FRIDAY FUTURES

LAMP Proudly Presents:

FRIDAY FUTURES - EMERGING MEDIA LEARNING LUNCHES

Bring a sandwich and step into the future as we explore the latest and greatest of next generation media.

What you will see:

• insightful, brief presentations of the most innovative developments in emerging media
• latest games with great stories
• mobile content demos
• the latest innovations from the UK and the US
• IP Television, Microsoft Media Center applications, Broadband TV and beyond
• services that are engaging with fragmented audiences

Talks will be given by a mix of AFTRS and external staff depending on the subject matter and sessions will be highly interactive. Bring along your food, sit, shout (watch the flying food though), talk, investigate, learn, grow.

May 26 - MILIA, THE WORLDS GREATEST NEW MEDIA FESTIVAL

Friday May 26. Gary Hayes

Gary will present highlights from this conference, hear audio clips of the most incisive speakers and see some of the services taking hold in other parts of the world - some commentary available on his blog personalizemedia.com starting from April 5 on the link calendar.

Also as an added bonus Gary and Peter Giles will talk briefly about the initiatives beginning in the school coming out of LAMP including AFTRS video podcasts, blogs, wikis, AFTRS video portals, planned virtual spaces and the upcoming lab.

Jun 2 - SEXUAL ROBOTS AND PLASTIC HUMANS IN ANIME

Presented by AFTRS CENTRE FOR SCREEN STUDIES AND RESEARCH

Philip Brophy - Fri June 2

Link to podcast recorded live at AFTRS Main Theatre © Philip Brophy 2006.

As a prelude to a series of podcasts on the business, production and sociology of games, virtual shared worlds and MMORPGs

It is in bodily representation that anime heavily subscribes to a thesis of ‘post-humanism’ * the re-imaging, reinventing and reconfiguring of all we assume humanity and humanism to signify. The body in anime is aggregatively sculpted to create a contra-photographic, mega-ornamental, hyper-extended figure. Clean of any collaging of classical and archaic parts, the anime body is a new species, holistic in form and genetically manipulated according to anime*s encompassing of the history of human form as perceived within Japan.

Anime’s reliance on mannequinned form and its animation of multifarious guises, masks and faces presents the human as skeletal architecture, plasticized flesh and neural matrixes. Sublime in its post-humanism, anime tells the story of a human who dreamt of being a robot * and whose dream one day came true.

PHILIP BROPHY - Filmmaker, sound designer, curator and academic

Philip’s Full CV

Jun 9 - THE INVISIBLE MACHINE

Evolution of the organic interface

Friday June 6. Catherine Gleeson

How do we reach new and existing audiences in the very crowded digital space: how do we gain visibility; how can designers create unique user experiences and how can we respond to the zeitgeist but go beyond mere aesthetics with a genuine creative response? The interface to our media needs to be so engaging and immersive that they become almost invisible to the user. Catherine Gleeson takes us on a journey thats illustrates “creative courage and ingenuity”.

MACHINES LEARNING HUMAN INTELLIGENCE http://aws.amazon.com/mturk/ http://www.thesheepmarket.com/ http://www.systemone.at/en/company/labs/ Retrievr http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr Retrievr

GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF NETWORKS http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/ http://www.esono.com/boris/projects/concom/ http://toxi.co.uk/p5/base26/

INNOVATION + SPATIAL INTERFACES [1] [2] http://www.crus-bourgeois.com/ http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/index.php#maxp=search&trf=0&lon=-97.9025387763977&lat=37.6004793082306&mag=3 http://www.urbansilo.com/ http://www.flight404.com/version8/index.html

FOUND OBJECT / HAND DRAWN INTERFACES http://www.architectureinhelsinki.com/ http://calamityphysics.com/main.htm http://www.thibaud.be/ http://www.psyop.tv http://www.greenlady.com/index1.asp http://www.nakedcomms.com/ http://www.bk.com/

PLAY NARRATIVE IMAGINATION http://www.matthewmahon.com/ http://www.phatterism.com/ http://www.architectureinhelsinki.com/

Jun 16 - TOTAL IMMERSION, THIS IS NOT A GAME

A journey to the other side, a first peep down the rabbit hole of Second Life.

Friday June 13. Gary Hayes

Part one of a series of talks on social networks in ‘virtual shared spaces’ and MMORPGs (mass multiplayer online role playing games). Already beyond 15 million, online ‘social’ players spend more than three times ‘participating’ in these virtual worlds than watching TV/Film. After a brief look at the economic, narrative, ethical and social models of a range of MMORPGs, Gary will then concentrate on a real time demo of a unique world created by the inhabitants called ‘Second Life’.

Already occupied by 250 000 people he will give a tour of this immersive and representational ‘world’ - the grid. Show you round his land/house/friends, demonstrate the potential for collaborative media creation and some of the crafts relevant to AFTRS such as film pre-visualisation, making money, teaching, machinima, cinematography, set design, story development, photography, scripting and many more. For those who haven’t yet peered down the ‘shared virtual social network’ rabbit hole this is the one for you. A few primers are available on Gary's blog at PersonalizeMedia Second Life

A PDF of the first quarter of Gary's Friday talk looking at the economics and demographics of MMORPGs and Virtual Worlds

Christy Dena also just posted over the weekend about the economics and cross world marketing of Second Life.

Jun 23 - WIDEN YOUR HORIZONS: Get your film to a global audience

How to be found in the noise of digital distribution

Friday June 23. Peter Giles

Today’s distribution model is primarily about getting niche audience share as cheaply and effectively as possible - by understanding and using social networks and blogs but also by being unique and viral. Once audiences are in place they can be measured and it is then far easier to monetize and bring in advertising interest. The principle of findability is central to the success of distributing material via broadband and requires consistent branding at each point of entry that the user makes into your service.

The talk will cover the brand, business models and distribution ‘new revenue’ landscapes and how to take part in the long tail transition from “Mass audience to global niche audiences”. Using examples of recent successful viral and branded portal models such Artic Monkeys, Michael Moore web 2.0 applications, MySpace, JibJab, Lego cross-branding and Rocketboom he then talks about the easy ways to increase your exposure and chances of being found by highlighting the key web 2.0 (user publishing, collaboration & democratized distribution) services such as blogs, podcasting, RSS and many more.

Jun 29 - PARTICIPATORY TV

Video Sharing and User Generated Video on the Web

Thursday June 29. Angus Fraser

Video capture and editing tools are increasingly available in consumer grade electronics like PC’s, digital cameras and mobile phones. A new generation of web based tools has emerged that taps into the wealth of video content being created by media consumers turned producers. These tools allow anyone to upload and broadcast their own video and are hugely popular with web users, becoming some of the most trafficked sites online.

Interactive Media student Angus Fraser will give an overview of these services and what they might mean for professional media producers using examples from the BBC, the large video portals and a cool selection of viral sites.

LINKS FROM THE PRESENTATION

http://www.bbc.co.uk/videonation/

http://zed.cbc.ca/go?c=galleryHomePage

http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=lang&lang=en

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=14364548

http://www.youtube.com

http://video.google.com/

http://www.current.tv/

http://www20.sbs.com.au/footballshorts/

http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/06/062206_1.html

---

Examples for fun at end of prez:

User Created Ad

My Space alltime Top: 600,000

YouTube all time top: 26 mil views

Google current top

Starlings ex google top

Dance Dance Revolution I like this one

Russian Climbing ex google top

Second Life - dont care for this one just UGC on another UGC service

Jul 21 - VIRTUALLY YOURS

THE AFTRS ISLAND IN SECOND LIFE

Friday July 21. Gary Hayes

Come and give your opinion and suggest next steps for the AFTRS virtual island Gary has begun the process of developing our virtual, globally shared collaborative social and production space on a unique, dedicated AFTRS 3D world. Come and see the current builds of the 100 seater cinema/theatre, the machinima TV studio, the sets on the back-lots, offices, information/marketing areas, social spaces and just places to play. He will also show other educational campus’s and discuss how we should develop.

Come and share your thoughts on what you would want to do in this world, media creation and other crafts relevant to AFTRS such as film pre-visualisation, making money, character improvisation, teaching, machinima, cinematography, set design, story development, photography, scripting and many more.

There is the potential to use Croquet which is open source but that would take a long time to get off the ground, for the moment the moderate expense of Second Life as a ready to go toolset is worth it to see whether these virtual worlds are meaningful to AFTRS.

Visit the LAMP Photo album of the Island in development

Phase one build Second Life, AFTRS Island P1. A one day build on Sat 8 July by Gary Hayes. A quick tour round the first build of AFTRS Esperance Island. Mostly terraforming timewise, but added production areas, AFTRS main corporate tower, deparmental buildings and various experimental meeting areas - and of course the AFTRS theatre/cinema...

Phase Two Build Second Life AFTRS Island P2. A look at some of the enhancements to the basic one day build in phase one. Another day'ish worth of additions include: Various environmental sound placements - thunder, animals, waves etc. Many landscaping including waterfalls, fires, forests, waves around the island. TV vision switching studio added, enhancements to all other production areas such as extra seating, media streaming extras, multicamera in theatre. Various new meeting spaces including underwater 'fish table'. Added bridges to enable full island walks. General terraforming enhancements

Phase Three Build This 3rd phase out of probably 5 before we let people on here freely. Items this phase: 1) Creating a consistency between builds 2) Having more bold and designed structures 3) Creating room for dwelling, at least 36 created LAMP pods, testtubes ;-) 4) Adding another very large lecture area (roman style) 500 seater colleseum type 5) A few unique builds in complex areas such as glass boathouse 6) Main centerpiece is the Pyragoda, 4 floors for visitors 7) A very large circular 4 storey multipurpose build today 8) Some students have started test builds for specific purposes and to get used to builds 9) Lots of refinements to theater and other areas 10) Lots of work generally with walkways, vegetation, land, etc etc:

Phase Four Build A variety of visitor orientation items especially the new welcome area and teleport hub, some signage and clickable info boards and pictures. New builds include the welcome area bridge (between theatre and auditorium), a Eucalyptus forest around the theatre, the Australia sign in the 'hills', a lecture platform in auditorium, various new permissions added to some island splits and lots of sound and relax additions in strategic areas. Also fixed arrival timezone set to add dusky Australian mood for visitors and lower level texture set to red earth from own photographs.

Jul 28 - FILM FEST ON-THE-FLY

the international portable film festival 2006

Friday July 28. Simon Goodrich and Andrew Apostola

Simon and Andrew, General Manager and Creative Director of Portable Content, presented the background to the festival, other initiatives and the state of the industry for new forms of media on the small screen, oh yes, and get how to get your film in this major new festival.

Portable Content was established in November 2005 to innovate, create, distribute and exhibit new forms of content, whether it is film, video, audio or multimedia, to emerging audiences. They are passionate about new technology trends and creative content and believe there is enormous untapped potential for projects successfully integrating the two. The first project to be rolled out is the Portable Film Festival.

The Portable Film Festival 2006 is a free, international festival of short films downloadable to portable video devices. Launching on September 13 and running until October 31, this year’s program will feature sixty pre-selected films prepared especially for viewing on Sony PlayStation Portables, iPod Videos, 3G phones, laptops and even desk-bound computers. Entries have been received from 13 countries including Australia, the Netherlands, the US, the UK, Romania, Canada, Austria, Hungary, India, Indonesia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. The festival competition features two award categories: a peer-review prize, for the film judged best overall by participating filmmakers, and a viewers’ choice prize, for the online audience favourite.

A link to the 1.1MB PDF of their presentation here

Aug 11 - CINEMA + MACHINE = MACHINIMA

Come see the frontiers of the wonderful world of Machinima.

'Friday Aug 11. Machinimator and Digi Lecturer, Jackie Turnure

Jackie will walk you through examples of Machinima films including the first episode of “Bloodspell”, the new feature length project from Machinima.com founder, Hugh Hancock. She will also show examples of machinima made in Second Life, and a sample of her very own machinima spin off feature film, “Stolen Life”.

Machinima is 3D animation produced using a game engine. Rather than painstakingly animating entire films frame-by-frame, machinimators use a game engine to create a 3D Virtual Set, then shoot their film in there just like they would shoot a “real” film or video. Filmmakers all over the world are creating short films and features using this technology, sharing them on a myriad of Machinima websites. Machinima is also a quick and effective way to do pre-vis for both live action and 3D animation.

Aug 24 - LAMP HIGHLIGHTS

Come see the best of LAMP in this special presentation

Friday Aug 24. Gary Hayes, Peter Giles and Catherine Gleeson

In the last 10 months LAMP has run four major live-in-labs developing over 30 projects and transforming 92 people in the process. These have been run with ABC TV, SAFC and independent ones in WA and Sydney. It has also run seminars around the country in digital business and distribution. Come and see nine of the best projects as Peter Giles, Gary Hayes and Catherine Gleeson take you through the cream of LAMP including: Spicks & Specks, 4th World, Gardening Australia, Übergroover.tv, Emergence, Perfect Partner & Bush TV

“Audiences are fragmenting across multiple platforms and the time people spend using traditional media is rapidly declining. In the UK, according to the BBC, people are already spending more time using the internet in than watching TV. IMS research suggests that by 2011 half a billion people will be watching TV like services on their mobile phones and the 20+ million already paying upwards of $15 per month in massively multiplayer online worlds, are watching less than a quarter of normal TV and Film consumption. The winners in this environment are producers who can design experiences across all platforms and LAMP is a quick hit way of being part of this revolution”

Sep 1 - CROSS-MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT

The who, what, where, when, how of...

Friday Sep 1. Christy Dena, LAMP mentor, cross-media strategist, writer and PhD candidate

What is all this talk about Convergence, Multi-platform, Transmedia, Cross-Media and 360 Content? Is it really relevant to you? Yes. Every creator -- whether you’re working with print, film, television, stage or digital media -- needs to know about the pivotal paradigm shift that has occurred in audiences, industry and artists. You’re not in the business of creating a single work anymore, you’re in the business of creating worlds. This can be done with flair, artistically and effectively or…not.

Christy Dena is presenting a special seminar this Friday on Cross-Media Entertainment. She will provide current-state detail and best-case examples of:

• What is Cross-Media Entertainment
• Why you need to know about it
• Who else is doing it
• When you do it
• How you do it
• Where you can find out more

The presentation is unavailable but you can read more at Christy's Blog Cross-Media Entertainment

Sep 15 - 24/7 FESTIVAL PEOPLE

A look at online film festivals

Friday Sep 15. Ai Tukuno (MTV Australia) and Gary Hayes

First there was Tropfest, then every town and suburb started its own film festival. Now festivals are migrating online and to new platforms like mobile phones and ipods.

Ai Tukuno from MTV Australia will talk about an exciting new cross media initiative which aims to unearth new Australian creative talent using new media platforms. The ONE80PROJECT is a collaboration between Optus, MTV and Sony Ericsson and is calling for 3 minute drama pilots designed to be screened on TV, broadband and mobile platforms. Entries can be viewed, critiqued and voted for through the ONE80 project website and the winners will be able to develop their project further with the MTV team.

Gary Hayes from LAMP will profile Kevin Spacey’s very popular Trigger Street online film festival which has developed a huge audience of creatives who peer review each other’s work. Any successful festival provides the opportunity to meet others and take part in dialogue and social events around the consumption of content. Trigger Street has been successful precisely for this reason

Nov 10 - IT'S LEARNING JIM

but not as we know it.

Friday Nov 10. Adrian Norman (educational designer) and Gary Hayes

How technology and the web has changed what we know and how we know it. Adrian Norman will take us on a journey of the learning potential afforded by educational Web 2.0 platforms. He will also give a sneak peak at our new stellar online learning platform: myaftrs: my place for community and learning at AFTRS.

Gary opened by looking how an AFTRS web 2.0, social network tryptych fits together:

 *1 myAFTRS: Internal walled garden learning systems such as moodle and shared courseware
 *2 AFTRS Website: The shop window showcasing the school (plus the intranet)
 *3 The external intraweb: The open internet for independent professional applications 

A 1.2MB PDF of the presentation is here.

Dec 1 - WRITING FOR GAMES

Games don’t need a story - writers in the games industry are essentially unnecessary Mark Laidlaw, VALVE

Jackie Turnure presented by AFTRS LAMP as part of its Friday Futures Series.

Taken out of context, this comment could be dynamite, but the point made by Mark and many of the speakers at the Writing for Games conference is that the most important question game players ask is ‘is it fun to play?’. This statement goes to the heart of the need for games writers to understand that they serve the player. Storytelling for games only works if it is immersive and interactive. Forget this and you’re not writing a game.

How story works in a game, the role of the writer, and how to technically script a game are all topics Jackie Turnure will be touching on in her 1 hour overview of the 2006 Austin Texas, Writing for Games Conference

For this talk Jackie finished on her own 'busted myths' that she gleaned from the conference. They included myths such as:

   * Games = shooters
   * Games aren’t stories
   * Audience contribution is new
   * Interactivity breaks emotional engagement
   * Conflict = combat
   * Personalised content is not story
   * Story is king

and had some good news to finish on. Traditional skills do cross over in story, emotional engagement, genre, character, conflict, structure and dialogue and her final, final message was about the new skills many writers need to develop:

   * Balancing narrative with agency
   * Player is the protagonist
   * Making navigation transparent
   * Controlling rhythm and pacing
   * Incorporating personalisation
   * Encouraging real world interaction

PDF (83k) of the Powerpoint

MP3 recording time 41:15. (9.5MB) Click to listen