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Games

Machinima-Maker, The Celestial Elf, Brings Film Into A Fantastical Videogame World

We talked with the Digital Druid about how he uses videogame engines to illustrate the ancient, the fantastical, and the mythic

Celestial Elf, as the mysterious online figure calls himself, uses crude 3D animation to celebrate the earth and its mystery. He creates Machinima, films made using videogame engines, but unlike most Machinima, which tends to deal with videogame-related themes, Celestial Elf uses the medium to illustrate the ancient, the fantastical, and the mythic.

One of the first Machinima videos I remember seeing was the Red vs Blue series: a series of comedy videos that went viral in 2008 where gun wielding Spartans from the videogame Halo subvert their roles by engaging in very human dialogue. Red vs Blue is a great representation of most Machinima, where the video makers use the characters and locations of the game world to create something akin to videogame fan fiction (though most tend to be SFW). Celestial Elf’s work seems unusual in that he uses the videogame engine as a tool, not as source material. There may be others who do the same, and I encourage readers to share their work in the comments section.

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Celestial Elf works in SecondLife where he collaborates with avatar and landscape designers to create video to accompany his poetry and his stories. His videos recall the early days of 3D graphics, but manage to evoke the beauty of nature and the mystery of ancient spirituality despite their blatant artificiality. In the language of film he acts as both the writer and the director, working together with set designers, costume designers, make up artists and composers to bring his works to life.

Eostre/Equinox from Celestial Elf on Vimeo.

His work draws on characters and scenery from all sorts of fantasy narratives. His 2011 video “Eostre/Equinox” has elves, faeries, bears, townspeople and a rather gaunt Easter bunny enjoying the wonders of springtime, while his most recent video “The Faerie Trees” serves as both a celebration of trees’ mythic importance and an attempt to raise awareness about the diseases and pests which plague England’s forests. Seeing the familiar characters and locations of the fantasy world presented through the low polygon count lens of SecondLife complete with its glitches and stutters creates a surreal and entrancing effect which I can not seem to pull myself away from.

The Creators Project got in touch with Celestial Elf to talk about his FirstLife versus SecondLife, his Nordic inspirations, and meeting his real world wife in a virtual atmosphere. His work shows that Machinima can serve as an inexpensive way for filmmakers to put their visions out into the world. Who needs Weta Workshop anyways?

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The Creators Project: What is your name, where are you from and where are you living?

Celestial Elf: I usually introduce myself as an Electronic Elf, Digital-Druid, Pagan Poet, Shamanic Soul & Machinima Maker, Celebrating Nature, Spirit and the Ancient Ways. My name is Celestial Elf. "Celestial" because this denotes the heavens, the freedom of the skies and the beyond. "Elf" because of my affinity with the ancient Germanic and Norse origins of the term (Old Norse; álfar) describing semi-divine beings endowed with magical powers which they may use for the benefit of mankind. More than mere myth and legend, mankind can be elevated to the rank of Elves after death' and in my view this death is not a literal demise but rather a spiritual transformation and awakening.

I live in London UK although there is some confusion as to whether I’m actually living in Alfheim and just visiting the world during waking hours.

What does it mean to be an eco-druid? How would you describe modern druid culture?

In respect of my being an Eco-Druid--the short version, because I find my spirituality in and through Nature.

For a fuller contextualization, because the Norse, along with Celtic, Slavic, Vedic, Hellenic (Greek), and others, are part of the cultural-linguistic family known as Indo-European, and using the term 'Druid' in the sense of Indo-European 'priest or intellectual' in contrast to Warrior or Farmer, this included Healers, Bards, Shaman, Seers (diviners), Historians, Judges, etc.

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In this view, Druid is one who manages arcane traditions and information on behalf of the community. Whilst they did also manage law in earlier times, I see the role as being more closely tied to the ancient and resurgent modern focus of advising over nature matters, reminding people of our intrinsic interconnection with all of nature and our need to respect her ways. King Arthur Pendragon is a very active Eco Druid and example in this respect as he peacefully demonstrates across Britain on behalf of natures and traditional spiritual causes.

To be an Eco Druid then means that one recognizes and prioritizes through action in their life the sacred aspect imminent in nature and that one makes a stand by some means to protect and serve the ecology and environment. I see this as both our spiritual heritage and our pressing duty as resident guardians of the Earth and all her life forms.

What are some of your inspirations?

I would include both European and Norse mythology and fairytales, as well as cultural traditions explored by historical authors such as Ronald Hutton (i.e. The Blood and Mistletoe) and spiritual ones such as explained in The Faery Faith by Serena Roney-Dougal.

Perhaps the best explanation of all is J.L. Stanley's Catechism For A Witch’s Child: When they ask to see your gods, your book of prayers,
Show them lines drawn delicately with veins on the underside of a bird's wing,
Tell them you believe in giant sycamores mottled and stark against a winter sky,
And in nights so frozen stars crack open spilling streams of molten ice to earth,
And tell them how you drink a holy wine of honeysuckle on a warm spring day,
And of the softness of your mother who never taught you death was life's reward,
But who believed in the earth and the sun and a million, million light years of being.

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Your Machinima largely deals with natural themes. Why do you choose to address those themes in such an unnatural medium?

Machinima is a remarkable medium that may easily be made from ones own home with minimum and affordable technology. I use a Windows XP installation and use a Fraps screen camera to capture the 'live' action of the virtual reality SecondLife where I arrange my scenes and animations.

Do you create your character models and landscapes, or do you pull them from another source?

As regards the actual scenes and locations, the characters and animations themselves, other than dreaming of a story and creating a film script from it, this is where perhaps most time is spent planning for these animations. Whilst I am very fortunate to know some amazingly creative craftspeople such as Nadine Reverie of 3D Trees who made most of the trees that you can see in my Faerie Trees machinima film.

Nevertheless, there is a great deal of editing locations and creating characters and their costumes. I would refer the adventurous explorer of diversity in avatars to 'Grendels' avatar shop who make many remarkable creatures which I sometimes use as found or more often edit to fit the needs of my films.

I love the soundtracks of your videos. How do you usually source your soundtracks?

Regards the soundtracks in my films, I have once again been very fortunate in this aspect as my stories appeal to some of my favorite musicians who allow me to use their work in my films. Recently, Trouvere Medieval Minstrels, but also Lisa Thiel, The Dolmen, World Tree Music, Maggie-Sand Serpentyne and others. In addition to these musics I tend to draw on Freesound for Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial sound samples such as of the raven calling or the wind howling to add further depth and realism to my films.

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The Druid's Parable from Celestial Elf on Vimeo.

What would you like your work to achieve?

I make nature and mythology based machinima animations to share my Druidic messages of care for nature, the environment and all of life-kind, by the means of infotainment in a well-received medium of theses times (digital-films). This is with the hope that some among the viewers will both enjoy an be uplifted by them--but more pressingly--be inspired by them to recognize the issues I address and take whatever actions available to them, great or small, to further the causes considered. Be it sharing my film to signing a petition, or changing their life in some way. As a minimum I hope to seed and nurture a deeper wider spiritual-ecological awareness of the sacred world we live in.

Do you spend much time in Second Life, or do you use it primarily for your Machinima?

In respect of how much time I spend in SecondLife, I am very happy to say that having met my real life wife Mrs Elf in Second Life and married her a few years later in our First Life/World, I now spend a bit less time than I did previously in SecondLife itself. But I love it none the less and do get in whenever I can, although because of my drive to make more films and the time it takes to research for them, arrange, set up, film, re-film and edit them--most of my time in Second Life these days revolves around my film making adventures.

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Can you tell me a little more about the Second Life druid community?

There are thriving Druid, Pagan, Elven and Faerie communities in Second Life which I am happy to visit from time to time as life allows. I mention Enchantress Sao's very friendly and welcoming Pagan realms at Gaia Rising and Anam Turnas where events, rituals, classes and gatherings are regularly held to honour the sacred seasons and to learn more about the spiritual paths within nature, as also do the Druids Of The Second Realm, an offshoot seed group of OBOD (The Order Of Bards Ovates and Druids in 'Real' Life).

Do you feel that you get something from Second Life that would be hard to get from the outside world?

To explain what I get from Second Life that I do not get from First Life is difficult to summarize succinctly because there is so much--but in brief, my experiences in Second Life have actualized my creative persona to a greater degree than before.

My imagination has room to explore the sense of flying which I had dreamt of doing since I was a child and of being able to become whatever I wish such as a Dragon or even a Tree, in a way that through the medium of my films I can meaningfully share with others. I also am aware that some do have health issues in their First Life and the experience of Second Life facilitates a greater community integration and socialization of such people who might otherwise be restricted by their physical capabilities. So the experience that I have in Second Life is one that overcomes all obstacles of physicality and culture (Babel Fish translators are widely used and freely available to aid communication between those of foreign tongues) to reveal the inner self of each person and to enable that self to creatively explore their persona and identity.

Most MMORP [Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing] games that I have encountered or heard of are very constrained in there physicality, their movements range, and their causes--e.g. to find a treasure or destroy an enemy etc. Second Life, in comparison, has no such imposed objectives or restrictions of capability, other than any that the participants or residents (rather than players) may wish to undertake. This is very much a make-it-yourself sort of alternate reality in which countless possibilities are given room to develop as they please.

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/celestialelf
Blog: http://celestialelfdanceoflife.blogspot.co.uk/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CelestialElf