Tools vs content

Chris Hales really entertained the workshop participants with a performance of interactive films. It was great to see him getting the participants to react to a movie of singer and have the participants singing and shouting in order to get a glass broken. I have see him do this before in Prague and Tampere and again it was a success. But it was also good to see that he progresses over the years. Using films he had made in the past his new toy is tracking and tracing, for example with lights. So his movie Jinxed (everything goes wrong) was now updated with a track and trace interface. In the meantime Chris has built up a catalogue of interactive movies for his presentations.


Servigo

Today we are getting into deep water. It is tools’ day. So for the techies among the participants it will be a great day. Although the techies might have their own preference such as Director or Flash, they also like to see other tools. Stefan Goebel of ZGDV had a very interesting presentation of storytelling tools. He showed an interactive story editor. He showed also Servingo, in a service which is used for the World Champion Soccer in 2006 in Germany. It is a small editor which produces a template in which you can put photographs of a soccer stadium or other personal photographs. The whole production can be done with a mobile. It is basically a clip with photographs, which can be sent as a file to friends. It is a nice idea, the result is simple, but I believe in this type of small services. But Stefan is involved in a lot of storytelling project.


Memories for Venice

Then some more tools pass. Korsakov is one of them I still start smiling when I hear the name of the package. It is not exactly a commercial name. But with the package you can make an interactive production of stills or movie clips in five days. Another package is DADAdoc, developed by Massimo Catalfo. He produced as a student Memories for Venice and was a category winner in the EUROPRIX Top Talent Award. Also the big EU project INSCAPE was explained. This is a very complex project which will deliver storytelling tools.


Eku Wand

In the afternoon Eku Wand took the floor and explained the making of the Berlin Connection, a game, an interactive thriller which is located in Berlin. He also did Berlin im Untergrund – Potzdammer Platz. His productions have a real signature with a real audio and video opening. Eku is an interesting guy. He was one of the founders of Pixelpark in 1991 and produced beautiful stuff. Presently he is a university teacher.

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