FOR ART'S SAKE | MULTIMEDIA | SECOND LIFE | DONNE TEMPO
A Second Life Odyssey – Finding Yourself In The Virtual World
By Christian TotoFilmmaker Douglas Gayeton prides himself on being tech savvy. He made the first documentary about interactive television in the early 1990s and has several alternate reality games to his credit.
But he didn't expect what he found when he first visited Second Life, an online universe in which people use avatars, or symbolic representatives, to visit a virtual landscape via the Internet.
"I really thought I was looking at the first articulate depiction of what the future of networked communication was going to look like," Gayeton says.
The documentarian's initial trek into Second Life led to "Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator: A Second Life Odyssey," debuting at 8 p.m. EST May 15 on Cinemax. The documentary will also run on Cinemax Island in Second Life as well as the YouTube Cinemax Channel, among other outlets.
Molotov Alva is Gayeton's avatar, the character he controls in Second Life. Viewers see Second Life from Molotov's perspective - the entire film was shot in the online world.
Gayeton has always been intrigued by how technology impacts stories. So when a European film company approached him about creating a new documentary, he decided on Second Life as a topic even though he wasn't sure how he'd shoot it.
"I spent three or four months in the world, exploring it," he says before arriving at the technological means to record his visits on film.
To complete the documentary, Gayeton and an assistant went to his farm in northern California and emptied out everything in it save two desks and a computer.
They didn't leave that room for six months, essentially "living" in Second Life.
Sometimes, a person's avatar wouldn't show up for an appointment, or Molotov would travel to a destination only to find that it wasn't there anymore. The Second Life landscape is forever in flux.
The documentary lets Molotov ask some of the big questions people in the real world ofen ask, like where do we come from and why are we here.
Those unfamiliar with Second Life might want to google it before watching the documentary, but most viewers will be fascinated at Molotov's approach to such heady material.
Some scenes look simple enough, but they often required extensive time to set up, Gayeton says.
He says he had to earn the trust of some of those he met in Second Life before they would agree to be captured in the documentary.
In many ways, Second Life visitors are very much like their real-world counterparts."
These nine million people [in Second Life] have basically coalesced around a number of different experiences closely aligned with their values," he says.
Gayeton went through a withdrawal of sorts when the project wrapped.
"So much of my world view was bound by the frame of my computer screen. The sense of how I move was defined by keystrokes," says Gayeton, adding Second Life enriched his real-world experiences.
Some people see Second Life residents see the virtual world as a chance to hit the restart switch.
"Second Life gives people the 'do over' the real world doesn't give them," he says. "If they're not a beautiful person, none of those barriers exist in the virtual world."
For Gayeton, Molotov served as a vehicle to enter the digital world while channeling all his existing knowledge about technology and the modern age.
"He's the Marco Polo of the digital age," he says of his avatar.
Douglas Gayeton’s "Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator: A Second Life Odyssey," debuts at 8 p.m. EST May 15 on Cinemax. Please check local listings for times. For more information visit http://www.cinemax.com/reel-life/index.html; www.secondlife.com/