headbin: October 2003 Archives

October 31, 2003

Legal Questions

What are the most immediate legal issues faced leading up to pre-production (securing commitment/ pro bono work, establishing the legal framework within which to create the film, interactive and online elements)?

What should we anticipate in legal costs and involvement for the creation of the film element? And for the other elements?

Once the elements have been created and a prototype package put together, how do we patent/register the product in the first instance?

What should our approach be to relevant parties (MicroSoft, Sony, etc.) regarding collaboration on console DVD development? How much should we set aside fo legal dealings with these (ballpark figure)?

Could the above corporate giants tacitly veto the project? How do we go about protecting ourselves/ preventing that from happening?

How can we legally secure our ownership of the project as a whole once distribution has been established , without compromising the fundamental ethos of sharing and altering assets? How does this relate to royalties and licensing?

The license I envisage is http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ to enable automatic re-use without having to deal with MOD Films. Will there be any problems in licensing commercial use subsequently if we release under this license? As the rights holder for commercial use, does this Creative Commons licensing approach impede us in any way?

Posted by ken at 03:15 PM | Comments (1)

Visualisation of the re-mixable film structure

The relationship between film assets, used in the cinema version and the flic - the core product as NESTA wants to have clarified in the final pitch - the re-mixable film on DVD has to have a clean browsable map of all the available assets.

Here's a good example of what I think works. If you've got any thoughts, leave a Comment. Ideally what we use is a system that generates the map.

Here's one example.

The Visual Thesaurus, a Dictionary of the English Language

Posted by .M. at 12:41 AM | Comments (0)

October 27, 2003

Online Distribution Analysis

ONLINE DISTRIBUTION

There are three high profile online distribution models being considered for this project. While it is possible to design the product with these in mind, the strategy for online distribution will depend ultimately on the nature of the final product. Online distribution (of the film, not film re-mixes) is a desirable component of this project but not essential.

Steam

Steam is a distribution system developed by Valve Software specifically for game distribution. Steam has been designed retrospectively to enable Valve to manage the complexities of developing and supporting MODable games. As such, Steam is one of the only options for online distribution of the re-mixable film itself, as well as re-mixes. The popularity of Valve's game, Half-life, and its upcoming sequel, Half-life 2, means that Steam attracts phenomenal amounst of traffic, 500,000 user accounts at launch. Quality product distributed through Steam may be able to leverage the high profile of the vendor. Countering the appeal of Steam is a backlash from certain parts of the game community who do not want automatic clients (online software) that act on their behalf and require authentication (i.e. tracking) before anyone can play.
http://www.steampowered.com/

Kazaa

Kazaa is the most popular P2P network on which most file sharing occurs (largely illegally). Deploying legal content on Kazaa is a common form of online distribution. Kazaa's popularity is offset by its reputation for tacitly encouraging copyright enfringement. Highlighting Kazaa in the distribution strategy may be a risk to other partnerships, particularily with more traditional media companies seeking to have it closed down.
http://www.kazaa.com/

Altnet

Altnet sells a "Premium Content" DRM service which prepares and places content on Kazaa and other P2P (peer-to-peer) oneline distribution systems solely with the permission of the copyright holder. Altnet (and its parent company Brilliant Digital) were attached in the press in 2001 after CNN revealed that, contained within an Altnet shareholders report, that Kazaa users had by accepting the Terms and Conditions of Kazaa, explicitly allowed Altnet technology to on-sell local PC resources (like computing power). Both Altnet and Kazaa are ideally placed to enable wider access to re-mixes and existing relationships with BDE senior management may help secure favourable terms for this. However our experience on Horses for Courses (where playback relied on BDE technology and BDE discontinued support shortly after the film release) means that the distribution strategy will never rely solely on the availability of these businesses. Altnet nor Kazaa are suitable for downloading more than 200Mb files so distribution of the re-mixable film itself in this manner is not feasible.
http://www.altnet.com/

On Demand Distribution (OD2)

OD2 is arguably the most successful online distribution system for digital music. Used by major labels and retailers such as HMV, Universal, Virgin, and Ministry of Sound. THe system relies on the Microsoft DRM system which means that incorporation into an Xbox title will be easier than into a Sony title. Reliance on Microsoft DRM is a weakness given the relatively low take-up of this format and widespread suspicion of DRM in general. OD2 is best placed to provide the audience with a commercial channel through which to distribute MODs. It is in the interest of the project to encourage commercial re-use and distribution of re-mixable film assets via arbitrary distribution systems because this is an opportunity for royalty revenue.
http://www.ondemanddistribution.com

Posted by ken at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)

CHARACTER STUDY - KARMA

Karma is the Chief's personal aide, his head of black ops, his sex toy. She is a software agent like CD but this fact is concealed.

karma (KAHR-ma) noun

1. In the Hindu and Buddhist religion, a person's action (bad or good)
that determines his or her destiny.

2. Destiny; fate.

3. An aura or atmosphere generated by someone or something.

Posted by .M. at 09:57 AM | Comments (1)

October 26, 2003

remixablefilms.tribe.net

There doesn't seem to be much in the way of sites tracking how people have fucked with films apart from the Star Wars focused fanfilms.com

I've set up a tribe.net tribe, http://remixablefilms.tribe.net to trawl for examples.

Posted by .M. at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)

SANCTUARY v2.1

The latest version of SANCTUARY, the re-mixable short film, based on 10weeks.

Download file

Posted by .M. at 08:58 AM | Comments (1)

October 25, 2003

NESTA proposal on Blog

The Full Nesta Proposal as it currently stands has now been uploaded to the blog.

The aim is for everyone to contribute to the proposal, so that we end up with the most rounded application possible. Please add comments on your thoughts, suggestions, warnings, and recommendations.

The main text of each blog entry is an overview of the NESTA guidelines and suggestions for that question. To see the corresponding answer click on MORE.

Should you wish to view them all, entries will be filed under the category "NESTA Proposal". Any missing questions (e.g section 1, Q3.2) are either factual (i.e. company details,. figures, etc.) or multiple choice.

Looking forward to reading your contributions,

Ken.

Posted by .M. at 03:06 PM | Comments (0)

windows sounds

Pinball noises and other exciting short windows noises. Crisper samples anyone?

Download file

Mike,

Can you whack a stack of these in and trigger random ones, remembering the sequence for recording?

Moving in a layer sounds more like the way Flash optimises things, maybe you can match up some of your behaviors with pre-built ones that are faster. You're right that latency isn't that important right now.

See if this helps http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/blog/archives/diagrams/experience_map.swf
I don't even care about the rhythm right now I just want to work out a fun way of moving between the video, 3d and panorama layers (all playing in parallel) with groover stuff in the foreground. It'd be good if you could work out a panelling movement a la Hulk as well, perhaps all three on-screen at once and some event that selects

Keep Damon in the loop cause I'm sure he'll have some good opinions on how to tart it up as we go.

Posted by .M. at 12:40 AM | Comments (2)

October 24, 2003

Community research

Having a strong community develop around SANCTUARY is a key aspect of the proposal.

Q) What do MOD developers want from a game?
Q) Would they MOD a film?
Q) What are the biggest turn-offs for MODders?
Q) What have game developers done to encourage MODding?
Q) What studios produce the best MODable interactive entertainment?
Q) How are studios making money off MODs?

COMMUNITY LINKS

Half-Life
http://halflife.gamedesign.net/

Half-Life 2
http://collective.valve-erc.com/

Unreal Tournament
http://www.unrealtournament.com/

Quake/Doom
http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/

TOOLS

http://www.fraps.com

Half-life model viewer
http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/hlmv/index.html

Posted by .M. at 01:17 PM | Comments (0)

Groover experience map

(fullscreen)

EXPERIENCE OVERVIEW The prototype rhythm game (known as Groover) will demonstrate the potential of re-mixing and replacing film assets. Not all assets will be re-mixable but the idea is to embed as many re-mixable assets in the linear film as possible. There are four flavours of interactive elements considered re-mixable A) Audio-only D) 3D P) Panorama V) Video Groover functions as a walk-through the collection of assets. To "play" the film using Groover, the player needs to input the correct sequence of button presses in the right rhythm. Two rhythm pieces, level 1 and level 2, are presented to the player in "call and response" fashion. On the easiest settings, this means that CD (the character/GUI through which Groover is played) taps out the rhythm and then the player has to repeat it correctly. On harder settings, the rhythm the player has to do in response to CD will be much harder with more elaborate flourishes. For the purposes of prototyping, each level of the Groover is broken down into the GROOVE track (the rhythmic sequence of input events by player) the CONSEQUENCE track (events triggered by input if rhythm is correct) the PLAYBACK track (events which occur regardless of whether rhythm is correct or not)

Posted by .M. at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

October 23, 2003

Development

Welcome to Ken Thompson Marchesi who has come on board as my Development Assistant. With 11 people signed up to the headbin and double that number in the pipeline (sorry again for the dreadfully formality about this NDA process), we're definitely starting to get this proposal into shape. Any general comments or contacts to do with the development process, please contact Ken or myself.

ken@thequality.com
0779 604 2733

Posted by .M. at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)

October 20, 2003

Audio Questions

At the recording stage, how does the game process differ from the film process? How are they similar?

How does game audio post-production differ from film sound post-production? How are they similar?

What level of audio control could/should be incorporated into the game, and how?

If need be, what audio suites/software packages could be adapted with macros and a pared-down interface for the game? What licensing/R&D/delivery costs and timescales might be anticipated?

Can all audio be independent of visual cues? If so, is there a user-friendly way of using markers/cues to automatically sync sound to image, while keeping the option to ignore those markers if so desired?

Is real-time audio re-mixing (DJ-stylee) feasible simul ac real-time visual manipulation, taking into account computer and human processing limitations?

Posted by .M. at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2003

RIG ball

A cross between Rugby Union, Rollerball and Gladiators played by trolls.

Played in the Cityscape stadium, RIGball is played by avatars that break apart on big hits and have their bits and pieces reassemble on-field as a form of time penalty (see AD&D troll regeneration behavior).

Posted by .M. at 03:39 PM | Comments (0)

The worlds

The Real

Australia 2016. The State comprises the old states of New South Wales and
the ACT. The town of Bargo, where the real world scenes are set, is half-way
between Canberra and Sydney.

The Sims

The virtual worlds (or simulations) that support RIG technology thus the mind-machine
interface.
- Cityscape
  
  The virtual world marketed by the State as a global tourist and business
  destination. A high gloss replica of Sydney's Olympic Stadium (and the
  game of RIGBall) is as the drawcard
- Kerela
  
  Blake's virtual replica of the Australian outback. A place she uses for
  meditation and solace.
- Interlink
  
  The prison facility providing mental resources to sims
- Tomb
  
  Part of a Jurassic Park-style interactive cinema theme virtual theme park.
- Racer
  
  A Wipeout-style virtual racing/gambling simulation akin to dog racing.

Posted by .M. at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)

Rules of the world(s)

MIGRATED TO WIKI - http://modfilms.com/twiki/bin/view/Sanctuary/FilmRulesOfTheWorld

The State has been in power for many years.
There is corruption within the Department of the Environment and Network Resources (DENR). Authority figures are misusing their power.
Most real and virtual space is monitored by tracking devices like close-circuit cameras, motion sensors, and heat sensors.
Activists use existing surveillance technology to watch the watchers (Little Brother syndrome).
The story is set just after the RIG, mind-machine interface technology (Reactive Interface Grid), has begun to be used.
- The RIG consists of Network, Interface and Engine components
  - The Network component lets RIG hardware "see" the world by accessing networked sensors and Net data
  - The Engine component generates sensory output for the user in the form of signals, often floating screen panels
  - The Interface component sends signals to the brain of the user
- Floating panels of information indicate the perspective of a virtual world. A virtual world perspective can be scaled up and down by users, from photo-realistic to simple blocks
- RIG users often use body language to customise use of the RIG (e.g.docking floating panels on forearm, physical gestures)
- State Troopers (DENR special forces) are early RIG adopters. Their gear allows them to exist in reality and in a virtual world (artificial location or augmented view of reality) at the same time.
- State dogs (controlled by Troopers) have been surgically modified to include RIG hardware and control mechanisms.
- Blake is an early adopter, encouraged by Dad who has set up a basic RIG in her bedroom
- The RIG is not permitted in classrooms hence Blake sneaks in a portable RIG device
- The philosophy behind the RIG is that you don't look at machines, they look at you
The State has developed the ability to access minds, and trap minds, of people using a tourist (virtual) world - Cityscape. This is not yet public knowledge.
The State promotes the virtual world at the expense of the real. Urban sprawl is decimating bushland.
The State has no official opposition. Vocal critics are labelled terrorists
Online, by law, your avatar must resemble your physical self
Software agents (or bots) that masquerade as avatars are illegal.
Access to Australian virtual space through a system of privileges collectively known as OPS (Operator Privileges)
Virtual space is divided into
- private space (like the spaces belonging to the Chief and Blade)
- public space (like Cityscape, Kerela)

Posted by .M. at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)

NESTA full proposal index

View print version | View list of people

2.1 - Executive Entry
2.2 - Please describe your idea
2.3 - What is novel or inventive about your idea?
2.4 -What need or purpose does your idea/product fulfil?
2.5 - Describe the various strengths and weaknesses of competing technologies/products/ideas.
2.6 - How does your project/idea improve on the performance of existing competition?
2.7 - What is the potential for future development of this idea/product?
3.1 - How do you plan to commercialise or exploit your idea?
3.4a - What overall progress have you made to date with your idea? - IDEA
3.4b - What overall progress have you made to date with your idea? - TEAM & INFRASTRUCTURE
3.4c - What overall progress have you made to date with your idea? - TIMETABLE
3.4d - What overall progress have you made to date with your idea? - COST
3.5a - What progress do you expect to make during the NESTA funded phase of your project? - IDEA
3.5b - What progress do you expect to make during the NESTA funded phase of your project? - Team and infrastructure
3.5c - What progress do you expect to make during the NESTA funded phase of your project? - timetable
3.6a - what work will remain to be done at the end of the Nesta funded phase in order to reach your overall aims? - idea
3.6b - what work will remain to be done at the end of the Nesta funded phase in order to reach your overall aims? - team & infrastructure
3.6c - what work will remain to be done at the end of the Nesta funded phase in order to reach your overall aims? - timetable
3.6d - what work will remain to be done at the end of the Nesta funded phase in order to reach your overall aims? - cost
3.7 - what is your exit strategy?
4.1 - Details of all types of intellectual property protection that are relevant to your project
4.2 - Who owns the idea / product?
4.3 Explain your overall intellectual property protection strategy.
5.1 Describe the overall market for your idea / product.
5.2 What are the key factors for success in this market?
5.3 What are the main barriers to entry to this market?
5.4 Tell us about the performance of your key competitors.
5.5 What is your planned route to market?
6.1 Does your idea have any particular social and /or environmental benefits?
6.2 Are there any potential negative social and / or environmental impacts as a result of this project?
6.3 Do you think that your project and its outcomes might extend or cross over traditional boundaries between fields and disciplines in a novel and creative way? If so, how?
7.1 Project cashflow of project
7.2 Explain the key assumptions underlying your income and expenditure tables.
7.3 If you are expecting any sales revenue within the next 36 months, please provide details here
8.1 Tell us about the ownership structure of your company.
8.2 Have you been through a valuation exercise? And if so, who did it and what were the results?
8.3 How would you want to structure any NESTA investment?
8.4 Are you in discussions with other potential investors? If so, what is the status of these discussions?
9.1 Do you have other information that you feel is relevant to your proposal?
9.2 Did you receive any support/advice in preparing this proposal?

Posted by .M. at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2003

9.1 Do you have other information that you feel is relevant to your proposal?

NESTA suggestions:

At certain points in the form we have indicated where we would like you to send additional supporting information if it is available e.g.

1. Product descriptions
2. Product images
3. CV for team members
4. Spreadsheets - valuation etc

If you are going to send any of these documents please list them here and how you will be sending them. Please make sure that all documents sent by email or post have your project ID number and your name clearly marked on them. This information will help us to get a broader view of your project.

Please find attached:

Posted by .M. at 03:23 PM | Comments (0)

8.4 Are you in discussions with other potential investors? If so, what is the status of these discussions?

Earlier in the form at question 3.6 we asked what you currently estimate to be the costs of the project beyond the NESTA funded phases. For that question we wanted to know about amounts and what your current plans are for covering these costs. Now we want a more detailed view of this including names of the potential external sources of funding and what the current status of discussions with them are. We also need to know this information so that we are able to identify any potential conflicts of interest that might arise.

I am also in early discussions to see how Australian funding sources could contribute to the idea through my Australian company TLWM-A-TQC Pty Ltd. This funding could be for the project as a whole (as development for the international co-production "ten weeks in the head bin") and/or for the SANCTUARY short film in particular (as an innovative short film project, again under international co-production legislation).

The plan is to apply to Britfilms once the 35mm print of SANCTUARY is completed for marketing support for festivals.

While market research and early discussions have ruled out initial game industry funding for SANCTUARY, I keep informal contact with various games companies. It appears clear that the games industry is moving (albeit slowly) towards recognising this kind of project as relevent (as re-usable game art) and there are likely to be opportunities for related work and the funding of related projects once the demo is produced.

Early discussions had with the games publisher SCi also suggest that it will be worth approaching traditional games publishers during the NESTA funded phase once it is possible to demonstrate the feasibility of user-contributed games being deployed into SANCTUARY.

I plan to approach Sony Networks for funding in February. Criterion have offered to introduce me to a high level contact on the basis that this project will open up a new genre for the console and could be a "killer app" for the upcoming hard drive peripheral for the Playstation 2.

The UK Film Council New Cinema fund is a potential funder of "ten weeks in the head bin" who will be approached once the film animatic for SANCTUARY is complete.

Other potential sources of funding include Microsoft, DTI, and NESTA (follow-on funding). I will also be considering direct investment in the new company as a source of funding for the production of SANCTUARY.

An NDA has been signed with Aurelius Capital Ltd (media financiers) to assess business development opportunities and a relationship post the NESTA-funded phase.
http://www.aureliuspartners.com

The possibility of major studio intervention at an earlier stage has not been ruled out but I am not actively seeking their involvement until the development phase is complete.

Posted by .M. at 03:23 PM | Comments (1)

8.3 How would you want to structure any NESTA investment?

In the initial proposal we asked a question about how you expected NESTA to make a return on any funding that it might provide? At that stage it was designed to start you thinking about this but also to give us an idea of where you were in your thinking about this. For the full proposal we need a much clearer idea of how you propose that NESTA should invest. Is it clear to you what form of investment is most appropriate for NESTA given the overall position e.g. royalty or equity? You should explain how you propose NESTA invests, on what basis you are making the proposal e.g. is it based on possible benchmarks derived from similar deals?

You should also use this question to tell us what other kind of support you might require from NESTA other than financial e.g. support-in-kind.

The most immediate return on NESTA's investment would be via the film funding model as per one of the following options:

* full repayment on day one of principal photography of "ten weeks in the head bin"

* full replayment on a sale of the "ten weeks in the bin" property outright

This is a standard repayment model for development investment in the film industry, and investment from any major studio would allow for full repayment of such monies.

Longer term commercial returns for NESTA, based on the company's success in opening a market for re-mixable films would come from an equity holding in the new company. In brackets are suggested rates:

• an equity stake in the company (5% ).

• a share of profits from licensed film assets of SANCTUARY (50%)

• license to commercially exploit SANCTUARY film assets

• license to commercially re-release SANCTUARY as an education or marketing tool for NESTA

• re-use of project online infrastructure for other NESTA projects (e.g. thequality.com technology and platform by which SANCTUARY assets will be commercially syndicated is the same by which NESTA awardee news could be syndicated)

As an advocate of open source development, the intention is to explore a new approach and if it works, let the framework take on a community life of its own. NESTA could exploit this to improve the visibility and sustainability of all its funded projects.

NESTA can leverage the pioneering status of this project to further establish its own profile in the marketplace. The project aims to produce commercially license-able assets that are attractive to 3rd parties seeking to leverage them.

Posted by .M. at 03:22 PM | Comments (3)

8.2 Have you been through a valuation exercise? And if so, who did it and what were the results?

You may have got to the stage where you have started to try to place a value on your idea / product. If you have then we want to know about how you have gone about this, what assumptions you have used to reach your conclusions and what the results of the exercise were? If you have based your valuation on your knowledge of similar products /deals i.e. benchmarks, then tell us about those and why you felt they were relevant. If you have a spreadsheet available showing your calculations then please email or post it. We also want to know here about any other previous investments in your project over the last 12 months. Who has invested, how much and was the valuation based on any benchmarks?

We have not been through a valuation exercise as the project is effectively still at the R&D stage. If we are successful in this proposal and obtain funding from NESTA, a new company will be set up to undertake the project. This company will be owned in majority by Michela Ledwidge personally, and her UK company thequality.com. A minority interest will be available for acquisition by potential investors, including NESTA.

In order to attempt a valuation exercise at this early stage of the project, focus is primarily on the value of intellectual capital, including both human and structured capital of Michela Ledwidge personally, and thequality.com.

Human capital is very high due to the intellectual resources possessed by the director, Michela Ledwidge. Over the years, Michela has developed thequality.com and generated brand strength in order to generate work in many countries. Invitations from new and varied companies and events have included boo.com (UK/USA), Brilliant Digital Entertainment (Australia/USA), Europrix (Austria), Gothenburg Art Sounds Festival (Sweden). This has proved the potential Michela has to generate interest in her work. Michela is a very competent and motivated individual who has proven ability to develop an innovative idea, produce and then market the final product.

“Horses for Courses” reflects this potential. It generated strong interest globally and won the Web3D Art award at SIGGRAPH beating an entry from Disney. Michela has been able to attract proficient advisers at a very early stage in this project, receiving support and the assistance of many on a shoestring. This further supports her motivation and ability to get this project off the ground with the aim of seeing this through to completion.

Structured capital for thequality.com is primarily its innovation power. The company prides itself in breaking new ground and enjoys the challenge. “Horses for courses” has received press (e.g. Wall Street Journal, Sydney Morning Herald) for its technical imagination and visual presence. This got people talking and thinking, so much so that Michela has been invited to lecture on the principles behind its development on many occasions.

Innovation is a priority and this project is a progression in terms of technical product deliverables from “Horses for Courses” since it is pushing the interactivity element to a much larger scale; films. This new project will have income generation ability through DVD sales. It will add a new dimension to mainstream film production, taking the experience to a new level. This project will deliver a completely unique product that will open a new market for the company, creating a temporary monopoly. The aim is to then attract interest from the major film companies to generate a working relationship that will continue to create new products using the conceptual and technical know how behind this project.

A valuation based on models such as DCF or EVA is meaningless at this point in time, hence has not been calculated. At the end of this project when the technical aspects have been developed further and the SANCTUARY short film and DVD game console has been created, the deliverables will be put on the marketplace.

We can speculate that the value of intellectual capital will increase over the life of this project. As deliverables are created and put on the marketplace in the context of pilots, brand recognition will develop as we aim to create a unique association for film goers between film and game interactivity. SANCTUARY will have the unique quality of being treated as a generated asset that can be reinvested into the technical game console branch of the project to create the many visual loops that will be required.

Posted by .M. at 03:21 PM | Comments (1)

8.1 Tell us about the ownership structure of your company.

This question only applies if you have a company, if you haven't just complete the question by entering "not applicable" . If you have a company describe clearly the ownership of the company. Tell us about any other relevant alliances and relationships. In the questions in Section 3 you should already have told us some detail on this and what cash and in-kind inputs have been (or will be) forthcoming. If the company is owned, either wholly or in part, by a third party, please explain the background to this and provide their contact details here

thequality.com is wholly owned by Michela Ledwidge. For this project a new company will be formed to commercially exploit the re-mixable film idea with license to develop products based on "ten weeks in the head bin" IP (e.g. scripts, artwork, graphic novel, DVD).

thequality.com (as the incubator of the idea) and Michela Ledwidge (as the author and architect) will own shares in the new company. Shares will be offered to the Executive Producer and associate (i.e. film/console/community) producers as part renumeration for involvement during the production phase.

thequality.com has previously worked under non-disclosure with Brilliant Digital Entertainment, a web entertainment company which has since dissolved its two studios (Sydney and Singapore) and now trades as Altnet, a P2P marketing company.

TLWM-A-TQC Pty. Ltd. is an Australian limited liability company also wholly owned by Michela. This company is dormant at present but was the original vehicle through which Michela was contracted to write "ten weeks in the head bin".

Negotiations are continuing with Criterion Software for game technology on the most favourable terms (i.e. free software licenses and support). Similar in-kind inputs from other technology partners are expected subsequent to funding.

Posted by .M. at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)

7.3 If you are expecting any sales revenue within the next 36 months, please provide details here.

If you are currently projecting that you will start to receive income from sales within the next 36 months then we expect a certain level of minimum information. We want to know the approximate manufacturing cost of your product, the cost of raw materials and the selling price of the product. We also want to know what level of sales you are forecasting. Please explain the assumptions on which the figures are based. If you are able to provide a spreadsheet to back up this information please do so. The information that you provide at this stage should build on the information that you have provided in the earlier question on the route to market (Q5.5)

Due to the scale and nature of the project, incorporating protracted periods of prototype R&D, prototype production, further R&D, final production and then marketing & distribution before seeing any real financial returns, it is unlikely that the project will be receiving sales income before 24 months have elapsed. A pre-sales agreement for the DVD will be sought with a major distributor (film or game) but as this is a new type of product, it is hard to estimate figures ahead of promoting the initial demo to distributors and retailers and getting projected figures.

The sales plan is:

1) Sell the SANCTUARY DVD as a budget entertainment title
2) Sell print rights to make the "head bin" property into a graphic novel
3) Sell script and rights to make the "head bin" property into a feature film
4) License technology and art assets from the SANCTUARY DVD

No direct income from cinema distribution of SANCTUARY is expected. Short films are not generally screened outside of festivals. The film effectively acts as a pilot to generate interest and promote brand recognition.

Provisionally we are considering selling the SANCTUARY DVD at close to cost price, which will be inversely proportional to the print run, itself depending on demand created by a marketing campaign leading up to distribution.

To estimate the selling price of the DVD, we have looked to related products for benchmarks. The Steam distribution system (currently only available for PC games but with upcoming online-enabled console support) operates on a US$9.77 (approx £6) per 600 MB download basis. AAA console game titles retail between £30 and £50. Top 10 DVD titles retail between £15 and £30. "Nothing So Strange", the first "open source" film was offered online for US$5 (cost price), with micropayments of 5 cents per individual asset download.

We are also looking into a demo purchase/refund scheme recently operated for the release of the AAA game Pro Evolution Soccer 3 as another potential model for distribution. We are looking at 5,000 sales at £10 per unit, totalling £50,000.

The projected sale price of "head bin" is US$700,000, based on researching script sales during the period 2000 - 2001 (source http://www.scriptsales.com).

The projected sale price of print rights (for a graphic novel) is US$35,000.

The pricing model for re-mixable film assets (for commercial use) will be comparable to the one in use on digital asset marketplace sites like Turbo Squid (http://www.turbosquid.com).

Posted by .M. at 03:19 PM | Comments (1)

7.2 Explain the key assumptions underlying your income and expenditure tables.

In your answer to this question you should tell us about any key assumptions that you have made to cost the above items and tell us what they are based on e.g. suppliers quotes (if so, how long the quotes are valid for?) You should also tell us what the main items of expenditure include and why they are important to the project.

If your costs include VAT, indicate whether this is likely to be recoverable. Please see the guidance notes for further general information on VAT but please bear in mind that NESTA cannot provide specific tax advice to applicants

The key assumptions in the drawing up of figures are:

That the online technology and services used for this project will be hosted by thequality.com at cost price and that new components will be built largely from open source or otherwise low-cost software.

That open technology standards are constantly moving in a direction which supports this idea and thus reduce the costs of implementing the re-mixable framework. A funded development phase will enable the team establish working ties with open source communities like the World Wide Web Consortium and leverage bleeding edge technology on the basis that usage will be open and benefits passed onto others via the re-mixable platform.

That key technology vendors will provide licenses at reduced cost as sponsorship in-kind, in return for recognition as partners on this and future projects.

That thequality.com infrastructure is sufficient to develop the project till at least the animatic prototype stage with little additional investment other than wages.

All costs are based on pre-existing financial knowledge of relevant fields or quotes, and are valid for the whole period of NESTA involvement.

The main items of expenditure are the salaries of the key team members and the creation of the film and console elements. The nature of this project is such that no one person will have the expertise necessary to produce all three elements (the online community being the third element) and so the infrasturucture of knowledge, skills and information is key to the success of the project. The film and console elements are the two most expensive areas of the project, and it is important for these to be well executed that the market penetration of the core product be maximised.

The company will register for VAT in order to recover VAT on purchases.

This proposal is for £85K which is less than the initial proposal (£150K). There are several reasons for this. In not wanting to compromise on quality, and to reduce the risk of not reaching the overall goal, I have chosen to remove the production budget entirely from the proposal. This means that initial expenditure is more tightly focused on R&D and prototyping which reduces the risk of the subsequent production phase. The proposition is far clearer as a result.

This revised budget allows the NESTA funded outputs to be more readily demonstrable as relevant to a wider range of applications (not just film). Most importantly, this revised plan will be more appealing to traditional investors because they can contribute to a subsequent production phase with considerable less risk. This is a far more viable route than it was when submitting the initial proposal because there is evidence, as discussed, of more relevant markets opening up. At the same time, discussions with games publishers, the UK Film Council, and film financiers, have highlighted the importance of securing development funding from NESTA because industry definitions of "development" are too narrow for this idea.

Posted by .M. at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)

6.3 Do you think that your project and its outcomes might extend or cross over traditional boundaries between fields and disciplines in a novel and creative way? If so, how?

One of the things NESTA is looking for is the intention to extend the boundaries of a discipline or field, or to cross over the boundaries into another discipline or field, for example bringing together elements of the arts and sciences. We are looking to see if your project draws on ideas from different contexts and brings them together in new, unusual and surprising ways. However please note that whilst we seek to actively encourage projects of a cross-disciplinary nature this is not an essential requirement for projects that we fund.

Absolutely. This is the essence of our product.

The project is an artistic bridge between film and interactive entertainment. This has been attempted before, but never to the extent of designing the film story as a musical instrument. No cinema quality film has ever been given to its audience in pieces, in the form of a library of re-mixable art. No director has encouraged the audience to tamper with "the work" to this degree. An architect builds something in order for it to be inhabited. This is how I see film. No film director has ever placed equal emphasis on 35mm, game console and online community channels.

The outcome of this project could easily change the way traditional media is viewed and exploited; The relevance of new media perspectives on old media will be clearer to more people as a result of this project.

Posted by .M. at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)

6.2 Are there any potential negative social and / or environmental impacts as a result of this project?

To what extent have you considered the potential negative social and environmental impacts in the project planning so far? If you think that an environmental impact assessment will be required at a later stage please tell us about that here.

The majority of the development of this project will be office/studio-based, and as such the environmental/social impacts will be no different to those of any other small business.

The main area for concern will be the disturbance of the natural environment during the film shoot. Slight damage to terrain is unavoidable on exterior location shoots due to the large numbers of crew and heavy kit being moved around for a protracted period of time. However the damage will be localised, and the sensibilities of the film are such that I will stress that people take pride and care of the landscape.

Other than physical location damage, there will be generators creating air pollution (negligible) and sound pollution (temporary), lighting rigs creating light pollution (temporary) and some special effects by-products that comply with strict industry standards. As with any professional shoot, when we leave, we shall leave everything as we found it.

Posted by .M. at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)

6.1 Does your idea have any particular social and /or environmental benefits?

Whilst NESTA has a duty to seek a return on funding that it provides through the Invention and Innovation Programme and will therefore usually seek to fund ideas where there is a clear commercial potential, we are also keen to look at projects which can demonstrate significant broader potential. This could be a particular social benefit or having the potential to make an important contribution to the arts or sciences. You might also use this section to tell us about any jobs that might be created as a result of your idea or educational aspects that we would like to know about.

Yes. There is an opportunity for this project to have lasting social benefit.
When the project succeeds it should promote a resurgence in thinking about sustainable living and individual creativity. The popular wisdom is that no individual can make a film or make a game on their own anymore. This is at a time when personal productivity tools, like software, have never been more powerful. The propagation of this myth is largely a construct endorsed by large companies to minimise the competition and sell product.

E.g. Walt Disney Corporation eagerly samples the world's myths and then vigorously enforces copyright over them (e.g. Aladdin, Hercules, Snow White, Pocahontas).
http://www.cultureby.com/books/plenit/html/Plenitude2p16.htm

Once this idea takes flight (and it will, given that people are increasingly participatory in their expectations of the world of entertainment), it could lead to a rise in general individual creativity, allow a degree of artistic freedom and playfulness to many peoples' lives (wannabe gamers, film-makers and others).

Traditional media legally permits little such freedom or seeks to constraint it to existing business models. Story-telling has suffered because of this. There is an opportunity through this project to explore a contemporary artistic dilemma shared by many. You want to make a connection with people through your art but to reach people, your individuality has to fit a channel. What if every story was technically its own channel?

There are few mass media messages that encourage sustainable living. Indeed there are plenty of messages suggesting that unsustainability is inevitable. A successful model for re-mixable film and interactive entertainment distribution could help reduce packaging waste by broaching the serious subject of re-cycling in a fun way.

The project adheres to my personal philosophy called the "massively multilingual movie". This is about creating a re-usable story template for others to use.

The overall aim is aspirational - to tell a positive story about a young girl's battles and eventual victory over disorientating technology. This can be done in a way that makes technology itself a little less disorientating.

Posted by .M. at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)

5.5 What is your planned route to market?

What is your proposed "route to market" (e.g. licensing the technology to others, joint venture with another company, manufacture in-house)? What market share are you aiming for and how long do you think it will take to get there. Do you have the required marketing skills in your team to support your "route to market"? You should also explain what stage you are at in terms of formulating plans for the best approach to get your idea into the market. Please note that we are asking here for a general description of your strategy; we ask later on (Q7.3) for information on actual and projected sales.

My aim with regards to re-mixable film is to be the first at the distribution stage, and assume a market share greater than 50%. The ultimate aim is to become the market leader by effectively creating the market with SANCTUARY within two years and then regaining temporary domination with "ten weeks in the head bin" two years after that.

The plan is to capitalise on the strengths of the open source model for film-making. By this I mean that the plan is less about ongoing market domination but more about an open process of establishing a sustainable quality brand of story-telling and attracting key partnerships that allow ambitious ideas to developed. The ideas I want to explore need the backing of major publishers to reach a global market.

The confidence with which I aim to pursue this ambition is part of the proposition. The market (made up of consumers and producers) will have a roadmap by which they can also embark on similar story-telling journeys in conjunction with development studios. The distinguishing factor will be my original content.

The key steps on the way to distribution and sales are as follows:

Short film pre-production and interactive concept testing
Promotion of the re-mixable film market via an online community
Re-mixable film product development
Produce console demo for publishers and distributors
Secure production funding for short film and commercially releaseable demo (the re-mixable film)
Produce short film
Screenings at international film festivals
Produce the re-mixable film (DVD)
Secure manufacturers approval (license) to release on console
Exhibition of film and re-mixable assets
Sale of documentary "What's the Story?" to broadcaster
Documentary broadcast
UK distribution of SANCTUARY DVD
Australia distribution of SANCTUARY DVD
Sale of "ten weeks in the head bin" to studio
US distribution of SANCTUARY DVD

The team will require marketing support to get the re-mixable film product to get it to market in the best possible manner. The strategy for this will be to secure the right strategic partners, after stringent selection, once funding for the initial development phase is in place. Ongoing discussions with film producers and game publishers are helping to clarify the appropriate route and the marketing task required once the demo is complete.

"What's the Story?" events and documentary will be used as a drawcard for the best Advertising and PR skills. Individuals who have previous experience in marketing "interactive movie" titles will be sought out to make contributions to these events so this will be an opportunity to get support for this project.

Talks are already underway with partners that have strong marketing experience and with whom the project shares mutual interests (e.g. Criterion Software).

The research done this year suggests that there is more marketing expertise available for good ideas than good ideas ready for marketing. That is why the focus of the project team is to create a work worthy of causing a stir on the short film festival circuit. The film, and subsequent DVD, will cause the necessary buzz to attract the interest of a major partner for whom the re-mixable idea (once demonstrated) can be commercially successful on a larger scale. This route is all about creating a quality brand that is focused on the creative gestation and implementation of fresh interactive ideas.

A distribution deal for the pilot DVD (SANCTUARY) is intended. The plan is to retain key team members to develop other projects, but licensing or selling the IP to a major studio.

Preliminary discussions have been had with game, film, press and online industry representatives sufficient to suggest that the overall approach is not only viable but will eventually be acknowledged publicly as an alternative development path for interactive entertainment.

Posted by .M. at 03:14 PM | Comments (2)

5.4 Tell us about the performance of your key competitors.

In an earlier question (Q2.5) we asked you to explain the various strengths and weaknesses of the competing products / ideas. We now want to gain an understanding of how they are performing in the market and what information you have on your key competitors? In your answer to this question you should provide us with the names of your key competitors, together with any information you may have on their market position and what their level of sales is in the segment of the market that you are targeting?

We would also like to understand how these competitors view the market you are proposing to enter, e.g.

How important is this product to their market position /reputation e.g. are they a leader in the market?

What do you expect your likely relationship to be with your competitors e.g. out and out competition or might there be a degree of strategic partnering involved?

How do you expect them to react to a new competitor in the market?

Are any of them potential licensees or buyers of the idea /product?

Could any of them be regarded as potential infringers of any IP that you own?

One of the advantages of my approach is that the DVD product has no direct competitors. Competition for the technology and overall idea comes from various industries where there are opportunities for strategic partnerships for production and distribution. The idea explores an approach to "the holy grail" of media content IP (how to make money from the Internet). As such, the profile (and subsequent experience) of this project can be beneficial to competitors. Unless explicitly stated, the competitors mentioned are not regarded as potential infringers of IP.

FILM RE-RELEASES

The DVD-Video distribution market is distinct from the console DVD (i.e. game) market, despite the physical medium being identical, as to not confuse consumers. DVD-Video distributors would view the re-mixable film market with suspicion until game console distribution was confirmed. Once that was achieved, they are potential buyers of the product for DVD-Video distribution.

The UK DVD of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" is distributed by the label Entertainment in Video who currently have 28 titles on release. Available for purchase is a 2-disc theatrical version (£16), the extended version 4-disc and video set (£24) and the extended "collector's box set" (£35). There is an unprecendented degree of coverage of the subject in these products and yet, despite the range of interactive technology available to the production, these products are purely passive. The gap between film fan and film fan who plays games is not supported by these products and arguably open for exploitation in the future.

SHORT FILM RETAIL

Warp Films released "My Wrongs #8245-8249 & 117" (directed by Chris Morris) for £10 retail to pioneer a short film distribution based on the success of their ecommerce model for music promos (like Aphex Twin's Windowlicker). "My Wrongs..." , adapted from a radio sketch, won the BAFTA Short Film award. It has not be possible to determine how commercially successful the film has been and critical feedback has been divided. The high production values (including over £80K spent on producing a photo-realistic talking dog) clearly contributed to its success in the awards when no other entry had a comparable budget.

Licensing of Warp Records artists for the film soundtrack as part of a partnership deal has been mooted. Warp Records is a potential licensee of the re-mixable technology for their own artist DVDs.

Warp Film is otherwise a competitor within the DVD-Video retail market.

OPEN SOURCE FILM

A direct competitor for the idea is the project Nothing So Strange by Brian Flemming and GMD Studios. It was touted in Wired magazine this year as a "open source we love" and claimed as the "first worldwide internet film debut" (although this is a subject of debate). It offers a 75-minute mock documentary for sale (US$5 to cover Internet bandwidth charges) on the assassination of Bill Gates.

The film is a competitor in terms of the short film circuit (it was released at the Slamdance Festival in Jan 2002) but it is not available for purchase on DVD.

Five video clips (less than a minute) of the assasination. All the video is legally re-usable under a Creative Commons (free for non-commercial use) license, identical to the approach proposed here.

The business proposition has a number of problems. The payment/delivery system (BitPass) does not offer a way to resume downloading in the event of errors. Also, when re-attempting to download the next day, an additional $5 was deducted from available credit (while not clearly stating that payment only
covers downloading for one day/or 5 "visits"). Despite being labelled "open source", there is no access to any actual source material.

The creative potential is also limited for several reasons. Low production values, although suited to the script and concept, limit any appeal to a mass audience. Since the film is only available for purchase as a download (heavily compressed) the original quality is degraded further.

The film has received extensive coverage and rave reviews in the US but not elsewhere. This is largely due to its parochial and non-cinematic nature. It is unclear how much of this publicity has been translated into online sales especially given the problems we experienced in testing the ecommerce purchase path.

The film-makers offer no suggestions or examples on how people could re-use the film or "use them in their own creative projects" as touted. There is no evidence that anyone is re-mixing the film as a form of entertainment. Indeed there is no online community component of the site so it is hard to determine how open people find it at all.

Like my own film, "Horses for Courses", "Nothing so Strange" works best as contemporary marketing. A collaboration with GMD Studios, who designed the phony web site ring for "The Blair Witch Project", means that the project has been exceptionally publicised. It has successfully introduced many industry people to the notion of a legally re-mixable film but it has done little to encourage such activity. In practice the user cannot re-mix the film far beyond what could be done with any released video and there is arguably less reason to bother in this case, given the low-budget approach.

GMD Studios, an expect in marketing films using the Internet, are viewed as a potential strategic partner. In general, early adoptors of the open source model tend to view competition as a healthy sign. Open source software businesses often point to their competitors as a sign that their market is viable.

HOLLYWOOD

This year Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks signed a five picture "film sampling" deal with Mike Myers. Myers will be inserted into old movies along with new story-lines. Labelled "cynical" by some, the process will only be available to copyright holders, namely the studios themselves.

Examples of previous film sampling efforts by studios include Steve Martin's "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (1982). The film incorporates scenes from over 20 Hollywood films of the 1940's. It was produced by Universal Pictures and Aspen Film Society and grossed $17m in the US (IMDbPro.com), $18m worldwide (the-numbers.com) on an undisclosed budget.

Woody Allen's "What's Up Tiger Lily" (1966) was originally the Japanese spy film "Kagi No Kagi (Key of Keys)", whose audio track was removed and replaced. Produced by the Bendeict Pictures Corp. and Toho, the re-mix was produced on a budget of $75K. Box office figures for this film remain unavailable.

"Kung Pow: Enter the Fist", the 2002 Steve Oedekerk film, was edited from the 1977 martial arts film "Tiger and Crane Fist (aka Savage Killers)", into which the director inserted new scenes. Produced by O Entertainment, the film had a budget of $10m and grossed $16m in the US alone. Worldwide figures are not available. A sequel has been announced for 2004.

SANCTUARY may result in a resurgence of interest in the above films as prototype re-mixed films. There may be some strategic partnership potential as well, should the makers of the above recognise the potential ramifications of this project on theirs (i.e. real-time re-mixing of a previously static re-mixeable film).

At the same time, Hollywood studios continue to resort to legal action on fans whenever they tamper with film licenses. Only recently have certain fan films been tolerated by license holders but only if they re-create (not sample) film art purely for non-commercial use. Warner (e.g. Superman) and Viacom (e.g. Star Trek) have been known to shut down web sites with fan-sampled IP. The largest community is fanfilms.com (part of theforce.net Star Wars fan site). As of 20/11/2003, there are 36 Star Wars short films and 15 animations on fanfilms.com. There is also one Batman short (the highly acclaimed Batman: Dead End and 3 Matrix shorts).

Hollywood is ill-equipped to manage a more open relationship with film audiences. Hard-core fans are often viewed as a double-edged sword. Fans can not only make a movie a hit but ruin its chances quickly via word-of-mouth postings online. The film industry is unlikely to view the intended market favourably until the company is profitable. This is, in effect, the point of producing SANCTUARY as an independent short. Once successful, a re-mixable film template will be invaluable to Hollywood as a way to re-release (yet again) their catalogue. It will also usher in new ways in which advertisers and producers can work together.

It is not the intention of this project to compete with Hollywood. A partnership with the major studios, Warner, Sony, Universal, Dreamworks, Viacom (Paramount), Disney or Fox, to develop the idea into a feature, is a key part of the business plan. However any successfully developed IP is likely to be a target for infringement.

Warner Bros is in the best position to infringe upon the project IP for the upcoming "The Matrix Online" MMORPG. "The Matrix" franchise (world-wide gross to-date being US $1,281,754,000). The script, that this project is based on, was pitched to Joel Silver at Warner in 1998 as a Batman script by Brilliant Digital Entertainment. I doubt whether Australian moral rights legislation would have helped if Warner had chosen to cannibalise the script, plot or characters, to that end. In any case, one of my character names "Axel" appeared in Matrix Reloaded.

CONSOLE PRODUCTS

Games publishers are increasingly reluctant to release titles which are not already commercially successful game genres. There are a few exceptions such as Microsoft but even so, there are no equivalent console products.

The most similar product available has no film aspect at all. The recent Microsoft XBox title "Music Maker" (US$35, developed by Wild Tangent, UK release pending) is a lifestyle entertainment product aimed at non-gamers, musicians and VJs. The product is the first to allow desktop PC content (e.g. music) to be downloaded into a game console. Early reviews are mixed and the key feature seems to be karoake (something which could be added as a MOD to SANCTUARY).
http://www.xbox.com/en-us/musicmixer/firstencounter.htm

Microsoft is opening up the market I am aiming for; a market for interactive entertainment and appeal to a wider audience than traditional gamers. Microsoft's interest and investment in this space is a key validation of my idea. Microsoft intends to be the market leader in the interactive music space as in others. XBox sponsorships of music events are now common. Microsoft is trying to attract musicians and others to the platform.

Microsoft is both potential buyer of the product and potential infringer of technology IP given the company's capability to rapidly reverse-engineer innovation (e.g. Internet Explorer was released a few months after Netscape Navigator). Microsoft does not seem to have plans to develop film IP. There is a Microsoft Games Studios but no Microsoft film company or Microsoft Music label.

Research is continuing to determine the viability of a partnership with Microsoft (for an XBox release of SANCTUARY) but this is unlikely given the control Microsoft requires over the XBox Live (broadband) service. All Live servers (to which XBox console games connect for multi-player experiences) are managed by Microsoft and there will doubtless be hidden constraints (e.g. Microsoft server technology). This policy has been the subject of much contention within the games industry (e.g. Electronic Arts have yet to partner with Microsoft for online gameplay). Microsoft control over the experience at this stage of development may conflict with the need to encourage the widest community of SANCTUARY re-mixers.

Microsoft is viewed as a desirable partner/platform but probably subsequent to the success of SANCTUARY on the PS2. Microsoft was the first to release broadband-enabled product and XBox Live is considered by the industry to be ahead of Sony's online offering.

WildTangent is a direct competitor as an interactive content producer. thequality.com was in direct competition with Wild Tangent at SIGGRAPH 2001 when "Horses for Courses" won the Web3D art award. WildTangent are a potential technology/development partner given a dominance in the web3d game market and XBox development experience.

The Sony Playstation 2 (PS2) is likely to be the target platform for SANCTUARY, requiring Sony Computer Entertainment to give this project a development license. As the leading console vendor and a leading game publisher. Sony remains the market leader in the console product market despite strong advances by Microsoft. Sony are renowned for a more creative and experimental approach to new markets (e.g. Eyetoy webcam, Everquest MMORPG). The company has also released critically acclaimed titles that clearly have little mass market game appeal (e.g. Vib Ribbon, Rez, Ico) - a sign of its committment to interactive entertainment as an art form.

The PS2 does not currently ship with a harddrive (required for SANCTUARY FEEDER capability) but this peripheral will go on sale early next year. Sony clearly intends to release titles that allow Internet downloads. There is an opportunity to position SANCTUARY as a title that uses both the Eyetoy and PS2 harddrive title.

The PS2 game "Gitaroo Man" (by KOEI £39) is an influential rhythm game that incorporates a linear story and simple gameplay. It received critical acclaim but poor sales in the UK, arguably because games industry PR (obsessed with touting complexity and sophistication) did not know how to promote it. It is rare to see any significent PR for games which are not well established genres. In focus group testing, we found that Gitaroo Man had a wide appeal beyond gamers because of its catchy tunes, kitsch visuals and focus on rhythm. Similar results were found with the Sony-published Eye Toy (mini-games came with it, aimed at casual gamers) Both titles try hard to present a simple image of clean design and uncomplicated fun. KOEI does not appear to have any further rhythm games planned. Sony has already released a second Eye Toy-compatible game and there are plans for ongoing support including (online) webcam conferencing facilities.

The main games publisher of rhythm games is Konami (e.g. Dance Dance Revolution). The company also manufactures rhythm arcade game machines. Konami do not release sales data on rhythm games.

MODS

"Counter-Strike" (created by Minh Le and Jess Cliffe) is the world's most successful MOD created by fans. Based on "Half-Life", the hit game created by Valve Software, the MOD generates more than 4.5 billion player minutes per month (worldwide) and 88 percent of the online action game market. It cost Valve nothing to develop the MOD but they lost money on the online support system (support staff and bandwidth costs) because online community dynamics were not adequately planned for. Despite being available for free download, "Counter-Strike", the stand-alone game, has shifted over 1.5 million copies since its release as a stand-alone retail title this year.

SANCTUARY will introduce the non-gaming public to the concept of MODS through the idea of film MODs. In doing so it may attract more downloads/sales of "Counter-Strike" as the premiere example of MOD art. Discussions with Valve have begun to establish whether Steam (the online distribution system used by Half-Life and Counter-Strike) is viable for this project.

Both Microsoft (using XBox Live) and Valve (using Steam) want to control the online interactive experience available through their proprietary network products. Whether a strategic partnership will work or not will likely depend on how successful their respective strategies are in the early half of next year. Both companies probably consider my more open-ended idea (for connecting audiences to console product via P2P) to be financially risky. Then again, it was only a few years ago that Microsoft tried to develop competing technology to the World-Wide Web itself (Project Blackbird).

MMORPGS

"Star Wars Galaxies", by LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment is the second largest and fastest growing MMORPG currently in existence, netting 275,000 subscribers in the US alone during the first 2 months of release. Following the staggered release across Europe on 31/10/2003 and 7/11/2003, those numbers are set to swell even further, although figures have yet to be published.
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/

MMORPGs are competitors in terms of vying for audience attention online and in terms of attracting investment from film licence owners. Research and reviews suggests that MMORPGs are having problems sustaining interest from casual gamers and will need to offer alternative modes of interactivity within their persistent worlds to keep eyeballs. Sony Online Entertainment (as the dominant player in this space) is therefore someone to whom re-mixable technology and experiences could be sold.

Addictive TV is a UK media company who have brought VJing and re-mixed film to a wider audience through their television series "Mixmasters". Although it is interactive in terms of the production process, the end product (the TV show) is not interactive. Nonetheless, it serves to increase awareness and showcases the re-mixing of films. Addictive TV publish DVD compilations of the artists they work with. As a potential strategic partner, an approach has been made to Addictive TV for future collaboration. Addictive TV aims to be the dominant VJ brand in Europe with a presence in London and Paris.
http://www.addictive.com/

None of the VJ artists or brands looked at are considering the potential for giving the audience re-mix potential as yet. This is likely to change over time as it becomes more technically feasible to do so.

Pioneer have recently released the first DVD player to be targeted at VJs. The DVJ-X1 is aimed at people who want to re-mix video like vinyl, scratch, time-stretch, loop, and pitch shift. New consumer electronics products are a sign of a new market being heralded.

VIDEO ART

Bill Viola's current exhibition launch at the National Gallery in London (£7) was news. It was the first time that the general public woukd have seen video hung there. Serious video artists bear more resemblance to film-makers than VJs. They rarely sample other people's material and are not a target audience for SANCTUARY. Video artists would recognise re-mixable film as a generic form of packaging available for sale. They may decide to take advantage of it and the company can help them do that. Artists tend to work solo and respect for quality work is common.

FILM-MAKING SOFTWARE

Avid and Apple compete to dominate the professional film/video editing space by selling cut-down versions of software for non-professionals (e.g. Apple's Final Cut Pro at £799and Final Cut Express at £248).
http://www.apple.com/uk/finalcutpro/

The use of open standard technology (to minimise vendor lock-in) is standard amoungst the top post-production companies but the rest of the market is largely proprietary and business practices remain cut-throat. Apple recently introduced support for XML interchange formats in Final Cut Pro 4 but, in a less laudible move, also dropped Windows support for Logic Audio (professional audio software recently re-branded from eMagic, £449). Proprietary software vendors are tracking the open source movement in terms of how it affects their market share.

While many vendors have consumers locked-in to their formats and tools, this is likely to change in response to calls for more flexibility, an essential element of creative projects.

Film post production companies like Industry Light and Magic use open source technology in-house to avoid being tied down to particular vendors. ILM staff not only write plugins for their in-house compositor in python (an open source language) but the company released software tools for its own high definition imaging format (EXR) as open source this year.
http://www.openexr.net/

The time pressures of film post production mean that there is a market for software dealing with real-time manipulation of film assets. For example, nucoda sell a PC-based 10 bit full resolution conform and review solution tool for film.
http://www.nucoda.com/

While there may be opportunities for partnerships with this kind of company for technical solutions, it is unlikely that they will be direct competitors because the level of precision these tools provide is overkill for my idea aimed at video-quality.

ONLINE DISTRIBUTION

Steam

Kazaa

Altnet

On Demand Distribution (OD2)

Posted by .M. at 03:13 PM | Comments (1)

5.3 What are the main barriers to entry to this market?

In this question we are looking for an understanding of the general market environment and the overall picture with regard to possible adoption? This could include:·

Any barriers that you may have to overcome before your idea/product reaches the market.

What technical approvals or endorsements are required for this product / idea to be accepted by your eventual target market?

Is there any legislation that will present a barrier to adoption of you idea / product?

Or conversely is there any new legislation planned that is likely to create a market for the product? e.g. EU legislation on recycling or emissions targets.

What further changes to practice and/or investment might be required were this idea to be adopted?

Is there a heavy existing investment in the current technology such that potential users will be reluctant to change practice?

Is the function performed by the product critical in any processes?

SANCTUARY and "ten weeks in the head bin" are crossover products, bridging the divide between the games industry and the film industry. This means that the production process will suffer the problems inherent to both film and game independently, as well as new problems which will arise from relating the two fields.

One barrier is the rate of change in this highly competitive field. In the time that this proposal is reviewed (judging from events this year) the marketplace may become transformed by a new product, requiring the concept to be revisited. This is a constant barrier to innovation in the interactive media industry and one which thequality.com has a track record of overcoming.

Industry funding will be difficult to acquire for this concept until it is proven in the market-place - a catch-22. The film industry and game industry have heavy investments in the status quo, available technologies existing technologies. Both are increasingly reluctant to fund innovation until it has been not only proven, but established elsewhere. The idea of a film that is broader than long is counter-intuitive to the film industry because traditionally film narratives are immutable. Nomenclature is also an issue. "Production" in film terms equates to "Development" in game terms.

The project will require a developer license from Sony or Microsoft in order to realise the vision of an interactive film instrument on a broadband game console. These vendor/publishers have different strategies and technologies within the console market. The choice of platform for SANCTUARY will have implications on the interactive design and online architecture.

It has been suggested that this project could be made for PC, bypassing the console manufacturer hurdles, and the barrier of customers requiring a console, therefore potentially missing out on a far wider global audience. The reasons for declining this route are as follows:

The project promotes a philosophy of more open access to media that does not consider high end functionality as essential. I.e. the linear film will be available online.
Cinema is a social experience more suited to a TV then a desktop computer.
QA for PC software is more expensive because software is often imcompatible with some hardware (of which there is far more variety)
The story plays to emerging strengths of the console platform (e.g. Sony PS2 Eye Toy) and taps into the marketing expertise of the games industry.
Sampling culture will ensure that any successful console title will be soon replicable on a PC either by console emulation or reverse engineering of the console experience using the assets that are available.

The current legal system is not designed to facilitate sharing so any project using Creative Commons licenses may have to overcome resistence or apathy from potential partners who question whether there is money to be made. Moral rights legislation should support the case for content authors to relinquish all but moral rights over their work, although this hinges also on the individual filmmaker's willingness to relinquish a certain degree of control.

The music and film industries are trying to stamp out piracy through increasingly draconian measures (e.g. prosecuting primary students over their MP3 collections, refusing to issue screener tapes to film industry judges like BAFTA members). My idea may be unwelcome to those who support such measures and there is an education issue as to how futile these efforts are given the eagerness to exploit new technology (e.g. Sony sells films and computers used to pirate films). I have no doubt that this barrier is temporary. Protectionist measures are all about self-interest. Once a re-mixable film business model is demonstrable working, industries will co-opt it. This is already evident in the way that the music industry is acknowledging the value of P2P file-sharing data to measure trends in an unprecendented way.

The re-mixable film platform and film assets must be judged by the market to be sufficiently malleable. The idea revolves around the re-use of of existing technology and materials. The market needs to endorse this idea and view it as an opportunity to recycle, to save money and extend the lifespan of existing products.

The product is self-contained entertainment, not critical to any industry process but it has the potential to enhance the results of inductry processes, to act as an catalyst for new forms of entertainment. The product needs a gestation period out in the market in encourage new forms. They will not appear overnight.

There are always additional up-front costs to funding, developing and producing something genuinely new for the global marketplace.

Until products of this nature (i.e. a film/game hybrid) are shown to be commercially successful there will remain a conflict of interest between film and game service providers and some suspicion from these camps as to whether this is an approach suitable for high end production, irrespective of its appeal as grassroots creativity. People question whether there is any financial gain to be made from a more open approach because they do not appreciate how directly the open source movement has contributed to the evolution of the Internet (and Internet related business).

My track record of world-class online production can help break this chicken-and-egg situation, but the project does require key partners who are not intimidated by the risks associated with new business model. This is why support from an organisation such as NESTA is vital. A small highly skilled team will be able to surmount the main barriers to re-mixable film-making if funded speculatively.

Posted by .M. at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)

5.2 What are the key factors for success in this market?

What do you see as the most important factors in marketing this product: e.g. price, technical performance or other (e.g. support services)? Is this the general view within the industry? What are the key performance parameters required by the market and the performance of the proposed product against these parameters. Who are the key customers in the market, have you approached them and what feedback have you received from them? Are the likely key customers quick or slow to adopt new ideas and technology?

The key marketing factors are:

* Quality story - original and involving.

* Visibility of the product - (i.e. its appeal to the press and general public)

* Novelty of interactivity - the RIG as a fun interface for the MOD community and players

* Clarity of overall concept - (the idea of film as an instrument has to be simple, well executed)

* Quality of support - this is an experience supported by an online community backed up by the developers.

* Simple access - the distribution channels for films and MODs must be straightforward and readily availalbe

The key customers are people who MOD games, people who sample media, and people who share media. Beyond these, the product should garner the attention and hence the custom of wannabe filmmakers and gamemakers. That the product taps into personal creativity and innovation opens the floor for competitiveness and one-upmanshipm and may hence attract the friends of the core customers mentioned above (eg. the wannabe filmmaker invites her friends round to show them her latest mix, and some of them leave thinking of wasted opportunities and how they would have done it better).

The general school of thought within the OSS community is that businesses can flourish on top of free or low-cost technical platforms. This is not the public opinion of the games industry, now dominated by technology over gameplay, but there is evidence to suggest this view is tacitly acknowledged.

The key performance parameters for the product are:

The film market exacts a high standard of scripts and high production values.

The console market demands innovative design and high production values.

The online market requires accessibility above all, the utmost flexibility and vendor independence.

The remixable film proposition is aimed at meeting all the above parameters.

Posted by .M. at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)

5.1 Describe the overall market for your idea / product.

Your answer to this question should include an overview of the market, both its nature and size. You should also describe the specific segment of the market that you are targetting and what your reasons are for targetting this segment of the market.

Please give your current best estimates of the total units sold into the total market and / or the particular segment you are targetting ...You should also use this section to detail the information you have collected and what market research you have carried out so far that supports your view that there is a demand for the idea/product.

Such information / research could include:

independent market research reports on the general area or on your idea's potential
user surveys / interviews
informal discussions with users
product literature, price lists etc
evidence of sales
letters from organisations expressing significant interest

We need to know the key conclusions of any market research, with limited detailed evidence, so that we can understand the conclusions you cite. However, please ensure that all relevant evidence is available for us to look at as part of a detailed assessment.

We also want to know what further market research you intend to carry out during the NESTA funded phase and what you will still have to do at the end of the NESTA funded phase.

The re-mixable film DVD is an interactive entertainment property aimed at three distinct segments of the existing retail computer game market; the lifestyle (or casual gamers) market, the gamers who buy games to modify them (and publish MODs) and the rhythm game market. The social impact of these groups interacting with the same product could be culturally significant. The original concept alone should lead non-gamers to buy an interesting-sounding product (as was the case with the game Black and White (Lionhead, 2002).

Currently the nearest market would be the lifestyle entertainment market targeted by Microsoft for the upcoming non-game title "XBox Music Mixer" (see 2.5 Console Products). Microsoft is trying to expand the market for the XBox by releasing products that are not marketed as games. Microsoft also sponsors major music events to promote its console as a music platform.

The online entertainment software markets are expanding globally as broadband-compatible game consoles (Sony PS2, Microsoft XBox, Nintendo GameCube) achieve higher penetration and are marketed at an increasingly broad demographic.

Music Mixer is one of several titles announced recently that indicate an emerging mass-market for online music entertainment.

E.g.

Codemasterï¿½s No. 1 UK Christmas release, a rhythm game based on the Pop Idol franchise (press release April 4, 2003)
Karaoke Revolutions (press May 14, 2003), online karaoke game
BigBen Dance:UK (press June, 2003), dance-mat game with karaoke function.
Amplitude ï¿½ the first online rhythm game

The product is designed as a cross-media publishing system that will by its nature encourage the creation of new markets, new interactive genres and more hybrid products as customers re-mix it and publish new MODs.

The global market for licensed entertainment property generated $42.5 billion in worldwide retail sales in 2002. The market segment for movie properties and their DVD releases had a huge impact on the software/video game market in 2002 (15%, $372 million).

The market segment for music generated licensed properties topped $1.5 billion in 2002, generating an estimate $117 million in royalties. The use of an established artist for the soundtrack makes this segment attractive.

The film product is aimed at a wider market than the console (core) product, although both are aimed at the "popcorn" demographic (15-24y.o. M/F)

My market testing of music-led rhythm games (Gitaroo Man, Rez, Frequency) with non-gamers revealed considerable enthusiasm for these titles, alongside a lack of awareness of this genre, due to disinterest in stereotypical computer games where the focus is on complex virtual goals.

The target audience is 14 ï¿½ 30 year olds who have an interest in sci-fi films like Terminator 3 and Matrix Reloaded and use the Internet. The linear film targets a mixed gender audience while the DVD product is initially targeted at a male-dominated group of gamers who play and extend the games that supports MODS, notably the first-person-shooting-games Half-Life (Valve, 1998), Quake 3 (ID, 2000) and Unreal Tournament (Epic, 2001).

This first wave audience for the ï¿½film as stageï¿½ concept is a highly competitive, social (most MODs are made in teams) and influential group who have already widened the game market by promoting new genres ï¿½ MODs (user-contributed game modifications) and machinima (movies that play within game engines).

European game console software sales for 2003 are estimated at $3.4billion (see the following table for the trend). The total US console and handheld software revenue grew 10% in 2003 to $6.4billion. In 2001, a top 5 console game sold around 1,000,000 units in the US and 175,000 units in the UK. A top 100 console game in the same period sold around 70,000 units in the US and 14,000 units in the UK.

The community department of the new company will be conducting ongoing market reseach with various target communities (e.g. VJs, MODders, Machinima film-makers) to determine how the product needs to be designed in order to be immediately useful to them as a creative tool.

The research conducted to-date shows that there is a real shortage of content that is legal to MOD. In other words, there is an opportunity to provide more accessible art.

Posted by .M. at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

4.3 Explain your overall intellectual property protection strategy.

In your answer to this question you should explain what your overall strategy is for protecting your idea. This should cover both current and future plans and should also include the development of further ideas and how you intend to protect them. We would also like you to provide us with an idea of what the likely overall costs will be for intellectual property protection, not just for the NESTA funded phase. If you do not intend to seek specific IP protection please explain why in this question.

All the project team, even adhoc advisors, have to sign a non-disclosure agreement acknowledging their involvement in the project, prior to being given access to materials. During the funded phase, contracted team members will have to assign rights to the company for any materials produced while working on this project.

Technology IP will be protected via copyright and confidentiality agreements principally at this stage. Four domain names have already been registered. Subject to the initial draft of the product design document, trademarks will be registered based on GROOVER, SWITCH and FEEDER.

Software patents are, at present, not considered the most viable form of protection for this idea given the requisite costs and the social dimension of the project which concerns wider sharing. Various legal advisors will be monitoring the project and this position may change based on the outcome of the development phase. Traditionally game developers have not patented technology and game publishers often take the view that "ideas are cheap, development is expensive".

The project will carry out "defensive publication" of the technology to avoid someone else patenting the idea. Websites and key industry publications (like SIGGRAPH proceedings) will be used defensively as a place to publish research in order to make it "prior art". The principle revenue stream will come from copyrighted assets but this tactic will protect against the possibility that someone else subsequently and independently patents the relevant material. It provides a defence to patent infringement but does make the research available for use by competitors. This is part of the social dimension of the project.

It will be at the company's later discretion as to what modules of the eventual console software (excluding whatever engine is licensed) will be released as open source code to support wider take-up. The remainder of the code base will be a key asset.

The company will allow unprecedented access to film assets in order to maximise public exposure to the business model in order to encourage take-up of assets for commercial use (under license for further interactive development and with clearance fees for broadcast and synch rights).

The company will initiate legal proceedings to sue flagrant breaches of copyright and abuse of moral rights.

Once funding is in place, network security around the extranet system for the project ("the headbin") will be upgraded as appropriate to its capital value.

Posted by .M. at 02:21 PM | Comments (0)

4.2 - Who owns the idea / product?

NESTA suggestions:

Please describe clearly the ownership of any intellectual property related to the project. If any team members have a share in the ownership please provide details here. If anyone may have a claim on ownership of the intellectual property that is not currently formally recognised you should detail that here. If the intellectual property is owned, either wholly or in part, by any third party please provide their contact details here.

All story intellectual property related to "SANCTUARY" and "ten weeks in the head bin" is owned by Michela Ledwidge.

The interactive screenplay property "ten weeks in the head bin" was originally written under contract in 1997 to Brilliant Interactive Ideas and Brilliant Digital Entertainment through Michela's Australian personal investment vehicle, TLWM-A-TQC Pty Ltd. All rights to the script property were bought back in 2002 using funds frm thequality.com, Michela's UK personal investment vehicle.

The technical design in relation to the console product is similarily an original idea based on Michela's activities as a writer, technical architect and performer.

Posted by .M. at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)

4.1 - Details of all types of intellectual property protection that are relevant to your project

NESTA suggestions:

"Please provide details of relevant dates, official numbers and any further action required.

Please refer to any search results from the Patent Office and details of who was responsible for filing any applications. If you have filed a patent and either subsequently withdrawn it or allowed it to lapsed please tell us about that here. If any prior art searches have been done, please explain by whom and what results were obtained."

Current entry:

Ten Weeks in the Head Bin by Michela Ledwidge registered with the Director's Guild of America.
Registration #: 930800
Material Type: SCREENPLAY
Registered By: MICHELA LEDWIDGE
Effective Date: 06/03/03
Expiry Date: 06/03/08

All Intellectual Property Rights were re-assigned to Michela Ledwidge from Brilliant Digital Entertainment by Herbert Geer & Rundle law firm of 385 Bourke Street, Melbourne Australia.
Date: 16/09/2002
Reference: GAH:SXM

The original treatment for 10 Weeks in the Head Bin was lodged with the Australian Writers Guild in 1997.

The focus of this project is an artistic experience aimed at a mass-market audience. DVD and internet infrastructure may be suitable for patenting but this may not be viable given the rapid development cycle and the need to leverage existing technology. Few games companies patent products. Based on the outcome of the (separate) SMART–funded feasibility study, thequality.com may file patents and registered designs related to developer and management products that support the re-mixable film experience of SANCTUARY.

I have registered the domain names modfilms.com, modfilms.net, remixablefilms.com and remixablefilms.net with a view to hosting the online community on one or more of these in the future.

Remixable film assets as distributed on DVD will be licensed to the purchaser under a derivation of the Creative Commons License to facilitate not-for-profit re-use. The specifics of this license are still being worked out with legal counsel, but boadly speaking the key license terms are IP attribution and non-commercal use.

Posted by .M. at 02:17 PM | Comments (2)

3.7 - what is your exit strategy?

NESTA suggestions:

"In Question 3.1 we asked about how you intend to commercialise your idea. Your answer to this question should follow on from that and explain to us what your exit strategy is. Do you have a clear exit strategy planned e.g. how do you intend to realise the capital value of your idea? We realise that in some cases your answer to this question might be the same as your answer to both Q3.1 and Q5.5 e.g. if you intend to license your idea then that covers how you intend to commercialise the idea, what your route to market is and also your exit strategy. However this is only one example so we expect under other circumstances to have very different answers to these 3 questions.

Other information that we require for this question includes whether you have sought any external advice in planning your exit strategy? We also realise that you might not have an exit strategy so if this is the case then say so.

We also want to know about how any outcomes from the project, which NESTA will be supporting will be disseminated? Award-holders will be expected to develop plans to promote their work where appropriate e.g. publications, ripple effect through teaching/ mentoring, performances, marketing. However we recognise that there maybe occasions where confidentiality and intellectual property constraints will limit dissemination opportunities."

The exit strategy for the project will be to liquidate as much of the intellectual capital generated from the development and production phases. In preparing this section I have sought advice from my accountant, Christine Coorey.

Although the project is designed to develop, at some cost, a mechanism for making assets widely available for non-commercial use, a simple strategy will be to sell as much of the technology, script and story-related artwork at a discount to competitors ahead of the product release.

The project's art assets can be packaged as a proprietary art library (similar to the music industry's "music library" agencies) and released via Turbo Squid or a similar online asset marketplace which return an average of 50% of the proceeds of each sale to the artist.

The script property on its own can be sold as part of a discounted package for "head bin", including the feature film script and previous branching narrative versions, through a script agent.

The SANCTUARY demo and web editor technology could be sold as a package to a game developer studio or an online technology vendor for incorporation into another product. The toolset approach could be sold back to the middleware vendor (e.g. Criterion) as a potential extension of the game toolkit.

Any brand development around the online community will assist in the sale of Internet domain names registered for the project (modfilms.com, modfilms.net, remixablefilms.com, remixablefilms.net) and any community infrastructure.

There may also be an opportunity to sell prototypes and in-house documentation to a competing studio that is looking to get a fast-track to development in this area. Consulting and other human capital related services can also be successfully marketed to benefit these third party projects.

The project has a mix of both human and intellectual capital which allows easy dissemination of the assets using both Internet publishing processes and public appearances. This point is adequately covered in the description of community and out-reach ("What's the Story?") activities elsewhere in the proposal.

Posted by .M. at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)

3.6d - what work will remain to be done at the end of the Nesta funded phase in order to reach your overall aims? - cost

NESTA suggestions:

"Here tell us what you currently estimate to be the cost of the project beyond the NESTA funded phase. This should include amounts and your current plans for covering these costs. At Q8.4 we will require specific detail on this e.g. who the potential external sources of funding are and what stage discussions have reached Please include here any finance that will come from you or other team members and any in-kind commitments."

Beyond the development phase, the production estimate for SANCTUARY is estimated at XXXXXXXXX, broken down into XXXXXXX for the film production and XXXXXX for console production. The plan for covering the production budget is to approach potential funders on the strength of the initial outputs from the NESTA award.

At least a further £5,000 will be needed to cover the costs of marketing and distributing additional film prints. This would be sought once the film was received favourably.

Once SANCTUARY is released for sale, the company should not incur significent direct costs to achieve the aim of this project. A minimum of £5000 will be spent on preparing a package for potential licensees, publishers and buyers of the IP.

As the current IP owner, committed to its realisation as an interactive film franchise, I will continue to finance development of the property and pursue sales opportunities beyond SANCTUARY. There will be a cap of £10,000 a year on this activity (based on projected earnings as a consultant) without further investment.

I also intend to secure a graphic novel deal based on the story. This will assist efforts to secure studio investment in the feature film idea.

The feature film, "ten weeks in the head bin", is only realisable by a major entertainment studio such as Warner, Sony, Universal, Dreamworks, Viacom (Paramount), Disney or Fox. It is not the intention of the company to attempt to finance this film.

The current estimate for producing "ten weeks in the head bin" as a studio feature film is US$80 million. A "AAA" rated console game based on a film license is now typically budgeted around US$30m. The estimate cost of producing "ten weeks in the head bin" as a re-mixable film (along the lines of SANCTUARY) is US$81 million.

The company will need to recoup royalties from organisations using the film assets for commercial use. A technical hurdle will be enforcing the not-for-commercial re-use license. It has not been finalised whether the re-mixable film will be released soley under UK law, US law, or a combination of both. Legal proceedings will be instituted in any relevent juristiction if need be.

The company will need to manage any royalty streams setting from legal re-use of the assets. There will be an ongoing cost for project accounting of this nature, offset by staff available through stake-holders (e.g. thequality.com).

Ongoing online community management costs can have a ceiling of £500/month.

The online community will be an ongoing proposition if it is successful. As is the model for this kind of venture, it should be possible to cover the overheads of running the community site (e.g. bandwidth, support, moderation) through advertising or sponsorship in-kind from vendors who benefit from its existence (e.g. hardware manufacterers).

Posted by .M. at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

3.6c - what work will remain to be done at the end of the Nesta funded phase in order to reach your overall aims? - timetable

NESTA suggestions:

"If the proposal to NESTA is for one phase of a larger project with other funders, describe how this proposal fits within the project as a whole. Set out your overall objectives clearly with milestones that might be used to monitor progress.

We want to know what the overall long-term timetable of the project is i.e. what the timetable is for reaching your overall goal. How long this will take e.g. months/years and whether this will be on a full-time basis or part-time."

All my activities (as film-maker and technical architect) are focused on one ultimate aim - to direct feature-length re-mixable films. This is a full-time occupation which does not rule out working on other people's projects. This project is one of several key milestones towards the overall aim. All times quoted are projected from receipt of first instalment of funding

Time to reach) TASK

6 months - ongoing) Establish online community of people who want to re-mix films

15 months) Write/direct/produce short re-mixable film (SANCTUARY)

3 years) Direct first feature film

4 years) Direct second feature film

5 years) Direct/produce at least five re-mixable film shorts

5 years) Direct re-mixable feature film (ten weeks in the head bin)

The original intention was to apply for full production funding of SANCTUARY from NESTA. The intention is to follow the NESTA funded development phase with a production phase even if production funding comes from a different source.

The key milestones are:

1. Finalisation of the interactivity design document for DVD - January 2005

2. Day one of principal photography on film - March 2005

3. Day one of post-production on film - April 2005

4. Final cut of film - June 2005

5. First public (Festival) screening of SANCTUARY - July 2005

6. Delivery of DVD prototype - September 2005

7. DVD finalised. Quality assurance complete - October/November 2005

8. DVD obtains manufacturer approval - November 2005

9. DVD released in the UK - December 2005

10. Sale of "head bin" film to major studio for development - June 2006

This timetable is aimed at developing the experience and profile to direct "ten weeks in the head bin".

Posted by .M. at 02:08 PM | Comments (0)

3.6b - what work will remain to be done at the end of the Nesta funded phase in order to reach your overall aims? - team & infrastructure

NESTA suggestions:

"If you believe that you will need additional resources to see the project through to a successful end please tell us what the skills gaps are and whether you have identified ways of meetings these skills gaps? We also want to know what other facilities and support you will require in the future, e.g. any key suppliers / third parties that will be crucial to the development of your idea and why they are crucial. If they are crucial have you any other options if they were to become unavailable in the future? If the team will remain the same e.g. as described in Q3.5 then there is no need to repeat the information already provided."

Please see "Team" attachment for biography and references of key team members.

The production team will be structured into three departments, Film, Console
and Community. Current team members and advisors will be re-assigned once production funding is in place and heads of each department (i.e. the producers) are signed.

In structuring the team for the proposal I have made the assumption that certain key team members will work cross-department during production, at the discretion of the three producers. For example, the console technical lead will sit within the Console department but will be a valuable resource in planning the film production/post-production pipeline, DVD asset management, and the online community content management system.

Many of the existing advisors will be given an opportunity to participate in the production phase. The community dimension of the project means that the notion of team extends to non-paid contributors and participants. An organisation chart is included in 9.1 to show the relationship of advisors to production teams.

It is not possible to finalise the film, console and community teams ahead of production funding. This is due to the gap between submitting the proposal and the start of production. Responsibility for finalising teams will fall to each departmental Producer.

The rationale for setting up a new company is to create a structure by which the core SANCTUARY development team (and thequality.com trust network of advisors already contributing) can continue to work together on the production of SANCTUARY and on future new projects exploring cutting-edge interactive ideas.

Executive Producer:

I will seek an exceptional producer who can realise film screening opportunities and DVD distribution deals to come on-board at the production funding stage and take a stake of the new company. This may be the Project Champion proposed by NESTA.

Film Producer:

This person oversees film production. It will be someone from within the film industry, ideally with experience in convergent film/game projects, able to cope with the unforeseen and the peculiar and particular requirements that convergent projects bring with them. This will be a full-time position starting soon after funding comes through, continuing through marketing and distribution of the Sanctuary film.

This position will be filled once production funding is secured. I will begin discussions with new and already identified producers as soon as NESTA funding is secured.

Console Producer:

This person will be responsible for producing the SANCTUARY DVD. This will be someone from within the console games industry with titles already under their belt. The producer will have experience in relevant fields (rhythm games, film tie-ins, etc.) and will have dealt with Microsoft and Sony on previous titles. This will be a part-time position, except during design, programming and testing, when it will become full-time.

This position will be filled once production funding is secured. Given that the technologies chosen for the console product will influence the development plan, technology partners will be consulted in filling this role. Several contenders for this position have already been discussed and discussions are underway to sign them onto the project as advisors during the development phase. Criterion have also offered to help source this position using their global contacts if their product Renderman is licensed.

Community Producer:

This person will manage and nurture the growth of an online re-mixable film community. The person will have PR/Marketing experience as well as online community management experience. It will be a part-time job, starting once funding is secured.

The role will require liasion with other online communities and identifying stake-holders within these groups who can assist with PR and Marketing. As such, the role will be advertised after funding is secured, in established online communities like emint (community managers), VJcentral (visual artists), MODcentral (game mod creators), fanfilms.com (fan film-makers) and machinima.com (Machinima film-makers). The community web site will be the prime marketing tool for the project.

Information Manager:

This role (akin to Chief Knowledge Officer in an enterprise) assumes overall responsibility for knowledge management during production. The project will be decentralised, across different work environments, and this person will ensure that information goes through the appropriate avenues, is being recorded, and is available to the right people. This is a role requiring excellent communications skills, an approachable personality and thorough knowledge of all information communications technology.

This will be a part-time role, except during production when it will be full-time. This role possibly be combined with the Community Producer role if an appropriate individual is found.

Other key skills gaps required are

* Sales and Marketing - dedicated staff will be required to promote SANCTUARY and other completed products, the team's skillset and capabilities to existing markets by way of commissions and secure distribution deals and ongoing consultancy work.

* PR - in order to best leverage the company's assets, public relations will be key, especially with regards to ongoing liasion with online communities. The success of "Horses for Courses" as a PR exercise suggests that SANCTUARY will generate considerable interest which can be leveraged to creatively develop new ideas ongoing (e.g. competitions, recruitment, collaborations)

* Producers - a full-time in-house producer will be hired to support parallel project development and help run the business.

Most of the missing resources required to see the idea through to a successful end, after the production and distribution of SANCTUARY, will have to supplied through partnership and/or sales to a major studio. My aim is to keep the in-house team lightweight (as in key team members) and flexible (as is the typical independent film production company model).

Posted by .M. at 02:06 PM | Comments (0)

3.6a - what work will remain to be done at the end of the Nesta funded phase in order to reach your overall aims? - IDEA

NESTA suggestions:

"In this section please tell us about what creative/technical hurdles will remain to be overcome. We are interested in the next stages of creative / technical development that relate specifically to your product / idea rather then approvals or endorsements that are general to the market."

At the end of the NESTA funded phase, I will be in a strong position to produce SANCTUARY and establish the new company as a market leader in the interactive story-telling space. The demo will make it clear to investors what the potential of the product is and what the relevance of the re-mixable technology is to a range 3rd party film, television, console and web projects.

Projects like SANCTUARY will clarify the concept but it may take longer than anticipated to communicate this notion to a mainstream audience. This is the key creative hurdle for the team.

The next phase of the SANCTUARY project will be divided into production, marketing and promotion of the following deliverables:

1. a 35mm film master submitted to festival screenings

2. an online console DVD master for UK/Australian distribution

3. a web-based press kit and promotional materials

4. an open source web application (for editing and packaging MODs into the format that can be downloaded into a game console using FEEDER)

PRODUCTION

The idea is to secure further funding in order to immediately move into production of the short film SANCTUARY and the console product, the re-mixable film version of SANCTUARY. This activity can commence during the NESTA funded phase but full production funding is likely to hinge on the availability of a complete and polished demo (e.g. game industry funding).

To best leverage the development investment, I want to move swiftly into production of SANCTUARY and get the 35mm film and console DVD to market. The project is structured so that the key technical and creative obstacles will have already been tackled and solved during the NESTA funded phase. The production of SANCTUARY will be relatively straightforward at this stage, with considerable less risk to investors.

The aim is to excite a passive audience with a new interactivity concept, via publicity and 35mm screenings

The console development required beyond the NESTA funded phase will be considerably less than what is required typically in the game industry (e.g. after a game demo is produced). This is due to the idea of the film acting as a canvas for future creativity. The three core modules of the console product (GROOVER, SWITCH and FEEDER) will however require further development and extensive quality assurance to ensure that the overall experience works as desired.

The web application will enable people to alter the film either by simply replacing art assets or by completely transforming the experience by writing code handlers. By releasing the source code to the web application, the idea is that the tool be used as sample code for developers to extend and modify the film experience.

The SANCTUARY web site will feature stills, video trailers and press materials. The aim is to create a buzz for the project ahead of launch by collaborating with existing online communities favourable to the idea.

MARKETING

At this time I will also be in the position to market the re-mixable demo idea and demo technology for a wide range of other narrative projects, in-house and 3rd party, wherever there is an intention to build a two-way community around a story universe. The market potential for re-mixable film will be clearer by this stage, given current trends, and the company’s experience will be a valuable commodity. In parallel to producing SANCTUARY, the company will be marketed to film, TV, game, and web producers as an interactive content provider.

PROMOTION

The online community funded by NESTA will be maintained beyond the life of the initial phase. This community will act as a promotion hub for other re-mixable film projects (in the same way that machinima.com acts as a hub to promote machinima films).

After launch the community will be encourage to regulate itself. The company will continue maintenance and promote an auto-ranking submission system for reviewing and signposting the MODs that are available online.

The community will evolve in direct response to the take-up of the idea and the appeal of SANCTUARY once produced. A hurdle will be to develop a business model for the community (e.g. sponsorship) that allows it to become more self-sustainable without being too great a financial burden on the company.

One idea associated with this is to produce an online re-mixable film demo that, while less graphically rich then a console demo, will by virtue of being on the Web will be far more widely accessible. This could re-use the technology developed for SANCTUARY and form the basis of a competition so that the online community contributed the story.

Subscribers will be invited to participate in closed alpha and beta testing of the console product. The community will be an organic social network, enabling a wide group of interested parties to track the project as a social phenomenon and keep abreast of newly available MODs.

Coverage in the mainstream press will be sought to communicate the idea of the re-mixable film to lay people and further promote the idea of a re-mixable film community.

In additional to 35mm film screenings and presentations of the DVD at industry conferences (e.g. SIGGRAPH Electronic Theatre), I will give "live performances" of the film as a director and seek television coverage for this activity.

Outreach events and development for spin-off factual content will continue to go under the banner "What's the Story?". The long term plan for this activity is to increase awareness amoungst the general public of interactive story-telling projects like SANCTUARY.

SANCTUARY publicity will focus on influential events and channels in the film, game and online industries (e.g. BAFTA, PACT, SIGGRAPH, Wired magazine, 3D World magazine).

OVERALL PLAN

My overall aim is to sell the feature length script behind the SANCTUARY re-mixable film to a major studio for development as a feature film with myself attached as director, with a committment to develop a re-mixable version. The vision is of an interactive story franchise that secures a mainstream cinema release.

Leveraging NESTA funds, I will need to establish the new company as a market leader in the re-mixable story-telling space and use this experience to obtain interactive development funding for a slate of stories.

After the release of SANCTUARY, the focus will be on securing additional opportunities for myself (writing, directing and producing) and the project team, as a unit that can sub-contracted to larger film and game productions.

An eventual sale of "ten weeks in the head bin" as a re-mixable film project will be dependent on the development of the story universe into a compelling form and the take-up of film re-mixing as a form of audience participation. The latter is a key hurdle which cannot be underestimated. The project is structured so that the development funding will support an ongoing business regardless of shifting tastes in the market. The technology and process will be, by its nature, very re-usable.

A key technical hurdle will be to design SANCTUARY film assets so that they are as re-usable as possible. The proof of the pudding will be re-using assets in side-projects (e.g. content for the online community), and particularly in the re-mixable feature film based in the same story universe.

It will be necessary to strongly promote the re-usable aspect of the project to ensure that the market appreciates how and why there cost savings to be made. It may be necessary to seek out other companies and obtain commissions to create commercial branded MODs for SANCTUARY as a demonstration of its potential.

I would also seek to re-use art assets in two game spin-offs, as described in 2.7.

Development funding will be sought for the following slate to exploit the idea in various permutations:

* SANCTUARY
Ten minute re-mixable film. Film/console DVD

* ten weeks in the head bin
Feature length re-mixable film. Film/console DVD

* What's the Story?
Documentary on the future of interactive story-telling. 30min TV documentary/book/event series

* Car Story
Adults-only raunchy re-mixable film. Series of 5 minute TV films/console DVD

* Interactive exercise at home
Heart-monitor/exercise programme for the Sony EyeToy. Console DVD

* The Phonies
Truth is stranger than fiction as constestants try to spot phoney media. iTV pilot

* MOD music
Re-mixable clips for music acts.

Posted by .M. at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)

3.5c - What progress do you expect to make during the NESTA funded phase of your project? - TIMETABLE

NESTA suggestions:

"In this section we want to know when the NESTA phase will start, how long it will take and what the key milestones of the phase will be and when they will occur? We also want to know why is it important to have support from NESTA now? For example, is there a particular window of opportunity to be exploited or has the idea reached a critical stage where it requires specific support in order to help achieve its potential?"

The NESTA phase of funding would start in March 2004. It will last until the completion of the console demo and initial presentations to games publishers in the first quarter of 2005.

The key milestones will be:

1. Incorporation of new company (working title being MODfilms) - March 2004

2. Launch of MODfilms.net (closed beta) - March 2004

3. Finalisation of shooting script - May 2004

4. 1st draft of interactivity design document complete - June 2004

5. Completion of Animatic (interactive storyboards and concept art) - September 2004

6. Interactivity demo complete - December 2004

7. Launch of MODfilms.net (open to public) - December 2004

8. First presentation of demo to games publisher - January 2005

Since the re-acquisition of the property in 2002 and during its subsequent development, the visibility of "shared content" projects has increased to the point where this is one of the most significent development trends in the entertainment industry.

This is in part due to the general public's growing recognition of the potential of the internet - in the last quarter of 2002, there were 34,000 new customers signing up for a high-speed Internet connection each week (ZNet - Nov 15th 2002). Awareness of and familiarity with internet resources and capabilities has consequently rocketed in 2003. Companies are increasingly exploiting the potential of up-stream bandwidth (users uploading, not just downloading).

At the same time the Creative Commons project, in conjunction with the open source movement, and the availability of P2P file-sharing networks is having a profound impact on how people view the producer-consumer relationship.

It is vital to secure funding at this stage to stay abreast of the competition. Much of the thinking that has gone into this proposal, over a year's research, is becoming common knowledge. The landscape changes each month.

User-contributed content, particularly for online titles, is being touted as the future of the games industry.
http://www.gamespy.com/amdmmog/week8/

Despite public condemnation, the music industry is (quietly) paying for statistics from P2P file-sharing networks as a new form market intelligence.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=487&e=1&u=/ap/file_swapping_intelligence

Weeks after my original NESTA proposal, Greg Dyke announced that BBC would follow suit, and release the corporation's entire programme archive using a derivative of Creative Commons.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.11/start.html?pg=1

The mockumentary "Nothing So Strange" (www.nothingsostrange.com) captured the imaginations of such publications as WIRED magazine in producing an open source model for filmmaking.

The game industry is having difficulty in harnessing all these developments. To do so, business models have to change. Most titles (eg. first-person-shooters) are established formats that existed for PC long prior to the above developments. In a year that has seen an estimate of UK game industry losses put at "24 companies, 1200 jobs go, 20 per cent of the workforce", there is a short term opportunity to obtain investment and key talent to realise the aspirational aims of the project "under the radar".

Console games often suffer from overcomplexity of design and for the hubris of their ambitions. In a market acknowledged as overly driven by technology, it is vital that conceptually simple creative projects such as SANCTUARY be encouraged to leverage, and in some cases join up existing technologies in a way that can fire the popular imagination.

The DVD product is riding the crest of a wave of cutting-edge development. I need investment to beat the competition to the top of the mountain, which is being built as we speak. My idea can go little further without investment (a fraction of which is spent on most games) to position the SANCTUARY product as an influential world-beating prototype for a new market that is emerging.

Posted by .M. at 01:20 PM | Comments (1)

3.5b - What progress do you expect to make during the NESTA funded phase of your project? - Team and infrastructure

NESTA suggestions:

"Think carefully about the skills required for the proposal to be a success (e.g. management, technical, marketing). Tell us about the key team members who will be working on the project in the NESTA funded phase and what their specific roles and responsibilities will be in relation to the skills required. We want to know who the team members are, all about their track record and experience to date and how this is relevant to the NESTA funded phase. We want to know what their level of commitment to the project will be during the NESTA funded phase e.g. full or part-time. It is important for us to know whether any members of the team have other claims on their time. Please provide this information and contact details for all key team members.

We also need two references for each team member. The referees should be independent and be in a position to comment on the team member's skills and experiences that are relevant to this project. These references will help us to assess the overall project management and capacity of the team and its members.

You should also use this section to explain the management structure (either planned or existing) for the NESTA funded phase.

If any individual team member has a website please include the web address.

This question is also an opportunity for you to tell us what type of person that you might be looking for as a Project Champion. As we explain in the guidance notes an important part of a NESTA support package is that we aim to provide a Project Champion to support you in achieving the aims of you project.

We also want to know about other facilities and support that you will have access to during this phase. This might include key suppliers / third parties that will be crucial to the development of your idea for the immediate plan and why you regard them as crucial."

I am seeking support as an individual artist to kick-start a sustainable re-mixable film community.

Please see "Team" attachment for biography and references of key people in this community.

KEY TEAM MEMBERS

Director/Producer/Architect:

Michela Ledwidge is me; the artist seeking funding. I hold the creative and technical vision for the project. I will design the story and story framework so that it can be played with as performance tool. This is a full-time role with hands-on involvement in all areas including singing and programming.

Art Director:

Damon O'Connell is responsible for ensuring that the visual aesthetic for the project is achievable across film and console. He will be responsible for visual-related prototyping (e.g. 3D animation/effects tests, 35mm pipeline tests) and visual art creation. This will be a full-time role.

Console Architect:

Mike Roberts is responsible for ensuring that the console demo fully supports the vision for film as an open-ended creative tool. He will pay particular attention to how proprietary code and open source code is structured. He will build prototype software tools for modifying the film and assist Michela in hiring additional programming support as required. This will be a full-time role.

Script Editor/Producer:

Ann-Kristin Glenster will responsible for script revisions and editing leading up to the shooting script. Once the shooting script is finalised, she will help secure production funding for SANCTUARY and other projects. This will be a part-time role.

KEY SUPPORT

A number of advisors, all of whom have signed non-disclosure agreements with thequality.com, will be involved during the development phase. This activity is largely unfunded but of key importance in establishing a real community around the project.

The following advisors will also be suppliers as required:

Director's assistant:

Ken Thompson Marchesi will assist Michela in researching and executing all stages of the project.

Sound producer:

John Broomhall will advise on the pipeline for recording and distributing interactive sound assets.

Concept artist:

Simon Millgate contribute concept artwork to the project in the form of sketches and digital artwork.

Virtual Set consultant:

Michael Eleftheriades will advise the project on virtual and captured paranomic environments.

Technical Architect :
Robert Bowerman will advise on project planning, relevent academic research, and overall technical architecture.

Project Accountant:

Christine Coorey will manage the finances of the project. She will advise on all financial planning (production funding and company investment), monitor cashflow and ensure that the development phase is adhering to budgets.

Legal Counsel:

Archie Maddan will advise me on general legal issues and manage the relationship with the law firm Osborne Clarke.

System Administrator:

This role is responsible for supporting all IT used by the project team. Specific skills will be needed at different times, sometimes requiring specialists to be sourced for a particular issue. This role ensures that there is support for invevitable IT issues.

thequality.com has two specialist system administrators who work as required on a freelance basis, Paul Makepeace and Cameron Bartlett.

INFRASTRUCTURE

thequality.com will provide online platforms (intranet, extranet and public internet) to the new company under an ASP (Application Service Provider) arrangement. In general, existing IT infrastructure (in-house and co-located) will be sufficient, as will the thequality.com office space. All online systems established for the new company will be co-hosted with thequality.com until capacity is reached.
http://thequality.com

ONLINE DISTRIBUTORS

Crucial to the development of the idea will be an online distribution partner and a preferred online distribution channel for MODs and perhaps even for the entire DVD (though not essential). There are various online distribution models being considered for this project with the intention to not limit distribution by other means. The ultimate strategy for online distribution will depend on further discussions with suppliers.

Steam (Valve Software)

Steam is an online delivery system for games. Steam was designed to enable Valve to better manage the complexities of supporting very popular MODable games. As such, Steam is one of the few options for online distribution of the re-mixable film itself (as well as smaller MOD bundles). The popularity of Valve's game, Half-life, and the upcoming sequel, Half-life 2, means that Steam attracts phenomenal amounst of traffic, 500,000 user accounts at launch. Product distributed through Steam would leverage the high profile of the vendor. Countering the appeal of Steam is a backlash from parts of the game community. Not everybody wants that requires user authentication (i.e. tracking) before a game can be played.
http://www.steampowered.com/

Kazaa (Sherman Enterprises)

Kazaa is the most popular P2P file sharing network on which most file sharing occurs (largely illegally). Deploying legal content on Kazaa is an increasingly popular form of online distribution. Kazaa's popularity is offset by its reputation for tacitly encouraging copyright enfringement. Highlighting Kazaa in any distribution strategy may be a risk to other partnerships, particularily with more traditional media companies.
http://www.kazaa.com/

Altnet (Brilliant Digital Entertainment)

Altnet sells a "Premium Content" DRM service which prepares and places content on Kazaa and other P2P (peer-to-peer) oneline distribution systems solely with the permission of the copyright holder. Altnet (and its parent company Brilliant Digital) were subject to widespread criticism in the press in 2001 after CNN revealed that, contained within an Altnet shareholders report, that any Kazaa user who had accepted the Terms and Conditions of Kazaa had explicitly allowed Altnet technology to re-use their local PC resources across the net (like computing power). Interestingly enough, this was an idea explored in my script (commissioned by the now-head of Altnet). Despite the consumer backlash that year, Altnet remains ideally placed to enable wider access to re-mixes. BDE management could secure favourable terms for this project.

However my experience on Horses for Courses (where playback relied on BDE technology and BDE discontinued support shortly after the film release) means that any distribution strategy will never rely solely on the availability of these businesses.
http://www.altnet.com/

On Demand Distribution (OD2)

Bit Torrent

Bit Torrent is an open source online distribution system released under the MIT License which, in the words of its sole author, "basically lets you do anything you want with it so long as you leave the license notification in the source."
http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/

Freenet

Freenet is a free content distribution system which, in the words of its original creator, "is free software designed to ensure true freedom of communication over the Internet. It allows anybody to publish and read information with complete anonymity." Freenet has obtained considerable press over the last four years but a lack of user-friendly tools has limited its take-up.

http://freenet.sourceforge.net/

Posted by .M. at 01:15 PM | Comments (0)

3.5a - What progress do you expect to make during the NESTA funded phase of your project? - IDEA

NESTA suggestions:

"In this section please tell us what progress you expect to make during the period for which you are seeking NESTA support and specifically what creative/technical hurdles you plan to overcome during this phase. If you have a specific development plan summarise it here e.g. the aims, milestones and outputs of the project and what you expect NESTA support will help you to achieve. "

The aim is to use NESTA funds to develop the idea to the point where the film is ready to shoot (full development) and a technology demo of the re-mixable film experience is ready to be presented to investors (as would be a game demo). I expect that NESTA support will enable production funding to be secured on the basis of this work and its future potential.

Every detail of the film production will be worked out during this phase, including a full animatic (animated story-boards) of the film, shooting script, pre-visualisation 3D animation and concept art.

All the key creative and technical hurdles associated with bringing the vision to life will be explored ahead of production. This will reduce the risk of the subsequent production phase (for investors) and will open up new business opportunities in working on 3rd party productions.

After extensive prototyping with new and existing art assets (from previous productions), a console demo will be produced. This demo will sell the vision of a film that plays in a regular DVD-VIDEO player and on a game console (probably the Sony PS2) as a new kind of experience. This interactive functionality will be branded "the RIG". The RIG (the Reactive Interface Grid) is game software representing the mind-machine interface in the story.

The RIG contains:

• THE FEEDER - to bring new material (MODs) into the film experience (via broadband from a web client).

• THE SWITCH - to mix and record film MODs using DJ/VJ controls.

• THE GROOVER – to play the film like a musical instrument or a rhythm game.

The focus of the demo will be to demonstrate how a film DVD acting as a platform for upload-able modifications (i.e. subsequent functionality can be incorporated at a later stage). The demo will leverage concept and "pre-vis" art as well as fully rendered artwork prototype work. It will not be a product suitable for commercial release. Its purpose is attract further investment based on the fact that the biggest creative and technical hurdles have been overcome.

The deliverables will be:

1. SANCTUARY shooting script

2. SANCTUARY animatic and concept artwork

3. SANCTUARY re-mixable film (DVD) demo aimed at potential funders

4. an online community using a web bulletin board system

5. documentation on how to MOD and re-mix the demo

6. a web demo application (for editing and packaging MODs into the format that can be downloaded into the DVD via the FEEDER)

7. sample MODs for the GROOVER and the SWITCH

The bulletin board for the re-mixable film community will be read-only to the public but available for free subscription. It will be made public prior to the release of the demo and act as a key development platform for this phase. Alpha and Beta testers will be sourced from the community.

The editing tool is a simple web application for creating re-mixable film MODs. The tool supports changing the overall experience ("the mix") by packaging new software and and replacing individual film assets ("the flics"). The tool enables anyone to completely alter the look of the film and create new passive and interactive experiences by re-writing the code which controls how the cinema version is constructed from art assets. New assets will be downloadable from anywhere, by anyone, into a licensed DVD. Access to MODs will not be controlled by the DVD software. Any web service will be able to host MODs.

The main creative hurdles are:

1) Designing the film and DVD experience so that people will be motivated to modify the DVD and publish a variety of re-mixes (MODs) by the product's eventual release date. Press coverage will be a measure of the viability of this approach.
2) Supporting both naive and developer usage without bias. The premise of the re-mixable film experience is that you don't have to interact, or need only interact a little bit, to have fun.
3) Bridging the two worlds of the story (beautiful rugged bushland and virtual world) in a way that is accessible to the viewer.
4) Leveraging the story universe and narrative to convey the overall vision in simple terms.

The main technical hurdles are:

1) Working out a cost-effective pipeline by which 35mm film assets, 360 degree panoramic photography and film resolution 3D models and animation can be effeciently re-purposed for use on the re-mixable DVD.
2) Re-purposing an existing XML publishing system for encoding and reading film semantic information so that any assets (supplied at purchase time or contributed by audience) can be slotted into a run-time film experience. The choice of which emerging standards to base this on (e.g. RDF) will be key.
3) Designing an open source "plug-in" system so that re-mixable film MODs can contain new experiences (alongside GROOVER and SWITCH) as well as simply new art assets.
4) Designing the input/output system (FEEDER) so that it inter-operates with the broadest range of web technology and online distribution systems. FEEDER should be compatible with DRM technologies (e.g. Microsoft).
5) Leveraging a broad suite of available and upcoming open source technology so that the above software development is feasible within the budget.
6) Designing an innovative context for proprietary software and integrating key technologies into the product, to avoid re-inventing the wheel. The company structure will enable me to offer equity in exchange for the license to embed innovative software (e.g. facial image analysis) in the product.

Posted by .M. at 12:51 PM | Comments (0)

3.4d - What overall progress have you made to date with your idea? - COST

NESTA suggestions:

"Tell us what your project has cost so far and where these funds have come from e.g. from your own pocket, contributions from other team members or from external sources and if so who and how much. You should also tell us about any in-kind commitments that had a value."

This project has been funded almost entirely through revenue earned as a technical architect and online consultant. My company, thequality.com, has invested in developing this project. The key expenditure, vital to the project, has been the re-gaining of all rights from Brilliant Digital (£8500).

The costs associated in achieving the progress described in 3.4a is made up research, wages, and living expenses while working on the project.

A table that breaks down this expenditure, has been provided as an attachment.

Breakdown of expenditure on project to-date

Criterion Software have given the project a free evaluation license for their game engine technology on which to base the demo, if desired, and have offered an intital quote of £25,000 for commercial use of their full set of game middleware technology. We have budgeted on the assumption that Criterion will not support their full set of technology for free and so negotiations are continuing to reduce up-front costs for any development based on the innovation of this project.

Many advisors have contributed free or pro-bono advice to the project over the years and particularly in the last six months.

Posted by .M. at 12:47 PM | Comments (0)

3.4c - What overall progress have you made to date with your idea? - TIMETABLE

NESTA suggestions:

"In this section we want to know how long you have been working on the project e.g. months/years, whether this has been on a full-time basis or part-time, how much time others have spent on the project, and also whether they have been full or part-time."

I have been pursuing this idea in this proposal full-time since February 1997. All my subsequent work has been directly or indirectly related to the idea and the skills required to realise it.

I worked full-time on the screenplay this project is based on for 13 months from February 1997 to March 1998. I spent a further a month writing full-time in 2000. I have been working full-time on this specific iteration of the concept since October 2002.

Mike Roberts has been working full-time on the project for the last two months.

Ken Thompson Marchesi has working part-time for the last two months.

All other advisors and team-members have been contributing small amounts of time as required.

Posted by .M. at 12:43 PM | Comments (1)

3.4b - What overall progress have you made to date with your idea? - TEAM & INFRASTRUCTURE

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.

Posted by .M. at 12:41 PM | Comments (3)

3.4a - What overall progress have you made to date with your idea? - IDEA

NESTA suggestions:

In this section please tell us how the idea came about and what creative/technical hurdles you have had to overcome so far to reach your current stage. This should include how any early prototypes/drafts have performed and been received and the results of any test/trials that have been conducted so far, either by yourself or by third parties. You should also include details of any early research carried out and what the conclusions were. Also include here any further progress you have made since you first submitted your initial proposal to NESTA.

In 1993 I became one of the world's first Web developers as part of a Computer Science thesis project on hypertext authoring systems. Having only recently read William Gibson's book "Neuromancer", I was blown away by the discovery that a universal online framework for content and services had been created. I created a Web browser/authoring tool and began thinking about how to use the Internet as a vehicle for the arts. In November of that year I wrote to the www-dev mailing list, the main Web community of the time, was quoted on the "What's New page" (the original list of Web sites as they came online) and received email from Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web. I was recognised as the first person to launch a web site in New South Wales.

Inspired by the fact that (at that time) the Internet was a largely unregulated medium where ideas and free expression could prosper, I began drafting ideas on how film-making and the Internet could complement each other.

In 1997 I had my first opportunity to put my ideas into practice when I won a interactive screen-writing competition run by Brilliant Digital Entertainment. I signed a writer's agreement with BDE to develop a virtual world sci-fi action movie "ten weeks in the head bin" as a "Multipath Movie" (Choose Your Own Adventure-style cartoon) online. I spent thirteen months developing the project with a script editor. The deliverables were a 350+ page screenplay, a 10 page flowchart showing the relationship between scenes, and an interactive technical specification (equivalent to a game design document). The project was shelved by BDE at this point. Multipath Movies were not selling and focus group works suggested that people were not excited about branching narratives.

In 2000 I was re-approached by BDE to continue developing the project, this time as a "webisode" series. I revised the material but negotiations broke down over wording in the original contract. My legal advisors at the time had failed to spot a loop-hole in the original writer's agreement which BDE could (and did) exploit to overrule my buy-back rights. Later that year BDE set up a meeting between myself and Dorothy Crouch, VP licensed publishing at Warner Bros (and head of DC Comics). Dorothy Crouch liked the script, and in particular the character CD. It turned out that BDE were attempting to sell the script to Warner as (wait for it...) a Batman movie.

In 2001 I decided to test the market for web3d film-making using BDE technology. My company, thequality.com, produced "Horses for Courses" which could be viewed, in a passive sense, as an animated short, or more actively, like a game or toy. You could take over the camera and explore and get a reaction from characters. An award-winning prototype film/toy, it actively solicited audience participation through hotspots, and mouse/keyboard controls. I kept the use of branching narrative to a minimum, based on my experience with BDE titles. The "interactivity model" assumed people would not react and the story satirised this if interactions were made.

Writing, directing, producing and distributing my own web3d film (for £10K) was invaluable experience in what can and will go wrong when using the Internet. My case study was published in the proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2002 alongside case studies from feature films like Spiderman and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
http://thequality.com/horsesforcourses

In 2002 BDE finally agreed to my long-standing offer to buy back all the IP under the terms I thought I had signed up to. I immediately began a lengthy R&D and market research phase to identify opportunities for the story and film franchise as originally invisaged. Having gathered my own evidence (including statistics from Horses for Course) that branching narrative was a commercial and creative dead-end, I began considering game options. I developed two ideas based on the story IP; a futuristic rugby game/sports stadium simulator and a more open-ended massively multiplayer world based on the worlds described in the screenplay.

After discussions with film and game companies including Lionhead Studios, I decided to shelve both these ideas and re-write the screenplay as a linear story once again (the last linear version having been completed in 1998). I wanted to make a connection to non-gamers, as well as gamers, and decided that cinema was the place to do it. Despite the many similarities between my vision of a persistent world (in the script) and massively multiplayer gaming, I felt that MMORPGs were still too insular to appeal to the mass market. I also felt strongly that the story had "legs" and could reach the big screen.

Earlier this year, I finished the ninth version of the script and sought extensive coverage. The feedback is almost unaminous; good story, great characters, fantastic world, and a set of unique visuals. I determined that there was little chance of being able to sell the script, with myself attached as director, without more credits. I developed a plan for realising this ambition through a short film pilot demonstrating the bush/virtual world aesthetic and the revised interactivity idea described here. The short film is "SANCTUARY".

I continue to validate the overall concept with vox pops and focus groups with non-gamers, to acertain the level of interest in the story and the interactive idea. I have been exploring the feasibility of offering a multi-dimensional experience that can appeal to different kinds of users at the same time. A wide range of interactive titles (e.g. games, web, iTV) have been examined.

My findings have been slightly contridictory, indicating an ongoing challenge for the production. People who don't play games need very simple interactive experiences if they are to bother engaging in "play". People who MOD interactive entertainment need low level access to titles and advanced APIs (application programming interfacess). At the same time, non-gamers are often equally sophisticated as gamers when it comes to absorbing information (e.g. from TV) and rarely complain about multi-layered visuals (e.g. a game on top of a film).

Two examples of note:

Gitaroo Man (KOEI game for PS2) is a fast-paced cartoon with a rhythm game (simple geometric shapes moving in the foreground). It is almost impossible to watch the background visuals while playing and conversely, spectators seem happy to watch it as a cartoon with game elements overlaid.

Ad-break tennis (MTV iTV application on Sky Digital) was an award-winning experiment in ad programming in 2002. Viewers could play a simple version of PONG, overlaid on top of real TV advertisements, and were able to build up a score over consecutive ad-breaks as long as they didn't switch channels.

The biggest obstacle up-till now has been the lack of a defined market for re-mixable content and interactive entertainment other than classic game genres.

The second biggest obstacle has been access to technology powerful and flexible enough to scale to high end production. The BDE real-time animation production studio, with team sizes rivalling that of modern day game development companies) was ahead of its time in 1997. My experience there was invaluable. A lesson I took away from BDE was to always distinguish between good ideas, that might be feasible, and good ideas that are immediately feasible. The SANCTUARY
proposition is designed to be immediately feasible to encourage investment, and based on proven success across a range of industries.

The original idea for the film "Horses for Courses" was to release subsequent sequels that re-used HfC art assets and allowed new assets to be downloaded. The sequel to HfC was to have been marketed via a compaign aimed at animation students (with the winning artwork streamed into the online film).

However, in the midst of production for episode one, it became apparent that certain technical claims made by BDE (e.g. upcoming Macintosh support, asset re-usability) were largely vapourware. Their ultra-proprietary ("black box") approach to technology was to be their Achilles heel. BDE ceased promoting their web3d technology to 3rd parties shortly after the release of the film.

In designing SANCTUARY, I am taking account of lessons learnt from the bleeding edge of new media production over ten years, particularily with regards to usability research, media production management, and social behavior online. I have taken a hard look at how audiences related to my films to-date. I have observed how certain films work best in a performance context. I have re-mixed "Horses for Courses" live (in VJ sets, talks and presentations) in six countries since it was released and used it for usability research.

I have also tracked the open source movement and online community trends as a user, developer, consultant, strategist, policy advisor and Internet evangelist for over ten years. The idea leverages this experience.

I registered modfilms.net as the tentative name for the community and modfilms.com for the company. I also registered remixablefilms.net and .com as aliases.

Since submitting the original proposal I have developed a detailed design specification for the re-mixable film experience and for the overall project architecture spanning cinema, console and community. Together with key advisors, I am planning the project's development and production pipeline.

I have drafted plausible technical solutions for all aspects of the project (film/console/community) and plans have been made for testing and validating the approach once funding is available. Work has begun on a web-based prototype of the re-mixable film experience (storyboards/rhythm game) to assist planning further.

My conclusion from the work to-date is that the idea works and this will be wholly demonstrable through a development phase funded by NESTA prior to the film shoot.

Posted by .M. at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)

3.1 - How do you plan to commercialise or exploit your idea?

NESTA suggestions:

"What are your long term intentions and how do you intend to get your idea to the market e.g. by building a business around this and other ideas, licensing the technology to others, or by developing a partnership approach with other organisations or companies. The closer you are to taking your idea to market the more work we would expect you to have done on this. This is also an opportunity for you to explain whether this idea is a stand alone one or whether it needs to be considered in a wider context e.g. other products / ideas or consultancy services. If you haven't reached the stage of serious planning around the "business model" please explain why and when you intend to do so. Your answer to this question should also be in line with your answer to the question on exit strategy (Q3.7)."

I am going to sell art and a tool for making art. The plan is to form partnerships with traditional media companies (e.g. film studios and interactive media publishers), on the strength of a genre-busting short film project that kicks. I plan to sell it on DVD for about £5 and then sell the feature film it is based on. To ensure that there is something for investors who aren't just in it for kicks, I will set up a business to exploit the emerging marketing potential of this hybrid film/interactive idea. It will be easy to copy so that idea hinges on there being art to remix. I will approach this business like a band. This one will be a well managed band with me as the singer for its first few years. Good finance heads and good legal advice will assist in creating a sustainable creative space in which to try something fun and new with a small team. I intend to publicly explore a fresh personal approach to film that generates participation, sales, and commissions.

I will make SANCTUARY as a ten minute "re-mixable film", a game technology powered 35mm calling card for the film industry. SANCTUARY forms part of a extensive story universe ("head bin") that is being developed for sale. The long term intention is to build up the company as a vehicle from which I can direct a series of interactive-ready film projects with investment from the film finance community.

The plan is to develop a brand around the idea by creating a really good illustration of a remixable film, putting together a world-class production, and promoting all of the above with a useful community site (for people interested in the re-mixable film process and outcome). A new company will be incubated by thequality.com and NESTA.

The new company will be structured around three departments, each focused on a distinct product and a single strand of the multi-faceted idea that can be brought to an existing market.

THE FILM:

The film department produces linear content for an off-line audience. 35mm film prints and digital video tape will tour the short festival circuit accompanied by cast and crew members.

THE CONSOLE:

The console department is a small development team that prototypes interactive film ideas and ensures that assets produced for film are as re-usable as game technology art assets. This team will produce the core product, a re-mixable film on DVD. DVDs will be sold online through the company's website and through at least one existing retail channel per country.

The DVD may also be available in its entirity for purchase as an online download. This will be dependent on the outcome of online disitribution trials conducted during the NESTA funded phase.

Distribution as a DVD cover-mount on influential industry and consumer magazines will be sought (e.g. Future Publishing).

THE COMMUNITY

The community department will expand the online community already establised in private for the project, around key advisors. Once funding is secured, efforts will focus on fostering closer ties with the Machinima, MOD and VJ communities, and marketing the idea.

TRUST

The exploitation plan relies on establishing trust with a broad range of potential clients and customers. This project is about trusting my instincts as new media director and architect. It is is not a stand-alone idea. Strategic alliances with individuals and other companies during the development phase will enable the project to attact further funding after NESTA seed capital. This will enable me to produce and distribute the short film/console DVD and then move rapidly onto a slate of other projects having established a level of trust with film studios and interactive publishers.

Posted by .M. at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

2.7 - What is the potential for future development of this idea/product?

NESTA suggestions:

"If you think that the idea may have the potential for further development please include details here."

Re-mixing is an idea that could be applied to all film and video content, and made widely available to audiences. Despite many expensive failures in trying to establish an "interactive film" market, the idea is still alive because this is a dream about empowerment. Developments in popular culture over the last decade have increased the potential for re-mixable film. Film sampling is inevitable given social and cultural trends towards more malleable media.

A technical platform, used for performance alone, based on this project, could be developed with individual artists in mind. This platform could be adapted for

* interactive television
* web sites
* live events
* consumer home entertainment
* interactive cinema

The real potential is to contribute greatly to the evolving industry processes for high end media. The reason that the BBC is considering releasing vast amounts of content online for free non-commercial use (annouced after my initial proposal) is because the organisation recognises that it stands to make more revenue from old content if it is accessible as opposed to it being locked away out of mind, out of sight. A re-mixable production processes and technology will complement such developments and hopefully open up vast back-catalogues of content for wider benefits.

Key to the financial potential of a re-mixable medium will be advertising. Re-mixable films will be very appealing to advertisers who can license individual film assets for commercials (e.g. film spoofs in commercials) and also release their own "sponsored versions" with virtual product placement. The latter is becoming viable with virtual billboards being inserted into US sports broadcasts and products being digitally inserted into popular television shows.

My idea is to further develop the story universe for SANCTUARY into "ten weeks in the head bin", a feature length re-mixable film project for which this project is a pilot. The script property, developed as an interactive narrative and technical specification, has the potential to form the basis of a film franchise covering commercial re-mixes of SANCTUARY, "ten weeks in the head bin" (the feature) and two subsequent games that re-use art from the proceeding films.

"The Stadium" is a sports stadium simulation game set in the future, a cross between Football Manager and Harry Potter Quidditch, except that the game is more like Rugby Union and played in virtual space.

"Cityscape" is a persistent world (i.e. massively multiplayer online game) based on the virtual world in the "head bin" script that acts as a virtual venue for live performance and role-playing.

It is viable to suggest that all DVDs could be re-mixable in the way proposed here, whether they be for internal studio use or for public consumer use. A standard for this kind of re-usability is likely to emerge over time in response to economic pressures.

Ultimately the potential of this idea is to influence the development of open source media technology in a way that provides greater benefit in social and creative terms to end users. It is possible for this idea to have universal benefits if allowed to "muddy the waters" between film and game. The idea is deliberately proposed in terms of a console product for commercial reasons but, as with the way ID Software eventually release the source code for their seminal games ("Doom", "Quake", "Quake II"), there is real potential to influence an entire industry with quality titles that demonstrate wide appeal.

Posted by .M. at 12:25 PM | Comments (0)

2.6 - How does your project/idea improve on the performance of existing competition?

NESTA suggestions:

"How and why will your idea improve on the function i.e. what makes it better than existing techniques, services or products and what scale of improvement can your idea bring about?

How and why is this improvement important to the potential user? For example will it bring about a saving in terms of cost or time, does it offer improved reliability or enable them to comply with new legislation?"

My idea is an improved approach to interactive media because it is a simple concept which, over time, should be easier to implement given the way the Internet technology and online communities are evolving.

Like the open source movement, which has grown steadily over the last 20 years, the short term cost and time benefits are less apparent than the long term implications of adopting this idea. Most media is produced with short term objectives in mind. There is little consideration of late-adopters, backwards-compatibility and future-proofing. While this sounds like boring clinical hard work, the benefit of factoring in such things into interactive media is that the resulting work is immediately more accessible (when referenced online) and thus is capable of making stronger connections to its audience. To give an example, it is trivial to locate specialist subject material on the Internet when it has been classified correctly using best practice techniques because sophisticated 3rd party services like Google now exist to measure "relevance" and allow anyone to use them.

My idea is to align film-making with the open source movement, not superficially (as in the film Nothing So Strange) but rather at the core of each film. Saying that the final product (and/or token clips) are open source is not particularly exciting. What is exciting is the idea that I can collaborate with a far wider pool of contributors to my films if people, in turn, are producing film material (in whatever format) that I can then re-use and re-interpret legally without having to re-make it purely to satisfy archaic copyright laws.

Interactive film-making is a concept that has not managed to die despite considerable failures to-date. I believe that there is an opportunity to capture the imagination of a vast audience with a film project that tries extra hard to be accessible (in a fun way of course!)

The idea is an improvement on interactive films that were made with branching narratives. When presented with interactive possibilities in terms of pre-written narrativel, audiences often find them limiting or else they do not interact at all.
As someone who has been commissioned to write interactive narrative, I have been exposed to the stark usability issues this notion presents. My idea is to keep things really simple and rely on as many existing community dynamics and technologies as possible. I believe this approach has more chance of suceeding then second-guessing what audiences want from an interactive film. Today it is apparent that a meritocracy approach (as used to develop the Internet) works in relation to network ideas. I want to pioneer a model through which individuals can introduce their own elements, through an uncontrolled process, into a pre-existing film, enjoying building their own mixes in the process. This form of media can be enjoyed in smaller doses and be used to make cost-effective new films by sharing assets (e.g. rather than create and shoot a new explosion for each film, re-use the same one viewed from different angles, in different environments, at different speeds, with different effects, etc.).

FILM RE-RELEASES

It will be possible to re-release a re-mixable film by applying the software industry notion of a "patch". Rather than incurring the physical and environmental costs of dispatching additional physical media, the distributor could make new material available online for download into the previously bought product. While this proposal concentrates on selling the idea that the customers themselves can re-mix a film, clearly it will be possible for producers, distributors, and advertisers to so as well and charge for access to commercial MODs.

SHORT FILM RETAIL

Films exist to be seen. Since many short films are being distributed online without P2P technologies, there is an opportunity to do so and showcase how the P2P network (for legal content) is more efficient in terms of finding the best download sites and also to be able to resume downloading in the event of disconnection.

The re-mixable film concept will be easy to adapt to other films and would be a way to make work more distinguishable and applicable to more people, now that so much more media is being produced.

This will be new media that evolves form the film format to leverage online community strengths and make new connections with an audience. This is an interactive art idea that is simple and fun without huge investment. Investment in this new idea will pay off with the capability to release multiple films using a similar technology approach.

OPEN SOURCE FILM

My idea is aligned with the open source movement. I propose to use key Semantic Web technologies (XML and RDF) to publish and distribute the cinema experience ("the mix") and individual assets ("the flics") in a way that is machine-readible. This idea has been prototyped by the World-Wide Web Consortium (for personal photo collections) but never for a 35mm film. This process will make it easier for people to license and share individual bits of a film. If the film is good, it will be possible to earn money from the strength of its individual assets (e.g. the panoramic shots, the background music, the lead cartoon character's hat). The trick will be making them re-usable in practice. This is where web standards can help.

Clearly there will be a finite limit to how far the pilot film can push this idea but given the zeal with which the first Creative Commons licenced video was received (the film "Nothing So Strange") there is every reason to suggest that a high quality action sci-fi film will be received favourably.

360 degree panaroma, digitised 35mm film, audio clip and real-time 3D animation assets will be separable and re-mixable using a sample game on the DVD. Each asset will have an XML label describing its technical and creative function; machine-readible semantic information including its usage license. It is common for software products to now use XML for asset management. It is unheard of to give this open flexibility to a film audience.

The idea improves on customer relation management because it doesn't treat people as stupid.

HOLLYWOOD

Hollywood can take advantage of this idea in many ways and will do so as soon as it is proven viable. The clearest improvements over traditional processes are wide ranging. Studios could use re-mixable film processes to streamline the way in which they localise films (e.g. add dubs and subtitles). Studios could license old movies to re-mixable film developers (like this company) to re-release any film in which there was thought to be sufficient interest in sampling.

A few stand-out productions (e.g. The Lord of the Rings) are already re-using assets between the films and games. An estimate 220,000 art assets were passed from Weta Digital to Stormfront Studios, the game developer. This wealth of high quality artwork (distributed to the audience on DVD) is not readibly usable for any other purpose than conventional gameplay at present. The re-mixable film framework would support more open-ended use and have a broader appeal as a result.

TELEVISION

Now that the BBC has aligned itself with my idea, through the announcement that the entire BBC archive will be available online, TV producers and advertisers could use re-mixable film technology for asset management, ratings research, and audience participation. TV shows have already begun exploring the potential of user-contributions, particularly through web sites and tie-in games. However no show has ever been released on DVD in such a way that the audience could re-mix it.

CONSOLE PRODUCTS

An exposed technical framework for film delivery will appeal to artists who constantly seek new ways of deliver their work to an audience. Game technology is not aimed at individual artists (or indeed individuals). It is aimed at large corporations. This idea is one way in which artists unfamiliar with interactive entertainment can finally engage with it, by fiddling with an existing film and proposing new projects based on the idea.

The idea can improve diversity in popular entertainment by greatly reducing the risk of developing games. A film that goes to great lengths to allow game-play to be added later (once it is provably successful) means that game development studios can concentrate on designing gameplay without at least half their budgets being spent on art speculatively.

Game developers who have fantastic ideas for game-play but cannot afford £50-100K to spend on developing the idea have little chance of success in the current marketplace. Established companies spend millions developing game demos over several years. This is not a sustainable way to bring clean new ideas to market. It is also the opposite way to how the game industry began. People (notably programmers and musicians) learn by fiddling with existing work and rebuilding things in new ways. There is every reason to suggest that an uncluttered re-mixable framework, clean and simple enough to be widely understood, could become widely adopted, not only for education, but for game prototyping, demos, and for retro-fitting gameplay to previously released art.

The idea can lead to more diverse interactive products being developed for upcoming devices like the Sony PSX and PSP.

This is a social idea as much as a technical idea and so its success could be judged in many ways such as press coverage. However, the real improvement wil be measurable by its influence in the following areas where grassroots creativity by individuals is more applicable.

MODS

The sub-culture of people who MOD games do it for the creativity and competition, not just because they love the original games. Games that are creative tools attract people who want to express their personal creativity, often subverting the original intentions of the game. My idea goes with the flow. It works with this extremely creative energy, instead of fighting it, like certain IP owners. People who MOD games love the idea that they could MOD films. More material to play with.

New MODs, especially ones that contain new art, will improve the audience's capability for re-interpreting digitially distributed content. This improves their connection to the material, as re-interpretation always does. It makes the experience personal. The idea improves the opportunity for personal and artistic expression. This is a bonus for consumers facing a one-way barrage of increasingly cheap-to-produce media.

MACHINIMA

The idea is tailor-made for the even smaller Machinima community (who MOD games to tell stories). Machinima people struggle at present with the legality of re-using computer game art. They get an improved story-telling architecture less restricted to the 3D aesthetic of First Person Shooter games like Quake.

MOD support will be better in SANCTUARY then in a typical game. Unlike most game productions, where MOD capability is a by-product or side-though, SANCTUARY is designed specifically for this purpose. Improved efforts will be made to support this type of activity through appealing multi-faceted art assets and a story-line which hints at this kind of freedom within media (the hero has created her own virtual side-kick). It will be easy to change a few elements of the film for a laugh (as the hero has).

The idea improves the visibility of various MOD-savvy communities (Game MOD, Machinima, DJ, VJ) by promoting their work; re-mixes available from the release date. The potential of this creative medium will be clearer to non-gamers. The production brings Machinima concepts to the mainstream and makes the activity of those producing stories from game technology far more accessible.

MMORPGS

The relevence of the subject matter to a persistent online world will be an improvement over current titles like Star Wars (set in a galaxy far far away).
My feature length re-mixable film idea "ten weeks in the head bin" is a deep body of work, ideal material on which to construct a persistent world (Cityscape) in the future. Unlike the Star Wars Galaxies project, which recreates the Star Wars story universe, my films will lend themselves to be directly re-used over time through the up-front effort to build them with more future-proof technology and more accessible licensing.

Another improvement on the Star Wars Galaxies project will be consultation with non-gamer communities during design and development of the DVD. With Galaxies, the influence of hard-core gamers in online community dynamics led the publishers to overlook the needs of uninitiated users to some degree. In my idea, the large passive audience for MODs will have a better experience of interactive entertainment.

VJ/VIDEO ART

VJ confidence re. working with sampled "found footage" will improve. VJs will appreciate an interactive film format which promotes a wider availability of quality visuals legally re-usable in performance. The appeal of a re-mixable film is that this is (apart from the detail) nothing new. Users/artists/performers have always transformed and subverted existing work into new contexts. The re-mixable film idea simply increases the likelihood that digital artists will base work on top of existing work.

E.g. Salvidor Dali's scribbles over Francisco Goya's "Los Caprichos" series of prints are displayed in London alongside his "original" work.

Arguably the excesses of intellectual property law over the last decade mean that this is an ideal time to be bold and try to improve on video art in a fun and thoughtful manner.

FILM-MAKING SOFTWARE

The idea introduces a new degress of future-proofing by leveraging new open standard technology (e.g. RDF descriptions of assets embedded within the art files themselves). This binds the project to the next phase of the evolution of the Web, the Semantic Web, as described by its inventor Tim Berners-Lee.

In practical terms it means that any off-the-shelf software that can read/write XML (e.g. Final Cut Pro) could be used to re-mix the film. The chances of succeeding in trying to make an open-ended interactive experience are greatly improved. Rather than trying to re-create the world of a film inside a game as entertainment, you open the film up to the world and let entertainers in.

Posted by .M. at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)

2.5 - Describe the various strengths and weaknesses of competing technologies/products/ideas.

NESTA suggestions:

"Your answer to this question should address how this function is currently performed. In the previous question you will have told us about the need or purpose that your product / idea fulfils and how you expect it to improve on existing alternatives. We now want to get an understanding of what the competing products / technologies are and what their particular strengths and weaknesses are. Please also give your best current estimate of your likely selling price and how this compares with competing products?"

My film SANCTUARY competes with any any other film whose production, marketing and distribution uses the Intenet. There is no product currently available which offers this functionality.

The DVD for SANCTUARY (hard copy) will cost approximately £2 per unit to manufacture, market and distribute (based on quotes for a 5,000 unit print run). The intention is to sell this for close to cost price which puts it in the bargain console game category and on a par with the price model being used by Warp Films for their short film retail business.

FILM RE-RELEASES

Following cinematic release of feature films, it is now common practice to release "extended re-edited versions" on DVD. What constitutes justifiable alteration of a film depends on who does it and what their relationship to you is. Certain "Directer's cut" films have been accepted widey as improvements (e.g. Blade Runner) but often they are dismissed as cynical cash-ins or simply indulgent. Film re-releases are however often as commercially successful as the original release.

The DVD format is still relatively new and compatibility problems still arise. This is especially problematic when different manufacturers do not correctly implement the full DVD technical standard. For this reason commercial DVDs intended for the mass market often "play it safe" and do not rely on advanced interactivity.

SHORT FILM RETAIL

Short films are also released separately on DVD Video. Most titles include supplementary material as well as the film itself as a value-add. The process for producing a short film on DVD is identical to that of a feature film, in terms of design of the navigation system, quality assurance, and testing. The constraints of the DVD-Video format (for interactivity) apply to short films and feature films equally.

Increasingly, new media film-makers have been exploring the interactive potential of DVD-Video with short form content, particularly with music promos. Although it is possible to exploit certain interactive DVD features (like branching narrative) far more extensively for a short film, because more content can be included, this is not yet mainstream due to technical constraints and the relative immaturity of authoring tools.

The DVD-Video technical specification (put simply) allows for manipulation of audio and video (organised into "Chapters") and lets authors use simple code to control playback (e.g. conditional logic) to respond to user input (i.e. keypresses). In practice however, DVD-Video works better as a high capacity storage medium than an interactive one. It is far easier to create sophisticated interactivity inside a web page then it is for a DVD. The specification (aimed at hardware manufacturers) is not open-ended and does not allow authors to flexibly adapt the medium to individual titles. Ultimately there is a wide gap between DVD-Video and a console game and little scope in between for delivering a broadcast-quality film experience to a mainstream audience.

OPEN SOURCE FILM

"Open-source film" is a new idea competing with re-mixable film. The open source model is increasingly understood as a viable alternative perspective/philosophy/strategy/technology to the way proprietary intellectual property is traditionally developed.

"Open source" is a political hot-potato and source of ongoing debate in many industries. Pure open source projects tend to be technology-based (with little room for subjectivity) and guided by the meritocracy principle which pushes the best ideas to the fore over time. Open source is the key to reforming the excesses of IP seen in the last decade and a way to harness the potential of the Internet. As such, any "open source" label is a good way of appealing to the market for social and environmentally aware products.

The main weakness of open source as an idea is that it is clearly a threat to the status quo in many industries. With many technologists endorsing OSS (open source software) with almost religious zeal, there are few better ways to antagonise traditional industries than by emphasising the openess of a product. The film industry and the game industry are reliant on IP control and this conflicts with the open source model on several grounds (e.g. sharing assets, allowing products to inter-operate, allowing anyone to partipate in development).

While open source principles are relatively simple to explain in theory, few people have first-hand experience mixing proprietary and open source business approaches. The potential for open source media content is unclear whereas the potential for open source technology is much clearer.

Worse still, there is a mainstream perception (cultivated by the music industry) that open source is linked to piracy, on the questionable grounds that the Internet is based on open technology and facilitates sharing of IP.

Ultimately, the film-makers who most loudly tout the open source model for content are doing so because they have given up on securing traditional distribution.

HOLLYWOOD

The major film studios, often thought of as "Hollywood", can exploit most ideas rapidly but only once they are proven and the formula exists.

The strengths of the studio system are tried and tested formulae for development, production and distribution. US films have global influence as a result of the Hollywood studio system. By its nature, Hollywood attracts ambitious film-making and will continue to absorb new influences from around the world.

Hollywood's key weaknesses are shared with the games industry; mono-culture and piracy. A risk-adverse culture means that Hollywood is regularily accused of "dumbing down" films in the endless pursuit of bigger audiences. This has led to considerable resentment that the "Hollywood treatment" does not allow enough diversity to the fore. Film-makers, let alone the audience, are not encouraged to challenge the form. There is too much at stake in the money, people, processes and technology developed for 35mm film. Innovation is less important than familiarity. Hollywood does not have a climate in which to encourage new forms of film-making, preferring to scout for proven innovation elsewhere.

Piracy is an ever-increasing weakness of the current Hollywood system. Distribution has always been the key to success and this is being undermined by the Internet. Hollywood is fighting sampling culture, in the same way as the music industry fought (unsuccessfully). When the inevitable happens and film sampling becomes as mainstream a commercial activity as music sampling, the Hollywood system may be forced to move with the times to maximise profit from their film archives.

Film sampling and other re-mixable ideas are pursued within Hollywood but none of the cost or creative benefits are for consumers. Re-using existing film assets is recognised as a cost-effective way of producing new films but there is little support for changing restrictive IP practices.

The UK film industry, while considerably smaller, can be considered a dimension of Hollywood as far as this proposal goes. The development process for British films is largely similar. There is no support for the parallel development of interactive ideas, let alone technology to support story-telling.

CONSOLE PRODUCTS

Console game products are the best funded and most sophisticated form of interactive entertainment available. Game designers use original and middleware technology to create intricate user experiences. As the industry grows, innovation risks becoming as stifled as Hollywood. Publishers in the UK are growing increasingly risk-adverse and as a result the majority of games released are now derivatives of existing games. Publishers know that licensed games sell well regardless of their quality and so have little incentive to invest in new experiences until the bubble bursts.

As a result, there are no straight competitors within the games industry, only various influential developers and products. The industry, at least in the UK, is arguably unsustainable with few companies ready to cope with the team sizes and content volumes deemed "appropriate" for next-generation game consoles like the Playstation 3. Technology is the key feature of most games touted by the press, obscuring the fact that most games offer little in terms of original gameplay.

The game industry is currently undergoing a consolidation phase with many small developers unable to survive. Few developers are in a position to be able to develop the new broader "non-game" titles that consumer electronics devices like the PSX (a combination of Sony Playstation 2 and DVD-writer) will support.

One weakness of of the games industry is that there is little interest in people who don't or can't interact with entertainment. Spectator-driven titles, which might only need a percentage of the total audience to interact (football for example?) are rarely discussed. Non-gamers need to be "converted" to gamers, in the mindset of the industry. This is clearly suggests one reason why computer gaming continues to be marginalised, despite astonishing economic success.

RHYTHM GAMES

Music/Rhythm games a good example of a computer game genre which has an appeal beyond the market in which it is largely advertised. In a rhythm game, the player usually has to tap out a beat or rhythm as specified in time with a tune. These games are usually linear, in that there is little scope from deviating from the task at hand.

People who do not like games, or complex gameplay, often like these products because they are so simple. By contrast, the target "gamer" demographic ( teenage boys) tend to be attracted more to games with more complex and time-consuming virtual goals. Rhythm games are relatively cheap to produce and to design for re-use (e.g. play this year's Top 20 singles).

Rhythm is a key component of all media and culture and, as such, it is a widely accessible (and overlooked) form of interactivity, more so than more computer game genres. Rhythm games are pioneered in Japan and, until recently, were considered too foreign a concept for mainstream western appeal.

Rhythm games are appealing to musicians and performers because they simulate the skills required to play an instrument. For people who do not have the dexterity or discipline to learn how to play a musical instrument, a rhythm game can simulate the experience.

The key weakness of rhythm games is how they are traditionally marketed. Game industry marketing has tended to focus on familiar genres than products which offer more lifestyle and musical entertainment than game-play. In western markets, where "play" can be sometimes dismissed as a juvenile activity, rhythm games are rarely targeted at non-gamers who might also find them appealing.

MODS

Popular game development studios have encouraged fanatical fanbases to develop around their games. A segment of this fanbase now produces commercial quality MODS for a handful of the most popular games. However this phenomenon has resulted in additional costs, not revenue, for many developers when online community dynamics were not adequately planned for.

"Despite the fact that Counter-strike generates more global eyeball minutes per year than NBC's billion-dollar TV franchise Friends, Valve hasn't made any money directly... Worse, Counter-Strike actually costs [the company] money, particularily with respect to ongoing support such as updates and patches... And it is this fundamental imbalance in the Internet business model that Steam is designed to overcome."
Jon Jordan, develop magazine
oct 2003 - issue 33 - p.9

That said, the relationship between game studio and MOD developer is arguably the most sophisticated example of interactive entertainment. The teams who create MODs are highly social constructs, working in tandem with the studios to explore the full potential of the released game. Many more people play MODs (e.g. Counter Strike) then create MODs. Published MODs are viewed as an extension of the game itself, additional resources that less active users benefit from.

Not all games support MODs and, in particular, few film-licensed games support MODs (the exception being Lucasarts' Jedi Knight II). This is because many MODs simply re-use "art assets" (e.g. characters, sets, textures, sound) without going to the trouble of creating new art. MODs occaisionally fall foul of media companies for this reason. An Alien Quake MOD was pulled out of circulation when Fox sent in lawyers. Until the laws around "derivative work" are adapted, MOD makers have considerable hoops to jump through before they can have their work recognised creatively and commercially.

Despite all this, designing a game to support MODs, despite the additional expense, is often viewed as a way to extend a good title's longevity.

MACHINIMA

A sub-set of MOD developers are now focused on telling stories (not game-play) using game technology. This "machinima" community produces short and feature length cartoons using commercial and open source real-time 3D engines.
Commercial machinima has the same issues as commercial MODS but in the last year, the profile of machinima has been raised to the point where technology designed specifically for machinima is emerging and it is becoming viable for commercial machinima productions (which wholly replace the art of an original game).

Strange Company is an Edinburgh-based company whose sole business is producing machinima and promoting machinima.com which tracks the sub-culture. The company has recently begun selling a DVD compilation of the best machinima films.

Machinima remains in its infancy but has grown into a world-wide phenomenon over the last two years. An annual Machinima Film Festival is now held in New York. Many console games (like "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers") move fluidly between film clips and machinima sequences (constructed in real-time). Machinima is increasingly discussed in mainstream press like Wired and New Scientist.

The biggest strength of this kind of product is that it is increasingly viable as more and more technologies permit real-time 3D manipulation.

Arguably the biggest weakness of machima is that developments have centred on First Person Shooter games (e.g. re-using Quake, Unreal, and Half-life engines), constraining the possible aesthetic to real-time 3D animation whereas the idea of re-utilising game technology for narrative is more open ended.

MMORPGS (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games)

MMORPGS are a relatively new phenomenon in the game industry; persistant worlds that operate in real-time, 24/7, for gamers to inhabit. Titles such as Everquest charge a monthly subscription on top of the game media for access to the world. These games are hugely expensive to create and maintain but can attract huge followings of regular subscribers. Last year the Everquest virtual economy made world news when studies emerged that showed how many players were buying and selling virtual items with real currency (e.g. on eBay) and stimulating an economy larger than certain nations in the real world.

Star Wars Galaxies is the latest entrant into this space ($15/month). Applauded for its attention to detail, this online game has also attracted criticism for being too obsessed with administration in the guise of gameplay. Certain reviewers say that ultimately the game is beautiful to look at but not that fun. This is unsurprising given that MMORPGs have pioneered a community-led development approach which means that the most ardent fans wield unprecedented influence over the design and development of their favourite games. The Star Wars Galaxies community was begun years before its release. The experience is ultimately designed less for casual use then for "real" fans. The product gives little consideration of what casual users find fun.

Vjs use lightweight portable technology to re-mix visual material from a range of sources on the fly. VJs rarely have the undivided attention of their audience but can readily adapt their performances to most situations. VJ culture is a relatively new phenomenon but is becoming increasingly popular. The notion of "found footage" (i.e. using other people's content) is a topic which is always debated on VJ communities. Some VJs regularily work with copyright violations while others only work with original material. "Re-mixable film" in the VJ sense does not imply passing the re-mix capability on to the audience.

It is hard to generalise about VJ content at this stage except to note that there is a line between VJs who only deal with abstract visuals ("eye candy") and those who try to work long-form narratives into their sets. The relationship between VJ and audience is still in an embryonic stage. Many VJs relish their work as a form of improvised performance but often the venue context means that their work is treated as wallpaper.

VIDEO ART

Video art is typically treated with greater reverance than VJ performances although the line is becoming blurred. Video art is typically intended for undivided attention. It requires, and expects, focus from the viewer. Video art is typically not aimed at a mass market audience although this is changing.
Video art is closer to traditional film-making than VJing because of the process many artists go through in preparing their shoots.

FILM-MAKING SOFTWARE

There are defined markets for consumer, pro-sumer and professional film-making software. The closest comparison would be with pro-sumer products.
Many software companies release professional and pro-sumer versions to encourage take-up. However the availablility of studio-quality film samples is limited at best. To the average high street consumer, the costs of producing high end film footage is near-prohibitive, as are the constraints on time, ability and other people's involvement. It takes a lot of time and people to produce a good film, and considerable practise to become adept with the products.

Software vendors have created a market for sampling and re-mixing which has not been matched by the creation of a market of content that is legal to sample and re-mix. Software companies make money from media industry customers who supply product, and simultaneously from media consumers who want to make product from outside the professional industries. A weakness within the film-making software industry is that vendor lock-in (being tied to one vendor) is still an issue.

Posted by .M. at 10:36 AM | Comments (4)

2.4 -What need or purpose does your idea/product fulfil?

NESTA suggestions:

"Address what the immediate potential applications of your idea might be. This should include who might use it and how it might be used. If your idea has more than one application you should explain which you think might be the most promising in commercial terms and which you intend to pursue first?"

Kids need freedom to explore. Stand-alone educational content does not satisfy this need to the extent that Internet content can. Using the potential of the Internet means encouraging people to contribute.

One of the strongest and most common feelings within the modern cinema going public is that of dissatisfaction, that the film did not live up to their expectations. Hand in hand with this has come the feeling that given half a chance the cinemagoer would/could have made a better film themselves. This is that opportunity.

The project explores a more economically sustainable approach to high-end media production. I believe that film is the most promising application but there are many others. The social mechanisms and technology for re-mixable film is needed by small “ideas companies” to develop story and art content for next- generation game titles that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive. The game industry estimates that two thirds of a Playstation 3 development team will be art creators. New ways of coming up with this content are needed. Re-usable online resources in general help to reduce waste and packaging.

Film/game tie-ins need to work both commercially and creatively (as both passive and interactive entertainment). Few do so. The average cost of game production is spiralling upwards faster than film production to meet the expectations of hardcore gamers.

Real control over digital media, sampling and re-mixing of audio/visual elements, is an essential part of modern culture. People want control over their digital media. They want more creative control than major companies are currently able to sanction. These companies need to see new forms of interactivity succeed ahead of any investment - a catch-22. Independent content producers need tools and methodologies to be flexible and innovate with forms ahead of the mainstream.

The interactive entertainment industry needs fresh ideas that appeal to the mass market and communicate interactive potential. Over-produced toys are rarely as popular as simple ones. The ability to fiddle with a film is not game-play but it is cheaper to develop and support given the existence of game technology.

Kids need creative play. The Star Wars phenomenon was accelerated by 3rd party merchandise. Kids created virtual worlds for their plastic action figures and re-interpreted the story without constraints. The “film as stage” metaphor taps into the same need for unbridled creativity, using broadband connectivity to expand the playground.

Film-makers and game-makers need more ways to share their respective art and work closer together for creative and economic benefit. Computer games, as art forms, need to evolve in order to appeal to more people. The creative conflict between creating a good passive story-telling experience and creating an interactive experience (where a good story is only evident in hindsight) needs to be examined from fresh perspectives outside the industries with too much at stake in the status quo.

There needs to be a re-think of how film/game tie-ins are made, the audience experience of them, and how IP is managed. Both the film industry and the game industry have been slow to react to key lessons learnt namely:

1. A minority of gamers actually complete games.

2. People still need passive experiences, based purely on empathy.

3. “Interactive film” is broader than interactive narrative (the failed approach of writing branching story-lines).

4. Interactive film works with a simple premise (sing along to the Sing-along Sound of Music, dress up and throw rice at the screen during The Rocky Horror Picture Show).

5. Computer game assets are usually designed for re-use.

6. In 2003, the most widely played online game is a MOD; Counter-Strike, based on Half-Life (Valve, 1998). CS has recently been released as a commercial game. MOD culture has come full circle.

7. There is little industry funding to develop the interactive potential of stories hence the relatively few (self-funded) projects.

Storytellers need an online platform for story distribution and community. A radically new approach is needed for new terrain. Live performers (speakers, actors, musicians, DJs, VJs) need online stages. Games rarely consider spectator and non-gamer behaviour, unnecessarily reducing their mass market appeal.

People need content that is "relevent to me". Unlike a Director's cut DVD, a re-mixable film DVD supports the idea of "me mate's cut" or "Mum's mix". It is clearly justifiable as mass market entertainment, and especially in the context of the online industry's quest for "personalised content". Creating such content, however simply, will be a form of expression that some people will gravitate towards and pass onto others through their enthusiastic use. Enabling easier access to film-making, however simplistic, is a step towards something often viewed in industry as a busines requirement needing a technology solution. Maybe the social dimension has been overlooked. Re-mixable film is a step towards more useful media that's worth the cost of production.

Posted by .M. at 10:30 AM | Comments (1)

2.3 - What is novel or inventive about your idea?

NESTA suggests:

"Expand on what you told us in your initial proposal about what is new and original about your idea and what research you have done so far to confirm that your proposal is genuinely novel?

Does it break new ground and if so how?

Does it use existing technology or processes in an original way or does it seek to develop an entirely new approach? If so, how?

Does your idea have the potential to bring about significant shifts in thinking in your field? Such ideas could inspire new processes, methods or approaches.They might include high risk innovatory projects in the arts or sciences that have potential for commercial and/or social benefits.

Does your idea involve a novel methodology or process or improved design? If so please explain that in your answer to this question."

The idea takes an entertainment experience that has scarcely changed in over 100 years (35mm celluloid film) and bringing it to the crest of the current wave of popular interactive experiences. This is interactive entertainment designed to work with the traditional strengths of the Internet. Few film-makers have the experience and architectural understanding of how to leverage interactive technology and online communities to propagate their stories.

The product is a new type of film that comes assembled like a Rubik’s Cube. The story is designed so that re-arrangement is both possible and encouraged. The story is delivered as part of a new unified yet simple media architecture which makes greater use of open (i.e. free standard) technologies to assist development, production and distribution. The vision is of films that endure because they act as the best story-telling instruments in the hands of an increasingly sophisticated audience.

“Re-mixable film” uses game technology and game distribution but the product focus is one story, not game-play. Using a broadband game console, a film (story, idea, flavour) is re-played and distributed as interactive chunks for (largely passive) consumption prior to formal (and risky) game design elements. It leverages the open source software model to build a rigid sustainable story system.

The form re-appropriates the terms “play” and “film” from the computer game and film industries respectively. Re-mixable films are more playful than films and more accessible to the wider population than games. Game-play is optional. The idea explores the evolution of film in a way that is both extremely personal (to support a story I have written) and potentially universal, given the care to position the concept and design in relation to emerging social and technical standards.

“Re-mixable film” encourages creativity and performance in a new way. It throws open the exclusivity of high-end film-making, allowing a more open relationship between the filmmakers and their audience.

Sample instruments, DJ/VJ controls, are bundled with a film for the first time. MOD makers, albeit a small minority of the audience, can now create new controls and re-invigorate the product over time. The opportunity to make money from film IP is widened in a novel way. The experience bridges cinema and console, allowing players to manipulate and manoeuvre within a film without breaching copyright. Sharable film content is, in itself, not novel anymore but none of the projects exploring this notion have made the effort to attract the key sub-cultures that are already doing this with games and software (e.g. the machinima community, the open source movement). In practice, this is because innovation is often viewed purely in terms of technology advances, not social advances.

This project attempts novelty by re-visiting the origins of film as a popular medium and exploring why Thomas Edison (the inventor) did not give birth to cinema, as we know it, whereas the Lumiere brothers (the entrepeneurs) did. In that sense, this project does not claim to have all the ideas but does have a novel and cost-effective approach to building a new ideas platform using traditional media and trust. Few film-makers trust their audience to respect their work, given the opportunity to tamper with it, but increasingly this is changing. As a practitioner with a track record in bleeding edge internet-related projects, I feel there is an opportunity for innovation here.

The idea is a hybrid approach to media production that stems from internet cultural and commercial trends (e.g. peer-to-peer networking, online community dynamics, digital rights mis-management). No one has attempted to marry a film to this approach before with this degree of sophistication in the project architecture. The availability of re-usable machine-readable story elements will help get new online stories off the ground (however personal) and allow the authors to evolve them over time into larger-scale productions. This will be the first film production engineered for the "Semantic Web", the next generation of machine-readible content and services.

A novel business model for re-mixable films is being proposed, independent of SANCTUARY. User contributed content (i.e. MODS) is an opportunity for new royalty streams through unforeseen commercial spin-offs from successful re-mixable films. Unlike a traditional film property, the “re-mixable film” DVD allows sampling at an unprecedented granular level. Assets (e.g. sound-bites, sets) can be extracted for 3rd party use. Film publishers can promote their interactive assets to sampling practitioners as music publishers do. This promotion method will be of interest to many industry sectors, who may view the film purely in terms of being a snazzy package for a production library (like a production music library CD).

The SANCTUARY DVD will be designed for sampling and file-sharing while being backwards compatible for regular DVD playback. The technical architecture is geared towards sustainable development and distribution of a story. By making the linear story (“the flavour”) more accessible technically, by making it open to re-use, there is more opportunity for the flavour to be added, freely and or under license, to other titles. Spin-offs can be licensed. An online distribution system will track the usage of film assets and issue commercial licenses where appropriate.

The idea of treating a film as an online stage, onto which live performance can be incorporated, is new. I use interactive film products as a performer already (e.g. real-time3d content) but no existing films are created with this in mind. SANCTUARY will be. Computer game controllers do already act as pseudo-musical instruments (in rhythm games) but the focus there is on game-play not story.

User-contributed content and re-mixes is the key to establishing a vibrant fan community (even for existing films). This project improves the way in which such actions relate to the core product. This will be a form of online education through a cross-cultural story-telling device. It is also a novel mechanism (proven for games not films) for extending the shelf-life of interactive entertainment.

This idea is innovative because it is obvious. Control is expensive and limits creativity. Relinqush more control over how a product is used and spend the savings on developing more support (and business) out of the positive outcomes.

Scenario 1: Joni loved 'Matrix Reloaded' but found the dialogue a little tedious in places. After buying the DVD, Joni plays around with replacing the philosophy-lite dialogue with comic one-liners and records a mix for friends. Joni uploads a MOD (of the new bits) to a local fan website where it is rated highly. A local DJ samples the lines. Popular MODs spur more people to upload their own MODs and cross-pollinate the scene. A local developer approaches Joni to use some of the dialogue in a game. The developer is creating a commercial game and wants to use assets that have been popular in that country. Warner Bros licenses the original DVD assets to the developer.

Scenario 2: It is expensive, and arguably impossible, to prevent people from reaching the stage of a popular band. The sheer weight of numbers is on the crowd's side, not the security team. However it is impossible to hide once you are up on stage and negative outcomes can be quickly dealt with.

Scenario 3: Inspired by the success of console games that invite the audience to contribute content to the published game (e.g. the Slovenian game "Hollow" by Zootfly, to be released Christmas 2000, http://games.zootfly.com/hollow/competition/about.htm
http://games.zootfly.com/hollow/competition/about.htm), a film company puts out a call to 3D artists to submit "synthespians" to be used as extras in a scene. The re-mixable film technology is used to manage the influx of entries and is part of the eventual film DVD release so that audiences can substitute their own virtual characters, putting their own people in the film.

Posted by ken at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

2.2 - Please describe your idea

NESTA suggests:

"Imagine that you are explaining your idea to an expert in the field with sound relevant theoretical knowledge and practical experience. You do need to explain the principles behind your idea i.e. what it does, why and how it will work. If it is an arts-based idea your answer to this question should explain what you intend to do and what the intended outcomes of the project will be."

Re-mixable film' is a new kind of film experience influenced by the ability of emerging technology to support live online performance. People play with, disassemble, and re-assemble films to customise stories. This appeals to the market for new entertainment experiences and will result in new revenue streams based on the wider availability of re-usable and syndicate-able film assets.

The idea is to produce a short film, SANCTUARY on 35mm film and DVD. The DVD, the core product, will play in a regular DVD player but via a broadband game console, it will support “MODS” – modifications made by the audience and published online. A MOD is computer game jargon for a modified version of a game created by players.

The proposition to consumers is that the re-mixable film product lets you:

- watch a film as normal; the cinema experience on DVD

-play a rhythm game (the GROOVER) to experience how the cinema mix is constructed in real-time (out of video, audio, 360 degree panoramas and 3D animation) and explore how it is malleable

- extract content (assets) from the film experience for use elsewhere

- insert content from elsewhere into the film experience (the FEEDER)

- re-mix (and even re-code) the film experience for performance and gameplay (the SWITCH)

- share re-mixes (i.e. MODs) by uploading them to the Internet

The re-mixable film will function as an instrument. You can re-mix the film as a DJ/VJ and publish mixes online. The film is a stage for live performance. See how long you can keep people entertained, onstage and offstage.

As a story-teller I want audiences to have more control over my story. As an architect I believe it is timely to start leveraging Internet and game technology more explicitly to do so. Re-interpretation keeps the good stories alive.

To make the idea work requires a new business model to be accepted, one developed with legally and technically re-mixable content in mind. To pioneer this idea, I propose an extensible machine-readable filmic experience to be created off the back of a high quality film production. The audience will fiddle with the film on DVD, for fun, because fun will be demonstrable. They will explore it for inspiration and learning about the story-telling process. People will use this project as an artistic and technical template for other stories. Film re-mixing and spin-off activities will be nurtured through a growing online community of artists, players, and developers.

After producing several short films exploring interactive film potential, I wish to refine certain aspects of my approach. My approach is a unique hybrid. It embodies some aspects of watching a film, and some aspects of a computer game, without being a game or even requiring much interaction.

In formalizing this approach for NESTA, I remain convinced that what this project is about is going back to basics and re-discovering the obvious and overlooked. SANCTUARY explores what is fun about playing with film (a passive medium) and what is fun about watching interactive entertainment. It treats the non-gamer audience with respect and addresses the question of why interactive entertainment continues to be marginalized, despite economic success.

SANCTUARY is a coming of age story set against the clash between evil oppressors, heroes, and anti-heroes, fighting for freedom.

The idea plays off the script to use existing real-time audio/visual technology and emerging internet standards to make a more openly malleable and machine-readable film. Existing Semantic Web technologies (e.g. RDF, Information and Content Exchange (ICE) protocol) will be applied so that a semantic technical description of the product is widely available. Such a low level interface will allow more real-time elements of the film experience to be "playable", though not in a game sense. The experience is designed to be open-ended enough for the audience to take elements of the film and re-mix them into new productions whilst not relying on this level of involvement to be fun. Audio/visual film assets on DVD will be easily re-used by customers for environmental, creative and commercial benefit (via licensing and/or royalties).

The technology will be part proprietary (including an existing game engine) and part open source. The real-time assembly and delivery of broadcast quality content (e.g. MPEG2 video, AC-3 audio, 3DSMax animation, JPEG) will be handled by an existing game engine.

Third-party changes will be encouraged through the open components . The idea re-purposes architectural concepts developed for multi-player games. These allow a film-maker/architect to design a “massively multi-lingual story” (a sustainable story) that uses every trick in the book to communicate. The film format supports evolution through participation in the same way as a reality TV show or massively multi-player online role-playing game.

I have identified a broad range of creative and technical ways in which modifying a film could be fun for the audience. This will be a film that is wider than long, open-ended in the same way that a web page is, when you have write permission.

SANCTUARY contains a small set of interactive elements within one fixed narrative. Narrative is the spine of the design. The audience can simply tap along to the beat and receive audio/visual/haptic (touch) feedback. The audience can manipulate audio controls to re-mix the soundtrack. The film will be developed in consultation with the existing (game) MOD community to ensure that the experience is re-programmable using developer tools. The audience can download and play new MODs. User-contributed content will be allowed to replace film assets (e.g. dialogue, images).

As a sample MOD, the film will feature an interactive audio experience, in the music/rhythm computer game genre (games that involve doing something to a beat).

LINKS

W3.org Semantic Web
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

Internet Movie Database
http://www.imdb.com/

mod database
http://moddb.com/

Agitating for Dramatic Change
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20031029/littlejohn_01.shtml

The Massive blog - my diary of related developments
http://thequality.com/massive/weblog/

head bin - the extranet for this project (user: nesta, password: pl3ase)
http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/blog/

Posted by .M. at 10:11 AM | Comments (1)

2.1 - Executive Entry

NESTA suggestions:

"Tell us why your idea is worth backing and what might make it attractive to NESTA. You should include 3 to 5 key points addressing issues such as why your idea works so well, why it is novel and original and the key strengths of the individuals or the team working on the project. We would suggest that you make this the last question you complete before submitting the form. This will mean that you are able to summarise the key points of your proposal."

Film sampling will one day be as common as music sampling. Film audiences will be able to play with film as easily as they would play a musical instrument or play with recorded music.

This project is based on the observation that technology and online culture have irrevocably changed the relationship between film-makers and their audience. Relationships are no longer purely one-way. With a background as film-maker, performer and technical architect, I have a vision of film as a two-way interactive experience. The proposal is for NESTA to fund the development of a short film to test the waters for a feature-length interactive idea.

Sampling culture is evolving quickly, especially online. With the consent of film-makers, audiences can have unprecedented freedom to create new relationships to a story, personal relationships, less hampered by intellectual property rights. Story-telling is all about making connections so this is an exciting development for us all.

Posted by .M. at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2003

Cinema Extreme (Film Council)

SANCTUARY has been submitted as an interactive audio film project to the Film Council's Cinema Extremeshort film scheme, reference C818. The Director's statement from the proposal.

Posted by .M. at 08:02 PM | Comments (0)

VJ storytelling

VJForums.com - ::Digital Storytelling...... AVit Narrative Lab::. Discusssions ahead of the event at the AVIT festival in Brighton.

Posted by .M. at 05:27 PM | Comments (0)

Executive Producer wishlist

Luc Besson
Joel Silver
Peter Weir
Alan Parker

Contact details for above as in extended entry

Luc Besson

International Creative Management

phone: 310-550-4000
310-550-4304
212-556-5600
fax: 319-550-4441
website: http://www.icmtalent.com/

address: 8942 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA, 90211, USA

Joel Silver

Silver Pictures
4000 Warner Blvd.
Bldg. 90
Burbank, CA

Peter Weir

John Ptak - Creative Artists Agency

phone: 310-288-4545
fax: 310-288-4800
website: http://www.caa.com/

address: 9830 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA, 90212-1825, USA

Alan Parker

Michael Wimer - Creative Artists Agency

phone: 310-288-4545
fax: 310-288-4800
website: http://www.caa.com/

address: 9830 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA, 90212-1825, USA

Posted by .M. at 02:52 PM | Comments (0)

Kazaa / Altnet

Info from arose@bde.com.au on the Kazaa/Altnet distribution model.

The person to contact is Christian von Burkleo in our LA office - cvonburkleo@altnet.com - he can help with pricing and, well, pretty much take care of everything from DRM wrapping your content to making it appear in Kazaa and elsewhere. We can also - if needed - host your file on our fallback web server though for large files (over, say, 50MB) we prefer that partners host the files themselves.

In case you're wondering why there is a fallback web server (this is P2P after all), here's how it works:
We make you file appear as a gold icon file in Kazaa.
When users click to download your file it searches the P2P network.
If the file cannot be found on the P2P network - or it it's downloading too slowly - then the file will be downloaded in whole or in part from the fallback web server.
When the download completes then that user begins sharing out the file themselves.
The result is around 90% reduction in bandwidth serving costs (rising to over 95% for popular files) compared to serving the whole file from your web server.

Using the Altnet Download Manager you can even make the file available on your own web site - users will be able to click and download it without needing Kazaa, and you'll get the same ~90% bandwidth saving (and users may well get a much faster download experience than a single HTTP connection to your server would have given).

We regularly promote files of 300MB or more, with a couple of files hitting 1GB (though the handling on such large files tends to be a pain so 200MB would be at the upper end of the "sweet spot" for movies).

If you need more technical info I'd be glad to help out.

BTW, we and Kazaa are quite different. Altnet handles only digitally signed content placed with the permission of the content owner and Kazaa does, well, whatever Kazaa does.

Posted by .M. at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)

Flash groover concept map

Quick sketch of the behavior I'd like of the flash groover prototype. I want to be able to play through the storyboards and animatic content in development.

Posted by .M. at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

NESTA I&I proposal for SANCTUARY

Full proposal NESTA application form for Sanctuary

DEADLINE 3 DECEMBER

20030728 Submitted to NESTA I&I Download file

Posted by .M. at 12:50 AM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2003

Steam and Valve Software

RickE@valvesoftware.com at Valve Software will provide the Steam SDK once this NDA is signed.

I am developing a new film, to be playable as an instrument, with re-mixable assets. Central to the idea is the ability to perform and otherwise mod the film.

Q) Could it be possible to do a free trial of Steam in our R&D phase to explore its suitability for distributing our product?
[Rick Ellis] Once we have an NDA in place, I can give you the Steam SDK for you to explore.

Q) Do you have any planned support for Xbox/PS2 content management/distribution?
[Rick Ellis] No firm plans yet, but both are on the radar to be considered.

Q) What kind of business model do you have with external developers? A paid-for-up-front software bundle, a subscription service, relying on a percentage of sales?
[Rick Ellis] For a application distributed on Steam, our fee is 5% of the revenue, before costs. If you need us to host the software, there is an additional charge to cover bandwidth and server expenses.

Q) Do you have a standard agreement/package description for developers you could send me?
[Rick Ellis] Not at this time.

Posted by .M. at 06:26 PM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2003

Self-documenting system

Note to coders,

As you’re writing, think about what console messages you need and make sure that there is a public interface to any debug write type stuff you’re doing. Thinking more about the State perspective on the story and it may make narrative sense to reveal the inner workings of the interactive product as window dressing. Will certainly save script-writing. Also thinking about self-documenting the codebase for the final release from the perspective of CD, kinda like a cheeky perl pod file. He’s written in perl in the script anyway…

Posted by .M. at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)

October 07, 2003

RDF inside assets

Q) Can we chuck RDF inside every re-mixable asset?

Would be nice because then each asset is intrinsically self-contained for the future. Access the same URL, but requesting different MIME types, gives you either RDF or the asset (vid, sound, whatever) itself. Anyone know any shit hot semantic engineers?

A) Probably. I think that means that we've got a way to let the masses sort their own shit out. All we have to do is come up with an RDF compliant way of FEEDER operating.

http://www.w3.org/TR/photo-rdf/#goals

Posted by .M. at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)

Story new bits

New stuff waiting to go in for the next script.

The crowds want more motivation. They just can't understand that a little girl like Blake could be so full on against the State. They don't get it. Neither does Blake. She's a confused kid.

Jon is Uncle Jon, Dad's younger brother. Mark may be female, I don't know. Either way, Blake is very jealous. That should be her down there helping Jon fight back against the troopers. One more thing, the activists are being framed. Not content with destroying the last natural bushland in the State, the troopers have been instructed by the Chief to plant the story that this was a terrorist action. The destroyed bush is being rearranged so that it looks as if the activists had blown several vehicles. In fact there was no such action.

Something happens at the end of the film that is not planned for by Blake and certainly not planned by Axel.

The Chief demonstrates his all pervasive power online by dredging up memories of Blake masterbating in her bedroom.

Posted by .M. at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)

October 05, 2003

Film Sampling thoughts

FILM SAMPLING

Feb. 2003 - Dreamworks announces "film sampling". Past examples of this seemt o fall into two categories dependent on whether the footage is from the same film or not. Sampling other films is still relatively rare but the most interesting.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (Carl Riener, 1982)
30s/40s Hollywood greats

What's Up Tiger Lily? (Woody Allen, 1966)
Re-dubbed Japanese film.

Back to the Future Part II(Robert Zemeckis, 1989)
Sampled bits from Back to the Future

Reviews and commentaries below:

Berkely IP blog

Even then, the technological hurdles for now are mighty, and most people who might like to play with sampling are probably deterred over the difficulty of the process. But, if this were to become something film copyright owners were willing to license or share through fair use, an industry might spring up allowing the man on the street to make something like Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid in an easy, simple way. Or maybe just make an email greeting of themselves as the Terminator.

Commentary from American City Biz Journals:
Hollywood could use this technological power for a good cause, like digitally inserting the image of "Thriller"-era Michael Jackson into every known scrap of video footage he's made since 1985. But instead, the industry behind such contributions to society as "Pootie Tang," "Good Burger," "Jackass: The Movie" and 37 "Star Trek" flicks is going back in time to leave its slimy, unholy, money-stained fingerprints on theoretically higher art.

Film Sampling bitches from Button Monkey:

Who's to say that the next big movie won't be starring Mike Myers and Marilyn Monroe? If that were the case, would it not be unethical for someone to profit from the likeness and performance of a deceased person or persons? In this case Hollywood gets to reuse/recycle great star names without having to pay the star. They would no longer have a say over how they were even portrayed in the film.

Is nothing sacred? from Empire Online
Called "film sampling," the studio has defended this blatant plundering of the archive...
Only the presence of Spielberg and Myers in this sorry project has dampened down the raging ire ...

Film and video are both sampling technologies
... film is the first technology to deal with time slices, and
therefore is also a kind of sampling technology. Each frame
is a picture-sample.

Posted by .M. at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

Sensors

Eyetoy Linux driver

LEGO Mindstorms audio pitch sensor

Making Things sell a/v components for tracking

Antaras pitch correction software for sound engineers

Course notes in Digital Audio Programming: Spectral Transformations (inc. pitch detection)

Laser Active Tracking/

Posted by .M. at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)