MONTSERRAT: Kurston Brody’s “Quiet Sanctuary” snapshot won first prize in the 1-800-Flowers contest announced last night in a ceremony at Costa Del Sol. Brody will participate in a machinima filmed in Second Life and shown on one of the real life big screens in Times Square, New York City.

The video will consist of an interview of Brody in avatar form with voice added. It will be shown on the new 15-foot screen owned by CBS. The video will loop and is expected to be shown mid-November through December 2007.

Awards were presented by 1-800-Flowers Director of Special Projects and Assistant to the CEO Kal Winkler (Seth Lasser in real life). Five finalists were chosen from all entries and voting took place over a two week period of time. Winkler said “Each of them inspired us as we plan our Second Life presence by sharing what SL means to them.”

“When I looked at the winner’s entry, I had a good feeling it would be victorious; simple and elegant. It really helps us think about what flowers can do in Second Life,” Winkler said of “Quiet Sanctuary.”

The Second place entry went to Juliette Jannings with “Wind, Chimes and Chrysanthemums.” Winkler discussed this piece  saying, “Our second-place entry spoke poetically about all of the different senses they experience in Second Life; not just sight, but smell and touch can be an experience here, if you are inspired enough.”

The third-place winner went to “Style! Fashion! Play!” photographed by Yarosh Nohkan. This piece “focused on the ability to mold their own image in Second Life; not just clothes, of course, but their entire body.”

This may  be the first SL machinima of this size displayed in real life.

Dave Surface is the Cranial Tap CEO and co-founder. Cranial Tap designed this contest and will be running the video interview of Brody.

This contest, entitled “Fields of the Virtual World,” asked SL contestants to submit an in-world snapshot of their inspiration and write a 100-word essay on the topic.

1-800-Flowers has a product line called “Fields of the World” with bouquets from Israel, Ecuador, and other countries.

A summer flower show was held in June 2007 when 1-800-Flowers kicked off their SL presence. Guests received Happy Hour Bouquets, SL versions of the real life bouquets. The focus at that time was on personal attention to avatars rather than an elaborate build.

It is possible that parallel deliveries of virtual flowers in SL and real flowers may be implemented in the near future. See the 1-800-Flowers.com Second Life Web site