headbin

Virtual camera views from kewazinga

Simple virtual camera movement. Lots of sports samples, only low-res though.

http://expn.go.com/xgames/wxg/2002/archive/axis/index.html

The Soak Test

The reason that BDE (now known as ALTNet) didn't get interactive movies off the ground is because they didn't adapt their flics for how they saw the audience treating them. People didn't interact. They sat there, watched it as a film and then if it grabbed them they watched it again, maybe pressed a button or two. The rate of interaction was too fixed. The cartoon visuals were technically impressive but not as good as cheap Saturday morning stuff. The Multipath Movies didn't work.

Re-mixable films could work, if we get the soak test right. The film is the soak test. There's a hell of a lot of exposure to an idea in ten minutes, even five. If the audience leave with a feeling that they've only just scratched the surface of what the thing can do, and they liked it linearly, then the hackers will jump in.

I think people will see things they want to do with the film and I think the tone of the community will be raucous. There'll be no real way to unite people behind one cause or one style (other than the technical design) so it may as well be organised chaos. It should be easy to set up your own branch of the site for your people, your films. OK it's another one of those bloody personalised web sites. "Hi Bob" but I think they're pretty cool. The trick has to be subtlety. The system will try to know you but doesn't advertise the fact. The end-user license agreement that comes with the film will describe exactly what is being attempted. User opt in to play.

It would be cool if the aesthetic of the community site was the same as Blake's tech in the movie. Quick and dirty but scalable. I like websites I can set to zero images, minimal images and glossy. Three levels of visual setting.

NESTA proposal submitted

The NESTA full proposal (for year 1 funding) was submitted today. Thanks to everyone who contributed. There has been a lot of good energy around this project from lots of people and thanks to that, 2004 is going to be an exciting year.

Respect,

.M.

Renderware questions

Q) Demo team size (skill sets)
Q) X3D support
Q) Features of Studio over Graphics
Q) AI components relevent to project
Q) MPEG2 streaming latency
Q) Number of simultaneous audio channels
Q) Eyetoy support
Q) Hardware requirements, minimum spec
Q) Public API? I.e. how to integrate OSS layer and Renderman.
Q) Desktop emulation of console?
Q) Support terms
Q) Producer recommendations

Michela MODs for Tuesday

Stuff I've modified tonight

2.1
2.2
3.5a
3.6a

Cashflow

Predicted cashflow for 4 quarters of NESTA involvement

http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/blog/archives/docs/Cashflow.xls

Expenditure to Date

Breakdown of Expenditure on Sanctuary/head bin project to date

http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/blog/archives/docs/expenditure_to_date.xls

Team

Biog and Referees of all involved in the project

http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/blog/archives/docs/Team.doc

Entries uploaded

Below is a list of all entries (as they stand at time of writing) uploaded thus far from the blog to the NESTA online application.

All corrections to entries listed below to be done via the online form.

https://www.nestaforms.org.uk/nelive/pi04/login.asp

Login: ML26093
Password: tv4me

2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7

3.1
3.4 (all sections) - references "Team" attachment and "Expenditure to date" attachment (aka expenditure_to_date.xls)
3.5 (all sections) - references "Team" attachment
3.6 (all sections) - references "Team" attachment
3.7 - references "Team" attachment

4.1 - split in 2 parts
4.2
4.3

5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5

6.1
6.2
6.3

7.1 - fair to call other investor "Games Publisher - development funding"?
7.2 - references "Cashflow" attachment (aka Cashflow.xls)

9.1 - requires attention for prose
9.2

What's the story

One pager on the first "What's the Story?" event to be held in February 2004.
http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/blog/archives/docs/festival_onepager.pdf

NESTA Plan Overview

7.1 - Financial Information

Breakdown of income and expenditure (cashflow)

http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/blog/archives/docs/20031201_NESTA_Q7_1.xls

Graphic novel sales

Notes from conversation with Dorothy:

Sell print rights as graphic novel

Print publisher can't take dramatic, movie, TV or merchandise rights as not prejudice future film sales.

Print publishers will want "interactive rights" but these can be narrowly defined to give rights to things such as the ability to turn print pages online.

Graphic novel sale will boost marketability of script to film industry.