remixable - posts tagged 'Featured'

DIY DAYS NYC 2012

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:56:39 GMT

DIY DAYS NYC comes to the New School on Saturday March 3rd for a full day of talks, workshops, networking and special set of open design experiences.

Tickets are FREE but space is limited. Registration is NOW OPEN.

***Full speaker list and program coming mid February. We are still looking for projects and speakers. Those interested please send a description of what you’d be interested in sharing to work [@] workbookproject [dot] com

WHEN
Saturday, March 3rd
9:30 registration opens
10:15am to 5:30pm talks, workshops & experiences
6pm to 7:30pm after party / social mixer

WHERE
The New School
66 W 12th St.
New York, NY 10011

WE COULD USE YOUR HELP

We’re looking for volunteers if you’re interested please drop us an email at work [@] workbookproject [dot] com with the subject “volunteer.” Thanks so much!

visit www.diydays.com for more info on past events and upcoming news surrounding DIY DAYS NYC 2012

Topics include

Prototyping the future – tapping technology to tell 21st Century stories
Story Architecture – a primer on how to tell immersive stories that move beyond a single screen
Measuring Engagement – a look at current and emerging ways to measure success
Experiential learning – where storytelling, collaboration, and technology combine to ignite the imaginations of students.
Transmedia and Activism – using storytelling to mobilize and effect social change.
Collaborative Writing – tapping a collaborative process to unlock richer storytelling.
Building Value - a look at collaborating with those formally known as the audience
What are you working on and what do you need? – attendees can take the mic and share what they are working on.
Your Digital Footprint – a look at the realities of data in the 21st Century.
Digital Literacy – a look at how to bridge the digital divide.

Open Design

Those who attend DIY DAYS will be given a unique opportunity to build a collaborative storyworld. The storyworld and the prototyping that is done throughout the day will be released under a creative commons license as well as being prepared as an experiential learning kit. This will be accomplished through a number of special collaborative exercises.

Wish for the Future – the second chapter in a participatory storytelling trilogy, Wish for the Future will provide attendees of DIY DAYS an opportunity to experience an open design process. From collaborative writing, to experience design, to rapid prototyping exercises – attendees will be able to step into an open design process that invites the imagination of many.

World Game – join the Buckminster Fuller Institute as they run a number of World Game simulations. In the 1960’s Buckminster Fuller proposed a “great logistics game” and “world peace game” (later shortened to simply, the “World Game”) that was intended to be a tool that would facilitate a comprehensive, anticipatory, design science approach to the problems of the world. The use of “world” in the title obviously refers to Fuller’s global perspective and his contention that we now need a systems approach that deals with the world as a whole, and not a piece meal approach that tackles our problems in what he called a “local focus hocus pocus” manner. The entire world is now the relevant unit of analysis, not the city, state or nation.
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Time Machine Rooms – a collaboration with Story Pirates will enable a co-created storyworld that is lead by the imagination of elementary school children. The students will represent a voice from the future as well as prototyping a number of inventions from the future.

Writer’s Room – a writer’s room works throughout the day taking in variables from attendees that will impact the creation of an open storyworld that will fuel the end of the day performance.

Rapid Prototyping Room a partnership between Parsons and the Makerbot community will power a rapid prototyping room for those who attend DIY DAYS enabling them to turn ideas about the future into something tangible.

Occupy – step into an open design process around an official OWS conflict resolution application. From paper testing to conflict resolution role playing, participants will be invited into a collaborative design process.

Transmedia Talk 40: Snow Town

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 01:56:07 GMT

Transmedia Talk 39: Clockwork Watch

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:04:06 GMT

Transmedia Talk 38: Storyworld Conference 2011

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:11:03 GMT

Download | Subscribe with RSS |Subscribe with iTunes

Lucas J.W. Johnson joins the Transmedia Talk crew for a review of StoryWorld Conference 2011.

Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore
Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller

Special Guests:

Lucas JW Johnson of Silverstring Media joins us for a recap of the first Storyworld Conference held in San Francisco this Halloween.

From This Episode:

Mickey’s Ten Commandments

ARGFest

ZoeTrap, an ARG created specifically for StoryWorld Conference

Dr. Henry Jenkins’ Confessions of an Aca-Fan

Intel’s Inside Experience

Carrie Cutforth-Young’s article on Canadian transmedia funding

Azrael’s Stop

Transmedia Talk 36: Alison Norrington at DIY Days

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:30:00 GMT

Man-Child the passion behind the story

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 05:13:03 GMT

The following is a guest post by Koo.

I’m currently crowdfunding my first feature film, and rather than pitch it to you, I’ll first share this “multimedia lookbook” that I put together. My project, a youth basketball feature entitled Man-child, is participating at Independent Film Week in New York this week and I assembled this clip to help producers understand what I’m going for aesthetically with the film. It’s just a combination of clips from other films paired with a voiceover, but it should give you some idea of what I’ll be going for:

Okay, so how did I arrive at this point and why am I making this movie?

After co-directing the “urban western” web series The West Side with Zack Lieberman, we got an agent in LA and attempted to get a larger interactive project made in Hollywood. One lesson we learned in this process: you can spend a lot of time knocking on doors, taking meetings, and putting together pitches and assorted documents. When you set out to be a filmmaker and tell stories that you’re passionate about, however, these aren’t the activities to which you aspire. You’re not getting better as a storyteller because you’re not telling stories.

I knew coming out of that experience that I wanted to tell a story I was personally passionate about, and so I set about researching and writingthe script forMan-child.And if you’re going to crowdfund a film, it has to be a project in which you’re personally invested. Great example: Zak Forsman’s campaign to make a feature about his father. I grew up playing basketball in North Carolina and so the story of Man-childis definitely personal to me.

Why this is a story worth telling

Man-child takes place in the surprisingly high-stakes world of youth basketball. Sometimes referred to as grassroots basketball, the fascinating world (largely unseen by the general public) has been getting younger and younger in its corporatization. Middle schoolers are now nationally ranked and shoe companies sponsor teams and tournaments in an effort to be the first to discover the next Michael Jordan (and sign him to an unwritten contract).

In response to this, in 2009 the NCAA lowered the age limit on who can be considered an official basketball prospect to include 7th graders. They did this in an effort to protect kids from unregulated recruiting.

This world is compelling to me for a number of reasons. We’re talking about kids for whom the sky is the limit, but more often than not they have very little in their lives right now. Thus they (and their families) are more easily won over with offers of money, free shoes, and the other benefits that street agents, coaches, and other hangers-on offer them.

The fact is that the vast majority of talented teenagers will never make it as professional athletes, but it’s more than just a matter of athleticism: it comes down to the decisions they make. These are decisions that few of us have ever had to face, much less at such a young age. This is why I find the world of youth basketball to be so interesting from a dramatist’s perspective: big decisions for little kids.

Why I’m crowdfunding the film

First off, that part about knocking on doors — there’s nothing wrong with trying to get your film funded in a traditional manner. But as someone who’s spent 18 months sharing everything I possibly can about filmmaking on my website NoFilmSchool, I felt if I could get my readers behind the project that it could be a film that’s enabled by a community that actually wants to see the film, as opposed to an executive that thinks the film will be profitable. I want to make a basketball movie about real-world, quiet moments as opposed to big melodramatic set-pieces, and I didn’t feel the Powers That Be would be interested in making the film that I want to see.

Will we make it? I don’t know. The goal is an ambitious $115,000 — sports movies are logistically complex and expensive to make, unfortunately — and there are only a few short days left. Check out my campaign video if you’re interested and good luck with your own personal passion projects!

Koo co-wrote, directed, shot, and edited the “urban western” web series The West Side, which won the Webby Award for Best Drama Series. He is one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Film and runs the website NoFilmSchool, which focuses on DIY filmmaking and independent creativity; Man-child will be his first feature.

Transmedia Talk 32: GoBZRK and the Future of Publishing

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:43:36 GMT

CONNECTED with Tiffany Shlain

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:47:26 GMT

We caught up with Tiffany Shlain as she prepares to release her newest feature, CONNECTED “An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology.” A DIY pioneer, Tiffany is always at the forefront of utilizing interesting and innovative ways to reach and engage audiences. Starting next week CONNECTED makes its way to screens nation wide after a successful festival run.

What made you decide to make the film CONNECTED?

Fifteen years ago, I founded The Webby Awards because I was fascinated by how the Internet was connecting people all over the world in new and unexpected ways. And being so interested in the ways things are connected, I it always struck me how so many of the conversations about the problems of our day were discussed as separate challenges. Whether the environment, women’s rights, poverty or social justice, it became more apparent to me that that when you perceive everything as connected, it radically shapes your perspective. The concept of interdependence has been around since the dawn of humanity, but the relatively recent component of the internet has added this new layer that connects us in a fresh way, almost giving the world a new type of central nervous system.

I am a filmmaker and so decided to craft a film that would tell the story of being connected in the 21^st century. I asked my father, Leonard Shlain, to be a co-writer on the project. My dad was a surgeon, but also a pioneer in writing about connections between science, consciousness, the human brain, art and civilization. His best-selling books included The Alphabet Versus the Goddess; Sex, Time, and Power; and Art & Physics. He was an incredible visionary, had a wonderful knowledge of history and I felt he would make an enormous contribution to the film. Just as we began production on CONNECTED, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. I quickly discovered that here I was writing about all these interrelationships and the one great connection I had overlooked was the emotional connection. That’s when I began the difficult process of rewriting the film to include my personal story of connection interwoven into the the bigger story of connection throughout history and where I think we are heading.

The subtitle of CONNECTED is “An Autoblogography about Love, Death and Technology.” What does the word “autoblogography” mean?

“Autoblogography” is a word we made up in order to convey that the film is autobiographical, but also has to do with technology. It also conveys the humor which is a major thread in the movie.

Is there a connection between CONNECTED and your last film THE TRIBE?

In my earlier film, THE TRIBE, I explored American Jewish identity through the history of the Barbie Doll. I know, it sounds absurd. After all, what can the most successful doll on the planet show about being Jewish in American today? It turns out that Barbie was invented in 1959 by an American Jewish businesswoman named Ruth Handler. A Jewish woman created the ultimate shiksa. With THE TRIBE, I wove together archival footage, graphics, animation, humor, and even slam poetry that took audiences on a ride through the complex history of both Barbie and the Jewish people. By revealing all these unique connections, THE TRIBE explored the question of what it means to be an American Jew in the 21st century. CONNECTED employs much of the same collage visual style but explores what it means to be a human in 21st century.

Do you believe there are positives and negatives to technology?

My father loved quoting Sophocles, “Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.” So, from the beginning of time, every new technology and advancement brought with them a complex mix of positive and negative repercussions as well as unintended consequences. CONNECTED addresses the potential of these new 21^st century technologies, the importance of harnessing their powers, but also covers the ramifications when these new technologies take over and even overwhelm our personal lives.

I’ve started practicing what I call “technology Shabbats” with my family. Every Friday at sundown, our whole family disconnects until Saturday night. No cell phones, no internet, no television, no Ipads. No multi-tasking. We disconnect completely. Or maybe I should say we connect completely – with ourselves and each other.

I am learning that turning off technology is just as powerful as turning it on and that our society needs both. Technology can be so enticing and overwhelming, but we also need to remember how important it is to be fully present with the people you love and also be alone and quiet. The potential of technology globally and personally is exponential, but we need to know where the off switch is and when to shut it down.

So what is the ultimate goal of your film?

The goal of CONNECTED is to launch a global conversation about what it means to be connected in the 21st century. I hope that the film will be the catalyst for this global conversation. In an effort to expand the power of the film, we’ve created a robust website, facebook page where we constantly add new articles about this topic and have created an educator’s kit including conversation cards, a film guide a curriculum for educators.

In the film you say, “For centuries we have declared our independence, perhaps it’s time we finally declare our interdependence.” What does it mean to declare our interdependence?

It’s time to shift perspective. In many ways we as a species are mirroring the way we each develop as a human on this earth. We come into the world completely dependent on our mother’s and parents. As we grow up, we evolve into independent adults, live on our own and get our own jobs and provide for our own families. But this independence then brings us to a new realization of how we are connected with family, friends and community. I think we, as a species are evolving to the point where we are entering this understanding of our interdependence. Who knows if all these tools we are creating for collaborating in new ways through the internet are leading us to this understanding, or the understanding is driving us to create these tools. Technology is just an extension of ourselves. It is not separate. Regardless of what’s propelling it, these living and thinking interdependently will actually change our consciousness and help make real transformation in the world around us.

So you are optimistic about our future?

When I do Q&A’s after screening CONNECTED, I am frequently asked, “What makes you so optimistic?” I respond by saying that I believe in humans and humanity and in our innate ability to change for the better. Look at the end of slavery and apartheid, the women’s rights and civil rights movements, and other political and social transformative movements in the last few hundred years, and you can see how we are indeed evolving. There are two things that make me optimistic. We as humans are curious and we have a deep desire to connect. These two things will make us move us forward to a better place.

You are also spearheading a new project called “Let it Ripple.” What is this and how does this connect to CONNECTED?

The ‘Let it Ripple’ project will pick up where CONNECTED leaves off. We are creating a series of six short films, all tied together by the general theme of connectedness. The first film is A Declaration of Interdependence. My husband, Ken Goldberg, co-writer Sawyer Steele, and I wrote A Declaration of Interdependence, which is based on the American Declaration of Independence. Our new declaration was then posted online on July 4^th and tweeted out via YouTube and we invited people from all over the world to submit video of themselves reading the declaration in their native language from their cell phone, laptop, whatever was handy. We also asked graphic designers and artists to interpret the words creatively and submit artwork. The submissions are blowing me away. It’s interdependence in action. The film will be made up entirely of these submissions, tied together by our animator, Stefan Nadelman, with music by one of my favorite sound artists Moby.

A Declaration of Interdependence will premiere on Interdependence Day which is September 12^th at a special event near Ground Zero in New York. Every time we get an entry, I get chills watching the videos. It is thrilling to see people from all over the world declare their interdependence. We are going to edit it all down into an inspiring 3 minute movie that will be posted on the web and we are going to provide this film for free and allow different organizations and non-profits to use the film by putting their own call to action at the end. We are open-sourcing the creation of the film and hope to open source how it is used.

By sharing these messages of connectedness and interdependence, I believe there will be a positive ripple effect; sparks that help turn what we’re talking about into action. It’s all about connection.

http://connectedthefilm.com/

CONNECTED opens in theaters in major cities beginning in mid-September.

*All dates below start one week runs

SF: Sept 16th SF Landmark Embarcadero
Berkeley Sept 16 Shattuck 10
Marin: Sept 16 Sequoia Theater
Santa Cruz: Sept 23 Nickelodeon
Portland: Sept 23rd Regal Fox Tower 10
LA: Sept 30 premieres at The Pacific Arclight Theater Hollywood
Seattle: Oct 7th Landmark Varsity 3
NYC: Oct 14th Angelika Theater
Denver: Oct 28th Landmark Chez Artiste

Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker, artist, founder of The Webby Awards and co-founder of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. Tiffany’s films and work have received over 40 awards and distinctions. A celebrated thinker, she delivered the commencement address at University of California at Berkeley and is a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute. www.tiffanyshlain.com

Transmedia Talk 31: Evan Jones, Suspending Disbelief in Interactive Stories

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:06:43 GMT

Wicked Solutions for a Wicked Problem

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 07:55:45 GMT

DIY DAYS is coming to LA on Oct 28th and we’re excited to share a new site we’ve been working on. http://www.diydays.com

When we started DIY DAYS back in 2008, the goal was to share information and creative process within a social environment. As we prepare for what will be our 9th event, we are excited to announce a number of new additions to DIY DAYS that will focus on action.

Wicked Solutions for a Wicked Problem (WS WP) will be a center piece of the event. A wicked problem within the educational space will be targeted. WS WP is a “think tank meets hackathon” that will combine design thinking, storytelling and co-creation in an effort to move from concept to working prototype within a 48 hour period. DIY DAYS LA will close with a presentation of the prototype to a live audience.

Robot Heart Stories is an experiential educational effort that will have students in two underprivileged schools, one in Montreal and one in Los Angeles, co-creating stories that will move a robot (connected plush toy with GPS capabilities) from Montreal to Los Angeles. The project kicks off Oct 17th at the FESTIVAL DU NOUVEAU CINÉMA and concludes on the 28th at DIY DAYS LA. The journey will be documented and the children can check in with the robot’s progress as she attempts to find her way home. The student’s stories will be brought to life by designers, illustrators and animators and copies of the children’s work will be placed in an “actual rocket” that will be making its way into space this fall. The project mixes social gaming mechanics with creative writing while at the same time enabling the students to learn using math, science, history and geography.

SPEAKERS
In our first wave of speaker announcements we’re thrilled that Henry Jenkins, Tommy Pallotta and Christy Dena will be joining us. We’ll be sharing more speaker and program details in the coming weeks.

We are still looking for interesting people and projects. So if you know of someone or something that would be an amazing addition to the event please drop us a line at work@workbookproject.com with the subject “Diy Days LA.”

TICKETS
DIY DAYS LA is free and tickets will be available on a first come first serve basis. Starting on Sept 12th you’ll be able to get them from http://diydays.com

PARTNERS
We’re proud to partner with the UCLA Library as one of their Open Access Week events. Open Access Week is a global event, now in its 5th year, promoting Open Access as a new norm in scholarship and research. UCLA is giving us access to their amazing Charles E. Young Research Library which has recently been renovated.

CINEMA SPEAKEASY PRESENTS ‘SHOW & TELL”
In a special section of DIY DAYS we’ll be highlighting amazing innovative work. We’ve teamed with Cinema Speakeasy to put on a “show & tell” that will give creators of film, games, music, design projects, immersive experiences and anything else that deals with storytelling a space to show. Space is limited so make sure to contact us early. For more details check out http://diydays.com/2011/08/special-showcase

VOLUNTEERS
Last but definitely not least, we are looking for a few good women and men to help us put on the event. It’s a fun great way to meet people and network. Not to mention volunteers are what help to keep DIY DAYS free. It is the volunteers who share their time and talents that make DIY DAYS possible. We are in need of folks to help with logistics, tech, and documenting the event. If you’re interested you can find more details here http://diydays.com/volunteers

If it doesn’t spread it’s dead – part 2

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:09:47 GMT

In part two of the series Henry Jenkins and WorkBook Project founder Lance Weiler sit down for a conversation about participatory culture and how “if it doesn’t spread it’s dead.”

If it doesn’t spread it’s dead

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 05:01:45 GMT

Henry Jenkins and WorkBook Project founder Lance Weiler sit down for a conversation about participatory culture and how “if it doesn’t spread it’s dead.”

NEW BREED – A Conversation on Transmedia – Part 1 from The Sabi Company on Vimeo.

The 9th Dot

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 04:31:57 GMT

The following is a guest post by Kim Lessing.

Just about five years ago, Glen Trotiner, a filmmaker who’s had every job from p.a. to producer, and his buddy, Jeff Hephner, a television actor, were in bar in the East Village drunk talking about two of their favorite subjects: conspiracy theories, and fixing the world’s problems.

Somehow, that night, the two discussions became linked and a story that needed to be told began to unfold:

It began with one of their favorite conspiracy theories. Just before he died, in 1943, the 87 year-old reclusive inventor, Nikola Tesla, who had given the world alternating current, radio, radar, and x-rays, claimed to have invented a device that could produce energy from a free and unlimited source, and distribute it without wires or cables.

The device was never publicly demonstrated.

The conspiracy theory claims the device was removed from the inventor’s lab by Government Agents on the night the inventor died, and has been suppressed by the authorities for all these years.

Their story would begin almost seventy years later as two roommates, Jeff, a conspiracy theorist, and Sam, a debunker, go out in search of the one remaining surviving witness to the events of the night of Tesla’s death.

Just as the premise for The 9th Dot was hatching, Jake Wasserman, an ambitious and talented high school student, came to work for Glen as a production assistant. Jake is one of those kids born with a camera in his hands. Glen recognized his potential and immediately took Jake under his wing.

With Jake’s input on the script, The 9th Dot began to take shape (the title comes from the nine dot puzzle, developed by Disney, that tests for thinking outside the box).

The search for an actor to play Sam ended during a difficult film shoot in Maine. Ariel Shafir, who was coincidently, (or not so coincidently) playing conspiracy theorist in that very movie, read an early draft of the 9th Dot and came aboard to play Sam.

It seemed then that the project was ready for take off. Unfortunately shooting was put on hold when Glen went off to Romania to work on the movie Blood Creek.

Luckily, right after Glen returned, he learned Titan-TV, was looking for web content that could be launched into episodic material. Titian, read and loved the script and suggested it be conceived as a web-blog. Each episode would be a short segment of the investigation. The audience would be participating in real time, blogging along with Sam.

Just as the scripts were finished, however, Titan-TV stopped making original content. A disappointing blow, but like any good story, it didn’t end there.

The gang went ahead with shooting. They shot at locations all over New York City, including the New Yorker Hotel, where Tesla had died, Bryant Park, where Samuel Morse had once first shown the world the dots and dashes of Morse code at the very first New York Worlds Fair, and The Engineers Club, where Tesla had once belonged.

Soon, Jake took on the daunting task on editing, and furthered his role as a valuable collaborator. He singlehandedly created a unique look for the episodes, alternating between the handheld investigative footage with carefully crafted animations.

The finished product looks and feels like nothing ever done before; a true demonstration to the powerful content that can be created when passion meets craft.

CBS interactive saw the first three episodes and offered to pick up the series.

But then CBS Interactive was folded into CNET, so the series lacked an outlet once again.

At that point it became clear that if the project would never meet it’s full potential waiting around for the networks.

Five years after the bar stool meeting, the show is finally ready to launch, on August 1st, on it’s very own homegrown website (www.the9thdot.com).

A preview of the investigation is already up on the site, ready to watch. Self-made and self-promoted, it’s been a labor of love for all concerned and its birth is testament to power of interactive story telling in every sense of the world.

In the same way the character Jeff distrusts corporations, the 9th Dot’s creative team Glen, Jake, Jeff and Ariel want The 9th Dot and its followers to speak for themselves,

The cost of energy is still a global problem. The price of gas is still too high. And Tesla’s invention is still missing. There is much to be considered, and discussed and there is problem solving to be done. The 9th Dot is the place to listen and be heard. Above all else, we want to hear from you.

www.the9thdot.com

http://twitter.com/#!/the9thdot

http://www.arch-entertainment.com

DIY Days returns to LA

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 07:31:43 GMT

DIY Days is returning to LA on Friday October 28th for a FREE day of talks, workshops and networking. This year we’re excited to announce a collaboration with UCLA and Open Access Week. In addition to the having inspirational speakers sharing insights, we’ll also be rolling out a number of action oriented initiatives that focus on co-creation and open access.

The upcoming event in LA marks our 9th DIY Days event in less than 3 years. Big thanks to the volunteers and speakers who donate their time to help make the events free and accessible to all!

photo by mike hedge

LOOKING FOR SPEAKERS AND PROJECTS
As we pull together the program we’re looking for innovative projects and people who would make wonderful speakers. So if you know of something that you think would be a good fit please let us know. Also if there are certain topics of discussion that you feel are critical to the funding, creating, distributing or sustaining of creative work drop us a line.

We’ll also be expanding the “What are your working on / what do you need?” based on the amazing response it received at DIY Days NYC this past Spring.

WE NEED VOLUNTEERS
Last but not least we’re looking for volunteers to help with logistics, shooting and technical support. If you’re interested and willing to give us some time on the 28th please let us know. The events aren’t possible without you!

Send all correspondence to work [@] workbookproject dot com with the subject “DIY Days LA.”

Transmedia Talk 27: Socks, Incorporated

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:46:40 GMT

Transmedia Talk 26 – Dave Szulborski Memorial Show

Wed, 25 May 2011 12:19:40 GMT

Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century. Download | Subscribe with iTunes Mike Monello, Brian Clark, Michelle Senderhauf, and longtime ARG player Roxanne (Enaxor) join us to honor the life and games of indie ARG creator Dave Szulborski. Hosts: Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media Haley Moore (and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller) Special Guests: Mike Monello, Founder and CEO of Campfire Brian Clark, CEO of GMD Studios Michelle Senderhauf of Dog Tale Media Roxanne, also known as Enaxor From This Episode: Dave Szulborski’s personal site with his biography, game descriptions and puzzles. Dave Szulborski’s book This is Not a Game Varin’s guide to Chasing the Wish Dee’s guide to Dread House EA’s game Majestic Push, Nevada Search4E Legend of the Sacred Urns Art of the Heist Monster Hunter Club Art of the Heist cube word search puzzle, aka The Evil Cube Over the Hedge Puzzle Trail Who is Benjamin Stove The Strange Creatures video from Monster Hunter Club, currently at over 4,700,000 views on YouTube. The Host Cryptid Love, a video from Monster Hunter Club. Dave’s character stringsends at Top Secret Dance Off Dave Memorial Video

RADAR NYC 5.12.11 – feat. Lori Nix

Fri, 13 May 2011 04:26:18 GMT

This week, we return to our contributor-curated series of blog posts with Lori Nix (RADAR ep 33 – Unnatural History). She found us a nice mix of beautiful works of art and some quirky, off the wall stuff–sort of like her own work.

WATCH

Cravendale Cats

That’s it, I’m officially jealous of the British. After outdoing us in music and comedy for years, they now roll out this oddly addicting TV spot for milk—which is undoubtedly a result of years of its creators spending too much time on the Internet. Because—and I’ve mentioned this before—the equation goes: cats + doing weird things = roughly 85% of Internet content. Also, note the strange milk cartons they use over there (hey, at least it doesn’t come in bags like in Canada).

Find more on this clever campaign HERE.

LISTEN

Bodies of Water: Ears Will Pop and Eyes Will Blink

The music from this extremely talented LA-based collective has this rolling, lively Spaghetti Western-esque epicness to it that hooked me pretty much immediately, sort of like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros without all the gimmickry. Ennio Morricone would be proud. But don’t get me wrong, there’s still enough theatrics and choral pieces to make this record the very definition of grand. Listen to it while walking down the street makes your life an instant musical. Just don’t blame me if people stare at you when you start singing along.

You can buy the album HERE
Bodies of Water’s website

READ

Hi-Fructose Magazine

Despite new media’s repeated attempts to kill off the magazine once and for all (blogger’s note: hi there, sorry about that!), Hi-Fructose Magazine may be all the proof needed to show that there will always be a place for a beautifully-made, high quality, full color quarterly. Hi-Fructose aims to profile and discuss alternative artists, while at the same time dissecting what “alternative” means, bending genres and shattering norms in the process. Whatever you want to call it, there’s really some stunning work on display here.

You can pick up a copy at most bookstores, or check out their web presence HERE

Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities

It may still be a ways off, but Otherworldly at the Museum of Arts and Design should definitely be worth the wait. Lori Nix and other diorama artists will be showcasing their different creations, extremely detailed microcosms of worlds that are both realistic and surreal—glimpses of our world both as it is and as it could be.

Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities
June 7 – September 18
Museum of Arts and Design
2 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
$15 Admission
EVENT INFO

New York Mag (and comments)

When Lori told me she liked to liked to read New York Magazine online to laugh at the comments following the articles, I wasn’t quite sure what she meant. But I didn’t have to look far to find out—the comments section is a nice concentrated cross-section of the Internet as a whole. You’ll find cynical, snarky millennials, sarcastic storytellers, political pundits who insert their opinions of Bush and/or Obama into every conversation, and trolls of course, because trolls simply are and always will be—they are as deeply ingrained into comment threads as the Pope is into Catholicism. It’s worth a laugh on any day you could use a bit of a confidence boost.

RADAR NYC 5.5.11

Thu, 05 May 2011 22:23:09 GMT

Image via Dr. Sketchy’s

WATCH

Welcome to Pine Point

I’ll be honest; it’s difficult for me to describe this without just suggesting you watch it for yourself, and it’s even more difficult to classify this as “watch.” From the National Film Board of Canada, this project tells the story of Pine Point, a planned mining community in central Canada, the people who lived there, and its eventual demise—being completely razed and taken off the map. It’s told through interactive bits, archival footage, pieces of animation, and recorded interviews with the former residents, and it all combines with some lovely music from The Besnard Lakes (one of my personal favorite Canadian bands) for a truly engaging experience that tells more than a straight up documentary ever could.

Check it out HERE

LISTEN

Washed Out – Eyes Be Closed

Ernest Greene, better known by his recording name Washed Out (RADAR season 3) will be following up last year’s excellent EP with his just-announced debut LP, Within and Without (complete with NSFW-ish cover art), due out July 12. But if you can’t wait that long, you can download the first single off the album right now. Eyes Be Closed sounds like a dreamy, trippy journey through a beautiful desert, or perhaps flying through the clouds. Either way, it’d be cool to listen to on the subway just as your train bursts above ground, the sunlight hitting your face.

You can get the mp3 straight from Sub Pop HERE

READ

How the Social Web Reflected on bin Laden’s Death

By the time President Obama came on to announce the death of Osama bin Laden, it was already old news for a lot of wired people—myself included—who probably found out on Facebook or Twitter, and had about an hour to divulge their two cents on the matter. And it really showed how much the world has changed in the past 10 years. It was fascinating to watch the news unfold over the Internet, through mediums such as social media and imageboards, while major news sites struggled to keep up. Mashable has an interesting article on the role of social media in bin Laden’s death, complete with several fascinating infographics that reveal a lot about the world in 2011.

Read the article HERE.

Cake on the Bowery, Murder in Victorian England

Let Us Make Cake

Shantell Martin (RADAR ep 26 – Hidden Oras) will be joining about a dozen other visual artists will be using the façade of the New Museum as a canvas for their collaborative projection installation, Let Us Make Cake, part of Flash:Light, a night time, site-specific series of temporary art installations that re-imagine public space. Other events are planned at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and on Mulberry Street, so it should be quite a night.

Saturday, May 7 · 8:00 pm
The New Museum
235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
Free
EVENT INFO

Dr. Sketchy’s Does Jack the Ripper

Not even one of England’s creepiest and bloodiest legends is safe from the imaginations of the good people at Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School (RADAR ep 8). Though really, in hindsight it seems like the perfect backdrop for the grisly tale of murders that scared the petticoats off of Victorian England.

Sunday, May 8 · 4:00pm – 7:00pm
The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
New York, NY
$12-$15
EVENT INFO

FOLLOW

FreedomLab

FreedomLab Future Studies is an Amsterdam-based think tank and research lab committed to finding creative solutions to issues in technology, business, and society. The site also features a blog offering thoughts on subjects such as social media, storytelling, and intelligent green energy, while also emphasizing the growing influence of non-Western societies, such as Brazil and Africa, on the world stage. This is definitely a site to watch if you want to get ahead of the curve in the 21st Century.

FreedomLab’s website
@freedomlab on Twitter

Seven Things I Learned from the Portal 2 ARG

Thu, 05 May 2011 22:01:09 GMT

So, Portal 2 is out. You may have heard.

You may have also heard there was an ARG associated with it – or maybe you didn’t. While the game received some media attention right before the launch of Portal 2, it slid past ARG communities without making much of a wave.

The Portal 2 ARG project was a collaboration between several indie studios and Valve. Most of the game was rolled out through hidden content in 13 indie games sold together as “The Potato Sack” on Steam. Playing those games led you to hidden levels and messages from the Portal’s antagonist GLaDOS, and ended up being the key to getting Portal 2 several hours ahead of its official release time.

This game tried a lot of things that are outside the normal scope of ARGs, and I feel like there are valuable design lessons to be learned here.

1) Partnerships are Awesome

Because the ARG was created as a partnership between a large group of video game designers, they were able to deliver the game as a series of easter eggs in video game that were already fully developed and polished. That’s something indie ARG creators wish they could do, but very rarely can.

The additional content inside the games was polished, and the sort of content you could only get from putting quality designers on the project. The GLaDOS levels in Rush and Toki Tori were designed to have the same feel as Portal – they challenged you to be creative with the game’s existing teleportation mechanics. I felt like I was getting a little taste of Portal 2 as I was playing them.

After the game came to its conclusion, we learned that these indie designers were principally involved in designing the entire experience. They created everything from tweets to puzzles to youtube videos and music. The total budget? $100.

The ARG was a labor of indie love designed by Portal fans, who were given free reign to work with the Portal characters and access to Valve resources. I wish I had known this from the beginning because it would have made a big difference in my second point:

2) Don’t Build Your Pay Wall Too High

The primary content for the ARG was distributed through the Potato Sack – 13 indie games that sold in a package on Steam for $38.72. For someone with very limited entertainment cash, that is quite a lot of money.

However, about four days before the release of Portal 2, a little birdie let me know who was responsible for the ARG, and my attitude toward the pay wall shifted completely. Over the course of the next 3 days, I bought Cogs, Rush, Toki Tori, and The Wonderful End of the World for a grand total of $15.

The pre-sale for Portal 2 was priced at $45, so the Potato Sack cost almost as much as the game it was promoting. By contrast, $15 felt like a pretty natural stopping point. (This is pretty comparable to other experiences behind pay walls – the print version of Cathy’s Book retails for $17.95.) That $15 was doled out in four purchases of $5 or less. The option to buy the games individually was the only reason I didn’t just smack into the pay wall face first.

The only thing I can conclude here is:

3) Screw the Curtain

If there’s something cool about the way your project was established, there is no reason to keep it a secret. Valve partnering with indie game designers to create a Portal ARG is cool, and worth supporting. The desire to keep coy and quiet about the history behind this ARG may have kept it from ubiquity.

There’s also a fundamental sales pitch difference. The idea of paying $39 to be advertised to is ridiculous, but it’s reasonable to spend that money to support an indie ARG team.

4) Countdowns Can be Compelling

As the endgame approached for the ARG, a page with a countdown timer was revealed. When that timer ran out, it led to another countdown timer. It sounds like a parody of ARG design, but it worked – and very well – because player interaction drove changes in the final countdown.

Participants had to play the games in the Potato Sack, and earn the secret challenge badges in them, to release Portal 2 ahead of the release time given on Steam. The countdown was a measure of player progress and a call to action, which made it far more interesting than a countdown alone could be. This was another area where the video game roots of the ARG really made for something great.

It didn’t hurt that it was counting down to a much-anticipated event, either.

5) Exclusivity is a Design Flaw

I’m not going to lie. Several times, especially near the end of the game, I was earned my potato badges by replicating cheat videos on YouTube. The extra levels in each of the games were more than challenging; they were hard – and as the clock ticked down, I realized I didn’t have time to beat them by my wits alone.

The previous Portal 2 extended reality campaign, which released last year with the free release of Portal, also had this issue. I had no idea that the extra content in Portal was extra, because I was playing the game for the first time. The content was also a challenge to get to, and in many later levels required a lot of experimentation and gaming skill. It seemed as though the experience was designed to reward veteran players who had mastered the game years ago. That seemed odd, considering the point of giving Portal away was to bring in new players.

This may be a fundamental philosophical difference between video game design and pervasive fiction design. As a storyteller, I seek to create intimacy with the audience. Making players struggle to reach content is one way to make an interaction seem meaningful and personal, but it is far from the only way.

More importantly, it is a bad way to do things if you want to make an experience that will engage a lot of people. To experience the Potato Sack ARG in its entirety, you not only had to buy all of the games, but master them and beat their most challenging levels. That’s quite a lot of work to get to the meat of an experience.

We usually design ARG experiences with late rabbitholes, and mechanisms that allow trailblazers to unlock content for everyone. If you treat every new player as though you expect them to be a trailblazer, only the trailblazers actually play the game. That’s not such a terrible thing if your goal is to create buzz – but when you want people to cross a pay wall, things get a little different.

6) We Can Still Pull Players “Behind the Scenes”

Several players who had been active on the game’s wiki were “kidnapped” during the course of the game. At first, I wondered if Valve had planted fake players – an unpopular but unfortunately common practice.

As it turns out, those players were brought behind the scenes and invited to Portal 2’s launch party as a reward for being active in the ARG. This is something Dave Szulborski did in Chasing the Wish, and it adds a nice layer of audience collaboration to the mix.

7) April Fool’s is a Bad Launch Date

The Portal 2 ARG launched on April 1, which might be aptly called “International Online Fiction Day.” The internet is flooded with interactive and pervasive fiction pieces on April Fool’s, most of which don’t go any deeper than a few web pages and only last one day, as our yearly ritual prescribes. This game got lost in the static, especially after it picked up the name “Potato Fools Day” – which implied that the game was a joke.

BONUS: Music Keeps the Experience Alive

This one is more of a protip than a serious lesson. The popularity of Portal spread in part thanks to Jonathan Coulton and his catchy end credits tune. “Still Alive” has become such a gaming anthem that children’s choirs are performing it, and Portal 2 is continuing that tradition two key songs for the new game. The ARG creators took cues from that, and (along with several remakes of Still Alive) released some original music for with experience.

Audiosurf featured a techno track built on quotes from Portal, called The Device Has Been Modified. 1… 2… 3.. KICK IT included a chill out track called Searching. Emergence. Discovery., and The Wonderful End of the World contains a melodious folk song by Dejobaan Games developer Dan Brainerd called “Hole in the Ground.” This song, with it’s haunting lyrics (“I took up a job that was all absentee”), was stuck in my head for nearly two weeks after Portal 2 launched.

Even though I jumped into the game fairly late, the music cemented my connection with the game and made it memorable. This is something I might be trying for myself in the future.

Golden Rules: Running an Independent Film Screening Series

Tue, 03 May 2011 00:46:00 GMT

In 2009, as a reaction against an increasingly corporate-ized and fractured media landscape, I decided to start an independent film screening series. My friend and colleague Georgi Goldman was also enthusiastic about the idea, and together we began running a monthly film series in Los Angeles: Cinema Speakeasy.

The purpose of Cinema Speakeasy was to be the filmic equivalent of the slow food movement (but a heck of a lot less boring). We aimed to process films rather than quickly consume them. Positioning CS a not-for-profit organization, I was quite set on divorcing ourselves from the intervention of brands and sponsorship in the belief that – in this particular case – other people’s marketing strategies would corrupt our intention. Thus, we were to serve as advocates for the arts in a space that was separate from corporate commerce, all while showing people a good time.

With that said, we also hoped to create an alternative and non-inflated marketplace for independent film cause let’s get real for a second: We all have rent to pay. Willingly forgoing corporate support, and not keen on the virtual trumpeting that is crucial for successful IndieGoGo or Kickstarter campaigns, we needed to find alternate ways of creating this self-sufficient revenue stream for ourselves and our filmmakers. We hoped, simply, to survive – and to help filmmakers survive – without selling out. To do this, I believed that we needed a few things: A consistent audience, good programming, and a low overhead. Attaining those things, then, became the organization’s main goals.

We are now approaching Cinema Speakeasy’s second anniversary, with a recent expansion into San Francisco with the wildly popular CS:SF events. I wanted to share some of what we have learned in running this film series over the course of the last two years: The things that have allowed us to survive (and perhaps even modestly thrive?) in a very bad economic climate for the arts. Here, then, are my golden rules for running an independent film screening series.

Golden rule number one: Maintain a not-for-profit attitude, but make sure the organization can pay for its expenses.

When we started CS I plastered ‘we give all our revenue to the filmmakers and the venues’ all over the place. In retrospect, this was a mistake. Although we have maintained that policy thus far, we are going to change it for the simple reason that we need to pay for things like web hosting, promotional materials, advertising. If we don’t pay for those things, we limit our reach, which does a disservice to the filmmakers when no one shows up to their screening.

Having said that, it’s no secret that it’s devilishly hard to make a living while staying independent. So forget about making money, at least for the first 3 years, but don’t forget to apportion a part of whatever comes in to your organization’s survival, and to share the rest!

In practice: Don’t quit your day job, and NEVER get into personal debt for the sake of the organization. If you can’t afford to do the event, consider a different approach where it doesn’t cost so much. Keep overhead low, and be sure to split the revenue at the door between yourself, the venue, and the filmmaker – but always split the money that has come in AFTER deducting the expenses incurred in promoting the screening.

Golden rule number two: Plan for low audiences, and set realistic expansion goals.

Something I learned from my days at the Silver Lake Film Festival is that a too rapid expansion = a guaranteed disaster. It always pays to underestimate the amount of people who will show up. Slow but steady wins the race, when it comes to non-profits, and small is often more fun anyways: It’s better to have a packed-feeling small room than an empty-feeling big room.

In practice: For the first year of Cinema Speakeasy we stayed at a small venue (the amazing Echo Park Film Center) that seated about 60 people. Once we had created a consistent series of events, we dabbled with larger venues through special one-off high-profile screenings. Now, almost two years in, the organization has expanded to San Francisco (with monthly events run there by a trio of uber-dames: Fhay Arceo, Allison Davis and Kate Sullivan Green), and we are starting to regularly expand to new larger venues in LA. Our larger events, which we typically do at a rate of one per quarter, are working because we have slowly built the audience to support this expansion, and because we are cautious and conservative about numbers and expenses.

Golden rule number three: Keep your eye on quality

It’s one thing to have a democratic approach, it’s quite another to show any old thing. That’s what YouTube is for.

Do not forget to maintain a level of quality. If you show ‘bad’ films, even your best friends will stop showing up, not to mention strangers. You won’t be able to grow an audience, and you will ultimately do a disservice to the filmmakers whose work you show.

However, if you gain a reputation for showing good content- as independent as you please but always to a certain standard (those standards are yours to decide) – you will gain a following and people will be honored to be included. It’s curation, and you can interpret it as you will, but do not forget to set standards – whatever they may be for you – and stick to them.

In practice: This is a golden rule I have had a hard time with, myself, and it’s only through my colleague Georgi’s prodding that I’ve begun to see the light on the value of saying no no no. It’s very hard to balance open access with good content, but it must be done.

In practice, also, if you have a lot of filmmaker friends who you want to support through your organization, consider implementing a ‘friends and family’ sub-series- an open call facet to your screening event, where you provide an audience to people just starting out, or whose work is challenging. Keep it separate from the main curated event, and do these at small venues.

Golden rule number four: Be open to oblique approaches

Be open to other mediums as a way of bringing attention to film, and this sometimes may include non-indie film. We’ve found this to be an excellent way to bring new audiences to our programming. Although every effort should be made to engage fellow filmy types, do not focus entirely on the indie film community. It’s small, it’s self-referential, and it’ll limit you.

In practice: Cinema Speakeasy has partnered with art galleries, music venues and other such entities to create two-part programs around a film. For instance, we did a potato-type ransom note workshop at a local gallery in Los Angeles (Machine Project), and partnered with a local design community (Kernspiracy) to get people interested and thinking about typography. This was all in support of our screening of Kartemquin Film’s ‘Typeface’.

This, and other oddball events such as the Tranimal Makeup Workshop (that we produced, and was curated by artist Austin Young, as a part of our ‘Ultra Fabulous Beyond Drag’ screening event), have been incredibly successful at bringing new types of people to our events, and many of them have come back and proposed some awesome ideas of their own.

Golden rule number five: Get the F off the internet, already.

Marketing. The evil reality of doing anything that requires other people in this age of brands and buzz.

One thing’s for certain, and all the talk about ‘the power of social media’ notwithstanding, I’ve found there to be a fairly low correlation between Facebook or Twitter followers and butts in seats. It’s easy to hit ‘like’, but it’s a very different experience to get in the car, look for parking, feed the meter, walk a few blocks, and watch an unknown movie. Put simply: A lot of online participation is not a guarantee that people will show up.

What makes people do THAT is good programming, the potential to meet sexy new people, and (with some exceptions) traditional media support. Not sure why, but in our experience a write-up in the local weekly means a full house, 152 retweets does not. Maybe it has something to do with reaching new people rather than the same people you already communicate with online all the time. Or maybe it’s because people trust traditional media cause they’re better curators.

In practice: Instead of focusing all your efforts on creating buzz online, just BE awesome, focus on showing your audience a good time and on actual word of mouth, and consider traditional publicity for the larger events. Use social media as a complementary strategy, but not THE strategy.

We at CS also tend to engage in teenage-like ‘marketing’ such as sticking handwritten flyers in menus at hip diners, posting stickers everywhere we can get away with it, and generally trying to get attention in the real world. It seems to be working so far, is viral in a way more tangible way, and – mainly – it feels authentic to who we are.

Golden rule number six: Allow the organization to have a life beyond you, but set the rules early

If you succeed with your organization, people will come and want to be involved. You need these people for the organization to succeed. But never forget to make sure you maintain control of your organization’s overall trajectory and vision.

What this means is that you need to set the grand vision early (a mission statement and an organizational bible will help with this exponentially). But you also need to allow for expansion, changes of ownership, in short, whatever it takes for people to want to be involved, and are able to create and implement ideas. It’s basic good management skills, and it’s probably the one thing that will keep you up at night as you grapple with your own ego, sense of insecurity, etc.

One thing’s for sure: If you impose your vision in too draconian a manner, you will lose the very people who can help propel the organization to the next level. BUT, if you do not retain some leadership, you can lose control of the organization’s vision. Not an easy thing to balance.

In practice: When I had the idea to start a film series and call it Cinema Speakeasy, I had a certain vision in mind. When the organization’s current Executive Director Georgi Goldman officially came on board – right before the first screening event – she also had a vision. We were colleagues at work and used to confrontation and adaptation, so we simply confronted and adapted our ideas to one another. Together, we set a certain tone for the organization- and we set it early.

This is, and will, serve the organization well as it enters our current expansion phase. For instance, Cinema Speakeasy’s San Francisco edition was started and is run largely autonomously by its co-directors Fhay Arceo, Allison Davis and Kate Sullivan Green (FAK!) – who have final say in their programming, venues, marketing language, etc.

But, they still also use the visual ‘brand’, as it were (set by our brilliant creative-director-of-sorts Micah Hahn), and stick to the tone of the organization, as well as certain programming guidelines. Thus they maintain an approach that is in line with the larger CS organization- and in fact, take it to the next level of cool – but still act independently of the larger organization in many arenas. It’s a balancing act, and it works out very well if you pick your partners well. Which brings me to…

Golden rule number seven: Partner judiciously

Be picky. That’s all there is to this. There are a bazillion horror stories of what can go wrong if you pick the wrong partners- and I can categorically say that I’ve lived through just about all of the bad scenarios.

As a general rule, when approaching partnerships, it helps to think of what this person/organization can bring you right now, rather than what they could potentially bring you down the road. Keep it real, and keep a focus on your current needs.

In practice: Cinema Speakeasy partners creatively with like-minded folk – not too corporate, arts-centric, and who also have their shit together. We try to find oblique approaches, as well, by teaming up with oddball venues, creating cross-promotional partnerships with groups that wouldn’t usually be so excited about indie film, etc etc etc.

I could write five pages on this, so will leave it at this: Be judicious, work with people who are like-minded, and always write out (and agree to) the terms of the partnership early on.

Golden rule number eight: Expect defeat, and then expect success

If your role is to advocate for film by finding new audiences for the indies, then your goal is quite simple: Get people in seats. Simple, right?

The truth is, there’s no science or method to what will bring people in, all these golden rules notwithstanding. A front page write-up in the local paper will definitely help, but chances are that won’t happen for awhile, especially if you’re in a big city with tons of other competing things going on. A celebrity helps too, but that also gets really cheesy really fast, and can turn into a sort of Faustian deal with the devil, right quick.

In practice: If you want to maintain and grow your audience but don’t have access to tons of press, pay really strict attention to how you present your organization both online and offline, program with an eye towards quality (see rule #3), partner with awesome people and organizations (see rule #7), make every event fun, sociable (and a little raucous), and KNOW that you will occasionally have a occasionally super empty theatre. It’s no biggie. We’ve all been there. Just smile and take amazing photos of the three people who showed up.

Golden rule number nine: Just keep going

When I was in graduate school for fine art, one of the tutors told me that in a class of 20, at graduation all 20 are practicing artists. In five years, about 10 are still practicing artists. In 10 years, 5 are still making their work. But in 20 years only one will be making his work, and that one person will probably be well-known.

Consistency pays off, especially in a field where so many people give up early. Make sure you are in a position where you can maintain your organization in the lean years (see rules 1 and 2), and keep the faith.

As they say in Havana: SUERTE, chicos!

More info about Cinema Speakeasy can be found at cinemaspeakeasy.com. A list of other amazing film programs that are thriving and surviving here in the US and abroad can be found here.

RADAR NYC 4.14.11 – feat. Molly Crabapple

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:06:09 GMT

At this year’s DIY Days, I had the pleasure of getting to see Molly Crabapple (RADAR ep 8) speak about how she created Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School and turned it into a global affair with branches of amazing models and artists all over the world. And while she was speaking, I asked myself “why haven’t we gotten her to curate a blog yet? She’d have some amazing stuff.” And she did.

WATCH

Serge Gainsbourg – Poinconneur des Lilas

In this classic clip, legendary French musician Serge Gainsbourg disguises himself as a ticket puncher (“poinconneur”) in the Paris Metro and sings a song about the monotony of the job. It sounds boring, but the song is quite catchy and builds up a rather frantic pace, and the unexpectedly morbid lyrics (at least, for those of us who speak French!) keep it interesting. Definitely something to think about as you ride the subway to work!

LISTEN

Dave van Ronk – “Luang Prabang”

When I first heard this song, my first impression was that of a very dark folk song, or an Irish rebellion chant. It’s actually, of course, American and much more recent—a Vietnam protest song, though the tune is based off of an old English folk song about coal miners. Here, Dave Van Ronk challenges the idea that going to war and sacrificing yourself makes you a “hero”—what good does that actually accomplish? Is it really worth it?

You can find the song on Van Ronk’s album Going Back to Brooklyn, HERE.

READ

Kiki de Montparnasse: The Graphic Biography

You probably recognize the above image, based off the famous photograph by artist Man Ray, though odds are you don’t know much about the model of said photo. Alice Prin, a.k.a. Kiki de Montparnasse, was truly a liberated woman of the 20s: born into poverty but quickly rose up as a muse for many artists, as well as an artist in her own right. Now you can read her story in graphic novel form—because words alone wouldn’t do such an artistic figure justice.

You can find the book on SelfMadeHero

PEN World Voices Festival

Beginning April 25 and continuing for a week, the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature returns for its seventh year. The festival will feature speakers, panels and films, and will discuss the role of literature and writing, and where it all fits into today’s ultra-connected world of social media, WikiLeaks and revolutions in the Middle East. Be sure to see Molly Crabapple’s live painting installation in the plaza of The Standard hotel—she’ll be working on it every day of the festival.

April 25-May 1
The Standard Hotel
848 Washington Street
New York, New York 10014
EVENT INFO

Coilhouse, Biorequiem, and Gala Darling

Coilhouse is part blog, part published magazine, and devoted to the expression of love for alternative culture. Expect to see everything ranging from short films, fashion, photography and art—anything that’s forward thinking yet still has a vintage style.

Zoetica Ebb is one of the co-founders of Coilhouse, and has her own site too, where she posts blogs, art and photos of her own, all done in a very distinctive and beautiful style. You can also buy some of her work as well.

“Hello! I’m Gala” is what greets visitors to the blog of Gala Darling, a bright and sunny corner of the web that celebrates femininity and promotes “radical self-love.” I found it impossible not to feel awesome after reading a few entries—and I’m a guy, not even the target audience.

Caution Tape: Competing against Macro Budgets with Nano Cash pt 1

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:48:27 GMT

Off the top of my skull, even reading the title immediately makes me think “Yeah right.” I think it’s a fitting (if controversial) title for the topic that’s to be talked about here. Before I begin, please, allow me to post a disclaimer:

None of this is fact, nor is it gospel. This is what my experience is at the current time of writing.

I want to share a few thoughts about what I’m trying to do with my first feature film and the reasons why I lightly heeded the warnings of a wall of Caution Tape and ducked under it to attempt to walk right into the front door. It’s a very ambitious project, the aspirations of which can be summed up with the pitch.

It’s superbad with super powers, or Harold and Kumar go High(er) concept.

To go a slight bit further, Avery and Pete: Superseeds is a gamer-generation adventure soaked in the batter that 90’s Saturday Morning cartoons were poured from. Set in Los Angeles, following slacker best-friends on a mission to stop their buddies–and enemies–from using their newfound superpowers for bad.

Right away, we’re talking about some very key elements here but, primarily, visual effects. So, not only did I have to juggle fifteen or so key cast members, ten locations that I can count off of the top of my head, and everything else that comes with the territory of a nano budget production I now have to deal with getting believable post visual effects done, something that’s worth seeing on a big screen at the very least.

I’ve failed to mention the budget, but the Kickstarter for Superseeds (which can be easily found by a google search–it was successful) reflects more than half of it, so now we’re talking sheer lunacy.

I’m literally moving away from the traditional nano budget motto, where it’s mostly one location, two to three people, a dramatic situation, etc.

I’ll spare everyone the details on production itself until a later episode, and go into the mentality behind it in bullet points:

A. There are too many nano budgets that take place in one location, with a few actors (some are good, some are not), relying on horror gimmicks or other very similar (even though well done) storylines. And, I swore I would never make a feature that opens with someone tied to a chair and bloody, no matter how easy it was.

B. I wanted to make my first one count for something serious. It needed to at least smell like I tried to play a big boys game, and competently. Aside from getting lost in the sea, it was a test for myself to see if I was worth the criticism I dished out to big Hollywood features. I’ve walked away with a newfound respect for a lot of directors and movies I hammered, regardless of if they are bad or not.

C. Even at this nano-budget, with the five years of experience here in Los Angeles, I knew I could pull it off. And, by knew, it was a gut feeling that I could make this happen one way or another. Thankfully, a lot of the key elements began to fall into place the second I made the decision to not wait for hundreds of thousands of dollars and just do it.

D. I wanted to make sure that it was worthwhile for everyone involved, from cast to crew. Form the onset, it was destined to be a small crew, a skeleton crew. The skeleton of a badger. I was going to shoot in tight spaces with a big camera(s), there was enough money to either feed a lot of people bad food or a few people decent food, and with the crew being so small I wanted each person to get a very prominent credit.

The actors needed to benefit too, and they will regardless of if I move forward. They’ll have footage on their reel of themselves as tasteful superheroes (no spandex suits here), and the production quality was going to look several hundreds of thousands times more than what the budget really was.

People needed to benefit as much as I wanted to myself, take care of everyone. This is why, after this first article, the I becomes we

E. And, most importantly, I wanted to at least break even. I didn’t hear enough stories of nano budgets getting advances,didn’t see enough of them getting into the trades like Gareth’s did or Lena’s Tiny Furniture. When I began to look at them, I noticed what the trend was.

It wasn’t necessarily that they had no star power, they just lacked a certain entertainment cog that a mass audience is looking for. Or, better yet, pays for. Production quality AND value ride along with this as well. Not a lot of people were attempting to compete with Hollywood on their own ground, with a fraction of the money. Probably for very good reason, as well. So, there is no fault or blame, I know why and I respect why.

But, I’m going to go where fewer fish school.

Rest assured, though, it doesn’t mean that it was any easier or harder for me. I am sure I experienced a lot of the blood bath that other filmmakers have, do, will. It’s just another path I wanted to take.

With the investment that’s been made (Kickstarter, My own pocket–I’m so broke right now it’s a crime, and through the gracious dollars of private investors), I knew that if it didn’t happen with a distribution deal, there was a world of self distro opening up that I could recoup the small dividends with and then open up a profit as well. Again, this goes back to having content that’s at least competently “mimicking” what Hollywood tends to churn out.

This post isn’t to tell you that I’ve been successful by doing it, it’s to bring some awareness to the project. A Case Study of something that’s not exactly mumblecore (I respect it, trust me), definitely not a star vehicle, absolutely not well-budgeted enough for what’s going on, hopefully something that inspires the other Little Macs who are afraid to jump in the ring with the Bald Bulls and Sodapopinski’s of the Film World. Ten points if you get the classic 8-bit video game reference.

Stay tuned to the New Breed for updates on progress of Avery and Pete: Superseeds. I’ll spoon-feed you info from my experience at simply trying to entertain the way the Big H-Wood does, successful or not, and what I plan to do with the property beyond simply creating a single feature film.

Documentary + Game = Independent Transmedia Project called “THE GREAT WORK”

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:05:02 GMT

“The Greak Work” is a documentary by two Swedish filmmakers, Oskar Östergren & Fredrik Oskarsson (details at the end) about 30-year-old Christer Böke from Malmö, Sweden. He has taken one year off from his well-paid job as an IT-salesman to become a full-time Alchemist. The film concerns mankind’s eternal ambition of wealth and immortality and one mans dedicated struggle to solve “The secret of all secrets”. This struggle is known at The Great Work.

What’s particularly interesting about this project is that the filmmakers have teamed up with an independent game designer, Niflas, to create a game to complement the movie.

The Great Work will be screened on SVT (Swedish Television) as a 58 minute version, winter 2011. So don’t forget you heard about it here first!

Here’s the movie trailer…

About the Documentary

The documentary follows Christer from the day he leaves the city to the first day back at work the next year. During this year he moves to the island of Gotland on the Swedish countryside where he builds a laboratory in his dead grandfather’s garage, he lives three months in France to study the language and exchange ideas with French alchemists. Christer gets contacted by a strange international organisation called Ars regia that says “-We have been watching you…”. He keeps a blogg and start writing a book. He has a big argument with his best buddy and fellow alchemist since 15 year (they later reunite). He uses his “detective skills”, makes lots of experiments and gets closer and closer to his interpretation of the “recipes” of how to make The Philosophers Stone.

The Idea for The Game

Rob: How did the idea for a game come about?

Early in the process, we discussed that it would have been nice to make a game for the film because the topic of alchemy itself invites such thoughts. We had spent hours with our friend and the main character Christer Böke where we tried to solve “word puzzles” in old alchemical manuscripts and quotes that could lead you to the right subject which the great alchemist Fulcanelli was talking about.

At the same time I read an article about “Nifflas” and his game, Saira. We thought that a collaboration with him would be exciting and he lived in the same town and we had some common friends.

Together, we concluded that the game should stand on its own but our main goal was off course to use it as advertising for the documentary film. We had never really heard about a collaboration between a documentary and a indie-gamemaker. We have a strong interest in games and its form of narrative, and we thought the theme of alchemy would be suitable for Nifflas as a game developer. And, after our first meeting we felt that it could work out very well!

When we contacted Nicklas the first time he was skeptical about cooperating with us. He had expected the documentary would be about a major political topic and could not see the similarities with his own narrative, often based on a specific mystery and a character-driven portrait. Once we met everything fell into place and our collaboration has been great.

Nifflas never had any problems understanding our characters who defied science in search of “the philosopher’s stone”. Many of our financiers from the world of television and film were very doubtful about whether the story was real and at the same time are provoked by a person who claims to believe that he will be able to solve this amazing riddle. People think our documentary character must be a crazy guy or else we’re trying to fool them with a mocumentary. In the game world, however, these kinds of stories are not so strange and Nifflas could directly relate to our character and never doubt our way of telling his story.

Game Trailer

The Relationship Between the Documentary & Game

Rob: How would you describe the relationship between the documentary and the game – in terms of story, marketing, possible revenue model?

Our main story in the game is very similar to the film’s alchemical elements, that through the characters and manuscripts find different things that will lead you to new discoveries that will then guide you through the story of the great goal of making the Philosopher’s Stone.

All these characters are people from the alchemical history or allude to contemporary alchemists from the documentary and their aliases used on various internet forums. For example, you will meet our main character (Christer) who in the game is called “Spintheros”. Google that name and you will find a number of posts and articles written on various forums of our man Christer Böke.

From the beginning, we had much bigger ambitions for the game. We tried to make a budget so that Nifflas could work full time for a long time. We were sitting with Nifflas and Christer and brainstormed ideas that later turned out to be too advanced for an average gamer to understand. We had some intense discussions with Christer about this. He knows so incredibly much about the subject and couldn’t really see why some things were too advanced. For example we had a long discussion about whether people know the Periodic Table and all the latin names and planet/gods related to these.

Together with that and a much smaller budget we developed a simpler and much shorter game. We found 50% of 30 000 skr (4500 dollar) to pay Nifflas to program our idea. We got this money from Filmarc (www.filmarc.net) and he started to develop environments and how the puzzles could be adapted in the game. Then we discussed the characters and which different material we would use in the game. Material like Stibnit, Galen etc. It was very important that this material was familiar to alchemists. when people play the game they should know that this is not just some random stuff – it’s the real thing. You will get a very good idea how to start your own alchemical experiments by playing the game if you want…and some grand secrets too.

Marketing & Business Model

Already at the first meeting we decided that the game would be free and marketed freely from both our site www.grtwrk.com and Nifflas website. We were aware of Nifflas position among indie gamers and wanted them to recognize his style. To access the gamer audience, we have made a menu in the beginning of the the game that includes the trailer for the film, we will also add a direct link to the film that allows players to download the movie via the game. This could get us in some trouble with the Swedish Televison but I think they will understand our idea when we release it – they tend not to like it when you put stuff from the film on internet before you have screened it on TV. (www.studioparallell.com who made the menu for both the movie and game ensured that they’re the same style).

Last but not least, we will use open-source code so people can make their own puzzles and characters – perhaps based from the discussions in the film or from discussion that will come after you seen the movie. Alchemists always debate “the true matter”.

We have also discussed posting the script ahead of the movie release. The script contains the high-end solutions based on Christers hardcore alchemy puzzle. Some of the puzzles in this game will certainly also be discussed on alchemy forums and then it will be interesting to see if you are able to influence the game. For example, if it should be Stibnit or any other topic and then the player can change this can do their own version of the game.

We see the game as an interesting model to distribute the film in larger circuits because we think some relevant audiences might otherwise never discover our film. Even after several days, Nifflas’ game trailer 10 000 hits on youtube. All these people also visited our website to learn about the film. Similarly, Nifflas will get people who never played his game to visit his site and maybe even play more of his game. It’s a great cross-collateralization of audiences.

Partnering with a game is also a way to get the film’s story to survive and develop. Our main character and our film will hopefully create a movement on the internet which questions the scientific truths and interests people to go deeper into the subject. It is obvious that Christer has become very well-educated when he read and researched about alchemy. And, imagine if you in a playful way, can get people to understand that learning can be presented in different ways than through ordinary books or teachers that is rarely questioned. So we hope this cooperation will both promote our film and the game as entertainment but also educate and raise ideas that can live on after the premiere of the movie, and become more than a DVD and a game on your PC.

We must look at how the gaming industry markets itself. The film industry is hopelessly behind and the music industry has begun to learn with Spotify, itunes, etc.. To survive as a documentary filmmaker, we need to think outside the box to survive. This may be one way?

Additional Marketing?

In order to spread among gamers we focus on blogs and forums. To get them to see the film, we understand that we need to make it as easy as we can for them to download the movie as well. We hope to find a solution to this by uploading the movie on iTunes or similar channels and then place a link to this page in the game. We also run a facebook group and website and through these we hope to communicate with our audience. Then we will try to get som material published in traditional media like newspapers and say, culturalnews on TV. But, above all, we hope that the movie and the game spread itself through short clips on youtube, blogs, forums, Twitter, etc.

Example Puzzle & Initial Game Meeting Video

Mineral Stibnit + Mars (Iron) + owen – regulus of antimon + Caput mortuum

Give the Regulus av antimon to character ”Newton” – he will then give you a glove, that you can climb with.

Give Caput Mortuum to ”Spintheros” – and he will give you the second glove and now you can climb the roofs.

This video is from one of the first meeting together with Nifflas and our main character Chriter. They discuss ideas about the developing of the game (it’s in Swedish, naturally!).

Timescales

We hope that both the film and the game is fully completed in June but we still have not decided whether we will be releasing the game a bit earlier.
We will soon have a meeting and try to find a good strategy for this. Anyway, the documentary has been scheduled for a television premiere in October in Sweden.

We would also like to show the movie at some film festivals abroad and try to do a screening in which the visitors before and after have the opportunity to test the game at the cinema. One could also imagine an exclusive screening where our main character performs a simple experiment with the audience. We try to think that we should give the people who come to watch the movie something beyond the expected.

About The Filmmakers: Oskar Östergren & Fredrik Oskarsson (oskar&oskarsson)

Oskar Östergren (born 1976) and Fredrik Oskarsson (born 1979), both born and raised in Swedish Lapland. We are educated at ”Nordens Documentary Film School, Biskops-Arnö” (2002-2004) and, since 2003, we run the film production company oskar&oskarsson based in Umeå, specialising in documentaries. Our productions have been co-produced with SVT Dokumentär and Film i Västerbotten and besides directing and producing films we teach documentary film making at The Academy of Fine Arts in Umeå and work as photographers and editors for other productions and TV-shows. Our last SVT Co-production “The Police and Lapland” has been seen by more than one million viewers on SVT.

Contact: +46 70-555 13 17 (Oskar) or +46 70-640 23 67 (Fredrik); Email: oskar at oskarochoskarsson.se or fredrik at oskarochoskarsson.se

Web: www.oskarochoskarsson.se

Transmedia Talk 25 – Mark Harris

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:54:34 GMT

Transmedia Talk 24 – Him, Her and Them

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 21:31:46 GMT

Transmedia Talk 23 – Marc D’Agostino on the_source

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:56:27 GMT

Transmedia Talk 22: SXSW Super Special

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 23:58:57 GMT

Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century. Download | Subscribe with iTunes Hosts: Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media Haley Moore (and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller) SXSW Super Special Dee Cook and Haley Moore recap the transmedia presence at SXSW Interactive 2011. From This Episode: The PGA’s Transmedia Producer credit. Fourth Wall Studios’ recent influx of money. SXSW Panel: Help Save SXSW from Marketer Douchebaggery SXSW Panel: Fireside Chat: Tim O’Reilly Interviewed by Jason Calacanis Hitler rants about SXSW. The Transmedia Artists Guild held an introductory panel at SXSW. SXSW Panel: Fan to Fanatic: True Blood’s Marketing Hook SXSW Panel: The Future of Storytelling: DEXTER Fans Play Killer SXSW Panel: Having Fun Yet? 10 Usability Heuristics For Games SXSW Talk: Project 314: Putting The ‘Game’ Back Into ARGs with Adrian Hon SXSW Talk: Hoax or Transmedia? The Ethics of Pervasive Fiction with Andrea Phillips SXSW Panel: Social Media Is Science Fiction with Maureen McHugh and Molly Crabapple SXSW Panel: Can Transmedia Save the Entertainment Industry? Flynn Lives, 42 Entertainment’s ARG for Tron:Legacy. SXSW Panel: New Worlds: Creating Online Sci-fi and Fantasy Experiences in which Felicia Day explains why she rolls her eyes at the term transmedia. The #AntiTransmedia movement. Steve Peters, Geoff May, and Brooke Thompson weigh in on the word “transmedia” in the days since SXSW. Stitch Media’s diagram of possible transmedia definitions. Frank Rose’s book The Art of Immersion Transmedia NYC Meetup The Game of Thrones food carts in New York City and Los Angeles Nick Braccia recommends the Kindle version of A Game of Thrones. Petite Lap Giraffes

RADAR NYC 3.31.11 feat. Stephanie Berger and Nicholas Adamski

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:22:21 GMT

This week, we let Stephanie Berger and Nicholas Adamski, founders of the Poetry Brothel (RADAR ep 20) curate our blog and give us an insight into what interests them at the moment. What follows is a series of performers who, like the Poetry Brothel, go beyond the traditional boundaries of their fields of work and create something truly unique.

WATCH

Salvador Dali on “What’s My Line?”

Start your day with a bowl of surreal. I’ve been on a bit of a Salvador Dali kick lately, and this clip just further proves his awesomeness. Watch as he utterly stumps all of these 50s game show contestants, as he quite honestly answers each of their questions with a laconic “yes.” After a while, the contestants get flustered and the announcer can’t hold in his laughter. The best part though, comes around the end when you can pinpoint the exact moment one woman has an epiphany. Listen for her “oh!” around 8:30.

LISTEN

Noah and the Whale – The First Days of Spring

The second album from the British indie folk band Noah and the Whale serves as a soundtrack to the breakup between lead singer Charlie Fink and his girlfriend, though really, the themes explored here could apply to any breakup. As a result, the progression of songs has a theatrical feel, as if it could have been played in its entirety in a theatre (and the gorgeous string sections, which come out most prominently in the two instrumental pieces, certainly help). Then there’s the choral piece, “Love of an Orchestra,” which plays up the theatrics even further. The album tells a complete story, full of highs and lows, and should serve as a great, optimistic soundtrack to this year’s first days of spring.

Noah and the Whale on Myspace
You can buy the album HERE

READ

Karen Abbott – American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee

In this biography, Karen Abbott tells the story of burlesque performer, actress and writer Gypsy Rose Lee against the backdrop of the Great Depression. But rather than a dry, historical take or a romanticized tale, Abbott presents Lee as a woman pursuing the American Dream, at a time when it was most difficult to do so. She clearly did her research, giving portraits of the glamorous public life and the turbulent private life of a legendary entertainer.

You can buy the book HERE

Sleep No More

I’ve been hearing so much about this lately. “Sleep No More” is a production by the British theater company Punchdrunk which combines Shakespeare and Hitchcock into an immersive theatre-noir experience. Taking place in the old McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea, audience members wander through the building as the story unfolds before them. With the world of theater constantly changing, this is definitely a leap forward in creative storytelling. Side note: you may want to snatch up tickets while you can; they seem to be going pretty quick.

Ongoing through May 7
The McKittrick Hotel
530 West 27th Street
New York, New York 10001
EVENT INFO

The Poetry Brothel

And what better time than now to follow the Poetry Brothel itself? Their next event, Cabaret Voltaire, is coming up this weekend and, similar to the aforementioned “Sleep No More,” gives the audience a chance to be more than spectators, but to interact and become part of the performance itself.

Poetry Brothel’s website
Poetry Brothel on Twitter

Think Global, Act Local: Transmedia on the World Stage

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:58:41 GMT

Anita Ondine took some time out of her busy schedule to share some thoughts around how Transmedia can be a vehicle for social change and its role on the world stage.

What opportunities do you see for those wanting to build international transmedia properties?

Anita Ondine: There are so many opportunities for those wanting to build international transmedia properties, in fact, transmedia lends itself to internationalization perhaps better than any other media. The key opportunity is our ability to design transmedia concepts that can be adapted to different territories in a culturally and commercially meaningful way. In my view, one of the essential elements of transmedia is enabling audience participation and to maximize impact with a local audience, it helps to make it linguistically and culturally adapted to that market. Transmedia allows you to do that. In this way, we can think about transmedia from the perspective of a franchise or a format, similar to how television formats are internationalized to bring them to new markets. With transmedia, we have more options. For example, we can deploy country-specific instances of a transmedia property or we can link them in a global matrix of related transmedia stories within a single, unified storyworld. The latter example is the approach Lance Weiler and I are using to develop and deploy the ‘Pandemic’ property that complements Lance’s next feature film ‘HiM’.

Similarly, a transmedia property can be tailored to the specific commercial contexts of different countries by adapting the business models (both funding models and revenue streams) to reflect behavioral patterns of consumers and appetites of local investors. In short, by going international on transmedia, you gain both economies of scale and economies of scope, as well as opening up new creative horizons in transmedia storytelling. To sum up, I’d say think global, act local to build international transmedia properties.

How is transmedia considered by funding bodies in Europe and how are they adjusting to the changes in the digital landscape.

AO: There is public funding available in Europe for supporting the development of transmedia. For example, the EU MEDIA Programme provides funding via its ‘Interactive Projects’ funding stream. You can find more information about that program via the MEDIA website: http://www.mediadeskuk.eu/funding/_2,24,151/ This funding is only open to European companies and your project must be tied to a feature length film property. There are also funding programs at the national level in most of the EU Member States.

The major issue surrounding the funding of transmedia is that most funding bodies in Europe (indeed, around the world) still tie transmedia and new media funding to the existence of a traditional media property. Usually this means a feature length film intended for theatrical release, or it could be a television property that has to be pre-sold to a broadcaster. In my view, this is a serious impediment to the development of transmedia. The effect is that producers are shoehorning their projects into the format required by the funding guidelines, instead of being free to be truly creative in designing transmedia properties that are born “native” to the transmedia space, rather than being conceived as an add-on (and therefore somehow subservient) to traditional media.

I’d love to see more representatives from funding bodies attending Transmedia Next so we have a common understanding and common vocabulary to facilitate an open dialogue about these issues and work together to find a solution that will help to build a sustainable industry going forward.

Thankfully there are some visionary funders, mostly at the regional level, like the Rotterdam Media Commission (http://www.rmcrotterdam.nl/index.php?lang=en) who “get” transemdia and are willing to support projects that are not tied to traditional formats. This approach is similar to the Canadian system, where you can apply for transmedia funding through the Canada Media Fund’s “Experimental” funding stream without the need for feature film attachment. More information on the CMF’s Experimental program is available here: http://www.cmf-fmc.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=110&page_mode=create&Itemid=110

Other forms of pre-financing, like brand involvement, are still very nascent in Europe, but definitely growing. Consumers are interested, therefore brands are increasingly willing to explore this space. Now is the time for brand and advertising agencies to step up to respond to that need. International scale transmedia properties will be particularly interesting for global brands.

Do you have any words of advice for a producer who is considering packaging an international transmedia property?

AO: I’d say two of the most important factors to consider when packaging an international transmedia property are:

(1) whether it is scalable (both conceptually and technologically); and
(2) whether it is an idea that “travels” well internationally. That could mean either it is a universally recognized archetype (for example, a fantasy world like Lord of the Rings) or that it is suitable to cultural adaption.

A project that is ideally scalable will work well both at the local/regional/country level as a self contained experience, and will be augmented by the addition of international elements. The key to architecting an international transmedia property is to ensure the creatives and producers work in parallel so that the creative choices support the business imperatives and the business choices don’t adversely affect the design of the creative experience. In this way, the “shape” or “voyage” of the story from country to country can have meaning within the storyworld as well as performing the function of distribution in each territory.

Another point to remember when going global is risk management. Once your base level of development is complete (you have a storyworld bible and technology prototypes in hand), I would recommend assessing entry into each new market on a case by case basis. The decision to green light a new territory should be supported by positive revenue opportunities at the local level or because deployment of the transmedia property in that territory performs an ancillary function, like supporting the release of a related feature film in that territory.

Producers are also advised to undertake a similar analysis for the addition of each new platform to their transmedia architecture. Ideally, you will want each platform to stand on its own in terms of ROI, but we also need to take a step back and see transmedia as a holistic program of activities where revenue streams from some platforms can be used to subsidize less profitable platforms where those platforms perform other valuable functions like increased reach, press hooks and buzz in the social media space.

What excites you about storytelling in 21c?

AO: I’m excited by the potential for storytelling to create positive social change and encourage participation in our communities, both directly within our own communities and collaboratively around the world.

I’ve always enjoyed art, and storytelling in particular, for that reason. Because through art and creativity we are able to see possibilities of a new future, a new way of thinking. Transmedia builds on that premise and presents us with the opportunity, through audience participation, to inspire participants to both think and act in new and different ways that are positive and enduring. In this way, I believe transmedia represents the evolution of storytelling.

In addition to that, being a geek, I can’t help getting excited about the explosion of technology that is enabling stories to be told in so many new and exciting ways. Technology is impacting the entire process of story creation (through collaborative and open source tools), through production (for example, lower cost, higher quality cameras) and delivery to the audience across a plethora of devices that are changing the way the audience interacts with stories and takes part in the storytelling process. This includes mobile/geo-locational technology, personal viewing devices and many more.

How do you see Transmedia Next evolving and what do you feel currently sets it apart?

AO: I see Transmedia Next evolving in response to the needs of the industry. At the moment, there are many experienced media professionals, including creatives, producers, brand agencies, content commissioners and game developers, who are interested in and experimenting with transmedia. What we lack are industry standards, even a common language, to enable greater inter-diciplinary collaboration.

What we are seeing at the moment are some fairly elaborate examples of transmedia at the studio level, for example District 9’s transmedia elements (check them out here: http://www.agencymagma.com/coolmoviemarketing.html) or the ‘Why So Serious’ campaign (http://www.whysoserious.com/) that Warner Brothers ran in support of The Dark Knight release. Then at the other extreme, we are seeing the emergence of beautiful, highly innovative, smaller scale works that are mostly reaching much smaller audiences. There are also a growing number of branded content campaigns, like the ‘New Old Spice Guy’ (http://mashable.com/2010/07/15/old-spice-social-media-campaign/), however there is still a wide open space in the mid-field. There are major opportunities in that middle ground, in the space between studio fare, pure branded content and hand-made auteur-driven works.

My hope is that Transmedia Next plays a role in bringing experienced media professionals together and gives them a common set of tools and techniques to collaborate on projects in a industry leading way.

Transmedia Next 2010 Alumni discuss their transmedia projects

What currently sets Transmedia Next apart is that its faculty includes industry leaders like Lance Weiler and that it mixes theory and practice in a very hands-on way. So participants leave understanding the full cycle of development, writing, production and distribution of transmedia. The whole event is run as a transmedia experience too. So participants get to see, hear, taste an do transmedia. I don’t believe there are any other transemdia courses that offer such an immersive experience.

We’ve also received much praise for the diversity of attendees, both in terms of skill sets and nationalities represented. Transmedia next is a truly international event. Participants leave with the contacts – as well as the confidence – to make their international transmedia properties come alive.

For more on Transmedia Next

Register now via the Website: www.transmedianext.com
Dates: 12-14 April, 2011
Where: London, United Kingdom
Venue: Paramount at Centre Point (http://www.paramount.uk.net/)

Anita Ondine is a creative transmedia producer, co-Founder of Transmedia Next and worked for over a decade as an intellectual property/technology lawyer and was a Senior Vice President at a major investment bank.

Transmedia Talk at SXSW 2011 – Roundtable Discussion on Pervasive Entertainment

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 05:17:58 GMT

SXSW: What ARG Makers Can Learn from UI Designers

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:24:50 GMT

Image courtesy of John Mark Josling

My visit to South by Southwest Interactive took me to a lot of talks on Transmedia – a term, by the way, that was the most overused and under-understood of the conference (Felicia Day even went on a particularly apt rant about it on Monday). Most of the “Transmedia” panels just didn’t seem to get it – there was no takeaway, there was a lot of gobbeldygook, and in one bizarre case, there was a futurist who seemed to be discussing how in 6-10 years we will all be watching programmed television. But I digress.

I ended up going to an exceeding dry-titled panel on a whim. I couldn’t bear to attend another Transmedia panel because the term had lost any meaning to me, and “Having Fun Yet? 10 Usability Heuristics For Games” sounded like the presenters had a good handle on their topic, at least. But what I found there completely blew me away and this panel took the crown for my favorite panel of SXSW Interactive 2011. These design maxims may be old hat for programmers, but I have never heard them applied together like this for ARG development, and there they are highly relevant.

1. Increase interaction speed over time. Repeated tasks should get quicker. Make frequent transactions more easily available. There was a recent game that had information that was only accessible if you entered a username and password. The way the webpage was coded, the browser did not ask if it could save the information for you, so every time you wanted to check for new content (which showed up regularly) you either had to memorize the login or search your email for it. Not good design.

2. Avoid conceptually conflicting inputs. Be conceptually consistent throughout the game. This means that the evil genius hacker organization probably wouldn’t be using simple substitution, folks.

3. Provide immersive cues – ambiguity makes the connection between the player and their world less immersive. If you want a player to call a telephone number or email someone, telegraph that to them. Don’t make them fearful to contact your characters – “Is this in-game or out-of-game?” is not being immersive!

4. Distinguish active from inactive. Provide cues so that players know what they need to touch. If they’re supposed to be hacking into your character’s email, fine – make that clear. But if they’re not, save yourself some trouble by making that clear ahead of time.

5. Prevent surprise errors – and if the user does fail, make sure they understand why. Allow them to undo errors. The first part of this rule can be helped with careful vetting and playtesting. The second part, say if a player thinks that they need to email Character A with information when in fact it’s Character B they have to contact – simply have Character A nudge them in the right direction rather than ignore them completely, so your player isn’t shouting into the wind.

6. Be game-state aware. Provide the correct data to players at the correct time, and let them dig deeper to the areas that they want to find out more about. Practice progressive disclosure. Don’t be absolutely rigid in your game design. Some of the best and most memorable ARG characters started out as throw-aways, but players got attached to them, the designers realized that attachment, and they wrote much larger roles for the characters, creating a much richer experience for the players. Listen to your audience and adjust accordingly. As well, don’t overload them with all the information right away. Just as you read a book chapter by chapter or watch a movie a minute at a time, you don’t play an ARG all at once.

7. Reading is easier than remembering. Make objectives clear and memorable; don’t overburden with information. Reduce the players’ cognitive load. In an ARG sensibility this can be said as: provide a player summary site, and keep it current. ARGs are notorious for being complex, deep, and sometimes impossible to keep up with for all but the most dedicated players. Will you be the one who can come up with the system that lets the casual ARG player join in?

8. Remember real life. Provide quick and easy exits. Consider the environment your game is played in. Another game recently had a live feed that displayed for 24 hours. The designers did it because they wanted to include a global audience. But for those players who started watching the feed at the beginning, it was very hard to turn it off and go to bed. Even a small, tongue-in-cheek card to change viewer shifts would have helped the viewers realize that they could switch off and let someone else take their place.

9. Maintain flow. Minimize content breaks and cognitive dissonance. Does it all feel like one system? Don’t make content breaks feel like punishment. Some games release content on a set schedule and there’s nothing at all wrong with that. But it should be with a small sense of closure that the last item of the chapter is released, so that players don’t receive something highly provocative and have to wait a week (or whatever the timetable is) to receive answers. If they’re punished by time for seeking answers, soon enough they will stop seeking.

10. Ask, “What could I remove?” Don’t include information that’s irrelevant and don’t let bells and whistles overwhelm your project. In other words, consider the principle of Chekhov’s gun – never put a loaded rifle on the stage if you’re not planning on shooting it by the end of the play. One red herring? Maybe. A dozen? Not so much.

As you can see, these principles adapt extremely easily to ARG design, but I think they can branch out into many other fields as well. I’d like to give many kudos to Corey Chandler and John-Mark Josling for a terrific, old-school SXSW presentation that gave much food for thought.

Slideshare here.

Transmedia Talk at SXSW 2011 – Interview with Brian David Johnson, Intel Futurist

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:30:28 GMT

Transmedia Talk Podcast – Episode 20

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:34:08 GMT

Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a new podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century. Download | Subscribe with iTunes Running Time: 1:15:03 Hosts: Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker Haley Moore Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller Special Guest: Independent transmedia creator Andrea Phillips Andrea Phillips joins us to talk about transmedia ethics, a topic she will discuss at SXSW Interactive next weekend, and at DIY Days in NYC this Saturday. From This Episode: (0:01:30) Magda, the vulcanologist from Ready for the Big Chill, makes her introduction. (0:02:22) NASA’s “Ask an Astrobiologist” column addresses the 2012 Experience. An illuminating quote from a transmedia outsider: > I learned from Wikipedia that creating this sort of fake website is a new advertising technique called “Viral Marketing”, by analogy with computer viruses. (0:10:20) The interactive web series Lonelygirl15 (0:12:20) Game creator Steve Diddle reveals the nature of his character, Martin Aggett. (0:15:35) Player wiki for Brian Bricker’s meta-ARG, “I’m Sorry.” (0:17:00) ‘girl quits job on dry erase board’ (0:17:40) Catfish, as discussed in Episode 6 of Transmedia Talk. (0:21:30) Eyjafjallajökull (0:25:00) The Game (0:29:10) Yomi Ayeni’s experience Breathe. (0:29:35) The Florida Film Festival’s filmmaking experiment The Voice. (0:30:25) Routes (0:33:13) Editor’s Note: I did, in fact, register argtropes.com. Wiki upcoming. (0:36:50) The 1997 film The Game (0:44:03) Wonderland receives some weird ARG mail. (0:44:40) John Scalzi’s rant about mysterious game mail. (0:46:55) Perplex City, Edoc Laundry, Cathy’s Book, and Personal Effects: Dark Art Winter Is Coming – 1 of 2 from J.C. Hutchins on Vimeo. (0:49:25) JC Hutchins unboxes an awesome game artifact for HBO’s campaign The Maester’s Path for Game of Thrones. (0:51:40) The lion statue gifted to the moderators of the Cloudmakers, the player group for The Beast. (0:54:33) Tiger Puff is a Sew By Numbers doll.

DIY DAYS NYC join the discussion

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:28:42 GMT

Tomorrow from 10am to 5pm EST we’ll be holding our 8th DIY DAYS event at the New Shool in NYC. We have an exciting lineup of talks and workshops. For those who can’t attend in person we’ll be streaming and we welcome everyone to checkout the conference dashboard .

DIY DAYS NYC is part of the WorkBook Project’s efforts to provide resources and networking to the creative community. If you’re interested in getting involved with the WorkBook Project or DIY DAYS please contact us work [@] workbookproject dot com

RADAR NYC 3.3.11 – feat Marc Horowitz

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:26:26 GMT

This week’s edition of RADAR NYC is brought to you by Marc Horowitz (RADAR ep 18 – Google Maps Road Trip). When we last checked in on him, he was working on The Advice of Strangers, a project where he had strangers vote on all his life choices. His latest project is a series of short video “studies,” showing a day in the life of things like talking random objects and dust. Many of his selections for this blog seem to fit the theme of “a day in the life,” whether it’s the life of a city or the life of an imaginative teenager.

You can see the rest of the videos HERE.

WATCH

Manhatta

Directed by Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler, Manhatta is a short film depicting the city in 1921. And it’s honestly amazing how much hasn’t changed since then—the film depicts shots of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Staten Island Ferry, as well as a few buildings modern New Yorkers would certainly recognize. These are things we see every day, just as we did 90 years ago. A series of shots filmed to show the creators’ love of the city, the stark images of steel and steam invoke a feeling of strength and power It chronicles a moment in the life of not just any city, but The City.

Manhatta at UbuWeb Film

LISTEN

Martin Creed: Thinking / Not Thinking

At first glance I thought this was a music video, but it’s actually much more than that. Martin Creed is a Glaswegian conceptual artist, though many of his works mix music and visuals. The song itself manages to be both catchy and chaotic, which contrasts nicely from the minimalist video of two dogs of (very) different size representing Thinking (the small one) and Not Thinking (the large one). It’s quite a funny juxtaposition, reflecting the different roles of consciousness and unconsciousness.

Martin Creed’s website

READ

Patton Oswalt: Zombie Spaceship Wasteland

Zombie? Spaceship? Or wasteland? Take your pick, if you like awesome things. Or if you’re a teenager with an overactive imagination. According to comedian Patton Oswalt, these are the themes we tend to gravitate toward as young storytellers. Oswalt shares his thoughts on growing up in this hilarious memoir of his own experiences (of the three above topics, he picked wastelands), from dealing with relatives as a child to working in a “grim Canadian comedy club.” It should definitely be a great read for all those creative kids who grew up in the suburbs.

You can buy the book HERE

Roman Signer at Young Projects

This week’s even goes out to our readers in LA. Roman Signer is a Swiss Artist who specializes in what he calls “momentary sculptures,” essentially small live installations that are captured on video. One work, “Barrel with Camera,” is of Signer placing a camera in a barrel and rolling it down a hill, though the video withholds this information until the end to give the viewer a humorous revelation. Many of his works invoke humor, ranging from slapstick to dark comedy, all laced with social commentary against pretensions. The art world could always use a bit more humor.

Ongoing through March 14
Young Projects
8687 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA
EVENT INFO

News, Words, and Drawings of the Day

Finally, Marc gives us a few things to follow, including a couple we can follow on our smart phones. The Fluent News app gives us a break from the cacophony of all the different news outlets out there, and aggregates the top stories into a mobile newspaper that the viewer can customize to his or her own tastes. For all the language geeks out there, there’s the Dictionary app, which includes a Word of the Day feature for those of us who like to confuse our friends with our ever-expanding vocabularies. And this last one isn’t an app, but artist Lauren Nassef posts a new drawing every day on her website, ranging from current events (Gaddafi) to some rather beautiful vintage-esque portraits.

Fluent News app
Dictionary app
Lauren Nassef’s website

Saskia’s Guide to Producing: Understanding the International Market

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:11:43 GMT

This is a series of posts delving into the gory details of what it takes to produce an independent film. Covering the entire process — from development to fundraising, production, distribution, online strategies and beyond — they will be written in real time, from first hand experience, as I go through the process of producing a feature-length documentary.

UNDERSTANDING THE INTERNATIONAL MARKET: INTERNATIONAL SALES AGENTS & THE EFM.

A few weeks ago I took my first trip to the European Film Market (EFM), which is hosted annually as a parallel event to the Berlin Film Festival.

My stated goal was try to gain support for a few film projects. But the moment I walked into the massive building that hosts the EFM and saw the teeming hive of people – all seemingly engaged in animated conversations with one another – I realized that this was no cozy, friendly, intellectual space. Indeed: The opposite. This was a place of Big Business.

Mulling over my approach & networking tactics, it hit me like a ton of bricks: I knew nothing of the ins and outs of the international film market, not to mention how to break into this group of long-established friends and colleagues without making an ass of myself. I had to learn, and quick. I immediately set about the task of understanding what I was dealing with – and getting a measure of my ignorance of the ins and outs of the international film business.

As far as I could gather, the EFM was composed primarily of the usual types of people we see (or hope to see) at most film festivals: Filmmakers, distributors & acquisitions execs, financiers. Rarer at the indie fests and of great interest to filmmakers hoping to go big, the EFM is also the hub par excellence of that shadowy group of people who negotiate rights and broker territory sales: International Sales Agents.

Sitting at their booths or at the market’s numerous screenings, meeting with filmmakers, exchanging notes in the café, it became very clear to me that the ISAs rule the roost at EFM. In truth, they are most often the first point of contact for big distributors looking to pick up new titles. These are people, in short, that every aspiring filmmaker who hopes to launch into the business in a bigger way should at least think about, new strategies for distribution and fundraising notwithstanding.

I broadsided one of these ISAs – shivering outside on a subarctic German afternoon. What follows, then, is a short interview with the very savvy Miriam Elchanan, the Senior Vice President of Sales and Acquisitions of Los Angeles-based Fabrication Films, explaining the world of the International Sales Agent in nine questions.

What do international sales agents do?

International sales agents represent feature films in the international marketplace. We are responsible for licensing specific rights to specific territories or countries. So for example, if you have produced a film and you have a North American distributor for the United States and Canada you would license the remaining worldwide rights to us. We would then license these rights to our buyers around the world. Our company offers established relationships with distributors and broadcasters and strategic marketing and promotional strategies.

What are the territories that you cover? What are the other territories?

Fabrication Films has buyer relationships in every country in the world. Major territories include Europe (UK , France , Germany , Benelux , Italy , Spain , Greece , etc), Asia (including Japan , China , Thailand , Indonesia , India , Malaysia / Singapore ), Latin America including Brazil, Eastern Europe including Russia, Australia , the Middle East, Turkey and Israel.

At what phase of the filmmaking process would you come in?

We prefer to get involved as early as possible in the production phase so that we can assist the Producer with creative and financial suggestions that will help bolster the value of their film in the global market. In many cases we become involved while a producer is in post-production or has just recently completed their film.

Do you deal with international presales for projects in development, ever?

Yes, however our decision to become involved in presales is usually strongly based on the cast and genre.

What do you, in particular, look for in the films you represent?

There are three things that I look for in an acquisition, the first is cast, the second is genre and the third is story/production quality. In the foreign market a film can be great but if it is a drama with no cast it will be extremely difficult for me to sell it. Action films traditionally are the easiest genre to sell and an action film with cast, great production values and a good story is a slam-dunk. However, I do keep my eye out for those special festival or art house films that have cache and documentaries that will speak to everyone.

What are some major no-nos, for you, from a creative point of view?

Films with a film industry story line can be particularly difficult. I am not a big fan of filmmakers who have their characters pull out a video camera in the middle of a scene and then go to a grainy gritty hand held shot.

I think there is a major difference between making a film for creative reasons and making a film that sells. There is a way to do both but you must consider who is going to buy your film when it is finished. A painter can paint an amazing piece of art but that doesn’t mean you would want to hang it in your living room and look at it every day.

It is the producer’s choice to make a film that is less mainstream and more for a specific group of viewers, but keep in mind the more you limit that scope the less return you will make on your investment.

How do you feel about the DIY strategies that many filmmakers are engaging in, in order to promote, distribute or sometimes even fundraise for their film?

I like the idea of DIY distribution. If you make a film for less than 100K you can get your film seen and build an audience for yourself.

This is much harder to do in the foreign market. Most foreign distributors do not want to work directly with a one-time producer. [Rather] they want to work with a company they already have an established relationship with. They know that I can competently negotiate an agreement with them, we will follow through and deliver the picture and provide the necessary legal and financial paperwork they need to fulfill their obligations.

Recently I was representing a film where the producer had sent a trailer and artwork of their film to a number of foreign buyers about 6 months prior to us taking the film to market. When we began meeting with buyers they would immediately retort that they had seen the film and passed. This was due to the fact that the producers promotional materials were subpar and were not up to the standards these buyers were looking for. When we presented our campaign [for the very same film], it was much harder to engage the buyer in a dialogue.

Bringing in professionals in most cases is the best strategy to getting the best return and the most successful release. I would recommend that a filmmaker make a decision from the beginning how they want to release their film and stick by it. If a DIY strategy does not go well, don’t be surprised when a more traditional sales agent or distributor [has no] interest in stepping in after the market has been saturated.

Just ask yourself this question, if I told you that I watched ER everyday would you let me perform open heart surgery? Just because you read Variety doesn’t mean that you can do what someone with 10-20 years of experience can do.

How do you find the titles that you represent?

We monitor the internet, festivals, social networking, attend industry events.

The best way to get your film noticed by a good sales agent or distributor is to have a well maintained website with good up to date contact information. If your film is listed on IMDB or other industry sites make sure the information is correct and that you provide as much information as possible.

Do you have any advice for filmmakers looking to work with an international sales agent? Anything they should watch out for?

I would look for a well-established company that has been around for at least 5 years and has a catalogue of films that are good quality. Many sales agents have a certain genre focus some focus more on family films some on horror. You might want to see what they have sold before to get an idea if your film is a good fit. Look for someone that you feel comfortable with and try to negotiate a deal that works for you.

I think there is plenty of paranoia out there when it comes to distributors and sales agents. Look at your film in the most realistic way. If someone tells you that they have a studio relationship and they can get you a deal but they will not put that in writing that means they will do their best but cannot guarantee anything.

If a sales agent is representing a huge film and it doesn’t make sense [in the context of] the rest of their line up, make sure that they are representing the major territories on that film — and not just Indonesia.

If a sales agent tells you that their estimates are realistic and those estimates are twenty times bigger than your entire production budget I would be concerned. However, if a sales agent’s estimates are smaller than what you hoped but are more like what you expected I would say – in most cases – they are the real deal.

Check out Fabrication Films here and if you are curious about the international scene, may I recommend the very excellent blog ‘Sydney’s Buzz’ on Indiewire.

Transmedia Talk Podcast – Episode 19

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 03:02:36 GMT

Welcome to Transmedia Talk, a new podcast covering all things Story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia, Dee Cook, and Haley Moore and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century. Download | Subscribe with iTunes Running Time: 1:15:03 Hosts: Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker Haley Moore and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller Special Guest: Mike Monello, Executive Creative Director of Campfire. Campfire’s Mike Monello joins us for a discussion of transmedia approaches in the music world. From This Episode: (0:02:47) 12 laptops synchronize to play The Flaming Lips’ Two Blobs F**cking (0:12:00) The Brady Bunch’s cover of “American Pie” (0:13:35) Me and the Devil Blues: The Unreal Life of Robert Johnson, a manga retelling of the Robert Johnson legend by Akira Hiramoto (0:16:10) Madonna’s book, Sex, her documentary, Truth or Dare, and the story of her music video that was banned from MTV, “Justify My Love”. (0:24:10) The Kiss Coffeehouse in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. (0:24:52) Kiss: Psycho Circus the 1997 comic by Image Comics and Todd McFalane. (0:25:43) The Kiss Kasket. (0:25:51) Garth Brooks covers Kiss’s ‘Hard Luck Women.’ (0:27:20) American Idiot on Broadway (0:27:48) Year Zero The alternate reality campaign for Nine Inch Nails’ album of the same name. (0:32:18) Year Zero is currently being produced as a series for HBO. (0:35:50) A quick link dump of the things we mentioned in this minute: Rhapsody, Grooveshark, Die Antwoord, The Twilight Singers, Sub Pop Records, eMusic, Janelle Monae The Archandroid. (0:39:27) Kevin Smith’s Red State. (0:46:00) Brooklyn Vegan and Pitchfork (0:52:33) The controversy over Bob Dylan going electric (1:00:45) An opening for a fictional childrens’ show created by fans of MS Paint Adventures’ latest story, “Homestuck”. More fan videos http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=homestuck”>here. (1:03:18) Jay-Z’s transmedia campaign, Decode. (1:05:15) Beyond music: Pop stars in the transmedia age from The Guardian (1:06:01) The E! series Married to Rock

RADAR NYC 2.17.11 – feat. Mary Mattingly

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:36:24 GMT

This week’s installment RADAR NYC is brought to you by Mary Mattingly (RADAR ep 17 – Waterpod), a well-known New York-based visual artist who uses a variety of different mediums from photography to living installations to explore themes of different relationships. She shared with us some things that inspire her and offer a glimpse into her world, including a book from a famous experimental composer, an Italian organization that focuses on smart city planning, and an avant-garde turntablist from Peru. And while they all come from very different backgrounds, each of the artists she chose have something in common – they all find creative and brilliant ways to reevaluate things that are part of our everyday lives, from time to silence to the city itself.

WATCH

Christian Marclay – “The Clock”

This is kind of amazing. Would you watch a clock for 24 hours straight? What if it was the most captivating clock ever? Artist Christian Marclay spliced together thousands of film clips from across the history of cinema, each one referencing a different moment in the day. So think of whenever a movie character looks at his or her watch, or mentions what time it is—Marclay has somehow crafted an entire day out of these moments, and presents it in real time, as a living clock. So if you tune in at 8:37 a.m., that’s what time it will be for the characters on screen. The Clock will be showing at the Paula Cooper Gallery until February 19.

“The Clock” at the Paula Cooper Gallery

LISTEN

Frazey Ford – “Blue Streak Mama”

Frazey Ford has lived quite an interesting life. Born in a Canadian commune in the late 70s, she spent the 80s traveling Asia with her family. Then in the late 90s, she formed the Canadian band The Be Good Tanyas, which split in 2008. And just last year, she released her debut solo album, Obadiah. The album is full of wonderful soulful folk (or is it folky soul?) that’s definitely worth a full listen, but the song “Blue Streak Mama” stands out particularly well. It has a distinctive blues-rock feel to it, sort of like a female-fronted Black Keys. But with more stripped-back instrumentation, the amazing vocals and lyrics take center stage and really shine through.

Free download available at Frazey Ford’s Myspace

READ

John Cage – “Silence: Lectures and Writings”

I have nothing to say/ and I am saying it/ and that is poetry/ as I need it.
-John Cage, “Lecture on Nothing” (1949)

Composer John Cage was a pioneer of American experimental music and one of the most influential American composers of the 20th Century. His most famous composition, 4’33”, consists of four minutes and thirty-three seconds without a note being played, and instead encourages the listener to focus on the sounds of the environment as it is played. Silence is Cage’s first book, published in 1961, made up of a collection of essays and lectures he wrote from 1939 to 1961, including “Lecture on Nothing,” quoted above. It is also his best known book, in which he discusses the nature of writing and ideas.

You can buy the book HERE

Turntable Artist Maria Chavez at The Stone

Maria Chavez Live 11-16-10 from Forest Christenson on Vimeo.

Maria Chavez is a Brooklyn-based experimental turntablist from Peru. She uses both new and broken needles (she calls them “pencils of sound”) on different records to create live sound installations, of which no two are ever exactly alike. Above is a live video of Chavez at a show in Queens last November. You can see her use a variety of different objects to create her sound, including (very) broken records, showing that a turntablist can many things beyond getting people onto the dance floor. She’ll be joined by harpist Shelley Burgon at The Stone on March 1.

Tuesday, March 1 · 8:00 pm
The Stone
East 2nd Street @ Avenue C
New York, NY 10009
EVENT INFO

cluster.eu

As we make our way through the 21st Century, one important issue for all urban-dwellers is the ever-growing and changing landscape of cities. Any New Yorker can attest that cities continue to grow quite rapidly. Cluster is a non-profit organization based in Turin, Italy, which seeks to answer these questions, looking for innovative and creative ways to plan and design modern cities. Their goal, to improve and revitalize urban life, has already helped Turin to become a cultural center in northwest Italy, and now they want to reach out to other cities in Europe and beyond, from improving drinking water in Haiti to experimental architecture in Brazil.

Follow Cluster HERE.

Transmedia Talk Podcast – Episode 18

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 16:40:51 GMT

Transmedia Talk Podcast – Episode 17

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 06:41:18 GMT

download

Or Subscribe with iTunes

NB: If you’d like to give us feedback, recommend yourself as a guest or suggest topics to cover – please email us attalk@workbookproject.com or Tweet away with the hashtag #tmediatalk.

Hosts:
Nick Braccia from Culture Hacker
Dee Cook from Dog Tale Media
Haley Moore

(and Host Emeritus Robert Pratten from Transmedia Storyteller)

Running Time: 1:11:27

Special Guest:
Lorie Marsh from Lost in Sunshine.

We speak with Lorie Marsh, producer of the Lost in Sunshine story world, who talks about indie films, funding, and experiments in the transmedia realm.

remixable - posts tagged 'Featured'

DIY DAYS NYC 2012

Tickets are FREE but space is limited. Registration is NOW OPEN.

WE COULD USE YOUR HELP

Topics include

Open Design

Transmedia Talk 40: Snow Town

Transmedia Talk 39: Clockwork Watch

Transmedia Talk 38: Storyworld Conference 2011

Transmedia Talk 36: Alison Norrington at DIY Days

Man-Child the passion behind the story

Transmedia Talk 32: GoBZRK and the Future of Publishing

CONNECTED with Tiffany Shlain

Transmedia Talk 31: Evan Jones, Suspending Disbelief in Interactive Stories

Wicked Solutions for a Wicked Problem

If it doesn’t spread it’s dead – part 2

If it doesn’t spread it’s dead

The 9th Dot

DIY Days returns to LA

Transmedia Talk 27: Socks, Incorporated

Transmedia Talk 26 – Dave Szulborski Memorial Show

RADAR NYC 5.12.11 – feat. Lori Nix

Cravendale Cats

Bodies of Water: Ears Will Pop and Eyes Will Blink

Hi-Fructose Magazine

Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities

Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities June 7 – September 18 Museum of Arts and Design 2 Columbus Circle New York, NY 10019 $15 Admission EVENT INFO

New York Mag (and comments)

RADAR NYC 5.5.11

Welcome to Pine Point

Washed Out – Eyes Be Closed

How the Social Web Reflected on bin Laden’s Death

Cake on the Bowery, Murder in Victorian England

Let Us Make Cake

Saturday, May 7 · 8:00 pm The New Museum 235 Bowery New York, NY 10002 Free EVENT INFO

Dr. Sketchy’s Does Jack the Ripper

Sunday, May 8 · 4:00pm – 7:00pm The Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery New York, NY $12-$15 EVENT INFO FOLLOW

FreedomLab

Seven Things I Learned from the Portal 2 ARG

1) Partnerships are Awesome

2) Don’t Build Your Pay Wall Too High

3) Screw the Curtain

4) Countdowns Can be Compelling

5) Exclusivity is a Design Flaw

6) We Can Still Pull Players “Behind the Scenes”

7) April Fool’s is a Bad Launch Date

BONUS: Music Keeps the Experience Alive

Golden Rules: Running an Independent Film Screening Series

RADAR NYC 4.14.11 – feat. Molly Crabapple

Serge Gainsbourg – Poinconneur des Lilas

Dave van Ronk – “Luang Prabang”

Kiki de Montparnasse: The Graphic Biography

PEN World Voices Festival

April 25-May 1 The Standard Hotel 848 Washington Street New York, New York 10014 EVENT INFO

Coilhouse, Biorequiem, and Gala Darling

Caution Tape: Competing against Macro Budgets with Nano Cash pt 1

Documentary + Game = Independent Transmedia Project called “THE GREAT WORK”

Transmedia Talk 25 – Mark Harris

Transmedia Talk 24 – Him, Her and Them

Transmedia Talk 23 – Marc D’Agostino on the_source

Transmedia Talk 22: SXSW Super Special

RADAR NYC 3.31.11 feat. Stephanie Berger and Nicholas Adamski

Salvador Dali on “What’s My Line?”

Noah and the Whale – The First Days of Spring

Karen Abbott – American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee

Sleep No More

Ongoing through May 7 The McKittrick Hotel 530 West 27th Street New York, New York 10001 EVENT INFO

The Poetry Brothel

Think Global, Act Local: Transmedia on the World Stage

What opportunities do you see for those wanting to build international transmedia properties?

How is transmedia considered by funding bodies in Europe and how are they adjusting to the changes in the digital landscape.

Do you have any words of advice for a producer who is considering packaging an international transmedia property?

What excites you about storytelling in 21c?

How do you see Transmedia Next evolving and what do you feel currently sets it apart?

Transmedia Talk at SXSW 2011 – Roundtable Discussion on Pervasive Entertainment

SXSW: What ARG Makers Can Learn from UI Designers

Transmedia Talk at SXSW 2011 – Interview with Brian David Johnson, Intel Futurist

Transmedia Talk Podcast – Episode 20

DIY DAYS NYC join the discussion

RADAR NYC 3.3.11 – feat Marc Horowitz

Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities
June 7 – September 18
Museum of Arts and Design
2 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
$15 Admission
EVENT INFO

Saturday, May 7 · 8:00 pm
The New Museum
235 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
Free
EVENT INFO

Sunday, May 8 · 4:00pm – 7:00pm
The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
New York, NY
$12-$15
EVENT INFO

FOLLOW

April 25-May 1
The Standard Hotel
848 Washington Street
New York, New York 10014
EVENT INFO

Ongoing through May 7
The McKittrick Hotel
530 West 27th Street
New York, New York 10001
EVENT INFO

Ongoing through March 14
Young Projects
8687 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA
EVENT INFO

Tuesday, March 1 · 8:00 pm
The Stone
East 2nd Street @ Avenue C
New York, NY 10009
EVENT INFO