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

Machinima Encounters of the Women Kind: Part I

Media in Second Life is alive and well. Pop Art Lab Publicist Persia Bravin (above) is extremely supportive of the media community, from live music performances, video and machinima streaming, installations, and so much more. Art Breakers is one such event that is currently underway at PAL. She is definitely a media queen in many aspects, especially in regards to her conceiving and organizing major media events.


But let's narrow down the media field to women machinimists - the virtual female filmmakers who give us a glimpse into their cinematic encounter with Second Life and other platforms through their personal lens. My blog title for this series might be a bit misleading and perhaps borderline exotic. But there is something extraordinary about women tapping into the medium of machinima as an expressive and communicative tool. I would like to think that I planted a seed when I decided the best way to gather various perspectives for an upcoming book on machinima was to simply bring people together in a series of roundtable discussions. The meetings were quite successful for gleaning information about SL machinima and other platforms. They were held at Lowe Runo Productions (Island of Fame) during early summer, and Lowe Runo, my co-author, happily moderated the discussions along with me. The good news is that MaMachinima Founder Chantal Harvey has subsequently continued similar topical discussions on machinima Monday nights in Second Life.


She is joined by machinimists Toxic Menges and Phaylen Fairchild, who moderate the discussions. They are three strong women who take their machinima production seriously, even when they do comedy. They and other women virtual filmmakers are making their mark on the machinima field.

The spark for a blog series on women machinimists was triggered when I was invited recently to write an article on the topic, particularly focusing on Second Life. I have decided to condense my lengthy academic discourse into a blog series on whether there is a feminist perspective - or let's just say a woman's perspective - in machinima and how might it be utilized to understand the role of women in virtual worlds. I will break down this discussion into five parts over the next month or so.

Let's begin by stating the obvious. More than a dozen women in Second Life appear to be taking a strong role in producing machinima. You have to wonder if machinima's accessibility serves as a way to encourage women to become media makers in virtual worlds, as well as allows us an inside look into how women play or are played in various massive online multi-player roleplaying games. Reports of glaring disparities pertaining to the advancement of women in mainstream media might be one reason to take a peek into cybermedia opportunities in virtual worlds.

Alas, women media makers have become a significant force in Second Life, in number and influence. They are involved in every stage of the process, regarding the creation, production, and distribution of news and entertainment content. There is a growing artistic and professional practice emerging around machinima, particularly around women. The history of machinima is less important in this discussion than its current practice among women producers, and especially among women producing within Second Life.

Any examination of women's machinima roles is not merely an attempt to document the accomplishments of virtual filmmakers, for that alone would be a worthwhile venture. Rather, it is through these women filmmakers that one begins to understand how identity can be examined in virtual worlds through these media artifacts. One program that has particularly appealed to the business, media and academic community is The 1st Question, an extremely popular quiz show written, produced and hosted by Pooky Amsterdam of Pooky Media. It is taped in front of a live audience, and rebroadcast for virtual television and the Web. Beyond her popular quiz show, she has produced corporate machinima and comedy features.

Women filmmakers increasingly are creating feature-length programs and series that can be viewed independently of virtual television. These projects are typically screened at machinima festivals within Second Life, and more so in film festivals across the world. Machinima is competing internationally at what was once solely traditional film festivals. One of the more prominent festivals inside Second Life is the MaMachinima International Festival (MMIF) founded by Chantal Harvey. The group name alone has created interest among women producers and those wanting to get involved in the process. In 2010, the festival was held concurrently in Second life and in RL Amsterdam. Among the many women's works featured at the festival was the machinima of Larkworthy Antfarm, Phaylen Fairchild, Chantal Harvey, ColeMarie Soleil, and Lainy Voom (alphabetical order). The machinima of these five women offer us a glimpse into how women are portrayed in virtual worlds by themselves. Over the next month, I will take a long at the work of these women, as well as offer some related observations.


Until next time!

:) Soni

Forthcoming, Machinima: The Art & Practice (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/

No! Not The Call to Service!

Sometimes it seems difficult to balance the deadlines between SL and RL. Then you have somebody ask you for a favor or two. And it is always for a good cause, right? Really, it can be downright exhausting. Some people even jest, "no good deed goes unpunished." I want to counter that mindset today, although it is a humorous and sometimes accurate statement.

Among professionals, there is an expectation that we must extend our skills beyond our immediate audiences, and to give back to society or a community. Part of that thinking has to do with the fact that our skills may often be attributed to the many people who have directly or indirectly inspired us along the way. This is YOUR call to be a super hero in a small way!

Those who succeed well in their craft are those professionals who define themselves beyond their exceptional skill level to a level of community awareness. In what ways as professionals can we give back to the communities that often rely on our talents and perspectives (framed by our professional media lens) to consider a community lens? In part that can be done through partnerships with universities and community groups, and that has happened more often than not through machinima contests and competitions. Other machinima artists take on projects, at minimum cost, that are outside of their scope of interest to serve a particular community that would cherish the recognition and assistance. Others work directly with students at high school or college level, and help to mentor them. All are valid ways to extend our professional reach into the larger communities to which we might consider offering our talents.

I am not advocating that you give away your talent, but rather at times you give back to others without consideration of profit or personal gain. I do believe the experience between the giver and the recipient can be a powerful connection, and might help others to understand the value of machinima as a form of communication.

I would like to keep this blog simple and just say a MAGNUM thank you to Lowe Runo, founder of the Machinima Artist Guild, for inspiring my students this semester in so many ways. He has spoken to both my graduate students and my undergraduate students through Second Life this year. In my undergraduate advanced sound course, he created a video for which they were required to design sound (dialogue, foley, music, ambience). The two best will be posted on the Second Life Machinima Artist Guild soon, as my class winds down.

Other media professionals who have reached out to my students have included Doug Story, Drax Despres, and Pooky Amstersdam. Doug took my students on an incredible journey through sound installations more than once. Drax shared professional insights into what it takes to be a virtual journalist. Pooky gave "my kids" insight into the business side of machinima in Second Life and its RL extensions.

In closing, Lowe gave my students an opportunity to get to know him on a personal and professional level, serving as their machinima mentor and "SL sage" in so many ways. He invested in their lives beyond the call of conventional community service duty.

Thank you to ALL who have invested time into the education of my students! You are all true professionals, and you asked me for nothing in return. In fact, some of you might be a bit further behind in your production schedules from knowing me and my students. But the reward, I believe, is you have contributed to the next generation of Magnum Machinima professionals. Kudos.

Note above: future machinima set makers! JK, but you never know.

Soni :)