"My Last Night at the Hotel"

A collaborative movie project in SL.

Kalisten has a fun little movie project going in SL in the October Country sim. The idea is to have some fun filming and producing a mini-movie that uses the fabulous October Country island and Hotel as the set, and some of the more fun avatars the project group has.

This is a small-scale project, designed to be a learning project.

PROJECT STATUS: FILMING IS IN EXPERIMENTAL / CONFIG STAGE

December 18, 2007
Unfortunately, the current versions of the Second Life viewer crash upon using the record-video feature. The feature was broken in the 1.18 version, and unfortunately, they aren't planning to fix it anytime soon.. It had stopped us cold for a bit.

I have now purchased software that will allow me to film from my computer screen instead of via Second Life's "movie-to-disk" feature. While it is versatile software, I need to figure out the configuration that will yield more than 1-3 frames per second, which is what it is doing out-of-the-box. Once we have the configuration working, we can resume filming.

Camera Operators - you may also be interested in the Movie Camera Configuration page for this project.

CREW: Pick out your assignments now for Scene #2. (This shoot is being scheduled now.)

Project Status

Current Stage: Writing Script

• Script: in progress
• Crew: about 50% filled - Contact Kal if you want to be on crew!
• Schedule: in early stages
• Avi's & Costumes: some determined, none yet approved by the AD.
• Set & Shooting locations: some are being written into the script. Not all have been identified yet.

Project Goal

Write, film, edit an score a 5-8 minute video on October Country. This isn't an island tour (though it will feature many of the island's coolest locales), nor a record of avi's normally hanging out on the island; this film will have a plot and story, complete with horror-classic twist.

Project Scope & Parameters

The idea is to keep the filming and editing simple so that it stays fun. We want to keep the project hours down to about 20 hours per person, max.

• five to eight minutes edited final
• average of 20 hours or less of time required from each crew member, some (extras and helpers) only 4-5 hours.
• three actors max per scene
• three cameras/flimers per scene max - we don't want more than 80 minutes total raw footage in the edit/assembly stage, so we'll reshoot until we get good takes
• small, short scenes (each scene should be 1 minute or less)
• human / vampire / demon world rules are basically the same as Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, mixed in with some concepts like those in Island of Dr. Moreau (by HG Wells).

Being the first film project for most of us, we understand that the scene transitions may be a bit choppy, and we can accept that. We do expect our "second unit" work (establishing shots, exterior shots) to be very good, given the nature of SL. We also accept that, since we are on a public island, we may get a background avi or two wondering the scene background once in a while- and that's fine. Obviously, we will have to stop shooting or shoot something else if there is avi activity that would be considered foreground-layer. Thus, shooting schedules will have to be flexible.

Project Crew

• Kaine Darkstone actor, voice talent, script writer, camerman. Roles: giant serpent (male), waiter, hotel clerk, other monster, possibly cabbie.
• Cerianna Vieria actress, voice talent, camerawoman. Roles: giant serpent (female) Amanda (reporter/vampire).
• Toni Tigerpaw actress, camerawoman, costumes, artistic director. Roles: Jeannie.
• Kaffe McMahon actress, script? Props? Voice?
• Kalisten VanDornan director, producer, actor, voice talent, cameraman, editor, score & music, titles. Roles: skeleton, tiger.

Project Needs

• location scout
• props manager
• gesture & pose builders
• character voice talent
• camera operators
• script writers
• editors
• music & score
• Second Unit director & camera.

If you'd like to join the crew in any of the above capacities, then please contact Kalisten VanDornan (inworld IM is fine) and let him know what you'd like to do. We're about having fun and learning rather than time lines and deadlines (although we will keep the project moving as best we can), so come have some fun with us!