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by Australian Film TV and Radio SchoolThe Laboratory of Advanced Media Production from the Australian Film TV and Radio School. "Your Media Evolved"
Recent podcasts
Designing the Future
01/07/2007
Recorded live and unedited during the LAMP Story of the Future lab in Freycinet in May 2007 in front of the eight teams developing emerging media projects. "Design is all about making creative decisions..The thing I want to stress to day is the thinking of design, that the best designers out there are also the best thinkers...Don't be cool, don't impose an aesthetic on your project, don't impose an attitude, just have faith in your guts, have faith in your own creativity, and to hell with everybody else. Someone said recently that standing out is the new fitting in, because we know we are getting into a really crowded space. Its really exciting that audiences are fragmenting but with more variety you have to be more inventive, authentic and creative yourself." Catherine works through the complexities of the design process drawing on 20 years experience in the field. She uses a project called Reenchantment (about fairy tales) and how she approached the creative brief and generated a style. One of the biggest issues was how to make it accessible to a broader audience given the content was on the surface quite highbrow and Catherine talks through the thoughts that made is more approachable. She goes into some details about the schematic and interactive architecture but goes back in the end to the power of environments and stories. © Catherine Gleeson 2007 The Laboratory for Advanced Media Production is facilitated by the Australian Film TV and Radio School and is probably Australia’s premier emerging media R&D and production labs. Participants actually create proof of concept, develop strong presentations and evolve the business, technical and creative aspects of their property. It is a unique mix of seminars, workshops, immersive rapid prototyping residentials and industry focused product development. LAMP accepts project applications from all parts of the Australian media industry and we look forward to hearing from you. Click ‘How to Apply’ to see the latest lab dates if you would like to evolve your property for mobile devices, advanced television, broadband, games consoles, multi user virtual environments and beyond. The four stage process will equip participants and project teams with the tools they need to create compelling interactive content meeting the needs of the audience and marketplace. LAMP is strategically content and service focused, with a healthy mix of creativity, business, technical and audience centricity.
From Blue Sky to Green Light
29/06/2007
From Blue Sky to Green Light © Deborah Todd. Deborah talks about the games design development process and how story and character are critically important for reversioning existing properties. Where: Museum of Sydney, 37 Philip St, Sydney - When: Thursday 28th June 2007, 2pm - 4.30pm LIVING THE STORY SEMINAR If film was the medium of the 20th Century and games the medium of the 21st, how do we bring together the best elements of these two monoliths of entertainment? The next generation of games will rely on story, narrative and character development to immerse users inside the experience so that they are living the story. What skills do the creators of these media experiences need to develop compelling content for the future? The seminar will be keynoted by Deborah Todd, an award winning games designer from LA and recent author of the best selling book Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light. She will talk about the key ingredients of planning, designing and structuring a compelling game, referring to the types of stories and characters best adapted from linear film and TV to the games medium. Other speakers Jackie Turnure and Luke Carruthers will cover areas including role-playing game environments inside social virtual worlds, production methodologies, user-generated games and a market overview. This is a must-attend free seminar for linear producers, writers and broadcasters who are considering turning their show or film into a console, online or casual game. Keynote Speaker Bio: Deborah Todd - Games Designer/Writer Deborah Todd is a veteran award-winning designer, writer, producer and director in the interactive arena, with 14 published games and 20 published titles to her credit since 1991. Her new book, Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light, is published by A K Peters, and was released at GDC 2007. From initial blue-sky sessions to pitching for a green light, Deborah Todd uses creative exercises and examples from classic and contemporary games to highlight different aspects of the game-design process: the decision and brainstorming phase, story and character design, content creation, testing, designing documents, and flowcharting. Many of the game industry’s brightest professionals share insights on key elements in game design and their analysis of what makes a game a blockbuster hit. She has worked with some of the industry’s top publishers and Hollywood studios, including Disney Interactive, Disneyland, Fox, DreamWorks, Discovery Channel, MGM/UA, Columbia, Warner Bros., Nickelodeon, The Learning Company, Humongous Entertainment, Broderbund, Mindscape, Houghton-Mifflin, McGraw-Hill, Random House, and Steven Spielberg’s Starbright Foundation. Her projects have garnered such awards as the ABA Book Sellers Choice New Media Award, the ComputEd Best Interactive Story Award, Child Magazine’s Best Software of the Year Award, Parenting Magazine’s Software Magic Award, and U.S. News and World Report’s Top 12 Titles of the Year. Deborah taught a 4-month game design course at a college in the Silicon Valley, which she developed and which ultimately sparked the idea for her latest book. She has also guest lectured at several universities including UCSF writing for the new media program, UC Hayward master’s program on game design, and at En’jmin in Angouleme, France, also a master’s program in game design, where she is working again this summer on an intensive games workshop.
The Future Business of Games
29/06/2007
Luke Carruthers - "The Future Business of Games" © Luke Carruthers. Luke concentrates on games trends, the complexity of the Business and the heirarchy of market dictating what gets made. Where: Museum of Sydney, 37 Philip St, Sydney - When: Thursday 28th June 2007, 2pm - 4.30pm LIVING THE STORY SEMINAR If film was the medium of the 20th Century and games the medium of the 21st, how do we bring together the best elements of these two monoliths of entertainment? The next generation of games will rely on story, narrative and character development to immerse users inside the experience so that they are living the story. What skills do the creators of these media experiences need to develop compelling content for the future? The seminar will be keynoted by Deborah Todd, an award winning games designer from LA and recent author of the best selling book Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light. She will talk about the key ingredients of planning, designing and structuring a compelling game, referring to the types of stories and characters best adapted from linear film and TV to the games medium. Other speakers Jackie Turnure and Luke Carruthers will cover areas including role-playing game environments inside social virtual worlds, production methodologies, user-generated games and a market overview. This is a must-attend free seminar for linear producers, writers and broadcasters who are considering turning their show or film into a console, online or casual game. Luke Carruthers Luke Carruthers is a games developer who runs a company called Imaginary Numbers in Sydney. The company creates online games and their first title Tactica Online is a fast-moving strategy RPG set amidst conspiracy and intrigue of Da Vinci’s world. Luke Carruthers’ first company, Magna Data, was founded in 1993, and went on to become one of Australia’s most successful early Internet service providers. Sold in 1999 for A$16 million, it was noted for its innovative services, including operating one of the country’s first DSL broadband networks. Since then he has founded three more companies, all focused on the Internet and telecommunications market, including Inter-touch, an in-hotel network operator recently acquired by NTT DoCoMo for US$70 million, and Alterna Telecom, which provided wholesale PSTN switching services and was acquired by RSLCom in 2002. Secretary of the Internet Industry Association from 1995 to 2001, and joining the board of the Game Developers Association of Australia in 2005, he has also worked with numerous government and industry bodies aiding in the development of the legislative and regulatory framework for the telecommunications, media, and entertainment industries.
When Films and Games Collide
29/06/2007
JACKIE TURNURE - "When game and film collide" © Jackie Turnure 2007. Jackie gives an overview of the games universe and talks about the importance of story, character and agency. Where: Museum of Sydney, 37 Philip St, Sydney - When: Thursday 28th June 2007, 2pm - 4.30pm LIVING THE STORY SEMINAR If film was the medium of the 20th Century and games the medium of the 21st, how do we bring together the best elements of these two monoliths of entertainment? The next generation of games will rely on story, narrative and character development to immerse users inside the experience so that they are living the story. What skills do the creators of these media experiences need to develop compelling content for the future? The seminar will be keynoted by Deborah Todd, an award winning games designer from LA and recent author of the best selling book Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light. She will talk about the key ingredients of planning, designing and structuring a compelling game, referring to the types of stories and characters best adapted from linear film and TV to the games medium. Other speakers Jackie Turnure and Luke Carruthers will cover areas including role-playing game environments inside social virtual worlds, production methodologies, user-generated games and a market overview. This is a must-attend free seminar for linear producers, writers and broadcasters who are considering turning their show or film into a console, online or casual game. Jackie Turnure With script editing and writing experience in both traditional and new media, Jackie Turnure brings a unique perspective to the role of narrative in cross media production. For the last 15 years she has been working across film, television, games and online production, with a particular focus on animation and children’s content. Jackie received her Bachelor of Arts (Visual Communications) from Sydney College of the Arts and her Master of Fine Arts (Film Production) from San Francisco State University. She spent nine years in the US teaching screenwriting at New York University, Hunter College and the Academy of Arts College, San Francisco. During that time, Jackie wrote and directed eight short films and videos that have won awards and screened internationally. After returning to Sydney, Jackie produced and directed three 3D animated kids’ games for PC, “Bananas in Pyjamas ” It’s Party Time”, “Oz - The Magical Adventure” and “Oz - The Interactive Storybook”. The games have won numerous awards and been distributed in 18 countries. Jackie lectures part time at AFTRS, was an industry mentor at the NSW Film and Television Office’s Indigenous Writers Workshop, ran a Game Design Workshop in FTI in Perth and gave a workshop on Alternative Narratives for the Australian Writer’s Guild. In addition, Jackie works as a script editor and story consultant on feature films, animated television series and animated games. She recently completed story producing and writing 3 episodes on Deadly, a half hour animated TV series based on the books by Paul Jennings and Morris Gleitzman. Jackie was the script editor and voice director on Stolen Life, an animated feature produced in Machinima, written and produced by Peter Rasmussen. She has just recently won a development award at Milia 2007 from Ogilvy and AMEX for her ARG project ‘Diamond Reef’.
TV Can I introduce you to Games
14/06/2007
The third of three podcasts from Guy Gadney, Tony Walsh and Gary Hayes recorded live at the at the AGL Theatre, Museum of Sydney (MoS) Thurs 17 May. TV can i introduce you to Games? Guy takes a broad look at the changes happening in creative media industries. The importance of broadband to enable virtual worlds and mixed reality services as well as integration to allow rich cross-media entities such as Alternate Reality Games. He looks at some commercial drivers for mixed reality spaces such as home finding, being able to virtually walk into models of physical spaces. "This sort of programming is fascinating in that not only does the user interact with the story line but builds up their own profile online, matches them across the fictional story world which is being told across 24 to their real location in the US and then throws a community into the mix as well. And like a car cranking we start to get a sense of the beginnings of some quite exciting." Guy continues to look at the power of community as creators across mobiles, web and in TV and talks about CSI, 24, L Word (viewer generated script) and Desperate Housewives and the importance of relevant advertising. He looks at growing trends: "it takes about 7 to 10 years for any new major technology, behavioural technology to filter through to mainstream. If we look at hardware that has come through PCs as they come up to 50%, the growth of DVD players and broadband as it starts to come through there is a linearity associated with that." He talks about the growth of gaming platforms, the generations that define them and how they are becoming more and more ubiquitous. "What we are getting at the moment is all of this stuff coming at once and there is a reason for that I believe. Which is that it has actually been coming for quite some time and if you apply the rule of 7-10 years here is a grab bag of technologies that have come through. Chat, iRC chat was around 1988 now look at where we are with MSN messenger, that is mainstream. RPGs in a new media context started around 1988 as well and MMORPGs started around 1991. 3D browsers started to come through around 1994 with VRML as browser plugins. Mobile content and interactive TV also around 1996/7. Many of these failed first time around in about 1996. If you go mainstream with all of these, guess what they are all hitting about now." Guy finishes by talking about the relationship with the customers is about being much closer to them now and in real time and it changes the way we need to relate to them. A consistent narrative must work across commercial services as well as more story driven ARGs, a web experience must be linked to the fax or mobile experience. Guy Gadney Guy Gadney has been involved in new media since 1992, and produced his first interactive online story for Penguin Books in 1996. He produced and directed two others in the late nineties that tapped into the power of story-telling as a dialogue rather than a monologue. He produced and co-wrote the MMORPG Diaspora in 1998 with over 50 interwoven storylines which formed the basis of the interactive user-generated game. He has worked at the BBC, FoxKids, FOXTEL, BigPond and is currently General Manager of Digital Services at PBL Media developing digital strategy for the group companies including ACP Magazines and Channel Nine. He is President of AIMIA, and is involved in a number of companies worldwide who specialise in virtual worlds and interactive narrative. MIXED REALITY BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT “Where Social Networks meet Games meet TV” Which side of the wall are you on? TV and Film OR Games and Virtual Worlds? That wall is about to crumble. This is a wake up call to all entertainment producers and consumers to prepare for an almighty collision. Audiences are already spending up to four times as much of their entertainment time in virtual spaces than they are watching TV. EA Games have just partnered with Endemol to produce TV shows inside virtual worlds, MTV Networks have virtual versions of their popular TV program Laguna Beach and there is a growing tide of shows from virtual worlds which mirror our experiences in the physical world. This exciting afternoon seminar will examine a wide range of cross-over services that work between games, virtual worlds and linear TV. This seminar is intended for games creators, social network managers and film and TV producers looking to merge their entertainment worlds. It will also be of interest to designers of games that work across media in the physical world using mobiles, print, viral techniques, TV and the web. Join: * Tony Walsh (Emmy Award Winning Canadian Games Developer) * Guy Gadney (General Manager PBL Digital Services & President AIMIA) and * Gary Hayes (Director of LAMP and Head of MUVE at The Project Factory)
