The virtual Burning Man at Burning Life, that is! The main event, and what a rush — albeit, a laggy one. There's something that immeasurably transcends the technical humbug when 200 (a little over that) Residents gather in close proximity to repeatedly shout "FIRE!" and related, spirited exclamations. (Thanx to all who helped me decide whether you'd rather be a narwhal, walrus, or manatee.) A lot of community spirit, that's what.
And I needed it too, because those damn SmartHeap errors kept crashing me and interfering with my experience as I took snapshots amidst the crowds. But not even that and a sluggishly-rezzing field of gray avatars could keep me away…
Ravenelle & I were onscene to film the US-friendly time of the 2 burnings, and I made a video afterwards. Including previous stills I captured, I uploaded it to Vimeo, which has great quality. And if you yearn for more, watch the vid on its original page which allows "true HD" so you can enjoy it in all its, well, high-definition glory! WARNING: Contains pixel nudity.
If you're wondering how I got transitions to sync in time like organic clockwork, watch my "How to beat-sync songs to video in Sony Vegas" video tutorial. 
Here's some more pix; this is just a small taste of everything that happened:
Praise to each & everyone who made this possible: artist creators, BL Rangers, Linden Lab organizers, Residents of… Second Life!
Related Posts
Be my friend!
Stay up-to-date
Enjoyed this article? Subscribe to me and be auto-updated when new stuff is out!
October 5th, 2008 at 12:02 PM PDT
ah that's a great machinima, really like the edits
October 5th, 2008 at 12:21 PM PDT
Da Philip Linden with all Chicks!!
:))
Really Nice Vid. Very well made
October 5th, 2008 at 9:16 PM PDT
Nice video? Not really.
More "Second Life" propaganda B(S)T.
'Hey you, come to this -Wonderful-(ugh) (resource consuming) online world, which is 100% perfect in each and every way, like Mary Poppins!!'
The majority of users can't even run the client smoothly in 1280×720 (Marginal HD) or 1920×1080 (Full HD) and here you are, advertising "Second Life" with a HD video!!
The Torley-branded 'Totoro' video, avaliable on Torley's blog (Early 2008) although awkward like all other amateur videos, is heaps better.
Nice screenshots, btw.
October 5th, 2008 at 10:09 PM PDT
@Dizzy: Thx, I like using time to sync to time.
@Alvi: Yeah — while I haven't seen Southland Tales, Philip's presence with the naked Burners somehow gave me that vibe. I bet they were so excited to meet him.
@dm_k: Nah, this is just my own recollection of what happened (my wife has her own take with a LOT more comprehensive scenes, coming up).
I also showed a lot of gray/rezzing avatars and mentioned my tech troubles — the key thing here is to KEEP GOING! despite such adversity.
(And live by example.)
Thanks for the the most mixed comment I've had in awhile! That'll keep it interesting!
October 6th, 2008 at 7:12 AM PDT
[...] Torley's Burning Life Video [...]
October 6th, 2008 at 10:10 AM PDT
Great video, but WOW! the volume seems way too high.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:41 PM PDT
WTG - Niiiice edits
cool perspective of the event over all - Art, Fire & Community - ty for taking the time to do this 
October 11th, 2008 at 2:32 PM PDT
@Chris: Hm, more details on that please? Is it distorting? I checked levels and it looks/sounds fine to me.
@Poid: Hai Poid! My pleasure! Thanx for contributing so many pics to the Burning Life Flickr group?
October 12th, 2008 at 11:47 PM PDT
oh Torley as much as i loved the video it was the music that captured me! I was searching for music that would be a good fit for my SL store and WOW!!!
I'm listening to Trifonic now on their site
now off i go to search for tutorials on playing music in SL
Awsomesauce!
October 14th, 2008 at 12:14 PM PDT
Good work Torley…
You amplify my arson.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:01 PM PDT
@maihem: w00t w00t! Yeah, I <3 Trifonic's tunes el mucho.
@Charlene: AHHAHAHAAH I'M A FIRESTARTERRRRRRRRRR