Cinemax documentary asks: Why Second Life?
By Eric Reuters
SECOND LIFE, May 14 (Reuters) - Does a Second Life avatar need a kitchen if it never eats, or a roof over its head if it never rains? If you can be anything and build anything, how does an avatar find happiness?
These questions are difficult for even seasoned Second Life veterans to answer, much less explain to someone who’s never been in a virtual world. But the new documentary film “Molotov Alva and His Search For His Creator: A Second Life Odyssey” seeks to tackle the issues of virtual identity head-on.
The film, airing on Cinemax on Thursday, is a series of ten machinima shorts filmed in Second Life. It is the work of Douglas Gayeton, who based the work around his own experiences as avatar Molotov Alva. Gayeton, who describes himself as a fifteen-year veteran of online communities who has also worked on MTV’s vLES and as chief creative officer at Millions of Us, called his avatar’s explorations “a Marco Polo story for our times.”
“My goal was to make something for the legions of people that have never logged into Second Life but were curious about what virtual worlds mean for society,” Gayeton said in a telephone interview.
While voice-overs were added in post-production (Second Life’s voice feature hadn’t been built at the time of filiming), Gayeton said none of the interactions were scripted, and all the avatars and locations used exist within Second Life.
The first six installments of the film will appear simultaneously on the air and in Second Life. Home viewers will be encouraged to see the remaining episodes on Cinemax.com, where a custom registration gateway will invite surfers to create a Second Life account that starts on Cinemax Island.
On the island, a series of kiosks will offer new avatars virtual props seen in the film and links to various locations mentioned. The Cinemax orientation was built by the Electric Sheep Company.
Filiming of “Molotov Alva” finished in January 2007, and the film reflects the pioneer days of Second Life before the large-scale entrance of real-world corporations, and then non-profits and educational institutions, into the virtual world. Gayeton ran early episodes on YouTube, where the shorts established a following, before the series was optioned to Cinemax’s parent company, HBO.
“We have this tradition of taking our viewers into uncharted territories,” said Sara Bernstein, director of HBO Documentary Films.
The film follows the Molotov Alva avatar learning about Second Life. Alva frets over his virtual appearance, tries to make friends, and visits Second Life subcultures such as furries and Goreans.
“I went to absolute lengths to let people know I wasn’t out to make fun of them,” Gayeton said. “I wanted to celebrate people finding themselves.”
Gayeton is already looking at additional worlds, and has begun work on having Molotov Alva explore places like Gaia Online. But he says Linden’s creation retains a sentimental attraction.
“Whatever comes from thirty years from now, Second Life will always be remembered as the foundation of virtual worlds,” he said.
I’m terribly looking forward to watching this. From early previews I saw, I felt a real heart coupled with grok-nation. That’s rare.
Thu May 15, 2008 4:05pm PDT@Torley
I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek. It’s worth seeing.
Thu May 15, 2008 7:05pm PDTHow does an avatar find happiness? Hmmm… does it really take a documentary to find out that they do that f$%@#%& like rabbits or indulging their sense of greed as land barons, etc? I think not.
Sat May 17, 2008 9:05am PDTTo #3 Mark Lomb:
Sat May 17, 2008 9:05pm PDT“How does an avatar find happiness?”
What a great question and surely room for some exceptional answers to inspire a variety of interests. However by your weak attempt at sarcastic humor poking at this documentary and what YOU apparently seek out in Second Life isn’t necessarily what US normal people find in a Virtual World. It is a place of incredible imaginative talent, a place where you can share conceptual ideas and real world strategies with like minded professionals, a place where networking can enhance and accelerate your interests and education in countless subjects.. And beyond all of that, a place to meet others from across this wonderful planet, communicating with each other even when you may not share the same spoken language. I think its amazing and highly informative. Funny how negative people seem to only find the negative content or attributes of anything the come in contact with. Get a date, learn how to interact with people then come back and visit us when you’ve grown up.
Tabitha:
I agree with some of what you are saying but reality is the vast majority of people in SL don’t care about any of that. Spend some time traveling around outside of your circle and you will see just what the majority of SL is all about and what people are really into.
I still don’t understand how people can “share conceptual ideas and real world strategies” in a virtual environment specifically Second Life. Sitting around in a virtual room in virtual chairs typing in a chat window or talking on a mic really isn’t any more useful than a telephone and far less useful than basic collaboration tools on the net. There is little to no extra value of having a “meeting” in Second Life. What do you get out of starting at other virtual people? When I hear people trying to sell Second Life as this revolutionary too for that I laugh because that is so unbelievable wrong. Linden even tries to peddle that idea and it seems everyone even the media is afraid to point out how useless it is for business collaboration.
I love Second Life for some of the exact reasons you stated, creativity and meeting people being the most interesting, but I’m also attuned to the reality of life in world and what really drives SL.
Funny how positive people seem to only find the positive content or attributes of anything they come in contact with even to the point of being blinded to the amount of negative things that exist. Its hard to make things better when you lose site of the problems.
Wed May 21, 2008 9:05am PDT