Australians now spend an average of 16.1 hours on the internet each week, 12.9 hours watching TV, 8.8 hours listening to the radio, 3.7 hours on a mobile phone and 2.8 hours reading newspapers according to The Nielsen Online Internet and Technology Report quoted in The Australian earlier this year. With internet use now eclipsing TV viewing Australian broadcasters are in for a bumpy ride over the next few years. In this environment, how well prepared are our content producers for a world of participatory media, social networking and transmedia storytelling?
AFTRS are running a new post graduate course in 2010 which has been designed for content producers of all persuasions to combine the practical skills of traditional media with those of the online world. What’s clear is there is a huge appetite by global audiences for rich media content and we need skilled producers to start the conversations.
More information about this groundbreaking new course is available here and applications close on November 1, 2009
The course has been developed utilising the knowledge and experience gained through LAMP workshops, seminars and residentials and the pool of national and international experts who have contributed to its success. To get an idea of the calibre of our industry speakers here is a list of links to some of the most pertinent LAMP podcasts, vodcasts and slideshares about Multi Platform Content innovation. And finally, some of our industry testimonials and more stats to help you ponder your future.
LAMP has been an integral part of the interactive cross media & digital curriculum at AFTRS for the past four years. As well as its external facing activities works closely with all aspects of social and cross media in the Graduate Diploma for Directors & Production students, Foundation ‘Creating Experiences and Designing Worlds modules’ and MA specialist courses in Virtual Worlds, Social Media and Games.
Next year there are some great Graduate Certificate courses starting and LAMP will be very active in the Multiplatform and Games & Virtual Worlds offerings and recommend you to pass these around. More info here:
All video and audio below recorded at the AFTRS Theatre April 2009. LAMP pod and vodcasts are published through iTunes – click on the icon on the right if you have iTunes to subscribe now!
FOUR SEMINAR VIDEOS – Click the skip arrows to move between presentations
Original seminar link – All video and audio below recorded at the AFTRS Theatre April 2009. The intersection between documentary filmmaking and games will be explored in this half seminar and half rapid development workshop, providing deep insight into the potential of Serious Games. Both games and stories have long been recognised as powerful learning tools. Their combination in the 21st century has the potential to provide learning experiences that are collaborative and globally connected. What are the best examples of Serious Games and where are they heading? How can Serious Games be employed by educators, corporations or non-profit organizations?
AUDIO ONLY VERSIONS OF ABOVE – Click the skip arrows to move between presentations
The intersection between documentary filmmaking and games will be explored in this half seminar and half rapid development workshop, providing deep insight into the potential of Serious Games.
Both games and stories have long been recognised as powerful learning tools. Their combination in the 21st century has the potential to provide learning experiences that are collaborative and globally connected. What are the best examples of Serious Games and where are they heading? How can Serious Games be employed by educators, corporations or non-profit organizations?
Screen Australia and the ABC have recently announced a funding initiative in the area of Serious Games. This seminar will bring you up to speed with the latest developments in serious games and provide an opportunity to present your own concepts and workshop ideas with experts in an afternoon workshop.
Live link up with Tim Nixon Straylight Studios, New Zealand
Gary Hayes – LAMP, ex BBC Serious Games & MUVEDesign
Peter Giles – AFTRS
Rachel Perkins (Director), Darren Dale (EP) Sohail Dahdal (Online Producer) on SBS’s First Australians will talk about the online experience of the documentary series and explore the future possibilities of documentary games.
Marianne Webb is the interactive manager for Reach Out!, an online service that inspires young people to help themselves through tough times. Marianne will talk about the serious game Reach Out Central that been part of an innovative online strategy to build community engagement by the Inspire Foundation.
John Welsh is the Development Manager of Serious Games at Sydac, a leading Australian simulation technology company. John will talk about the role of simulation and play in learning environments.
Gary Hayes runs AFTRS Laboratory for Advanced Media production and he will introduce the history of serious games, several he created at BBC before they were called Serious Games, a survey of future directions and cross over between games and documentary forms.
Jennifer Collins – Manager of Development, ABC TV (Jennifer, with Mike Cowap from Screen Australia, is running the Serious Games funding initiative currently calling for applications)
Tim Nixon – CEO Straylight Studios – Tim runs New Zealand based Straylight Studios an innovative games studio who specialise in ‘meaningful play’.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
By the end of this workshop participants will have had the opportunity to learn about:
The various types of serious games: evolution of the form and the directions it is heading
The global serious games community and online resources
Documentary storytelling and its relationship to serious games
Techniques to brain-storm, plan and document serious games ideas
The links between documentary research and serious games
User created games and managing online communities
WHERE
The Australian Film Television and Radio School
The Entertainment Quarter
130 Bent St
Moore Park NSW, 2021
GameJam 2008 was run at AFTRS in Sydney on 1 November and featured talks to do with developing for or playing with console, pc games or online games. Creating and using virtual worlds, games, film cross-over, machinima, writing, AI and educational, fun or just plain cool stuff.
Below is a selection of those captured on the day including a short item related to three new courses AFTRS are offering in 2008 featuring Previsualisation elements – Animation Directing, Games and Virtual Worlds.
1 Guy Gadney “The Life of an MMORPG Diaspora”
Guy takes us on a personal tour of one of the first ‘grass roots’ online games as he tells the story of Diaspora. MP3 recording 6.9MB Click to listen
2 Dan Graf “Story and Game”
Dan gives a thoughtful talk about the conceptual framework of film or book to game adaptation. He talks about experiential design and audience centric focus when you plan your interactive version. An interesting session at the end when Ian Brown joins the discussion and the perennial issue of narrative vs play is brought to the fore again. MP3 recording 13.4MB Click to listen
3 Peter Giles “Future of Game Education”
Peter looks at many of the issues that are facing educators and academic institutions as they begin to consider games as a core part of curriculum. MP3 recording 5.6MB Click to listen
4 Physical TV “You Are Going To Die”
Karen Pearlman and Richard James Allen are the creators of a cross-media property called Thursday’s Fiction. They worked with Gary Hayes on the virtual world aspect of the project and talk more about where the proposition is headed as it moves into game space. MP3 recording 6.4MB Click to listen
5 Marigo Raftopoulos “Galapagos: Serious Game”
Marigo introduces us to her serious game concept to help businesses understand the benefits of thinking about the environment. MP3 recording 4.9MB Click to listen
6 Brett Robertson “History of Games”
Brett takes us on a light hearted trip down memory lane and also at the current state of the games industry. MP3 recording 7.9MB Click to listen
7 Ian Brown “Portal, Have Your Cake and Eat It Too”
Ian takes us behind the scenes from a user and passionate fan perspective of one of the most unique games to have become commercial, portal. He also looks at the original game, Narbuncular Drop, designed by students that Valve used to develop Portal. MP3 recording 7.4MB Click to listen
8 Michela Ledwidge “MOD the Movies!”
Michela takes us deep into Sanctuary and the thinking behind allowing the audience to customise, mash-up and generally Mod cinematic content. MP3 recording 7.4MB Click to listen
9 Gary Hayes “Reality & Pleasure – State of Play of Blended Real Life, TV and Game World” Vod/Podcast
This video above available as a download (with better audio & creative commons) 50MB MP4 click here
LAMP PODCASTS
All LAMP podcasts are published through iTunes – click on the icon below if you have iTunes to subscribe now!
ABOUT LAMP PODCASTS
This podcast presentation by LAMP @ AFTRS.
Audio recorded by Gary Hayes & Brett Robertson
Description, editing, podcasting and production by Gary Hayes
Finally a short compilation capture edited by Peter Giles (note video has camera sound, podcasts are higher quality direct lapel mikes).
