I first came across word of 2a03 / EgnartsTodM / M Dot Strange’s effort on the CGTalk forum some time back and mentioned his film, “We Are The Strange”, in a post last Fall (reLink). Since then, I’ve been following the YouTube conversation off and on, and when I learned of the film being shown in Second Life, as part of Brian Eno’s recent multi-reality event, I logged on to catch both.

Unfortunately, the new Second Life viewer I’d downloaded and installed just minutes prior to the start of the whole thing crashed when I tried to view the streaming Quicktime, so I missed the flick. Not that I would have enjoyed 4 frames/second, but that’s how it goes.

All that was left was to wait for the film to show up elsewhere and read what others had to say. To that end, the Second Life Herald had a post covering the film screening (Link), but it didn’t really impress me with providing anything other than an excited review by someone who apparently hadn’t really done any homework. I didn’t need to read that the film was interesting, I’d already figured that out. I was looking for something more.

Thankfully, CinemaTech blog author, Scott Kirsner, conducted an outstanding interview with the filmmaker that hits on a number of issues related to the things I discuss here. I especially appreciated comments to the effect that in order to beat an entrenched system, people should refuse to participate in it… which echoes my sentiments (i.e. you beat the music labels by totally ignoring their product and instead giving your attention to indie bands dealing directly with their audience).

So anyway, whether you like the film or not, be sure to watch the interview and perhaps follow the conversation on Kirsner’s blog (Link). In a “bits to atoms” world, production and distribution and old school barriers to entry are as applicable to niche fab-on-demand product as they are to filmmaking.