Entranced by Bloodspell, The Movie

Bloodspell, the feature movie production from Strange Company is an epic culmination for one of the most fascinating and groundbreaking machinima series. The main accomplishment? Pure, unfettered entertainment that reaches the audience through powerful storytelling and compelling cinematography.

Hugh Hancock, writer and director, was present in Second Life this Sunday (event produced by machiniplex.com ), to receive feedback and be overwhelmed by excited fans. Countless secrets of the trade were shared with humor, including setting up cinematic dolly shots ("we were using calculus, it was scary!"), the incredible play of color & contrast achieved in post processing("thau shalt not shoot people wearing brown on a brown set"), and badger-based lighting technique ("the best thing we learnt about lighting is 'hey, let's have some!'").

As a deeper statement for things yet to come, the message of Bloodspell is clear. Simply take a look at the Creative Commons tag and the introductory cracks at the traditional, pre-movie legalese we're used to seeing, my favorite:

"Piracy is a crime....so don't steal any boats."

Beyond the technical talk and jokes, the most remarkable feat of the movie was its ability to make me forget that I was looking at a game environment. The only thing that broke my immersion were the character skins, but that can be attributed to being spoiled by the advances I have seen in Second Life. To give you a feel, you can check out a few samples on the Uncanny Valley page, any work by artist Darkdharma Daguerre, or Robbie Dingo's machinima blog.

I highly encourage you to see Bloodspell, make up your own mind about it, and let us know. Download it, watch the streaming video, and give it lots of Digg love!