This October marks the third year anniversary of the creation of Alt-Zoom Studios, BuhBuhCuh Fairchild's answer to the growing phenomenon of machinima. The Ed Wood Festival was set up to celebrate machinima that's so bad it's good, an homage to the famously awful movies of that director who gave us Plan 9 From Outer Space.

In that spirit, this weekend will see a couple of events that aspiring machinimists will want to check out. Friday night at 7 PM SLT, in Lukanida, Alt-Zoom Studios will present the Ed Wood Festival Highlights of Yesteryear, showcasing the 13 past entries into the contest. That will give people an idea of the kind of quality that wins dubious awards. Saturday the 27th this year's contest theme will be announced, giving creators 48 hours to film their movie and submit it to Moo Money before 11:59 PM, for inclusion in the contest.

Finally, at 7 PM on Halloween, contestants will gather to watch all submissions, and the winner will be announced shortly thereafter. For more information, contact Moo in-world, or go to the website. Filmmakers, don your angora for inspiration and prepare yourselves!

(Thanks, Moo!)

Wiley Publishing, in collaboration with Machinima forefathers Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram, will be publishing a Machinima for Dummies book, slated to be released in August 2007. I first heard of this book when they'd contacted me in-world to chat about Second Life Machinima. A quick glance at their site gave me all the clues I needed that Second Life would not play a major role in the book. However, it's worse than I've feared ...

According to this blog entry, they were apparently quite critical of Second Life as a Machinima application. Maybe they aren't giving it a proper chance. They mention cost as a prohibiting factor, but they might fail to realize that there are places like Lukanida that offer low lag settings for filming, for free! I'm really curious to see what they mentioned about SL, though.

It puzzles me why people that use other platforms are so negative about Second Life as a medium. Perhaps someone could offer their insight in an email or comment. In the meantime, their book is available for pre-order now on amazon.com, and includes a FREE copy of MovieStorm, which I'll be blogging about shortly.

Second Life has had good examples of Machinima, and then there are just the BAD ones. That is why I'm absolutely tickled pink to announce the premiere of a documentary that I didn't hate! The film is simply titled Our Brilliant Second Life. It's so good that the Machinimist, Mixin Pixel, has entered it into the Aspen Shortsfest, where it will be screened on Thursday, April 5^th. It will be aired simultaneously at the Alt-Zoom Theater in Lukanida on Thursday at 9:30pm PST. There will be a question and answer session with the director when it is over.

What I love about this documentary is that it isn't a film sensationalizing a couple meeting in Second Life or the money that can be made here. It's about a real life couple, Blair Fizz and Alegria Garden, and their love for Second Life. While they are making some money in SL, it's certainly not enough to make a living. They work together washing cars at night in their native Australian city of Melbourne and spend their days logging into Second Life, where Blair is a DJ and Alegria is a clothing designer. This documentary explains why they enjoy using Second Life as a couple. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

*Please note that Mixin Pixel contacted me tonight to advise me that she had confused EST for PST. The premiere will actually be at 6:30pm PST.

Lordfly Digeridoo, longtime builder and contractor for Millions of Us, contacted me about learning how to make Machinima. He had all the right tools, which pretty much meant that he had Fraps and an editing program, Sony Vegas. I'll admit that I was a bit nervous to see what he'd come up with, but he'd really done his homework.

He took to the Lukanida backlot sky and built an elaborate network of roadways. After that, he placed all of his homes and even figured out how to slow down his walk. Already speaking like a pro, he knew to turn off the UI and bragged that he only needed three takes to film it. We should all be so lucky!

What I like about this commercial is that it's not too long, but also not too short. It showcases his houses while only giving us a tiny taste of them. If we want more, we must go to his shop, which is listed at the end of the Machinimercial. It's not overly flashy and really quite simple, but it gets the point across effectively.

Since completing his first Machinima yesterday, Lordfly has stated that he's hooked and already has a new idea for his next film. I can't wait to see it!