name tag, barely visible above the bushes, caught her eye. It was a Beaver. Her name was Joan, and she won us over immediately. She was sitting quietly, observing the action taking place, and had the beehived one not seen her she would have certainly trampled her.
“Well, Hello.” Phaylen said. Tiny Joan was shy and in the tiniest voice said so. It took us a good few minutes to coax her from the grass, and soon we made her a part of the action. Heaven knows, it’s impossible to be shy around this rowdy bunch.
We are so grateful to those who participated in this endeavor. We hope we make each of you proud. From our family to yours, Thank you!