Molotov Alva
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"Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator: A Second Life Odyssey" is the first machinima documentary produced entirely inside a Virtual World.
Made in 2007 by American filmmaker Douglas Gayeton, this animated film tells the story of one man's passage from his real (analog) life in Petaluma, California
into a new (digital) existence inside an online world called Second Life.
The original film was commissioned in 2006 by VPRO, a Dutch television broadcaster, and Submarine[1], a Dutch television and internet production company.
The first dispatch, titled "Out of His Skin", was placed on YouTube in February 2007.
A rough cut of the documentary premiered at Toronto's Hot Docs Film Festival in 2007.
It subsequently appeared in festivals around the world, including the Tokyo International Film Festival, the Rome Film Festival and SXSW.
The North American broadcast rights were purchased by HBO Documentary Films in August, 2007, marking the first time a US television network purchased a series which premiered on YouTube.
The first six episodes of "Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator" premiered on Cinemax, 1, 2 on May 15, 2008.
The final four episodes were distributed via Video On Demand, iTunes, and YouTube, making it the first simultaneous multi-platform distribution of an American television series.
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[edit] Principal characters
Molotov Alva: a resident of Petaluma, California who abandons his “carbon-based existence” to live inside a virtual world called Second Life
Orhalla Zander: first appearing in Dispatch #3, this hobo becomes Molotov’s guide for the rest of his journey
[edit] Plot synopsis
The documentary consists of ten parts or "dispatches". Each explores a different facet of life in virtual worlds and purports to be an actual video diary filmed within Second Life by Molotov Alva.
[edit] Dispatch summaries
1. Out of His Skin: Molotov leaves his Petaluma, California home and enters a virtual world called Second Life as an avatar named Molotov Alva. He arrives with no possessions, not even clothing.
He considers all that he has left behind in coming here, and concludes that when his memories of the real world eventually recede into nothingness, his old life will have disappeared.
2. Molotov's Conundrum: Molotov sets out to create a life for himself in Second Life. He begins by building his own home and furnishing it with objects he discovers during his travels.
However, he ultimately decides that his new home is merely a trap, one that keeps him tied to memories of the life he'd just left. Molotov eventually gets rid of his home (and everything in it) and continues on his journey.
3. The Trouble with Money: Molotov meets a hobo named Orhalla Zander, who introduces the "Five Ways of the Seeker". These include:
1. The Seeker Goes Everywhere
2. The Seeker Forever Remains In Motion
3. The Seeker Tries Everything Once
4. The Seeker Neither Earns nor Spends
5. The Seeker only Journeys with other Seekers
4. Some Friends He Made: Molotov attempts to make friends in Second Life. Along the way he meets the people of Caledon, a Luddite community still living in the 19th Century.
5. Oh The Places They Will Go: Molotov and Orhalla search for the Creator of Second Life. Their journey brings them into contact with Gorean sex slaves, Cyberpunks, and Furries.
Despite these encounters, Molotov and Orhalla fail in their search.
6. Molotov Perplexed: Molotov decides to search for a mate and settle down. Various misadventures ensue until Molotov finally meets Abigail.
They set up house together but are continually troubled by their inability to have physical intimacy. Orhalla ultimately appears with news that he’s found the Creator.
Faced with the decision of either staying with Abigail or joining Orhalla, he ultimately decides to complete his unfinished journey.
7. Somewhere Out There: Molotov and Orhalla return to many of the locations they’d visited earlier in the documentary, yet find no sign of the Creator.
Orhalla ultimately brings Molotov to the Oracle, who explains that there is no one single creator of Second Life, but that it is, instead, a world made by its users, each of whom is the Creator.
8. Flower Power: Having solved the riddle of the Creator, Molotov sets out to become one himself. He apprentices at various jobs, including a stint with Otis Mapplethorpe, “the Johnny Appleseed of this new world”, before setting out to make his own exotic plants.
The high demand for his products attracts the attention of a large company, which crushes him with their mass produced goods. Molotov soon learns that corporations have entered this virtual world en masse and have filled it with their “brand pollution”.
Molotov tries to escape to a desert island, only to find that the corporations have made it even here.
9. Action / Reaction: Molotov’s anger with this virtual world’s shortcomings leads him to become a “griefer”. He joins a gang and takes part in a number of attacks on other members of the virtual world until deciding that such aggression is ultimately pointless.
10. Molotov Alva Will Live Forever: Molotov reconnects with Abigail and they rekindle their relationship. The two even consider starting a family, but after Molotov realizes that he is immortal he abandons the thought of having children.
He subsequently becomes depressed and for the first time misses his real world life. Finally, Abigail announces that she has found a way out of this virtual world and leaves.
Molotov realizes that Abigail is the only real thing he’s found in this virtual world and follows after her.
[edit] Production notes
Douglas Gayeton, along with Italian editor Pier Giorgio Provenzano, made the entire documentary without leaving a spare bedroom on his Petaluma, California farm.
After considering a number of screen capture methods, Gayeton ultimately decided to simply film his computer monitor with a process he dubbed "Rumplevision". No post-production effects were used.
[edit] Quotes
“In this new world I could stand on a beach. But could I taste the salt hanging in the breeze?
Feel the sand crunch beneath my feet?
Dip my toes in the water ... and shiver from its coolness?
All that I saw and experienced relied on memories I had from my other life. This place could only create an approximation of a beach. It was up to my mind to do the rest.”
[Molotov Alva, from Dispatch #2]
“To live in a new world means to ask new questions ...”
[Orhalla Zander, from Dispatch #4]
“Some people come here to experience the real world without suffering real world consequences. They think they can live within their dreams. But the ending is always the same. Because wherever you end up, people are still ... people."
[Orhalla Zander, from Dispatch #5]
[edit] References
"Gayeton’s filming process is crucial to understanding the documentary nature of the project. Molotov Alva looks like an animated film, and it’s easy to assume while watching it that the director just created the scenes he needed. But Gayeton is not an animator, and Molotov Alva is not a special effects film. The only reason that his film is animated is that the world he is documenting happens to be an animated world. The visual style of the film simply reflects the reality of Gayeton’s subject." Documentary Magazine
"The joke about Second Life is that it's for people without first ones. But during six months of "filming" in the virtual realm, Douglas Gayeton finds fellow seekers asking questions about identity, authenticity and whether anyone can create a better world. Also running on YouTube, iTunes and, yes, Second Life, this is a digital life well examined. A-" Time Magazine
"Alva lands in the virtual world of Second Life and narrates the documentary like a travel writer exploring a new country - imagine Alain de Botton transplanted into a virtual world and asked to explain things there."The Daily Telegraph
"Gayeton, who describes himself as a fifteen-year veteran of online communities ... called his avatar’s explorations “a Marco Polo story for our times.”"Reuters
"Douglas more or less invented a new technique to shoot machinima, waded through 100 hours of footage, and wound up with a movie that challenges the very definition of "documentary". New World Notes
