Tag Archives: event

The Story part 3

27 February 2011

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I’m determined to get my thoughts from The Story documented somehow, although a week has passed, I shall continue on.

7) I was late coming back after lunch and missed the introduction of Paul Bennun & Nick Ryan. This is a session I would have loved to be more prepared for. I didn’t know who they were and wish I’d looked them up and played their games before attending, because their story was astounding!

Their story was sound. Together they have created a game based entirely on sound called Papa Sangre (downloading now).

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The Story 2011 part 1

19 February 2011

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So I’m on my annual (2nd year this year) pilgrimage to London. Why? The Story! This has got to be the most inspirational day (I hesitate to call it a conference) of the year. The Story is the brainchild of Matt Locke. As he says, he just wanted to create the conference that he really wanted to go to.

I was there last year, but was unable to rearticulate the pure joy that the day brought me. So much inspiration! This year – all I want to do is write about it. I haven’t felt so inspired to write in FOREVER! But that’s the whole point of this pilgrimage – to be inspired, hear new good stories and celebrate storytelling. I must admit that I feel exceptionally geeky travelling from Norway for the event, but it’s just so worth it. And after, I have the whole weekend to work on my inspiration and write in lovely London.

Margaret Robertson was the perfect MC for the event. She excused herself for only being interested in games, but her storytelling geek surfaced quite well. So I’ll do the talks chronologically:

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Girl Geek Dinner

17 February 2010

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I’m organising a Girl Geek Dinner this year. Last year I organised an Ada Lovelace Day Dinner – although – saying that I “organised” it implies that I actually did any work. I really didn’t – I just told all the women I admire “hey – wouldn’t it be cool for all of us to meet up for dinner one day?” and just picked a date. Ada Lovelace Day seemed like a great opportunity. This year – I’ll be on the plane to Chicago on the 24th – so I thought it a good a day as any – to organise an event on the International Women’s Day.

This year – we’ve got something resembling a theme. I felt that finding a common theme was challenging – and suddenly I thought about the Interesting conference which I learned about after reading the fabulous Roo Reynold’s blogpost. I was so smitten by the context, and thought that was rather geeky of me. So of course? How do you define a girl geek? You really don’t – except I find that girl geeks always get enthusiastic about something interesting. Something you’d like to learn more about. And it’s always such a joy to listen to someone who is passionately interested in something. And I think girl geeks, are always passionately interested in something that is interesting. So the theme is “An interesting Girl Geeks Dinner on International Women’s Day”. We’ll be picking out 3 girl geeks to give a 10 minute talk each on something they find interesting before dinner – and then 3 after dinner. I’ve booked a room at the back of a restaurant – Wesselstuen, to be exact – and you’re more than welcome to come!

There’s a Facebook group here. If you’re in Bergen on the 8th of March, please do join us!

Machinima Night III program part 2

1 November 2009

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MTV GENERATION

I cannot touch on the topic of Machinima without mentioning the music videos. It’s a storytelling format which the MTV-generation understands so well and they’re able to use their literacy of music videos to create their own. It’s a wonderful way to be a fan of both the games and the music. I have a soft spot for the music Machinima that doesn’t have a glossy feel – but rather amateur love.
I showed two very old music Machinima films. The first one is from a very well known machinima artist, who I’m sure wishes that I showed some of his newer stuff. B. Kiddo has been creating machinima for years and his artful skills in The Sims and Second Life are just awesome. But this Machinima film is one of the first I ever saw. I was so touhed by it. Although it isn’t smoothly made – it’s very emotional. I showed this to a girl friend of mine who thinks I’m totally weird for being interested in this stuff and would rather I focus my attention on finding a man and go shopping – and she welled up. Which of course gave me immense satisfaction!

B. Kiddo – Bitter Sweet

Watch here.

The other music Machinima I played is actually Chinese and made Everquest. I stumbled upon it by chance. It is very simple – but the song is just so catchy I can’t help but love it! I’m told the song was a number one hit in China about 10 years ago (thanks KML) and I can understand why. I find myself humming the song several times a day and I enjoy simplisity of the Machinima film.
Peter Tan – Look Over Here!

Machinima Night III program part 1

31 October 2009

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Phew – took some time, ey?

So the whole point with organising these Machinima evenings is to create a space for people to relax, share a beer and be introduced to what’s going on in the world of Machinima. There’s people who know what we’re on about and there’s people who are just fascinated by the medium and of course, those who are interested in New Media. I try to give an overview of what machinima is, but the more I learn about it – the more I realise that I’m just barely scratching the surface. So this year I decided to toss out objectivity and completely focus on what I wanted to focus on. I completely choked up, though. Suddenly I realised I had a microphone in my hand and people were listening to what I had to say – I haven’t talked publicly in a long long time! Definitely needed the practice. Luckily I’ve been giving a few lectures and presentations with work lately – so I’m starting to get it down again. So anyways – I’m going to squeeze in what I meant to say inbetween talking about the program of the evening. If you don’t recognise some of it – this is why.
So nuff said!
Machinima stands for machine + cinema + animation. If you think it doesn’t add up with the spelling, blame Hugh Hancock who created http://www.machinima.com. There’s also a story about a pub, a few beers and a cocktail napkin. But in essence it’s machinima stands for machine + cinema + animation. It was the intention to focus the evening on the “machine”-part. What fascinates me with machinima is how the artists are communicating with a machine or an artificial intelligence to create their own narrative or story. The machine I’m talking about is the computer game where the film is made. If a machinima film is made in World of Warcraft, the artist will have to communicate with the game and understand the game mechanics in order to tell their story.

Machinima Night III

24 October 2009

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I’ve promised to do a write-up of MachinimaNight III to all who attended – share the links to the films and artists. I’m going to do this back to front and start off at the last part. Mostly this is for Scott and Jill who had to leave early. I appreciate your interest and support! Thanks!

So in the course of the night I had introduced the audience to different genres and types of machinima, mostly concentrating on form and not about the creative communities within machinima making communities.
This is the ingredient of machinima that fascinates me the most and there’s one group that I’ve been paying attention to and just downright adore. So first – let me introduce you to Olibith.

MachinimUP or MachiniMIX

22 August 2009

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I’m trying to figure out a really catchy great name for the upcoming Machinima Night at Landmark 22. October. This is what I’ve come up with – MachinimUP or MachiniMIX – but to be perfectly honest – I feel that’s just a foolish way of hyping it all up. Why not continue to be perfectly honest, frank and to the point with Machinima Night III?

I’m officially on vacation and I’m unofficially trying to get my head focused on upcoming projects and dreams this fall so I can dive straight into them when I come home. My day job will be requiring quite a lot of attention – so I must have a few things straight soon.

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New Machinima Night at Landmark

21 September 2008

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Yup! We’ll be going at it again. I was so pleased with the turn-out last year and I hope it will be just as succesful this year!

On the 13th of November, Tracy Harwood, the manager of the European Machinima Festival 2007 will be visiting us here in Bergen to talk about machinima. There’s still some organising left. But she definitely is coming and we’re really pleased about that! It will be great to have an expert to listen to!

There will of course be viewings of films. If anyone has anything new they want to show – please let me know!

Anyways…November 13th! We look forward to seeing you there!

I’ve been so back and forth about how to organise this event that I’ve completely lost track! Time to bunker down, I think. I was fiddling with the idea of creating a work shop type event – but I think I’ve let that idea go into the “when I have the energy to be overly ambitious” file.

I leave you now with some documentary footage of the machinamite! Enjoy!

Yaaaaawn!

20 November 2007

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Oh good golly I’m tired! Thankfully I work in a place that has as much coffee as I can drink. Last night I came home from work and just crashed on the couch – thinking the world, work, the future and especially – all things digital was just gonna have to wait till today.

I’ve found the logistics of organising a machinima event stressful. Since I don’t know what I’m on about most of the time, I get even more stressed. It seems everyone else is just laid back and doing their thing and silence just kills me! During the past few years I’ve become accustomed to feeling like an e-mail spammer – but I still get overly dramatic! How dare people have other things to do than help me – for free! So I creep into my apologetic default position “so sorry, so sorry” – which to be honest, is even annoying me now.

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