headbin

Update on Phillip Noyce

The good news is I'm keeping in regular contact with Phillip Noyce's assistant Beatriz in LA and as of last night, the word was "Phillip has read the material and is making notes".

The bad news is that I still haven't managed to make direct contact with him to get a sense of how he can be involved in any sense. He's now busy editing a pilot now and no-one will confirm when he'll get back to me.

We can't afford to wait anymore so it's time to press on in terms of sourcing a producer or line producer.

Production meeting writeup

Following today's meeting between .M., Laetitia (LA) and Ken, a review of the production status and next steps.

Status Summary

*We have shortlisted several potential Line Producers, but have been holding off on making a decision pending Phillip Noyce's contribution.
*Misrepresented the role of Line Producer as Producer in initial search
*We are unable to get a firm commitment one way or the other from Phillip Noyce, and it is hindering our progress.
*We shall be signing up a Line Producer of our own choosing, and should Phillip Noyce commit after that point then there may be scope to bring on someone of his recommendation in a suitable capacity, albeit maybe not as Line Producer.

*In order to budget the project, we need a full set of storyboards and estimates from a VFX supervisor.
*Some elements of concept art are not necessary for the storyboards or budgeting, some are.

*Identified crucial HoD's needed for project as a whole, being:
-DoP
-Sound Designer
-Production Designer
-VFX Supe.
-Editor

Next Steps

*Search for Sydney-based potential Line Producers with a view to .M. going out for a week of meetings in Nov/Dec.
*Develop the storyboards
*Develop critical concept elements
*Produce VFX shot breakdowns from storyboards for potential VFX supervisors.
*Search for potential graphic interface designers from within games concept artists.
*Compile contact details for potential HoD's

GIS in classroom presentation

The classroom presentation is a device for the State to show its relationship to the natural world and the pre-existing order of things in a good light. A cross between Shell and Guns Ltd. http://www.shell.com/ http://www.gunns.com.au/

One opportunity to quickly establish the theme of networking is to move between Aboriginal rock carvings in the sanctuary and futuristic GIS (Geographic Information Systems). Integrating this in with the establishment shots of the bush, State and city could be very interesting. The sophistication of Aboriginal carvings (e.g. how the animal shapes reflect the relative positioning of key landmarks like waterholes and other carvings) is new information to most people and a good hook.

Carvings are from the Calga Springs sanctuary outside Gosford.

The GIS display is part of a UK prototype "post-it" service - Urban Tapestries http://www.proboscis.org.uk/urbantapestries/prototype.html

Aerial photography from http://www.lpi.nsw.gov.au/airview/

MORE RESEARCH

======================================
petroglyph
petro = rock glyph =carving

The meanings of most of these petroglyph designs remain unknown.

http://www.hausarbeiten.de/faecher/hausarbeit/eni/16622.html

In Europe and Africa the style was largely naturalistic, while in Australia and the Americas designs were more often symbolic and geometric, and sometimes approached a primitive form of writing.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/r1/rockcarv.asp

D. S. Davidson, Aboriginal Australian and Tasmanian Rock Carvings and Paintings (1936)

http://www.viewzone.com/tablerock.html

Hypothesis of a global ancient alphabet in Aus and elsewhere

http://www.adelaidegrid.warp0.com/photo3.html

Whitley was the first American archeologist to do a dissertation interpreting rock carvings (the technical term is petroglyphs; rock paintings are pictographs). There has been a tendency among archeologists to regard the study of ritual and belief as less scientific and less relevant than the study of technology and subsistence. "It’s that bumper sticker: ‘He who dies with the most toys wins,’" Whitley says. "Which is, to me, a very shallow, materialistic view of human culture."

To illustrate his point, Whitley gives the example of Australian Aborigines. "You can take a line from the center of Australia out to the coast, and you can plot on that line a series of different aboriginal cultures. And if you look at the complexity of their kinship system and the complexity of their technology and tools, what you see is a perfect inverse relationship." Coastal groups have a complex technology and tend to use a lot of tools. In the middle of Australia, it’s more like it is in the Cosos. "Those guys are running around near to buck naked, surviving only on their wits, yet they have this kinship system that is mind-bogglingly complex. And it structures every aspect of their social life.

http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb/anthro2003/readings/altered_states.html

Now what is more important, this complex cognitive mental construct or the kind of tools these folks made?"

Ogleby, Clifford L., Digital Technology in the Documentation of Rock Art, 2nd AURA Congress, Cairns, Australia,

September, 1992.

Clear pictures - maybe fake...

http://artshack.tripod.com/aboriginalrockart.html

Australian Rock Art Research Association, Inc.

http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/aura/web/index.html

State Agency support
No databases are utilized regularly, although some projects in Australia have incorporated GIS into regions that include rock art sites. At least two state agencies in Australia, the News South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Services and the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Island Studies, sporadically use a database called 'Minarch'

13. Linking places: Constructing an Aboriginal social landscape using Arcview
Claudia Zipfel (Runner up Aus Archaeological Assoc. Conference Poster Prize
School of Historical and European Studies, La Trobe University (czipfel@students.latrobe.edu.au)

Based on a 2002 Honours research project this poster details the methodology developed for the construction of social landscapes in the GIS program ArcView. The project aimed firstly at constructing the context of the relationship between an Aboriginal community in the Wimmera and Mallee regions of Victoria and the archaeological remains found in its area today. Secondly, it examined the suitability of ArcView to construct and represent this context, ie. the social landscapes....

ArcView was found to be very useful for social landscape representations. It enables a visual and textual exploration of the interconnectedness of places, paths and inhabitants in space and through time. GIS seem particularly well suited for such a purpose as they have the potential to raise an awareness of the different and shared nature of social landscapes of archaeologists, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities.

http://car.anu.edu.au/AAA_poster_session.html

AURA
P.O. Box 216
Caulfield South, Vic. 3162
Australia
auraweb@hotmail.com

Australian Archaeological Association Inc.
Archaeology A14
University of Sydney
NSW 2006
AUSTRALIA
Email:
mailbag@australianarchaeology.com
Telephone:
+61 (2) 9351 7412
Facsimile:
+61 (2) 9351 5712

Ausarch-l
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/ausarch-l

The WIRED CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share

http://creativecommons.org/wired/

Beastie Boys, David Byrne and others give away sampling rights to help kickstart the new CC licenses.

Hacker etiquette

Two perspectives on online culture

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way by Eric Raymond

vs

The freenode channel guidelines.

Friendly fire virtual world

Damon's work on friend/foe recognition systems is one approach of how we can visualise the relationship between RIG devices without dwelling on physical devices in the real world.

Chiaroscuro

Simon introduced me to the concept of Chiaroscuro and the idea that real-time digital artists will one day move beyond bold contrasts in their work because the technology will support more variation.

I'd like to explore how we would shoot a bush location from a chiaroscuro-inspired lighting model (for virtual POV) and then shoot the same scene from a lighting model inspired by Australian Impressionism (for real POV). If it were possible to move between the two styles using real-time visual effects processing, that would be ideal.

ArtLex on Chiaroscuro

chiaroscuro - A word borrowed from Italian ("light and shade" or "dark") referring to the modeling of volume by depicting light and shade by contrasting them boldly.

Missed/upcoming deadlines

Key tasks from project plane which have fallen behind.

As per 20041020

*Accounting system set up - need an accountant or someone with sound knowledge of Sage/Line 50 to maintain accounts
*Contracts drawn up - Archie needs to get on the case of this one
*Film producer appointed - waiting for Noyce
*Develop Storyboards 1st Draft - Steve working on them
*Tools developer hired - .M. interviewing people

State dogs

Nothing like a remote-controlled rat to give you inspiration for a dog modified by the State.

By implanting electrodes in rats' brains, scientists have created remote-controlled rodents they can command to turn left or right, climb trees and navigate piles of rubble. Someday, scientists said, rats carrying tiny video cameras might search for disaster survivors.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,52236,00.html

Military nanobats

A Small Rolling Spy for the Marines
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/CuttingEdge/story?id=97990&page=1

Mobile robot designs from the US
http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/gallery/Robot-parts/nanospike
http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/gallery/Robot-parts/nanoslug
http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/gallery/Robot-parts/packbot

Remote development

Working in a remote team has its own benefits and weaknesses. Here is an article with some case studies.

Gamasutra - Resource Guide - "Managing An International Remote Development Team"

Copyright free sound and video archives

Copyright free sound and video archives

www.wfmu.org

www.moviearchive.org

http://www.loc.gov/film/arch.html

http://www.prelinger.com/

peoplelikeus

Vicki Bennett is making “collage” movies and music all sampled!

http://www.peoplelikeus.org

There is an interview with her at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/alt/johnpeel/features/peoplelikeus.shtml

I think you will find it relevant.

DENR Logo

From the Sanctuary script:

...'the logo for the State Department of Environment and Network Resources (DENR), a tree sprouting roots blending into circuitry.'

Concept Art Work in Progress

There is now a spreadsheet tracking the progress of the concept elements on the Wiki. It will be periodically updated from the master spreadsheet on Blade, so please don't panic if you find it a week or so out of touch.

http://modfilms.com/twiki/bin/view/Sanctuary/ConceptElements

Review of interactive fiction book

Slashdot review of "Interactive Storytelling: Techniques for 21st Century Fiction"by Andrew Glassner:

http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/01/1736200&tid=192&tid=186&tid=127&tid=6

Augmented Reality

More links to how the virtual world technology in the story is evolving.

Howstuffworks "How Augmented Reality Will Work"

http://www.headmap.org/ - location aware devices

IKEA scene in Fight Club

http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/shelton.htm - AUgmented Reality experiments in classroom