Announcing: The Alt-Zoom Machinima Academy

A month or so ago, I asked this very forum the question "Why isn't anyone making Machinima in Second Life?" I got a lot of information back, thanks to you all. Some of it was stuff I couldn't do anything about - but one of the major answers was "We don't know how."

Well, I can help there.

I would like to announce the Alt-Zoom Machinima Academy - a month long series of classes that are meant to teach YOU how to make machinima. Working through every aspect, and helping you to make your own movie. Just in time for the next Take5 Film Festival

More info here: http://alt-zoom.com/classroom/

(sorry IE users, it will look better in a few days)

Classes will be on tuesday and thursday evenings, 8pm SLT (sorry non-us, only time I can really do it ) They will be split between the mechanics of making a movie in SL, and the art of making a movie in general. These classes are for all skill levels. My intent is to make this kind of like a community college class - pretty casual, but you get something usefull out of it.

I will be happy to anwer any questions, and if you are interested, please reply, so I can get an idea of how many people to prepare for.

bbc

yay! With those times listed, I might actually get to attend!

As an Avid Editor in RL I'd love to play around with this stuff - alas though - I work odd hours, and real life has been extremely busy, so no time to play around and put stuff together in SL either.

All the best with it though - and I hope to see some nice stuff come outta this.

Well perhaps it would be appropriate for the topic if you filmed those classes and made them available for download

What Candide said! Most of us each coasters are brain dead by 11pm and off to bed! Mornings come early here.

Great idea, BBC.

My main issue as an in-game movie maker is making Quicktime movies I can stream back inside SL.

I work on a PC. I own Quicktime 7 Pro. I use Adobe Premiere. But no matter what I try (although bear in mind that I have created all of 4 small movies as a hobby. I'm not exactly a power user), my quicktime movies are 400 Megs monstrosities with strange sound effects. Would your classes offer tips and hints on making Quicktime movies out of the footage or are you going to stick to using WMM to edit .wmv movies?

Wendel

This sounds great. I'll certainly try to attend. Also, what Candide said

The end goal is to make a movie, and have a screening at the end of the month in-world, so yes, this would include making the movie quicktime compatible - although that won't be covered until the last week.

bbc

I'll see what I can do.

please add me to the email list.

hiro [dot] pendragon [at] gmail [dot] com

Just checked out the site. I'm glad I didn't miss any of the classes yet. I've always wanted to learn more about this. Great idea, and thanks for offering these classes to everybody.

Altho this will be really late for me and I will probably be brain damaged or dead (XD), I will surely try to attend to them all. Hot subject, I *always* wanted to make movies in SL, but with my demo version of Fraps, it quite sucks! HI5 if you got other tricks!!
Count me in.

Gah! Unlucky! I teach 6-8pm Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Ah well, it's great to see you doing this BBC - I think it's something that SL's needed for a while

I plan on attending.

Just a reminder, this starts tonight - 8pm SL time, in lukanida.

bbc

Why not include a link to the location in the page, given that it's SL only?

Why not allow open entry to your groups?

Good idea.


A few reasons - one of the main reasons is because I'm spending a lot of my own money on them, and want to make sure you are serious about making machinima before I let you use the resources I am providing.


Edit: fixing brace

Is the Thursday night class a repeat of Tuesday night for those that can't make Tuesday Night, or is it lesson #2 (ie. we need to set aside both Tuesdays and Thursdays?

Thursday will cover seperate topics. For those who don't want to go to all of them, I am going to publish a syllibus on the site for what classes cover what. The problem is that there is way too much information to cover in a single class, and I'd like to use them as kind of a timeline for those who will be making movies - eg, by this week, you should be finished with building sets and be shooting.

I am playing with an app that might let me record video, but no promises.

I wanted to give a big thanks to BBC for having the event last night. It was very interesting. I just hope I can fit it in with school and work schedules.

Oh and a side note to Aimee: You and RacerX better get busy because I want the first pick of the Butterbunny litter!

Oh damm, i missed it, will try to remember next thursday.

I really enjoyed the first class BBC, and look forward to learning more.

1. I had to leave quickly after the session last night and forgot to save chat. Is the transcript somewhere?
2. Is there a GROUP associated with this class or with Machinima in SL?
3. The link I found to Movie Maker in your AltZoom web site forum is broken.
4. So, Mr. Demille, picture this! May I call you Mr. Demille?

Munch all you want...we'll make more

I attended the first class, and I can say a few things:

1. BBC seems to really have a solid structure planned, and the content of the class is really worthwhile, for anyone still considering whether or not to go.

2. There's some talented people in the class, and this adds to the collaborative aspect of the learning experience.


So I'm hoping I can continue to go to these classes and learn me some machinema!