Machinimoo

Just six months after firing Chez Pazienza and several others for blogging, CNN has released a policy regarding social networking. According to the news powerhouse, employees are unable to comment in public on topics and/or clients that they report on. This is to include MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, etc. If they want to blog on their personal site, they have to make their managers aware of it.

That sort of policy is understood. However, they actually encourage their employees to visit Second Life. That is a scandal and a half waiting to happen. CNN made a not-so-dramatic entrance to SL some time ago with their iReports. Much like the real life version, residents are able to send in personal accounts of events, stories, and whatnot. As is typical of companies entering the virtual world, there’s no word yet on how long they plan to stay.

[Via Mitch Wagner]

Read: Gawker

Wow. It’s been so long since I’ve actually posted here. I feel super guilty about that. I’m not sure if anyone still reads this. I guess it’s time that I clued all of you in on what’s going on.

I’ve been promoting and making machinima for over two years now. The time has really flown by. Since the beginning, moo Money and Sasha Rudie, my real life persona, have been one and the same. In so many ways, they still are. However, I need a balance.

I’ve actually splintered off and married myself. I encourage all of you to say hi to Money Moo, my new partner in SL. Freud would have a field day analyzing this relationship! Money Moo will be running the Bayjou Theater in the mainland Linden Department of Public Works city project, Bay City. She’ll be holding regular events, classes, premieres, and displaying machinima.

The 2007 Second Life Community Convention caught me by surprise in so many ways. I was shocked by all of the attention that I received. As some of you may know, I planned the Machinima track. It was attended by very few, as everyone was at the Business and Education tracks. Since then, I’ve been out of the spotlight. However, I haven’t been out of machinima.

What have I been up to? Well, I’m no longer working for Alt-Zoom Studios, but I still help manage Machinimatographers, the group BuhBuhCuh Fairchild and I started two years ago, as well as Lukanida, the free backlot island. It is now restricted to group members only due to squatters. I’ve been working on projects for Linden Lab, Cisco, PBS, and many more companies. In the coming months, I’ll actually put up a *gasp* portfolio, so that you can see all of the cool projects that I’ve worked on in my time in SL. August marks the two year anniversary of my being full-time in SL, and I’ve accomplished a lot. I’ve also been blogging machinima daily for Massively.com and WoWInsider.com.

Some of you may take this to mean that I’ve left all of you for World of Warcraft, but the truth is that since I blogged daily on Massively, the mutual leads over at WoW Insider thought that I could do the same for them. I played WoW years ago, but don’t currently play it at this time. In order to become familiar with the scene, I immersed myself in their community and got to know many talented machinimators, including Baron Soosdon, Ian Beckman, Selserene, Pinkhair, Gnomechewer, Dopefish, Malu05, Olibith, and many others.

In terms of the splitting off that I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m going to keep the professional side of me and the educational side of me separate. SashaRudie.com will be the host of my portfolio, as well as my resume, and professional accomplishments. MooMoney.net will be the host of my personal blog, which I will start trying to regularly update. There’s so much new technology that’s out there and I can’t wait to share it with all of you!

What’s coming up? Well, in about two weeks, you’ll see what I’ve been working on for the last six months. It’s a project that means so much to me emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Many of you participate in the Second Life Relay for Life. I’ve been working on a 17ish minute documentary on how four volunteers spend their time fundraising in SL for this event. The few people that have seen the draft have told me they’ve cried, so that’s my goal. I want all of you to be reaching for your tissues! After it’s released, it will immediately start being refined to take out some branding and cleaned up for real life festival submission. I want the world to know what ACS/SLRFL is accomplishing in Second Life!

I will also be releasing a more detailed tutorial on making machinima. I’ve been seeing a whole new crop of SL machinimators that seem to be solely interested in machinima from the money-making aspect of it, rather than the art. Then there are the people that are blogging a lot of misinformation that I feel is hurting the machinimator community in SL. You’ll be seeing a lot of advice blogging and tips/tricks from me in the near future.

Another of my goals is to ease the transition of machinimators that come from outside of SL. We all know how huge a learning curve this platform is, so imagine how shocked they are! However, a lot of them have been working on machinima a lot longer than we have and have plenty of sage advice for the newer crowd. There have been monthly meetings going on in SL to discuss current events in machinima and I’d like to make the SL crowd more aware of them.

Money Moo was going to be teaching some classes at SL’s 5th Birthday celebration on behalf of Bayjou Theater and the FIlm Appreciation Society. However, not only was it too short notice, but when I looked outside of the plot, there were tons of self-serving machinimator plots everywhere. I saw signs and video screens as high as the sky, glowing, blinking, and rotating. It may as well have been the mainland and their for sale signs. I don’t have a problem with people making money, but I saw portfolios, links to websites, landmarks, and basically everything but giant “hire me!” signs, and I felt that it really took away from the community feel of SL5B. Has Second Life really become every person for themselves? I know and love a better community than that!

The AMAS Machinima Festival skipped last year, but is coming up again in New York in November. The awesome team of Friedrich Kirschner and Frank Dellario are heading it up. I intend to be there and I invite all New Yorkers and anyone within driving distance to check it out!

So that’s what comes to mind so far. If you’re reading this, let me know that you’re out there! I would love some helpers that can assist me in mass educating the general public about machinima. Spreading the word is time consuming! I am so proud of everyone that has taken up machinima. You’re doing a wonderful job, and at times it can probably be frustrating, but don’t give up!

Well, this has turned into a giant opus, but the point is, I’m here. I still very much believe in machinima and I want everyone to believe in it too. It’s not only a great tool for educators, but also corporations, individuals, and even as a form of self-expression! Machinima will only become more popular in the coming years and I want each and every one of you to be a part of that with me. What do you say?

I’m sure that those of you up on Second Life scandals saw my odd goodbye to Second Life Insider. Many thought I quit or was fired. Your concern was touching. It wasn’t saying goodbye to me, though. I was saying farewell to an old friend. I know that it’s shocking for a lot of you. It was surprising to me, as well. I had about a week-long lead on you guys, if that.

The good news is that the writers of SLI were wrapped into a monster huge site for everything MMO-related, Massively. There *will* be an adjustment period for this site if you’re used to SLI. It has different tagging, layout, and whatnot. HOWEVER, none of the SLI staff left. You’ll still get the same great news from us. It’s just on a different site.

Here’s the lowdown. There are like 25+ writers that will cover as much about different MMOs as is humanly possible. Some have even chosen to write SL news! There’s even a tag for Second Life news alone. Did you know you can search for posts by your favorite writer? Even CATEGORY!

What does this mean for me? I’ll still be my same old self, writing about SL news. However, I’ll also be writing extensively about Machinima. Right now, I’m doing the Cinemassively feed, which is a daily Machinima or video post at 12:30pm EDT. You should also keep an eye out for my weekly interviews with Machinimists. In addition, there is a Machinima tag for news that doesn’t include video. It’s not just SL Machinima, either. It’s all the Machinima goodness from MMOs and even non-MMOs that you can possibly stomach!

Lists:

• moo Money’s posts
• Cinemassively
• Videos
• Machinima
• Second Life

Feeds:

• General list of feeds
• Second Life
• Machinima
• Videos
• Cinemassively

So it’s been a while since I’ve actually updated this blog, other than to talk about my eternal quest for caffeine. Here is a run down:

• I’m moving to Temecula, CA soon.
• I’m now blonde.
• I’m taking on more machinima projects to help me afford to live in Socal!
• SLRFL is coming up soon!
• The Machinima part of SLCC is going to rock your socks.
• I’m going to try to go to the machimima fest in Europe.
• I just finished this machinima for Manpower:

I’ve been trying to keep up with all this web 2.0 stuff and somehow merge it with Second Life. I think Facebook is much less offensive than MySpace and is better at connecting people. With that said, I’ve created a group for Alt-Zoom announcements and Machinima-related things. Some of you may be full on groups, or have announcements turned off, so you won’t see the events scheduled. This way, you can just check the Alt-Zoom page to see if there’s a class or ask advice.

Thoughts? Questions? Comments?

Slate Magazine, How Facebook could crush MySpace, Yahoo!, and Google, June 2007

“For all the hype about Second Life, Facebook and MySpace are already the closest things we have to “virtual worlds.” Sure, Facebook doesn’t have large-breasted 3D avatars and a sky and buildings and its own currency. But the whole point of the Internet is that you don’t need all that stuff. If I want to buy something, I go to Amazon, not some virtual store.”

ValleyWag, Hanging out with the kids in Second Life, June 2007

Comment made by ValleyWag reader Rockwell:

“Someone on my LinkedIn network posted a question asking if anyone had done any recruiting on Second Life. It took willpower not to respond to the effect of: if your firm is seeking a bi-curious furry with a penchant for light S&M, you might want to look there. “

From December 06 to February 07, moo Money and Nylon Pinkney were co-anchors for Edelman’s The Grid Review. Nylon left before I did, but when they introduced the new format, I was too burnt out to do Machinima for at least two or three more months. After I left, both mine and Nylon’s work was mysteriously removed from both YouTube and Blip.tv, as well as our blog entries and our bio pages. I’m assuming that this was to make way for the new format, but I still receive inquiries as to where it went, so I’ve uploaded mine to my personal YouTube page. I hope you enjoy!

[splashcast EKMC2563MC]

If Second Life were a high school and Prokofy Neva were the Principal, this is what his list might look like:

Noospherists: Overachievers. Congrats! You’re at the top of the class, guys. You get things done and you have a bright future ahead of you.

FIC 2.0s: Student Council and Jocks. You’re the cool kids. You may not own a business, but your work with others is high profile and you are well-connected. You might not go as far as the honor roll students, but you’ll still have time to party, right?

FIC 2.1s: The bad boys. You’ve been caught smoking in the bathroom and etching your name into your desk. You’re still connected, but your affiliation with the drama club often gets you into trouble.

FIC 1.0s: Underachievers. You thought you could sail through your senior year and it didn’t work out. The principal has just informed you that you’ll be repeating the grade.

With that said, is anyone up for a themed graduation party?  We could do yearbook photos and tell everyone our goals for the future!

I have a lot going on in the next few months. I knew it would be an intense time for me. I’d signed up to help with some volunteer things, and have my normal jobs. I’ve been really stressed and not happy lately. I’ve started to block out the negative things in my Second Life to make things better in my First Life.

When SignPostMarv Martin asked me to help out with the Machinima area of SL4B, SL’s 4th birthday party, I said I would gather Machinima links from over the years to put on the plot. After that, I discovered that when I didn’t attend a meeting, he’d signed me up to hold a Machinima contest during that meeting. This was NOT okay and I let him know so. Then I discovered that I’d have to build a plot, which I am not good at, so I picked one out and worked towards finding builders for the plot.

Today I was asked by “messenger” if I’d be in charge of all the media in SL, such as podcasts and things like The Grid Review. This was the last straw. I left the SL4B group. I am far too busy and stressed trying to plan SLCC and earn my way there with less than three months to go to be worrying about this. I wish them the best of luck.

On top of that, I had someone try to get onto the Machinima track last minute based on their status within the community. I won’t name names, but they wanted to teach a class that was similar to what I already have planned for the track.  They had months to express interest in the track and if they’d have looked on the SLCC07 website, they’d have seen that I had something planned.  I told them that if their idea didn’t overlap mine, I would extend time from my class out for them, as the entire track is full and has been for a while. They asked me to outline my itinerary to them, and not the other way around. This took me aback because they’re trying to get space on the track and I’m trying to accommodate them. I have time to plan the class because the convention is over two months away, but I had already told him the basic details of what I was going to teach. I dunno, maybe I’m being irrational.

They then sent me an email stating that they assumed that Ben would be teaching the class, so they’d just drop him a note. You see, they didn’t want to step on his toes and felt it would be the perfect opportunity to collaborate. My jaw literally dropped open. When he wasn’t getting anywhere with me, he incorrectly assumed that Ben, my boss for Alt-Zoom, would be teaching this class, so he’d go around me. I informed him that I was the sole planner of the Machinima track. I was teaching the class, so he would go through me. He would be stepping on my toes. I did say, however, that if our classes complemented each other, that I’d be more than happy to extend out my class. He sent me a response saying it’s best to just leave it at that.

I have also extended this blocking out the negative to friends. I blocked a friend from all of my messengers yesterday and it killed me to do so, but I felt that our history was too distracting to think about. Seeing him in my list just saddened me, because between him and another person, I felt stuck in the middle of drama that I do not need.

Maybe I’m going crazy. I’m not sure. I keep telling myself that if I can just survive until SLCC, it’ll all be worth it, but I have to get to that point first. If we’re friends and I haven’t been around much, I apologize. I’m doing a million business things at once and trying to find time for fun, but it’s not working out. Know that I have not forgotten about you. I just don’t want to end up flipping out and being snippy.  Man I’m ranting a lot and I’ve said way too much already.  I just hope you guys understand.

After the success of the Alt-Zoom Studios Take5 Machinima Festival, and discussion the following day, at SLCC 2006, I was asked to be in charge of planning my very own track for SLCC. SLCC is the Second Life Community Convention, which will be held in Chicago on August 24th-26th at the Hilton. Now in it’s third year, it’s hard to believe that the original one had just a day of content!

SLCC is divided into four tracks this year: Business, Education, Social, and Machinima. I am so honored to be overseeing the Machinima track in it’s entirety. I won’t be alone, though! I found a great helper in Sidra Stern, a fellow SL Machinima enthusiast. Much thought has gone into the type of topics that will be discussed. I noticed that my SLCC page for Machinima over on the official blog was looking a bit sparse, so I figured I’d better start sharing what I have in store!

Confirmed:

• Keynotes for both Saturday and Sunday. One will be BuhBuhCuh Fairchild, one of SL’s founding fathers of Machinima. The other will be the ILL Clan, seasoned Machinima veterans and makers of Trash Talk with Ill Will.
• Global Kids, led by Barry Joseph, will highlight some of what they do during their intern program, included teen made Machinima. We’ll even have some teens speaking!
• Reallusion, makers of Crazy Talk and iClone, will be on-hand to explain how their technology can help with Second Life Machinima.
• Michael Verdi, of freevlog, will highlight how Machinima can be used to vlog with Second Life avatars.
• A basic Machinima class on the big screen, plus a surprise guest that will show us proper editing techniques.

Tentative:

• Will be asking Campfire, a viral marketing company started by two of the people that made The Blair Witch Project, to explain how viral marketing can work with Machinima.
• Content companies will be on a panel about why they choose to use Machinima and why their clients now insist on it.

Do these sound like interesting sessions? I’d love some community feedback on what you’d like to see. If you’re interested in going to SLCC and involved in Machinima, please let me know!

On another note, Millions of Us is the lead sponsor, but the Machinima track still has a sponsorship slot open and it’s a great deal. Please contact me if you’re serious about sponsoring.

If you have general feedback, please leave a comment below this post, but if you’d like to leave a more serious note or interest in sponsoring, please email me.