At 14:00 SLT on Saturday September 13th, the premiere for the first episode of Virtually News with AvaJean Westland, will take place at the LEA theatre and on YouTube, SLArtist and Vimeo.

The machinima, created by actress/writer Gameela Wright (AvaJean Westland in Second Life), is a mock/spoof news piece in the vein of SNL’s “Weekend Update” and “The Onion News Network. In it, Gameela takes an irreverent take on current events and pop culture and pushes the boundaries while using animation as the filter.

Based in New York, Ms. Wright has over 15 years experience in theatre, television, voice overs, film and commercials. She has appeared in such top-rated US shows such as Blue Bloods, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and Orange is the New Black.

As in AvaJean Westland in Second Life, Ms. Wright has worked with the Avatar Repertory Company, and also developed projects as Virtual Girl Productions in Association with Running Lady Studios,collaborating with Suzy Yue of Running Lady on machinima projects such as The Twilight Sim and Name That Schmuck!

In 2013, she took over hosting duties for the Second Life leg of the 2013 Relay for Life. She has also appeared in the popular film noir series, The Blackened Mirror, in which she both portrayed the character of Martha Pearse, she played an invaluable role in the show’s production, puppeteering a number of the characters on behalf of those actors unable to be in Second Life for the actual filming, creating a physicality to the characters to match the voice performances.

In addition, she created machinima for the Project Homeless campaign (The Quiet Dark Wind) and the Sci-Fi Film Festival, both organised by Screen My Shorts and The University of Western Australia (UWA). Her entry for the Sci-Fi film Festival, Centuries Past, took home two awards.

It is her hope to use machinima as a way to bridge real and second life and to help cement machinima as a form of animation that appeals to all.

Virtually News with AvaJean Westland will premiere at 14:00 SLT on Saturday September 13th.

Requested dress for the event is upscale casual to formal – whichever you choose. Please keep scripts and prim counts low. It is hoped that actors and crew from the film will be on hand to talk about the making of the piece and to answer questions.

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