A look back by André Engelhardt at how Sound'r Film & Ton got started in the early 2000's
Metaverse is a term that has recently started to crop up again. It's really not that new though: At the end of 2003, after having worked two years in Amsterdam and Hilversum in the dutch TV industry, I moved to Hamburg, Germany when I received an invitation to beta test an app described as follows:
An online, connected, open and exclusively user created virtual world, 3D and infinite ...
It sounded so much like Neil Stephenson's "Metaverse" from his 1992 novel "Snow Crash" that I couldn't resist signing up.
After creating my avatar I was given a free plot of 512sqm of land on which I was able to build anything I wanted using the built-in tools. Creations were based on so called "prims", primitive geometric shapes like spheres and cubes. It was immediately clear what opportunities this held. A world in which everybody was able to freely create.
Within days this virtual world was sprawling with all kinds of creations. Clubs, museums, galleries, shops and anything you could think of (and could not). It was an explosion of creativity I had never experienced before, and never have again since. The name of the app? Second Lifeâ„¢ by Linden Research Inc..
At the time I was studying computer sciences at the University of Applied Sciences in Wedel, a suburb of Hamburg. However, when the opportunity arose to study online at renowned Berklee College of Music I dropped computer sciences in exchange for music production and technology and music business.
To earn a couple extra virtual bucks, I started creating so called Sound Spheres. Virtual objects that were meant to expand the soundscape of the virtual world. Initially these were basic, looping sounds but soon they got more complex using multiple layers, triggers, changes depending on time of day (virtual), multi-channel with surround sound. Something that wasn't possible without paying ridiculous licensing fees in the real world. Sound'r was born.
A wonderful feature in Second Life was the ability to listen to mp3-streams. It didn't take long before people realized that this was a way they could hold virtual concerts. I too tried my hand at giving a few concerts using my synthesizers, including an animated light show and later live video. This was the amalgamation of two booming technologies, virtual reality and internet radio that managed to actually drive each others business.
(At least until the RIAA / GEMA etc. started to very, very slowly notice what was going on in this "internet" thing.)
Initially technical limitations meant that only a few avatars could attend the concerts, around 10-30 people. Something they were able to do however was chat with each other without interrupting or disturbing other listeners. But not only could the audience chat amongst themselves, for the first time musicians could see what people were talking about in real time during their concert and respond via livestream.
When in 2005 the first businesses started taking an interest in the Metaverse, I adapted my business to offer consulting and organizing virtual events. I was only 24 years old but suddenly I had big corporations like IBM, Sun Microsystems, CMP Media and many more as my clients.
I will never forget the experience when well known CEOs from big corporations showed up to meetings as a guru flying on a cloud or a pink unicorn. Something that even times of Zoom meetings can not trump. Except maybe for that cat lawyer.
As I expanded my services I started filming, editing and live streaming these virtual events. This led to the idea of trying my hands at full film production entirely in virtual reality. This type of film making became known as Machinima, even though the term is slightly misused nowadays. Real actors controlled their avatars from their own computers at home in real time as I was filming them.
Of course making movies takes a lot of space so I rented a server with 65000 square meters exclusively for Sound'r. Complete with prop department and builders, green screen stages, water stages, indoor and outdoor set with mountains, jungles etc. Anything we needed could be created on the spot. Another advantage: always perfect weather and the sun only moved when, where and how we wanted it to!
The workflow was almost identical to real world filmmaking. It didn't take long until I had made contact with filmmakers in Los Angeles and got invited to present my concept of virtual filmmaking. This was especially of interest for the pre-visualization stage of filmmaking. And even though I wasn't the first to have this idea, I was one of the few who actually had a working film studio that so closely resembled real life. It felt somewhat strange sitting in an office where outside the windows tourists were being carted around on studio tours and I was giving these folks a studio tour on my laptop in virtual reality.
After a few years of working in research and development and many machinima productions later, I decided to start offering real world filmmaking myself. With the experience gathered in Hollywood and the affordability of digital film cameras I wanted to offer small and medium businesses the opportunity of high end film production. Still the focus of our business.
So that's how Sound'r Film & Ton actually started out in the Metaverse and only since around 2010 entered into real world filmmaking. To this day we use the tools and techniques I developed back then for pre-viz and experimenting on scripts to enable highly competitive pricing for high end productions.
And last but definitely not least, it so happened that I met my wife Ann during a virtual film shoot for IBM at my virtual film studio.
Here's a short clip shot in Second Life during its 6th birthday celebration: