TMUnderground

The first TMU Movie Night was held this past Saturday in Second Life. A few community members provided their thoughts regarding the event...

From Nahton:
On Friday December 5th, Lionhead closed The Movies online hosting site. On Saturday December 6th, in fine "Whatever doesn't kill me, only makes me stronger" fashion, the community spawned by The Movies game held their first TMU Movie Night. The event which was conceived, produced and hosted by thebiz with assistance from Norrie and Phil (Overman) Rice, took place at Overman's Theater in Second Life.

Those in attendance were treated to a number of teaser/trailers including Jase180's Jesus Christ Superstar, which appears to hold the potential to be a ground breaking machinima production, if not an enormous undertaking. Killian, who apparently doesn't sleep and admitted to not having a life, had two impressive trailers shown. One was his "Odyssey: Season One Promo Reel" and the other was his "Shadows of Albion" Teaser. Both look to be must see productions.

The featured short was Dulci's "I Will Not Speak of It" which was filmed with iClone and also included some "The Movies Game" content. I'll avoid categorizing the film in order to avoid spoilers but it is eerie in nature. Is it possible to build suspense in a 3 minute movie? Watch it and see.

Finally, the main feature was Biggstrek's "Underpants Away! -2- A Land Down Under(pants)" starring, of course, Underpants Man (Biggstrek). Checking in at just less than 20 minutes the film is another UPM laughfest that contains some incredible special effects. Biggstrek continually produces movies that push the technical capabilities of The Movies software beyond their intended limits. Not to be overlooked are his fine directing skills and there is a femme fatale entrance sequence that should be the envy of any Machinima director. Did I mention he also composes some of his own music? The voice actors were stellar (present company excluded - editor's note: I'd strongly disagree with that exclusion!) but my favorite performances were delivered by the 3 female leads; JetCityWoman (Mrs Biggsstrek), Sisch and Azuresama (who should be contacting the producers of the Wallace and Gromit films and auditioning for a part).

I am a confessed Second Life newbie having previously briefly attended Overman's MachinimaFest. I have to say I am pleasantly surprised at the capabilities of the software. I am fast becoming a fan of these virtual events and this one was a rousing success. There were admittedly a few glitches along the way but help was volunteered to those who needed it with Roger, notably, providing some valuable tips. Roger has also indicated he is constructing a TMU theater so more Movie Nights can be expected. Coordinated premieres for TMU Movie Nights could provide a suitable (and dare I say superior) replacement for the old TMO end of the month chart friendly releases.

From thebiz:
So TMU movie night is now a pleasant memory where we watched our animated movies in an animated world clothed in digital fashions while chatting of lag and bitstreams. It was something different for many and I hope it opened up the pathways to new creative ideas. Perhaps future creature feature drive in contests or tech demo how-to classes. As I've said elsewhere, I don't see myself being a hard core SL kinda guy but it certainly provides a blank slate aspect to promoting, showing, discussing and creating movies. And blank slates are the best kind of slates.

Special thanks to Overman and Norrie for all their help in executing the event. Thanks to Dulci, Biggstrek, Jase180 and Killian for their contributions.