It was a special and touching moment at this year's Machinima Film Festival to see Jackie Turnure accept an award on behalf of Peter Rasmussen for Outstanding Contribution to Machinima, an award which will hereafter carry Peter's name.
Since Peter passed away earlier this year, it has become challenging to get hold of his feature film, Stolen Life, available only on DVD and through one pay-per-view video site in Australia. So I decided that as part of Peter's memorial exhibit at the Machinima Expo 2008, I would secure permission to show some never before seen footage from that extraordinary film. Permission was obtained, and that excerpt runs over 20 minutes long and is available exclusively at Peter's exhibit at the Expo site in Second Life. The clip showcases Peter's gift for dialogue, and demonstrates remarkable displays of emotions with distinctly non-humanoid characters. The tremendous voiceover work by Claudia Black and Chris Jones certainly helps propel that well-written dialogue.
If you've never seen more than the trailer for Stolen Life, this is your one foreseeable chance to see a nice chunk of the full film for free where you can get a feel for Peter and Jackie's pacing and storytelling abilities. I'm told that in the not too distant future, the DVD may be made available again, and as such this is a great chance to get a sampling of the full movie to see if it interests you.
Grab a friend - it's a lot of fun to be able to discuss what you watch with a friend - and head over to the Expo site in Second Life, then look for the enormous spaceship "lander". Inside is Peter's exhibit, with a reel that includes the above mentioned clip as well as a chapter from his other feature film, Killer Robot, and his wonderful short Rendezvous in its entirety. Enjoy a glimpse into the work of this truly remarkable filmmaker, who incidentally was the person who came up with the whole idea of the machinima audio conferences we've been holding.
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I was also very happy to meet Jackie and watch her accept the award at MFF. The Expo exhibit is very special, too. I spent a half hour there on Sunday watching the segment you are talking about and it just killed me to think that Peter is around anymore to dazzle us all with new work. Your idea of going with a friend is great.
Please, if you get the chance head over to the Island and watch Peter's stuff. And keep in mind that Tom Jantol and Marque's exhibit are also right next to the Rasumussen one, so you can spend time in all three. Especially if you missed them on Sunday. These are beautifully designed spaces and feature compelling works by all three artists.