Machinimoo

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?