Saturday, May 31, 2014
Elysium Amphitheatre Presents "The Pose" Monday at 5pm SLT
Elysium has been doing workshops in dance creation. This month, we created dances inspired entirely by still poses. We invite you to join us in this continuing exploration of imagination on Monday, June 2nd at 5pm SLT, at the Jewel in the Sky, Elysium Amphitheatre. We wish to share "The Pose" with you, our dances that started as mere still poses.
Friday, May 30, 2014
Abranimations 10 year anniversary
Per Abranimations Facebook page...
We are 10 this month!!! Can't believe how time flys by! To celebrate we are going bananas! We will have loads of fun activities throughout June. We have just now launched an epic dance hunt with 50 FREE DANCES! All the dances are previously unreleased and will go on sale at the end of the month with there respective dance packs. Search our store for the hidden bananas and click on them to get the dance inside! At the landing HUB you will find a notice board that will also help you with a few clues.
This video will give you a taster of some of the dances waiting to be found!
This is a SLURL to our store
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Animations/76/70/30
Thanks folks for your support over the years. You All Rock! :o)
We are 10 this month!!! Can't believe how time flys by! To celebrate we are going bananas! We will have loads of fun activities throughout June. We have just now launched an epic dance hunt with 50 FREE DANCES! All the dances are previously unreleased and will go on sale at the end of the month with there respective dance packs. Search our store for the hidden bananas and click on them to get the dance inside! At the landing HUB you will find a notice board that will also help you with a few clues.
This video will give you a taster of some of the dances waiting to be found!
This is a SLURL to our store
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Animations/76/70/30
Thanks folks for your support over the years. You All Rock! :o)
Lady Garden Cabaret
Chopsy Bode sent us following;
==================================
..::LADY GARDEN CABARET::
presents
The Burlesque Bustle
==================================
Take your seats please ladies and gents, for one hell of a show!.....
This months jam packed show is upon us! crammed full of choreographed goodness with none other than our fantablous girls the LGC Minxettes!!
We are giving them free rein this month so patrons behold the magnificence of the no holds barred Minxette in action!
So come one, come all to the little thing we like to call... The Burlesque Bustle!
Show starts at 3pm, drinks are on the house! And if our lovely host Spence tries to tie you up when you sit, forgive him... we have run out of his meds!
And that froth you will see at his mouth IS toothpaste I swear!
The Showhouse is located through the doors to the right of the stage when you go inside our Speakeasy bar, click them to tp to the theater.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
HUMANOID news
Humanoid has 4 free dances in their main store as a hunt! Also I just noticed, they got couples dances!!!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=746328292078702 Take a look at the following linky or go to the store!
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/HUMANOID/128/90/25
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=746328292078702 Take a look at the following linky or go to the store!
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/HUMANOID/128/90/25
Dame
(DameLessage Igaly) sent us following;
(DameLessage Igaly) sent us following;
A burlesque musical show in the tradition of Moulin Rouge !
╔═════ ✩ 1:00 PM SLT - 22:00 France ✩ ═══ ✩
╫◈ Vendredi 30 mai - Friday 30th of May
║ .·:✩:·.. SHOW GIRLS IN... BERLIN ! .·:✩:·..
An exceptional show in Berlin !
▶ Reservation only !! It's easy and free : IM DameLessage Igaly...
All our shows are translated in English :)
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Want to show me how you Burlesque?
Miss M. sent following;
Have you had a burning ambition to give it a go?
Think you have what it takes to dazzle a crowd?
Contact me to organise a one-on-one try out
No Simon Cowell derogatory comments here :)
Just a simple constructive appraisal of your abilities and advice on how to pursue your dream!
I am an experienced dancer with RL teaching and assessment qualifications.
No payment required, no strings attached other than the ones in your corset!
Send me a notecard today!
Miss M (Mephthysa)
Sinners Burlesque
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Updating Your Spot On Performance Director HUD
Hi folks!
The new feature of Animation Layering is working great and some have found it really helpful. We love to hear your comments so keep them coming!
Apparently some of you had not realized that we package an Updater device in your new Performance Director HUD box. It saves a lot of painful moving of dances and notecards! Watch the tutorial video which also provides a tip at the end for updating your Outfits folder for the updated HUD.
Visit the website for more information or stop by the Spot On Store for a test drive!
The new feature of Animation Layering is working great and some have found it really helpful. We love to hear your comments so keep them coming!
Apparently some of you had not realized that we package an Updater device in your new Performance Director HUD box. It saves a lot of painful moving of dances and notecards! Watch the tutorial video which also provides a tip at the end for updating your Outfits folder for the updated HUD.
Visit the website for more information or stop by the Spot On Store for a test drive!
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Playing Several Back-2-Back Animations That All Start After the Beginning
Wow thank you for your persoanl IMs and inquiries into this topic that I hinted at in my recent blog.
My how time has passed since I first introduced the 1st device to start an animation in the middle.
I had predicted I would create a product that allows you to start "successive animations" in the middle.
Boy my mouth almost wrote a check my *** couldn't cash. My *** said to me, "Next time consult with me before you go off half-cocked promising the near impossible. I'm gonna bail you out this time but let your shattered nerves be a lesson for next time you go shooting your mouth off promising the moon"
*************
Well as I read thru the interview from June 16, 2012, nearly 2 years ago, I find things
worth commenting on.
Here is a link: http://sldancequeens.blogspot.com/2012/06/piecemaker-starting-dance-in-middle.html
The PieceMaker is a product that I gave away promotionally as a way to introduce myself and meet
members face-2-face from the DQ community. It helps you to automate the stitching
of 2 dances together as in matching animations. It gave you the choice of matching a point
BEYOND the beginning.
The current system does let you choose animations from the menu as I had predicted I would.
This was never truer: "09:39:11] Yummy (lat.lovenkraft): it involves very very complex algorithm based on song lengths and delay times and playtimes"
Since unlike today, then I didnt have a dance sequencer so there was speculation about
how dance HUDS would work with it. Today I do have a dance sequencer built-in and I use it
to play the MasterPiece. The challenge of course was not in starting a single animation in the middle
but it stitching together multiple segments together that started in the middle. The MasterPiece does the starting and stopping of the proper dances at the proper times after precalculating based on input from a nc.
"09:41:31] Yummy (lat.lovenkraft): now the next HUD I call the MasterPiece will stitch the output from this HUD together "
This (MasterPiece) ended up being a submenu in the Artiste Performance HUD, ALONG with the PieceMaker
"yes this hud can now be called from Huddles. it has a channel so you can experiment"
My HUD CAN except commands externally but many people have reported to me, sluggish behavior when mixing products from multiple vendors so I suggest staying homogenous with one-tool-maker,if possible, whoever you end up choosing.
" if dance 1 is 30 seconds and dance 2 is 25 seconds, the difference is 5 seconds. so the 2nd dance can not have its piece start any sooner than 5 seconds in to it. so what I will do have the hud tell you how soon you can choose " "so the closer dances are in length then the more dance-segment there is to choose from
"
These restrictions are no longer applicable in the MasterPiece version because it uses an advanced algorithm.
"[09:52:54] Nottoo Wise: but not for a club dance when u dont know the music that is coming
[09:53:20] Yummy (lat.lovenkraft): yes not good for clubs or adhoc dancing....as in freestyling"
Yes this still holds true. My solution is definitely not meant for club dancing.
"[09:57:55] Yummy (lat.lovenkraft): this hud have sequencing built into it"
Well I predicted correctly again here with the sequencing as a part of the HUD that orchestrates the MasterPiece.
*************
The PieceMaker algorithm was complicated enough. The MasterPiece algorithm was 10 times as hard. But it now will do the heavy lifting for you and will play the stitched dance segments, up to 29 (but i think i will limit it to 20 for the initial release so people dont get carried away.), one after the other thru my sequencer.
There are a few issues worth bringing to bear based on what I have learned since then.
1 - There will be more opportunities to match dances which brings with it more decisions to make that require more time.
2 - I found that a critical part that I took for granted, is that my algorithm relies heavily on the
accuracy of the dance-length. When it is off, the results will be off and my require some detailed massaging
3 - I am convinced that it should be used sparingly as increasing the number of dance segments increases the initial pre-roll time, not unlike the time you spend now to cache-dances
4 - There are ways to choose dance segments that reduce this 'lead-time'. My algorithm will calculate it for you and you can decide ahead of time how to proceed based upon whether the lead-time is acceptable or not.
*************************
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1809387511067075408#editor/target=post;postID=9116572183043427815;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=22;src=postname
Here are some predictions I made 2 years ago.
8-12-12
"BIGGER.
Ok so bigger is implying, more performers/dancers/actors possibly over a larger timespan. At least an hour...maybe longer... and most definitely playing several/mulitple runs over time.
Expect to see larger and more lavish sets."
"
THEME & STORY
The biggest and most noticeable difference will be an overall "theme" that ties the acts together.
The other will be the concept of "story" which means one or more performers will be seen as characters with a will to be motivated to do or try to do something. There is a direction or purpose to this 'production' within a theme that is supplanted by music, costume, sets, text, dance, all working in concert.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
NEW AND WONDERFUL IN THE SPOT ON PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR HUD
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU WANTED TO START AN ANIMATION SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN THE BEGINNING OF IT?
Well now you can.
We know, we know...we just put out an update yesterday for the Performance Director HUD but that was a critical bug fix. We wish we could have waited until today but we didn't want anyone to have any problems.
So here's the new feature - Animation Layering. This gives the appearance of starting an animation other than the real beginning of that animation. How many times have you wanted to start an animation NOT at the actual beginning? This is a feature that dancers have craved for years! We couldn't hold it back any longer and wanted to get it into your hot little avatar hands.
So we apologize for hitting you with two updates in two days, but hey.....here's an awesome feature, so enjoy!
Auto updates are going out now so as always, if you did not receive yours, please come to the Spot On Store and pick yours up from the Redelivery Terminal.
RENT Auditions
Brad Mactavish sent us following
The Spotlight Theatre League in association with Lady Garden Cabaret is proud to present RENT.
The performance will be held October 30th at 7pm slt.
The musical, popularized by the 2005 film adaptation, tells the story of a group of young artists living in NYC, struggling with HIV/AIDS. The show has given us hits like “Seasons of Love” and “La Vie Bohème”.
Auditions will be held at the Lady Garden Cabaret:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Liberty%20Coast/167/82/22
in the showroom June 9th - 13th from 1pm to 4pm slt. Please contact Brad Mactavish to schedule an audition.
If accepted you will be asked to join the theatre group.
All roles are being cast for this production, including 10 ensemble soloists. All auditioners will be asked to sing via a stream, two songs; a standard broadway classic and a current top 40. (to be discussed)
We are seeking 5 males and 3 females for the main roles.
Mark Cohen - a mid 20's filmmaker, the storyteller.
Roger Davis - a mid 20's former lead singer of the Mute's, suffering with the death of his girlfriend April, when they found out they have aids.
Angel Dummot Schunard - a mid 20's drag queen street performer suffering with aids.
Thomas "Tom" Collins - a mid 30's computer genius anarchist, Angel's partner. He is also suffering from aids.
Benjamin "Benny" Coffin the third - a late 20's former friend and roommate of Mark, Collins and Roger. Married into money and became the landlord of his former roommates.
Hell bent on evicting his former friends.
Maureen Johnson - mid 20's. She is the former lover of Mark. She is a performance artist who is now dating a lawyer, Joanne Jefferson.
Joanne Jefferson - an early 30's ivy league graduate and lawyer who only wants commitment from Maureen.
Mimi Marquez - nineteen years old. An exotic dancer at the cat scratch club. she has aids and is a drug addict.
The Spotlight Theatre League in association with Lady Garden Cabaret is proud to present RENT.
The performance will be held October 30th at 7pm slt.
The musical, popularized by the 2005 film adaptation, tells the story of a group of young artists living in NYC, struggling with HIV/AIDS. The show has given us hits like “Seasons of Love” and “La Vie Bohème”.
Auditions will be held at the Lady Garden Cabaret:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Liberty%20Coast/167/82/22
in the showroom June 9th - 13th from 1pm to 4pm slt. Please contact Brad Mactavish to schedule an audition.
If accepted you will be asked to join the theatre group.
All roles are being cast for this production, including 10 ensemble soloists. All auditioners will be asked to sing via a stream, two songs; a standard broadway classic and a current top 40. (to be discussed)
We are seeking 5 males and 3 females for the main roles.
Mark Cohen - a mid 20's filmmaker, the storyteller.
Roger Davis - a mid 20's former lead singer of the Mute's, suffering with the death of his girlfriend April, when they found out they have aids.
Angel Dummot Schunard - a mid 20's drag queen street performer suffering with aids.
Thomas "Tom" Collins - a mid 30's computer genius anarchist, Angel's partner. He is also suffering from aids.
Benjamin "Benny" Coffin the third - a late 20's former friend and roommate of Mark, Collins and Roger. Married into money and became the landlord of his former roommates.
Hell bent on evicting his former friends.
Maureen Johnson - mid 20's. She is the former lover of Mark. She is a performance artist who is now dating a lawyer, Joanne Jefferson.
Joanne Jefferson - an early 30's ivy league graduate and lawyer who only wants commitment from Maureen.
Mimi Marquez - nineteen years old. An exotic dancer at the cat scratch club. she has aids and is a drug addict.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
CRITICAL UPDATE FOR SPOT ON PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR HUD
CRITICAL UPDATE FOR PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR HUD
Hi folks! We have a critical update for you today in the Performance Director HUD. Version 1.4 will be shipped out tonight which fixes a bug where the timer may lock up in extreme laggy conditions and the timing of the animation is tight. Please BE SURE to update your PD HUD as soon as possible so you have NO SURPRISES!
As always, if you don't receive your auto update, please come to the Spot On Store and pick it up via the Redelivery Terminal.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Martian/115/144/23
The Obfuscation of the Cabaret Dancer
Obfuscation..Love that word...rolls of the tongue...its a big word...one of the few big ones I know...cause its as close as I can morally say that 4-letter word in public and get away with it. Obfusc....can I just say fusc? No?
The process of becoming clouded or obscured. Intentionally? I was sure I was being punked. I looked around....where are the cameras?...come on out guys...the jig is up..Fellas!..Guys? Crew?
I wanted to go on a rant and rave...since I got the proverbially ok when hearing unsolicited discontent from several other people, dancers and non-dancers. They bent my ear expressing similar sentiment about being lost in the mix with the onset of the new BIG.
That "who the HELL is" person told me, Yumz you got to stick to the FACTS.
Ok FACTS - apart from lag and crashing and wardrobe and non-wardrobe malfunctions that could contribute to some of the OOPS I've seen...
FACTS
1: On a big stage, I have to zoom in to see a solo dancer and then most of the set then goes unseen.
2: On a big stage, when I zoom out to see the whole set, the solo dancer becomes miniscule they often dance very fast like a cartoon character...ok nothing new here...old news...but then....
Ok those two items have been going on for some time...but now...
3: SOME performers are standing as far back to the back of the stage as possible making their pixel size even smaller in total defiance of the importance of their presence
4: I've seen the usage of particle effects to the degree of totally, I mean totally, block the dancer from the audience. I've even seen it block, I don't mean 95% I mean, 100% of a large troupe of dancers. I am going ok..a few seconds ok...watches the clock allows for rezzing issues...taps her foot....on and on and on...and..ok I'm being punked again? (Maybe its my graphics setting, so forgiven this time).
5: I've seen dancers hide their legs, hide their arms, hide their legs and arms so you couldn't see any from of physical dance movement
6: I've seen dancers dancing off the set, totally un-seeable for long enough to give you a 'lost' feeling
7: I've seen dancers deliver emotes so long that I actually didn't see ANY of their performance cause I was reading...ok I hear your jokes...I'm a slow-reader...HAHA..but yet another form of subconscious obfuscation, I contend.
8: I've seen a person sit at a table motionless for a whole routine...the only person on stage. That's when I looked around, sure I was being punked...where are the cameras? Yes I was the last one to leave that show...because it was like watching a 100-car pile-up after seeing the 1st act where the person did one spin for 3+ minutes..just.one animation repeated for the whole act. I am guilty.
Maybe the fact that I stayed justifies that what they do was art in a minimalist point of view. I wasn't as much shocked that I was there for so much of the show but that my colleagues were as well...so the other side is the good-heartedness of our community wanting to lend a "helping hand"....awwww...a silver lining to this darkest of clouds. So maybe that's the lesson,...bad is sometimes done in order to afford good people new opportunities to do good acts.
9. Recommending a "midnight" setting. This further reduces the definition of the dancer as there is less facial detail, in fact less detail in general... but I end up switching to midnight when recommended..to see if its better and very, very rarely is it ...so I promptly switch back to midday.
10. The "decline and fall" of the "strip", and especially an artistic "strip", the artful seductive partial or full body reveal...something that shakes us up emotionally when we are stimulated by it or even we feel uncomfortable about it...it makes us "feel" something. That's all but gone in the move towards 'bigger'. The strip is gone, there's even a move away from what little humor was offered by one renegade, truer-to-the-variety-form-of-traditional-burlesque, towards more serious story-telling. Dance gone. Strip gone, Humor going.
11. The use of a "***LOT***" of dancers forces us to zoom back to see them all...reducing their detail to a blur and movement to a small jitter as we try to take in the "show" over the "dance" ... and maybe...that is the intent. It may be that its "the pattern" at play....that we should step back and see the 'whole'.
12. Then when I thought I had seen it all, I see a show where the dancer dances 90% of the dance with their back to the audience? And if that wasn't enough, when I was about to get a 1/4 view of them, their hair covered that portion of their face, on both sides. Well it was presented as more of a saunter than a dance, which I was sort of ok with. But then I would like to see more than your back for most of your performance.
I must say that the group-consciousness was well in tact, showing up everywhere and sweeping its obfuscation in every direction. Punked again... by something bigger than anyone of us?
13. Oh good time to add here that....I just recently saw at a small venue, a person introduced as a new choreographer, present a performance consisting of just one animation. Well to be honest, I liked it...not sure what that says about me, but the point is...does choreography in SL require, technically, at least 2 dances be appended to each other? I would think so...its their choice of juxtaposition of animations that makes up their "added value" to the art, but maybe this is another contribution to the group-conscious movement towards the deemphasizing, the deprecation of the "dance" in favor of the "show" or motion-pixel-composite. So what could we label this presenter instead. Perhaps a "performance artist" presenting "performance art"?
Before I sound too much like Debbie Downer, I must admit that easily half the shows, or more, that I see have value with some great moments of entertainment, art, and unmistakably honest, creative effort that finds its target with 'personal experience satisfaction'.
An AHA Moment - The BIGger picture
So I said, ok wait...this isn't about the performers...there is a grander move going on and this has nothing to do with personal choices. Its about a group-consciousness (not unlike 7-of-9) that's minimizing the dance aspect in favor of the more grandiose aspect ..the "ALL". That of an all-encompassing total digital immersion into a barrage of glorious, disconnected, abstract movement of pixels. Its affirmed already by growing attendance and donations. Its what the people want. Grandstanding. Showboating.
"Well, Yummy, you cant tell me you don't attend concerts, sporting events, movies, etc. where the show is big and ostentatious."
"Yummy, how do you argue with the long-standing success of the Las Vegas scene. Big ostentatious, packed houses, advanced ticket-sales. Reserved seating. Mass ad campaigns. How about big RL stage productions?
"Yummy, big has its place, its audience, its following Obfuscation of the performer has grown to be the norm, as we outfit players with jerseys, and deflate them to mere numbers on their backs...we've grown to accept the 'team' concept vs. the individual, the whole of a presentation. The movement of a team of players, a troupe of dancers, a rush of movie extras. The grandness of the social-medium itself is justification for this new movement. The whole vs. the one. Obfuscation of the individual in place of the composite is nothing new, Yummy. Its as old as the Lions vs. Christians in the coliseum." (I'll take the Lions and give 20 arms and legs).
"And Yummy don't your own devices that you are creating aid in moving the dancer away from dance and more towards the theatrical". (And am I partially to blame? I did post about "payoffs". I did encourage an increase in the use of payoffs which dictate sauce, at times, over substance. And now a slew of particles, set-changes, costume-changes...yes my mindset contributed to the group-consciousness if only in some small way...I encouraged, blessed it...pushed for more...so I was right and/or wrong? Hmmm.? Not sure. Probably both.)
Attendance is up. donations are up. Buzz is up. Opportunities are up. Its what the people like, want, as they vote with their pocketbooks, attendance, and critical acclaim.
After discussing it with a colleague. it sounds as if there is validation for a sort of fireworks show without any performers at all..more of a special-fx kind of presentation...BIGGER...with BIGGER stages..maybe as big as a whole sim 256x256...that would be cool ..something I would see..I'd pay to see that....HUMONGEOUS FX. 100 people on the sim all dancing on the same dance HUD in the end
OR
200 dacners...100 people per sim ...2 sims together..one hud talking to another hud so we sync up 200 dancers then film it from the air looking down...moving dots...the June Taylor Dancers taken to the nth degree
So in sharing this viewpoint with a heralded member of the DQ community it was suggested that we may be heading towards specialized compartmentalized performances.
Either a club might devote itself solely to a particular type of performance ...OR ... a club will title a performance as being a "visual spectacular" , or "classic-burlesque", or "vignette", or "performance art", or "dance folly" or, ????
I expected my friend, a queen amongst queens, to side with the "artist defines the art" mantra and was shocked to hear her confess that the "dance" is "getting lost". Finally I had validation from the most tolerant of the tolerants. Its not just me and a few wayward, misguided, friends feeling the loss.
The Super-Spectacular
I was privy to witness a couple of super-spectaculars. I want to focus on the bigger picture..that of "ideas" and avoid identifying people, places, names so as not to personalize or stigmatize. The bigger picture to me is that: big* is selling out months in advance, providing an immersive experience, making use of audiences as participant's, bringing the action closer via controlling the audience's viewing perspective, demanding 4-figure-price-per-ticket in advanced ticket-sales or earn as much in donations from generous, empathetic patrons. The shows are something worth seeing since its the best of the "new breed"...its a new stepping stone towards what's next, that being people pushing the boundaries of what can be done with the tools and talent and creative story-telling that's headed our way.
Come Closer, Darling!
One thing I did find refreshing in the "big" theater was the clever use of bringing the actors closer to the audience by using a perimeter around the audience....making for a more intimate experience. And there were/are attempts to use controlled camera-camming to expand pixel size and bring the audience in. I foresee other experiments to bring us closer to the action. I also notice both venues making smarter use of the "intermission" between acts. That's dead time I saw filled with a bit of imagination be it vignettes or audience-dancing or perhaps, in the future, something else...maybe a comedian or singer or a magic act or heaven forbid...a sensual burlesque tease...wow there's a blast from the past. The more that goes into a production in terms of "value", the longer it seems it can play and replay. Budgets boasting in the 6 figures in SL dollars, taking upwards of a year to plan, script, rehearse, build, etc. big is hear to stay.
The Big Bucks
And so I was about to conclude that big is where the bucks are...and as I was about to side with big-for-the-bucks...I attended a show with only 2 dancers. Each took in 4k....hmmm..ok Yummy scratch that idea that bigger means more-per-dancer-income. The truth seems that there is a show-value-constant...
the total show-time divided by number of performers is a number upon which you can multiply by a certain "number of lindens"...and approximate a shows ultimate monetary value. Of course this can have wide swings depending on a multitude of factors.
And of course true enjoyment can't be measured in lindens as we don't know how well all people, including the non-contributors, actually enjoyed a performance.
Magic 8-Ball
One thing that seemed to get reinforced is the maximum number of performers at one time seems to be about 8. I came up with that number after watching a lot of shows and it seems to be the magic cutoff number not unlike 8 minutes is about the maximum length of an act or that 1 hr to 1 hr 15 to 20 minutes is the maximum amount of time we want to spend watching a show....1 hr 20 min = 80 minutes...hmmm am I onto something with the number 8 ...probably not. I can see shows without dancers or.... a dancer or dancers as accents to a 'bigger picture'. It (SL) IS a different medium and as such perhaps it is too early in its evolution to start limiting what IT IS or WILL BE. Let it develop into what IT WANTS to be and not assume its a mere reflection of RL art and dance. Maybe.
The Bandwagon
To my surprise it was pointed out that clubs are actually expanding in size...imitating those successful extravaganzas that blazed the trail. Bigger is better? Bigger show area, more people, perceived increase in value, translating into more tips, less tier-out-of-pocket....ok yeah I can see that...worked for some....should work for "me" too. Can you argue with packed houses and overflowing tip-jars. Doesn't that speak to the honesty of what the people want? Maybe "they" do want less dance and more prance and happenstance.
I talked to a few creators and it seems their INTENT IS for less dance and more pomp and circumstance. One said they had grown weary of all-dance all-the-time. We do see the 'most-popular' dance moves repeated from venue-to-venue, event to event. Yes another person I talked to said she is not a fan of the move to "story-dance". Let the dance communicate what is meant to be 'felt' without an in-your-face type story-revelation. So the jury is still out on this move to the story but from my vantage point...its coming and unstoppable with a great deal of group-consciousness behind it. People want to see it. People want to tell it. As I predicted many moons ago, the STORY is coming and will be here to stay. A good thing to me? Oh yes. I am a 'story' fan, if it is follow-able. I don't need Gone With the Wind in 60 minutes but a small story told succinctly I am very in favor of. (And why is the 'of' dangling?)
Full-On Productions
Having seen a sufficient sample of big-cast productions in the style of plays and musicals, I came away each time with a disconcerting feeling. That of being unable to "follow along". Maybe its just me and my short attention span...but...? Unlike TV, movies, books that focus via close-ups or the name of the speaker...it is hard to follow WHO is saying what. WHO is the current intended focal point. My gut says this is not the innate nature of what the medium wants to be. I think this new medium is meant to convey* and tell stories more metaphorically and allegorically, allowing the viewer to interpret rather than translate, using the offerings the medium does naturally and characteristically.
The medium can explode particles emanating from a persons body to show excitement, love, or agitation, depending on context. If we in real life could do that, I think we would... but we cant so we use hand gestures and facial expressions. So why limit this medium that CAN show emotions in a variety of ways to just human/avatar expressions and body movement?
Questions
Anyways, some venues have wised up and provided a vocal narrative of what it is you are about to see. That helps provide context. But then the action goes by so fast that it can seem a blur and everything is wide-angle so that doesn't help.
Who is talking?
Where are they?
What are they doing?
Am I missing something key by not zeroing in on them? It would have been helpful if they had used the SL DisplayName feature to identify their character names. The more characters in the scene the greater the odds that I will be choosing the wrong person to focus in on. I tend to zoom in on the one doing the most movement. If they all are jittering about, then that's an issue. Some have issued playbills so those like me with short-memories and attention-spans can refer back to the who's who and what's what, readily. That's a huge help. So that combined with an introductory vocal narrative might help bridge the gap of understanding what it is we are about to see. That would also be a good use of the intermission between acts. Maybe with big facial shots of the actors when mentioned in the intermission-narration.
Perspective
As far as perspective, I've seen the audience be physically transported as a whole to different pre-built scene sets. This helps to focus, make the pixels larger by bringing the audience in closer, and saves on set-change times. So if the audience is moving slooowly between sets and they heard a narrative accompanied by a playbill and some visual imagery of what they are hearing and with what they are about to see...then...maybe...it will all gel better.
Who the HELL am I, anyways?
"Yummy, those who can, do, those who cant, blog about those who are trying to do?" Whoa! Hostile crowd! Wipes the smashed tomatoes from her face. That one hurt. Spits seeds out of her mouth.
Truth be told, IT(the art form) will find a few new resting places on its own..
I suspect were are headed in 2 distinct directions, one, the "big" production, de-emphasizing the dance and dancer in favor of a 'whole-listic' offering ... and the "small-er" venues also possibly emphasizing the dance and dancer yet finding ways to extend the dance and dancer with new innovations.
Me?
Make way for the Virtual ALLEGORY
I feel there is a new vocabulary forming using a variety of techniques as metaphors for words to tell more story in which no single thing is more important than another. That the most important thing is moving us from distinct points of: A to B (maybe to C and D and beyond) moving us to a surprise destination as well as leading us step by step on a journey of discovery where we participate in personal translations and interpretations of what we are seeing using this newly forming vocabulary that uses briefer shorter offerings of all the things we have heretofore spent time experimenting with.
Dance will be soon be offered in punctuated segments delineated by stillness, posing, AOs, sudden appearance and disappearance as we will be able to start animations in the middle. *hint hint*
Costume modifications more than full costume changes will form new words that serve to advance a story.
Set changes will break down into set-modifications that will form new verbs for this newly developing "performance-language"
Particle effects will find more judicious, abbreviated, and timely use to further move us from 'here' to 'there', allegorically.
Dancer movement will become more meaningful as it transforms towards: briefer, well-placed, and well timed.
Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
The process of becoming clouded or obscured. Intentionally? I was sure I was being punked. I looked around....where are the cameras?...come on out guys...the jig is up..Fellas!..Guys? Crew?
I wanted to go on a rant and rave...since I got the proverbially ok when hearing unsolicited discontent from several other people, dancers and non-dancers. They bent my ear expressing similar sentiment about being lost in the mix with the onset of the new BIG.
That "who the HELL is" person told me, Yumz you got to stick to the FACTS.
Ok FACTS - apart from lag and crashing and wardrobe and non-wardrobe malfunctions that could contribute to some of the OOPS I've seen...
FACTS
1: On a big stage, I have to zoom in to see a solo dancer and then most of the set then goes unseen.
2: On a big stage, when I zoom out to see the whole set, the solo dancer becomes miniscule they often dance very fast like a cartoon character...ok nothing new here...old news...but then....
Ok those two items have been going on for some time...but now...
3: SOME performers are standing as far back to the back of the stage as possible making their pixel size even smaller in total defiance of the importance of their presence
4: I've seen the usage of particle effects to the degree of totally, I mean totally, block the dancer from the audience. I've even seen it block, I don't mean 95% I mean, 100% of a large troupe of dancers. I am going ok..a few seconds ok...watches the clock allows for rezzing issues...taps her foot....on and on and on...and..ok I'm being punked again? (Maybe its my graphics setting, so forgiven this time).
5: I've seen dancers hide their legs, hide their arms, hide their legs and arms so you couldn't see any from of physical dance movement
6: I've seen dancers dancing off the set, totally un-seeable for long enough to give you a 'lost' feeling
7: I've seen dancers deliver emotes so long that I actually didn't see ANY of their performance cause I was reading...ok I hear your jokes...I'm a slow-reader...HAHA..but yet another form of subconscious obfuscation, I contend.
8: I've seen a person sit at a table motionless for a whole routine...the only person on stage. That's when I looked around, sure I was being punked...where are the cameras? Yes I was the last one to leave that show...because it was like watching a 100-car pile-up after seeing the 1st act where the person did one spin for 3+ minutes..just.one animation repeated for the whole act. I am guilty.
Maybe the fact that I stayed justifies that what they do was art in a minimalist point of view. I wasn't as much shocked that I was there for so much of the show but that my colleagues were as well...so the other side is the good-heartedness of our community wanting to lend a "helping hand"....awwww...a silver lining to this darkest of clouds. So maybe that's the lesson,...bad is sometimes done in order to afford good people new opportunities to do good acts.
9. Recommending a "midnight" setting. This further reduces the definition of the dancer as there is less facial detail, in fact less detail in general... but I end up switching to midnight when recommended..to see if its better and very, very rarely is it ...so I promptly switch back to midday.
10. The "decline and fall" of the "strip", and especially an artistic "strip", the artful seductive partial or full body reveal...something that shakes us up emotionally when we are stimulated by it or even we feel uncomfortable about it...it makes us "feel" something. That's all but gone in the move towards 'bigger'. The strip is gone, there's even a move away from what little humor was offered by one renegade, truer-to-the-variety-form-of-traditional-burlesque, towards more serious story-telling. Dance gone. Strip gone, Humor going.
11. The use of a "***LOT***" of dancers forces us to zoom back to see them all...reducing their detail to a blur and movement to a small jitter as we try to take in the "show" over the "dance" ... and maybe...that is the intent. It may be that its "the pattern" at play....that we should step back and see the 'whole'.
12. Then when I thought I had seen it all, I see a show where the dancer dances 90% of the dance with their back to the audience? And if that wasn't enough, when I was about to get a 1/4 view of them, their hair covered that portion of their face, on both sides. Well it was presented as more of a saunter than a dance, which I was sort of ok with. But then I would like to see more than your back for most of your performance.
I must say that the group-consciousness was well in tact, showing up everywhere and sweeping its obfuscation in every direction. Punked again... by something bigger than anyone of us?
13. Oh good time to add here that....I just recently saw at a small venue, a person introduced as a new choreographer, present a performance consisting of just one animation. Well to be honest, I liked it...not sure what that says about me, but the point is...does choreography in SL require, technically, at least 2 dances be appended to each other? I would think so...its their choice of juxtaposition of animations that makes up their "added value" to the art, but maybe this is another contribution to the group-conscious movement towards the deemphasizing, the deprecation of the "dance" in favor of the "show" or motion-pixel-composite. So what could we label this presenter instead. Perhaps a "performance artist" presenting "performance art"?
Before I sound too much like Debbie Downer, I must admit that easily half the shows, or more, that I see have value with some great moments of entertainment, art, and unmistakably honest, creative effort that finds its target with 'personal experience satisfaction'.
An AHA Moment - The BIGger picture
So I said, ok wait...this isn't about the performers...there is a grander move going on and this has nothing to do with personal choices. Its about a group-consciousness (not unlike 7-of-9) that's minimizing the dance aspect in favor of the more grandiose aspect ..the "ALL". That of an all-encompassing total digital immersion into a barrage of glorious, disconnected, abstract movement of pixels. Its affirmed already by growing attendance and donations. Its what the people want. Grandstanding. Showboating.
"Well, Yummy, you cant tell me you don't attend concerts, sporting events, movies, etc. where the show is big and ostentatious."
"Yummy, how do you argue with the long-standing success of the Las Vegas scene. Big ostentatious, packed houses, advanced ticket-sales. Reserved seating. Mass ad campaigns. How about big RL stage productions?
"Yummy, big has its place, its audience, its following Obfuscation of the performer has grown to be the norm, as we outfit players with jerseys, and deflate them to mere numbers on their backs...we've grown to accept the 'team' concept vs. the individual, the whole of a presentation. The movement of a team of players, a troupe of dancers, a rush of movie extras. The grandness of the social-medium itself is justification for this new movement. The whole vs. the one. Obfuscation of the individual in place of the composite is nothing new, Yummy. Its as old as the Lions vs. Christians in the coliseum." (I'll take the Lions and give 20 arms and legs).
"And Yummy don't your own devices that you are creating aid in moving the dancer away from dance and more towards the theatrical". (And am I partially to blame? I did post about "payoffs". I did encourage an increase in the use of payoffs which dictate sauce, at times, over substance. And now a slew of particles, set-changes, costume-changes...yes my mindset contributed to the group-consciousness if only in some small way...I encouraged, blessed it...pushed for more...so I was right and/or wrong? Hmmm.? Not sure. Probably both.)
Attendance is up. donations are up. Buzz is up. Opportunities are up. Its what the people like, want, as they vote with their pocketbooks, attendance, and critical acclaim.
After discussing it with a colleague. it sounds as if there is validation for a sort of fireworks show without any performers at all..more of a special-fx kind of presentation...BIGGER...with BIGGER stages..maybe as big as a whole sim 256x256...that would be cool ..something I would see..I'd pay to see that....HUMONGEOUS FX. 100 people on the sim all dancing on the same dance HUD in the end
OR
200 dacners...100 people per sim ...2 sims together..one hud talking to another hud so we sync up 200 dancers then film it from the air looking down...moving dots...the June Taylor Dancers taken to the nth degree
So in sharing this viewpoint with a heralded member of the DQ community it was suggested that we may be heading towards specialized compartmentalized performances.
Either a club might devote itself solely to a particular type of performance ...OR ... a club will title a performance as being a "visual spectacular" , or "classic-burlesque", or "vignette", or "performance art", or "dance folly" or, ????
I expected my friend, a queen amongst queens, to side with the "artist defines the art" mantra and was shocked to hear her confess that the "dance" is "getting lost". Finally I had validation from the most tolerant of the tolerants. Its not just me and a few wayward, misguided, friends feeling the loss.
The Super-Spectacular
I was privy to witness a couple of super-spectaculars. I want to focus on the bigger picture..that of "ideas" and avoid identifying people, places, names so as not to personalize or stigmatize. The bigger picture to me is that: big* is selling out months in advance, providing an immersive experience, making use of audiences as participant's, bringing the action closer via controlling the audience's viewing perspective, demanding 4-figure-price-per-ticket in advanced ticket-sales or earn as much in donations from generous, empathetic patrons. The shows are something worth seeing since its the best of the "new breed"...its a new stepping stone towards what's next, that being people pushing the boundaries of what can be done with the tools and talent and creative story-telling that's headed our way.
Come Closer, Darling!
One thing I did find refreshing in the "big" theater was the clever use of bringing the actors closer to the audience by using a perimeter around the audience....making for a more intimate experience. And there were/are attempts to use controlled camera-camming to expand pixel size and bring the audience in. I foresee other experiments to bring us closer to the action. I also notice both venues making smarter use of the "intermission" between acts. That's dead time I saw filled with a bit of imagination be it vignettes or audience-dancing or perhaps, in the future, something else...maybe a comedian or singer or a magic act or heaven forbid...a sensual burlesque tease...wow there's a blast from the past. The more that goes into a production in terms of "value", the longer it seems it can play and replay. Budgets boasting in the 6 figures in SL dollars, taking upwards of a year to plan, script, rehearse, build, etc. big is hear to stay.
The Big Bucks
And so I was about to conclude that big is where the bucks are...and as I was about to side with big-for-the-bucks...I attended a show with only 2 dancers. Each took in 4k....hmmm..ok Yummy scratch that idea that bigger means more-per-dancer-income. The truth seems that there is a show-value-constant...
the total show-time divided by number of performers is a number upon which you can multiply by a certain "number of lindens"...and approximate a shows ultimate monetary value. Of course this can have wide swings depending on a multitude of factors.
And of course true enjoyment can't be measured in lindens as we don't know how well all people, including the non-contributors, actually enjoyed a performance.
Magic 8-Ball
One thing that seemed to get reinforced is the maximum number of performers at one time seems to be about 8. I came up with that number after watching a lot of shows and it seems to be the magic cutoff number not unlike 8 minutes is about the maximum length of an act or that 1 hr to 1 hr 15 to 20 minutes is the maximum amount of time we want to spend watching a show....1 hr 20 min = 80 minutes...hmmm am I onto something with the number 8 ...probably not. I can see shows without dancers or.... a dancer or dancers as accents to a 'bigger picture'. It (SL) IS a different medium and as such perhaps it is too early in its evolution to start limiting what IT IS or WILL BE. Let it develop into what IT WANTS to be and not assume its a mere reflection of RL art and dance. Maybe.
The Bandwagon
To my surprise it was pointed out that clubs are actually expanding in size...imitating those successful extravaganzas that blazed the trail. Bigger is better? Bigger show area, more people, perceived increase in value, translating into more tips, less tier-out-of-pocket....ok yeah I can see that...worked for some....should work for "me" too. Can you argue with packed houses and overflowing tip-jars. Doesn't that speak to the honesty of what the people want? Maybe "they" do want less dance and more prance and happenstance.
I talked to a few creators and it seems their INTENT IS for less dance and more pomp and circumstance. One said they had grown weary of all-dance all-the-time. We do see the 'most-popular' dance moves repeated from venue-to-venue, event to event. Yes another person I talked to said she is not a fan of the move to "story-dance". Let the dance communicate what is meant to be 'felt' without an in-your-face type story-revelation. So the jury is still out on this move to the story but from my vantage point...its coming and unstoppable with a great deal of group-consciousness behind it. People want to see it. People want to tell it. As I predicted many moons ago, the STORY is coming and will be here to stay. A good thing to me? Oh yes. I am a 'story' fan, if it is follow-able. I don't need Gone With the Wind in 60 minutes but a small story told succinctly I am very in favor of. (And why is the 'of' dangling?)
Full-On Productions
Having seen a sufficient sample of big-cast productions in the style of plays and musicals, I came away each time with a disconcerting feeling. That of being unable to "follow along". Maybe its just me and my short attention span...but...? Unlike TV, movies, books that focus via close-ups or the name of the speaker...it is hard to follow WHO is saying what. WHO is the current intended focal point. My gut says this is not the innate nature of what the medium wants to be. I think this new medium is meant to convey* and tell stories more metaphorically and allegorically, allowing the viewer to interpret rather than translate, using the offerings the medium does naturally and characteristically.
The medium can explode particles emanating from a persons body to show excitement, love, or agitation, depending on context. If we in real life could do that, I think we would... but we cant so we use hand gestures and facial expressions. So why limit this medium that CAN show emotions in a variety of ways to just human/avatar expressions and body movement?
Questions
Anyways, some venues have wised up and provided a vocal narrative of what it is you are about to see. That helps provide context. But then the action goes by so fast that it can seem a blur and everything is wide-angle so that doesn't help.
Who is talking?
Where are they?
What are they doing?
Am I missing something key by not zeroing in on them? It would have been helpful if they had used the SL DisplayName feature to identify their character names. The more characters in the scene the greater the odds that I will be choosing the wrong person to focus in on. I tend to zoom in on the one doing the most movement. If they all are jittering about, then that's an issue. Some have issued playbills so those like me with short-memories and attention-spans can refer back to the who's who and what's what, readily. That's a huge help. So that combined with an introductory vocal narrative might help bridge the gap of understanding what it is we are about to see. That would also be a good use of the intermission between acts. Maybe with big facial shots of the actors when mentioned in the intermission-narration.
Perspective
As far as perspective, I've seen the audience be physically transported as a whole to different pre-built scene sets. This helps to focus, make the pixels larger by bringing the audience in closer, and saves on set-change times. So if the audience is moving slooowly between sets and they heard a narrative accompanied by a playbill and some visual imagery of what they are hearing and with what they are about to see...then...maybe...it will all gel better.
Who the HELL am I, anyways?
"Yummy, those who can, do, those who cant, blog about those who are trying to do?" Whoa! Hostile crowd! Wipes the smashed tomatoes from her face. That one hurt. Spits seeds out of her mouth.
Truth be told, IT(the art form) will find a few new resting places on its own..
I suspect were are headed in 2 distinct directions, one, the "big" production, de-emphasizing the dance and dancer in favor of a 'whole-listic' offering ... and the "small-er" venues also possibly emphasizing the dance and dancer yet finding ways to extend the dance and dancer with new innovations.
Me?
Make way for the Virtual ALLEGORY
I feel there is a new vocabulary forming using a variety of techniques as metaphors for words to tell more story in which no single thing is more important than another. That the most important thing is moving us from distinct points of: A to B (maybe to C and D and beyond) moving us to a surprise destination as well as leading us step by step on a journey of discovery where we participate in personal translations and interpretations of what we are seeing using this newly forming vocabulary that uses briefer shorter offerings of all the things we have heretofore spent time experimenting with.
Dance will be soon be offered in punctuated segments delineated by stillness, posing, AOs, sudden appearance and disappearance as we will be able to start animations in the middle. *hint hint*
Costume modifications more than full costume changes will form new words that serve to advance a story.
Set changes will break down into set-modifications that will form new verbs for this newly developing "performance-language"
Particle effects will find more judicious, abbreviated, and timely use to further move us from 'here' to 'there', allegorically.
Dancer movement will become more meaningful as it transforms towards: briefer, well-placed, and well timed.
Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Yummy
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Spot On Update - Performance Director HUD 1.3
Today we're sending out an update to the Performance Director HUD - Version 1.3 - with improved error messaging so that you can quickly figure out a problem should you have one.
The HUD will now tell you if you do not have enough dancer slots in your HUD for your routine, or give you an "invalid dance" message if you have a misspelled dance.
The updates will be delivered automatically to you but should you not receive yours, please come to the Spot On Store and click the Redelivery Terminal.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Martian/115/144/23
Monday, May 12, 2014
WISHES & DREAMS
Klark sent following notice;
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ open to here ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
YOU ARE INVITED TO ENJOY WITH US.....
,.-~*'¨¯¨'*·~-.¸ WISHES & DREAMS ,.-~*'¨¯¨'*·~-.¸
SUNDAY 25TH MAY - 12 NOON SLT
SUNDAY 1ST JUNE - 12 NOON SLT
These will be the last two performances set for this year! Don't miss them!
This show is approximately 90 minutes of wonderful nostalgic entertainment and creative fun.
Come... hear and see some of your old remembered foot tapping songs, and newer ones too, depicted in creative dance, with a Spirit Energy sure to make you want to see this show time and time again.
Admission is by TICKET ONLY ~ 250L
(Tickets purchased and all reservations from Misha6942)
TICKET DEADLINE IS 23RD MAY
,.-~*'¨¯¨'*·~-.¸,.-~*'¨¯¨'*·~-.¸,.-~*'¨¯¨'*·~-.¸,.-~*'¨¯¨'*·~-.¸
Seats are limited. The Theatre Audience Sim will be open from 10 am SLT.
It is imperative that you arrive in good time (no less than 30 minutes before noon slt) to enable the stage sets, costumes and animations to be primed and cached by your computer. This will greatly enhance your viewing experience. Please reduce your scripts to as low as possible, less than 50 please, and take seat of your choice promptly to reduce lag.
We encourage you to stay seated throughout the show, and afterwards please peruse the gallery and mingle with the amazing cast.
Please also write a comment in our guest book, situated in the gallery foyer, this helps us give valuable feedback to our dancers to help motivate and breed success.
Spirit Light Dance Company, is a United Performing Community. We are ordinary people with an extraordinary passion for what we do in Second Life.
Many are not professional Real Life performers, but individuals from all walks of life, who, through this digital medium, have found an opportunity to share their artistic talents, and learn the technical skills required to "make it happen" as real as is possible in SL.
Come share with us ... Wishes & Dreams...
*Your kind donations are always very much appreciated *
,.-~*'¨¯¨'*·~-.¸,.-~*'¨¯¨'*·~-.¸,.-~*'¨¯¨'*·~-.¸,.-~*'¨¯¨'*·~-.¸
Saturday, May 10, 2014
CFL Cheerleaders Officially Sanction Spot On Products
The SL Coalition Football League has officially sanctioned Spot On Choreography Tools for use by their cheerleaders during games. Concerned with keeping scripts / lag at the lowest point possible during crowded games, the league has found that Spot On products fit their needs. In fact, Spot On products are the only products they are permitted to use for their cheers.
We recently gave a class to many of the cheer captains to get them started and they seem excited for their upcoming season and to show what they can do with great choreography tools. We made a demonstration set for the class which was so much fun we decided to film it.
We'd like to thank CFL and wish them all good luck in the upcoming season!
We'd like to thank CFL and wish them all good luck in the upcoming season!
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