Blue Screen Of Creativity (BSOC)

In the current issue of Wired, Jason Silverman writes:

Michela Ledwidge wants her film to be more than watchable. She wants it to be remixable. By February, the director plans to post all of the raw material for Sanctuary, her 10-minute sci-fi movie about a girl, her computer, and a mysterious murder, on www.modfilms.com. Expect nearly nine hours of production footage, 90 minutes of sound effects and dialog, plus hundreds of storyboards, concept drawings, and still photos. Viewers will be able to manipulate the cinematic elements with downloadable software called Switch. Ledwidge was inspired by game modding: Fans spend untold hours performing retrofits on their favorite titles (famous examples include Half-Life and Quake III). If her project catches on, Sanctuary could turn into the first massively multiplayer online movie.

This is an excellent idea. In pushing the idea further, it would be interesting to develop a series of similar projects, each of which would move closer to blue screen with which others could create a story/movie. For example, the next step would be to have a similar setup but with no audio or blue screen substitutes available. Interested parties would dub over their own vocals (which would be paired, but not synced, with the movement of the actors’ mouths) and background imagery. Taking it further, we might have blue screened outfits for the actors and blue screened boxes in the foreground, letting people apply clothing and props to the scene.

Album Reviews

1—————->3—————>5
Terrible—————–>Fantastic

5
Clipz Livin’ Drumz
Coldcut Let US Replay!
Kraftwerk Live @ Coachella Music and Arts Festival
Riley, Terry Requiem for Adam
Rolling Stones Forty Licks

4
Bowie, David David Live
Bowie, David Heroes
Bowie, David Space Oddity
Bowie, David Station to Station
Quintron Satan is Dead
Riley, Terry A Rainbow in Curved Air
Skalpel 1958 Breaks
Various Artists Smart-Music.net’s Favorite Ninja Tunes

3
Aphrodite Overdrive
Bowie, David Low
Bowie, David Man Who Sold The World, The
Bowie, David Pinups
DJ Shadow Diminshing Returns (Essential Mix 20030330)
Empire, Alec and Merzbow Live @ CBGB NYC 1998
Riley, Terry Persian Surgery Dervishes
Tobin, Amon Permutation
Westdal, Keston Super Structure Baby
Various Artists Digital Beauties .001

2
Drop the Lime Gutterbreakz Set
Riley, Terry Bird of Paradise

1
Carey, Mariah Emancipation of Mimi, The (Ultra Platinum Edition)

Article: Free To Speak

The Consumer Electronics Show, the largest consumer electronics trade show of the year, wrapped up in early January. I wrote two articles on it, one for Personal Finance and one for High Tech Bulletin. Both articles focused on VoIP-capable handsets, although the Personal Finance article, which comes out on January 25, includes stock recommendations.

You can find the High Tech Bulletin article here.