Participants: Frank Fox (US), Phil Rice (US), Ceedj Beaumont (US), Moo Money (SL), Michael Joyce (UK), Rohan Fermi (SL), Step Whitfield (SL), Michelle Pettit-Me (CAN), Wytchwhisper Sadofsky (SL), Zachariah Scott (US), Ben Grussi (US).

Phil kicked off the discussion by sharing a couple videos he’d found this week, and discussion evolved naturally from there. Toward the end of the formal part of the discussion, we went around the room and asked everyone what they were working on at the moment. No technical glitches were experienced by anyone that I know of, except Rohan Fermi (connecting from Europe) reported some slow connection issues. I think everyone had voice working except Ben, who was having some sound card trouble.

The topics:

• FILM: “The Cats Will Play” Grindhouse Tribute by B.Kiddo
• NEW SERIES: Sn4tchbuckl3r’s Second Chance #1: Arrival (thanks, Shattered Keyboard)
• SERIES (non-machinima, from same creators as above): You Suck at Photoshop
• OpenSim and the challenges of land in the main Second Life grid
• Grand Theft Auto 4… will it hit PC? CJ said no way (due to coffeegate), Zach said yes way ($$$$).
• Phil posed the question that if GTA 4 did end up being solely a console title, would we see a lot of machinima made with it? After all, Halo had (has?) a thriving console-made machinima scene.
• Lit Fuse Films and Smooth Few Films are going to be hosting a GTA4 multiplayer tournament shortly after the game’s release.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 original cast is reunited under new project, Cinematic Titanic
• What are you working on?
  • Rohan Fermi is preparing to talk on machinima at a conference next week, regarding recent advances and future perspectives
  • Michael Joyce (Pineapple Pictures) is working on a feature machinima/anymation film
  • CJ Ambrosia is preparing to premiere PEDS Season 3 (release is imminent)
  • Step Whitfield is working on a screenplay for the Script Frenzy competition
  • Moo Money is working on a machinima documentary commissioned by the American Cancer Society
  • Zachariah Scott (Lit Fuse Films) is working on a film… about which mum’s the word
  • Frank Fox has been spending a lot of time researching Second Life, getting to know its world, etc. He’s also been doing some live musical performances inside Second Life.
• FILM: YouTube fan film of one of Frank’s live gigs
• Moviestorm’s latest release: version 1.04 - Phil and Michael are impressed.
• Ingrid Moon’s recent trip to the Ivy Film Festival event (as blogged about here)
• Moo Money expressed interest in forming some kind of small committee to help new attendees acclimate to Second Life, particularly on their first visit. To reduce the intimidation / overwhelmed feeling some experience.
• Phil talked about some things he’d like to do for future conferences:
  • Set up Group in Second Life to make contact and announcements easier
  • Capture and then podcast the audio with an accompanying text log of the chat (for the benefit of those who could not attend)
  • Find an efficient way to facilitate sharing of links during the conference, including something that makes it easy for late arrivals to see what has already been shared / covered
• Frank mentioned the idea of having the conference location at some different public locales rather than always in one place. The idea was enthusiastically received by all, and underlined the importance of having some kind of Group in place to help keep everyone together and/or find the spot.

All in all a great time, we sat around a fire Frank had built on the back porch of his steampunk-themed saloon, and the whole atmosphere just felt very relaxed. We hope you’ll come join us for the next conference!