Last night HaileyMarie Redrose made the following comment on my blog. I copied and pasted it in this post to put her comments and mine together. They were not altered in any way.
Thank you for the kind words, and the positive support regarding Sultrina's release. I had been working hard on the film right up to the final night of release to put the final spin on things, seeing as how 95% of the film is Visual-Effects driven and has taken a huge, gigantic portion of my life to create. Over the past 5 months, Sultrina has been dealt many blows due to cast re-shoots, technical issues, and my own personal RL hardships which have made it impossible to get out sooner, not to mention a complete visual overall.
But I thank you SO MUCH for being so supportive! As I sit here and watch the final, finished film on my computer, I'm forced to re-render the final film in two parts, thanks to a mysterious "Cannot Compile Movie, Error Unknown" (Google it) issue, which is screwing up my renders and forcing me to render out in two parts, then compile a new movie, then re-render the two parts as one for the final release.
In order to achieve maximum clarity for a movie of this size, I'm using an H.264 rendering codec. What's amazing is how beautiful the first rendered section looks in H.264, and will STILL clock in under 200MB for NM, and a better-looking 500MB version for NBM, which was my plan all along.
Currently, as of 11:29 PM on Sunday, I'm still dealing with rendering issues. The 1st part has taken 4 hours to render, and the 2nd, bigger part is taking 5 hours to render, so it's easy to see how time, well......slips away.
But again, THANK you, THANK you, THANK you for such beautiful, kind, loving, positive, supportive words! It's comments like yours that make it all worthwhile to invest 5 months of your life into a project for the absolute, sole purpose of entertaining people and giving them a little piece of your heart and soul to watch.
You're one of the classiest folks in SL, Rayven. I'm so blessed to know you.
--My Reply--
I never said you didn't work hard on "The Sultrina"...let's get that straight off the start. I will also say it does look good. I kind of expected that...You found some nice looking avatars to put in your first movie. The sound is pretty good. Problem is this...you promised SO much more and you didn't deliver. You made this seem like it was going to blow everything, anyone has ever made out of the water. I will be the one to break the bad news to you...it didn't come close. Five months... five months you worked on this. Damn, I'm thinking if anyone worked on something five months they could made something similar. Seriously, how do you think this movie would of done in the real world? So many promises.. a new director coming in claiming this and that... trying to out Spielberg, Steven Spielberg himself? LOL.
You would of been much better off making the movie and releasing it instead of trying to make yourself a internet legend prior to it's release. If you were smart you would fire your Evotica PR team. Oh wait.. that's you.
I could easily pick apart this video... because I expected perfection. That's what I was sold.
- The txt is way too small. Too hard to determine who is saying what leading to..
- Story I found rather boring -made worse by the txt.
- The dead silence black screen shown twice in part 1 is a horrible screen transition.
- The small ship turning in space looks like it was done back in the 60's. Where they would dangle a model from a string.
- 4:07 of the movie the background is supposed to be space, right? Looks like you took a picture of a cement wall and made it black. That don't look like space.
- Overall the space effects in this movie can't compete with Pandora's Box, but this is supposed to be better, right?
In all honestly.. what I'm saying has nothing to do with your little comments about me on your blog back in
December and when I contacted you about them you told me to not "ASS-ume". It has nothing about the stuff I hear you say that got back to me... it has to do with your HUGE EGO and you claiming you made
something so great.. so mind blowing, we all must take a back seat to.
I can think of better ways to spend five months of my life if that's the end result, but truth is.. you could produce a better video in half the time. It didn't take Serenity five months to make Pandora's box. I don't think it took Rysan Falls five months to make any of his latest movies.. all of which are better than "The Sultrina".
I'm glad you poured your heart and soul into this... your heart and soul is not in question. It's your EGO. I mean after all, who throws a party to show a trailer? Better yet, who throws a party for a trailer for a movie that is not coming out for 4 more months? How about a party for a movie that's not coming out at all?
I will close by returning the favor. THANK YOU, Ms. Spielberg, for your comments on my blog. It has been a honor and a privilege for you to take the time out of your busy schedule between renders of the SULTRINA to leave your comments. I hope someday I will be able to make a video to even come somewhat close to what you have accomplished with the SULTRINA.
You can't honestly tell me the SULTRINA is better than the video below. To which, after effects was used very little in making this machinima.
Rayven, the simple truth is that you are vocalising publicly what numerous people are saying privately in IMs.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing wrong with Sultrina particularly; it has the usual bumps and grinds and errors and roughness and uneasy scene transitions of most amateur films. Compare it with, for example, the assured, relaxed easiness of a Rysan Falls film.
And there is nothing wrong with not producing "the perfect film". The reason the vast number of films on NM look amateur is because we *are* amateurs! And this is totally OK!
Hailey set herself up for a fail simply by the amount of effort she has invested into self-promotion over the last seven months. You can not constantly repeat variations of "I am the best filmmaker in SL and my work will make everyone else’s work look shit and win every award" without repercussions.
By telling us so many times how great her film would be, Hailey set herself up to be judged at a higher level than we would normally apply to a NM film.
For a first film, Sultrina is good. No doubt. So good in fact, one cannot help thinking "Will this be a one-hit-wonder?" But, in the broader scheme of things: Has it broke any new ground in machinima? Absolutely not. Is it better than other films already on NM? Again, absolutely not.
And it is OK that it doesn't pass these "tests"! Our films don't *have* to be ground breaking and "better" than others. But, if you intend promoting yourself so heavily and so repeatedly and then fail to produce...then you should expect to be judged accordingly.
I am constantly amazed at some of the statements made by a small number of SL "adult" filmmakers about their own work, not just Hailey. It is as if they have never extended beyond NM in researching the quality of machinima actually being created out there. To say of your own work "the most advanced SL machinima film ever created" and "masterpiece" smacks to me of never watching a machinima by, to name just a few, Tutsy Navarathna, Bryn Oh, SpyVsSpyAeon - the list goes on. Aspiring filmmakers in SL would do well to spend a day watching these people's work, to place their own abilities and output in proper context by comparison, rather than writing blogs of "Press Release for Immediate Issue: YAY ME!" and releasing silly "teasers" that no one particularly cares about or is interested in.
And, factually, one does not even have to leave NM to find superior filmmaking. Rysan Falls' films are a fabulous yardstick to measure one's own progress as a filmmaker and to aspire to.
To make statements that owns one output is (or even worse "will be", having never before created a film) superior to Navarathna, Oh, Aeon and Rysan Falls is really saying something. It displays arrogance, ignorance and self-delusion in equal measure. However, if Sultrana had in fact managed this feat, I would be happy to acknowledge it.
But it didn't.
I have actually got a handful of comments in world from people in support of my public criticism for the Sultrina. Like you said, Pixie, I was speaking publicly what many others were already thinking.
ReplyDeleteAs I said it wasn't the effort I questioned. It was the self boasting, over the top, I am a golden god look at me and what I created attitude.
Her biggest mistake was not stopping at just SL Porn, but to claim it was "most advanced SL machinima film ever created."
Maybe the best line was "I made this all for you."
If that was the case there was no need to sell us on how magnificent and mind blowing it was going to be.
The constant reminders on how advanced and difficult this movie was, made it seem like only YOU could pull it off. Now we wait for this directors video so you can teach us all how some day, with your teachings... we can maybe catch up. LOL