With all the season premieres the past few weeks, it’s easy to forget about online video. With low production budgets, webisodes have to fight hard with outstanding content to keep their audiences. And one of the strategies involves interactive storytelling, by taking advantage of a new kind of web narrative.
That’s what “The Outbreak” is doing. An interactive movie, where choices have to be taken, determining the plot and movie’s final.
Directed by Chris Lund and edited by his wife Lynn Lund, the zombie adventure challenges the user to make the right choice or die.
Beware, there’s a lot of blood if you don’t succeed. I wonder if we’re starting a a trend with B-interactive websites ?
Having attended the 1st one – and loving it – i’m expecting the same amount of enthusiasm and interesting discussions on how technology is shaping society and our daily lifes.
The event is organized by close friends Bruno and Pedro (at non-profit), with 60 speakers during the 3 days, at Parque das Nacoes FIL (Lisbon). The subjects in discussion include: Education, History, Genetics, Economics, Accessibility, Usability, Mobile Technologies, Open Source, Transportation, Energy, Architecture and Art. Quite a treat, eh?
GPS Mission is a location-based game for mobile phones. Using the Mission Designer application, you’re invited to create your own mission using GPS coordinates.
Anyone with a GPS enabled phone can go through mission tasks, control checkpoints or complete their photo assignments, on a new kind of personal ARG.
The video of the week is no motion graphics masterpiece or a viral sensation (yet). It’s a simple clay figure animation by the folks from Meetup.com (recently redesigned), remembering us that we can use the Internet to get off the Internet.
The film was created by Julie Lamb Gaboriau and Phil Gable, directed by Rohitash Rao and produced by Curious Pictures in NYC, in collaboration with Meetup.
And of course, Mountain View, placed next to Google’s corporate headquarters.
This seemingly useless trivia is actually important, as businesses get ranked in Local Search according to their proximity to the city center. If you’re an hotel, entertainment or tourism related service, you’d better start caring how Google Maps sets their city placemarks.
So, is your city center the same as the one suggested by Google Maps?
The hotsite intends to celebrate not only Yahoo’s official color, but also “that unique, charmingly eccentric side of all of us“. With some fun purple trivia, purple gadgets and a whole purple set of mind (whatever that is), the site does a great job on bringing back Yahoo’s culture, that has been in so bad shape lately, after the failed Microsoft deal.
One of the most interesting parts of the site are the videos prouced by agent Todd (of ImprovEverywhere and Frozen Grand Central fame). Several people were filmed in a Manhattan elevator, with a new performer getting on at each stop and singing Bordello’s “Start Wearing Purple”. I’ll leave you with the reactions:
Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a Grip is an animated film about climate change by Leo Murray. A cry for help, before we reach a point of no return, after which the catastrophe will become inevitable.
In it, a harsh critic on the advertising industry, that persuades consumers to buy things they don’t need. The video is full of educational material, that you can find at the companion website wakeupfreakout.org, along with the film’s script, with extensive peer-reviewed references and additional information and links.
This entry was cross-posted at Osocio, a blog on social advertising, where i’m a guest blogger.
And for those who appreciate round numbers, this was my 400th post here at A Source Of Inspiration.
Digital creativity isn’t always about the computer. The return of the Moleskine gave hand drawn communication a new home, with the web embracing this analog form of expression, from Google Chrome cartoons to SXSW SketchNotes.
One of my favorite evangelists of this new communion of web and drawing is Kevin Cornell. Besides his work for A List Apart, he has also some great sketchbooks. It’s not often you get to see these kind of works on the web, so it was nice to discover Lapin, a French art director with works for Heineken, Vueling and several magazines.
His impressive city sketchbooks, beautiful pencil and watercolor illustrations, are an unordinary departure from the usual holiday photo album.
