To those that are reading this...

Well I haven't posted anything in a while... that's because I'm editing at the moment... Staying away from Second life for a little while...

Right now I'm trying to analyze my journey... find out where I got sucked in... into the illusion, and trying to figure out how and why I did.

Some people think I crossed over to the 'other' side... I don't think I have.

And someone asked me if i'd stick around in SL after this project... my answer to that...
real life to me is far far more enticing. Why? Because you can't have everything you want.

BUT I don't know for sure yet. I think I might stick around. 20 % for Entertainment and 80% to study it I think.

For now, although I have a lot to say, I don't want to just yet...

I'll leave this with an account of two recent incidents however...

I happened to teleport to a random location I typed in my search engine... it was a beachy place... (Sandbox they call it... a place where people come to build things that they can eventually sell in SL)... anyway I was there and (didn't realize it was a building zone) took out my car (by the way I have many now) and thought I'd run people over.
I just wanted to see what would happen, how people would react etc... I drove around like a maniac trying to hit as many as I could and people actually started running away from me... one girl ran into the water to save herself.



Now the funniest thing is that you CANNOT get hurt... not a scratch, forget feeling pain. But people run and you know what else... they get very pissed off.
I got reported for abuse. ;)

After that I was flying around trying to look for the guy (I knew his name but didn't know what he looked like...) that reported me to see if he was anywhere in the vicinty... I was randomly clicking on people to see if I could find him. While I was doing that the most incredible thing happened... I clicked on this one guy... and it turned out to be Daffton Collins... the guy from the, 'Chance Meeting,' video... the one I followed randomly earlier and befriended!!!
It's crazy because the chances of bumping into someone again in Second Life is like one in a million, and that too is putting it mildly.





INSANE!

Heh heh ok signing off now ... the edit table is braying... (it hasn't yet begun to sing.)

I've been..........

I think i'm getting used to being on SL...

and unlike before where I would point out little details about the game, I think somewhere I'm not even seeing them anymore...

I must say though I do feel strange time and again...
Over the last week I have befriended two three people that I have really connected with.
And lying by a pool, or amidst trees near the sea, I really do feel like I'm closer to them... even though I have no idea what they must really look like or sound like etc.

Recently I have acquired a ton of clothes, costumes, underwear and skin! (nipples too... heh heh)

And I'm starting to enjoy dressing myself up... wearing black lace underwear is cool (on SL!)
But for the most part, its about making my appearance look the way I want others to see me as. And yesterday I was told I looked sexy. (yay!)

The other day I saw a couple making out in a car, and this was the first time in SL that I had seen any public display of affection (I think it has to do with the places I was visiting too...) Anyhow I decided to film this, I took a few shots, feeling a little voyeuristic and wrong but did it all the same... then I decided I'll put myself in the frame and laugh or smile or something while they make out because they looked really funny...
So I sat myself down next to the car and looked up at them at started to laugh... suddenly I get a message from the guy in the car (funnily enough it had to be the guy) saying, "yes... can I help you." I was jolted out of my little fun game of laughing and filming and suddenly felt very wrong to be sitting there... but then I told him what I was doing, and that I was student... Both him and the woman began to laugh and said "yea yea go ahead you can film this."
There were a few shots though that I couldn't take on my own... so I phoned Arun, both faculty and friend to join me there and shoot it from his laptop at home...
When Arun showed up his avatar had the same glitch that Trisham's had earlier, where he's dancing everywhere and can't stop!!!
So the girl in the car sees this and says are you guys making a Bollywood film here! HaHaHa!
It ended up being quite fun and strange too, to direct online and get the shots I wanted. And in the end, the two perfect strangers (two perfectly strange avatars even) in the car, have now become real people to me, and I might even be able to call them friends.

THEN!!!....yesterday I had sex on SL! That was a truly outrageous and funny situation... There are people everywhere, doing it with the next person that comes along... the prescripted animations are so mechanical and the face has no expression unless you give it one...
and there is actually no control... you do whatever the script has in store for you. Bodies don't even meet, people kiss without their lips even connecting and it is really really funny to look at!
There was something that got to me though.... in that room full of 'good looking people,' there was this one guy, who was big and fat and hairy (he had nipple piercings too) anyhow... the thing was that nobody wanted to do him! And in SL a space where you can look like anything you want to, he chose to look like that... and he was just walking around the room, looking at people and every once in a while he had this strange smile on his face...
I think now I should have spoken to him... but at the same time it's nice not knowing...

All these things I've been talking about I filmed and will use for the final film... I don't know if I want to put up the footage as of right now so I don't ruin the effect of the finished film...

But I've been wonderin... what kind of rights issues will I face? Filming people without their consent... I wonder if they'll get angry and have a problem with it...! If anyone knows about the legalities of non-fiction filming in Second Life... please let me know!

Ok well... back to work for now...

Anyhow... I will be putting up some more video tests perhaps, to get some feedback with technique from my invisible crew that's out there somewhere!

A Chance Meeting... another attempt at filming

Well...
in the past I've shot fiction films and non-fiction films... but shooting a non-fiction sequence in SL is a whole other ball game.
In terms of my project its especially hard because the conversation, the connection with the people I meet and being true to myself is extremely important. But when I am talking to someone I also have to keep typing...
while I'm doing that I'm also filming because who knows... it might go somewhere, and might be an effective piece in the film...
so one is thinking of shots, the timeline, the edit etc all at the same time.
The other issue is shooting oneself, using the mouse, keyboard etc... and then animating oneself in that shot as well...
so the planning has to be even better...

Anyhow what I have here is a little something... It is part of a conversation with a man (now a friend) I randomly met and spoke with for a long period of time. Actually I followed him... I saw this person flying in the sky and said to myself... hmmm let's follow him... It was like those films where you follow someone, then they catch on, and turn around and you look the other way. SL being a 3D environment... actually had me doing that! But it is not real life, and people can't be all that bothered if they are being followed... and what started off as a sleazy sleuth type thing , turned into quite an enriching conversation!
I am hoping that he will choose to be a part of this project because I found that some of the things we were thinking and talking about were very similar.









To watch the video click on the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N36qBtvv5Vs

I will upload soon the next part of this conversation once I edit it....
I will like to play with sound, voice and music also.... that I think is the next step in terms of the medium.

A funny incident...

I went online the other day and met a friend from my real life...
we thought we'd walk around, explore, try out stuff to help with the project...
what ended up happening, although a technical glitch... turned out to be quite funny...

to watch check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaRIAvnrsVw