User:Douglas gayeton/Molotov alva

"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 existence in Petaluma, California into a new (digital) existence inside an online world called Second Life.

PLOT SYNOPSIS
The documentary consists of ten parts or "dispatches". Each purports to be an actual video diary filmed within Second Life by Molotov Alva.

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". The two eventually decide to travel together.

4. "Some Friends He Made": Molotov learns how to make friends in Second Life and even discovers their obsessions and

5. "Oh The Places They Will Go"

6. "Molotov Perplexed"

7. "Somewhere Out There"

8. "Flower Power"

9. "Action / Reaction"

10. "Molotov Alva Will Live Forever"

PRODUCTION HISTORY
The film was commissioned in 2006 by VPRO, a Dutch television broadcaster, and Submarine, a Dutch television and internet production company.

Along with Italian editor Pier Giorgio Provenzano, Douglas Gayeton made the entire documentary without leaving his Petaluma, California bedroom.

The first dispatch, titled "Out of His Skin", was leaked to You Tube in February 2007 and was for a brief period the highest rated video in the world on that service.

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 Film Festival, the Rome Film Festival, Vidfest, 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 television series which premiered on You Tube.

The first six episodes of "Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator" were first broadcast in May, 2008 on Cinemax,,. The four additional episodes in the series were distributed via Video On Demand, I Tunes, and You Tube, making it the first multi-platform distribution of an American television series.