Alice Taylor has a post on her always informative and amusing Wonderland blog about Sony's new afterworld series that they are calling the first example of a new trend in "Multitainment- the online convergence of television and video games ". Hmmm...
Encouraging article and interview recently in worldchanging.com on how Hollywood studios are beginning to embrace greener practices both on set and on the lot. Wonder if anyone in the game and interactive industries is thinking about this?
From the interview with Warner Brothers:
MK: Warner Bros.’ Syriana was the first film production to be carbon neutral. Are there plans to do that with other films or was it more of a marketing effort in conjunction with the subject matter of the film?SB: Well, then it was definitely related to the subject matter of the film. And both Participant Productions and Warner Bros. felt like if we’re going to put this out there, we really oughta’ be walking the talk. And it was the first time that we had ever even looked at a film in terms of its environmental footprint and its greenhouse gas footprint. And we did it kind of in arrears. We hadn’t planned on it in the very beginning. I think we did it a little bit late in the game in terms of marketing the fact that it was climate neutral. We sort of missed the usual marketing circuit for the film and maybe there’s an opportunity there. So we’re still learning. We don’t have a specific plan in mind, but we’ve certainly talked about it. And we’ll continue to look for more films to do that with and more ways to educate the public in terms of what we do. So that was our first “trying it on for size” so to speak and I think it went very well.
Image by Web River Media
From Digital Media Wire and the New York Times:
"The Onyx Project" Interactive Short Film Launches on DVD
New York - Screenwriter and director Larry Atlas ("Sleepless in Seattle") on Monday released a short film on interactive DVD that lets users explore the film's 400 scenes in a nonlinear format, The New York Times reported. "The Onyx Project," which stars Academy Award nominee David Strathairn and tells the story of a U.S. Army Special Forces officer on a rogue mission in Afghanistan. The DVD features proprietary software called Nav that brings up fresh links for viewers while the film is playing, which can lead in different directions based on viewer choices. Atlas and Smith said "The Onyx Project," which is available on DVD for $23.95, cost less than $200,000 to make -- including the costs of developing the Nav software. The filmmakers said that Nav could be used in the future to create documentaries or educational films with scores of embedded links.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/02/technology/02onyx.html
http://www.theonyxproject.com
Not that I want to encourage branching narratives, but for historical context, here's some info on the the resurrection of Kinoautomat (the first interactive film system) that I talked about in CTIN 541 and that Naimark references often. Sounds like Chris Hales been able to pull enough of the original to distribute on DVD.
Chris Hales :: Kinoautomat Rediscovered
This presentation will explain and contextualise the world's first interactive film system, Kinoautomat, which ran for several hundred performances at the Expo'67 in Montreal. Created in Czechoslovakia as the brainchild of Raduz Cincera, the film's seminal interaction and narrative scheme has been much discussed in the academic literature - despite the fact that it had never been publicly performed since 1974. Interactive cinema was most certainly kick-started by the Kinoautomat, even though it predated the use of digital technology (it was shot on film and shown using synchronised projectors). Although Mr Cincera himself died a few years ago, I have conducted research in Prague in collaboration with his eldest daughter to author an interactive DVD using the original material of the film (which was actually entitled "A Man and his House") and have edited a book of 120 pages around the subject of Kinoautomat. Additionally, in February 2006 a live screening was produced at the National Film Theatre in London. The presentation will include a run-through of the DVD. www.kinoautomat.org
Now if they would only restage the Cinelabyrinth system as well...
From: networked_performance: Interactive Digital Cinema Workshop
PXL THIS 15, the 15th annual film festival featuring the Fisher Price PXL 2000 toy video camera premieres Saturday, Nov 19, 2 different shows 7 & 9pm at Sponto Gallery, 7 Dudley Ave, Venice, 310-306-7330, free admission. For more info, please visit: www.indiespace.com/pxlthis and www.81x.com/7dudley/cinema
When Fisher-Price released the PXL 2000 video camera in 1987, the company marketed the device to kids in the 10-16-year-old range. But indie auteurs quickly became the camera's biggest fans. The PXL produces images of 2,000 pixels, as opposed to the standard 150,000, and the resulting black-and-white images are well-suited to the needs of filmmakers specializing in strange DIY shorts and other artsy flicks. So, instead of a kids' convention, PXL celebrates the former toy with poetry readings, documentaries about KFC workers, and portraits of anonymous cruise-ship passengers. (DRC)
From Flavorpill LA