Better Life

"Better Life" was shot entirely in Second Life, with the story, animation, props, and camera work all by Rob Wright, known in the Second Life community as Robbie Dingo. The soundtrack is by the British band "Angry Man." It tells the story of a paraplegic dreaming of a different life through the haze of work at the keyboard and screen; an appropriate mix of images and themes for a film made in a virtual world called "Second Life."

A lower-quality (smaller filesize), streamed version is available via Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6D9K9xTmt0 -- HEL

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"'Better Life' was my first attempt at making a machinima film; or any film come to that. Shot entirely in Second Life the only post production processes I used were in the cross-fading of scenes, addition of the soundtrack and the end credits.

I was inspired to make this film after seeing the 'Silver Bells and Golden Spurs' movie by Eric (Linden) Call, (Snr. Artist, Linden Lab). Really I just wanted to see if I could do it, and wanted to find out what would be involved in taking a project such as this through to the end.

The film plays much like a music video and tells a tale of one man's escapism and search for a 'better place' in a virtual world.

Having first identified the music I wanted to use and decided upon the general story line, I created the props and story-boarded the whole film using a series of in-world snapshots. This allowed me to get a view of the pace, continuity and balance of the film before committing to any filming.

I was surprised by how much this felt like making a real world film, moving the actor and 'camera man' (my alternative avatar) into position, checking the lighting and at times having to wait for things not directly under my control to be right, the cloud density for example. Second Life is a great platform and backdrop for this type of movie, you need a prop or effect?, so you make it...

At the heart of this project is a great soundtrack. In my real life I work as a composer and so although I did not write the music in this instance, choosing the right music for this project was a very important initial consideration and provided a good framework for timing. The song (also titled 'Better Life') was written and performed by one of my best friend's band 'Angry Man', based in the UK." -- Posted by Robbie Dingo (Rob Wright), 1 May 2006, to the "My Digital Double" blog, http://digitaldouble.blogspot.com/.
Credits
TITLE: Better Life
CREATOR: Wright, Rob = Robbie Dingo
GAME: Second Life
GAME DEVELOPER: Linden Lab
GAME PUBLISHER: Linden Lab
GAME ENGINE/MACHINIMA TOOL: Second Life
RUN TIME: 4:46 mins.
DATE: 2006