Miles of Laughs: All That Machinima Jazz

"Hey ya'll, Jazzologist Miles Eleventhaur reporting to you live from one of my favorite places on the grid - Virtual Harlem.  You know a lot of people love their fantasies in these virtual worlds.  You can live in space, underwater,  you name it!  Still, every now and then it's nice to see a little reality from time to time.  So when actual reality gets to be too much for you, with all the craziest going on in the world,  nowadays...it's cool to have a virtual place to come to that is not as crazy but still isn't too far from home."   - A Great Day in Virtual Harlem, October 23, 2011. 

Don't let him fool you!  Miles is part of the "crazy" scene in Second Life - when it comes to a good laugh, Miles is ready to roll film.  Heck, he's in front of the camera.  He loves the spotlight - and it loves him!  He's got a great sense of humor - and perfect timing.  Just like the music loves, he's got  the rhythm in him.    It comes out during his DJing and his machinima, and among close friends.   He is a natural in front of a camera and audience. Any other time, he's a gentlemen, quite reserved at times.    You would never know at first glance, this suave guy is a natural entertainer.   He's got some business sense, of course, for he does well on the grid, as one of the top DJS.   Just there's something else about him - something that you cannot bottle or box in any world, let alone Second Life.

He's on - always - ready to take the stage at jazz clubs spinning tunes, on the streets chatting up local history, and just hanging with good friends, talking about music, movies and any virtual mayhem he can conjure up for his next skit.   He's been on the grid for a few years now, thanks to some of his comedic mentors;  he notes Phaylen Fairchild (DiVAS) and Pooky Amsterdam (Shrink Wrapped) as influencing him.   

I remember first seeing him in 2010 at the MaMachinima International Film Festival (MMIF), and Lowe Runo and I agreed that his first machinima was as good as many of the professionals exhibited that day.   He turned heads then, and he continues to do so - and ears too.   

Miles Eleventhaur has done it all - just about every form of machinima, some "on the scene" reporting to music parodies and presidential impersonations to just about whatever he gets the bug to film.   He's a big city guy, with a bit of funk and sass when needed, but mostly he is homegrown - just like the music he plays.   He is an original.  Machinima just helps him bring that out.   He's the local virtual celebrity that will tell you what's up on the grid, and that might be at Virtual Harlem hanging with some good friends, and giving us a lesson on African-American history, or that might be doing a parody of President Barak Obama or Michael Jackson.   

You never know with Miles - the guy is a jazzologist - and you know jazz is all about fusion.   Miles is wired to think out of the box, and in fact, there's no category really for Miles - writer, dj, actor, musician, filmmaker, historian, etc. 

As part of the on-going series, Masters of Machinima,  I interviewed Miles for the February 2013 issue (beginning pp. 166) of Best of SL Magazine.  The article profiles his SL and touches a bit on his real life.  Miles is centered by music - his creation of it as well as his love of it.  That influences heavily all that he does.   But there is much more to Miles.   He's a funny guy!  And he uses machinima to parody music, politics and pop culture. Miles shows us how machinima can tap into political and social themes, and do so by still entertaining audiences.     

Draxtor Depres (known for Flufee on a Meshion) used Miles' Obama impersonation in one of his films.   Comedy, if done well, has a way of bringing us together, letting us examine ourselves and society through parody.  And that is something Miles does well.   Miles tried his hand at stand-up, once -   "I didn't want to screw up here in New York where people knew me. So I took a train to Philly to do some comedy competition. I got through it, but that is some scary stuff, man.  I've always drawn and written my own comedy. I just went from cartoons to machinima."

His influences are the early cartoons, comics and graphic novels, and he can name a long list of comedic influences, namely  Mel Blanc, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Stan Freburg, Jerry Lewis ("a real life cartoon and I loved the bits he did with Count Basie's music"), Carol Burnett and Tim Conway, Bill Cosby ("Fat Albert" series), The Beatles ("Yellow Submarine"), Chuck Jones, and Tex Avery. 

It's about storytelling!  "I feel my ideas have gotten me around some major technical problems and equipment limitations.  As far as content  I'm doing now what I've been doing since I started drawing Snoopy and The Flintstones as a kid:  spoofs and parodies.  Machinima has allowed me to put all of my interests together - writing, editing, music scoring, and voices."

Miles muses, "Musicians are naturally very funny people.  At least the ones that I grew up around.  I 

haven't met one that doesn't love Bugs Bunny.  And there's kind of a a Queens, New York thing that has a comic rhythm in our basic conversation."

Here's to Miles -  and Miles more of laughs to come, we hope! 

Some Links to his work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUq0bzxTn4c

http://www.youtube.com/Miles11Hour

http://vimeo.com/miles11hour

***

The Professional Machinima Artist Guild and Lowe Runo Productions graciously host Magnum: The Machinima Review.  Sonicity Fitzroy (SL), author of Second Life, Machinima and the Other Society (Peter Lang, 2010), and Machinima: The Art and Practice of Virtual Filmmaking (with SL's Lowe Runo, McFarland, 2012).  Amazon.com. See, author's page:  http://www.amazon.com/Phylis-Johnson/e/B001HOW4U2/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1354606175&sr=1-2-ent

The Fantasy World of Star Wars' Tony Dyson

I had the pleasure of interviewing special effects guru Tony Dyson of Star Wars' R2-D2 fame and so many Hollywood blockbusters for the July issue of Best of SL Magazine.


Tony Dyson is definitely a master of machinima,  and now that he is teamed up with Chantal Harvey, MMIF founder and professional filmmaker, they have become the dynamic duo.

So what's their latest adventure - the BobbeKins, a wonderful journey into the fantasy world of children. You have to understand that both Tony and Chantal have a love for fantasy, positive storytelling, and inspiring and educating audiences through imagery.I think we often overlook the younger viewers when we think of machinima ideas.  When you really think of it, machinima is a form of animation, and animation has been enriching the lives of children for generations, from cartoons to Disney Classics to our newly emerging online characters in kids games.  Machinima has the potential to reach the young and old, and everyone in between.  Parents used to watch those Saturday morning cartoons with their children (on a television in the living room together - and enjoy them), if for nothing else the double meaning hidden in the dialogue and images.   Some of that still exits, but the movie industry has accelerated childhood to a great extent.   Few General Audience movies exist today.   Fantasy creatures and lands abound, yet few are inviting for children.

Machinima can reach out to some of those forgotten demographics and serve for not only educational uses, but just for fun!  If you are looking for inspiration, check out the top 50 cartoon characters of all time (now this excludes the great PBS children's programming that I grew up with, but it is an interesting browse back on what has captured our attention.)  I came across another site, called Common Sense, namely for traditional family values, and mind you I am not pushing any agenda.  But there's some good kids' shows in the mix.  Take what you want out - there's something for nearly everyone.   Pooky Amsterdam's crew has produced a wonderful teen series via machinima called Time Travelers.  She's get it.   But that is only one of the many genres that her company produces with machinima.  

So what's the point of this column.  Take some time out - and just think about all this.  Before you leap to your next project, take a moment and look at what some of your colleagues are producing - and what they are not producing!  Consider all genres for machinima, as you would any type of animated program and really any type of program, given that it seems appropriate to your audience.  All of us have grown up with animation, from cartoons, to music videos, educational programming, drama and so forth.

The thing is - there are no rules for machinima.   You have to be willing to put yourself out there, and see what works.   But that is the case of any filmmaker.   It helps to have passion on whatever your producing - passion about the story/theme and reaching your audience.  If you have that, and have the time and resources, then try it.  If you don't have time or resources, find someone who believes in your idea!  Just keep trying - isn't that something we would tell our children!    I guess that is our lesson today.   Keep moving ahead and know the future is bright, especially if you know the appropriate windlight setting.   Wink.   LOL.

What about machinima for girls!  Girls in the Sky was clever, and I would like to see more of that.  Then again, I was a Powerpuff Girl fan, and I love silly adventure starring girls.   Machinima is not limited by ages, and not limited to Second Life audiences.   Tony and Chantal have it right to go for a new generation of viewers, and their hearts are pure with good intentions in using Second Life, seeing a potential beyond what most of us consider.   Second Life is a meeting place for media makers, a social networks, but mostly a creative platform for bringing fantastic images and stories to the general public, given you understand the platform's weaknesses and strengths.

The Scissores Film Production Company is definitely playing to the strengths of machinima and Second Life.  The mix of fantastic sets, strong characters, and a large dose of fantasy works well here.  Much success to them!

Here are a couple of teasers from Scissores.  Enjoy!  and be on the look out more from this creative team!
It's Great to Be Alive
BobbeKin Chit Chat

The Professional Machinima Artist Guild and Lowe Runo Productions graciously host Magnum: The Machinima Review. All Rights Reserved.

Virtual Success for the 3rd Annual MaMachinima Festival

Once again, producers, performers, and supporters gathered together for a world-wide screening of machinima in all its forms.  The MaMachinima Festival ran Saturday, June 18 to Sunday, June 19 (Friday/Saturday, RL) in Second Life at The Linden Endowment of the Arts Theatre.   This screening is extremely critical in that it celebrates the depth and breadth of machinima, in all its styles and production platforms.   Chantal Harvey (above), founder and CEO of the MaMachinima International Festival (MMIF), is instrumental to the coordination of this real life, real time event in Amsterdam as well as in Second Life.   Amsterdam, as a RL mecca for machinima, has become pivotal as a location for the annual screenings, with Chantal having worked as a filmmaker there during her career.  

But also this festival speaks to the artistic potential of the film form, machinima in and of itself, given that Northern Europe has had a long tradition of forwarding art through new technologies.  Overall, more than 50 short films were featured.  The producers came to center stage to discuss their motivations behind their machinima stories and their technology practices to their fellow filmmakers and viewers internationally.   

It was good to see machinimists Phaylen Fairchild, Pooky Amsterdam (and her associates), Toxic Menges, Al Peretz, AnimaTechnica Ataro Asbrink, Cecil Hirvi, jjcc coronet, Flimsey Freenote, Hypatia Pickens, Kate Fosk, Larkworthy Antfarm, spyVspy Aeon, and others on stage and/or among the filmmakers in the audience.  

I attended, along with Machinima Artist Guild Founder Lowe Runo, to see the works of so many good and talented people who have helped to mature the art and practice of machinima, and in doing so we hoped to pay tribute to those who contributed to our forthcoming book on machinima this fall.   

 The MMIF was a virtual feast of all genres of machinima, showcasing hours of films made through Second Life, but a significant portion of the festival was dedicated to those machinima made through Moviestorm and iClone.    The audience loved it all - no matter the platform!

MMIF is a reference point for those interested in machinima filmmaking.  The selections capture the range of machinima’s potential as a technology and storytelling agent. So many stories came to life during the festival, projected on the big screens within the beautiful LEA dome theater as the viewers immersed themselves into the visual treats before them.    

 Breathtaking and credible, to hilarious and engaging, so much talent in one room – thanks Chantal and your crew for making this possible.  I have no reservations saying, "no Buts about it, a wonderful event" - once again!!!

  

And special thanks to Aview.TV founder for being supportive of machinima.

For more information about the annual event and other machinima activities sponsored  by Chantal Harvey, refer to the organizational site at http://MMIF.org.

Kudos to all involved!  Look for more pics in the July issue of Best of SL Magazine :)  Soni

Forthcoming, Machinima: The Art & Practice (working title, McFarland, 2011) by Sonicity Fitzroy and Lowe Runo. The Professional Machinima Artist Guild graciously provides syndication of Sonicity’s blog Magnum: The Machinima Review to Aview.TV/Sonicity/