Where else but in a virtual world (or if your name was Judy Garland) would a small-town Midwest-U.S. gal get to star in a movie?

Well, “starring in a move” may be stretching it a bit (or a lot!), but fact is, I had the awesome experience of being among the cast of one of the most acclaimed machinima videos created recently in Second Life.

“Chameleon” is a 4min 30sec music video (machinima), filmed entirely in the virtual world of Second Life. It is a ground-breaking film that uses techniques never before used in Second Life. Click to view the video Chameleon

Writers are not the only creative types drawn to Second Life. And why not, given the recipe available to anyone who enters:

Your Imagination +
Infinite Combinations of Bits and Bytes =
Just About Anything You Want to Create!

It began with the basic dynamic of Second Life, which is simply getting to know other people through their avatars.

In this case, I was lucky enough to meet Brigitte Kungler through a mutual friend. We got to talking and found we had lots in common. So just like in first life, we hung out, shared our SL activities, laughed, and so on. Turns out Brigitte is as passionate about visual art as I am about verbal art. Turns out further that she is a film producer and machinima artist.  Way cool.

One day I got an IM from Brigitte: Would I have time to help her with a scene she was filming in a video?

Why not? It sounded like an interesting new experience, and besides, I like to help friends.

So she teleported me to the set and began to video me in my first (and probably last) movie role, which involved that so-very-difficult skill (ha-ha) of riding a bike. I didn’t even have to put on a costume (except change shoes, from heels to sneakers).

I rode that bike back and forth, and back and forth, over the strangest looking set: an old-fashioned map spread out over hills, with a globe revolving in the sky above.   And just like in first-life moviemaking, I got to do the scene over and over and over . . . until Brigitte had enough footage to edit.  (I’m told that aspect, anyway, is no different from first life.)

Me riding my bicycle on the set while filming “Chameleon”

It was fun and fascinating to be part of the process, and the professionalism of the process impressed me. Yet, I was still blown away by the quality of the final video. My biking scene ended up being a few seconds out of a 4.5 minute music video for the song “Chameleon” by the musician Vandal–a video that wows everyone I’ve shown it to.

Brigitte’s artistry in creating the sets is amazing enough, but the addition of her machinima skills results in an extraordinarily powerful, moving video that showcases the talents of both herself and musician Vandal, as well as the amazing creative possibilities provided by Second Life for artists of all genres.

“It’s one of the best I’ve seen so far, and it gives me hope for the future of Second Life as an artistic medium.” ~ Eliza Wrigglesworth on the Booflubber Gibberish blog.

Even got my name in the credits!

“Chameleon” has since become a top-viewed video on bliptv.com. And Brigitte and the video were featured on the Second Life Cable Network show Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe late last month.  Which, by the way, provided me with yet another new experience: I got to be part of the “studio” audience watching the filming of that Tonight Live show, something virtually (pun intended) impossible to do in my first life!

What kinds of experiences have you had in Second Life that are almost beyond possibility in first life?  Post a comment and share, please!

Welcome back!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 11:08 am and is filed under First Life, Second Life, virtual experiences. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.