One of the great “hard sci-fi” writers of our time, Charlie Stross, is making an appearance in Second Life this weekend, courtesy of Delos Books. In addition to being one of the more interesting author/philosophers of today, Stross is also on the leading edge of incorporating Creative Commons into his publishing strategy. He’s a big inspiration to many of us in this “indie” circuit, who are exploring the possibilities of this model.
Does the name sound familiar in a more localized sense? Maybe you remember Hugh Hancock talking about him at various times. In fact, Charlie made a cameo voiceover appearance in BloodSpell, and had very pleasant things to say about the film and the potential of its medium. He’s a very interesting guy; if you can make it out there to hear him speak, you won’t be sorry.
Details available here. Thanks Boing Boing.
I recently went a-huntin’ on Machinima.com for Hugh Hancock’s final editorial from back in February of 2006, because I’d found it highly inspirational and wanted to enjoy it again. I’ve had trouble locating it there. The way they’ve organized the articles has changed, and old links are all broken and just give you a table of contents. So I ventured into the bowels of the Wayback Machine and found it. I’m going to reprint it here so it is not lost. His perspective on the way the nature of the machinima community was poised to change (and indeed, has changed now) was as encouraging to me then as it is now. It never struck me as spin, but instead as someone who embraced change with both arms wide open.
(What got me thinking about it, by the way, was Hugh’s recently well-written rant/explanation of the BloodSpell distribution headaches, which you can read here.)
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So it’s my final editorial on Machinima.com. I could talk about all the cool stuff we’ve done over the past six years. I could talk about everything we wanted to do. I could shamelessly shill for BloodSpell (coming in six weeks or less). I could come out with something profound and brilliant about Machinima. Although that’s not really something to rely on.
I’m not going to do that. I’m going to talk about music.
(more…)
To commemorate the release of the BloodSpell DVD, here’s the story behind the (in some circles) infamous mock newscast I did on the overcast back in episode #008 in July, 2006.
When Hugh talks about his magnum opus feature film, BloodSpell, it’s hard to contain his enthusiasm. But believe it or not, to hear him talk and write about it now, what you’re seeing is a slightly restrained version of that excitement. His verbiage is nowadays tempered a bit, this in large part due to how initial promotional efforts of the film were received. That reception, at least in the inner circles of the machinima community, ranged from quiet disdain to inflamed hostility. In fact, at times the zeal of the criticism eclipsed the promotion strategy being criticized… Hugh was called arrogant, full of himself, delusional, and worse.
All in a day’s work for a man hopelessly in love with filmmaking.
(more…)
At about 7:00 a.m. last Monday, the overcast hit ten thousand downloads/listens, according to the PodPress statistics which I implemented a few months after the show’s debut a year and a half ago. That’s an average of 400 listens per episode, up from about 100 per episode a year ago. Not a bad start.
Overcast #024 is the first of a series of four group interview sessions conducted by Hugh Hancock and Johnnie Ingram at the Machinima Festival Europe 2007, which took place at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK about a month ago. Each of the interviews was oriented around the question: What are your personal Top Three Machinima Moments? The answers could be films which were particularly impressive, events related to the machinima community, or anything of the sort.
This first session poses that question to Ross Bambrey and Steve Wallace from Strange Company / BloodSpell. Hearing the four of them interact and play off each other, I’m reminded once again of the puzzler I’ve pondered before, and that is how is it that these guys have not yet tackled a full on comedy film?
Enjoy, with disclaimer: There is a bit of coarse language - ironically enough, most of which emerged while discussing what would and would not be “bleeped.” The original vision we had for these interviews was to censor them and try to make them at least a PG-13. The truth is, a couple of the later interviews went a bit Nil by Mouth on us, and I decided I’d like to have time to work on something else for the next few months. As such, we’ve decided to present them uncensored, as they occurred. This preserves the humor of the original meetings, but also increases the chances that those who are sensitive to profanity might be rattled.
So if you’re a fan of the Exxon Valdez and alcohol-induced hijinx in general, and don’t mind just an oh-so-wee-little bit of profanity (LOL)… you’ll find these interviews-to-come highly entertaining. Be advised, and enjoy.
Here’s that link to #024 again: http://theovercast.com/overcast-024/
