Wicked 3sty for Something

Interactive Marketing and Photo Sharing with Flickr

The article below is a write up, I produced for my final project for my New Media I class.
My final project was an effort to increase patron interactivity at a museum with cell phone photo taking.

 

After I showed Jim Sheldon the Professor my WiFi cell phone media streaming device, he said he would like to see pictures. This created several questions.

1) Pictures of what? Should a museum exhibition have high quality pictures of the exhibit available for viewing on their cell phone?

2) Where should you store these images? There is only a finite amount of space on the WiFi device, and it is a constraint.

After thinking about the issue of image storage, I began investigating the Flickr photo sharing site. I purchased a book on the Flickr photo sharing,  and I began investigating it as a possible interactive tool for a museum to use as a supplement to the WiFi cell phone streamer.

 

This project is an effort to utilize ubiquitous cell phone cameras and increase interactivity with museum patrons. Patrons take pictures with their phones and then are able to chose their favorite picture which will be printed as a postcard using http://qoop.com with a targeted marketing message from the museum. The system will capture a users e-mail and home address, and will allow the museum to direct market to the patron for only $1.00 per postcard.

 

I came up with the following procedure

1) Patron comes into the museum and receives instructions on how to post their cell phone pictures and find their pictures for printing as a postcard.

2) Patrons e-mail their photos using their phones built in e-mail client to pictures@icaboston.com.

a. The pictures@icaboston.com is a catchall e-mail address that forwards all incoming e-mail containing photos to the museum’s flickr e-mail account, and adds the subject line tag:ICA

b. Adding the tag:ICA groups the photos based on the folksonimical tagging mechanism built into flickr. The ICA tag also allows a programmer interfacing with the flickr API to request all pictures posted in a certain time frame with the tag.

3) The user is then instructed to view the pictures and choose their favorite photos. They are instructed to go to http://ss/p which is a small URL on the wifi streaming server. They are able to look at and scroll down through the pictures, and find their favorite photo.

 

 

 

 

 

4) Once they have found their favorite photo, they click on it by pressing the image, and they are then taken to a form.

  

  

5) The museum patron fills out their form, with their home address and e-mail address.

6) This information then gets e-mailed (The wifi router doesn’t have space for a database, but does have the ability to e-mail messages off the router) to the person responsible for filling out the http://qoop.com form to mail the post card to the patron.

The information e-mailed contains the patron’s postal address as well as the flickr ID of the photo.

The museum personnel can then go to the museums flickr web page, and find the phlickr photo ID of the photo the patron wants printed, and then click on print this image and then click on http://qoop.net.

7) The museum personnel can then go through the http://qoop.com post card building tool and print and send the post card of the image to the museum patron.

The postcard would have room for a marketing message from the museum, and could provide information on upcoming events and general membership information.

 

8)Another possible idea would be to use the eStarling WiFi enabled high definition picture frames in the exhibit hall. The eStarling LCD picture can be configured to pull their photos from a feed from flickr. This would allow interactivity at a museum, where patron’s could see their photos posted and streaming from their cell phones in real time. It is exciting to think about the ideas possible when an Internet connection is introduced, and a museum or organization has an interest in interactivity.

 

 

 

 

9) Another similar idea to the eStarling would be to introduce Chumby’s to patrons. Chumby http://chumby.com is a plush toy like screen and “personal internet player”. Chumby has a built in flickr feed, support for flash and an interesting tactile interface. The chumby could be particularly useful for museums or organizations who cater to children as patrons.

Google Apps for Your Real Estate Company

Google Apps for Your Real Estate Company was a screencast I produced as my final project for Foundations of Image and Sound at Emerson. I have been really interested in screencasting for a while now, and tutorial based  screencasts are the majority of the video that I use and interact with online.

I am interested in turning the Google Apps for Your Real Estate Company video into a full length well produced tutorial series as my graduate project. From what I understand the average spent on a graduate project is upwards of $10,000. This would of course pay for the entire production, and would give me the latitude to hire professional actors and voice talent. I look forward to the production of this video project, and the subsequent marketing efforts.

First Group Video Project

My project partners Ash Hsie, Jordan Baese and I all worked on a group video project for VM613 Emerson's Introduction to Video and Sound. It was a really neat experience writing, producing and editing the video. It was also a really nice opportunity to meet and work with other students.

It was my acting debut, and was quite fun. The voice I use in the video is a made up one. I don't sound like that in real life. The Prof. for the course, asked why I used a weird voice. And my only explanation was it had turned into a motif for the day. When ever I did the lines opposite one of the other guys, I always used a different funny voice.

 

Nick Carlisle one of our classmates wrote up the following, I though his constructive criticism was right on:

This is frickin' hilarious.  Like, wicked frickin' hilarious. 

If I may, let me offer some constructive criticism (some of which I offered in class last week), then I can gush about the awesomeness of this project.

Okay, I mentioned that the shots that have Tom on it are very dark, and offer a low contrast. Upon viewing on my computer, it almost looks as if gain was increased either on the camera or in post during these shots. Which is fine, but it doesn't jive well with the shots of Ash, which have a very crisp and well-lit contrast. I know you wanted to present the illusion of Tom being in the dark without power, but again, lighting that scene with blue gels and very powerfully could create a sense of moonlight through the window. Of course, that might be pointless, as it's obviously daytime when the phone call comes in. So that might need to be worked on by a) having Jordan filmed outside at night and Ash being an overnight technician, or b) not go for the blue gels, and create the illusion of daylight under the desk where Tom is, but still refrain from using any gain (again, I'm only assuming you did).

I know we talked a bit about the intro when Ash walks in, and how there was that jump cut when he took off his jacket, and it looks like you changed that. But after watching it again, it almost seems to me that you could experiment with elimating the entire walking-into-the-office part, and simply open with Ash at the desk, dreading his upcoming shift.

Also, in light of all this copyright stuff, I don't think the name "Bentley" needs to be included at all, both on the screen, and via voice. You could make up a fake company, and thus avoid any legal wheelings and dealings. I know this is just a class project, so it's not a big deal now, but it could pose an issue if you do something like this in the future.

There were one or two shots of Jordan where he seemed overly backlit. The only thing that resolved this was that we, as viewers, knew he was the only character who was outside, so knew it was him, but his facial features sometimes were a bit washed out. I personally know the Kendall T stop area very well, and could tell where specifically he was, but most viewers don't, and I think it would have worked better if you stuck with consistent sunlight angles, even if it meant he looked like he was in the same place he was before. I don't know if that makes sense...I just got the feeling that he was wandering around aimlessly, and we got different lighting in each shot. Also, he was wearing a Yankees hat. What's up with that?!

Okay, so I thought this project was incredibly well-paced. Incredibly. It starts off with just a couple of calls, and builds into a crescendo of phones ringing, cuts to people back and forth on the phone, and to me, the climax of this all was brilliantly edited, where Jordan starts to say something like "I want to hear more about the thong" but his voice gets cut off at JUST the right moment, where he doesn't actually say "thong," but you just know that's what he's saying. Brilliant!!

Just my two cents.  Good job, guys.