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Jun Falkenstein recently blogged about a machinima documentary that she was in last summer. When I checked it out, I was surprised to see the all-star crew of machinimators that they assembled for it. They were asked to explain machinima as if the audience had never heard, or seen, of it.

In the video, Philip Debevoise, the President of Machinima.com, discusses what machinima is all about. Frank Dellario, of the Electric Sheep Company-owned ILL Clan, gives us a peek at how his team works as well. I really enjoyed seeing the variety of platforms that this mini-documentary highlighted, and I hope to see more coverage like this in the future!

[Via Stone Falcon Productions]

It looks like Anthony Zuiker and the Electric Sheep Company have made good on their promise to deliver fresh mysteries in the CSI sims of Second Life. Last month's episode revolved around an unidentified man that was murdered by one of three potential suspects. SL's most famous contract killer, Venus, may have been the culprit.

This month could get interesting, as Chris Carella, of ESC, blogged that the Venus storyline that aired in October will air again on February 27th. They will be temporarily increasing the amount of CSI sims in anticipation of new signups. In addition, they have a new Valentine's mystery for you to check out, as well as two new mysteries on the 27th.

However, I'm really curious as to when the conclusion will air. Was it affected by the Writers Guild strike? Don't leave us hanging, CBS!

In response to our story yesterday about Electric Sheep Company dropping a third of its staff, the Sheep's Valerie Williamson chimed in to assure us that Electric Sheep Company had grown tremendously through the year so far.

Maybe that's so, and I hate to look like I'm knocking Ms Williamson (I'm not), but that's straight out of the layoffs handbook.

In a shocking blog entry today, Jeremy Flagstaff noted that the Electric Sheep Company has laid off approximately one-third of their staff, or about 22 people. It has been previously noted that ESC had to cut back on the number of islands for CSI: NY, and now both AOL Pointe and Pontiac are pulling out of Second Life. This news should come as no surprise, but it's still heartbreaking to hear that it happened so close to Christmas.

While it is not known at this time exactly why the layoffs occurred, Jeremy speculates that they will be focusing on technology like OnRez. Joel Greenberg, whose job status is unknown at this time, announced on Twitter that ESC is shutting down their virtual ad network project. In a prophetic blog entry written last week by Rez Menoptra, he speculated on how long builds will last in virtual worlds and who will remember them.

Massively will update you with the latest news on this topic as we hear it. Stay tuned!