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Searching for Exceptional Multimedia Productions?
ContinuousPark asks: "My local college has asked me to participate in a 120 hour course on multimedia production. I proposed that one of the modules should be called something like 'Multimedia Appreciation'; I will be teaching this one. During this 10 to 20 hour period, I intend to show students several examples of multimedia productions so they can get an idea of what's possible; what's has been done; and what's original or too common, so they can formulate their own projects, later. So I'm looking for interesting websites that could inspire students, that could help them understand what is a good multimedia production, what kind of effort goes into it, etc. In fact, I'm not just looking for websites, I would also like to include videogames, movies, opera productions, and any other work of art that uses multiple channels to convey a message. What are the most effective multimedia productions you've seen through the years? Examples easily available so that I can show it to them are of course preferable, I'm willing to buy any CD, DVD, book or whatever though. Thanks for the advice."
Impress your students with a hands-on demo.
Get yourself an iMac (or better) Mac system (on loan from a friend, or maybe even your local Apple rep--they love this sort of things) and load it with iDVD, some movie clips, stills and sounds. With the built-in library, you'll have plenty material to show them where DVD authoring is going to: the best multimedia support.
Not only can they be viewed on computers, but any home DVD player to. THAT's impressive.
Of course, I'm biased being a Mac propeller head; this could be don on hardware other than Macs, but Macs and iDVD are readily accessible.
Bring a couple of off-the-shelf DVDs to complement what can be done (without having yourself to build something very convincing). The Cell is a nicelly-put DVD, and so is Aliens (widescreen platinum edition).
Karma karma karma karma karmeleon: it comes and goes, it comes and goes.
Lessons taught:
Other games: Deus Ex Machina, Starship Titanic (disclaimer: I worked for the company that made it), Shenmue.
Sites: Metababy, Unweb, Heavy, Placing, DIRK, Requiem For A Dream
VR Experiences: Char Davies's Osmose. Probably the most affecting thing you can don a head-mounted display for. If you ever get the chance to try it...
-- Yoz
Take a look at Animation Master's Site This is a very good low priced animation package that rivals the big boys. It was used to create Alien Song and the unforgettable animations by our own Rob Malda
It is a good example of what your average Joe can come up with.
Curating a multimedia show is difficult. It tends to "day" rather quickly. Even if the project is burned to a CD which can last for 30 years, the platform it is built on is unlikely to be around in five years. Because of this, all of NYU Interactive Telecommunication Program thesis' are recorded to VHS. Sure, you lose a hell of a lot putting a digital project on video, but its better than losing everything.
A lot of multimedia work falls through the cracks. It disinterests both engineers and traditional artists. It also tends to be installation work. This means that the museum piece is not wrapped up in a form useful in your PC.
As for suggestions...
The Whitney Museum of American Art is featuring a show called BitStreams and Data Dynamics. This is one of the largest showings of multimedia art.
Blue Man Group is probably the only long running theatrical show heavily based around multimedia. Beyond the eye candy, it makes lots of commentary about the art world and the digital world. Oh yeah, they do those Intel commercials as well, but I always figure that they just confuse the average home viewer. : )
Explore NYU'S Interactive Telecommunication Program site. MIT's Media Lab and NYU's ITP are the two top programs in their field. The Media Lab does things because they can. NYU does projects on a much more human level.
Rhizome tends to be a center of net based art.
And there's no way you can pass up the old standard - Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan. While it was written well before "multimedia" its commentary on more traditional media is easily extrapolated to digital media.
Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
That uses both a sound and a video channel.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
They can point you to sites and other projects. They have users groups for multi-media.
Check out MacShowLive.com and contact Shawn@ MacShowLive.com. They'd be interested, I'm sure.
You could make a multimedia project with iMovies and stream with QuickTime.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Laurie Anderson has a multimedia performance called "Songs and Stories from Moby Dick". She uses various hi tech devices, including some powerful DSP hardware/software that allows her to pitchshift her voice in realtime (including 3 part harmonizing with herself). The show also includes miscellaneous visual effects/props. Two high powered projectors "paint" the set through the show.
It's slightly offbeat, but I enjoyed the show.
I saw this cool flash video based on an old video game called Zero Wing once, but I don't think anyone here has heard of it or mentioned it to date. Anyone remember this oldie?
This is some really impressive flash work...
C-X C-S
He did an exhibit at the national museam of art when the van gogh exhibit was there. It was called exploring edo. They had touch screen computers that allowed you to go throught a 3d representation of Japan during the edo period where you could see a gesha show and more things like that. They also had artwork from that period in other parts of the exhibit.
Lastly look at blaxxum.com. They do 3d worlds as well look at pulse.com. They also do 3d multimedia. pulse does some really cool things.
I don't want a lot, I just want it all!
Flame away, I have a hose!
Only 'flamers' flame!
Triton Films, a group of machinima/CGI artists, have made several movies already and are now working on their Magnum Opus--a fully CGI piece called "Quake: The Movie". They've got a couple of trailers out already, and they're really something to see!
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Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
check out the1thatgotaway
Lots of tasteful flash work.
Two thoughts spring to mind as far as recongized well-done stuff goes.
1) You may want to check out the SXSW Interactive Winners. Some of them won awards for interesting design/good flash usage. Some of them won for just being creative or having a whole lot of chutzpah.
2) I was once dating a graphic designer, and she had a bunch of books called "Design Annuals". They were collections of well designed ads (radio, television, print), presentations, sculptures, and later, web pages. I can't remember what they are or how to find them, but they exist. Maybe another slashdotter will add the info.
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Tweet, tweet.
Really what type of presentation of any sort can't be considered "multi-media"? There's really nothing terribly exciting about most DVD's videogames, etc. The real interesting phenomenon is media convergence, or using different mediums simotamiously to complement each other without a set script.
Unfortunately this is just beginning to take shape now. For instance, being able to access the IMDB on your TV based on information fed from you DVD or DSS would be Media Convergence. The article yesterday about "Who Wants To be A Milloinaire" actually allowing people to compete at home for prizes is almost there.
Its about different mediums being able to send hints to each other on what content to display, and not the packaging of pre-defined content.
In my opinion its a lot more exciting than "Multi-media" which really, everything is. Sight, sound, and words nothing special about that.
another would be snarg.net for its uniqueness and total lack of conformity to any consistency.. Its amazing it actually pulls it off.. congrats to the author (i can't remember his name)..
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds -Albert Einstein
- CFX Web
- Scene.org - especially the viewing tips section
- Assembly 2K
Some demos are classic "real-time" calculated, others have to fit within a size limit like 64k, still others are wirtten in Java. A study of the scene as a whole would show you some interesting trends e.g. the move to hardware accelerated effects over the last couple of years.--- Hot Shot City is particularly good.
I'm a huge fan of shorts. I think it's great to be able to flesh an innovative idea out in 5 or 10 minutes and not have to worry about using filler to make it 90-120 minutes. You'll find the most creative stuff that way.
:-)*
Some of the best stuff I've seen came from the NFB here in Canada. I highly recommend checking out Norman McLaren's work. He was obsessed with the use of technology in animation and had a tendency to inspire people to experiment in their own creations. Neighbours, which uses stop motion animation with live actors (yup, it's pretty freaky) and a soundtrack which he drew directly on the film, won an Oscar. A lot of the other NFB stuff is amazing to eyes and ears as well. They're selling DVDs now, too, including a pair of animation collections which I highly recommend. The first one has Getting Started, which is the story of my life.
I also recommend a series of DVDs out there called Short Invention. They're really cool and I've been finding them in the Future Shop, which is even cooler, so you might be able to buy them off the shelf locally.
But, please, please, do not focus on computer animation and the like without showing the works of Norman McLaren first or your students will definitely miss out on something very important.
http://www.shorn.com/
Work of Todd Purgason @ JuXT Interactive.
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Am I the only one who thinks Microsoft is a misnomer? Perhaps Macrosoft would be a better fit?
DVD may be a wonderful format for storage of multimedia works, but if it is burdened with CSS locks, it is far less useful for playback -- another artist cannot use excerpts from the work in his own creation or juxtapose them for comment or criticism, even when those are clearly fair uses. He is technologically (and possibly legally, if those fighting to uphold the DMCA are successful) barred from sampling, creating montages, or adapting earlier works. Further, the locks burden audiences for the work, who may be unable to watch them on a given machine, in a chosen sequence, or to view DVDs imported from another region. In fact, you yourself may experience these difficulties if you wish to prepare several DVD movies for classroom comparison. (If you do, please let us know.)
I hope you will encourage the artists, whose work these controls are supposedly protecting, to reject locks that prevent their audiences from making use of the works they create.
More information on the DVD case, Universal v. Reimerdes, is available at Openlaw DVD.
Thanks!
-- Openlaw: Fighting for fair use and the public domain
Mission Impossible2, Matrix, Saving Private Ryan, etc...
With all the extras, bonuses given, its chock full of multimedia goodness.
I'm sure that I could make a case for multi-angle-director-commentary pr0n dvds too.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
SquareSoft does some of the best CGI movies in the world. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within will be released on 13 July this year. It is the first major motion picture to be completely CG and not be a cartoon. Toy Story and it's sequal were CG correct, but very cartoonish, where as FF is attempting to be as life like as possible. Star Wars Episode I doesn't count, rumor is that a few of the characters were in fact real live actors on film.
Note to self: No more arguing with the faithful.
At GV Expo in November (Washington D.C.) I got a first look at Adobe Premiere 6. Premiere now allows you to output video that intereacts with a browser.
What it does is "throw out" a URL to the browser and allows you to have information brought in from the web at certain keyframes.
The demo that the Adobe rep showed me was a brief clip on BMX. When they introduce a rider they update a frame with biographical info.
Of course there are security implications...
Here is a write up I did on Premiere 6, while it was still in beta.
I don't know any other tools that allow this so easily...it might be worth it to make a multimedia presentation of your own.
Don't post innacurate information
If you do, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you.
Simply Amazing work, kudos!
The Final Task (Short Movie)
EYE4U (German Multimedia Company Corporate web-site)
Hielscher (Done by EYE4U)
nrg design (Corporate site)
Beatstream (another company site)
Renegade Cartoons (cartoon site / Corporate)
Dude Studios (makers of the infamous "Dude Wars")
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crazy dynamite monkey
There is an excellent CD production made at Simon Fraser University in BC, called The Prime Ministers of Canada. The website is a great example of the use of Flash and standard HTML, the CD was produced using Macromedia Director and uses some very innovative and complex Lingo programming (a friend of mine was the chief Lingo programmer on the project which why I know about it). It forms part of the Canadian Encyclopedia World Edition and can be purchased online at Chapters.ca or Indigo.ca
I would suggest you check out the site and decide what you think.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
This is easily the best use of multimedia I've ever seen.
m au s
http://www.voyagerco.com/cdrom/catalogpage.cgi?
Tunak Tunak Tun
Hatt, Baby
Got Rhinos?
Multimedia is SUCH a stupid word.
--
PaxTech
All movements for social change begin as missions, evolve into businesses, and end up as rackets.
Joe Cartoon rocks. The website that brought you the web's first killer app: blowing up a gerbil in a microwave (among other gerbil-genocidal humor).
NO CARRIER
"Bad games."
I've forgotten who said that, but s/he pretty much nailed it.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
Back in the 90's (it still feels strange to say that) there was this band called EBN. (Electronic Broadcast Network) They came out with a CD (Titled "Telecommunications Breakdown")
This CD is good, but what was better was the multimedia and the VHS production of the album. They managed to show video clips from that time in sync with the music in a very creative and effective manner. I will reply to this post with info on where you can get the video once I find it.
EBN also helped U2 with the ZooTV production. It turned out to be a great success and any video of ZooTV would help out as well.
Depending on where you live, you could try to see Blue Man Group (as seen on Intel commercials). They also have a CD out now that is really good.
I will post links off of this thread in a little while..
Wow, it looks like most of this is already redundant!
Brief lowdown on EBN
EBN page on TVT Records site
Blue Man site
Anyone know where I can find the Telecommunications Breakdown VHS tape? I can only find the CD.
Oh, and I almost forgot KIMBLE
Sledgehammer theatre in san diego did a few productions 5 or 6 years ago that were really ahead of their time, and quite good. It was a mixed live theatre / video approach, where people would go offstage and TV's would show another part of the story.
In particular, I remember one about the angst of a department store worker, where the live play was about her home life and the videos were of crappy things happening to her at work.
http://www.sledgehammer.org/
-b
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
http://www.flashfilmfestival.com
Some of my personal favorites are:
And here's one that I *coded* (I'm a programmer, not a designer) for a company I used to work for... it's won a few awards and was all done in Flash 4.
Rand Interactive
The company I work for also has a Flash web page, but I wasn't as involved in it:
Fig Leaf Software
A|Q|U|A
The site is unfortunately in norwegian (which might restrict your appreciation somewhat, unless you happen to speak it), but you should get the idea anyway. It's on www.boyzvoice.com.
The site is for the norwegian band boyzvoice. The band was originally created for a short tv-sketch attempting to make fun of boy-bands (not too unlike Ali G making fun of gangsta' rappers).
Somehow, the idea took off. They made a full-length movie, and have probably sold more records than most real boy-bands in Norway. All the songs and lyrics are there, which of course are in english, as no boyband would ever sing in norwegian anyway...
It's all about spoof, karaoke and flashy graphics, has no purpose whatsoever (except getting the authors wildly rich), but is quite enjoyable.
It's a pretty box, too, simple asthetics. Black and white, opens front and back. I have it in my hands, my hot little hands.
Watch out, btw. If you buy it, open it and check the cd before you leave the store. Some of them shipped with no CD key.
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
Lionhead has a shockwave/flash/whatever page that is reasonably astounding. I knew you could do all the stuff that they do, but I never considered putting it together like that. The scrolling landscape is particularly neat.
The link:
www.lionhead.com
Go to the shocked version, of course.
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
Yo-Yo Ma did an interesting thing with Francois Girard where he performed in a building by an 18th century Italian architect; the building had been designed but never built, so they instead created it digitally, and had Yo-Yo Ma playing in it. Thought it was pretty interesting, and of course the music was great.
You can find it on Amazon, or search elsewhere for "Inspired by Bach Vol. 1: The Music Garden/The Sound of the Carceri".
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San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art is doing an Art in Technological Times exhibit, complete with strange music and quotes by Nicolas Negroponte. You can check out the exhibition's web site, but more interesting to you if you're not in the SF area might be the online presentation, which may be more practical then getting to SF.
The exhibit, of course, is better than the on-line version; the on-line version is a bit gratuitous in its use of neat flash techniques and new interface choices, but it's worth a view.
Tell me what makes you so afraid
Of all those people you say you hate
Tell me what makes you so afraid
Of all those people you say you hate
...the dungeon keeper series shows a colorful mix of 3rd person god-view, with 1st person action-view (with the 'posses spell'). :-)
As far as sound being important in a game, try System Shock 2. The sound in that game still scares the ba-jesus outta me. Especially the maiden mothers....
Along with use of cameras in video games, you may add the resident evil series. People would get frustrated about how the views are static, but the designer purposely did this for effect. And how homeworld has a complex 3-D dynamic camera, but it is simple to use and understand and makes the game more interesting (try viewing a battle from multiple angles... very cool).
Hope this helps for the video game section
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
http://www.skipintro.com or http://www.zombo.com
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
DISCLAIMER: I AM A FAN
U2's PopMart concert tour (1997) was a ridiculous/amazing multimedia extravaganza of... well.. biblical, or at least stadium sized, proportions.
You can get a good tape of it at amazon or a less offensize retailer of your choice.
http://www.fffever.com/AYB2.swf
Blarf.
One of the most amazing Multimedia productions I've seen in the last few years was some work done by a group of french coders and musicians. You can download some of their work at http://www.nomad-medialab.com . Very nice to see people work on compact 3d engines and music processors in order to make works of art.
My best advice is to first see what the students are interested in. See what gets to them and look at why they think it is interesting. Kids are bombarded with media stimulus these days and there's no reason why many of them won't have a good and wide appreciation of what's out there for their senses.
You might also want to make a small project where they can use their own combination of media and let them explore it that way. Hands on is also hearts in, don't just have them sit there and watch. Those days are over.
yoink
http://home.achilles.net/~jgreen/mode.html
A brilliant experiment by Corel to produce interactive multimedia game sensory artificial intelligence cyberpunk buzzword buzzword buzzword something or other. It even has the patented, ground breaking MOOD TECHNOLOGY BAR, whereby you drag a little bar towards the left or the right indicating how warm or hostile you want to react to people, and get one of three responses based on the one of three movie clips that gets played back.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA sorry I couldn't say that with a straight face.
Slow as hell, buggy in places, pretentious and overblown, a pure example of everything that was wrong with the mid 90s multimedia craze. This was post shark-jumping attempts at art-student-turned-Macintosh-"content developer" cleverness. And considered THE WORST videogame of all time. And it's Canadian, too, so you know it's GOTTA suck.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
Now you owe me $5 for doing your research for you.
I have a cd set for the Mozart opera Cosi fan tutte that includes a multimedia presentation of the history of the work, the historical setting of it's composition and a read-along play feature. It is very well done and comprehensive.
D Y/ 002-7805834-8918463
Like most complete opera sets, it is not cheap. Maybe you can get it from a library. Along with the multimedia part, the production is highly recommended.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000I8
Cosi fan Tutte
Our Price: $52.97
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Conductor: René Jacobs
Performer: Marcel Boone, Bernarda Fink, et al.
Ensemble: Cologne Chamber Choir, Concerto Cologne
Harmonia Mundi (Fra) - #951663 / March 9, 1999
Audio CD / DDD / Number of Discs: 3
I always felt that "You Don't Know Jack" was a very well done video game. It was implemented in Flash and was always fun and well presented.
www.nakednews.com that's some quality news. A good multimedia example
As x approaches total apathy I couldn't care less.
http://www.heavy.com/ . Which turns out is also pretty damned funny. Especially the Contagious movies.
But the Blue Man Group's shows are some of the best use of multiple media I've seen. They use video, scrolling LED message boards, video tape, backlighting, electronic music, public address systems, water baloons.. It's quite the experience.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.