Atopic, Machinima Expo, graphic cards and smoke-signs...

It has been a bit quiet here for some time now... but that doesn't mean that there isn't a lot happening!

The Atopic festival is in full swing - I'm so proud that my film Saving Grace is being shown there, and I wish I would be able to attend - but alas, I have to work... :(
I'm looking forward to IceAxe's adventures in Paris though, I'm sure he will have a lot to tell! And hopefully we'll get to see some pictures, too! :)

I'm also looking very much forward to Machinima Expo - so many wonderful films have been chosen for the consideration of the jury - quite a few of my personal all-time favourites! and I'm very happy, and again proud, that two of my films are among those - both Saving Grace and :transient:, the latter being one of my not so widely known movies of which I personally always have been very fond of. :)
I will also be on the panel of 'Women in Machinima' this year - looking very much forward to get to talk to the machinimatoresses (what a word... lol).

My own movie making is on full hold at the moment - my graphic cards have been causing more and more troubles in the last few month; an update of the drivers made Moviestorm nearly unworkable for me, though it helped with some of the other problems... and iClone is playing sluggishly, too. I know which new graphic card and system I want, but at the moment, all the components I'd like to have are sold out in germany.... so it's more waiting. Which isn't that bad - I'm doing more singing and voice overs in the meantime... :)

I am also waiting for iClone 4 to appear in the german version - which will hopefully be at the end of november. I have high hopes for the facial animation features and the motion-pathing - I never made a secret of it that I'm slightly disappointed in the facial /motion capabilities of iClone 3, and I hope version 4 will make a big difference.

In other news, I've quit smoking - wednesday, 21st october. It's going surprisingly well so far - I'm only slightly more agressive than usual, haven't gained weight yet (and doing my best so that it stays that way), plus I already can feel that my voice is better.... so, singing will get better. Which is the reward for having to give up my one and only vice!
Gah, I'm so boring now........... :D

Good News!

I'm happy to announce that two of my films have been selected for film festivals -

"Saving Grace" will be shown at the Atopic Machinima Film Festival in France (a big thankyou to Phil Rice!), and "Kate Lee's The Afflicted" at the 1st Cinemanila Machinima Film Festival in the Philippines!

I'm very happy and excited about this, as you can imagine! :)

And of course I'm also looking very much forward to TMUnderground's First Annual OLLIES Award show, which will take place on the Ken & Roger show this coming sunday, october 11th!

Don't forget to tune into the show and join the merry crowd in the chatroom!

Saving Grace premiere in Second Life!

Tonight, at 10 AM pacific time, Saving Grace will be premiered at Second Life - in Overman's Z - Studios Theatre - many thanks to Ricky Grove for choosing my movie; I'm very excited about this! :)

The film is also featured at Machiniplex now; and details about the premiere can be found on the Machiniplex blog.

I'm a bit nervous about it all - just took my first steps in SL yesterday - at least I know how to move around and chat... :D

Hope to see you there!

Edit: pictures of the event are here!

Saving Grace is featured on the Moviestorm frontpage!

And in addition to that, Matt Kelland and David Bailey interviewed me - you can find the interview on the Moviestorm News!

I'm grateful the guys gave me the opportunity to talk about filmmaking - and I hope that Saving Grace will do a little bit to get more anymation/machinima makers interested in trying Moviestorm out - it's a great program; I find using it very intuitive, and there are new features added to it constantly!

In addition to this, the Moviestorm team is the most helpful I ever came across - wether it's driver problems, or great sites for soundeffects, special effects - you ask for help, and they are there!

I appreciate this kind of support very much - makes realising my visions much easier for me.

Thank you very much! :)

Endings and beginnings: about writing

Norrie and I were talking yesterday - and among other things, wondered about some viewers expressing their interest in a sequel to Saving Grace - someone even asked flat out when part two would be coming!

Now on the one hand, this, of course, is flattering - it shows that the viewers like Grace enough to want to know more about her, see what will become of her... they got involved, the character grew to be real to them, which is a great compliment.

On the other hand, my reaction to this is just "No!"
To me, this story is told. Everything I wanted to touch upon with this movie is there. It is the end of what I wanted to tell about her.

I remember I got quite a lot of queries about a sequel series when I did the four parts of Stolen Death , which ended in a wide open, too.

Which brings me further to musing about why I dislike so-called "happy endings" so much. As anyone familiar with my stories can probably agree upon, I'm perfectly fine with endings that revolve around death - I've killed off my "heroines" and "heros" so often, made me wonder about my state of mind sometimes... :p .. but honestly, a protagonist dying is not necessarily bad - sometimes, it is the only way a story can end.

It's probably because I see life as not having "happy endings" - at least not in the fashion that is implied in calling them that. At best the thing that we get sold as a happy ending in any given Hollywood movie is not an ending, but the beginning of something new. Too often endings seem to be manufactored so that the audience can go away "happy" - every string of the story caught up, everything tidied up to a neat, no room for own ideas, all's well that ends well, thing.
Everyone is happy, we can go home now. Oh bugger off, that's just - not real!

I don't want to have everything delivered on a silver platter. Life doesn't work that way. I want room for speculation, I want the sense of a new beginning. I want to have my own thoughts about what this new beginning could be all about - or not, if I choose it to be so. And quite often, I do choose the latter.

As Norrie said yesterday:

Acceptance and contentment are a wonderful thing.

Concerning the characters I write about, I accept that their story is told.
I let go of them. I accompanied them on a part of their way, and now they wander off into the unknown, and I am content to wave them fondly goodbye.