Mind Body Spirit Artist Series: Celestial Elf

A little over a year ago we received a message posted on our FaceBook Fan Page from someone named Celestial Elf.  He kindly extended an invitation to our readers to watch and enjoy one of his 'little machinima films'.  The film was called Beltane Blessings and I was not familiar with Celestial Elf or his work, so I clicked on the link, sat back, and found myself transported through time to experience one of the most uplifting, enchanting, intelligently written and portrayed depictions of the historic, ceremonial celebration of Spring. I enjoyed it so much that over the next year I found myself watching more of Celestial Elf's machinima film work, and I wanted to know about it.  What are these films?  How does he make them?  Where does he find the material for his research?  Those are just a few of the questions that he answered for me during the course of our interview.  I'm very pleased for the opportunity to interview Celestial Elf, and I hope you find his world and the art of machinima as fascinating and enjoyable as I do!

                                                                                                          ~ diane fergurson

From - King Arthur's Summer Solstice

MBS:  Can you tell us a little bit about your background.  How

did you get started making films?

Celestial Elf:  I have always taken great delight in exploring life, nature, art,

philosophy and spirituality with an open mind, and in drawing and

painting, reading literature and writing poetry of a similar tone.

Following a stint at Art College many years ago however I had found

that the structured Arts seemed to be very restricted to mercantile

purposes such as advertising, the Fine Art's seemed to be more about

intellectual game playing rather than the Arts themselves. Whilst I do

enjoy both of these aspects to some extent, I have always felt that

Art may inspire and perhaps convey some more meaningful messages than

product sales, and could possibly be more accessible than intellectual

extrapolations. For these reasons I decided to follow my own intuition

and to explore paths of my own, believing as I do that part of the

higher purpose of Art is self exploration, the other part being to

share that with others and thus present new perspectives,

opportunities and examples to the community at large.

I came to find the Virtual World environment where I am currently

filming machinima largely by chance, perhaps I was guided by my Muse.

My first experience of these machinima films was to see them on you

tube, and to realize that they had been made on home computers with a

minimum of technology, hardware or software - this was a challenge

that I could approach even on my fairly limited home computer. I was

enthralled by the opportunity to repossess the media which informs our

lives, to re-purpose the cultural misrepresentations which in my view

are propagated by the International Film and Animation studios who

provide a lifetimes worth of constantly running  hot and cold

diversions to entertain us. To provide an alternative perspective to

such sentimentalizing sensationalism and simultaneous dumbing down of

any wider meaning or natural context for the stories we are drip fed

in our daily media, I want to remind people that nature is awesome,

that to take part and create ones own life is more rewarding than to

consume the fantasy of another. Via animated info-tainment then I hope

to re-empower the imaginations of the viewer with my short stories

that if ever so briefly portray a different set of attitudes, to

contribute towards a shift away from the nature neglecting world view.

I hope to begin in a small way to inspire others perhaps with greater

means to reclaim misdirected media, memes and mores by sharing the

simple life & nature respecting moral messages in folk and

fairy-tales, the meanings of traditional mythologies and more....

For my purposes then, a Virtual Reality 'game' environment where one

can fly, become a dragon or a cloud, create environments to film

within that would be far out of reach for any real world budget, other

than for media moguls perhaps, all these factors and the relative

simplicity of the operating system with which to film my stories on my

home computer propelled me with great enthusiasm and excitement along

the path of making machinima.

MBS:  How long ago did you start making the machinima films?

Celestial Elf:  I began making machinima films late Autumn 2009, tentatively exploring

what could be done with the software and being very excited to see the

first results. I carried on intermittently, but found the actual

process demanding and difficult to manage. By Spring 2010 overcoming

my reservations about how to manage the filming and editing, I began

to plan the films in a more organized way and it would be fair to say

that I got the bug, loved what I was doing and became a machinima

hobbyist. Whilst I currently have about 52 films uploaded and online,

I have made a few more than that but as my skills and editing have

improved over time, I have looked back at the earlier films - some

just had to go. A few more of the earlier films may be quietly

retiring soon, thus hopefully leaving my channel at a higher general

standard. In respect of the changes in standards over time, I think

that anyone who applies themselves to any practice should see

improvements over time, but in my case this was helped along by the

helpful insights and constructive criticism of fellow machinima makers

whom I met and shared films with at The Second Life Machinima Artists Guild
an online community of similar machinima hobbyists, and where I

am now one of the Moderators supporting newer arrivals in the field.

MBS:  The films seem very labor intensive.  There really is

quite a bit to them...the writing and research involved combined with

the technical end of it.  About how long does it take you to complete one?

Celestial Elf: In terms of how long these films take to make, there is no easy

answer, but the simple one is that varies. When I first began making

machinima, the planning process and subsequent time spent editing the

film footage was relatively short, I took an idea, found a location

and set about filming, all within a few days.

I have however learned that to spend more time planning ahead reduces

the levels of stress involved for me in making these films and allows

for a better organized film. For a brief example of the time scales

involved, if I am starting from scratch then I have to conceive of and

write an idea, story or poem and could spend a week or more over this

aspect alone. Alternately if I am adapting a film to an already

existing song or story as I did recently with Lynda Tallis' wonderful

short story The Tree Of Life, then this time outlay is not needed. It

may take a week to find or edit a musical soundtrack or arrange to use

a friends music such as that of World Tree Music, or The Dolmen. This

is a very central aspect to my own plotting of a films scenes, as I

try to coordinate the moods and views represented with the timing and

emotional timbre of the music. Up-to a further week may be needed to

plot locations, animations, costumes and props before I can complete

with a few blocks of filming and a day or two editing. I should

mention perhaps that I make these films in my free time at home and so

do not refer to a working week of time but rather all the mornings,

evenings and weekends available to me. From start to finish then I may

hope to complete a project within a month.

MBS:  Tell us a little bit more about the process you go

through to make a film.

Celestial Elf:  Once I have a story, next I research its links and associations and

write a blog post based on this research. This section sometimes gives

rise to new lines of thoughts, for example following my recent

research for my film The Elf Knight and The Faerie Queen, I proposed

that the song which I used in the film, Scarborough Fair by World Tree

Music, may have its origins in Spencer's book The Faerie Queen.

After the content and the meaning are resolved, I begin adapting for

screenplay and this entails breaking all the sections into scenes,

making notes over what each shall contain. This may be the lengthiest

aspect of planing a machinima film for me and I'm happy to say that it

can be managed with a good notebook from an easy chair over an

extended time period. I step into a visualization process to image the

environments and locations needed, the atmospheres and sky settings,

the times of day/night or other  each scene should be. I also consider

the key characters for each scene, the look, outfit and animations

they shall need for each section of the scene ( a finished scene of

one minute could have anywhere from five to twenty sub-scenes

involved). Once I have a general outline of these factors then I find,

make or edit them as needed.

A further word on environments, costumes and animations, wherever

possible I prefer to use relatively authentic props, for example The

Elf Knight dances a historically correct Renaissance dance, The

Wizards Treeing Exercise was filmed in a Virtual Wales, clothes and

other props used are often correct to the period such as those made by

Trasgo Beaumont of Le Grenier du Château and Laufey Markstein of

Trident Historical Designs.

The matter of supporting actors cannot be stressed to highly enough.

Whilst some films work well with only one or two characters, on

occasion more are needed onscreen all at once. It is therefore very

helpful to have a group of friends willing to step up and act at

agreed times, for which I owe many thanks to numerous friends. However

in the Virtual Reality environment of Second Life which I use for

filming, people are online from around the entire world and

coordinating time zones can be a mind boggling exercise. For example

Second Life uses one time zone, I am in another in UK (GMT) friends in

Germany are an hour ahead and friends on the East or West Coast of USA

are on others, so my 3pm in the afternoon maybe be 2am in the morning

for one actor and 10pm at night for another. In consequence I try to

restrict actors for any scene to a relatively close time zone.

Finally moving on to an agreed set of days/times for the actual

filming, this process also requires a fair amount of pre-planning for

example the camera angles and views to use, whether I shall have zoom

shots or panning from right to left and etc etc. Once all things are

in place, perhaps a general guideline might be that twenty minutes or

so to fine tune online settings will enable anywhere from twenty

minutes to two hours of running the camera off and on per scene in the

film. A film of five minutes length could easily entail perhaps five

to eight hours filming, spread over a number of days as the actors and

time zones allow. But filming is not the end of the process as we now

move on to editing the footage. As with the planning, when I started

making machinima I spent minimal time editing as I was excited to see

my story come to life, but have learned that to spend longer over this

results in a better presented film overall.

Beltane Blessing

MBS:  Many of your films that I have seen revolve around

various themes that take place during the Renaissance period.

(approximately) What is it about this particular period in history

that draws you in?

Celestial Elf:  Its true that recently a few of my films have been set in Renaissance

period, particularly The Elf Knight and The Faerie Queen, but in

general I wouldn't say that I'm attached to any specific period as

such. But I do like to present aspects of relatively recent history,

such as the medieval world and soon thereafter, for the simple reason

that these times before the Industrial Revolution and the rise of a

modern mechanized world, still worked hand in glove with nature and

her cycles, valued the older traditions and accepted the immanence of

spirit in all of life. People were still familiar with the association

of supernatural powers such as elves and spirits and respected them in

their daily life. Some even sought their guidance as may be seen in

the interesting life and works of John Dee, trusted adviser to Queen

Elizabeth Ist and one of the most learned men of his age, who

straddled the worlds of science and magic and devoted much effort

attempting to commune with angels and learn the universal language of

creation to bring about the pre-apocalyptic unity of mankind. Such

views are twice as relevant now that science has gifted us with the

ability to start such apocalypse on a moments notice and that our

chemical agro businesses and farming methods threaten to deprive

future generations not only of safe and wholesome sustenance, but of

the very environments that support our rich and diverse world of life

itself.

Whilst many traditional stories, legends and fairy-tales are thought

to contain encoded moral messages and spiritual guidance, perhaps the

clearest presentation of the rich spiritual perspectives that

flourished in our earlier North European heritage might be

E.M.W. Tillyard's book 'The Elizabethan World Picture'. This book

presents the medieval view of The Chain Of Being - the idea of a

hierarchical universe ordained by God and the interrelatedness of all

creation. Links higher on the Chain possessed greater intellect,

mobility, and capability than those lower on the Chain. Accordingly,

the higher links had more authority over the lower. For instance,

plants only had authority and ability to rule over minerals, while

spiritual beings had greater capability than man. Whilst I prefer

terms like co-operate than rule and hold a more pantheistic than

monotheistic view, as I feel that divine energies imbue all of the

Universe, this book nevertheless provides a wonderful glimpse into the

prevailing earlier holistic spiritual perspective. It also shares a

great deal with even older cultural views and these earlier views are

now beginning to resurface in neo pagan theories such as of Lovelock's

Gaia hypothesis which proposes that all organisms and their inorganic

surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and

self-regulating complex system, that the planet itself is one unified

living organism. In a nutshell then, I believe that looking to earlier

times to inform the present enables people to identify with and act

upon deeper underlying principles which have been occluded in our rush

to scientific modernity, much as sight of the stars and a hushed

appreciation of our place within an astonishing Universe has been

clouded out from our night skies and heart minds by the dazzle of

street lights.

MBS: The first machinima film of yours that I saw was

Beltane Blessing.  I completely fell in love with it. So

beautifully done, it really captured the joyous spirit of that

holiday.  May 1st is Beltane and this interview will be posted sometime in

May. People in the US are probably more familiar with the holiday as

May Day instead of Beltane, although that's not really quite the same.

Would you mind briefly explaining what Beltane is, and also why you

chose to make one of your films about this celebration?

Celestial Elf:  In the Northern Hemisphere May 1st or May Day was the traditionally

the first day of Summer, celebrated with rites and festivities

including Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen and dancing around a

Maypole. Ancient celebrations included the festival of Flora, the

Roman goddess of flowers, Walpurgis Night celebrations in the Germanic

countries and the Gaelic Beltane. The name 'Beltane' originates from

the Celtic god, Bel - the 'Bright One', and the Gaelic 'Teine' meaning

fire, thus 'Bealtaine' means 'Bright Fire'.  Because fire was believed

to have purifying qualities, animals were driven between two Beltane

fires set on the hills to cleanse them of evil spirits, bring

fertility and ensure a good yield, before being placed in their

Summer-land pastures. Similarly the Celts themselves also leapt over

these fires for fertility, purification and blessing.

As the triple Goddess (Brigid) worshiped by the Ancient Britons moves

through her various phases of the cycle of the year, Beltane sees the

womanly-aspect of the Summer Goddess banish the Old Crone aspect of

the Winter Goddess in readiness for the maternal time and the fruits

of nature to follow. As The May Queen, Goddess of Spring and Queen of

the Fairies, she symbolizes purity, growth and renewal.

The May Queen’s male Consort, the May King dressed in spring leaves,

ivy and evergreens, is ‘The Green Man’( a name coined by Lady Raglan

in 1939). also called Jack-in-the-Green, Puck, Robin Goodfellow, in

France- Father May, in Russia - the Little Leaf Man, at Beltane is

reborn with a wild exhilarating dance that celebrates his youth and

this new summer.

The Maypole represents this dance, the unwinding of the spiral of life

and the union of the male and female energies of the Goddess and the

God. The red and white Maypole ribbons are intertwined and plaited as

the dancers weave amongst themselves around the pole, the dancers then

retrace their steps to unravel the ribbons, thus releasing the

blessings of there conjoined energies into their lives and

communities.

I chose to celebrate this great quarter day of the sacred year with a

machinima film because whilst there are many Beltane festivals, there

does not seem to be much by way of story or film that portrays quite

the intimate and personal aspect of magic and wonder that this time

once held. Certainly the Beltane Fire Festival on Calton Hill in

Edinburgh provides a spectacular re-visioning of this ancient Celtic

Fire Festival (on the night of the 30th April-morning of May 1st), and

gatherings such as at Avebury stone circle (although not necessarily

on the day itself) provide a smaller occasion to mark the day. I

wanted to briefly indicate both aspects, the magickal night with its

fires of blessing and the joyful day to follow which leads to the

Summerlands. I was very fortunate to have a piece of music for this

film provided by the pagan band The Dolmen which along with the

incantatory blessing that I modeled after Druid Rhetorics from the

ancient Irish tales, convincingly conveys the Beltane Blessing.

The Night Before Christmas

MBS:  What do you hope the viewer comes away with after

engaging with one of your films?

Celestial Elf:  I would be very happy to think that a viewer has watched with enough

 interest to become involved in one of my films and would hope that they might make some connections between the vaguely Tolkien like imagery and music used with the films content, story and message. That these stories are based in our own traditional mythologies and legends rather than fascinating flights of fantasy, would ideally inspire in some among the viewers an interest in the themes represented, such as of pagan seasonal celebrations of nature, of environmental concerns over preserving and protecting biodiversity such as the bees and the trees, and over more personal matters such as how we show love in our lives....If any of these aspects inspires even one viewer to look further and find the magic in their own life, then I would consider that these films have succeeded in contributing to a brighter and more caring world.

The Song of Amergin

MBS:  What's next for you?  What are you currently working on?

Celestial Elf: I am reluctant to reveal what I am currently working on until such a time as so much preparation has been accomplished that the end is a mere matter of technical details. However I can promise that I am continuing with the exposition and reclamation of magic and mystery in our modern lives by representing of natures marginalized or neglected themes woven into an ongoing appeal to all viewers to celebrate the sacred in their own lives. I think it might be safe to say then that unexpected Elven and Spiritual spokespersons shall continue to set forth diverse enchantments with a view to inspire and delight.

MBS:  What has your experience been with showing your films online?

Celestial Elf: I have been as delighted at the response to some of these films as I

have been with the fun of making them. True I sometimes feel that as a

genre Second Life machinima is somewhat under rated and has a

comparatively small niche audience when compared with the popularity

of for example Japanese Manga animation adventure films, or the

machinima equivalent of a trans national enterprise, the Machinima.com

channel on you tube. Machinima.com accepts films from its contributing

members and hosts them under its own identity, however the majority of

film content seem to be biased towards battle games and similar high

action escapades and whilst they do get good publicity and are widely

seen with he channel getting 70 Million views on you tube by 2011,

personally I feel that it is time for machinima content to branch out

and begin to make a place for itself in the semi serious film world.

Increasingly the medium is becoming to be recognized through

competitions such as the annual 48 Hour Film Project Machinima

Competition and with support of renowned film producers such as Peter

Greenaway (director of The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover with

Helen Mirren, and The Pillow Book with Ewan McGregor, who has been a

judge on the 48 Hour Machinima Film Project ) who describes machinima

as “a very sophisticated tool that combines traditions of painting

with cinema and the graphic arts in present tense terms that permits

visual expression of language like never before.” and said that “The

future of film is in Second Life.” Whilst I do not take part in such

competitions myself, it is encouraging that this medium as a whole is

gaining in public awareness.

Taliesins Battle of the Trees

MBS:  What advice do you have for others who wish to make films or peruse some other artistic endeavor?

Celestial Elf:  Firstly I have to state my belief that everyone is gifted in some way or another and that whilst others may fail to recognize ones creative endeavors to start with, particularly if they are in a less well recognized area of creativity, nevertheless one should have confidence in ones own vision, enjoy what they are doing and follow their own star. I saw this comment recently and I think it is a completely relevant to this question, 'Follow your dreams, they know the way'. The second hurdle for many of us may well be technical mastery of their chosen art and for this nothing but practice practice practice can improve the outcome, as well as perhaps joining a peer support group such as in my case The Second Life Machinima Artists Guild mentioned above, where you will be able to share your arts and hopefully get constructive criticism and supportive feedback over how to improve. Above all have fun, believe in what you are doing and keep on keeping on

MBS: Before we conclude, I know that there were some environmental related things that you would like to mention -

Celestial Elf:  This might be a good moment to invite people to take action and sign

the various E-Petitions that are linked under some of the videos and

then to share those videos so that others may easily find and sign the

petitions too. The Bee Myth has a link to The Friends Of The Earth

petition to save the Bees, Stonehenge Is Our Temple has one calling

for Return Of The Ancestors who were dug and removed from that site,

and The Tree Of Life has a Save Our Ancient Forests petition for The

Woodland Trust.

~ thank you!

You can read more about Celestial Elf and his work on his blog.

Many of his films are available on YouTube.

Links to other interviews in the Mind Body Spirit Artist Series.

  Follow the daily updates of the Mind Body Spirit Marketplace on Facebook and Tumblr.