Dumbfounded
Does this ever happen to you: a film comes along, and it’s so ridiculously gorgeous and rich, and you feel like it’s infinitely more artistic than you even know how to imagine being… and it makes you think to yourself, should I even keep making films?
And then, somehow, the despair and insecurity turn to drive and inspiration, and you hold up the object which moments ago had shamed you and now lights up the room of your imagination, and you say, “I will be a better filmmaker simply by virtue of having watched something this good. I will learn from it, I will broaden my own palette, I will make a point to paint with some new colors when I next visit the canvas.”
And then, for the next few days, what I’d term the “aftershocks”… you watch it again and again get discouraged that you just don’t have it in you to be that good, watch it again later and you get hit with a new idea to try in your next work, up and down, up and down, until it finally settles.
I’m expecting aftershocks for the next several days.
The Dumb Man from Lainy Voom on Vimeo.
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I didn’t think it was *that* good, although I did enjoy it.
Although I may feel that way after watching Inland Empire in a few weeks.
Comment by Hugh "Nomad" Hancock — January 16, 2008 @ 1:11 pm
Yes, and yes. I feel that way every time Trace releases something new. This is truly inspirational and artistic piece. Her creativity astounds me.
Comment by Artcgrrl — January 16, 2008 @ 2:19 pm
It *is* that good, Hugh. I’ve never seen machinima make motionographer.com’s front page before.
Comment by overman — January 16, 2008 @ 5:22 pm
I’m with you Phil, when I saw this the first time I told Trace she needed a disclaimer that warned everyone to be prepared to be blown off their chairs. This is an excellent achievement for both the director herself, and the machinima community.
Comment by Jovial — January 16, 2008 @ 7:31 pm
Woah. I think I’ll have to watch that a few more times for it to sink in completely. I thought the choice of music was very fitting. The visuals were pretty astounding too - the “stars” that were really eyeballs were wild. I didn’t think something that cool and abstract could be made with Second Life, but I guess it’s all in who’s at the controls.
@ Hugh - you’ll either love INLAND EMPIRE or you’ll hate it. I personally loved it. It’s just plan weird - if you were to tape over all of the clocks in your house and board the windows and sit down to watch the movie, afterward you may not know what day it is. Weird friggin’ movie. Loved every second of it though.
Comment by kradproductions — January 16, 2008 @ 10:22 pm
It is a moment like this one where I am ashamed of dialing back from the community.
Ms. Voom changed and pushed Sims machinima, it seems she is doing it again in another engine, remarkable.
Pushing and prodding.
Comment by todnyc — January 16, 2008 @ 11:10 pm
I must admit that there is only a very, very few Machinimas I really like to the point where I don’t care about technical achievements, engines, tools, even crafts - anything but author’s ability to make me stop breathing for a few minutes. This movie is definitely one of them. Beautiful. And thanks god it is not longer :).
Comment by Tom — January 17, 2008 @ 12:42 am
I’m with Hugh; I didn’t think it was THAT good. I mean it looks nice and all, but was just way too weird for my tastes.
Comment by CJ — January 17, 2008 @ 5:22 am
Eh, I love this kind of differences in opinions; it is exactly what good art (whatever that is) should provoke. It is beyond doubt that this movie is very good by strictly movie making rules of crafts: voice acting is good, it is wisely directed, rhythm is impeccable. Movie directing is trade as any other - it have rules, laws, alphabets, relatively easily measured standards, you now or don’t know how to do a job. Simple as that. And this is where art begin, it can be weird, beautiful, whatever - all that is subjective opinion based on simple fact that this author know his stuff.
Comment by Tom — January 17, 2008 @ 10:12 am
author know HER stuff Tom
& I agree.
Comment by Kate — January 17, 2008 @ 11:49 am
Yes, I’m on the “it IS that good” side. That a film is “weird” should make no difference in the judging it’s worth. Sure, some folks will find any work of art that is outside their comfort zone to be unrewarding, but that doesn’t change the excellence of the film. It’s a matter of taste. This film is not perfect (even the director has criticized it), but it sure is beautiful and certainly one of the most interesting Second Life films out there. I particularly enjoy the directors imagination and how he/she managed to visualize a very good performance of an unusual text (Sherwood Anderson story).
I’ve asked Laney Voom to premiere at machiniplex.com as this is just the kind of film we want to promote. I’m hoping we can do a Q&A of some type with the director. Tentative date is around Jan 27th (Sunday).
Thanks for posting on this film, Phil. As usual, you are right at the forefront of blogging on new machinima (and making them, too!).
-Ricky
Comment by Ricky Grove — January 17, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
Yeah, it is that good. This is the sort of thing that, IMHO, machinima is perfect for. It’s also the type of film that couldn’t really have been done in any other medium. Sure, you could have hand-drawn it, or made it frame by frame in Blender, but I think it actually benefits from the real-time nature of Second Life’s rendering.
Comment by Johnnie Ingram — January 25, 2008 @ 7:07 am
That’s a great point, Johnnie. This film could have been done using high-end CGI by a small team of people working for months but then there is the scary possibility that the artist’s vision wouldn’t remain intact.
Comment by kradproductions — January 28, 2008 @ 11:23 pm