Then I got to attend the Open Video Conference (OVC) in NYC. You can read my conference report.

Frustrating as it is to not have the resources to simply complete and release Sanctuary, reality bites. The key learnings I've brought back from the OVC are:

1) Staged delivery - the need to keep releasing is paramount.
2) Collectivism - for remixable films to develop, the community needs more resources.

It is due to the invaluable input and support of remixable media community members over many years that we have got the project to the stage it has reached. Now I see the need to start releasing material regardless of the fact a finished cut has not yet been produced. So I invite discussion on how best to release the Sanctuary asset library and pipeline tools as they stand. I plan to release them by 14 July, so comments before then would be appreciated.

I still intend to finish my cut but it's time to take that milestone off the critical path for the project.

So without further ado, I'm hereby opening up this rather old-fashioned looking blog to the public...

http://modfilms.jellycast.com/

I'm planning a revamp of the blogs here and a bigger shift towards microblogging. Still finding it difficult to keep everyone updated but planning to make increasing use of Twitter as a central alert mechanism monitoring this and other key sources. Follow @teamsanctuary.

That said, the AIMIA talk I gave last week on Social Media and User-Generate-Content certainly generated some positive feedback. I'll be interviewed on the ABC's Media Report next week to continue the conversation around micro-studios.

At the end of the day, Sanctuary is a film so until I can put that initial (Content) aspect of the project to bed and release it as yet another short film, I'm going to have a few sleepless nights.

Also waiting on a few people in order to make some decisions regarding the completion plan. VFX continue to be the biggest headache. The majority of the work is still what I've cobbled together - not the most satisfying experience. I'm hoping to be able to be able to put aside at least one of the virtual world locations this month.

This podcast goes into THE YEAR (!!) of development that went into getting the look right - fonts, colours, story etc..

The moral of the story seemed to be to make the UI plot-driven... no excuses here on this show (apart from budget!) - Sanctuary VFX brief

Direct links to the info:

FX Guide podcast discussing HUD

http://gizmodo.com/377412/iron-mans-first-flight-shows-jet+like-hud-every-boys-fantasy

After so long reorganising files on my own I thought things were pretty well set up. Instead we spent most of the afternoon tracking down files and glitches.

Lessons learned:

* get everything off chief onto teamsanctuary. Time to get the asset library up on a fast server
* forget svn for post folder management - stick to what the pros do for now, until there's some budget to explore further. I'm convinced there is value in storing ASCII files (like Shake projects) in a traditional scm but no one does it that way and it's time to get this show on the road (how many years have I been saying that?!)
* Maya likes its own folder structure. Make it happy and stick to the default convention. No more named folders
* Maya doesn't like double dots in filenames
* Description in the shot naming convention isn't option
* You can look at a shot till you're blue in the face and not see something - I hadn't noticed the dragonfly shot didn't actually have the dragonfly in it, so familiar am I with the rushes...

http://teamsanctuary.modfilms.net/trac/renders/wiki/UserManual

I've also set up a Team Sanctuary group on Google to capture Gavle student queries and discussions around the virtual studio.

http://groups.google.com/group/teamsanctuary

I've been in a pretty manic period, developing, installing, configuring, moving countries etc... and I'm sure some of you must be wondering what the hell all this virtual system is all about.

The point of having a virtual studio is to make it easier to do stuff... not make things harder... so if you've got any concerns, queries, however minor, why not flag them up so we can improve things?

Ask a question

Paralysed man's mind is 'read'

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7094526.stm

Funny enough, when this project kicked off in 1997 the biggest advance in this field was with slugs. Things have moved on somewhat from Computer Electronics meets Animal Brains

lost in space: lost press gangs pacciani

It's a little more complicated but a tool to make this transparent is under development.

NOTE - the render monitor still understands the older (simpler) naming convention but VFX artists should use the new one to avoid clashes.

The inclusion of a version number in filenames means that the ability to update a shot via FTP is going to vanish any day now!

http://trac.modfilms.com:7861/trac/sanctuary/wiki/NamingConventions

DRINKS, INTROS

Not long now till I pack up and shoot off to get things rolling in Aus. Would be great to get some informal get-togethers happening, principally so I can introduce a few more people to each other. This virtual team malarky is definitely working (i.e. things haven't collapsed in a heap over, how many years has it been??) but nothing beats face-to-face...

Any suggestions?

I'm thinking BAFTA in town and 9 Wyndham Street (while we have it!) are the best venues at my disposal for get-togethers and perhaps some regular early evening slots over the next month so that people can drop by on their way to other things.

NANOBAT SHOOT

Tamara is starting to pull this together. Please go through her for stuff on this rather than me, to avoid any nasty Scanners type incidents (you know, the old head exploding thing). I'm kinda overloaded at the moment. Still hoping to just wander onto the prop set and mumble some Lucas-like direction to the nanobats themselves. "That's great. Just like that, only stronger."

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

VFX

Paul has started giving CD some funky moves. Thumbnails of the latest renders appear on the homepage of the new VFX tracker

http://trac.modfilms.com:7861/trac/shots

MODFILMS.NET

Work on the trackers is progressing well. I've had lots of feedback from the demos and it's been a mad flurry to try and keep pace with suggestions and bugs. Busy adopting the artist upload capability to cope with the naming convention for renders suggested by the Quadratura guys.

I'm aiming to have a hands-off demo site up and running soon with Sanctuary data. It's almost there but juggling madly and dusting off sysadmin 'skills' I'd happily shelved years ago (email configuration is still a pig).

I spent a day at Molinare helping with their pipeline (backups mainly) which has also shed some welcome light on how the majors are doing things. I'm even more convinced our new media approach has huge benefits to offer every production.

Gave a demo to a Swedish film school and have shook hands on the idea of students working on Sanctuary via modfilms.net as part of the curriculum. Post production training facilities have a hard time acquiring good quality footage so Sanctuary material is perfect. The particulars of the deal still need to be worked out but the broad idea is that MOD Films provides content and some services in return for getting timeconsuming VFX shots completed. Thanks to Soren for doing the legwork on this one.

My notes on this as it evolves:

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

Yesterday I gave a demo to Stewart Till, Chair of the UK Film Council. He seemed to get the product. and the challenge. "The good news it that it's brilliant" .. "the problem is you're asking people to work in a new way". Heard that before... "... I guess it's not THAT different" he went on to add (after seeing the dailies as podcasts). He offered to do some introductions to established film producers so we'll see where that goes.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Close observers of MOD Films may have noticed that half our online battle has been over the reluctance of people to use wikis or any non-hierarchical information system. The trackers are really all about compensating for this (and still sneaking wiki use in through the backdoor!). I'm including a link to this interesting essay suggesting why people distrust the wisdom of crowds. I.e. why Wikipedia, evolution, re-mixable films.. It's all about psychology after all.

http://karmatics.com/docs/evolution-and-wisdom-of-crowds.html

They will be road testing modfilms.net for their own projects and contributing some of their expertise to Sanctuary.

The guys from Quadratura seems pretty positive about the demo. Note to self - SMS alerts go down well! It will be great to get their input on the Sanctuary shots and next steps.

I think that's what I will focus on tomorrow, getting the demonstrator up and running, get togther some notes on Sanctuary style wise and then see if I can get the render monitor working on the demonstrator.