Digital Rabbit Hole

“Window On A Train” ~ Our Entry For The UWA Vl Machinima Challenge 2013 ~

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Karima Hoisan

We needed a train!
Not just any old train, but a 1970’s Diesel Train, detailed and very real looking inside and out. Nat and I scoured every train-store, Marketplace train offering in SL, and could not find what we wanted. One of the reasons I think our production took as long as it did (close to 5 months) was finding that illusive train. So being hopeful, even while we were being disappointed, “I heard so and so made a train for so and so” and finding all leads running into dead ends, we decided to build a track and maybe..”The train would come.”

Build it and it will come!

Then I remembered a builder an old SL friend who always said, “Show me a picture and I can build it for you.” He built my Brahma bulls, back in 2008 see “A Story full of Bull.” I convinced Nat we should talk to him, and although he was busy with RL and SL projects, he said he was willing to give it a try.
The first time we saw the finished train in his sandbox (a few weeks after he began) we were awestruck. It DID look like the pictures. It was beautiful, detailed and amazing! We we were so excited, we couldn’t wait to rez it on our skylot. I had even cleared a few prims away down below, thinking that this train might need a few hundred of them…Imagine our surprise when, with more than 1500 prims to spare, we got the message “There were no free prims on LINC Island..” not even enough to rez the locomotive.
What??!!
I kept putting away houses, castles, primmy fish and jet planes, and freed up another 2000 more, and we still could not rez the locomotive with one car attached. In other words, a homestead could not hold our 3-car train!

One heavy train

The locomotive turned out to be a little over 2700, and the passenger car and the baggage car took it over 5000! How could we ever use a train like this? I stripped half my island below, and we finally could rez the three cars all together, and by shrinking it a bit, and changing the object type settings (Thanks to Dale Innis) we brought the three cars down to only about 3000 prims in total. Only.

Beautifully non-moving

So yes, the obvious thing was this was going to be a “green screen deluxe” as this train was never going to budge. Well, during this time, Nat (single handedly) built an amazing set, an agricultural town set in the mountains. It was sim -wide and it was wonderful.. and we had our train parked (forever parked, it seemed) at the station. We shot all the other scenes as we could, and rounded up almost 14 extras over the months to be in them.
Every time Nat looked at that monster train, that could never move, I know she felt that pang of disappointment. When you have a gorgeous train, and a million cam angles going around in your head, and you will never shoot a one, because the train will never move down a track….that is disappointing!
Without giving away any secrets, just know, one day our train moved.
It MOVED!!
It was less than a month ago when it first moved and before it did, Nat was thinking of seriously making a “fake train’ out of prims, and it looked so fake it was very very funny. We laughed instead of crying, but the truth is Dale Innis stepped in again, after seeing Nat’s “fake train” and he did something, which I am sure he will tell on his blog, (in detailed geek language) or in an extended comment here, (hint hint) but he got an unlinkable big fat train to move as a train should, smooth and fast. I could say so much more, but I will end here so you can see the movie. I will just say, the day that train moved down the track…we cried…we whooped..we were awe struck, and I think we made train movie history in SL. I think the scenes and angles Nat got..well they are pure Nat..pure genius, but without a moving train..our movie would have been so much less, than….it turned out to be.
Thanks to Lucho Ceriano for his original mesh train and to RAG Randt, for the VIVO truck and that poignant wave, to Jer Straaf who took the time to try and help us, and for his great moving traffic in our town, to all the wonderful extras who gave up their Saturdays to come in and ride a train, or go to a wedding, or dance at the Prom, and a very special thanks to my co-star, Odracir Wrigglesworth. Thanks to all our friends, who were interested in how it was going, and thanks to Dale Innis, who once again stepped into our film, in a way no one else had…..or could have. Thanks to Freesound.org for amazing train sound files, that I incorporated into my Garage Band sound track. Thanks to WaMark for his Florida Rain.mp3 and to everyone who believed in our project.
UWA Vl, our next station…. Here we come!!
And please remember, as Nat says in her (eeehm) charmingly directorial way, “Watching our film without being in full-screen and HD (720p) is Prohibited!”
ENJOY!

Posted in Announcements, Machinima, Slices of Second Life, Uncategorized | Tagged Dale Innis, Karima Hoisan, Natascha Randt, Reflections, Sl Machinima Collaborations, UWA VI Machinima Challenge | 49 Comments

A Randt & Hoisan Production…Coming Really Soon! Teaser! Teaser!

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Karima Hoisan

nnnn

In this post, we want to just tease you, because Nat makes great Teasers! We will show you a little YouTube at the bottom, now that we are so close to finishing, and the closer that we get, the harder it is to not talk about it. (see a previous post on that)
I want to say something here in this one, because I know the next one, that has our finished YouTube will probably be very short…something like …
“Here it is.. Here it is FINALLY~~Please Watch and Enjoy!”
In this post I want to talk about the incredible movie chemistry that has aged and refined itself into a rich tasting wine of creativity and friendship, between Natascha and myself. I met her about a year and a half ago, and I wrote a post about that , as Nat scared me, when she was moderating at the MAG (Machinima Artist’s Guild) She was blunt and critical, and also very talented, and I was a novice in a machinima world with not the best software, but I was bitten by the passion to transport my poetry into moving imagery.(See my Category Machinima here on my blog)
What happened between those first days, and today where we put our names on our latest film as “Randt & Hoisan Productions”, is a tale that can only be made in SL.
Only SL could have brought together a Costa Rican and a German onto the same set, and given them the tools to meet, and get to know each other. A mutual creative admiration began in those days, and one day Nat said, “We should make something together.”
One of those first somethings was the last year’s UWA V Machinima Challenge/Theme: Seek Wisdom. When I asked her if she would enter she said “NO.” So I thought, I would try and I wrote the poem and soundtrack “Seek Wisdom,” but when I tried to put it together, I was having many problems with lag, lack of computer memory, my filming did not look good, and I had a very basic one track movie program iMovieHD. So, I went to Nat and begged her to consider doing something together, as I knew I would not get the visuals down at all..and Voilá Our second place winner that year was born. (see past post on that)
Well I think I have lost count but this is our 10th or 11th film together, and what many do not understand, because machinima-making, like poetry is sort of a one person Art, is that we have learned to do the impossible…cooperate, and in such an easy- flowing manner. I liken it to an artist (Nat) who has her paints and her brushes, and her way of being an artist, and I come along and say, “Here is an idea for you to paint.” (Artists are usually not open to that either:) We go back and forth, but if she likes it she will say o.k. and then the fun begins..smiles, and the amazing part begins, because although it is her canvas, and her paints, she trusts me enough to “hand me the brush and say, “What would you like better here?” and I take it and paint an idea (in words) that she turns into a new painted section. What artist would let someone paint on their canvas? I get all emotional when I think about it. Our video partnership was born a year ago at this time. I was on the floor of a hospice living the vigil of my dying soul-mate, and connected to Nat through SL and to our movie, which was the high and wonderful point of a very difficult time. A small detail almost no one can believe, but is very true, Nat and I have never communicated in voice. All of our movies have been hashed out in just text..chat chat chat in SL. We have never Skyped, or voiced, or videoed.
I guess what I am trying to say is, Nat gets involved in my audio, my music, my sound choices, and I get involved with her visual ones. Each of us has our special area, she is the VI (visualizer) and I am the VO (vocalizer) and yet we are always open to the ideas of the other. I know this is rare… because there are few partnerships that last making movie after movie together. I think this is like a creative gift given to us both, and sometimes we really feel the awe that it is this way and how amazingly it works, and seems, to us anyway, to be getting better.
I will stop myself, and save a bit more for the next post, where we reveal our movie,
“Window On A Train” in its entirety. For now, enjoy Nat’s trailer and hopefully be teased.
A Randt & Hoisan Production….made with passion and perseverance.

Posted in Announcements, Machinima, Slices of Second Life, Uncategorized | Tagged Karima Hoisan, Natascha Randt, SL machinima, UWA in SL, UWA Vl Machinima Challange, Video Colaborations | 1 Comment

Sunset On Mars

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Karima Hoisan

Photo by Sharp on Korg Forums

Sunset On Mars

On a different world we would have never met,
Your slinky lizard ways, along the alien dunes.
You would have not been seen, through my smart telescope,
No catch ‘n bag ’em posse riding hard upon your tail.

Down by the dust-sea coves, you would have lived so free
You could have multiplied, in your cold -blooded bliss
And the moonless nights would be your hunting grounds
And from the rocks, the silly prey would fall right to your feet.

Not like on, this blue ball, where the poles are still so cold
Where we make our fires, and faces glow and hunger.
And we have grown too bold, to curb our little fantasies,
So a specimen like you, might wind up on our sticks.

Oh how that fire burns bright, hot like the sun that’s going down,
And we decide to eat you, ’cause you are not one of us.
We watch that fulvous sphere, bed down into the ocean,
No sunset on Mars…here you’re just enough to go around.

Karima Hoisan
June 13, 2013
New Toulouse SL

Posted in Poems | Tagged Iguanas, Karima Hoisan, Poetry, Sunset on Mars, Sunsets | 12 Comments

I’m So Bad At Keeping Secrets…

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Karima Hoisan

photo by Nat

When I get excited about something, you hear about it. It’s hard for me to keep anything like that from my blog:)
Soooo…….

Photo by Nat

I’m getting very excited…Natascha Randt and I are in the last few weeks of a project that has captured our imagination for more than four months. We decided to enter the UWA Vl Machinima Challenge again this year (Oh my.. has it been a year already since Seek Wisdom?) and since I handed the poem-carrot to my genius filmmaker to see if she liked the idea, it has been that long.

photo by Nat

Natascha has put together the set almost single-handedly (I only planted some crops) and every time I teleport there to our Sky-lot on LINC Island, I am transported to some other place, in some other time.

photo by Nat

It’s so hard for me to keep secrets. The hints just leak out, but the movie has a train, and it has rain, and it has a story, and an original soundtrack, and oh…it’s not in black & white:)

photo by Nat

Coming to YouTube soon, “Window On A Train”
The 10th collaboration of Visualizer Natascha Randt & Vocalizer Karima Hoisan.
Hope you are getting a little excited too….and curious;)
Won’t be long now!

Posted in Announcements, Machinima | Tagged Karima Hoisan, Natascha Randt, SL Collaborations, SL machinima, UWA VI Machinima Challenge | 11 Comments

The Soul-Infused

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Karima Hoisan

It all began with you…..

The Soul-Infused

It all began with you… my love, my ghost upon the pane.
Once a heart is cracked in two, nothing stays the same.
Anything is possible, when the insane are labeled sane.
When we feel the dead world calling to us from their tombs,
we fly to meet them one more time, in ceremonial rooms.

They whisper to us in drunken beds, how they miss us too.
How they wait to lie close by our side, if we can just break through,
and when I hear you calling out, I’m but a wish that it were true.
I leave the solid shapes that shape me and my world behind,
and answer your insistent plea, once more to be entwined.

Do I fear I will not return again from your haunting, death’s embrace?
Really, who am I?… and my return? What difference does it make?
My pain was pushed so deep inside, I saw other people wear your face,
and now my own, and everything is changing, right before our eyes.
So I am new and not so new, and I’m still here, the soul-infused of my disguise.

Karima-Kareem Hoisan
Rest In Peace LINC Island SL
May 24, 2013

Posted in Poems, Slices of Second Life, Uncategorized | Tagged Hauntings, Karima Hoisan, Lost Loves, Poetry, SL Poetry | 7 Comments

Ending On A Small Note…Re-Cap Of The Tiny Reading May 17th

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Karima Hoisan

I love giving poetry readings in Second Life. I suffer stage fright every time, but once I say “Hello,” I find I am just “doing it and loving it.” Reading at Anrod’s Art Garden last Saturday was a very special treat for me. It was to be my last reading before my break from performing. It was so nice to read to people who had never heard me before, and also to see my friends, many who came as tinies, there to support me.
I am going to let the pictures and the recording speak for themselves. If you missed it, you can hear it on my mp3 link and the pictures are worth a thousand words. Thanks again to Natascha and Dale for taking the time to snap them and send them to me;you guys are the best!!
In my book, this first picture of Natascha taken by Dale, is one of the funniest shots I have seen in a long time..Nat assured me she “came in peace”…but uhmm I don’t know....
Click on the mp3 link below to hear my 30 minute reading:
Tiny Reading by Karima Hoisan.mp3

“We come in peace.”…..Not

Little Asst. Dale, Luna and Tubeguy photo by Dale

Precious in Petite-Shesa (L) and Gamma (R) photo by Dale

Luna looking Awesome!! photo by Dale

Your Poet, a Mermpard with stage fright, photo by Dale

Feline MJ, Luna the Dragonette and Biggie Tube behind- photo by Dale

I greet Hoyt, who sacrificed his body to attend , Androd and small guests-photo by Dale

Our handsome host(L) and friend (R) photo by Dale

Pretty and welcoming Photo by Dale

Anrod Meads, Owner, Artist and elegant Host of the event

My little hedgehog helper who never missed a cue -photo by Dale Innis

Some illustrious attendees – photo by Dale Innis

Pretty in Green in the Garden scene- photo by Dale Innis

A lovely fairy- fae thinking about playing some basketball afterwards- Photo by Dale

Oh Hoyt!! At least he kept his head about him:) photo by Nat

2Nat

Shesa and Gamma the one and only! photo by Nat

From the audience, your poet- photo by Nat

Careful of those grass stains little one -Photo by Nat

Great shot of the petites and body-less Hoyt-photo by Nat

MJ and Luna..best of friends – photo by Nat

The little gathering- photo by Nat

Sir Beeflin, my yellow twin- Photo by Nat

tiny reading_009_021

Kibitzing Luna & Dale- photo by Dale

Biggie TubeGuy-loyal supporter always- photo by Dale

Thank you all for coming. I hope to do this again! -photo by Dale

Posted in General Discussion, Live Shows, Poems, Slices of Second Life, Uncategorized | Tagged Anrod's Art Garden, Karima Hoisan, SL Live Poetry Event, Tiny Events in SL | 10 Comments

Reflect On This: Dactyls Are Dharma,Too

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Karima Hoisan

Where to begin?
I will not make this post too long or long-winded..I really just invite you to scroll down and see the YouTube at the bottom hopefully in HD and Full screen.
I use this little creation as another perfect example of crazy creatives getting together to produce a few minutes of visual and vocal insanity. As those who read my blog regularly know, one of the things I most love about our Second Life, is the possibility to collaborate on artistic projects.
The first time I read Dale Innis’s poem about dactyls, and caught the “dactyl beat” and the idea, I knew I wanted to perform it. Without mentioning that, I wrote a piece of music and background voices and noises, and recorded it, and sent it off for approval. I got the green light from Dale, so I tempted my favorite visual genius, Natascha with yet another juicy carrot(the poem and soundtrack.) I knew this would distract her from our main project we have been working on for the past 5 months for UWA but….I just couldn’t help myself…because I knew if she heard it, she would want to do it!! I wasn’t wrong..(haha) So here it is… filmed both in Second Life and Kitely -Virtual Worlds on Demand, it’s a crazy 2 minute ode to the laws of creation and the spoken word. I hope you enjoy it. We have entered it as our short film before our feature film for this year’s prestigious UWA Vl Machinima Challenge.

Poster by Natascha Randt

If you don’t get this stuck in your head for a few minutes after viewing…well I guess you are just not a dactyl aficionado:)

Posted in Machinima, Slices of Second Life, Uncategorized | Tagged Dactyls, Dale Innis, Karima Hoisan, Natascha Randt, Sl Machinima Collaborations, SL Machinima Poetry | 20 Comments

A Tiny Farewell ~ Friday May 17th at 12noon slt @ Anrod’s Art Garden

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Karima Hoisan

Friday May 17th at Anrod’s Art Garden

Well, as I have announced at my last reading, I will be taking a small break from performing, to work on some other creative things (the deadline for the UWA Vl Machinima Challenge is next month!) and so my upcoming reading this Friday at 12noon slt will be a tiny farewell and literally it will be too..as Anrod and his audience are tinies, or petites, or all the new variations on small and adorable avatars:)
Sooooo…. this is the first time EVER I will be giving a poetry reading as a tiny and I am very happily excited about the prospect!

Even leopards have mermaid fantasies

Hovering, reclining and tail flapping about, I will read for 30 minutes an especially chosen mix, some by request,and all done with chosen music (many my own originals) playing behind.
I will rez a tiny screen (or not so tiny..not sure of the logistics on that yet:) behind, with imagery for each.
Anrod is a wonderful prolific artist, who has created an Art Garden on a reduced scale for his events, and for the delight of his friends. Biggies are always welcome, but the garden is made for the smaller in mind. It is a beautiful, natural setting, surrounded by his colorful digital art.

Anrod’s Art Garden

This poet will perform at the falls to keep her scales supple and fur shiny

Anrod has assured me his events usually fill up quickly, so please come early if you would enjoy hearing my last reading for awhile, in this beautiful setting and…please come as a tiny too:)

This is the forest transport service to drop you off at the arch:
Anrod’s Art Garden Taxi

Posted in Announcements, Live Shows, Slices of Second Life | Tagged Anrod Meads, Anrod's Art Garden, Karima Hoisan, Second Life Live Poetry Event | 2 Comments

Not Random…

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Karima Hoisan

“Culture Shock “by Jan Betts

Not idle words, nor random throws into the game,
I believe some things have meaning.
How sad to think they don’t.
There are times they help us make some sense of pain,
sometimes we actually recognize
we hurt because we grow.

But usually we are lost in the haphazardness
and drown inside our days,
and what might be for the best, we are too weak,
we hide in deep dark places, so afraid
to allow someone to take a flash-light peek
inside our caves.

To breathe within creation is to be another breath.
Over and under, surrounding us is trust
and yet how easily we forget;
that love was the catalyst of our big bang
that sent us streaming into
this thing we call existence, that is still forming yet.

I choose to think, the writer writes
and shows a sincere interest in my life.
I see scenes and plans, along the highway
markers I will pass,
and yes, I too am the creator, and so realize
the great responsibility of that.

Not random, not a game, not without sense or meaning;
I refuse to bow to that sneering cynicism of the day.
We have risen up from tar, and sometimes we take flight
and if we make a few bad judgements, then we choose to fix them
because that too is part of life.
Love is the key to being free, and to sublime surrender it invites.

Karima Hoisan
May 7th 2013
Costa Rica

Posted in Poems, Slices of Second Life | Tagged Jan Betts, Karima Hoisan, Poetry, SL Poetry | 9 Comments

Re-Cap Photos from The Four Bridges Reading

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Karima Hoisan

Sorry… to all who sent me pictures from the reading last Sunday. It took me a bit longer than I had planned to post them here to my blog.
I think I was a little thrown off that I had forgotten to record the reading that day, as I usually do, because I felt such a great connection with the audience. Maybe because I am taking a break for a few months, but I think really, because it was such a great group of people who came, some new ones, and some very old friends. Red was so gracious and welcoming, and it was one of those readings, I wish I would have been able to save.
Thanks to people like, Rosi, Dale, BelAmi, and Odracir for sending me their pictures. I will include a selection of them below for your enjoyment.
What a cozy very atmospheric venue for reading and listening to poetry. I hope Red will invite me back again, after my sabbatical:)