Movie Contest

Has anyone made a movie in Second Life? I'd like to enter the contest but am having problems with pov and getting things just so.

Any auteurs want to share tips? Thanks!

I made one once, and it was in the top two out of all the entries.

Here are some general tips.

* A second is a long time.
30 seconds is a lot of screen-time. Aim to make your movie short and sweet

* Plan it out
Make a storyboard with all your shots, plan the framing and any camera moves you want to do in the shot. I did this by drawing stick figures on a note pad then shuffeling the pages all around my desk.

* Move the camera
It looks good. I took almost all my shots in mouselook. For tracking and dolly shots, sit on a scripted object that moves. Find a scripter to make a dolly for each shot you want (see, this is where the story board comes in handy). With the new vechicle functions and vehicle camera controls, this should be even easier.

Good luck.

P.S. You can get some neat lens effects by playing with the F.O.V., use CTRL-8 to narrow it, CTRL-0 to widen it and CTRL-9 to set it back to normal.

Also it would help if you sat on a prim and had it move around in a set pattern while you record, instead of trying to manually move the camera.

And despite the fact that we can move our point of view out of our bodies and see ourselves..... DON'T try to film yourself. It just can't be done well, even with all the tricks.

(Though when you want to take a group shot with yourself in it and everyone facing forward, make a prim with an alpha channel on all sides but the one facing the group. Position it where you want the "camera" to be and have everyone look at it in mouselook. Then control-alt the camera prim and rotate around to look through it from close up. Your own avatar will look at the same place as everyone else and you can get a nice shot.)

Oh my! A moving prim. Alpha channels. I just want to shoot a movie. Is anyone else submitting to the contest or will I win by default???

At any rate, thanks for all your suggestions!