June 30, 2004
Letter to Prospective Producers
We have had a low hit rate with potential producers; of some 20 letters mailed out, fewer than 5 have expressed any interest.
When Phillip Noyce signs up for blog access, we should ask his opinion of why the letter has proven so unsuccessful.
Meeting notes
Notes from my monthly meeting with Lizzie Jackson.
Community timescale:
1) PLANNING AND SET-UP (3 months)
Define use cases
Define online application functionality (in terms of OSS and existing software)
Define navigation (map between community applications)
Social architecture ("how to lay out city", draw buildings, put software in rooms)
Pretty up the skeleton, wallpaper the community
2) LAUNCH PERIOD (3 months)
Evidence that it takes approx. three months for community to form.
3) ACTIVITY PERIOD
Activities, assets available.
COMMUNITY ROLES
Host role
Party organiser, Curator, Workshop leader, Membership secretary, Historian
(see Clff Figallo book 'The Role of the Host')
Moderator role
Greeter role
Host not needed for initial phase (3 months) but important to keep movement going on planning so Workshop/Curating function could be given to Alex.
Suggestions for Alex tasks as of July:
Act as workshop leader for Community plan. Keep in touch with me to coax me to deliver the materials. research background in terms of related communities and info to guide me.
Talk to the open source film-makers. What went wrong in their community attempts? Get gory grimy details. Don't make the same mistakes.
Review House Rules on existing sites (e.g. BBC, HP, Disney). We need
House Rules (i.e. who owns content, right to showcase your content)
Terms/Conditions (i.e. legal protection)
Registration system (i.e. trust network)
Introduce people to idea, website, mailing lists
PROXIMITY
Organise Q/As with name contributors to allow community to feel part of something special.
Remember the community make-up will be
1) Newbies - just visible
2) Movers and Shakers - very visible
3) Lurkers - not visibile
80% of the community will be Lurkers and the success of the community will depend on them!
NESTA Press Release Live
http://www.nesta.org.uk/mediaroom/newsreleases/4400/index.html
SPAA on the Gold Coast
I've been given a speaking slot at the Screen Producers Association of Australia conference on the 7th of August on the Gold Coast.
June 26, 2004
NESTA Milestones
We're working to the following timetable for phase one. I think it is feasible to get the film shot earlier.
July 2004
Business set-up
August 2004
1st Draft of Interactive Design Document
December 2004
Start of Pre-production on ‘Sanctuary’
March 2005
1st Day of Principal Photography on ‘Sanctuary’
May 2005
Finalisation of Interactive Design Document. Agree Commercialisation Plan & Strategy
August 2005
Production of Demo
June 25, 2004
File-Trading Bill Stokes Fury
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,63969,00.html
One to watch carefully. The proposed Inducing of Copyright Infringement Act of 2004 aimed at preventing people and organisations from 'inducing' people to swap copy-righted files is being considered in the US.
June 24, 2004
Ty Ruben
Ty Ruben and I had a good chat about concept art. He has been a specialist in mechanical concepts since leaving Lucasfilm in 1995. I'm thinking of him as focusing on the eco-activist aesthetic and the nanobats.
He recommended The Embassy Visual Effects Inc. as a company to contact re. the project.
June 23, 2004
The two towers
Centrepoint Tower - Sydney (on left) and Black Mountain Tower - Canberra (on right).
Here’s a test clip I made of Centrepoint earlier this year.
Sydney Skyline time-lapse movie
Been talking to Yogi at Central Pictures about the feasibility of procedurally generating the urban sprawl in between the two towershttp://www.centralpictures.com/ce/index.html
Flexible screens
EE Times -Philips unit unveils 'rollable' displays
Suzanne Lee (suzanne.lee@virgin.net), fashion technology expert:
No-one yet is making a fabric screen. Flexible displays are being explored these are mostly on plastic substrates.
Time-lapse bush
It is important that the virtual world and the real world sequences are distinguishable from each other. One idea I've had for this is to use a time-lapse sequence when first introducing the bush as Blak experiences it. It might be cool to see natural growth of the sanctuary (a couple of month's worth of time-lapse) as a form of non-linear access to the surveillance network Blake hacks.
There is a similar metaphor in 10weeks - Cityscape re-configures itself.
June 22, 2004
Russell Crowe for Daniel
Russell Crowe's agent:
George Freeman
gfreeman@wma.com
One William Morris Place
Beverly Hills, CA 90212 USA
Tel: 310-859-4000 Fax: 310-859-4462, 310-859-4262
Web: http://www.wma.com/
June 21, 2004
Syd Mead dog things
Syd Mead did concept art for Tron, Blade Runner, Aliens and here's a nice little dog-thing picture. I saw them as streamlined in the flesh but crawling with nasty code underneath so when you see them as CD sees them they look quite horrible. This is how people would see them more.
June 17, 2004
Community case studies
I'm preparing a set of use case studies along the lines of "Name is a..." to help focus any community plans on who the target audience will be.
June 16, 2004
JIM THE TRADITIONAL FILM-MAKER
Jim has been making films the traditional way for many years now. Recently he's been coaxed into working more with the digital medium, and mixing up his media sources a bit by his techie brother. He thinks that MOD films might be the future but he's just not sure yet.
Joni the wisecracker
Joni loved SANCTUARY but thought she could improve on the dialogue. Using a stand-alone PC application she downloaded from modfilms.net she creates a SANCTUARY MOD which simply replaces a few choice lines of dialogue with her own. She uploads the MOD and circulates the URL to some friends.
A local web site references her MOD and soon there are several similar MODs by people who reckon that they can out-do her.
A local games developer approaches Joni for the right to use her new dialogue in a project. The developer is creating a commercial title and wants to reference her SANCTUARY MOD as it proved popular for his target audience. The developer purchases rights from both MOD Films and Joni to use a combination of the original SANCTUARY film and user-contributed content.
Scott the event promoter
Scott is a night-club promoter who is looking for a way to attract crowds to his venue. The venue already has VJs who re-mix material but Scott wants to ensure that any custom visuals can be legally used in advertising. Scott joins modfilms.net to see what content is available to re-mix legally and to find new VJ talent for his nights.
Michaela the film-maker
Michaela is a film-maker who likes to do live re-mixes of her work. She uses MOD Films technology to produce the DVDs of her films takes them on tour. The notion of a director's cut seems out-of-date to her so she prefers to think of each cut as a mix.
June 15, 2004
QANTAS approach
Any thoughts on this as an approach?
QANTAS sponsorship form (from http://www.qantas.com.au/info/about/community/index)
Vapourware
Vapourware, get innawit...
http://www.cmpevents.com/m.asp?A=2632649741H&C=8&C4Pid=9376
June 11, 2004
Blade
Q) Is Blade destined for legal trouble? It makes sense for a re-mixable hero to have a familiar name, and I'd never heard of the Marvel character prior to the movie...
http://www.teako170.com/blade.html
Re-mixable film as brand sandpit
I had a meeting with a film-maker, Martin Percy, working for BT to explore commercial dimensions of the project. Two ideas came out:
1) Re-mixable film as brand experience resource
Many corporations have private asset libraries set aside to catalogue their brand messages in the form of text, imagery, and sound. A re-mixable interface to the BT brand experience was felt to be the most commercial avenue to explore at present.
2) The Switch as health application
Martin had a go at my proto-type Switch setup (running Arkaos) and thought there were huge opportunities in selling stuff to gyms given the way you could easily slow down and speed up the experience. This ties in nicely with the interactive health application I am designing with Rose Raymond.
Why realistic graphics make humans look creepy
An important consideration as to why baseball-like nanobats and a crude stick figure are the key CG elements in Sanctuary. It's not just about budget.
Massive: Why realistic graphics make humans look creepy
June 10, 2004
NASA nano-bats
Metallic balls that float around after astronauts in space.
Wired News: A Jet-Powered PDA for Astronauts
Message board architecture
I'm reluctant to put up any form of message board system until there is a critical mass of discussions on a general mailing list and, technically, until there is a way to combine blog, message board and mailing list content so that it doesn't matter which mechanism you prefer to use.
E.g. mailing to the list results in a blog posting as well as something put into the message boards hierarchy .
It's apples and oranges as to which interface people are going to prefer using, depending largely on your intended and actual use.
Below is my initial hack at a structure, .comments pls
GENERAL
About the MOD Films network
About MOD Films
Announcements
FAQs
MODS
Ratings
Reviews
FILMS
Ratings
Reviews
EVENTS
Live mixing
GAMES
Ratings
Reviews
Potential Producers and Production Companies
UK and Aussie Producers and Production companies.
See Extended Entry
UK Producers and Production companies
http://mandy.com/1/services.cfm?c=0prd&t=ukew&k=FF&p=1
Pommie Highlights:
Mills, Simon
Carnival Films
David Sullivan
Delfs, Thomas (Dance of Shiva is probably the best short I’ve ever seen)
Ben Elia (benjaminelia@club-internet.fr) – based in France
Figuero, Daniel (Produced Fistful of Fingers and The Bunker)
Firefly Films Limited (formerly Tribeca Films Ltd)
Fisher, Dean
Hammer & Tongs
Interactive Magic
Keyhole Productions
Kleparski & Bee
K-lyx Media
Little Wing Films Ltd
Little Wonder Productions
Lloyd, Philip
Lock, Ben
lost in space (actually a network of top-profile designers, artists, etc.)
Maverick Media Ltd
McGowan, Jen
Moore, Roger Wilson
Morton-Haworth, James (HD specialised DP)
Nexus Productions Ltd
Prolific Films
Ravenwolf Films
Robinson, Fleur (made a 35mm, 10m Sci-Fi short called Avatar… Spooky. Also has experience with games industry)
Roughneck
Soyte
Stillking Films UK (yes, the AVP guys’ UK arm)
Street Level Productions (UK)
Sunipa Pictures
Taylor, Elaine
The Producers Films
Trevor-Roper, Claire
Vigiani, Loris
Walsh Bros Ltd.
Warrenfilm Productions Ltd
Wildfire Productions
Wontner, Tom
Zeno Film Productions
Zenturio
Aussie list is below.
feature films
http://mandy.com/1/services.cfm?c1=0prd&c2=&c3=&t1=asns&t2=&t3=&k=FF
shorts
http://mandy.com/1/services.cfm?c1=0prd&c2=&c3=&t1=asns&t2=&t3=&k=SH
Aussie Highlights:
AKC77 Pty Ltd
60 Films
Beyond International (Distributor)
Clever Bits
Einfeld, Daniel
Embryo Films
Filmgraphics
Fluxus Films
Iconoclast Productions
Kuranya Pictures
Laservision Macro-Media
Martin, Josh
MediaCraft Interactive
Prodigy Films
Republic Films
Reynolds, Robert
RLC Motion Picture Entertainment
Scorpio Media Pty Ltd
Violent Entertainment Inc
Violent Velcro
Wilcox, Mike
2010 surveillance joke
I'm not going to make a habit of blogging spam but this is strangely apt for the humour possibilities in the story universe.
Ordering Pizza in 2010....
Operator: "Thank you for calling Pizza Hut. May I have your..."
Customer: "Hi, I'd like to order."
Operator: "May I have your NIDN first, sir?"
Customer: "My National ID Number, yeah, hold on, eh, it's 6102049998-45-54610."
Operator: "Thank you, Mr. Sheehan. I see you live at 1742 Meadowland Drive, and the phone number's 494-2366. Your office number over at Lincoln Insurance is 745-2302, and your cell number's 266-2566. Which number are you calling from, sir?"
Customer: "Huh? I'm at home. Where d'ya get all this information?"
Operator: "We're wired into the system, sir."
Customer: (Sighs) "Oh, well, I'd like to order a couple of your All-Meat Special pizzas..."
Operator: "I don't think that's a good idea, sir."
Customer: "Huh? Whaddya mean?"
Operator: "Sir, your medical records indicate that you've got very high blood pressure and extremely high cholesterol. Your National Health Care provider won't allow such an unhealthy choice."
Customer: "Damn. What do you recommend, then?"
Operator: "You might try our low-fat Soybean Yogurt Pizza. I'm sure you'll like it."
Customer: "What makes you think I'd like something like that?"
Operator: "Well, you checked out 'Gourmet Soybean Recipes' from your local library last week, sir. That's why I made the suggestion."
Customer: "All right, all right. Give me two family-sized ones, then. What's the damage?"
Operator: "That should be plenty for you, your wife and your four kids, sir. The 'damage,' as you put it, heh, heh, comes $49.99."
Customer: "Lemme give you my credit card number."
Operator: "I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay in cash. Your credit card balance is over its limit."
Customer: "I'll run over to the ATM and get some cash before your driver gets here."
Operator: "That won't work either, sir. Your checking account's overdrawn."
Customer: "Never mind. Just send the pizzas. I'll have the cash ready. How long will it take?"
Operator: "We're running a little behind, sir. It'll be about 45 minutes, sir. If you're in a hurry, you might want to pick 'em up while you're out getting the cash, but carrying pizzas on a motorcycle can be a little awkward."
Customer: "How the heck do you know I'm riding a bike?"
Operator: "It says here you're in arrears on your car payments, so your car got repo'ed. But your Harley's paid up, so I just assumed that you'd be using it."
Customer: "@#%/$@&?#!"
Operator: "I'd advise watching your language, sir. You've already got a July 2006 conviction for cussing out a cop."
Customer: (Speechless)
Operator: "Will there be anything else, sir?"
Customer: "No, nothing. oh, yeah, don't forget the two free liters of Coke your ad says I get with the pizzas."
Operator: "I'm sorry sir, but our ad's exclusionary clause prevents us from offering free soda to diabetics
Concept Artists Forum
Might be a good place to start looking for concept artists.
Day 1 of the NESTA funded phase
We're off and running. Finally...
June 04, 2004
Motion camera test
Ben's difference algorithm doesn't use a bluescreen but relies on change in the image to determine how to key. Potentially an alternative approach to the videodrag booth.
June 03, 2004
Arkaos re-mix of Extreme T
Arkaos have released one of my shorts, Extreme T, as a VJ content pack.
I had to work within their existing pack template promotion for this one but it may be possible to get them to market content as re-mixable films directly. I've labelled this as such in the credits anyhow...
https://www.arkaos.net/shop/details.php?p_selected=67