Contributors Editors
Minraed Arzhel Jorgha Haq
Staff Contributors Peacemaker IC Gus Rockman Demeter Moon Lunxi Weis Nanami CatKetty
official host of SIFF simatography.webs.com
It all starts back up again soon Season 11 - Spring 2015 Films premiere March 15 Watch for updates so that you don’t miss your chance to join in on the one and only Sims Film Festival The buzz starts back up in late December
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Letter from the Editors Well, here we are wrapping up our big 10th anniversary special season. On behalf of the entire SIFF staff, we thank you for sharing this celebration with us. We have had 5 years now of SIFF, with ups and downs, trials and errors, and ins and outs. It has been challenging and rewarding all at the same time, but in the end the rewarding part always wins and this is why we keep coming back for more. A big part of the reward is knowing that we are doing something for the community and of course, in seeing the outcome of all of the hard work. This issue is our final of the season, the one you have been waiting for with the wrap-up and the announcement of the winners. It is always an emotional time because we are excited to share the results, but we are sad to roll up the red carpet also. Thankfully there will be another great season again soon. Expect the buzz to begin again at the end of the year for SIFF Spring 2015. Oh it is going to be filled with even more exciting new features, so stay tuned.
Minraed and Jorgha
Our poster challenge each season marks the official kickoff of the festivities. This year the talented Ausaugi, well known patron of SIFF for many years, and master machinima maker in her own right, shows us that her talent is not limited to films and photos in the sims. The fans voted, a difficult vote this season to be sure, and her poster came out as the winner.
Congratulations! We hope that many of you will consider contributing your graphic design skills to our next season’s poster.
Special thanks to each of the graphic artists who contributed. In order of appearance from the previous page‌
Titus Linde, Gus Rockman, SM4, Morathami Meestor Mark, PeacemakerIC, Demeter, Jorgha Haq Tender Wolf, Demeter, Jorgha Haq, PeacemakerIC Gus Rockman, Logan Worm, Demeter, Gus Rockman TenderWolf, SM4, Jorgha Haq, TenderWolf PeacemakerIC, Lunxi, PeacemakerIC, Titus Linde Jorgha Haq, SM4, Titus Linde
The complete collection of posters is available for download for The Sims 3 Find them HERE
Promo Videos A HUGE thank you to all of our machinima makers that took their time to create promotional videos for SIFF this season and for showing their support. We put the videos out to the fans for voting and ‌. Congratulations to Gus Rockman of Brainstrip Pictures
And a shout out to each of the other talented machinima makers who contributed Ansett 4 Sims - previously known as RomerJon White Blue Cherry
Apocalyptic Dog Films
Steph Klein aka Lunxi Weis
OMG that Girl is Psycho
Check them out by clicking on their banners Or click HERE to see the promos on YOUTUBE
Coming in October
Patrons of SIFF
Long-standing patron and participant of SIFF - Anches100 - was unable to complete production in time for SIFF this season, but she has a new story prepared. This new production intrigues us as it will include Sims 3 and 4 footage.
Hi there, Tabby Lloyd here, SIFF’s media director and Editor in chief for the weekly SIFF Buzz. I am proud to also have such a great team of reporters backing me up - Filmore Noir, Shantel Potins, Newt Davies, and Grace De Luca. Together we take on the celebrities of SIFF and present you with the dish, the dirt and the scandal.
Thank you for following this season’s weekly SIFF Buzz updates. We hope you will be back nex t season when the SIFF Buzz starts back up again. You can expect to see new SIFF Buzz issues early in January, as we kick off our nex t season of festivities. In the meantime, while the SIFF Buzz is taking a rest, the team is not. Watch for magazine issues in a new format, coming soon. Our plan is to bring you celebrity insights, a showcase of community talent, and helpful tips and tutorials throughout the year.
Tabby is by Minraed, Grace DeLuca by PeacemakerIC, Newt by Jorgha Haq, and Film
To the left we have the lovely Grace DeLuca and the wild and wonderful New t Davies. This team of musical prodigies take on Battle of the Bands and the Sims music scene. Below we have Filmore Noir and Shantell Potins, getting you the celebrity dish and dirt and keeping you informed on who is hot in movie scene and more.
Click HERE To find us on ISSUU ISSUU is where we publish all of our magazines and other publications. Follow us and don’t ever miss an issue.
more and Shantell by Demeter, Nanami and CatKetty
Winning Film Trailers Viewer’s Choice
Winning film trailers are awarded by Viewer’s Choice vote. We encourage our film makers to create trailers to help promote their films and to build excitement and anticipation.
Gray Lee Studios’ Cinder series released episode 5 for SIFF this season. Even though the series was already underway, this trailer is an attention grabber. Powerful music, strong voice acting and gorgeous images - all of the elements of a winning trailer.
meridiangray.wix.com/cinderseries
www.youtube.com/user/GrayLeeStudios
Apocalyptic Dog Films has a knack for making promotional materials that resemble what we might see for a reallife trailer. A catchy song and just a little bit of a tease and we are captivated and anticipating this new series from a long-standing SIFF participant. https://www.youtube.com/user/ApocalypticDogFilms
Twist TV threw us for a loop with this trailer that took us on a tense and drama filled ride - a completely different style than what we have previously seen from her. The tension that is built from the music along with snippets of intriguing scenes is punctuated by a few dramatic spoken lines to give this trailer a powerful drawing power.
https://www.youtube.com/user/TwistTVShow
Winning Film Posters Viewer’s Choice Winning Film Posters are selected based on Viewer’s Choice voting by the fans, and this season we have a tie for first place. Congratulations to Gray Lee Studios for her poster for Cinder - Just a Mechanic and to Apocalyptic Dog Films for the poster for Reconstructing Abbigail. What both winning posters have in common is a layout that appears much like a real life movie poster. Posters that are presented this way almost always come out on top in the polls. Our second and third place posters go to Sims Three Music Videos for the stylish Super Bad poster and to the duo of Apocalpytic Dog Films and Twist TV for their Afterlife poster.
Here are a few other staff and fan faves‌
We love movie posters that have a real-life film poster style, with an image that really gives an impression of the type of movie it will be. We also love music video and band posters that are eye catching and vivid and that show the personality of the band or the feel of the music that we will be hearing. Great work on posters everyone! See you next season.
Music Videos Viewer’s Choice
Winning Music Videos are selected based on Viewer’s Choice polls. Music videos are always popular and often get more votes than any other category. They are also often watched over and over, and it doesn’t hurt when you have a popular song.
Bring Me Back to Life By JuliLux3 This song is very powerful, but it is not the song that wins the votes here. This machinima has all of the elements of a professional music video production. The lighting, editing, set and costume design are near perfection and the nearly 1500 views proves it. JuliLux is well known for her involvement in MEP videos and also has entered one into this season of SIFF.
https://www.youtube.com/user/JuliLux3
Super Bad By Simsthreemusicvideos Our second place winner takes us in a completely different direction, but with an equally polished and professional production. This machinima maker is well established on the music video scene with over 7,000 subscribers an a huge collection of spectacular sims music videos worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/user/SimsThreeMusicVideos
Enchanted By Alittlemid In third place is Enchanted, a Sims 2 production that goes to prove that even with Sims 4 in our toolbox now, The Sims 3 machinima makers are holding their own. The unfortunate fine print. In the name of fairness and honesty we have chosen to openly explain a troubling issue revealed and captured in the polls. Please take the time to read our message on the last pages of this magazine.
Choreography or performancE in a music video Viewer’s Choice
This new category was opened up to Viewer’s Choice because we wanted to recognize this most important component of a great music video. Dance routines, choreography, band performances are all something that we love to see in a great music video, so any that had this component were put on the polls and the fans cast their votes.
“oooh this one has that Britney Spears' Womanizer vibe haha LOV E IT” theElonianCass
“Thank you so much for joiniung SIFF. I’ve been waiting for this day to
come and now you’re here and I”m just dying, dancing, and in awe at your video and the colours. UGH the OMG” TwistTVShow
“That was amazing! Great camera work, use of animations, editing. Simply perfect! Good Luck!” CatKetty21
Super Bad blew away the polls with this hot and sexy dance number. I’m guessing that many of us were dancing in our seats watching this one. Super Bad by SimsThreeMusicVideos Check out more like this on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/SimsThreeMusicVideos Honourable mentions go to… Bring Me Back to Life by JuliLux3 and Get Lucky by MJSimKat
Winning Films Viewer’s Choice
We put out all of the films to be voted on by the fans in our Viewer’s Choice Polls. These polls represent faves of fans and followers. Each year we have such a wide range of styles of films it must be impossible for people to vote, which probably explains why the votes were so close this time around, but here you have it. And the winners are…
2nd place goes to Love Potion by SixDegrees Separation - new to the machinima scene and HERE on YouTube 3rd place goes to Silenced by LittleAngelCake with this dark teen thriller - HERE on YouTube Honourable mentions go to Always by khcrazygirls HERE on YouTube and Alcatraz by CatKetty21 HERE on YouTube
So Happy I Could Die by Insirium https://www.youtube.com/user/Insirium
This season’s winning entry is an intense, beautifully filmed thriller of a story, driven by a powerful soundtrack that tells the story with out words or dialogue. That was intense! Very interesting story, and outstanding camera angles! xoxardnekoxo This was visually stunning. You really have your own unique filming style. The flow was so seamless. I loved it :D Good luck at SIFF :) Tali Sims Morgan
This has been the stand out machinima for me at this fall's SIFF. It is so well done!! The first time I watched it my jaw literally dropped. Your storyline is absolutely enthralling and your filming makes me go, "I wish I had done that!" ApocalypticDogFilms
Storyline and Dialogue Viewer’s Choice As part of our plan to recognize more than just simply fan faves, we wanted to showcase some of the specialized talents shown by our machinima makers. This season we have added a poll for the fans to vote on their favourite storyline. In the case of the machinima masters, we ask that fans consider the dialogue writing as well as this advanced skill is not an easy one to do well.
Afterlife by apocalyptic Dog Fims and Twist TV In
the Machinima Masters category we expect to see advanced machinima making skills, but we don’t often enough stop to consider the skill that is needed to w rite good solid and realistic sounding dialogue. Many of our machinima masters set the bar on this one, and Afterlife didn’t dissapoint the fans.
So Happy I Could Die by Insirium So Happy I Could Die had an intense storyline that was told without the use of words or dialogue. This is a special skill in itself. Using only the music and lyrics, the story captivated us and the fans too as we can see in the outcome of this fan poll. This is interesting because it primarily uses one song to tell the story, yet it is clearly not a music video. This goes to show that a great story and a great machinima does not have to rely on voice acting to stand out.
Love Potion by Daisy Dude Productions This adorable love story caught the attention of staff so we are not surprised to find that it also captivated the story-loving fans and viewers also. Love Potion is a wonderful little story that combines the messages of “be careful what you wish for” and “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Our heroine learns a bit of both of these lessons as she stumbles accidentally on a love story that didn’t turn out exactly as she had imagined, but turned out better than expected
Sims Series Faves Viewer’s Choice
Sim Series are a creative phenomenon that really expresses the true underlying talents of this great community. To create a series a person has to have a long standing dedication and commitment, and also the ability to keep a storyline going and going, while creating characters that the viewers will love and hate. Due to the massive number of Sims Series submitted and the fact that there is a very different feel and advantage to an established series compared to a new series with a first episode, we will be separating out the categories into… Fan Faves Established Series’ Fan Faves New Series’
Cinder - Episode 5 - Just a Mechanic By GrayLeeStudios Recognized by Marissa Meyer, author of The Lunar Chronicles on which this series is based, this series is well worth following.
TIE Roseblood Episode 6 by XxLittleAngelCakexX and DiamondCrystalMovies Rose Blood - a Sims 2 voice over vampire series. “Love, Passion, Action, Romance, Humour” is what the directors promise and it doesn’t dissapoint.
Simgrassi High - Family Portrait By ClassOfSimgrassi Simgrassi came to SIFF with the 4th season premiere, This long standing series is going strong.
Daemons - Transformation is Complete By McflyVampire Only in its third episode, this fairly new series is picking up momentum and followers.
Radioactive - episode 1 By IreneDancingLover This new series is off to a great start with a suspenseful end that has us hanging on for episode 2
Blood - Purebloods Ep. 1 By KittyAddict For her first attempt at a VO series KA is off to a dramatically good start.
Dog x Bunny - Bright Eyes - ep 1 By Kanonlullabies An absolutely adorable, funny, and full of fun new series that we are sure will have many followers.
Fave MEP Viewer’s Choice MEP, for those of you who may not know, stands for Multi Editor Project, and as Sims machinima goes this typically refers to a set of clips made by individual machinima makers set to a song and a designated theme. You get to see a variety of styles and interpretations of that theme in a wonderful collage of talent. This was our first season opening up an MEPs category so we really hope to see more in the future. We only had two, so we had the viewers vote on their top pick. JuliLux lead this thoughtful MEP with the theme of Anti-bullying. She w rites “It has been proven that bullying have serious long-term consequences apart from the shortterm ramifications. The insufficient capability of entering into a new relationship and building confidence is only one of many. A human being can become damaged beyond repair.” Let’s not forget to credit all who participated HemeraSims, xXGhettoZombieXx, and TheOneUnbreakable Go HERE on YouTube for the video and be sure to read the information.
With contributions by… DiamondCrystalMovies, Toshitio, TheWhiteDeer, SilverLuciena, Breanna1b1, Simfinito, Amy Vega, and Alice Leavey
The sims 4 Showcase Viewer’s Choice
Lolita By the Elonian Cass https://www.youtube.com/user/theElonianCass
Flying from The sims 2 directly to The Sims 4, The Elonian Cass didn’t miss a beat. This Sims 4 machinima almost makes us forget all that we are missing when starting with a new platform. If The Sims 4 machinima can look this good already, imagine what we will see when things really get going.
Honourable Mentions Try by SagaWorldProductions Save our Cowplants by Jorgha Haq Next season we will be bringing The Sims 4 machinima directly into the spotlight, so if you are dabbling in Sims 4 machinima already, start preparing for your next SIFF submission now. We can’t wait to see what this new wave will bring our way.
Special Recognition Awards Judges Choice - Presented by Tabby Lloyd Moving on now to the Judge’s Choice, let me explain a bit about how these work, and why we have this category. There are two ways to look at SIFF - one is the attention of the viewers and fans, and the followers that mean so much to our machinima makers. On the other hand, us, the staff, also feel that there are other important aspects of the SIFF submissions that need to be recognized. These are the certain skills and little bits that make up the machimima, each requiring a certain talent to achieve. Very few are able to achieve them all, but many do very well in some areas and we want it to be known that these bits are important and should be recognized. In the past this was done by a small panel made up primarily of Staff, but we have always hoped to find a more fair and unbiased way of doing this. So, this year, for the first time, we have a full panel of special judges. There were 18 judges in total, including staff, machinima masters, and patrons of SIFF (people who have been involved in or supporting SIFF for a long time and know what good machinima looks like) and finally a few well known machinima makers from the community. With this group we can be sure that there were a wide range of opinions and talents looking in and casting votes, so we feel that we have the beginning of great system for awarding these very important talents.
About the nominees Nominees for each category were determined by a panel of admin staff. We collectively reviewed all submissions to determine which ones fit into the particular categories. Also, we asked several machinima makers, community partners and patrons of SIFF to send us their nominations, so we took those into account also. We debated sharing the list of all nominees, but in the end decided against for this season until we have more time to consider how this will best be presented. We will review the outcome of this season’s trial and will build and improve on it for next season. We will also consider presenting a list of the judges.
About the Judging process Once the nominees were determined, the polls were created and posted in a hidden location. The polls were separated into all except those for the Masters of Machinima and then a second page with a complete list of polls. Masters judges who were participating this season were not voting on categories that their own submissions fell into. We may not have gotten the process perfect for this first time, but we do feel confident that the voting and polls were fairly presented and voted upon. Judges were asked to take time to really consider the detailed and specialized nature of the polls in question and we believe that, with their collective experience and trained eye, that we have a wonderful new system for recognizing and celebrating the various skills and talents that are so deserving of our praise. I would like to thank everyone who participated in this first season trial of our Special Recognition Judges Panel.
Outstanding Set Design nominees selected from all submissions Set design is often overlooked by machinima makers, but the best machinima makers will pay very close attention to getting every little detail just right. Everything from the far off background, to the up close details, from the colours to the lighting, from the furnishing style to the dĂŠcor props - all of this really does make a difference in setting the tone and theme for your film. We recommend that you take a look at these videos again and see what tricks you can learn about setting a great stage.
GrayLee has a knack for creating a set that takes the viewer away to another world. In Cinder her set design shines in the details of textures and colour, in the details of the city scape and the workshop, and inside the castle. The set is simple, but she doesn’t neglect to capture details that make the fantasy come to life. A truly wonderful example of beautiful, thoughtful and detail oriented set design that fits the theme perfectly.
723 by Twist TV Regarding the Dreams of Lisa Centry by marty Dawson
Fabulous Costume Design nominees selected from all submissions Costume design is more than just dressing up your sims in current fashion, it is about thinking carefully about colour, style, and character development. Good costume design can make the difference between being swept away into the story, or being distracted by pieces that don’t seem to fit the theme. Costume design takes time and quite a bit of thought and planning, so we are excited to celebrate this often under appreciated talent.
Costume in this machinima plays an important role in separating the classes of royalty and working class citizens, but it does more, it also creates a believable fantasy where androids and robots take on human form. Like so many of the other important details, the costumes in Cinder play a magical role.
Sixth Born For my Royal Love Both of our runners up used creative costume to fit into their magical Asian themes.
opening Sequence and title design nominees selected from all submissions This little detail is often overlooked, but there is something polished about a machinima that takes care in this detail. Title design may include the graphic design skill in the logo of the film maker and/or the graphic creativity of the film title splash. Also considered here was the opening sequence and the special editing used to create that polished and completed feel of a well done machinima production.
I think we are starting to see a trend here with Cinder showing up yet again. This is a testament to the fact that GrayLeeStudios is a master worthy machinima maker - paying attention to and painstakingly crafting each detail to create a polished final production.
Sixth Born 723 A powerful opening sequence or title design can be extravagant or simple, but the key is to create a sense of intrigue to draw us in initially, an introduction into what we are watching, and a transition so that we hold our breath awaiting what is to come
Exceptional Dialogue WRiting nominees selected from all submissions Writing dialogue is an advanced skill that we recognize is not an easy one by any means. One aims to w rite spoken words that highlight emotion and drama, pain and joy and all other emotions in between. Another goal should be to have the dialogue sound realistic and natural rather than scripted and dry. Our nominees, winners and honourable mentions, we fel t, all had these elements in their w ritten dialogues.
Dice Smith, director and writer behind Apocalyptic Dog, has long been known to us as an exceptional dialogue writer. Her lines are fluid and realistic, allowing for the creation of believable characters that we can come to relate to.
Regarding the Dreams of lisa Centry Cinder - Just a Mechanic
Best Soundtrack nominees selected from all non-master submissions When selecting the nominees for Best Sound track we did not consider Music Videos, because the point of a music video is the song, it is not the same as a sound track. A sound track considers the use of music to drive a story, set the tone, provide mood and ambiance and tension etc. A good sound track flows with the film, and does not distract from it. We nominated all films that used good basic use of sound track and let the judges decide.
Cinder once again stands out as taking care in the details of all elements of a great machinima. The soundtrack here creates drama and mood, flows with the action of the characters and never distracts us from the story.
No Regrets So Happy I could die by Insirium
Best Cinematography nominees selected from all non-master submissions Cinematography in our case can be described as beautiful filming techniques. We considered scenery, camera angles, and other beautiful things that we see visually in the filming. It is a combination of Cinema and Photography so think of it as beautiful moving photography. Good cinematography takes into consideration the basic rules of photography theory and because of that we see something on film that is beautiful to behold.
This is truly a visually stunning machinima with beautiful images that allow you to almost feel the heat.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Insirium
Bring Me Back to Life by JuliLux And Icarus by SAgaWorldProductions
Best General Editing nominees selected from all non-master submissions Editing skills are another important aspect of machinima making. Editing includes things like transitions between scenes, opening and closing sequence, use of titles and logos etc. Good editing provides a smooth appearance where everything flows together nicely, creating a professional looking final production. Well, I have a confession to make. I (Minraed for the record) made a slight oops in these polls. I included Cinder in the Masters Post Production Editing poll, and she came out on top, but she hasn’t been inducted into the Masters yet. OOOPS! Then, we have case of two others having come in 1st and 2nd in this correct poll with a whoppingly clear number of votes placing them into this position, and only 1 vote apart between them. Due to my error, I am awarding all three of these as a three way tie. All are well deserving, and clearly faves of the voting panel of judges.
Cinder - Just a Mechanic by GrayLeeStudios Super Bad by SimsThreeMusicVideos Bring me Back to Life by juliLux
Most promising New machinima maker nominees included all qualified participants The criteria for eligibility for Best NEW Machinima maker are as follows Not more than 5 machinima over not more than 1 year Not more than one previous season entered into SIFF The reasoning behind this is that as one produces more machinima and has more time to learn we expect that they have had enough practice to no longer be considered a newbie. We also recognize that as a newbie, these new machinima makers are at a disadvantage. We want to celebrate these new machinima makers because joining into a challenge with many established machinima makers takes quite a bit of bravery. Also, SIFF is about learning and growing and improving and we are dedicated to encouraging new machinima makers of all skill levels.
Roxy Red Cat - Laura Duck Saga Daisy Dude Productions - Love Potion Aussie Sims - Cancer Loisy Voicy - Four Seasons of Willow Thank you all for joining us this season at SIFF. We hope that you will continue to grow with us. Visit our site often, ask for help, keep on practicing and we’ll be sure to see your talents shine.
Machinima Masters Judge’s and Viewer’s Choice - With Minraed Arzhel
For those who are new to SIFF, let me explain the Masters of Machinima category. Masters of Machinima are inducted each season based on a long list of criteria including excellence in all aspects of machinima making such as editing, sound track, cinematography, set and costume design and more. What we can’t put a score to is the WOW factor, that feeling you get when you see a really talented machinima maker in action. Machinima Masters as a category is meant to help even the level of fairness so that our less experienced and less established participants don’t feel overshadowed or that they are not good enough to compete. The other thing about the Masters is that they are our mentors, our inspiration. The following pages will announce the winners of the Masters of Machinima categories include both Judge’s and Viewer’s choice poll results. And… don’t miss the pages of this section where we announce our new inductees to the Masters of Machinima program.
Best of the Masters Viewer’s Choice
It is no surprise that this trilogy stands out yet again. These productions demonstrated a near professional quality, and the great thing is that two are series’ which means we will get to enjoy them over and over again. Be sure to follow them so that you don’t miss an episode.
23 by Twist TV Show Afterlife by Twist TV Show and Apocalyptic Dog Reconstructing Abbigail by apocalyptic dog Persephone by Lyramia Movies https://www.youtube.com/user/lyramiamovies Long standing SIFF participant LyraMiaMovies continues to wow us with the magical. Her beautiful cinematography and fantasy worlds are always a delight to behold.
sound Editing in Masters Judges Choice
In sound editing in the masters we asked our judges to consider all aspects of sound, so not just sound track, but editing and transitions, and sound effects as well as voice over quality and sound level. The nominees did not include music videos as they do not require advanced sound editing technique or skill. The polls produced a clear three way tie, with each of the others falling close behind.
23 by Twist TV Show Afterlife by Twist TV Show and Apocalyptic Dog Reconstructing Abbigail by apocalyptic dog
Visual post Production Judges Choice Visual Post Production is the advanced version of general editing skills that we apply to the Masters category. Our expectations are higher for Masters so for this we asked our judges to consider all aspects of advanced editing including special effects, add ons, filters, editing, opening sequence and anything else that gives that polished edge. As mentioned before, I (Minraed) made a big oops and placed Cinder by GrayLeeStudios into this poll by mistake and Cinder came out on top. So, having counted that as the winner in the non-masters editing category, we are left with the remaining votes. What we had remaining is one clear winner and a tie all across for the others.
The post production in Reconstructing Abbigail is truly a feat to be celebrated. There is no question that this machinima has that polished edge, and a professional quality to it. Be sure to pay special attention to the opening sequence where the post production editing and effects really stand out. From start to finish this production feels like something that came from a real life movie studio. Bravo!
Cinematography in a Master Judges Choice As with all of our Masters category polls, we asked our judges to be a bit more critical in considering their votes. For Cinematography we are looking for WOW factor - beautiful filming, scenes, and eye catching visual beauty. I think the result speaks for itself in this poll.
Romer Jon, the guy behind Ansett 4 Films, is well known to SIFF for spectacular stories set to music videos. He is moving on to The Sims 4 for machinima now so he wanted to go out with a bang. This HUGE production was his goodbye to The Sims 3. The particularly noteable feat here is the use of over 100 sims, sim children to be precise. But to stay on point, the cinematography is stunning with scenery that may rival National Geographic (well maybe National Simographic at least) Yes, the cinematography left us breathless. Good Luck in The Sims 4 Jon
Persephone by Lyramia Movies The Sixth Born by OMG that Girl is Psycho Afterlife by Apocalyptic Dog Films and Twist tv
New Masters Judges Choice Over the years, the method used to select new Masters of Machinima has evolved. Our greatest concern has always been fairness and bias. We always strive to be as objective as possible when it came to our choices. We looked for a list of exceptional talent in editing, sound, set and costume, story telling and all other individual machinima skills. Then of course the WOW factor that cannot ever be measured. This season, and from here going forward, we have taken steps to ensure fairness even more so. We asked for nominees, then from there we put it out to our panel of judges, primarily masters of machinima themselves, to vote on who is ready. So, the resul ts are in
CONGRATULATIONS To each and every one of the newly added masters for this season. Your exceptional talents did not go unnoticed. We welcome you to the Masters category, from this season on.
Dummed Machinima, SagaWorldProductions, McFlyVampire45
Special mentions and How to become a Master
If your goal is to be added to the Machinima Masters list one day, then here are a few tips on what we are looking for:
Amoung the Masters the competition is fierce, but regardless of who came out on top in the polls, each of these productions is worthy of watching. At SIFF we believe that watching the Masters’ submissions closely we can learn and be inspired. They have tricks up their sleeves that we might never think of ourselves.
1. Set Design - take your time and put effort into the details 2. Costume Design - don’t just dress your sims up, consider how their costume fits into the theme of the film and their role or character.
3. Cinematography and Camera Work aim for interesting camera angles and eye catching transition scenes. 4. Editing and Post Production - that polished look that you get from your opening and closing sequences, as well as special effects, sound, and all the other tricks used to put the video clips together to create a professional looking production.
If you would like honest detailed feedback to help you improve you can email us at simatography@gmail.com
Message for the Masters From Minraed and the Staff
Every season of SIFF we review the happenings and ponder how we can make things run smoother, make it more interesting and ensure that all is fair. This season there was something to consider in the Masters category submissions. In our regular categories music videos are separated from films for obvious reasons - they are two completely different things and we cannot judge them on the same criteria. The same should be in place for Masters, so this is my proposal. . .
(short would include music videos - we can evaluate what else would be considered a short on a case by case basis)
As Masters, you have a number of skills that we would like to draw on. We are looking to fill a few positions if you are so inclined to assist. you would help us nominate and you would judge and vote
You would not be expected to contribute each and every issue, and would be able to choose what you wanted to contribute. We have many ideas, but we need good machinima makers with a bit of time to spare to create mini-lessons and share tips.
Honouring the Voice Actors First, let us apologize for not going ahead with the planned viewer’s choice polls for Best Voice Actors. We had NO IDEA what we were up against when we thought of this. With well over 100 participating voiced rolls it soon became impossible to keep track, then to narrow it down to the finalists. We are not giving up on this, and we will explore new ideas on how to fairly award our voice actors. Stay tuned for this next season. Of course, we can’t walk away with just that explanation. We felt that we MUST find a way to recognize those who really stood out in the films this season.
Male voices numbered far fewer than female voices for some odd reason. Over the years at SIFF there are a few who’s names show up in the credits quite a bit. These 4 have become so prolific that we feel they deserve a mention. 17StevenManz in Radioactive, Reconstructing Abbigail, and These Monsters Bloo Cerix in Purebloods, Bernadette, Daemons, Always, Silenced and Rose Blood Tysonator in Daemons, RoseBlood, Always, and Afterlife Gimbitman in Rose Blood, Simgrassi High and Silenced. GREAT WORK by the entire cast of male voices. Just because you were not listed here does not mean that we did not notice you. We hope to find a worthy way of recognition for you over the next season.
I am not even sure where to begin with the female voices. There were so many that we simply could not keep track of you all. As mentioned in the Male Voice list on the left, we did recognize all of you, and we do have plans to better recognized voice actors. For the female voice actors there were also a few who appeared noticeably in several productions, so here are just a few that we saw many times at SIFF this season. StarsToShine in Radioactive, Daemons, Rose Blood, Silenced and Simgrassi High MoonlightxStars in Daemons, Silenced, Radioactive Twist TV in Reconstructing Abbigail, Simgrassi High and Afterlife Assie Me in Reconstructing Abbigail, Simgrassi High and These Masters. McFly Vampire in Rose Blood, Silenced and These Masters LittleAngelCake in Roseblood, Silenced and Always
We have an idea and we hope both the voice actors and machinima makers will like it. Coming in January, we aim to produce a Simatography Magazine issue dedicated to voice acting. We aim to include a voice actor directory, as well as tips for voice actors and voice editing. All in time for your next SIFF project. If you are a voice actor that would like to be in the directory, or if you are skilled at voice recording or editing and would like to contribute to this production, please email us at‌ simatography@gmail.com
Visit them on the web
Visit them on the web
With Tabby Lloyd We are always looking for new ways to showcase the many contributions to SIFF. This season we noticed a number of our film makers posted collections of screens from their SIFF films, so we thought we would share some of them with you here.
Dog x Bunny by Kanonlullabies
Daemons by McFlyVampire45
Silenced by XxL
LittleAngelCakexX
Cinder by GRayLeeStudios
talk with With all of the focus right now on who’s winning what, I wanted to distract you into thinking of some of the many other fun and awesome things about SIFF so here are a few of my favourite things…
People who keep coming back The two reasons I love this is because it makes me happy that people enjoyed SIFF enough to return, and I love watching people grow and improve from season to season.
Jorgha Haq’s Weirdness Jorgha has been on staff for a few years now, and even so I am always caught by surprise with her hilarious weirdness and crazy creative ideas. This year we got National Simographic’s Urban Safari and a hilarious Save the Cow Plants infomercial. (her love of cowplants is a long standing thing). I am also always impressed with her weird and wonderful band ideas, Last year it was Cacophony - a band of mimes and this year it was Staggered Injection - a band of bots and androids. Brilliant.
MEPs MEPs are such a wonderful collaboration of talents and there are so many of them out there in the YouTube Sims community. This is the first year we opened up this category, and with so much untapped talent out there, I hope that we will see more of these in future seasons.
Roleplay of your Stars and Celebrities We see this in Rising Stars interviews, Red Carpet photos, and in the Battle of the Bands. We love the roleplay so don’t be afraid to really get creative here. We want to see your stars in the spotlight and get to know the celebrities up close and personal. Tabby Lloyd is a character played out by Minraed
Tabby Lloyd Foreign Films Some years we have more than others, this year we really only had one, LUDO by NavyCISFan. We love our foreign films because we are an International Film Festival afterall. I hope more people making machinima in other languages will consider doing English subtitles and join in with us at SIFF. We will even help you find translators.
Details Details Details I love the attention to detail that some people are so great at with their SIFF submissions. I really enjoy the opening and closing sequences that give a real-life film production feel to the work. I love the painstaking details in the set designs, camera work, and costume design. Bravo!
Newcomers
Welcome and thank you for joining us. I hope you will come back again.
Suspension of Disbelief This happens when someone puts so much into their machinima that you almost forget that you are watching The Sims. I found this in 723, The Sixth Born, and Bring Me Back to Life in particular, but that is just to name a few. This is the WOW factor that we often talk about.
The Masters I am a big fan of OMG That Girl is Psycho and this year was no excpetion. I have seen her skills grow and her style evolve over the years and I am always captivated. While there is no question that all of the Masters’ work is outstanding, I want to declare that The Sixth Born was one of my faves,
Music Videos I always considered that it was a difficult thing to prove yourself as a machinima maker with a music video, but this season proved me wrong. So many great productions, many of which got plenty of recognition already, but one that I kept going back to was Get Lucky by MJSimKat Ok, maybe it is partly because of the song, but mostly I just found it fun and whimsical and a nice break from the intense. I can’t neglect to call Bring Me Back to Life by JuliLux3 my fave in the music vid category, for all the right reasons. This is a spectatular piece of machinima editing and filming. Absolutely full of talent and skill and well deserving of the praise. This is the type of machinima that we can all learn from.
Sims Series Cinder - Just a Mechanic by Gray Lee Studios blew me away. I tend to choose my faves based on filming, editing, set and costume design so this one was a winner in my books. I look for details and technical skill and this hit my wow button on all of that. For new series’ I was surprised to admit that Dog x Bunny by Kannonlullabies was on the top of my list.
It is totally NOT my style in that I am 46 years old and not a fan of this genre, but I can’t deny that there is much to be recognized here. I saw great film work, creative editing, fun and bright and vivid cinematography, and a really cute cast of loveable characters with a wonderful story.
General Category Films Regarding the Dreams of Lisa Centry by Marty Dawson took my vote here. I was incredibly impressed with the dialogue script, the set designs and such details that really allows you to forget that you are watching a Sims machinima. Very well done and an exceptional example of machinima in my opinion.
My Overall Impressions As I type out my picks and faves I find myself feeling a bit bad that I didn’t mention everyone. I say this a lot so it probably sounds corny, but it is so true. I am truly honoured by the presence of all of this machinima talent. I really do want everyone to feel proud of their work. These may be some of the ones that stood out most to me, but by no means should it reflect poorly on the others that I did not mention. I hope that my picks can inspire you, as they inspire me, to continue to grow and learn and improve in my own machinima making.
With Lunxi Weis Lunxi, our resident fashionista, joins us with a recap of some of the noteable trends in fashion seen on the red carpet this season. Sims 2, Sims3 and Sims 4 stars were all present and each with their own sense of style. From uber casual to full out glam with a little retro thrown in, we saw a bit of everything.
Now this is one fit group! Boys, you look classy from head to toe and ladies, you look hot as hell! I am loving what you have done! The dresses you picked suit you both perfectly, and the same goes for the men. Nice work making a glamourous fashion statement on this season’s red carpet. The cast of Cinder by GrayLeeStudios
#selfie! I just loved this! it looks like you two have nailed it perfectly! Sims 4 Style! The cast of Lolita by The Elonian Cass
The Hawley Triplets by NotSoAngelic60 Wowowow hang on 1,2‌3! Now thats what I call a triple threat! Boys you have nailed this so well it's amazing! All 3 of you have got it going on and I know a few friends of mine who would swoon at the sight of you 3! LOOK out ladies here they come!
It's nice to see some different and cool looking people in the carpet! These two are set together perfectly and look like they are having fun doing it! P.S love the rainbow suspenders that's a winner ;)
Fuko and Lucky of Baka Rabu by Fadhil of Bahariawans
Now these two took their fashion and dressed it so well! I love the cool yet smooth looking style ladies! I can totally see others rocking this look in the future for Music Videos and Fashion shows! Totally owned it!
The leading ladies of Afterlife by Dice Smith It was so hard to pick! So many of you put so much effort into your Red Carpet pics,. If you didn’t get shown here, don’t worry, there is next time. I was amazed at all of the cool and fashionable outfits.
Lunxi
I really love this outfit! It is perfect for her! The dress colour matches her eyes and hair and it makes her look like a little stunner! I love this! Ill be keeping a eye on this one in the future!
Aimmie of Silenced by XxLittleAngelCakexX
I am taking away all cover up of my Sims characters for this message. This one comes from me, Crystal, the person behind SIFF and Simatography. I am a 46 year old Dietitian and Diabetes Educator. I work everyday with people who need my help and guidance, but more importantly they need my empathy and understanding. They need me to listen to them and trust me to guide them in their health management. Respect and non-judgement are two very important principles to me. I try to stand by them in my life outside of work also. At SIFF I have similar principles by which I choose to run this festival and our website. I have always wanted Simatography to be a place where people of all skill levels and experience can come and explore their creativity and feel proud of that accomplishment. Creativity is a life force for me personally. I feel that creativity is what soothes my soul more than anything when I am troubled. I wanted SIFF and Simatography to provide this for other people, because I know many of you feel the same. Admittedly I am not very good at some of the creative things that I try out, but I enjoy it all anyway. To me it is not about being the best or winning anything, but in being creative and feeling proud of my experiences. This too is what I strive to bring to SIFF. This season, particularly noted in the music video category, our polls revealed a very upsetting trend that goes against all that we stand for. We have known that this has been going on for years to some extent, and each year we try to find better ways to prevent it, but we do believe that the actions we have taken in the past, and our close monitoring of the polls has allowed us to feel confident that we have been awarding the winners fairly. Let me explain‌ Be warned it is very long and detailed because I felt it was important to be completely open and honest about what we are doing with this.
In the polls at the beginning we saw a trend that we expected. Random votes coming in at varied time intervals and for a number of different videos. Sometimes similar choices were made by each voter, but that is a normal pattern when some videos are expected to be voted on often. As the days went by we noticed a very big jump in the votes for three specific videos in a short span of time. Due to this suspicion we removed the original poll and replaced it with a new identical one. We left the original poll open because if it were a bot voting, then the bot would continue to vote for the original poll, but this did not happen. In our second poll we monitored every few hours, taking screen shots of the voting trends. Over the course of a few hours, the same three videos jumped in their numbers at a high rate, and at the exact same rate. This is to say that each of the three videos received the exact same number of votes during this time. What made it even more obvious that this was a manipulation of the polls, during this time NOT ONE SINGLE OTHER VOTE was cast for any of the remaining SIFF polls in any category. At this point in time three videos with less than 100 views, had greater than 100 votes, while one particular video by a person with over 7,000 followers, over 3,000 views and a direct link to the polls had even fewer votes than these videos had. (for the record this video was well in the running for 2nd place with very many more votes than these three videos before this pattern began) Clearly, this is a case of manipulation. So, we closed the polls and reopened with the message where we asked for people to revote. We chose to use a different poll provider for this, we used Google Polls. In Google polls we don’t have to manually track the voting pattern, Google Polls does this for us. This is what we saw happening repeatedly in several sections of the revote‌
Please note the timestamp on this voting pattern. This is NOT how fair voting appears in a normal poll where people are watching and voting randomly. Even if people are voting for their friends, it does not look like this.
A second pattern that we noticed in the original polls was a single vote being cast that caused a rapid rise in one single video. This is to say that the person voting was not choosing three videos as we request, but only voting for one over and over. We also noticed that at times these votes came in when no other votes came in to any other SIFF poll. This is what we saw in the Google Polls…
Once again rapid succession of votes coming to a single video. This was the same video we suspected of this in the original polls. I will also note that this person emailed me to ask why we are forcing people to vote for three videos. My reply was similar to this… “ At SIFF we want people to watch all of the machinima and vote fairly on their favourites, not just come to vote for their friend if they have not even bothered to watch anyone else’s machinima. A big part of the problem in the polls and why we reset them is because it looks like some people have been cheating.” Despite this email message, this person continued with the action that we just said was not a fair thing to do. So this brings up an important question…
IS IT OK FOR ME TO ASK FOR MY FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS TO VOTE FOR ME? The answer is YES! It is totally acceptable to do this. We hope that you will share SIFF with your friends and tell your followers about SIFF. We then hope that they will enjoy watching many of the great machinima, and if they vote for you that is great, but they will also fairly vote for other people who’s videos they watched. What is WRONG about this example above? What do we notice in this pattern? The votes all came in within a few seconds of each other. This does not happen when your friends and followers watch videos and choose to vote when they get a chance. This is clearly a group of people sitting around voting, OR someone logging in to several Google accounts at once and voting over and over.
All of this has created HOURS and HOURS of extra work for us. We are very concerned about how this affects other people who fairly participated. We had to make an executive decision on the winners of the Best Music Videos poll. Ÿ
We looked back to the original trend before this all started and considered those who were coming out ahead from the very start.
Ÿ
We reviewed all screen shots and discounted all votes that came in rapid succession voting for the same videos over and over
Ÿ
We awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd based on these remaining votes, without actually disqualifying those who we suspected of manipulation.
Unfortunately we had to discount a large number of votes, but I can assure you that we only discounted the sets that followed the above noted and VERY OBVIOUS patterns. We stand strongly behind our decision. Sadly this action by a few has tarnished the feeling of fair competition for all, and I hope it will serve as an important message of these points… Ÿ SIFF is not a popularity contest. SIFF is a celebration of creativity, where all can feel that they are competing FAIRLY. Ÿ We want all SIFF participants to feel proud of their creative abilities and of the willingness to practice, learn and improve over time. At SIFF we celebrate not only the winners, but of EVERYONE who participates. Ÿ You should always be proud of what you create because you put your heart and soul and hard work into it. If you don’t win, you should not feel any less proud of yourself. Over time, if you continue to grow, you too may win. Ÿ There is NOTHING TO BE PROUD OF if you win simply because you got all of your friends to sit at computers with you voting all at once, or if you repeatedly vote for yourself to try to force a win. This type of winning is meaningless. It is unfortunate if you cannot feel proud of your work and must have a fake win to feel good about what you have accomplished. Ÿ YES people with a lot of followers, or who are “popular” are very likely to win, but NONE of the winners’ votes showed any unusual or suspicious patterns. They tend to win because they have many viewers and viewers then vote, and because they have made some very very good machinima. But the winners are NOT always the ones with the most viewers. We have had many times where winners have been really new to machinima and don’t have many viewers. In the end, good machinima usually wins out - fair and square. Ÿ If you do not believe in these principles of fairness, then perhaps SIFF is not for you and we wish you good luck in other competitions you join.
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