Gareth Lee has just been in contact about this forthcoming master class taking place in BCFE.

There are a small number of places left and you can contact him directly if you are interested in attending at glee [at] bcfe [dot] net

Aphra.

***************

Bruce Block (Hollywood Producer and author of the renowned book ‘The Visual Story’) will visit Ballyfermot College of Further Education from the 23rd to the 25th November next to deliver four master classes on ‘THE VISUAL COMPONENTS OF FILM’.

The master classes, for the college animation staff/students and invited guests, will be delivered in the Anna Brett Hall, Ballyfermot College Media Building on the following dates and times:

Tuesday 23rd November: 9-12pm and 1-4pm
Wednesday 24th November: 10-1pm
Thursday 25th November: 10-1pm

For more information on the master classes and Bruce Block see below:

VISUAL COMPONENTS OF FILM

Just as a writer is concerned with story structure or a musician with musical structure, a picture maker must be concerned with visual structure. The key to using visual structure is an understanding of the basic visual components: space, line, shape, color, tone, movement, and rhythm. It is through the control of these visual components that the picture maker stirs an audience’s emotions, creates new and unique visual styles and controls the critical relationship between story and visual structure.

The principles discussed in the seminar can be used in live-action or animation for any format including theatrical motion pictures, television shows, commercials, computer games or Internet sites. The seminar relates all of the visual concepts to practical production and bridges the gap between theory and practice. The seminar is designed for directors, writers, storyboard artists, concept artists, production designers, cinematographers, lighting designers, game designers and graphic artists.

The Basic Outline:

SESSION 1: SPACE. Discussions begin with an overview of screen space and the basic organization of visual space. Both 2-D and 3-D space are discussed.

SESSION 2: STRUCTURE. The relationship between visual structure, narrative/story structure and structural analysis is discussed. Processes are explained that allow the filmmaker to organize the visual structure as carefully as a writer organizes and structures a story.

SESSION 3: LINE & SHAPE, COLOR. Linear motif is introduced and basic shapes are defined. Color systems, structure and control are discussed to simplify an extremely complex visual component.

SESSION 4: TONE, MOVEMENT, RHYTHM. Tone is defined in relation to art direction and lighting. Movement is discussed for the camera, objects and the audience’s point of attention on the screen. Rhythm is defined in relation to stationary or moving objects and editing. Both 2-D and 3-D movement and rhythm are discussed.

© COPYRIGHT 2010 BRUCE A. BLOCK

Bruce Block has over thirty-five years experience in the production of film and television. His career encompasses live action feature motion pictures, television programs, commercials, documentaries, animation, museum installations, and IMAX films.

He has produced a variety of Hollywood studio films including The Holiday, Something’s Gotta Give, What Women Want and Father Of The Bride. Mr. Block was a creative consultant on Stuart Little, As Good As It Gets and Some Kind Of Wonderful.

Mr. Block teaches visual structure of film, television and digital media at universities, animation studios, advertising agencies, computer game companies, and graphics design studios in America and Europe.

His clients include Pixar Studios, Walt Disney Feature and Television Animation, Dreamworks Studios, Warner Bros. Feature Animation, Hasbro Interactive, Nickelodeon Network, Hewlett-Packard, Troika Design Group, Screen Training Ireland, Binger Film Institute, AFI, UCLA and USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Mr. Block is the author of The Visual Story published by Focal Press. His book, dealing with the relationship between story structure and visual structure, is used professionally and educationally all over the world.

Mr. Block is a member of the Director’s Guild of America and the Art
Director’s Guild.

Last year Phil and the gang in Thurles hosted a games jam. Now is the time for others to sign up to do it too.

Companies can do it too!

Full call for hosts below

Aphra

**************

The third installment of the GGJ – Global Game Jam 2011 will take place the last weekend of January 2011 (January 28-30, 2011):

– One Weekend
– World wide game jam
– One theme
– Thousands of game developer enthusiasts
– Hundreds of locations
– Thousand+ newly created games

We are looking for hosts to accommodate and organize local sites of the GGJ 2011. We hope to see a lot of first-timer sites to enhance the experience and bring even more people together, creating innovative games and having a wonderful time.

Please note that everyone, even sites that took part in 2010, will have to sign up again for 2011.

New to Global Game Jam for 2011:
* Board games, as well as digital games
* Cross-site participation

Global Game Jam was founded three years ago by Susan Gold, Foaad Khosmood, Ian Schreiber and Gorm Lai, who is serving as this year’s GGJ chairman. The inaugural GGJ in 2009 had 53 sites in 23 countries participating. About 370 games were produced. In 2010, more than 4,000 game enthusiasts in 139 different locations made over 900 games, many very experimental in nature.

The largest group in 2010 was the Nordic Game Jam in Copenhagen, Denmark with more than 300 participants. Several experimental games developed at Nordic Jam have been shown at IndieCade and other events. Dutch Game Garden also made a second big showing this year. Other big jams included The Israeli Game Developers, METUTECH-ATOM (Turkey), NYU Game Center, Tumbleweed Game Jam (Norway) and Game Jam Sydney.

In the U.S., 55 jam sites in 30 states accounted for 40% of total sites. Canada had 10 sites; the UK 8; Germany 5; Brazil 5 sites; and Finland 4. First-timer sites jammed in Colombia, Russia, Poland, India, Pakistan and Philippines and Malaysia.

“GGJ is a truly global event, which is opened in New Zealand, 23 hours before the last sites on the American West Coast joins. This also means New Zealand is finishing, when Cogswell is only half way through!”

”The 2009 and 2010 events were such smashing successes, we want to do it again, and make it even better,” said Lai. “It’s a chance for anyone and everyone to be a part of experimental game development. We walk the talk!”

To sign up your studio/lab/school, please look over the following specs for what is needed, and then see this page for instructions.

* Physical space to comfortably seat participants
* Internet access (either wired or wireless) for all participants
* Access to common game development tools and/or ability to download and install software
* Local IT support in case of problems with computers or Internet connectivity
* At least one local official organizer to coordinate the event
* Access to all space and computing resources around the clock over the weekend of January 28-30, 2011 (preferably)
* Access to food (such as nearby food stores or restaurants, or you can provide food on-site)
* Presentation space (such as an auditorium) to do a post Jam presentation on Sunday, January 30.

The IGDA prefers locations that can be open for the entire 48 hours but can accommodate those that are not. It just means less time for site participants to make their games.
The organizer must be a part of all email correspondence, participate on Basecamp and meet all due dates.

The GGJ will provide local organizers with tools to help set up your local event, hands on guidance before and during the Global Game Jam, a web page on the GGJ site, local and international promotion of the event.

Not sure if your site can host? Have questions that aren’t answered here? GGJ leadership will host a pair of hour-long online Q&A sessions on Monday, October 25, 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. EST (that’s 3 p.m. on October 25 and 3 a.m. October 26, GMT). Simply go to this URL during those times and get your questions answered: http://globalgamejam.org/irc/

You can also connect to the chat session via your own IRC client using: irc server: irc.us.mibbit.net, channel: #globalgamejam

Look for early location announcements to show up on the new Game Jam website in early October. Jammers will begin registering by mid-November, so for best results, submit your jam site before then.

Hope to have you with us (again) in 2011!,
Foaad, Zuraida, Ian and Gorm

Darklight Transmedia Symposium 2010

Friday 29 October, 9.30am-6pm Filmbase, Dublin.

Official Festival Industry Partner Bord Scannan na hEireann/Irish Film Board, producer Katie Holly and Darklight festival director Nicky Gogan put their heads together to programme a day of information, discussion, workshops and advice open to all aspiring and practicing creative folk.

This is a day-long event that will explore the potential of digital and analogue networks as a creative tool for storytelling, as well as a means to reach audiences and finance and distribute films. Our esteemed international and Irish guests will discuss all aspects of Transmedia production.

Topics on the agenda include fund-raising models, distribution platforms and crowd-sourcing collectives, and we’ll also be looking at what it means to write, direct and produce projects destined for the big screen, the small screen, the internet, apps, graphic novels, live performance and immersive experiences.

Special Guests include Lance Weiler, Salford Film collective Future Artists’s Mark Ashmore and Jenny Inchbald; Tora Young, Head of Development with Production Company Imaginarium; Power to the Pixel founder Liz Rosenthal; South African producer Jeremy Nathan of DV8 films. A number of Irish experts and practitioners will also be invited to give their home grown perspective.

For full information on the Symposium day as well as info on securing your tickets go to www.darklight.ie/festival-2010/2010-festival-programme/29th-october/talks/

Call for Volunteers Deadline This Friday, 15 October

Darklight is currently recruiting enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers to assist with this year’s festival which takes place Halloween weekend, 28-31 October in the IFI, Filmbase and the Grand Social.

Available roles include front of house, ushering and technical support. Volunteers are essential for making the festival run smoothly and are hugely appreciated. So, if you’re interested and want to be involved in Ireland’s premier festival celebrating independent, DIY and artist films, email volunteers at darklight dot ie for more information

Following their presentation at last week’s shindig the NDRC’s Game Brains project is going beta.

If you’re interested in Behavior Trees or video game AI please check out their Beta release.

Game Brains is a behavior treed editor and runtime (in C++). Integrate it into your game engine of choice and start using behavior trees in your games.

Go to: http://www.neatsciences.com and sign up.

for more see http://www.ndrc.ie/portfolio/entertainment/game-brains/

The winners of IndieCade 2010, the international festival of independent games, were announced over the weekend and Terry Cavanagh, from Ireland, won the Fun and Compelling award for VVVVVV.

‘In VVVVVV, you play as the fearless leader of a team of dimension-exploring scientists who are separated after inadvertently crashing their ship. A high energy, cleverly designed platforming experience from Terry Cavanaugh, creator of Don’t Look Back and Self Destruct, VVVVVV deeply explores its central gravity-reversing mechanic through smart, interesting puzzles and a strong world and environment, supported by simple but compelling visual design and awesome music. ‘

See http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2010/10/indiecade_2010_winners_announc.html

and

http://www.indiecade.com/index.php/2010/

and for the game…

http://thelettervsixtim.es/

Well done to Terry.

Not to far away and should be of interest to some

Aphra.

*******************

Following on from its successful launch last year, the one-day Develop in Liverpool Conference returns by popular demand on Thursday 25 November 2010.

Develop in Liverpool is designed to meet the demands of the thriving game community based in the north, with three tracks and multiple networking sessions including a post event drinks reception. The event will take place alongside Software City, which is organised by Merseyside ICT.

Mick Hocking, Senior Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe will give the opening keynote in HD 3D at Odeon Cinema
‘Seeing is Believing: 3D a New Creative Medium for Games – 3D glasses provided!’

This will be the first presentation given to developers by Sony in full HD 3D on the big screen. It’s going happen at the Odeon Liverpool One Cinema, just around the corner from the Hilton Liverpool Hotel where the conference takes place. More..

See http://liverpool.develop-conference.com/