Resolutions, then and now.

Last year, I wrote out my New Year’s Resolutions on this very blog. Here is a quote from that post:

“I would like to accomplish 3 concrete things: program an app, develop a project around a webseries, co-create a food & photo project.”

So with 2012 now firmly behind us, how did I do?

1. “co-create a food & photo project” Well my partner and I started and have been consistently updating a food/photography blog. We have had a few recipes picked up by a few bigger blogs, and have a solid following. Food Photo Project: check.

2. “develop a project around webseries”. As mentioned in the previous post, I made that webseries. 8 Episodes and a cast of 7. Blog, website, twitter, fb page, vimeo and youtube channels. A true labor of love. It was a great experience, and I got the chance to work with some interesting people. Webseries: done.

3. “program an app” Okay, this one is a little more tricky. I began the year by attending coding workshops and searching for a technical partner to develop said app. But it did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. After a few frustrating months, I decided to focus my attention more onto producing the webseries. However, this fall I got the chance to build an interactive video website for a documentary. I got a team together and we are set to be finished at the end of january. I almost made it to completing this resolution, so lets give me a partial score. Program an app: 70% 😉

Bonus points: I crowdfunded the webseries successfully and raised 5 grand!

This year, I did pretty well. While I didn’t get everything I had wanted done in time (damn app), working toward these goals was fun. I guess they also helped me to figured out just a little bit more clearly where I want to go next.

So what does 2013 hold?

Despite what the picture above suggests, my resolutions do not consist of “tasty cocktails”, “gingerbeer” or “beef pie”!

Rather in 2013, I want to again set out 3 clear goals to work towards. I would like to finally establish a company around the work I have been doing over the last year. I would like to update and expand on the food blog, possibly including some video work. And to add a new challenge to the mix, I would like to play music on a stage in front of a small audience and record one original song.

Time to get cracking…

Last year’s year: 2012

So it being Jan. 4th, I figured I should weigh in on last year’s happenings asap. Especially since this will all soon become irrelevant as we move on to the next big thing: 2013 and the upcoming [insert ancient culture here] apocalypse.

Here is what mattered in 2012:

3D Printers officially enter the home. Makerbot is showcased at CES 2012 and tons of “Make your own 3D Printer” kits flood Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Obviously, we are still a ways away from the replicator I envision. But what we can already see, that this tech is going to be crazy disruptive. Why buy some crappy little plastic bunny made in china when you can print one in your own home?

Webseries explosion. Every one and their dog made a webseries this year. Hell, I made one too! And despite the deluge of series, I was able to find a bunch that I totally feel in love with. You can see the initial list here. I would add The Bar Series and The Slope to my list of favs.

HTML5 is cool. I guess this isn’t a specifically 2012 phenomenon. Its a language that has been in development for ages, and has been out there for a least a couple of years. However this year, many browsers updated to support html5 elements, and we really started to get to see the potential of the language. It is set to be completed by 2014, so the next few years we should be seeing more and more of these pages. My favorite examples are Agent 8 Ball, Jess & Russ wedding proposal, Angry Birds Space site and Cloudsovercuba.com

Joss Whedon sells out, but I don’t care. The Avengers was the first 3D movie I ever saw. I realize I was a little slow checking out the whole 3d movie thing, but I was simply waiting for something worthwhile to come along. Well Joss, you made something worthwhile. Sure its got all the trappings of a bloated superhero blockbuster. But it melds entertainment with intelligence, which is no small feat. Plus the Black Widow kicked ass. See my full post about it!

Crowdfunding takes it up a notch. The passing of the JOBS act in America in April encouraged the launch of hundreds of new crowdfunding/crowd-investment platforms, and thousands of crowdfunding campaigns. While not all countries have been so fast to address the changing fundraising and investment landscape provided by crowdfunding sites, the JOBS act has at least made the whole world take notice. This year everyone tried crowdfunding, including me, to varying degrees of success. While it has its critics, it is an interesting experiment all the same. Looking forward to watching this space!

Syria experiences a civil disaster. Assad becomes a murderous leader bent on killing his own people in the most terrifying ways possible. Current estimates place the death toll above 60000 people killed. I guess that he feels his own life is on the line and so he will throw anything he’s got to stay in power, but his actions have fortified his status as a thoroughly “Bad Guy” and has made his redemption in world political circles quite impossible. Assad’s future looks dim. But the damage he does to syria as power is pulled from him is unforgivable.

Obama is back (and the worst of the crazy anti-women, anti-gay, anti-science, anti-immigrant far right Republican candidates were officially given a thumbs down by the majority of the American people). I am happy to say that our American cousins have not gone completely off the reservation. Well not just yet…

Canada’s Environmental record goes from bad to worse. Harper must go! So early in the year when the Americans balked at the Keystone XL pipeline proposal, Canada turned around and immediately offered the Canadian oil sands – one of the dirtiest of dirty oil – to China, together with a deal they could hardly refuse. It entitled a foreign country to plunder canadian resources, destroy the surrounding nature, and if canada’s environmental laws or regulation interrupts the activities of these Chinese interests, they would have the right to sue Canada. Seems like a good deal for canadians’ no? Oh and Harper’s muzzling of government scientists, preventing them from speaking to any press about their findings regarding climate change, was all over the international news this year. Well that is just the icing on evil cake, wouldn’t you say?

Facebook stock = epic fail. The hype leading up to FBs IPO only added to the glorious shadenfreude we all felt when the stock plummeted after being released. Big name investors opting out early in the game, including Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO and board member, made the stock look even weaker. Even Zuckerberg admits he is disappointed. According to some estimates, it should actually go as low as 8 bucks. Do we feel bad? Absolutely not! Facebook has made a business mining its users’ personal data. Let it burn!

Instabillion: Facebook buys instagram for a billion. While this is every tech geeks fantasy, it is kinda scary how fast and how big that deal came to be. And there is something terribly sad about the fact that all those photos you took of your favorite meals, your kids first steps, your trip to Spain or your friends’ wedding are now legally under their new and improved Facebook-inspired “Privacy Agreement”, which is subject to change and will inevitably mean that one day the company will completely own your content. Its coming folks, don’t kid yourself. Google is basically cut from the same cloth, so watch your data folks and find alternatives now!!

Obviously the world is bigger than these 10 stories. Other major stories of the year: apocalypses that didn’t happen, Pinterest explosion, Egyptian election, Hurricane Sandy, Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, Greek debt crisis intensifying, Psy breaking records (why oh why??), Justin Bieber not disappearing (again why oh why??), something about olympics (yawn), SOPA protests, record meltdown of arctic ice.

Say what you will, we definitely live in interesting times.

Clouds Over Cuba: A New Way to Recount History Online

About a month ago, a friend sent me the link to this documentary www.cloudsovercuba.com about the cuban missile crisis. I was immediately inspired. The doc itself is quite good, but it is the experience of watching it in this format that has really impressed me. It seems I have found a prototype of the type of media I want to be making next.

Take a look if you have time:

This documentary was created for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library by The Martin Agency and directed by Erich Joiner and Ben Tricklebank at Tool. Running two-hours, this project exists primarily as a full browser video player. It has an interactive timeline and seamless links to additional information along the way. This additional info consists of scans, images, archival audio and video recordings –  all from the JFK institute itself – as well as expert commentaries from historian Sheldon M. Stern, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s son, Sergei, author Eric G. Swedin and professor Timothy McKeown. For more info about the doc, check out this review.

I think that this format has amazing potential for the future of online video and visual storytelling. You could totally use a similar framework with a creative project or a tv show. It encourages people to stay involved and focused on the project, but gives curious people a chance to leave the linear narrative of the doc to learn more about specific themes without losing their place.

While interactive video isn’t really anything all that new, I think what really got me excited is how much more accessible the technology used to build this site has become. This site is built like a website using html5, javascript and css. However it feels almost like an app. It also uses the interactivity subtly, without relying on flashy gimmicks. Transitions between pages is so beautifully seamless (one of the perks of html5) and the pace of the web experience matches the pace of the documentary. The unified design of the page and textures on the video result in an overall product that feels dynamic, yet totally unified.

It seems to be time to re-think video (again). We have all become used to youtube and vimeo as our primary video platforms. But if you think about it, the formats in which the videos are presented remain somewhat standard. You watch the video without really interacting with it, other than leaving comments under the video or by closing the incessant pop ads (on youtube).

But what if you could actually click inside the video, get more info when you wanted. As it stands, when I watch a doc, I often like to find out more about the info being presented, or I want to verify the legitimacy of certain statements. So I tend to open another browser window to do some additional investigation on the side. But this is awkward and distracting. Sometimes I get so caught up with another article I am reading that I lose my place in the doc, or lose interest in the original documentary entirely.

Whats great about this documentary, is that you are expected to dig deeper into the topic. And they make it extremely easy and fun to do it. It encourages interaction and curiosity, yet keeps you on the site, and on topic. But I think we could take this even further.

Imagine the possibilities…

Video Games Galore!

It has been some time since I played a video game religiously. And maybe that is a good thing. But in the last few months, I have learned about a few games that look so cool, I can’t help but want to jump back into to the gaming universe.

The games I am eyeing are Apotheon, Watch Dogs, & Assassin’s Creed III. And of course there is the new Sim City set to come out in March, but I have already covered that in a previous post.

While all of these games are different in style and substance, they each look totally amazing in their own right. Here are some more details:

Apotheon

Apotheon is a great looking Ancient Greek themed indie game. Here is the description from the developer, Alientrap:

“Apotheon is a 2D platform action-RPG set on the rich stage of ancient Greek mythology. Along with a large single player campaign in a massive open world Mount Olympus, Apotheon will include online multiplayer with deathmatch and team based game modes.”

A video game designed to look like the art found on Ancient Greek pottery? Brilliant! Add to this the fact that the story is taps into greek mythology, and you have every history buff/video game nerd’s dream game. I am sold.

As you may know, I am a long standing fan ancient history and greek mythology – check out my post about the city of Troy for more on that little obsession – and can’t wait to see the how this Alientrap will be injecting these stories into a video game context. Plus I heard the game play is akin to Zelda, now I am extra psyched! They are expecting to release this on Steam mid 2013. There is no specific release date yet announced.

Thanks to LangStrothGameDesign.co.uk for introducing me to this gem.

Watch Dogs

Next up is a game that was announced by Ubisoft Montreal in June of this year: Watch Dogs. The game is an overt social critique of the prevalence of digital devices in today’s world and our reliance on connected networks to manage and maintain order in our cities. Much of the game play involving a character hacking into the city grid, various telecommunication networks and the mobile devices of the people in the vicinity of the character. It paints a bleak but plausible future reality of urban criminal activity in a connected world. Despite not yet having an announced release date, the franchise looks so promising.

The cityscape is beautiful, I think it is set in an old part of chicago. And I love the look of this trailer, despite all the seeming inevitable shoot-out after minute 7:00.

As a side note, I am always a little disappointed when video game trailers highlight the most violent part of gameplay – I am no fan of gratuitous violence in any medium.

Still the game has potential. It reminds me slightly of L.A. Noire, in its seeming emphasis on story and character development, attention to detail, and the slow pace with which the story unravels but with a way more relevant and seemingly complicated game-scenario.

Assassin’s Creed III

Assassin’s Creed III, another Ubisoft Montreal release, is according to Slate magazine is the “most accessible reconstruction of the Revolutionary War era that’s ever been made“. The Slate article goes on to say that this is due in part to the “painstaking research and astonishing sense of historical responsibility that AC3’s makers poured into the project”. The results according to a few reviews I have seen are supposed to be extraordinary. Check out this ACIII screenshot of colonial Boston city street:

Again, I would prefer a game that was less focused on the first-person hack and slash violence and more focused on the history. Still, it sounds like Ubisoft has done its homework in crafting this title to be quite true to life.  I can’t wait to explore this world.

Looking forward to seeing these titles on the market in the next year. Any other recommendations? Feel free to let me know below!