2013-08-05

MACHINIMUWA VI: REFLECTIONS - Winners and my Favorites

Yesterday has been announced the winners of the Grand UWA Machinima Contest. From year to year the average quality is better. I found it really hard this time to find my favorites. You should invest the time to see all entries. Find the list here.

And here are the winners:

1st: PAST | BEYOND by Vilvi Rae, Finland.

A beautiful and a lttle bit sad story filmed with furries.




2nd: NARCISSUS by Tutsy Navartha, Frenchman in India

Tutsy's machinima are always worth to be seen. I love all. To me the choice of the Narcissus story, a guy who fell in love with his own" reflection" was one of the best adaptions of the contest theme.




3rd: PALLINA...THE LITTLE RASCAL by Pallina60 Loon, Italy.

Sweet, cute, funny...just a joy to watch.




4th: THE MIRROR LIES by  Spiral Silverstar, (Joe Zazulak in RL), USA

Spiral was one of the very diligent contestants. He submitted 2 other machinima too, who are great as well.


the mirror lies from Joe Zazulak (Spiral Silverstar) on Vimeo.


5th: HASTA TU ESTRELLA by Erythro Asimov, France

Greatly filmed, important message. Nevertheless not one of my favourites as it has to much rl parts for my taste.


Hasta tu estrella from Erythro Asimov on Vimeo.


6th: JUNIPER by Bryn Oh of Toronto, Canada

dark, sad and poetic...




7th: WINDOW ON A TRAIN by Natascha Randt (Germany) & Karima Hoisan (Costa Rica) 

A train ride gives the chance to look back and to reflect on what went wrong in her life.




8th Prize Joint: SHADOWS REFLECTING DARKNESS by Spiral Silverstar (Joe Zazulak), USA

The second of three entries which won a prize. I love all three. In case you want to see the third too, here is the link.


Shadows Reflecting Darkness from Joe Zazulak (Spiral Silverstar) on Vimeo.


9th Prize Joint: TAYA TAN by Erythro Asimov, France

The second entry of Erythro Asimovwhich made a prize too. The style of the machinima is very special and unique in style. It reminded me a bit of an animated childrens book.


Taya Tan - MachinimUWA from Erythro Asimov on Vimeo.


9th Prize Joint: STOLEN REFLECTIONS by Braclo Eber, South Africa

Even an action movie is possible in Second Life. Not one of my favourites as I don't see a message.




10th Prize: CLOUD by Hypatia Pickens, USA



To my opinion Hypatia Pickens did not receive the deserved placement. She submitted 3 works and all are telling meaningful stories taken in an excellent scenery. I hardly could decide which one is the best of them. You really should see the other two too:


Slow Light from VimPickens on Vimeo.





DRAWING OUTSIDE THE LINES by Chic Aeon, USA

Very interesting effects, a pleasure to watch and one of my top ten. It proves that virtual machinima has a huge future. The sound is a bit weird, like taken in an empty oil barrel. For me as not English partly hard to understand. Native speakers should a bit more more considerate that Second Life is international and avoid slang and acustic effects with spoken words.




Erythro Asimov: Egmont

Sadly, my personal No. 1 did not make it into the top ten. But I have to share it with you here. Erythro Asimov made two prizes, but his best work in my eyes is this one. Maybe Beethoven's music is not popular enough for many, but the Egmont Ouverture is actually a very beautiful and dramatic work. An ouverture is a smart choice for the theme of the contest as it reflects the upcoming drama while the audience is waiting for it in front of the still closed curtains. See how the scenes and cuts in the machinima are matching the music. To me a masterpiece!




6 comments:

Apmel said...

I liked Hypathia's Slow Light the best among her all very fine contributions.

Dido Haas said...

great overview Quan and I agree with you the Narcissus story of Tutsy Navartha was the best adaption of the theme and in my opinion hte best machinima. BUT Tutsy cannot win this contest every year I guess ^^

FYI Tutsy will be exhibiting soon at Nitroglobus gallery.
dikke kus
Dido Haas, manager Nitroglobus gallery

pallina60 Loon said...

Has been difficult to compile my top 10 this year. My number 1 on my list was "The mirror lies" by Spiral Silverstar. I also really enjoyed the video of Erythro Asimov, in particular, I really like "Taya Tan". I also liked "Malady" by Veruca Vandyke who did not receive awards.

Lucy said...

Yes Apmel, Slow Lights was my favourite too.

Jegatheva said...

My fav of Hypatias 3 was the fairest One... :)

what i have noticed over the years, is there there is such an incredible diversity in taste, that I just simply embrace this diversity after all more than 50 of the film made it to the top 10 of at least one judge

Sally Caves said...

Hypatia here; I think all films were worthy of awards, and I'm especially glad that Spiral got such praise. But thank you, Quan, for your kind remarks about my films and for linking the other two (and Apmel and Jay Jay. And Haveit for directing me to this site). I have no REAL favorites among mine--maybe I lean towards 'Fairest One' a little since it has the most original message of my three ('Slow Light' taken from a famous short story and 'Cloud' being an obvious choice for 'Reflection'); also because I lean towards the dark side. ;) But I adore the art I was able to incorporate for all three films. What talent!