Some summer updates!

Hey everyone- hope all is well! Some updates:

Please check out the "testimonials" section of my site, just added some great reviews from some of the top professionals I had the pleasure of working with! http://www.alm-productions.net

I'm very active in Twitter. Check me out : http://twitter.com/Ariella_Furman

In the can:
Tribe video (real estate)

Current:
Two projects for Cranial Tap (NDA-- sorry)
Unisys trade show video
Language Lab promotional video
A collaboration with UnReal Designs (Opensim project)

Vimeo!

Hey guys! I posted a few of my videos on Vimeo, check it out:

Recap of my shoot for Alpine

Hey guys!

Seems I have a bit of catching up to do.

Overall, the shoot went flawlessly! We shot on the famous Sony XD cam on 1080i. It's a great camera, pretty small and reminds me of the DVX, but the images it produces are amazing! We had a standard combo arri light kit.

We started off shooting the executive in the Unisys building. It was a HUGE building- I don't know how people don't get lost in there! They were really nice for letting us use the space. I bet that place is CRAZY bustling on weekdays.

We proceeded to shoot the hotel room scene in Desmond Hotel for the travelling salesman. That was a lot of fun and the room was tastefully decorated. It was easy to block shots in there and we really used the desk mirror to our advantage. I think I am most happy with how the footage in this room turned out more than anything else. It was really subtle, a little orange for that twilight 5PM feel.

After that, we drove to my house and set up the scenes for the working mom. The office scenes went pretty easy. It was fun working with my niece and nephew for the last scenes. Those scenes made me realize how much it adds to a scene when walls are NOT white, but some off white shade or a light color. Their room is kind of peach colored and it really added to the footage!

Anyways, I combined all this footage with machinima footage for a first cut. I think the two worlds cut pretty well together, but I still want to do some tweaking to ensure it leaves no one confused.

Virtual Cinema is Inevitable

Hey everyone! Ariella Languish here. Just wanted to introduce myself.. I am a machinimatographer/ machinimator/ machinima maker (yes all three are correct). I create movies from 3-D environments, in a nutshell. I use the graphics or sometimes create/modify those there and use a joystick tool to swoop and navigate through the graphics, where the process becomes more similar to filmmaking rather than creating "animations," which is most people's first impression of what I do.

I found out about Machinima by accident. I wanted to do a documentary about a female- tribe because I thought it was an interesting topic to capture. Basicaly, I had to figure out a way to take what’s inside the screen, being this tribe, and display them to the real world. I started delving into the technical aspects of filming the screen and finding ways to make this transition from game to real life movie screen. I started out filming the computer screen with a camera- big mistake! I lost resolution and found myself fumbling technically. This inspired me to read some machinima help forums and figure out a way to navigate my footage from computer to DVD.

From then on, I was approached by a few companies and individuals to produce more machinima. I was able to work with such companies as Nestle, World Bank, and IBM. I was also interviewed by Wall Street Journal and Philadelphia Inquirer and ended up on the front pages of both papers (see Press).

As the visual effects producer from the Matrix says, “Virtual cinema is inevitable”

First Blog Post of ALM Productions!

First blog post of ALM Productions!

I'm excited to share with everyone the new website. It presents all angles of ALM pretty well. My main goal is to keep this site interactive, and I wish to contribute to the blog as much as possible. However, I also have an area on the homepage for article entries. I was hoping to keep the blog a little more personal while leaving the main page articles more technical, where I will post some tricks and tips for fellow machinima-makers.

Some things I might use this blog for : talking about personal events (my cruise 2009 for example!), commenting on recent machinima/virtual worlds news, sharing photos, and announcing events/conferences I might be attending or speaking at.

My hopes are that this site will be easy to navigate and appealing to all readers!

In the future, I plan to add more information about our partners in the services section, post some new projects, etc.