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Stink Digital with Adam Berg directing, the makers of last year's Carousel, the stop motion film of 'clowns robbing banks,' are set to release a new & more complex short film for Cinema 21:9. The facebook page for Philips Cinema has a gorgeous teaser for Parallel Lines interweaving 5 distinct story lines....
I have just enough french to muddle through this... like the idea raised of who owns the story? big divisive issue....
hmmm....get ready for the storyworld expansion - Cameron's writing a novel with lot's of backstory
Love this! James Url Jones was telling me about this today & had to find it. I've seen a bit of what blu-ray can do with creating 3D spatial environments -gorgeous
Drew Davidson 2010 et al.This text is an introduction to the future of mass media and mass communications %u2013 cross-media communications. Cross-media is explained through the presentation and analysis of contemporary examples and project-based tutorials in cross-media development. The text introduces fundamental terms and concepts, and provides a solid overview of cross-media communications, one that builds from a general introduction to a specific examination of media and genres to a discussion of the concepts involved in designing and developing cross-media communications.
An accompanying DVD-ROM shows how cross-media can be applied, with art, music and illustrations that complement the text. Chapters have overviews and problem-based/project-based activities to encourage active engagement with the readings. Throughout the text there are specific examples, case studies, foundations, and interviews with experts in the field to better illustrate the nature of cross-media.
Cross-media Communications are integrated, interactive experiences that occur across multiple media, with multiple authors and have multiple styles. The audience becomes an active part in a cross-media experience. The overarching goal is to provide an overview of cross-media design and development. It is meant to be interdisciplinary and introductory in concept and implementation.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License
PURCHASE TEXT FROM LULU.COM: Full text with formatting and images
PURCHASE DVD-ROM FROM LULU.COM: Hands-on exercises and media examples
Download plain text from Lulu
_____________________________________________________
A comprehensive guide for anyone who wants to work or play in the emerging terrain created by the interlocking orbits of contemporary media.
Frank Lantz
Creative Director and Co-Founder, area/code
Director, New York University Game CenterDavidson et al have managed to wrangle the diverse and far reaching elements that comprise Cross-media Communications into a cohesive and highly approachable text. This text provides the student and educators with the tools and exercises to best introduce the topic, and lays a solid foundation for whatever the genre evolves into in the future.
Mk Haley
CMU ETC Associate Executive Producer and Faculty
Disney Research Labs, PittsburghFor classroom or casual interest, here is a superb introduction to the cross-media revolution of the 21st Century; chock-full of history, definitions, exercises and insights, including many from those leading the charge against the crumbling barricades of the old and the monolithic. Viva la Revolucion!
Lee Sheldon
Assistant Professor, Department of Telecommunications
Indiana UniversityThis book is an invaluable guide about the emerging art and science of cross media communication. Use this book as the foundation for your own journey into creating significant new experiences. I intend to have everyone in my organization read this book to ground them on the new rules and new opportunities for communication in the next decade.
Mickey McManus
President, CEO and Principal
MAYA Design
Christy Dena just posted this - new anthology on cross-media communications. Great roster of contributers: Henry Jenkins, Katie Salen, Jim Bizzocchi, Monique de Haas, too many to name - downloadable from lulu.com which I think I may be doing in a few minutes :)
www.technovelgy.com/ post on Twitter 360 app:
'Twitter 360 is an iPhone application that is designed to allow you to visualize your nearby Twitter friends. It uses the new Twitter Geotagging feature to geotag your tweets.
"Latest Tweets" mode. See the latest tweets of your friends (iPhone horizontal position), and the location from where they were posted (iPhone vertical position) using the Augmented Reality functionality. When a tweet is selected, a blue arrow (compass) is displayed to show the direction and the distance to the location from where the tweet was posted. The distance is updated in real time as you walk in the streets.
"Locate my Friends" mode. List of all your best friends. Twitter 360 lets you track geographic movements of your friends, you can now see where are located your nearby friends via Augmented Reality. If you want to hang out with a particular friend, use this tool to go meet him / her. Unlike the "Latest Tweets" mode (which is more focused on the tweets), the location of each of your friends is calculated with the "location" field data on the Twitter account. When a friend is selected, a blue arrow is displayed to show the direction and the distance to the location of that friend. The selected friend is highlighted in blue. The distance is updated in real time as you walk in the streets.'
source: http://bit.ly/bpVHAY
This wearable wireless webcam captures a recording of the wearer's personal experience whenever he desires.
Steve Mann's next gen bling - sousveillance webcam - 'the inverse panopticon' - the guards have to be on their best behaviour as they never know when they're being watched. Mann took 500 of these to a conference and gave these out to be worn
source - wikipedia - but pulled up by Steve Mann so I'll assume he's approved it
demo of Steve Mann/eyetap's augmented/mediated reality
I'm listening to a conversation on how to make AR meaningful - not just 'hey now we can access all this data!' but how can we make meaningful experiences, so I am bringing up the parallel discussion in data visualization which can be beautiful but emotionally empty.
that made me think of Alyssa Wright's geolocative work that maps bombings in Iraq on your experience while wearing the backpack.
Victoria Ha just tipped me on this Brazilian webisode/ARG - set in a women's prison, the footage is streamed unreliably from the security cameras. We follow the women in the prison as they try to figure out who is murdering inmates.
This project takes AR in interesting directions - variations on data input in the AR space - nice
Red Bull's commitment to branding on the edge is really evident in this list - being a huge Shaun White fan, we headed straight to the snowboarding event in Manhattan! After browsing this list, I'll be tracking down Part 2. Hats to Tom Himpe - big thanks
The Future of Play/The Future of Learning:
“Siftables are an example of a new ecosystem of tools for manipulating digital information.”
Another amazing research project from MIT
From Christy Dena! "Cold War: Clambake - The
Game on Facebook is the first element of a new transmedia franchise..."
My alter ego is now up & planning world domination...
No, don't go in there!
Jung von Matt/Spree Berlin creates an interactive horror film experience for crime/horror channel 13th Street.
The documentation for Channel 13th Street's interactive horror movie makes the film experience appear gripping & I can believe that being able to speak with the girl under attack by the mobile phone could give an edge to my experience of the film. It's a given though, that sooner or later someone will start playing with giving the obvious worst advice...
For all those Potter fans - the theme park is underway. The most interesting pics here are of the actual construction rather than the renderings of various storefronts & castle exteriors/interiors. Now, the first thing that strikes me in the construction pics is that Hogwart's northern climate is going to be hard to replicate in Orlando, but don't worry as there seems to be artificial snow planned for castle exteriors. Wonder what the park will feel like on on a heat alert day!
Given what happened with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise - theme park/films/interactive theme park ride, we can't be far from an interactive/augmented reality Harry Potter park - I can see it..
Now here's an interesting transmedia idea - launch a fundraiser for streamlined content...see project summary below:
BASIC GOAL
Raise $3000 for our transmedia campaign. Transmedia typically refers to alternate content produced in support of a film. LOST has Dharma videos on their site. THE WATCHMEN produced a number of 70s-looking cartoons, and newscasts for the web, all set in the alternate reality of story. Joss Whedon produced Buffy comics.
We're looking to take this concept a bit further though, and tailor the alternate content to the devices it will be shown on. For instance, our first iPhone application not only gives you secret messages from certain characters, but also makes phone calls to those characters. It also might give you information you can use to access secret web content on our site.
Check out some videos about our Transmedia Effort! http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list...
STORY SUMMARY
THE LOST CHILDREN is a 90 minute docu-drama about Evelyn Hamilton and The Lost Children. The Lost Children is a recently active cult that was led by the mysterious Chance Sturges. They believe that they are not human, but are instead aliens from another world, stranded here on Earth for thousands of years.
Sturges is a boogieman, a myth. No one knows if he is real or not. He's only known through videos gathered from The Lost Children website, and some rumors of his possible past:
Evelyn Hamilton was a trust-fund kid who joined the cult in 2008, and rapidly became known as "The Alpha". The Alpha is recognized as having abilities beyond those of the ordinary members. The Alpha may forego the usual training that other members must endure. There is only one Alpha, and she sits just below "The Father", Chance Sturges himself. There is a rumored sexual relationship between The Father and The Alpha as well, with some possible evidence of such a relationship here: http://www.youtube.com/watch....
The Lost Children await the arrival of their mother ship, hiding within the Tioga comet. But time is running out. Because there are others approaching; The K'Taan, a primitive race known also as "The Elder Ones", or "The First Ones". The K’Taan travel through space on an asteroid in a dormant state. When they find a world with life, they awaken and feed until that world is dead.
Now, the K'Taan approach Earth. And Evelyn Hamilton believes she is the only one who can stop them.
Really great documentation video of Wieden+Kennedy's Coraline Transmedia Campaign - I loved the website - had to take down my button eye profile pic though as my kids were too freaked out by their 'Other Mother'
Robert Pratten shares his strategies for the development & implementation of a transmedia campaign for audience building. The transmedia elements were developed to support 'Vauxhall Crossed...a family, action-adventure feature film about an MI6 agent called Daisy Scarlett (think female James Bond).'
I've been following Pratten on his site - http://zenfilms.typepad.com - since stumbling on this report. I'm watching!
total teaser - who are the Pale Men? no really? Viking spirits? water elementals? the damned? what's going on in Maine? I've been to some eerie places in that state so I'm ready to believe - bring it on, Cryptoinvestigator...
Funcom seriously knows how to create a realistic and horrifying backstory for The Secret World. First it launched a site for Kingsmouth, a sleepy seaside New England town with some dark secrets. The team then released a grainy trailer that shows zombies wandering the town. Well, it turns out that was only the beginning.
Funcom has been running an alternate reality game on Twitter that currently features four Kingsmouth residents talking with each other. Official forum user Leck has posted a transcript of the recent tweets between Carter, Danny Dufresne, Deputy Andy Gardener and Sheriff Helen Bannerman, and some interesting details have surfaced through the discussion.
The characters have been mentioning a blog written by "crazy" Tyler Freeborn, who is a native of Solomon Island. His Monsters of Maine blog was just discovered, and it's "an investigation into the cryptozoological and occult events occuring on Solomon Island." He says the Pale Men will return soon and "drag us down, down, down into the black ocean where we will endure in cold pain and endless darkness for all eternity."
Freeborn revealed today that he will be posting his evidence soon. We'll be keeping an eye on the blog to find out exactly what that means.
clever clever - Funcom is using twitter, facebook & blog(s) to launch AR game 'Monsters of Maine'/Kingsmouth - looks like fun - tips to Christy Dena!
Benetton is running a global casting competition - downloading the AR marker on the site to access the details - cool!
Benetton launched an augmented reality issue of their Colors magazine in Autumn 2009. The theme is global teenagers - very counter culture/queer - often showcasing kids whose choices re. music & lifestyle make them targets in their own societies. The issue is packed with AR content - the teens I've shown it to love it. Benetton seems to have more AR on the way:
ok - I get it - I was hoping for so much more with the 'Augmented Reality Accessorizer' - maybe because of my addiction to accessories. :)
very cool video - reminds me of David Lynch, Peter Greenway, Marcel Dzama... Makes me very anxious
Here is the first test of my "Magic Projection" system out on the streets in Tokyo. "Magic Projection" is my new augmented reality projection tracking system created for use in my magic stage performances. Have a look and let me know what you think.Special Thanks to: Zachary Lieberman for software development and for creating OpenFrameworks. Thank you to Danjel van Tijn for his arduino and Wii engineering and Nolan from PeauProductions for the M12 IR filter modifications on the PS3 camera. Also Parte Koishi, Shingo, Teddy, Lisa, Shige, Miki, Masayo, Chika and all at Empire Entertainment Japan for helping me on location in Tokyo. Makiko-sensei for programing me in Japanese. Johnny Chung Lee for his inspirational work with projector based tracking and to all people creating amazing free tools available to artists everywhere: OpenFrameworks, OpenCV, Arduino, MacCam. Made with openframeworks (openframeworks.cc)
very cool augmented reality video demoing projection tracking - credits to Zach Lieberman for software development
Last June Ridley & Tony Scott as 'Free Scott' announced they would be developing a transmedia narrative called Purefold with Ag8 and the original buzz seemed to be that this would be a story extension of Blade Runner. And after that initial info, not much has been heard. This Dec. 2009 MIT Future of Entertainment panel finally provides a bit more info with four of the creators behind the project: David Bausola & Tom Himpe – Co-founders of Ag8; Mauricio Mota – Chief Storytelling Officer, co-founder The Alchemists; & Leo Sa – Petrobras, the brand partner working in development.
The presentation runs you through the following:
- introduction to the history of Purefold
- use of narrative filters to harvest the web
- near future setting (but not an extension of Bladerunner specifically)
- will use networked storytelling
- will use an open license
Right off the top, David poses the key question: ‘how can you take this interactive transmedia storytelling production thingy & give it real deep human resonance?’
and he turns to the engine of social media - empathy as a core experience motivating networked communication.
Outlining the project, some of the key points are:
- creative commons will be key in terms of generating an audience’s stake in the project allowing for repacking & remixing
- following this, Purefold will play with an ‘open media franchise’ meaning that the near future setting of 2-3 years will allow the episodes to play with possible futures, drawn in some part from imaginings of the audience.
- Their plans here seem to be long term with episodes rolling out over a number of years after launch
- Brands will function as THE financial partners and brand placement will be of future prototypes not existing products, allowing for audience feedback on the products placed within these near future stories - brilliant
- they site the idea: “innovation is listening to the unexpected”
- listening will then be the aggregation of data from audience feedback & chat then looping that info back into story development
- The series will run with an overarching narrative to Purefold & each of the brands has its own character representing the brand
Each episode will have 2 parts
- a proposition = what the advertiser wants to explore
- a synopsis = the character’s story is used to explore that
proposition
One example might be the mining of data around electric cars of interest to a brand partner, where the tags from that data might then become part of the inspiration for the writers.
David offers the fascinating idea that their social media aggregator, ‘Friendfeed, helps us dream, looking about the memories of what a episode should be. The best rises to the top, which lets the writers focus on the things. The writers can chose what they want.'
This is going to be one wild and wooly ride for the creators and fascinating for those who want to participate and/or watch!
MIT's Technology Review just announced:
A new augmented reality game can run on two Android phones, over 3G or Wi-Fi, without an additional server. The unique networking method used for the game could be quite useful for those working on disaster relief or in the military, where significant infrastructure isn't always available.
he game uses a computing middleware system, called Ibis, originally developed for high-performance, distributed computing tasks, such as image processing or astrophysics research, but which Kemp and colleagues have adapted to run on Android phones. "It allows each phone to run a lightweight communication server," says Kemp. The devices can communicate directly with the game, which is hosted on both handsets, using a 3G connection or Wi-Fi.
I've heard Josh Hirsch, Ministry of Technology at Big Spaceship, describe their smoke machine as one of their most important purchases and you can see it in use here. They have a great documentary video of the creation of this tag, playing around with the smoke machine. You might see get to see it at a future presentation...
As I'm just watching Loutit's Hulkmania for the first time, I can't resist including it in this series....
Keith Loutit's 2008 Helpless is one of an extraordinary series of videos that play on aesthetics of the miniature & the diorama by using tilt-shift & time lapse photos. Every one is a gem.
2009 saw a number of beautiful sand animation videos - here's one from ferkerehez
"In this installation YesYesNo teamed up with The Church, Inside Out Productions and Electric Canvas to turn the Auckland Ferry Building into an interactive playground. Our job was to create an installation that would go beyond merely projection on buildings and allow viewers to become performers, by taking their body movements and amplifying them 5 stories tall."
The event looks like a blast! I love this kind of transformative participatory installation - and the documentation is also terrific
Here's a soon-to-launch 'transmedia action film' that will play over the web and a mobile app. Interesting!
"...when we say we want a viral campaign, we mean that we want marketing that will spread at an exponential rate similar to a virus. But when we insist on describing our work as viral marketing, we make two fatal mistakes: first, we forget that exponential pass-along between consumers is a result, rather than a strategy — the end, rather than the means — and second, we focus on creating better content, rather than better understanding the motives of the people who will choose to share, or not share, that content.Then, as we begin to plan for 2010, it’s in our best interests to stop thinking about viral marketing, which moves from person to person like a virus, and instead focus on why people choose to share things with each other. We need to understand the spread of media in terms of actively giving gifts, not passively transmitting viruses. And to do that, we need to understand consumer behavior on the consumer’s terms, rather than our own. For now, let’s call this new model “consumer-driven marketing.”
I've been a fan of Big Spaceship's work for a very long time and have posted links to many of their outstanding digital works. The latest post on their Think blog is welcome read with Ivan Askwith's challenge to shift away from viral marketing to thinking about a media ecology propelled by our desire to share or 'gift' better content.
