Hello everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful Halloween and stopped by to listen to our Halloween special featuring the owners of Virtual Girl Productions and Running Lady Studios. We discussed machinima which is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics to create a cinematic production in a virtual platform. So basically we talked about film making in Second Life. We interviewed AvaJean Westland of Virtual Girl Productions and Suzy Yue and Gnu Aeon from Running Lady Studios and it was so much fun! If you have not heard the interview don't fret click the link below to hear the fabulous interview:
Wilder's Spooktacular Halloween Special
Machinima is quite interesting in Second Life and seeing their short film "The Twilight Sim: It's a Bloomin' Halloween," really made us want to interview the talented individuals behind the concept. If you have not checked out the short film be sure to click its title above and watch on Youtube.
Our radio show "The Wilder Side of Business" is only thirty minutes long, therefore we were only able to ask a few questions to the talented trio and it appears that some of you listeners had questions as well. We sent your questions to the three individuals and we now have their answers to the questions below:
Listener #1's Question:
Are the people who participate in your films paid actors or volunteers with a love for machinima?
AvaJean’s Answer:
It depends on the project. For projects where we are dealing with either an SL company or an RL company, Suzy has worked very hard to make sure we all get fairly compensated for our time and work. Since our current projects are being made to create our brand and brand awareness for our new ventures, we try to give a stipend to our actors to show our gratitude, but most of them volunteer and do it out of friendship and to help us create our vision.
Suzy and Gnu answer:
Ditto what AJ says. Actors in both RL and SL work for free too often. Suzy's Super Cast & Crew was created, in part, to help create a culture of paying SL based actors. Though a lot of that type of work from RL based companies has slowed down, we try to pay what we can to our actors and we always give a "bonus" at Christmas time, for making themselves available throughout the year. It's not as much as we'd like to give them, but it does let them know how much we appreciate them.
Listener #2's Question:
How can our listeners who are interested be a part of your films? Are there open auditions to the sl public?
AvaJean’s reply:
We don't tend to have open calls for voice work unless it calls for a very specific voice. We are definitely open to meeting people who are interested and passionate about performing. What we look for in SL are people who are very adept at skills necessary for machinima: driving/moving your avatar; extensive wardrobe including skins, shapes, hair and clothes; variety of animations, AO's and emoter HUDs. For people with less experience, we've brought them on board as background actors (extras) so that they can acclimate and learn on the set. They should contact Suzy Yue to audition for Suzy's Super Cast & Crew.
Suzy and Gnu’s reply:
Ditto what AJ said with regards to SL actors. We also look for patience and a sense of humor, both necessary for what can turn out to be very long shoot days. As for voice actors, this projects featured voice actors in who are outside of the SL scene. But a number of the actors we work with regularly in world have begun to explore voice acting in RL as well. Olaf Barbosa (Doug Jacques in RL) for instance, has been featured in a number of Running Lady Studios and Virtual Girl Productions films. He has fantastic voice and had begun to develop it further by spending the last year with a vocal coach in RL. He's now been featured in a number of SL and RL based films and commercials.
Listener #3's Question:
Did any of you do anything special for Halloween?
AvaJean answered:
I am currently in Arkansas in rehearsals for a play that opens Friday, "Checks & Balances". So I was in rehearsal this evening. Nothing special for Halloween except to spread the word about "The Twilight Sim" during the day! I got lucky and missed Storm Sandy back in NYC!
Suzy and Gnu answered:
We were on a plane for most of the day. Having spent the last three months in California doing a play and a two week pit-stop in New Mexico to see family, we finally made our way to our temporary home in Oklahoma (we are relocating to New York in the spring). So no Halloween for us this year, but it was a treat being on your show!
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We at Wilder PR would like to say it was a treat for us as well to have them all on the show as guests. We will watch for their upcoming projects and keep our audience posted. We are sure the upcoming year will hold something huge for these individuals. Their hard work and dedication definitely shows in each of their productions and we wish them nothing but the very best in their already bright futures!
To learn more about Running Lady Studios visit:
http://runningladystudios.blogspot.com/
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