My (virtual) life is my message. - Mahatma Gandhi

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Pixelated Fame - The Making of a Music Video

Forget watching the Oscars, I recently helped machinima maker Kira Madrigal in the making of a real music video being filmed for the pop noire Danish band, Giana Factory for a competition sponsored by Pop Art Lab

The elements were all there; setting, actors, plot and a cranky and demanding director.  As far as my role, it was more like backstage support and costuming, which was more then enough for me.  The result is a well orchestrated music video offering that I hope you will go to watch, 'like' and comment.

The video is an impressive achievement in itself.  I saw actors from across the globe get together to complete a cinematographic project.  The special effects were first rate and the cast handled themselves professionally.  No expensive costumes, no stuntmen, no travel expenses and no catered lunch cart were needed.  The whole film had a budget of about $5.  This was only possible thanks to the Second Life virtual platform, and it really opened up my eyes to a whole new (virtual) world of possibility.

Imagine a universe were creative thought could be directly channeled into a marketable product, and all the usual hurdles of cost and expensive marketing were nearly non existent.  An individual could literally dream up an idea, wave their hand and create it from air.  It sounds to good to be a reality, but what you just imagined is very real. 

Second Life, and similar virtual worlds, are the latest frontiers to be conquered.  They are the modern day equivalent to the American Dream that was born on the western frontiers.  Those were the days when any man could be president, and a man or woman's fortune was created out of will, knowledge and imagination. 

Later years saw the American Dream bulldozed under legislation and red tape, and the catch phrase became "you have to have money to make money" and creativity became something for daydreams. 

Daydreams are now reality, as this music video proves, thanks to the efforts of a Kira Madrigal and her dedicated film crew, Giana Factory, Pop Art Labs and Linden Labs with Second Life.  To paraphrase Gandhi, "My (virtual) life is my message."

Editors Note:  I've gotton so excited about this ongoing project (helps that i've gotten invited to the awards ceremony :p) that I've decided to cover the Pop Art Labs Machinima contest up through the awards ceremony on March 26th.  You can read all the Machinima posts here.


2 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed it! The msg is profound! Save the youth, instead of being pixelated puppets of the population! Fantastic! Thanks for the post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. wow I really liked that and the song was really nice overall I think it is a really cool video yes it is a 10

    ReplyDelete