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Tuesday, May 29, 2012
How Wes Anderson Used Google To Make "Moonrise Kingdom" | Co.Create: Creativity
via fastcocreate.com
Excerpt:
"Setting has always been a living character in Wes Anderson’s films--from the school in Rushmore to the tree houses of Fantastic Mr. Fox--and his new movie, Moonrise Kingdom, out May 25, lives just as strongly inside its own world. "We were looking for a sort of naked wildlife," he says.
Moonrise Kingdom is about two 12-year-olds who fall in love and run away in the summer of 1965, and Anderson didn’t have the time to send scouts to every wilderness in America. So he did what everyone else does: "We literally used Google Earth," he says. It took months to settle on a location...."
WANT: A TV Platform So Disruptive Everyone's Suing It | Fast Company
via fastcompany.com
BY DAVID ZAX | 05-25-2012 | 8:51 AM
Excerpt:
"Chet Kanojia is the CEO of Aereo, a Barry Diller-backed, TV-in-your-browser platform that launched in mid-March in a limited New York City release. For $12 a month, Aereo allows its users to watch live broadcast TV on any Apple device of their choosing (plus Roku), in high-definition. Users can also make DVR recordings that are stored in the cloud. I’ve sampled the beautifully-designed service, whose user interface offers just about the cleanest online TV experience imaginable. For now, Aereo is limited to basic over-the-air TV: no cable options yet.
At launch, Aereo was immediately beset by legal challenges from the New York media companies whose content Aereo redistributes. (How exactly Aereo does so is fascinating, and involves lots of dime-sized antennae stored somewhere in Brooklyn.) Earlier this week, a judge dismissed one of the claims of the lawsuit, but two claims of copyright infringement remain. On Wednesday, Public Knowledge and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed friend-of-the-court briefs arguing in Aereo’s favor. We caught up with Kanojia to talk about his disruptive technology.
FAST COMPANY: In the age of Netflix and Hulu Plus, consumers seem to expect about a $9-a-month price point for online TV. Why should they pay you $12 a month for content they could potentially get for free?
CHET KANOJIA: Simplicity and convenience. When you get it free and over the air, you don’t get a DVR, and you don’t get the ability to place-shift. You’d have to get a device like Tivo, plus a Slingbox, and it’s cumbersome and complicated. But I’d love people to do that more and more. The more people that understand that this highly compelling content is right there for free, the better it is for us. You’ve been trained by the cable companies to buy the whole thing at once, whether you watch it or not. Now it’s time to start trying to take a stand.
FC: How did you choose the $12 price point?
CK: Um, we made it up... That’s a half-true answer. These are early days, and we just put something out there that we would like to get some reactions to. From a value perspective, if you called a cable company today and said, “I just want over-the-air channels in HD and the ability to place-shift," it’d be $75 or more per month. Just a DVR box is $18 a month with tax. My belief on this whole thing, and it’s a subtle but important point, is that what we are doing is the dislocation of the packaging of technology with content. We’re purely technology; we’re not making you buy a package. That dislocation has a really interesting side effect, because the cost curves of technology only come down. As we drive the cost curves down, you may see us do things that are very innovative in terms of pricing..."
full post here:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1838490/a-tv-platform-so-disruptive-everyones-suin...
Those Crazy Gesture-Based Gadgets From "Minority Report" Don't Seem So Crazy Now | Fast Company
via fastcompany.com
Excerpt from a fascinating round-up by JAKE ZUCKER | MAY 14, 2012
"XBOX KINECT GAMES: STAR WARS / MICHAEL PHELPS: PUSH THE LIMIT
One asks you to dance DDR-style with Stormtroopers. The other has you mimic swim strokes while standing up.
HONDA GATHER ADVANCE 4
Shown at the 2010 Tokyo Auto Salon but dormant since, it teased gesture-based control over the sound and navigation systems.
SAMSUNG SMART TV
Remote-control haters can log in to the $4,000 web-enabled TV by showing their face, and change channels using their voice.
FLUTTER
The app lets you pause and play iTunes and Spotify with a wave of your hand. Go nuts...."
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Joi Ito's Near-Perfect Explanation of the Next 100 Years - Technology Review
Joi Ito's Near-Perfect Explanation of the Next 100 Years
"One hundred years from now, the role of science and technology will be about becoming part of nature rather than trying to control it."
-->Christopher Mims 05/13/2012
"Steelcase asked 100 thinkers to describe their wish for the next 100 years, and MIT Media Lab director Joichi Ito hit it out of the park with this 150-word bon mot:
One hundred years from now, the role of science and technology will be about becoming part of nature rather than trying to control it.
So much of science and technology has been about pursuing efficiency, scale and “exponential growth” at the expense of our environment and our resources. We have rewarded those who invent technologies that control our triumph over nature in some way. This is clearly not sustainable.
We must understand that we live in a complex system where everything is interrelated and interdependent and that everything we design impacts a larger system.
My dream is that 100 years from now, we will be learning from nature, integrating with nature and using science and technology to bring nature into our lives to make human beings and our artifacts not only zero impact but a positive impact to the natural system that we live in...."
Monday, May 14, 2012
Prometheus, Dark Souls, And Storytelling In Video Games Vs. Film - Forbes
via forbes.com
Excerpt from Forbes:
Alyssa Rosenberg flags a fascinating interview over at io9 with Prometheus screenwriter Jon Spaihts.
“Storytelling in games has matured tremendously in the past decade,” Spaihts tells io9′s Charlie Jane Anders. ”Some really great work has been done. But the design requirements are totally different, almost the opposite of filmic storytelling.
“The central character of a game is most often a cipher – an avatar into which the player projects himself or herself. The story has to have a looseness to accommodate the player’s choices. This choose-your-own adventure quality is a challenge for storytellers and, I fear, militates against art.
“A filmmaker is trying to make you look at something a certain way – almost to force an experience on you. Think of the legendary directors, whose perspective is the soul of their art. It’s the opposite of a sandbox world. It’s a mind-meld with a particular visionary....”
Read the full post here:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/05/13/prometheus-and-storytelling-i...
Fuel and McDonald’s launch kids virtual world » Kidscreen
via kidscreen.com
By Jeremy Dickson
Excerpt:
"Ottawa, Canada and L.A.-based youth digital brand builder Fuel and its partner McDonald’s Europe have announced the official launch of their free kids’ virtual world Happy Studio, an online media experience based on the fun of Happy Meals.
The site, which already has 1.8 million registered users since a beta version launched in August 2011, and can also be accessed through mobile devices, includes interactive and educational games and fun activities featuring many licensed characters from McDonald’s Happy Meals and a range of entertainment IPs (Tom and Jerry, Tin Tin, Puss N Boots)...."
Read more: http://kidscreen.com/2012/05/10/fuel-and-mcdonalds-launch-kids-virtual-world/...
Type:Rider & Transmédia | Type:Rider
Excerpt:
"Type:Rider est-il un projet transmédia?
Le transmédia consiste à déployer un univers sur différents médias/médiums. Chacune des parties est une unité indépendante, mais dont certains des éléments interfèrent avec les autres parties. C'est dans cette complémentarité que naît la richesse de l'expérience transmédia.
On peut faire un parallèle avec le montage soviétique, véritable institution dans l'histoire du cinéma où l'on trouve l'expression « le tout n'est pas la somme des parties mais l'intégration de parties procédant d'un tout qui les précède logiquement, comme une idée à l'origine de leur organisation. » (cf : Effet Koulechov)
On parle souvent de "transmedia storytelling", une narration transmédia exploitée sur différents supports/médias. Celle-ci est souvent composée autour d'une "licence", déclinée sur tous les supports imaginables, entrelacés avec une habilité rarement convaincante. Mais les expériences ne reposent pas toutes sur la narration.
Type:Rider a pour vocation de faire découvrir l'art typographique au plus grand nombre. Pour cela le sujet s'appréhende à travers trois supports distincts: un Jeu Vidéo, une Installation Interactive et un Social Game...."
Transmedia producer Jackie Turnure (Fourth Wall Studios): Podcast: In the History-Makin’ Business | StoryForward Podcast
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Veteran transmedia producer Jackie Turnure (Fourth Wall Studios) joins J.C. and Steve in this jam-packed episode. Their discussion spans her past Alternate Reality Game projects for LOST, Flash Forward, Salt and more, and leads up to an in-depth conversation about Fourth Wall Studios’ just-released project, Dirty Work and their new transmedia platform, RIDES. Jackie talks about what makes Dirty Work different, and the unique challenges that a transmedia entertainment studio faces.
Subscribe to the StoryForward podcast through this link or via iTunes. Stop by our website where you can find links to contact us with your tips, suggestions, concerns and submissions.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Why The Hunger Games is not Harry Potter, & Why We Should Care « Transmedia Camp 101
Warning: Spoilers – lots & lots of Spoilers from the Trilogy. Don’t read if you don’t want to know.
Have you read it? The Hunger Games? the full series? been on the Facebook Capitol PN or District pages lately? Dipped into the Twitter feed #LookYourBest?
If you have, you may have noticed something really odd. If you’ve read the first book (now in theaters near you & soon to be released in IMAX!), then you know that Katniss Everdeen volunteers to be a tribute to save her sister, Prim, from certain death.</p><p>In the first novel, we see the poverty of District 12, learn about the uprising of the 12 Districts against the Capitol, the ensuing annihilation of District 13, the brutal subjugation of the remaining 12 Districts and the founding of the Hunger Games as a reminder of the destruction that rebellion and civil war lead to.</p><div>
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In The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins’ story exemplifies what I have come to see as the moral core of children’s literature, which I have taught roughly twice a year for 10 years now. The power & the truth of children’s lit lies in the valuing of a child’s pov, which in the ‘real’ world, we adults view as immature, naive, ignorant, etc etc, in contrast to the more mature, nuanced & complex understanding adults have as a result of experience and more time spent on earth.
The moral core of good children’s lit is the absolute assertion of the value of the individual relationship against arguments of sacrificing one or many for the greater good. You see this in Huckleberry Finn, where Huck cannot betray the immediacy of his friendship with Jim, even though he believes helping a runaway slave is wrong & will land him in hell. It’s there in The Golden Compass where Lyra always commits to helping those who are being victimized, and she consistently positions herself against the adults in power who kill the weak for the greater good: the children at Bolvangar, Roger… Philip Pullman makes this contrast explicit in Mrs. Coulter’s and Lord Asriel’s complete lack of empathy for those they torture & use respectively.
This moral core is fundamental to Rowling’s Harry Potter series, as Harry, Hermione, Ron & Dumbledore’s Army consistently chose to fight Voldemort’s totalitarian regime. And most importantly, what Rowling makes absolutely clear is that her characters assert their love for one another, and that those bonds exist as an aspect of identity and community that are worth self-sacrifice, as Harry shows us in the final book, but never the sacrifice of others as symbolic or token substitutes.
So, if you’ve only read The Hunger Games, the first novel seems to hew closely to this model. The Hunger Games are an annual sacrifice of two youths for the greater good, Katniss’ volunteering for her sister is a self-sacrifice that saves her sister from experiencing a horrible death played out as spectacle for the entertainment of the Capitol and which the Districts are obligated to witness....
Read my full post here:
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