February 23, 2005
SANCTUARY NEWSLETTER > FEB 23 > 2005
MISSED ON TV TONIGHT
The film 'Missed', written and produced by Dan Foster and directed by our own Divine Miss .M. will be screened on the Community Channel (21/2 and 23/2) at 9pm (Sky 585 and Telewest 233) as part of a shortened 'Night of Many Stars' film and music festival screening. Check channel listings for other times throughout the week. NTL and Freeview screenings will also follow shortly, but if you're peachy keen to see it without delay, the film can also be viewed online here: http://www.danfoster.org.uk
GOOD WEED
There's a revolutionary new music distribution system out there called Weed which uses Social Networking as a way of distributing music rather than relying on the age-old corporate sell. Anyone who buys a 'Weedified' song can share it - and if someone else buys it, the sharer gets paid and the artist gets paid. More specifically, the rightsholder receives 50% of each sale, you get 20%, the person who shared the file with you gets 10%, and the person who shared the file with that person gets 5% of the sale price. Weed collects 15% for processing. I'm keeping my eyes on these guys to see what potential the Weed Business Model might provide for sharing film & video content, if you wanna know more about them go here: http://www.weedshare.com
AUSSIES PIONEER NEO PORN DOWNLOAD SITE
Australian Neo Porn-producers 'Beautiful Agony' have come up with a ground-breaking concept for displaying their downloadable Porn Videos on the Internet. Apart from adopting a sophisticated and fairly minimal design style, (unusual to traditional porn sites), it is inherently their content which is unprecedented - imagine hundreds of head & shoulder shots of ordinary men and women lying down and having an orgasm, with no titties or genitalia on show whatsoever!! See article here: http://www.eros.com.au/journal.php?id=253
MOD FILMS - WHO'S WHO DOING WHAT
If like me you are often overwhelmed by the vastness of our team and can't get your head around the various tasks at hand and who is supposed to be handling which task and in what department, you may find the following chart of some use:
http://thequality.com/flics/10weeks/blog/archives/images/20050220_team_structure.swf
PROLIFIC 21ST CENTURY AUTHOR & GONZO JOURNALIST QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." - Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005)
February 19, 2005
February 16, 2005
SANCTUARY NEWSLETTER > FEB 16 > 2005
SEX-BOX
While many game-makers are perfectly happy for customers to play with released titles and circulate MODs in their communities, Tecmo have decided to put their virtual foot down! A lawsuit under the US DMCA has been issued against the now defunct website ninjahacker.net because users were swapping their characters' 'skins' with er.. presumably a lot less skin!! 'Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball' is a prime example, though ironically the original release has probably enough T&A in it to class as soft porn as it is! If a hearty combo of Sex, Sport and bloody Violence rocks your world read on:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/10/tecmo_sues_xbox_game_hackers
GOOGLE VIDEO SEARCH
Google is beta-testing an indexed video service on US television broadcasts. You can try a search using the ever-popular interface and call up what's on the box right here and now: http://video.google.com
EMAIL ALERTS
Want to keep up with team updates without necessarily having to post discussions.. or even visit the web? No shame. You’re a bonafide 'lurker' in Net-speak. Free email news alert services like http://www.bloglet.com are appearing all the time. Contact Michela for setup details!
2ND FILM UNIT ANYONE?
Nicola and Michela are exploring how a volunteer 2nd film unit might work and Michela is keen to see this tied in with plans to let the MOD'ers cut away at the er... 'guts' of the film: http://modfilms.com/twiki/bin/view/Sanctuary/DemoDesign?topic=ProjectMarketing
MARKETING LEADS
MOD Films would dearly appreciate any marketing leads you guys may have at the moment to help us get a feel for who knows 'what' about the project now and who needs to know 'what' at what stage later. This is important not just for the 'buzz' and general sponsorship leading up to the shoot, but also for the online community aspect of MOD Films.
SPONSORSHIP LEADS
Deep pockets? Rich friends? Benevolent employers? Our sponsorship package for the film will soon be ready (well I should know, I'm designing the bloody thing! Oh and thanks for the feedback on Draft #3 by the way Luke!) Anyway... once again all leads are welcome people!
ALMOST 'CULT' MOVIE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone when you're uncool." - Lester (Almost Famous)
February 14, 2005
Dude, it's the cops
Checkout "Dude, look out, it's the cops" slide show of cops world-wide on Flickr.
A break from the project
After a hard slog we put in an AFC funding proposal on Fri and started planning out milestone 2 of the demo based on the testing so far.
The weekend was supposed to be a rest, well away from the project, but it was impossible to escape the irony on Sunday as TJ Hickey's memorial was covered in the evening news.
February 09, 2005
SANCTUARY NEWSLETTER > FEB 09 > 2005
TROPFEST FINALIST
Heartfelt congrats to Luke, Nicola and James whose film 'Australian Summer' is a finalist in the 2005 Tropfest Short Film Festival. Tropfest is the world’s largest short film festival and there was a record number of entries this year - a whopping 792 shorts!! Blimey... I can still remember when the films (usually about a dozen or so) were shown on two monitors in the Tropicana Café on Victoria Street, coz that's just how old I AM!! For a full program of this year's event to be held in Sydney's Domain on Sunday 27 February, check out the official site: http://www.tropfest.com
MP3TUNES
People will pay for convenience, not access. Online businesses are finally starting to wake up to this! Michael Robertson, former MP3.com chief, speaks out about online music sites on the eve of launching MP3tunes which imposes no DRM restrictions on subscribers, see article here: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1758970,00.asp
IS MOD FILMS FRIENDLY ENOUGH?
Michela and I have been discussing at some length the 'look' of MOD Films to outsiders who may be approaching us for the first time, as well as ways of communicating not just what our product DOES, but where we're going with it in general, via a separate style of branding for both MOD Films.com and MOD Films.net. If you would like to add your input in this discussion (regardless of what department and area you're working in) please feel free to have your say in this forum thread: http://modfilms.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=54
REGARDING AUTO ANNOUNCEMENTS
Since a few of you have been asking.. this is the status of 'Auto Announcements' as it stands in MOD Films:
* We send out a weekly newsletter each Wed.
* Every 30 mins the headlines are updated across all systems here:
http://modfilms.com/teamsanctuary/news.html
* To set up a newsfeed to your own systems to track specific areas, contact Michela for tech support.
* If you post to a discussion forum, by default, you will receive an email when someone replies to it.
UBER-GEEK QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one." - Bill Gates
February 02, 2005
SANCTUARY NEWSLETTER > FEB 02 > 2005
SO THE INTERACTIVE STORY GOES
Another interactive story-telling consortium has been unveiled, this time with a call for people to join an 'Open Community' to help define the project's software authoring tools for interactive storytelling. The ultimate aim of the project is to release commercial software.. so only time will tell how this pans out! For more details check out the Inscape site: http://www.inscapers.com/
BOJOU BREAKTHROUGH
2D3, makers of professional camera tracking and matchmoving software, have decided to make their flagship product Boujou available to the production! We're thrilled to bits (or bytes even) because 2D3 are presently at the fore-front of augmented reality research. See: http://www.2d3.com/jsp/company/press-article.jsp?id=469
TO TEST OR NOT TO TEST
We are currently looking for 20 brave souls within the team to test our first demo – 'The Complete (ly Re-mixable) Works Of Shakespeare'. So what (thou might ask) does this entail? Well... only about fifteen minutes of your time actually!
* Reply to this email. If you're too busy or not interested, no problem.
* If you want to test a specific play, let us know (we've got 37 of Bill's finest to choose from).
* We're looking for 20 testers. All you need to take part is a PC and permission to install software on it.
* Wait for your download details.
* We'll send you back a download link and simple instructions how to install and run it
* Play with the demo
* Answer a few survey questions provided
EVEN MORE TESTING
Testing the first code milestone got off to a shaky start when it emerged that the RIG was not responding to 'key-presses' on certain machines. Hmmmmmm.. *followed by copious amounts of swearing* it would seem that you really can't cut corners when it comes to testing!! http://modfilms.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=102
UNLUCKY WITH LUKE
If like me you've been er... a tad unlucky in trying to get hold of Luke Eve lately, well the man just asked me to let all ye faithful Sanctuary Newsletter-readers know his new contact details... and they are: lukeeve@moresauce.com.au
SHOOT DATES
A quick reminder for all concerned (and the rest of us living on the edge of virtual reality) that the Shoot Dates have been locked down from March 22nd to March 28th. Yes you've got just enough time to order a really 'brill' meat pie from that bakery down near Manly Wharf..
DINKUM AUSSIE WISDOM QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Australia is an outdoor country. People only go inside to use the toilet. And that's only a recent development." - Barry Humphries
Demo Milestone 001
Some less than unusual events in parallel this month with demo testing alongside casting. It's been a relief to be able to
Testing the first code milestone got off to a shaky start when it emerged that the RIG was not responding to keypresses on certain machines. It was a reminder not to take anything for granted and that we can't cut corners on testing.
http://modfilms.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=102