Dexter and Transmedia – Part II

 

This is the second (and last) part of our Transmedia and Dexter informal “survey.” The first part is here and the original article about “Transmedia and the future of storytelling” can be found here. All the answers are unedited.

Question: Besides watching the series and eventually having a Dexter feature film, how else would you like to interact with the series/characters/plot?

• Dexter feel’s his killings are serving the justice that the police/law falls short of, therefore leaving a positive impact on society. Besides justice, there is also an economic impact. I wonder how much he is saving the tax payer money. Would be interesting to see the accounting balance sheet. One column that shows the convicted murderer going to prison and specific amount of $$ that it would cost to keep prove their guilt and keep them in prison, versus the second column that shows the cost in labor and materials (plastic wrap, trash bags, knife sharpening, boat fuel) it takes Dexter to kill and dump that same murderer off the coast of Miami. With that comparison it would be easy to see the “bargain” that Dexter is giving the public. (PC)

• I would love to see odd conversations between this two like Lynch used to do in Twin Peaks. (GD)

• I don’t really want to manipulate it myself. It could be cool to see outtakes/bloopers or hear the actors talking about their characters and how they react to the plot. I don’t want to interact with the characters or plot because that’s up to the writers to make that call. At least that’s what I feel. (EO)

• It would be interesting to know how they did some scenes and what technology they used in the creation of the shots and sets. Other than that, I love the suspense and the plot swings,  that’s the entertainment value of TV. (RN)

• I would like to have intel into various objects that are part of the series, eg. be able to read one of the characters notes from a crime scene od access files that are stored on Dexter’s computer. It may be irrelevant to the plot but may enable to experience characters more deeply. (DN)

• Since I live in the city he patrols, I would like to be part of an episode, maybe as a computer geek or concealed serial killer that has access to Dexter’s workplace. I want to hang out with Sergeant Batista, going out to Cuban places and mess around with Masuka. I would love to be part of the set as I watch with great trepidation as Dexter takes out the “trash.” (AL)

What about you? How would you interact with Dexter? Add your thoughts below.

Visual Serendipity.

 

Giovanni Bologna’s famed Flying Mercury “captures the Greek messenger of the gods speeding through the skies.”  Mercury is depicted wearing a winged petasus on his head and winged sandals which give him speed in flight. He carries the caduceus in his hand, the magic wand given to him by Apollo that has come to symbolizes the practice of medicine.

Dexter and Transmedia – Part I

 

Last week we wrote about Transmedia, and how the “gap” between our dig­i­tal and phys­i­cal worlds is now closing very quickly. As a fun experiment we reached several people with two questions regarding Transmedia and the super awesome Showtime show Dexter. We wanted to see how the current Dexter super fans would like to alter the show’s sto­ry­line, influ­enc­e the characters deci­sions or become a char­ac­ter them­selves. The answers are unedited. The second question/answers will be posted later this week. The conclusion? Read below to find out the answers to the first questions

Question: If you could change/modify/manipulate a Dexter episode using any media or technology what would you do?

• The show is based on the perspective of Dexter himself. When Dexter’s “thinking voice” speaks (his voice over), we are learning his purest true self and motivations. It would be interesting to have some episodes that have other characters have their own perspectives, and we hear their own inner voice in the show, and get to know their own absolute truth. I think it would help develop some other characters and make them feel a little less cliche overall. (PC)

• Dexter finds out that he has a homozygous twin. Dexter didn’t know about him because police, in order to protect this guy, changed name and state after the brutal murder of their mum. Like him, he’s a killer and at the same time a priest in a small village of Mormons. (GD)

• I don’t think I would want to change/modify/manipulate an episode of Dexter or anything else for that matter. When I watch tv, especially dramas and comedies, I like being able to relax and have a story told to me. I like not knowing what’s going to happen or have any control  over the eventual outcome. This is why I don’t like those contest reality shows where you can vote for people to win or watch people all the time on cameras, like Big Brother for example. If I am going to watch tv or a movie, I just want to sit back and let it happen. And I also want to watch it on a TV!! Not a computer, phone, iPad, tablet, etc… a real TV! (EO)

• I think audience participation shows that the script isn’t strong enough and the writers are looking for ideas, it’s their story, let them tell it. (RN)

• Experience “Dexter” episode like an interactive novel or a computer game, where reader/player is able to make decisions in behalf of the character and his choices develop the plot in one of few predefinied ways, creating the illusion of controlling how the story develops. (DM)

• I would like to have access via the Internet. I would select any episode and make it darker. I liked it better when Dexter felt nothing. He has become to “normal.” (AL)

What’s your take? Do you agree or disagree? Please add your comments below.

Visual Serendipity. No Gas.

 

Two weeks after Hurricane Sandy hit New York (and other States), the gasoline shortage continues. New York City and Long Island began gas rationing a few days ago, something not seen since 1970s.

Here’s an interesting article from Forbes about “the truth behind the epic gas lines.”
And here’s another one from the New York Times.

Meet the Alpa 12 FPS. The Ultimate Open Platform.

 
The Alpa “12 FPS” (for Focal Plane Shutter) is the best example of both “modular” and “open platform” we have seen. The concept is fairly simple: take a small sliding back adapter and attach a digital “brain.” In reality, it is obviously way more complicated than that.

On the front, the system can take virtually any lens (with the corresponding adapter), including Nikon and Canon lenses, Hasselblad V, Mamiya M, Leica S, view camera lenses from Schneider and Rodenstock, and even Cine lenses from Zeiss.

On the Back, the system works with pretty much any Medium Format Digital Back. What makes this system unique and brilliant is not only the amazing flexibility but the “brain” that can be configured to control shutter speed, aperture, bracketing, (even for HDR) and flash-sync. I was told that the very well finished prototype I saw was finished just hours before Photokina started.

The system configuration I played with had the FPS body, a Leaf Digital Back with a Zeiss 21mm CP.2 lens and was being triggered with Pocket Wizards…a true digital Frankenstein!

I can see an important demand for this system from landscape and architectural photographers, as well as rental houses all over the world. More images and complete tech specs are available here. If you are truly interested, here are the prices.

UPDATE 20121207 We attended a great event this week by Andre Oldani at Foto Care and learned a lot of new and interesting things. Just a couple of months after we first saw the FPS system at Photokina, Alpa has clearly worked hard and fast to finalize some loose ends and deliver a truly impressive platform.

These are a couple of images from Oldani’s presentation.

Visual Serendipity.

 

Not bad for a two-year-old phone. This is Week 44 of Visual Serendipity, our series of images taken with a cellphone.

Fresh Images. Europe.

 
These are some of my favorite images from a trip to Europe a few weeks ago. Even though I was overseas for almost three weeks, I only had about four days (or 96 hours) to shoot for fun. I’m working on a more elaborate project for these images. For now, check this PhotoShelter slideshow.

Europe

Cloud Storage Solutions and Adobe Lightroom.

 
In the past couple of weeks, we have done several One-on-One Consulting sessions where the “Cloud Storage” question came up. This is a very quick overview of the most popular online storage options with pricing and direct links to each.

My own situation:
• My Lightroom Catalog has 70,000 RAW Images. I shoot a lot, but I am merciless editing.
• The entire catalog (NOT the RAW files) takes about 26GB of space.
• The RAW files take about 860GB of space.

This means I need about 900GB of storage space if I wanted to move my Lightroom Catalog, including all RAW files, to the Cloud.

Dropbox customers are provided with 2 GB for free. 

100 GB
Monthly $9.99
Yearly $99.00

200 GB
Monthly $19.99
Yearly $199.00

500 GB
Monthly $49.99
Yearly $499.00

IMPORTANT: If you don’t have a Dropbox account, use this link to get started. You get 2GB for free, and we both get an additional 500MB as a bonus. Hurry up!

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Visual Serendipity. NYC Subway.

 

 

By now, New York City’s subway system has been restored to “limited service”, as efforts continue to dry out flooded tubes, track, signals and other components damaged in last week’s “Sandy” storm. Below is the condition of the subway map after the hurricane:

Adobe Photoshop CS6 • Updates and Workarounds.

Back in April, when Adobe Photoshop CS6 Beta was released, the company dropped offi­cial sup­port for Win­dows Vista, but it continued supporting Windows 7 and XP users.

A couple of months later, Adobe gave an “advanced warning” that 3D feature upgrades in Photoshop CS6 would no longer be supported with Windows XP. Additionally, Photoshop CS6 (13.0) will be the last major version of Photoshop to support Windows XP.

Even though it is ancient, Windows XP is still the best selling Microsoft OS, and makes up nearly 40% of their market share (after having peaked at 76.1% in January 2007), it is somewhat expected that Adobe’s software developers now insist on the latest upgraded versions of Windows OS (Windows 7 and 8) to run their applications.

This is what Adobe had to say:

Photoshop CS6 already demonstrates that relying on a modern operating system, graphics cards/GPUs and graphics drivers can lead to substantial improvements in 3D, Blur Gallery and Lighting Effect features not available to Windows XP customers. The team hopes that by providing this information early it will help you understand our current decisions around operating system support and where we we’re headed with future releases of Photoshop.

We encourage all customers who are currently using the 3D features in Photoshop CS6 Extended to begin upgrading their video card/hardware now so they can fully take advantage of future Photoshop innovations as soon as they are available.

Creative Cloud members will also be required to update their vRAM to at least 512 MB in order to access 3D features found in Photoshop CS6 Extended.  If they don’t update, they’ll see the following dialog box:

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How NOT to announce new products. Google Nexus.

 
UPDATE: 20121123 Google’s Nexus 4 Smartphone and Nexus 10 Tablet sold out 20 minutes after the Google Play store opened. http://ow.ly/fg1mo

By now it is pretty clear that we love Google (most of the time). But the company can learn a thing or two from Apple, especially when it comes to important product announcements. On Monday, while Hurricane Sandy was hitting the East Coast ,and 7.5 million people in 16 states have lost power, Apple announced that the company’s senior vice president of iOS was getting fired for (apparently) refusing to apologize publicly for the Apple Maps mess. The timing was impeccable, since nobody noticed nor cared. Well, at the very same time, Google was announcing three new Nexus devices; a smartphone, a 7-inch tablet, and a 10-inch tablet. Guess what happened? Nobody noticed nor cared. They sold out.

All three devices run Android 4.2, which Google describes as “a new flavor of Jelly Bean.” The Nexus 4 is Google’s latest 4.7-inch, quad-core Nexus smartphone, developed with LG, and priced well below analysts expectations. It will be available for $299 (8GB) and $349 (16GB) for unlocked, contract-free units. However, the best deal seems to be the 16GB unit on T-Mobile for $199. We can’t really predict how sales will perform, but what is certain is that the Nexus 4 will make a strong impact on the smartphone market.

Based on the promo video, it seems that Google is focusing the tablets on education. We have written extensively about technology and education here, here, and here.

Although we are more excited with Samsung’s Galaxy Camera, one of our favorite features of the new Nexus smartphone is Photo Sphere, a camera app/Google Maps hybrid that allows users to create and share 360-degree panoramas.

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