NESTA suggestions:
"Tell us about the key team members who have been working on the project so far, about their track records and relevant experience, and what their roles and responsibilities were. We also want to know about other facilities and support that you have had access to up until now. This is also an opportunity to tell us about any key suppliers / third parties that have so far been crucial to the development of your idea."
Please see "Team" attachment for biography and references of key team members.
Michela Ledwidge has been researching and developing the idea using thequality.com resources and prototyping capabilities. Activities have included script-writing, short film production, interactive product research, informal focus groups moderation, analysis of technology standards, and participation in revelant online communities.
Damon O'Connell has been responsible for researching the film production and post-production pipelines based on the envisaged special effects. He has been compiling a list of post-production issues and costs to take account of in planning. Damon has also sourced panarora photographic expertise (Michael Eleftheriades), and liaised with post production companies.
Damon and Simon Millgate have begun sketching concept art for SANCTUARY
based on the script and my own story-boards.
Dr. Mike Roberts has worked with me with me on the technical architecture of the console product, the rhythm game (GROOVER) and a Flash-based animatic which I will use for visualisation as the project progresses. He has also been in contact with game technology companies to assess what relevant technologies are available at what price.
ADVISORS
Robert Bowerman has drawn up use case diagrams to assist in architectural planning and identifying prototyping requirements.
Christine Coorey has advised on all finance and budgetary matters for the project including the sales strategy, exit strategy and company valuation.
Archie Maddan has advised on a corporate structure how to best structure this project and subsequent license agreements. He has also brokered introductions to a film finance company.
Dorothy Crouch has provided advice on securing a graphic novel publishing deal for the film franchise without prejudicing a film deal.
OTHER PEOPLE AND ORGANISATIONS
The following people and organisations have also contributed information on request without joining the team as formal advisors (under an NDA).
John Broomhall has advised on how to plan and produce the rhythm game component of the film, based on his experience on console game titles such as Pop Idol.
Grant Dean and Klaude Thomas have provided a breakdown of how interactive financing works from the perspective of large publishers (Midway Games and SCI respectively).
Kurt Ralze and Ali Momeni, renowned composers and performers who use their own virtual audio/video instruments, have advised on how to make the film assets useful for live performance.
BDE, now trading as ALTNet, has provided information on the current state of play in P2P businesses including Kazaa.
http://www.altnet.com/
Criterion Software have offered their product suite (Renderware Graphics and Renderware Studio). Renderware is arguably the leading "middleware" game technology and has been used on many world-class console games like "Grand Theft Auto III". Renderware would facilitate developing a product that could be released on different consoles (e.g. both XBox and PS2).
http://www.csl.com/
Valve Software have provided details of the Steam SDK (software develoment kit) with the project under NDA so we can determine its applicability. Valve has also provided a cost breakdown model so we can assess whether it will be viable to distribute the console product online via Steam.
http://www.steampowered.com/
Future Publishing (e.g. CGI magazine, 3D World) have advised on the feasibility of including SANCTUARY on a DVD covermount for at least one high circulation titles. Increasingly this will become more and more viable as DVD drives become standard. At present, publishers of covermounts do a split print run (DVD/CD) to ensure that people can access the content.
http://www.3dworldmag.com/
Various bands including Nurotica, Turbulent Sound System and The Dilaters, have given clearance to use multi-track recordings as the basis of the interactive audio R&D.
INFRASTRUCTURE
All infrastructure for the project has been provided by thequality.com.
A private extranet, containing seven years worth of project material, has been set up for content/access management and discussions. This has been available to all advisors who have signed the NDA for several months.
thequality.com has a small production office in central London with sufficient hardware and software to support the initial development phase of the project without much in the way of additional investment.
The Altnet business, a subsidiary of BDE, is arguably inspired by the plot of the film this project is based on. BDE paid for my initial development of the idea (there are tongue-in-cheek references to the founder of BDE in the script's principal villain) and there are many similiarities between the idea of the State on-selling the mental resources of prisoners and the idea of Altnet onselling the computational resources of consumer machines via the net.
The 10weeks project was introduced to Warner Brothers by BDE (when outside my control) and to Dorothy Crouch, head of DC Comics, as a property on which to potentially base a new Batman film. Dorothy has been a mentor since then.
Posted by: .M. at October 24, 2003 05:33 PMKam Memarzia, an architect and web3D advisor to the project, has been working as the Graphics Superviser on the BBC series Time Commanders. Kam's experience with broadcast quality real-time 3D graphics will prove invaluable in the design of the production pipeline.
Posted by: .M. at October 24, 2003 05:46 PMI have made contact with a VR Photographer who is sending in some examples of his work.
I have also found some useful information on VR. Describes all the techniques terms and Ideas currently available.
http://www.vrphotography.com/data/pages/techtutorials/technotes/filmvdigitalpanos.html
The Ipix movie technique looks interesting could be useful for the console version
http://www.ipix.com/links/movies/atlantis_300.ram