The WorkBook Project is for those who want to be creative in the digital age. An open creative network that provides insight into the process of funding, creating, distributing and sustaining from one's creative efforts.
Eliza Skinner (RADAR ep 2 – I Eat Pandas) returns to the world of Internet videos with this short about a couple going through an angry breakup just as their friends arrive for an Oscars party. Hijinks ensue, guests are weirded out, and movie puns are thrown around—and for some reason movie puns are so much funnier when shouted in a fit of rage. Movie nerds will either cringe or chortle. Or both. Either way, Eliza is quite hilarious as a pissed off ex-girlfriend.
LISTEN
Morningbell – Lovefool
Before I watched this video, I thought the title was just a coincidence—surely they weren’t covering that classic 90s radio mainstay? But that’s exactly what Morningbell (RADAR ep 33 – Unnatural History) did. And they did it gloriously. They stayed true to the original while giving it a bit of their own odd flair. And the breakfast-tastic video definitely ups the weirdness factor. You know, for those of you who like your 90s nostalgia with a side of scrambled eggs.
Download the mp3 for free HERE
Morningbell’s website
Morningbell’s MySpace
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Sophie Blackall – The Crows of Pearblossom
Sophie Blackall has to be one of our busiest contributors. When she’s not creating beautiful blog posts about her father’s adventures or the Missed Connections of complete strangers, she’s creating amazing illustrations for children’s books. Her latest work is the illustrations for The Crows of Pearblossom, a short story originally written in 1944 by the legendary British author Aldous Huxley. Her vivid artwork gives a modern and whimsical flair to the classic tale.
Have you ever wanted to see Internet memes live on stage? As it turns out, the Gregory Brothers (RADAR ep 27 – Auto Tune the News) are among the many YouTube musicians performing as part of the DigiTour—and they’re playing New York on May 1. Go see the show, and then spend the rest of May with musical current events stuck in your head.
Sunday, May 1 · 7:00 pm
Gramercy Theatre
127 East 23rd Street
New York, NY 10010
$18 EVENT INFO
Slam Theatre week 1
SLAM Theatre (RADAR ep 6) is back this spring with another round of their fast-paced playwright and actor competition. It will be going on for the next four weeks, but Sunday is the first round of eliminations for this series, and you don’t want to miss the beginning.
Sunday April 24 · 7:00 – 12:00 am
Sunday, May 1 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm
The Tank NYC
354 West 45th Street
New York, NY
$5 suggested donation EVENT INFO
FOLLOW
@LukeGWilliams
Luke Williams is a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business who specializes in disruptive innovation—a constant stream of unexpected changes and challenges to the old status quo. And in this world where “recession” is the word on everyone’s mind, new, disruptive ideas are more important than ever. While his blog (and book), DISRUPT may have been written with businesses in mind, the ideas he gives in his posts are surprisingly applicable to anyone.
Jason Hood a recent graduate of the University of Texas, he once co-produced Local Live and The Austin Sessions, a radio-slash-TV show and webseries, respectively, that focused on Austin’s famous independent music scene. He’s also directed a number of 16mm short films, and had a diverse and bizarre series of paid jobs ranging from librarian to travel blogger.
Adapting a Web Series for TV I had the pleasure of attending the L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival last April. Their programming was a grab bag of high quality entertainment created… read more
Transmedia Notation Having watched Christy Dena’s excellent presentation yesterday (see the embedded video below), it motivated me publish the attempts I’ve been making to document transmedia storytelling.… read more
Diana Eng’s profile (RADAR ep 31 – Fairytale Fashion) just keeps rising and rising in the fashion world. And now she’s released her first line to the public—a collection of Smart Scarves, and they each showcase what she does best: combine hip fashion with science geekery. Using inspiration from things like Fibonacci numbers and the biometric Miura Ori structure, she’s once again created beauty from brains. Who says geeks can’t be fashionable?
The Gregory Brothers and Charlie Sheen – “Winning”
In the lightning fast world of Internet memes, no one can seize on a cultural phenomenon quite like our friends at Auto-Tune the News (RADAR ep 27). And in terms of satirizing potential, Charlie Sheen’s spectacular crash and burn is a gold mine. So it was only inevitable that the Gregory Brothers would take on the task. The above video does not disappoint. Even if you’ve been following the news and are suffering from Sheen overload, this could be the Sheen video to end all Sheen videos.
Personal anecdote time: I posted a Missed Connection once. I was at a Sleigh Bells concert and met a girl with awesome hair, kind of like the singer La Roux (I have weird taste, don’t ask). And while I never heard back on the ad, I did end up randomly running into her on a dating site. But there is something about missed connections—each one’s a tiny love story with mystery, humor, and artistic potential. In this interview, Sophie Blackall (RADAR ep 16 – Missed Connections) talks for a bit with NPR about some of her experiences with her Craigslist-based artwork.
Many people, including a lot of our contributors, will be spending the next week in the Lone Star State for Austin’s South by Southwest Festival. But for those of us who can’t make it out, our own music supervisor JC Scruggs helped put together a show at Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory. Mother Mother is an amazing Canadian indie rock band with some awesomely catchy and crazy songs that should get you dancing wildly this Friday night. And make sure to get there early for opening acts Elijah Bonfire (ex-Stars of Track and Field) and Bajzel, a one-man Polish act who Newsweek calls the Polish Beck, “only better.”
Friday March 11 · Doors @ 8:00/Show @ 8:30 pm
Knitting Factory
361 Metropolitan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211
$10.00 – $12.00 EVENT INFO
FOLLOW
@natazilla
A few years ago, Natasha Allegri drew a journal comic on Livejournal that I followed pretty religiously. She discontinued it after a while, and kind of disappeared for a few years, only to return pretty recently as an artist on the show Adventure Time, of all places. Now she has a Tumblr, where her original artwork and comics have returned to the Internet once again, and it’s all come full circle. Expect to see some gorgeous portraits, cute cartoony drawings, and more hilarious journal comics.
Jason Hood a recent graduate of the University of Texas, he once co-produced Local Live and The Austin Sessions, a radio-slash-TV show and webseries, respectively, that focused on Austin’s famous independent music scene. He’s also directed a number of 16mm short films, and had a diverse and bizarre series of paid jobs ranging from librarian to travel blogger.
WATCH – girl talk crowdsourced animation
Brett Gaylor’s “Basement Tapes,” is a collaborative documentary project about copyright in the digital age. We interviewed Brett a bit ago for TCIBR.
The above video was a group project done by 64 students from Concordia University.
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EVENT: The current state of filmmaking – part 1 For those of you who don’t know FROM HERE TO AWESOME is an extension of the workbook project. In the spirit of bringing an open source philosophy to various parts of the filmmaking process, FHTA is focused on education, discovery and distribution. Over the next few months leading up to the festival’s kick off in Paris on June 3rd, FHTA… read more
DIY list #7 * PROJECTS
Esther Robinson’s debut feature, A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory is a touching and deeply personal cinematic journey. The doc centers on her Uncle Danny who was a talented filmmaker and Andy Warhol’s lover. In 1966, Danny mysteriously disappeared. The film’s subjects include Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, Paul Morrissey, Brigid Berlin, Billy… read more
Hidden Oras began as a live drawing project within various music clubs in Japan before moving to NYC. Shantell Martin an artist and VeeJay armed with her projector, and trusty digital drawing tablet, turns members of the audience into living art. When an audience member steps up against the projector wall Shantell creates a unique and original drawing that engulfs them. Fusing technology and art at every turn, Hidden Oras is just the first step of many towards the next wave of Live Art.
CREATED by Lance Weiler & Alex Johnson
DIRECTOR Josh Cramer
DP Doug Emmett
EDITOR Jawad Metni
SERIES PRODUCER Josh Cramer
SEGMENT PRODUCER Janine Saunders
TITLE SEQUENCE Jordan Gray
POST PRODUCTION House of Trim
ADDITIONAL MUSIC by:
Roger O’Donnell “Endlessly”
Runaway “The Poltergeist”
Taigaa “This Is Called Lonely Brass”
Janine Saunders is a producer, media collaborator, and DJ living in NYC. She has worked as a producer since a very early age, in music, video and publishing. She has worked closely with writer/ documentarian/ graphic novelist Douglas Rushkoff, and directed and edited Life Inc: The Movie.
POWER TO THE PIXEL – Jamie King STEAL THIS FILM, a documentary about file sharing was released in 2006 via torrents and to date over 6 million people have downloaded the film… read more
VIDEO: Creating storyworlds In this special video podcast Christy Dena interviews workbook project founder Lance Weiler. Dena, a cross-media entertainment strategist, mentor, designer, writer and PhD researcher conducted… read more
Filmmakers Seize Control This past weekend Arin Crumley of Four Eyed Monsters and myself did a panel about all things DIY called “Fast Forward – Filmmakers Seize Control.”… read more
The Brian Eno-approved Eclectic Method (RADAR 003 – Eclectic Method) have to be one of the more innovative acts out there right now. Yeah, they’re mashup artists, but the guys do more than simply juxtapose Notorious B.I.G. with Elton John, they add live video editing/sampling to the mix. Picture YouTube getting drunk and hooking up with Girl Talk and you’d come close to describing them. The group is amazing to see live and is currently on tour, but in case they’re not coming to a town near you, check out their latest video featuring R2D2 and a few of your other favorite robots.
Before we release our Season 3 episode showcasing a song by Caleb Burhans, we wanted to give you guys a heads up on the music he’s been making. Sounding like a more classically minded Owen Pallett, Burhans is a violinist whose resume is too long to list here, having collaborated with everyone from Aphex Twin to The Hold Steady. Listen to his tunes, look for the upcoming RADAR episode from Season 3, and keep an eye on him. Burhans is one talented dude.
Next Door Neighbor is a webcomic series we’ve featured before (RADAR 001 – Next Door Neighbor) and it’s still worth more than a few curious clicks from your mouse, if only to read about some ridiculous neighbors as told by comic’s best writers and artists. While Josh Neufeld has contributed art to the project – check out his charming “Beekeeper” story – he’s more notably the brains and brushstrokes behind the critically acclaimed A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. Part journalistic Op-ed, part comic book documentary, A.D. tells the story of post-Katrina New Orleans through the eyes of real people who survived the storm and its aftermath. If you’re a fan of creative non-fiction, curious about what it meant to live in N.O. after Katrina, or even dig David Simon’s Treme, then Neufeld’s book is a must read. You can find it in print or in its original webcomic form.
The Brooklyn International Film Festival is about shedding light on independent filmmakers, while at the same time showcasing Brooklyn as a first class center of cinema. This year’s 13th Annual BiFF is no exception. Featuring one hundred films from twenty-four countries (whoa), the festival has a little something for everyone. This year’s theme is Stunt. What does that mean exactly? Well, the festival “intends to take a snapshot at some of the hottest issues affecting our times while emphasizing weight and gravity of being on a critical collision path with history.” Think of it as acknowledging your own independent butterfly effect on the world around you, both locally and globally. Things kick off this Friday and run until June 13th. Their website is chock full of useful goodies, everything from ticketing to the film schedule.
If you’re not already following friend of RADAR Jah Furry (aka Jeff Newelt), you need to be doing so ASAP. Not only has he curated a few RADAR episodes himself, but his Twitter feed is essential following for anyone interested in comic books, music, or cool events around the city. He is also the Comics Editor of SMITH, Heeb, and Royal Flush magazines, and is Harvey Pekar’s (American Splendor) editor on Pekar’s webcomics series THE PEKAR PROJECT. It’s also worth noting that Jah Furry has a wicked reggae baritone that he busts out from time to time – a must see.
An Interview in 3D At SXSW Keefe Boerner spoke on the 3D Steroscopic Production Tools, Production and Post panel. He has been a production coordinator, editor, visual effects and motion graphics artist, visual effects producer and post-production supervisor on feature films. Some of Keefe’s credits include collaborations with Robert Rodriguez on Sin City and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D. In this interview we… read more
VIDEO: Creating storyworlds In this special video podcast Christy Dena interviews workbook project founder Lance Weiler. Dena, a cross-media entertainment strategist, mentor, designer, writer and PhD researcher conducted the interview for her universe creation podcast. Here’s what Dena had to say about the interview.
Filmmaker Lance Weiler is the special guest on this first video podcast at UC101. Weiler talks about the unique… read more
Moving Filmmakers to a Transmedia Business Model I’ve been working with two entertainment properties and a media start-up the past couple of months and I wanted to share the business models I developed to explain where we’re heading.
Here’s what we already know: pulling in an audience is tough but pulling in finance is tougher.
The Old Days
In the “old days” – as shown in Figure… read more
Update: The April Fool’s version of the site has been moved to a permanent page.
For April 1, my favorite webcomic, xkcd, switched over to a new interface: unixkcd. The site now emulates a UNIX terminal. You navigate by typing in commands, and the terminal responds, one line at a time. There are also tons of command-based easter eggs to find. It’s more awesome than pranksterly, really.
The experience is powered by Wordpress and doesn’t require flash. A little link hunting at the bottom of the site and we discover that the prank is an adaptation of a free WP template called CLI2, which is part of a whole family of bash-like templates made by Rod McFarland .
Why does a free terminal-like WP template matter to transmedia? Well, for one, you can write text-based games for it. (The xkcd prank includes one.) But more to the point, a terminal-style web site is Alternate Reality 101. I’m looking at you, Jejune Institute, and you too, Project Abraham. And I haven’t forgotten about you either, Exoriare.
The emulated terminal is a great storyteling tool that gets your audience in a game-playing mood, and its something that most indie ARG developers don’t have the time or resources to execute. I don’t know if CLI2 was intended for storytelling, but it seems like a natural next step.
Presumably, xkcd will return to it’s normal site design later tonight, so I highly suggest you poke around with this prank while it’s still live.
Lest I seem to be leaving out anyone, the xkcd adaptation of CLI2 was done by chromakode. The source code for his variation is available here.
Haley Moore is a newspaper reporter, artist, and playwright based in
north Texas. She has worked on several indie, fan and commercial
Alternate Reality Games.
BEHIND THE SCENES – putting on an event Since I’m knee deep in pulling together the next HEAD TRAUMA cinema ARG, I thought I’d share some of my promotional materials. The following is… read more
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