Captain's Log

“Long lost and nearly forsaken, a waterlogged ledger washes against the cobbled shore. The surf foams and hisses before recoiling from it’s newly departed gift. After many months and an incredible journey words once scrawled, never thought to be seen again, have made their way to the reaches of man once more. Drenched though it may be, perhaps mysteries of treasure or wisdom lay within.”

- Anonymous

Prepare for a lengthy read if your so inclined. Below holds the entirety of Production in Action. A day to day analysis on events, post mortum, and email exchanges with notable people.

Click around to get an inside look at Tribeca Flashpoint Academy’s PIA.        

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Good evening everyone, today we finalized plans for our Live Event. It’s going to be grandiose and awesome. This will be a relatively short post, but let it be known. Thursday January 19th there will be a massive event in Chicago. I’ll be going into more detail as we near the date. Good luck all! Stay classy!

Captain’s Log:

Rising into view the immensity of Neptune becomes more clear with each passing day. By January 19th we will have made direct contact, when he will decide the fate of my humble band of mariners. He looms in the distance, a truly cosmic sight to behold, I find myself stirred slightly at the incredible challenges we will face as we draw near.

As today draws to a close, I find myself perched in a unique position once more. I have recieved orders from the mainland stating that I am to take charge of my temporary fleet. Not only must I ensure the communication between ships and our constituents , but I must also ensure our rations hold up and our milestones are met. I have been in similar situations before but never before have I been responsible for the collaborative measures of such a large team. I have faith though, in not only my peers and associates, but also in my own abilities to adapt and thrive in such times of chaos.

May tomorrow bring to close our planning and efforts, for next week beckons the time for action!

- Captain Bretton Danger Hamilton

That’s right folks, today has been an incredibly eventful one, stick around or be cast into the abyss!

Today my instructors and peers have given me the opportunity to step up as the lead Producer for the charitable campaign. I am now responsible for the scheduling, budgeting, communication, and delivery of the campaign. Fortunately I have plenty of help at my finger tips, but I hope to get a handle on my new workload very shortly. I’m working with roughly 30ish other students, all from different departments.

At the beginning of next week I will be going very in-depth about what we are doing on a day by day basis without tipping off any of my competitors. Until then I’ve been keeping busy with my daily journals and the anticipation paper we had to write. I may as well show it off here, for anyone interested or struggling to write their own.

            Production in Action, being one of the most intensive group oriented projects we have thus far had the opportunity to work on will present us with some incredible hurdles. Up until now all students have worked with peers within their same major. Thus much of the terminology and communication cross-department has been limited due to the lack of integration. All that changes now, I find myself thrust into the same anxiety inducing battleground with not only my Game Design buddies, but also new faces from the broadcasting and film department in collaboration with the recording arts and animation groups. Fortunately my previous work and interest in film gives me a leg up in understanding the way the film minds work. To contrast this other than a basic enjoyment of music I know literally nothing regarding the logistics of audio and recording arts. This presents an exciting opportunity to learn and network more, but also creates some short-term immediate hurdles to overcome in terms of communication.

            I find myself taking on the position of Lead Producer for our campaign. This is both a remarkable honor and an exciting opportunity, but it does not come without anxieties and personal hurdles. I can honestly say that I have never found myself working with such a large multi-talented group. I’ve worked for industry professionals before, but those were typically smaller scale outsourcing projects. This is also the first time that I have had to manage a budget and worked with concise scheduling. Previous projects, both personal and school mandated have given me skills in working on collaborative projects and managing deadlines and expectations, but this brings things to a whole other level. Despite my anxiety, I have faith in my abilities to adapt and learn in this fast-paced challenge. At the very end of this campaign, many people will hold me responsible for the successes and failures of the group, not that it isn’t a collaborative project, but part of my duty is to ensure that there is no failure in meeting deadlines and ensuring proper communication across majors and subcommittees.

            As a group we have already faced hurdles regarding themes, slogans, goals, and organizing what has to be done. These are merely foundational points that must be hammered out before the campaign can excel. These “hurdles” pale in comparison to the tribulations my team will overcome in the following week and a half. Our PSA group has already begun to scramble together to brainstorm ideas. We haven’t even begun talking about the actual filming, actors, location, permits, editing, etc. My hopes are to have the PSA out at the beginning of the week leading up to the 19th. The live event currently is the focus of our attention, seeing as its the most immediate release. The majority of the funding will go to them, and I recommended they do research on Improve Everywhere, an acting group that specializes in attracting people in masses to rally somewhere and perform some form of fun or random task. The game and interactive media portion has its own personal hurdles to deal with. Creating an enjoyable game that stands on its own within a two week timeframe is monumentally difficult, but with the talent and ambition we’ve got, I believe we can come up with some really cool stuff. Our social media committee is hard at work creating digital content such as the logo itself, in addition to spreading our message to Facebook, Twitter, Myspace?, Google+, YouTube, and beyond. I argue that our social media aspect is one of our more vital points. They are focused on expanding the visibility of our campaign. All the PSA’s and games in the world would be useless without traffic, let alone visibility. Although I have concerned regarding the overall connectivity with the PSA, game, live event, and the goals and “branding” of our campaign, I believe that we can pull together and challenge the other students for first place on show day, January 19th.

            Through all of these challenges and difficulties there is no doubt that not only will I become a more confident, refined producer, but I will also gain a handful of additional connections across the many majors and specializations at Tribeca Flashpoint. As an aspiring producer and designer, what we are doing now is basically a similar process to what I want to make a career out of. Sure, I didn’t expect to be organizing a charity to promote awareness and support for depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicidal thoughts and tendencies, but at the end of the day, the processes we will take here, can be directly applied to the very industries we all strive to join. I’m certainly not worried or concerned about the competence of my peers and associates, and I’m proud knowing that whatever the outcome, this will be a vast learning experience that not everyone can experience, and I am very fortunate to have this opportunity.

I don’t really have a whole lot to show off today, but tomorrow I should have my hands on a video that explains PIA in a nutshell, and next week we should be able to see trackable progress with out campaign. Til then, be sure to donate!

«Click Here!»

Good evening everyone, as today draws to a close so does Day 2 of Production in Action (PIA).  The events of today basically wiped the slate clean as we basically changed every decision we made yesterday. For the better I say, but that may be because I had a hand in today’s decisive direction. Regardless join us on the otherside for a break down of today’s tremendous hurdles. Its quite interesting looking at the design decisions and logic. Feel free to toss feedback my direction regarding any ideas you may have!
«Stick Around!»

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Ahoy, ye scurvy cats and dogs! It has been far too long since my last blog post. I blame the distractions of wenches and cider during my stay inland over the holidays. Anyway, I’m back in action, out in high tide, and much to my confusion, I have found myself and a company of others pitted against the Trials of Neptune himself.

Cryptic talk aside, I speak of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy major project, Production in Action. By January 19th me and a group of about 20 cross-major students or so are working to raise awareness and donations for the charity, To Write Love on Her Arms. We have to have a social media component, a game/interactive part, a live event we can film, and a PSA (or series of PSAs). Then we have a presentation the last week with all those things that we show off at the CBS Stage. So thats a little under 3 weeks to organize rallies, create a small game, and have some PSA short films.

We are to keep a documented journal of how each day progresses. I will be using this blog for the next few weeks to cover what happened and my thoughts on the matter. Fear not though, I will still make time for the occasional Through the Spyglass, and On the Horizon, as it is the new year and there are many games to anticipate. Without further ado… Hit the Jump to Read on about the exciting challenges faced our first day.

«Leap of Faith»

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Good evening ladies and gents, I’ve been busy this past week preparing for the final days of my studies on design philosophy and video game art courses so it has been awhile since I’ve brought my Captain’s Log up to date. I’ve also been hard at work digging into the latest Humble Bundle, and I can now officially say that I have beaten every game’s basic progression. (I hadn’t the time to go 100% completion, because I wanted to get this post out before the Humble Bundle sale was over.) So to celebrate this wonderful service below I will briefly discuss the what, when, and why of the Humble Bundles. Then I’ll dig into short reviews for each of the games, and then finally give my verdict on whether this bundle is worth the fuss.

Stick around after the jump for all the good stuff!

«Walk Around» (Jumping is for savages)

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Although I fancy the pirates of yore with their swashbuckling and nefarious deeds, I loath the digital spawn of these infamous sea dogs. Over the past year CD Projekt Red and these freeloading pirates have been going head to head. Before Witcher 2 was released CD Projekt Red’s co-founder, Marcin Iwinski, publically declared that they would refuse to use DRM. It is a negative approach to dealing with the current issue PC games face, that is lost sales due to piracy. Before I get in-depth let it be known to, that The Witcher 2, being my favorite RPG of all time, belongs very close to my buried treasure. I took near personal offense when I heard the unholy statistics regarding piracy and this game. Continue reading for an in-depth explanation of how CD Projekt Red has attempted to divert piracy, the piracy it faced, and how they are further acting on it.

«Jump»

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It would seem that another privateer such as myself has risen in notoriety as of late. The acclaimed Duncan Harris is best known for his video game photography. He labels himself a Videogame Pornographer. With full access to a private vessel, he sails under no flag, and finds himself casting anchor in similar tides as myself. With the use of community mods, in-game scripts, and unique camera work Harris is able to capture incredible screenshots that look nearly painted or cinematographic. He currently runs a site called DeadEndThrills, where he compiles all his screenshots for free download. The following post is brief summary of who this guy is, how he does it, and why he is an important character in the game world.

Jump over the barrel and enjoy a visual extravaganza!

« A Button>

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