Visual Effects Society

Event - Immersive Experiences: The Future of Entertainment (Los Angeles) Date: Saturday, 25 February 2012 - 10:00am - 1:00pm

 If you happen to live in Los Angeles then there is an event at the Visual Effects Society this weekend which should be pretty interesting.  You can read about it here.

What should be fun is that at one point during the event they will navigate through Standby on Immersiva live, then show one of my machinima as well, giving the audience an idea of the kind of artwork I create in immersive environments.

Ronnie Burkett marionette

Ronnie Burkett marionettes

I just saw on their website that Martin Scorsese was there recently to talk and next week they do the making of the recent Muppet movie which I bet would be really interesting to see all the behind the scenes things they need to do.  Some of my friends created a puppet company a few years ago and it is just crazy all the elaborate sets they use.  And if you have heard of Ronnie Burkett then you know just what a marionette show can really be.  "The Visual Effects Society is the entertainment industry's only organization representing the full breadth of visual effects practitioners including artists, technologists, model makers, educators, studio leaders, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists and producers in all areas of entertainment from film, television and commercials to music videos and games." - VES

I am told that Douglas Trumbull should be there.  Don't recognize that name? well I didn't either but have a look at his wiki!  His dad worked on the Wizard of Oz and he himself on everything from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 2001: a space odyssey to Blade Runner.  He even turned down working on Star Wars ... whoops!  Nominated for five academy awards too.  I bet he has a story or two.

Dr Morie will be talking about Bryn and she is one of the early members of the VES, and has been working on expanding the boundaries of immersive media since 1990.

 

     Actually speaking of Ronnie Burkett, people have often asked me in the past why Bryn Oh is anonymous.  Would it not be much better to include my RL name so that I could benefit from the work I have been doing with Bryn the last five years or so.  The answer is most certainly yes it would be good to combine my RL with Bryn.  

     So let me explain, this is often how I think of Bryn and after seeing some of Ronnie Burketts marionette plays it gave me a context to explain.  When you go to a marionette show you enter the theater and take your seats.  The puppeteer  is often all dressed in black so they are not seen by the audience.  The lights go down and the curtains are pulled.  Before you might be a 1/3 scale set with a marionette moving across it on strings.  You see it and know it is made of wood, glue, wire and string but after just a few minutes you forget this.  The marionettes come alive and they gain personality.  

     If someone were to suddenly turn on the lights in the theater and you saw someone controlling them then the illusion would be broken.  They would again become wood and string tools of the artist.  What I wanted to do when I came into Second Life was to see if Bryn could succeed in first life or real life as a digital character.  Would people accept her or scoff at the idea?  Essentially I want to keep the lights off so that it is Bryn who remains the focus.