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Machinima by Silver and Goldie entered the 2010 Doritos® Crash the Super Bowl contest with a :30 commercial spot filmed entirely within the Second Life® virtual world.

“This is one more example of how enterprises can use Second Life,” said producer Beverly Lang, known in Second Life as Goldie Goodman.

The challenge for contestants is to produce a Doritos brand Super Bowl XLVI commercial that’s action-packed or funny.  The contest’s judges will choose six finalists to be awarded $25,000 and a trip to Florida, then the public will vote for the top three spots to air during the big game.

“We definitely believe that machinima is ready for prime time, and a Super Bowl ad competition is a unique opportunity to bring Second Life machinima to a much larger audience than ever before,” said director/editor David Lang, who is Silver Goodman in Second Life.  The Langs are the co-owners of the virtual world filmmaking firm, Machinima by Silver and Goldie.

Over 4000 entries were submitted by the contest deadline on November 9, 2009.  Silver and Goldie’s ad, “Experience Doritos,” appears to be the only spot produced as machinima, which is the art and process of creating and capturing real-time rendered CGI in a virtual world.  Machinima imagery is familiar to a large portion of the U.S. population:  the over 69% who play video games and the millions who generate $1.4 billion in revenues for online virtual reality games and communities.

“The sponsors provided a selection of pre-licensed music themes for contestants to use in the spots,” explained Goldie.  “When we heard the rock theme, we knew we wanted to create an action-packed spot featuring an energetic band of avatars and dancing Doritos, something to illustrate the brand’s promise that the powerful crunch of Doritos unleashes an immersive, memorable experience.”

Representing six featured flavors, the Doritos bag avatars in Silver and Goldie’s spot don’t have faces or arms.  But each conveys a unique personality related to its flavor, by sporting distinctive footwear, headwear and accessories.   Cool Ranch Doritos, for example, kicks up his silver-spurred cowboy boots, while Spicy Nacho Doritos boogies with bling and fiery burst effects in high heels and a top hat.

The scenes were captured uncompressed at 1080i, edited on Final Cut Pro and mastered in high definition.

“It would be awesome to see our spot aired during the Super Bowl,” Goldie said, adding that they realize that goal may be a long shot.

“Regardless,” Silver added, “it was a fun spot to make and we hope it will advance the acceptance of machinima as a viable, creative art form suitable for commercial promotions and corporate communications.”

Watch Silver and Goldie’s “Experience Doritos” ad here:  http://www.silverandgoldie.com/doritos.htm