AWM Mars makes commercial video in SL

As I hinted last week, a few people are already offering commercial video services with video capture from virtual-reality.  Here is an interview with AWM Mars, who has been doing that for years.  His web site is at  WBA-Advertizing.

This interview was done entirely in Second Life, on the modern equivalent of paper (notecards).  I gave AWM a set of questions and he supplied written responses.  I have only made cuts to focus on the current topic and to avoid subjects that cannot adequately be handled in one article.   I may get back to him in a follow-up interview on some of these topics later.    

Interview

Thinkerer:  Here is the background:  In my blog, I have been discussing the future of SL and similar (open source) grids in light of the arrival of OnLive and improvements in open source capabilities.  The lead-in line for the interview is in the blog of July 13: 

A future (actually, current but not widely known) scenario for making videos in virtual reality might go like this:   A large community of people with theater/video interests is in Second Life (as now).   That community serves as a resource for all the people and services needed in making a video – just as the Hollywood community does for film-making.  Once a cast and production team is assembled, production moves to a private grid.  When the video is finished, the action moves out of virtual reality completely, because video-making is fully outfacing.

[Outfacing: Of interest to a reasonably large segment of the general public and can be consumed or enjoyed by the public with no special equipment or actions.]

Thinkerer:  Would you describe your current video-making business. 

AWM:  We (WBA-Advertising) carry out a wide variety of movie themes. We began a movie making business nearly 3 years ago in SL, although we have been doing much the same over the past 10 years before SL was even born. Our clientele list is as varied as the many themes we create. Our group motto is 'A Full Turnkey Solution'. This is because we can not only shoot movies, but have resources that allow us to create sets as big as a full sim, or a small room, create animations, scripts, textures, supply actors; we have wardrobe, locations managers, stylists etc. Then once the movie is captured, we can compose music tracks, ambience sounds, and voice overs.  Once rendered, we can host and stream the media from our own servers, right onto our own media systems here in SL and other platforms, or over the internet to websites and blogs, even HD TV formats.

We have been privilaged to have carried out productions that have been viewed on French, American, Scandinavian, German and Russian TV networks, to our knowledge. Our media has been used in many seminars, presentations and internal organisation exposas, both in SL and RL.

Thinkerer:  You are active in SL.  How do you benefit from your activities in SL?

AWM:  We have developed WBA-Advertising to incorporate EML-Entertainments, MBO-Productions and Ink-Free Media, their goals are to develop markets for other outlets for our Machinima. MBO-Productions has developed avatar control/assist systems, that give greater control over actor movements, animations and timings on set. We also created Nex-Core Model Management, that increased our market spread into the fashion industry, utilising the avatar control/assist systems for models on the catwalk, and WBA-Advertising to make movies of the shows for greater exposure. We are registered as a full solution provider within SL.

Thinkerer:  When you make a commercial about a build in SL, do you make the video in SL?

AWM:  For the most part, yes. We do sometimes use thrid party programmes that simulate locations, depends on what the clients requirements are. Greater control can be offered when not filming directly in SL. We have been invited to create machinima in other platforms, for both indigenous organisations, individuals and companies.

Thinkerer:  Do you make videos on a private simulator running code similar to SL?

AWM:  We have created some movies in OpenSim platforms. This is growing more and more, as clients are adopting the security and privacy required to create media, not found in SL. We have our own hosted version of OpenSim, so we have full control, over and above that offered by Linden Labs, for certain projects. This also helps keep the costs down in some circumstances.

Thinkerer:  Do you make commercials for companies that are outside of SL?

AWM:  Yes, we have been doing that almost since we began. We operate two types of contract. SL companies/groups/individuals pay a SL economy related value for our work. RL companies/organisations/individuals pay RL related values. Our reasoning is based upon ROI (Return On Investment) for our clients. Charging RL values to SL based clients, would not allow them to be able to promote their skills and talents. Once they reach RL status, then we convert their future contracts to pay RL values. We consider this also an investment, serving clients during their growth, is our form of long term investment.

Thinkerer:  What do you see as the future of videomaking in virtual reality grids like SL and the simlar OS grids?

AWM:  I believe Machinima is in its infancy, but gaining credible merit for its contribution to RL advertising, education, training and entertainment. It has the ability to become a major source of relatively cheap (not just in money sense, but in the carbon footprint as well), alternatives to RL markets. The actual platform is unimportant, a machinimaist can grab footage from virtually any platform. What would be important to the platform, is what functionality will it offer the machinimaist, and who the targetted audience are. Existing VR platforms would be useful for more Ad Hoc forms of machinima, whereas persistant machinimaist may use a stand alone platform on a server, that the actors etc can login for their 'days' work. The days of VR being seen as a credible alternative are growing. I believe many established RL companies will venture into the Machinima market as the world/humanity must alter its way of perception of doing business. Large budget film making, also means a high cost to the environment

Thinkerer:  Are there any other questions I should have asked?

AWM (for Thinkerer):  What are the main advantages of Machinima?

AWM : Although varied, some of the most important ones are:-

• Ability to bring together the talents/skills of people from all over the world,  to create viable media, without the overheads that are present in RL.
• This would include costs, not just in money, but the carbon footprint value.
• Production is not delayed by weather, travel costs, illness, location, politics, etc.
• Actors can be replaced by simply giving another user the same avatar, including animations and functionality
• Speed in which the media can be produced, from conception to delivery.
• Ease in which scenes can be reshot, in the event of an error.
• Special effects can be included within a production, which could be prohibitive in RL, due to contraints such as safety, regulations, laws of gravity, physics, costs.

People that are challenged in RL  can be included in machinima in a VR platform. Disabilities in whatever form, can be overcome and in some cases muted completely, enabling their skills to be fully realised, even gaining viable employment.

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Entertainment in Second Life

On Stage 

Two stage plays continued their runs over the weekend:

“Hypatia of Alexandria.” Written & Directed by:  Skylar Smythe.
“Hypathia” has two more scheduled shows: July 24 and 25, both at 7 pm SLT.
Details are available at Town Center on Cookie

Henrik Ibsen's “The Lady from the Sea” directed by Mokey Mokusei closed this weekend after a successful run at the George C. Dove Theater,  Rockcliffe University.

News about writing

Poetry:  The Fib Review group has published the fourth issue of its on-line Fibonacci journal, The Fib Review.  To read the issue, go to Muse-Pie Press.  Click on “the fib review” to access the journal.
For additional information, join the Second Life group. "the fib review,"or IM Sunnie Beaumont.

What is a Fib?: The Fibonacci poem is a short poetry 6-line poetry form that is based on the structure of the Fibonacci sequence. The Fibonacci Sequence  is a mathematical sequence  in which every number is the sum of the two preceding it. Thus, you begin with 1 and the sequence follows as such: 1+1=2; then in turn 1+2=3; then 2+3=5; then 3+5=8 and so on. The poetry sequence therefore consists of six lines of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8, with each number representing the number of syllables that a writer places in each line of the poem.