1. I ask students to think about what point they want to make before beginning. Examine the data, decide your message, pick an image. It doesn’t have to be a bunch of camera tricks. I like Sony’s Bravia commercial, which  makes the simple point “Color like no other” without any computer trickery. Here’s the link:

In order to capture the vibrant reality of the balls and the way they moved, every single frame was shot on camera – computer graphics weren’t used at all.

Sony : The BRAVIA ‘bouncy balls’ commercial : United Kingdom

It is a beautiful video that my students enjoy. They also enjoy the “making of” explanations linked here next, where they show how they blasted balls out of cannons, were ready with many cameras to catch the quick action, and broke windows in the making…

Behind the scenes How we did it

Sony : The BRAVIA ‘bouncy balls’ commercial : United Kingdom

2. A fun spoof of the Bravia commercial and related website that an ad firm put together, using fruit instead of balls (they have a link on the web page that shows you the “commercial” they are complaining about).

Swansea North Residents Association website

Swansea North Residents Association – Welcome

We are a non-profit organisation that meets every Sunday, around about tea time, to discuss the needs and views of Swansea North residents.

3. Next, here’s a link to a Bravia spoof created as machinima (having “Avatars” in a game or other online world operated by people who arrange to go online to the already existing scenery provided by the game world and meet and act out scenes using their avatars. Having one or more avatars act as the “camera” stationed to observe the mayhem, the action is captured and can be shared). Warning, this is filmed with battlefield avatars, and each character is military, and carries a weapon as part of the gameworld design.

Circulating only throughout the internet, a video filmed by a clan features 64 players simultaneously hopping down a slope and over HMMWVs on the Sharqi Peninsula, a map in Battlefield 2. Instead of “BRAVIA – Color like no other” at the end of the original Bouncy Balls commercial, the clan’s video read “Bunny Hopping – Like no other”

BRAVIA – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an overhead shot from another spoof video/in-game melange. It doesn’t have the Bravia reference (it does include references to the seagulls in “Finding Nemo” (Mine), Monty Python, and CNN news coverage of Iraq). This was also done by the same group, dubbed “Snoken,”as the machinima above. Each avatar on the screen is operated by a different person, and they have coordinated quite a bit to accomplish this. Again, warning, the characters are armed, and in this one, there are some other challenges, like explosions.

Transmutation isn’t quite the word for it. Neither is transformation. Nor evolution. I settled for “Generations.” We don’t discard older formats when we add a new one to our story-telling heritage.

Now, the power of story is transformed again, as the storyteller incorporates virtual reality.

Virtual Setting. The creating of avatars that live a virtual life can be used as a powerful form of story-telling. Think of the possibilities! Places like Second Life allow many people to create a landscape together. Landscapes (the setting for a story) can create a personal reality, jointly imagined. The look of a virtual landscape can be precisely engineered to give the viewer a sense of place. Newer processors allow cleverly rendered images and sound systems that immerse the reader in “3-d”. Virtual reality can be rendered so well they give participants who move too quickly in it motion sickness. Individual blades of grass, the speed of the clouds scudding across the sky, and the shadows they cast, can be programmed to respond to the “apparent breeze.” You may not notice the subtle changes in cloud shadows on the tree trunks and such, but I’ll bet they have a subliminal effect which adds to the sense of “reality” of the place. In fact, things can seem too real. I remember that the designers of Fiona in the original Shrek said they took a step back from looking too realistic, in order to make it “fit” their sense of a fairy tale story (I got this from the DVD I bought, it came with added features that explained some of the rendering work).

Character. Here’s another place where the story can be jointly imagined. In a virtual reality, your avatar is a character. People usually only helm one avatar at a time. Now with common meeting grounds like Second Life, you can bring as much of yourself to the landscape as you might as an author. You might choose to don a persona, like a traditional author dons a pseudonym.

Point of View. Jointly imagined. Or not. I suppose it is possible to render a world, and a story, completely, and then invite others to bring their avatars to come live it. Avatars entering the story can have their actions completely “scripted” by the person who created the story. Or, they can make some decisions on their own. Think of the new take on “choose your own adventure” type stories! The story would be communicated through an “avatar’s eye view.” Talk about a new point of view!

In my next post, I plan to list links to some videos I use to talk about traditional video, digital editing, story creation, the impact of web20, and machinima with my students. If you know of anything “avatar’s-eye view” that I can add, let me know.

I have been experimenting with my new avatars at Club Penguin and on Second Life, learning how to navigate in these virtual worlds. (I’ll have more to blog about them, soon.) I have to do this exploration at home, not because of any restriction the school imposes on me, but because of our school’s wonderful, scenic, rural location. The school’s internet access comes via satellite. There are no plans for anything else. No cable. No DSL. Certainly no T1 line. We’re just too far out. Satellite’s inherent lag time does not allow for users to interact with others over it on-line in real-time. Satellite isn’t good enough for virtual reality, for Club Penguin, or Second Life. I am lucky to live in a town 15 miles away, where my street recently acquired dsl service.

I’m seeing the possibilities of our new, “flat world.” But just as the web 1.0 and 2.0 flattened the world, web 3.0 (3-d?) could disjunct it – many of my students are experiencing geographic or economic isolation.

Not only do I see the need for our rural students to have a better internet connection than they have available just to participate in these online developments, some of these web3-D experiences demand a very powerful computer, too.

Strangely, it happens that all of the girls in 3rd grade only have phone modem access at home. All of the boys in the third grade not only have access, they all have Club Penguin accounts. The boys are talking about “chatting” and “logging on to particular servers” and “taking virtual tours” and “buddy lists,” and the girls are just—quiet.

Some of our students are living in a different world (out by the cowfields).

How do I give them a genuine experience and the skills and savvy they are missing out on? They have all enjoyed pencil and paper role plays for safe online chatting with a game I made up (avoid, evade, confront, etc.), although only the boys will be applying those skills anytime soon. And really, no 3rd grade girls’ parents are probably anxious for their children to start chatting on-line! But, eventually …

When these girls do finally get access, they will feel less comfortable than their male peers, their classmates will be worlds ahead of them. They will not know how to manipulate their avatars, about how to choose buddies, how to log on to particular servers, etc. Play is an effective way to acquire and remember those technical skills (remember how the Windows Minesweeper and solitaire games that came with the pc got you to practice using a mouse?). I know that I felt the need to learn to use my keyboard in a whole new way in Second Life…using keys as controls for movements, triggers for camera angles, and such. Because I’ve never practiced using the keyboard that way before this point, I’ll probably always play those games with a certain clumsiness.

So, when I read a recent post by Scott Mcleod

“I think we also need a BHAG: a big, hairy, audacious goal. … I’ve been thinking a lot about this and I can’t come up with anything better than this:

1. ubiqitous nationwide high-speed wireless Internet access, and

2. a wireless-capable laptop for every student and educator.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone with really big money reads his blog? Do you think I should send a copy along to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with an invitation to put a T1 line through to a small, not-for-profit school in rural PA?

I wonder if the Foundation has a kiosk, or island, in Second Life where I can make contact?