Categories: Machinima Contest, NewsTags: comments, Contest, judge, Machinima, Music, PAL, Pop, Pop Art Lab, second life, sl, videosAuthor: Claus Uriza
Finally we are ready to post notes from the judge of the Pop Art Lab Machinima Contest. And how did it work? I had a talk with one of the judges Chantal Harvey and I came up with these guidelines.
Judge Guidelines
Give each film points on a scale from 1-5 where 5 is top and 1 is buttom.
When u give points use these 5 guidelines.
1) Representation of the sim
2) Original story
3) Sound
4) Technique
5) Overall impression
The judge weren’t forced to use above guidelines but they were made to help find the right winner. Also I asked each judge (Chantal Harvey, Jeska Linden, Lisbeth Frølunde) to come up with comments if possible. After 3-5 days they sent me a mix of comments and points and below these are reproduced with minor editing. Then I had a Skype with each judge and we emailed collectively back and forth and after 6 days we ended up with like 5 winners! It was very hard to make the decision and we looked once more before we choose Al Peretz – La Rumba as the winner.
I want to thank the judge as well as all entrants so much for participating. I know how much work and effort each entrant have made and I will be forever grateful for each of yours help preserve our now vanished sim for the future.
Thank you! Happy reading and viewing!
1. Passions of Pop Art – Tutsy Navarathna
HD-ready, wide.
What an unusual and original approach. Playfull edit, many shots, made with love for the genre and subject.
Great combination of the rl and sl footage . This one keeps your attention from start to finish.
The images are playful, colorfull.
The music is well choosen and goes perfect with the theme and edit.
Fantastic use of mix of modern and ancient gives this a mythic proportion. Great story, integrates with cool song, visuals and well-made avatar movements, use of scenography. I love it, frankly. I don’t know all the references, but it is interesting to watch it over and over again, because I make up my own stories of demons, heroes, romance, conflicts. The Kathakali or related tradition from South India, that much I recognize, which its rich combination of dance, drama, music, visual images and ritual… But to put this together with a presentation of Pop Art Lab and the whole use of machinima imagery combination is bold and it works as a whole. This gets 5+ for originality.
2. Mary – MommalLuv Skytower – Fuzonacid/Ormand Lionheart
HD-ready, wide.
A pleasure to watch. This is the only one with a good framerate, fluent images. This is what machinima should look like. A great feel for the right shots, good perspective. The filming is professional, not one shot is overdone, the editor actually ads to the film (instead of slowing it down, as is the usual case).
It was refreshing to watch a machinima that is spikey and a good showcase of what PAL sims are.
Nice try, technique is ok and sim looks fine. Pulls it down that it shows only a small part of sim and the overall look and sound become somewhat monotonous. The editing and camera work is repetitive. This kind of dance party music video has been done before. In my opinion, it would have been more interesting with a story in some way, perhaps introduce and follow characters, use some close-ups or show humor.
3. Pop Art Lab 2010 – Toxic Menges
Full HD, wide.
Choice of music is wonderful. I like the space/alien theme, the beginning and end are very strong, perhaps it should have had more aliens all along in the machinima. It has a good variety of shots, shows many aspects of the sim in a playfull way, and i love the way it is edited.
This one has a keen eye for PAL, and shows what Second Life can do.
Beautiful graphically with shots of the sim, whether as long shots or close-ups, and really good story about the future, that frames it in the start. Music works well with images and creates lively mood. But the editing needs some work to make it unified, right now the long shots are one film and the close-ups are another, perhaps because the colors change so much and the story line does not pull it together all the way. But has gorgeous shots of details and technically it is very good!
4. La Rumba Bacana II – Al Peretz
HD-ready, wide.
The music is so catching! That, and the beginning and end/shot makes this machinima fun to watch.
I find the music and dancing very prominent, it takes away the focus on the PAL sims. It is a great music vid, some great shots, and that singer is fantastic! It is a machinima about the rumba, not PAL, and yet I love it to bits.
Original presentation due to the great use of visuals with the choice of song. A wonderful start especially and finish, that give a good “framework” for the dancing and nice. So composition is compelling. Nice angles for shots and good editing. It shows off the graphic qualities of the sim so well, is sexy, fun and creates a juicy feel-good. Just when the music is getting repetitive, it ends. But some humorous funny things would have added a little more interest and spiced it up in the middle part and towards the end.
5. Fans of Harley Davidson – Iono Allen
HD-ready, wide.
Very original. This machinima has best foley, no doubt. I like it a lot, it has such a good feel to it. And watch the shot at 2.09 – iono is a master filmer in my opinion, such talent. I also like the choice of music, it is a perfect match. Pity that Brigitte Bardot does not drive her bike over the sims, so we can see more of PAL.
Original presentation, with unusual, and very interesting choice of song. A well-made composition, overall and the combination of audio and visual in the intro is inviting. Nice angles for shots and good attempts to play with editing. It shows off the graphic qualities of the sim well, colors look juicy. But the swivelling camera becomes repetitive. This kind of music video and sexy avatar has been seen many times, but this one is above and beyond the standard, overall quite is so good.
Brilliant this was one of my winners! I love every second of it and the music can’t be much better in context. If it had showed a bit more of sim and maybe let Brigitte explore the space and trippy spots I would’ve been all 5+. SO nice!
6. Girls night out – Rysan Fall
HD-ready, wide.
This is a fun machinima, and it showcases the sim well. I like the effect-transition with the sound, and the colorfull flow of the film. Pity the storyline is not so strong. The movement in the machinima is a bit much at times, and the edit is too long. I really like the respectfull credits at the end, well done.
Overall impression is a to applaud design effort. The best regarding the composition is the beginning shot of entering the sim. I especially like the attention to the circular shapes. In my opinion, more of this play with shapes would have united the film and fit well with the almost meditative music. But the girls dancing and the “flying around” the sim seem fragmented, confuses me as to whether trying to be a “story”. The many color schemes also pull film apart.
7. Dreaming of you – Michelle Lecktrone
HD-ready, wide.
Crisp and clear quality, wow. Nice song too. This is perhaps the only music video of the 15 entries, the singer is the main focus, while the images of the sim serve as inserts, not bad at all. The singer is a bit too prominent, the lip synck a bit overdone. I really love the shot whith the running on the recordplayer!
A promising design effort as a music video. Nice avatar design. But this kind of dance party music video has been done before. The lip-synching looks a bit odd, a general problem, yes, but quite a lot of it is shown and it does not add anything. I expect a love story in relation to the music, but the visuals don’t really tell me what sort of love or dreaming is happening. In my opinion, it would have been more interesting with a story in some way, perhaps introduce and follow characters, use some close-ups, show humor?
8. Sweet Pop Art Lab – Aaron Ishelwood/Ishelwood Studios
HD-ready, wide.
Even though there is no real story-line , it does take you through the PAL sim nicely. Good showcase.
The song is an old favorite of mine, and it goes well with the machinima. The editor seems to be using all the transitions in the software, the film would be stronger without these. Having said that, the film states that less is a bore, so looking from that point of view … great end shot btw.
Use of the man dreaming in start is a promising beginning, and the shift to “sweet dreams” theme and party dream good. So starts out fun. But, then gets repetitive and lacks unity, such as a story. The use of Warhol is a fun idea, but does not really work because not integrated. The use of the many dancing character becomes a crowd. I find the transitions between shots unclear, with so many variations that don’t add anything. Also, shows a small part of sim and has low resolution.
9. Love Sick – Pickles Karu/Lesvatar
HD-ready, wide.
Energetic feel to this machinima. The video and music fit perfect, good ritme. I see aspects of PAL that i didnt see before, well done. Good use of particles too.
A big compliment for the end credits, even the artists and builders are mentioned, this is how it should be done always.
An overall good promotion of the sim, cool song, partial story line and lots of nice details. Fun atmosphere, creates a good mood and has charming avatars. The quality is promising overall and color design is good. But I am a little unclear where a sort of story leads to, because I expect something since there is a main character in the start, so I get confused in relation to story and by the ending, have a sense that something was missing.
10. Pop Art Lab Conbtest entry – Ketk Petrov
HD-ready, wide.
Good use of the PAL logo.
Dreamy machinima, it shows certainly how colorful PAL is. Lots of movement, and many shots that the other filmers have missed somehow, well done. It does seem to have two endings, each one of them would be good, but not both. The mix of music is interesting.
A promising design effort. The best regarding the composition is the use of editing of images with rhythms used in the beginning. I enjoy the first 40 seconds a lot! But the use of several songs seems and the sense of “flying around” the sim, and switches with images moving around on the square, makes it fragmented as a whole. In my opinion, it would benefit form having a united, simple idea.
11. The last Furry Visitors – Mindblind Sersuko
Low quality, square.
I like the effect, going from color to black and white, to make a point. Nice little storyline, and the use of furries makes this film different from the rest. Well done. Love the panda, and the dancing horse!
Original story and fun graphic presentation, such as experiments with color. I especially like the way the mouse is introduced among the dancers, how film changes when the furry visitors take over, the way the panda and starry sky are mixed, and the shots of the horse/unicorn spinning and breaking out of a sort of box are great. But the choice of song does not really work with the graphic composition overall, in my opinion. The letters flying in one by one is too repetitive, and this has been seen before so many times. The overall visual quality seems a little fuzzy, low-res. Also, a different musical score, perhaps with some humorous elements, would be more interesting.
12. Don’t be affraid of rats – Binary Quandry
Low Quality, square.
Great intro, I love the way it goes from color to white, now that is a good way to start a film!
Original machinima, you made good use of the rain…and the rat. Good sound design in this film.
A promising design effort and some nice transparencies in the images. But the visuals don’t connect with the music, and the use of the rat is sudden and confusing to me. It does not show us much of the sim, either. Suggestion is to have a story unfold in some way, include some changes to characters, add humor, more variety with some close-ups?
13. Fastbreak – The Deliwolf/Delgado Cinquetti
Low quality, square.
Nice idea to make the film look old. To make this effect stronger, you could use sepia color instead of white. I love the scratchlines in the film. I would like to know who´s music this is.
The camera effect is wonderful, not sure wether it is done in postproduction?
Use of music is fun. Music combined with the swimming weird shape is odd, but somehow the images and song do complement each together. The use of the woman character seems sort of cartoonish and unclear. But it has playfulness, definitely potential. But pulled down by poor technical quality, a low resolution problem, and the white stripes are unfortunate – why use Windows Movie Maker? Also, does not show much of sim. Lacks credit for song.
14. Work in progress – Glasz DeCuir
Low quality, square.
Even though i love it a lot, the slow tempo music sets the pace in this machinima. The edit is well done, some great effects there. The avatar exploring the sim is such a good idea. Looking at the endcredits, a lot of people joined forces for this machinima, well done!
Really nice design work overall, good promotion of the sim. The song however, does not add much in my opinion, or pull visuals together. So becomes a sort of assembly of nice graphics, with overlays and transparencies used well. Consistent, professional quality overall and wonderful colors. In my opinion, it would have been more interesting with a story in some way, perhaps introduce and follow characters, use some close-ups, add humor?
15. Queen of Outer Space – Larkworthy Antfarm.
Full HD, wide.
I love this one a lot. The images, the poem, the way it is spoken out slowly – it made me think of Marianne Faithful and had me sit down and enjoy. It is certainly different from the other films!
It is very arty. It does not show PAL in my opinion. It is a wonderful film, but not for this contest.
Nice due to its simplicity and clean technique. The graphic design is retro cool. However, film gets too simple and does not show the sim. This kind of dance music video has been done before. In my opinion, it would have been more interesting with a story in some way, perhaps introduce and follow characters, use some close-ups, and humor.
