Ali's Space: Work

Mutant Cows

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:29:46 GMT

This is why: a) we have artists, and, b) why I probably got a D in GCSE art.

(Actually, the real reason I really got a D in GCSE art was that my crazy art teacher thought it would make my "Dolphin Shoe" (for some odd reason, we had to make animal themed shoes out of paper mache) more authentic if we left some dead fish in it over the half term break. Anyway, needless to say, the shoe not only smelt vile, but the room couldn't be used for a week, and everyone else's work had to be thrown away after moderation)

Maths Software Enters Beta Testing

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:27:58 GMT

Finally, after many many (about seven?) months worth of work, the project I've been developing for the London Grid For Learning, has entered beta testing. The project, developed for Electronic Blackboard, features games and activities for every item on the national curriculum.

It's been a bit of a hard slog, but at least I know, for sure, that I am smarter than a ten year old.

Which means, I can actually have some time off. Woop. Ten whole days worth. So, if anybody fancies a catch up, give me a shout. Hoping some of the Clevedon lot might be back (those that are still students, at least).

More details here on the maths stuff

New "work stuff" blog...

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:54:23 GMT

Just set up a blog on my work web site (Chaos Created). I'd imagine most of the stuff I post there will get duplicated here, but if you want a nose around some of my work stuff, the link is here.

New Movie Details...

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:24:51 GMT

A few details have been released via a cast advert for the first of the two feature films I'll be editing on this year.

Perantauan Pictures and Befour Media UK, the team behind S'kali are now casting for their new feature-length horror/drama, written by Arivind Abraham and Keith Leong and to be directed by the former.

The film now has a name, 5:13, and I had an almost-final draft of the script sent over last week and I think it's going to turn out to be a great film. It has a far more universal appeal than S'kali and horror/thriller films from smaller film companies seem to be doing rather well as of late.

The film begins shooting on 5th May.

Teaser Trailer

"Big Day Out" - My Next Project

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:09:52 GMT

I had a meeting yesterday about my next project for Electronic Blackboard. Once the maths project ships, and the Climate Project is through (and I've had a week or so to recover), I'll be moving onto Big Day Out, a series of flash based applications commissioned by the UK's learning grids.

One of these projects was commissioned for the South West Grid for learning, and if you want to check it out, the link is below.

It's a neat online service, built in Flash and hooked into a database that allows children to explore certain areas of the UK and discover what they're famous for. They can then complete an activity, and every activity has an outcome that can be stored in a scrapbook for the individual school, shared with any other pupil on the network and emailed to anybody with an email account. For example, I could go in, visit Weston Super Mare, build a sandcastle, and then share the results.

From the press release for the West Midlands version (which I'll be working on):

Did you blink and miss this year’s summer? Not to worry, you can now revisit the Summer by making sand castles in Bournemouth, go fossil hunting in Dorset or have a day at the beach in Cornwall. These are just some of the many Foundation and KS1 modelling activities available to all schools at http://bdo.swgfl.org.uk .
After completing the activities pupils can send postcards with their results. The activities are designed to be facilitated by an adult and promote discussion. They are ideal as whole class activities on an interactive whiteboard.
The 15 activities have been produced by i-Board in collaboration with the South West Grid for Learning. More activities are planned for all around the country including the West Midlands. WMnet are working with i-Board to produce 15 activities which will highlight the best of the region especially in terms of industrial heritage.

If you fancy a play, you can have a look at one of the South West builds here. There is a cool interface that is being worked on at the moment that will take pupils between the different areas of the country in a similar style to Google Earth.

Play with the South West Big Day Out here

The Work "Home Stretch"...

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:02:45 GMT

Coming to the end of a couple of major projects over the next week or two. The Climate Change project for Birmingham schools is nearly complete (it's just going through a bit of tweaking/bug catching) and I've developed two out of the three activities for this one, and the i-board Maths project, which I've been working on since Q3 last year is just about complete too.

The maths project has been absolutely huge - it's basically activities to cover the entire curriculum for reception, year one and year two, tied together with a pupil and teacher interface and will be appearing in all London primary schools this year. Apparently there's 264 games in there now. That explains the tiredness.

Also, a couple of web projects, including the redesign for i-Candy, a salon and spa in Bristol, are just awaiting final text.

So, the plan is to get a week or two off an unwind a bit. I seem to have fallen into the trap of having very little free time, and there's a few things I wouldn't mind doing. It'd be nice just to get away from the computer, catch up with some friends that I've not seen for a while, maybe get away for a couple of days, turf my garden ready for the Summer, play some games, catch a movie or two and just relax a bit.

Oh, and sleeping in would be nice.

Chaos Created: Climate Change House Game

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:06:00 GMT

I'm working on another climate change game for Midlands schools.

I finished the transport game yesterday, and I'm now working on a second game which teaches primary school children about saving energy (and therefore creating less CO2) around the house.

It's quite a simple idea - there's a house with two children in, and they're cold and shivering. The pupils have to make them comfortable, and they can either do this by turning up the heating, or by doing other things, such as putting more clothes on the children and closing windows and doors.

It's quite a simple concept, but I've ended up having to code up a working boiler system. I'm sure it won't be appreciated by six year olds, but the game has an "outside temperature" a "standard house temperature" which increases and decreases based on the number of windows and doors open, and a "target temperature" on the boiler which the pupils can change.

Anyway, the boiler kicks in when the target temperature is higher than the temperature of the house. Switch off the heating and the temperature will drop (slowly, if windows and doors are shut, quicker if they are open) to the "standard house temperature" (which again, is lower if windows are open). Whack the heating up and the boiler fires up, creating CO2, and warms up the house until it hits the target temperature, then it switches itself off, like a thermostat. The temperature will try and drop, but every time it decreases by a degree, the boiler will fire up to try and maintain the house temperature.

The children then have their own feedback system - they freeze and shiver, remain comfortably happy, or sweat depending on how much they are wearing and the temperature of the room they are in.

It's a pretty complex system, but it gets the message across. The pupils are timed and have to maintain the happiness/comfort level of the children in the game, and obviously the best way to do that is to stick some extra clothes on.

Once they've completed the game, and the two others (saving energy around the house, and the transport game), they're issued with a printable certificate of their eco-friendly-ness.

Chaos Created: Climate Change

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:23:52 GMT

Been busy over the past couple of weeks working on a climate change project:

The project, developed for primary school children, features three games, as well as a narrated story. The games explore how children can have an effect on our planet and explores the effects of transportation and the use of electricity. Chaos has developed one of the three games for use within the project.
In one game, developed by Chaos, children can decide by simple drag-and-drop how a street of children travel to school and how much fuel they can save by doing things such as car sharing, or cycling.

The game I'm working on sits in with two other games (one of which is about saving energy around the house), and has been commissioned for use within primary schools in the Midlands.

The end result is quite impressive. Children can see how much CO2 (Collin CO2) is produced, and then see news reports from around the world in a sort of "if everybody did what you have done" manner.

Chaos Created: EJ Rocks

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:58:54 GMT

Last week, EJ Rocks went live. It's a flash web site I created for Rhoda Rocks, a fashion store based in Clifton Village which is hoping to increase their online business in addition to promoting their shop and products.

There's an online store element coming shortly, initially powered by ebay, with a view to creating a bespoke store later in the year.

Anyway, the site is here.

Chaos Created: S'kali opens London Filmmakers Convention

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:02:15 GMT

Just found out that the film I co-edited on last year, S'kali, is being shown in London:

Perantauan Entertainment is pleased to announce that S'kali will be opening the London Filmmakers Convention on 07/12/2007. We are pleased to finally have the film shown in London.
The screening is free and open to all members of the public.
Here are the details:
Location: Westbourne Studios, 242 Acklam Road, London W10 5JJ
Time: 1800hrs
Westbourne Studios Website
Festival Website

So, if you're nearby and want to see what it's all about, pop on down!

Chaos Created: Animal Height and Length Games

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:34:28 GMT

As part of my programming work with i-board, and their Online Club interactive service, we've released "Animal Height and Length" as the latest topic today.

It's a series of six games/interactive screens, for use within schools (normally on interactive whiteboards), geared towards year one.

There's a couple of really cool ones in this series - Frog High Jump and Ostrich Long Jump, which were kind of fun to work on (and Jack, our artist, did a great job with these). If you fancy wasting a few minutes (and you think you're smarter than a five year old), you can play them for free:

http://www.iboard.co.uk/thismonthfree/

We're also going live with our Christmas activities later in the week - previous year's ones can be found at:

http://www.iboard.co.uk/christmas/

Two movies I'll be working on next year

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:34:33 GMT

Perantauan Entertainment has made an official announcement regarding their forthcoming features:

Perantauan will be shooting 2 movies in the middle of 2008, both of which are fully funded and green-lit.

I'll be editing on both of these films next Summer. I believe that the horror film (teaser trailer here) begins shooting around April 2008, with the edit to begin immediately afterwards. The second film is being shot straight after the first, so it looks like I'll be tied up with editing for several months. I'm not entirely sure on the release details yet.

I think I'm most excited about the horror film. The plot is actually rather intelligent and the drama is handled in an Open Water/Right At Your Door kind of way, which should make for an interesting movie. I love horror/thriller films anyway.

Trailer - Untitled Horror Project starring Azwin Andy

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 10:45:30 GMT

The teaser trailer I worked on in London yesterday has just hit the net. It's a short trailer, designed really to do two things. Firstly, it was to test the HD equipment that the crew will be using on the shoot (which included a rather tasty HD camera, and a MovieTube ST Lens Adapter) and secondly to start the publicity wagon for the film itself.

The quality of the test shots was quite stunning, coupled with the lighting. It was my job to take the footage, edit it together, and mix the audio track, which is quite effective.

Obviously, the film doesn't begin shooting until the Spring, so a trailer will no doubt follow around that time, which will start to reveal the story. I heard the synopsis yesterday, and it sounds like it's going to be a great film. It reminded me of Right At Your Door, but for the horror genre, and is inspired by real events.

Anyway, turn out your lights, and crank up the volume.

And the trailer is done...

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 18:56:51 GMT

I've just finished cutting the trailer for a new feature film I'll be editing next year. It's a Befour co-production. Luke (DOP) and Arivind (Writer/Director) filmed the footage last night and it's very effective as a teaser trailer. I've been editing in London today and we've just seen the cut on the big screen and it's quite chilling!

The trailer is being circulated now as a teaser (the feature enters production in the Spring). I'll upload it when I get home.

Off for some ice cream at Tower Bridge. London's so pretty this time of year.

London

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 06:51:25 GMT

Ugh, it's early! I'm in London today working on a trailer for a new film. The footage was shot last night, and we're putting the edit together today, and no doubt it'll escape, magically, onto You Tube by the end of the week.

Chaos Created: Postcards

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:38:29 GMT

I took delivery a week or two ago of 10,000 flyers I designed, split between Look It's My Car and Pixartra, two social web sites I developed recently for clients.

It's been quite hard to attract visitors to brand new social web sites, but we're getting there. Hits this week are four times what they were last week, so we're tweaking the sites a bit over the next week or three to encourage a better sign-up rate.

Anyway, here are the designs...

Pixartra

This postcard was designed largely for mail-outs to art clubs and artists. The brief for this was to design a postcard that gets over the message of the site which is "social art" - the idea of sharing art/photographs with others. Although the site is hardly crammed with users yet, the ones we do have seem to be using the site a lot, and uploading some really great collections. Visit the site.

Look It's My Car

The brief for this one is slightly different. The postcard needed to be striking, as these will mostly be handed out at car shows, and left in student bars at universities and exhibitions. I tried to include some striking imagery to bring together cars of all types (classic, modified, new, American....). Visit the site.

Chaos Created: Divali Games

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:49:50 GMT

The Divali games I created for i-board's Online Club is now live, and part of this month's free trial too.

Try our new Divali topic (found in Green, for Year 2). Pupils can explore the story of Rama and Sita through storytelling and sequencing activities and design a firework display.

http://iboard.co.uk/thismonthfree

Crazy (Non) Customers

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:22:42 GMT

I set myself up with an 0845 number last month as part of my ongoing battle to differentiate between work and social.

Anyway, last week, a phone call came through on the work number from an elderly lady, and Jo answered the call and had a conversation similar to this:

Jo: Good evening, Chaos Created.
Lady: Hello, I'm ringing up about a television I ordered which hasn't been delivered.
Jo: Errr.... We're a media design company.
Lady: A what?
Jo: I think you have the wrong number. We work on things such as web sites.
Lady: Yes, yes, that's right - I did order my television from a website.

Fantastic. Apparently I'm now responsible for the entire Internet.

Even better still was an answer phone message that was left on the business number yesterday. The funny thing is that the outgoing message describes exactly what we do with regards to web design, and offers the web site address as a reference point, which is probably why there was such a long pause after the beep whilst the lady hesitated over the number she dialed, before she finally spoke:

"Err... Yes, hello there. I'm ringing to to enquire about my flights and tickets that I booked with you to....... Erotica...... er.... at the end of the month. Could somebody call me back as I'm really very eager. My name is Maxine....."

I have a feeling Maxine may have been into a completely different kind of media production.

Busy, busy....

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:05:32 GMT

Things are as crazy as ever...

Work wise, I'm working on a new Maths CD-ROM for the London "Grid" which should see the product pushed out to all London schools. It's a bit of a major product - the essence of it is that it provides at least one interactive activity/game for every single item on the curriculum for reception, year one and year two.

In between that, I've been working on some i-board Divali games which should be released later today. I'm also busy working on a couple of web sites and, a couple of weeks ago I submitted a proposal for what could be a decent project for me in the new year.

Non-work wise, I'm off house hunting later this afternoon with Maz - I've got my eye on a couple of places, but thought I'd see what else is out there. Tomorrow, I've got the day off, so I'm off up to Thorpe Park with Maz. There's a spare seat or two in the car if anybody else fancies it. Off to see Saw IV tonight as well.

What's been really good, over the last couple of weeks, is that a couple of ongoing situations have sorted themselves out at last. Over the least year or so I've had to be responsible for a couple of things/people in ways that maybe I shouldn't have been. In many ways, it was my own fault for letting the situations get as bad as they did, but it's difficult to say no to people you care about and, in all honesty, I'd do it again for the same people. But I'm glad that it's all sorted. What's really nice is that both of these people sorted it out for themselves and so suddenly I've got a lot more freedom and a few fewer responsibilities and I'm getting to be in a position where I can see the work I've been putting into projects paying off, and better still, I'm able to enjoy it. Hence the random day off in the middle of the week.

It's quite nice really. And it will be even better once I've moved. I'm sort of in the mind-set of it all now. As much as I love my house, it does feel restrictive now that I work from home for most of the week and I'm quite looking forward to the change of being somewhere a bit busier.

I'm also going to be shooting a short film next month in London, which will be cool. It's going to be a bit of an intense couple of days, filming one night and editing the next day. It's been a while since I've worked on fictional film (Bored Billy was the last project) so it should be a lot of fun, and it means I get to work with Luke and Arivind again, which is always fun. And a trip to London, of course.

Geography Games

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:28:52 GMT

Our Flash Geography games are live for year 1 pupils as part of the i-board Online Club product.

There's a couple of cool ones in there - a race to school, and an address label maker which is rather funky, along with a couple of graphing activities. Nowhere near as cool as next month's activities though .

Anyway, if you fancy checking them out:

http://iboard.co.uk/thismonthfree/

Chaos Created Launch

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:30:12 GMT

It's been a little while in the making, but I've finally got around to launching my professional web site.

Chaos Created is home to my freelance and collaborative work, including web design, film editing, software/games programming, and print based marketing and advertising.

I've also tied it into a Twitter account, so I can post a little bit more there about projects I'm working on (rather than posting all my work stuff here).

There's also the revamp of the Chaos Online Store (previously part of the Chaos Games web site) which features some artificial life work I produced a couple of years back, along with the home user version of The Magic School from i-board.

There's also my collaborative work on Melloweh and Gridsearch, and the movies/documentaries I've edited. I'll hopefully get some more video samples up there over the next week, along with the promotional DVDs I've been working on for local schools and pubs/bars.

Anyway....

Check it out: http://www.chaoscreated.com

Samantha Tan Gallery Update (A Chaos Created Web Site)

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 13:55:30 GMT

Just completed a major update to Samantha Tan's official web site - basically it involved a recoding of the gallery, it's pretty smart looking. The photos in there are stunning.

Check it out here.

Anne King (A Chaos Created Web site)

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 19:03:34 GMT

I've just finished and made live http://www.annemorrisonking.com - a rather cool looking web site for a local photographer/artist based in Clevedon, near Bristol.

Take a look. There's some nice work in there.

Not much in the way of posts from me this week - been majorly busy with work. I've been working on some flyers for Pixartra and Look It's My Car. I'm also readying my new business web site which should be coming this Monday to http://www.chaoscreated.com - all being well. And, of course, I'm swimming in tapes still, editing The Last Drive concert DVD which is taking an age but is shaping up nicely. It has a raw, live cut feel to it which I like.

So, yeah, other than work, not much to report. Been a bit ill this week, so I've been working from the sofa with my quilt today. Such is life. Hopefully going out over the weekend, and maybe a random day trip Sunday and leave the computer switched off.

Pixartra - A new art sharing web site (From Chaos Created)

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:27:40 GMT

Here we go again. Chaos is happy (overjoyed, in fact) to announce the launch of Pixartra which went live last night.

This is a cool little project that I've had on the go for a little while now, working with Bristol-based artist Anne King. It's a nifty little art social site for people to share their art, comment on other people's art and meet artists online.

We're in a 'beta' phase at the moment. Further down the line, we're hopefully going to introduce some more social features (private messaging, for example) but for now, it's all about the sharing!

So, if you have five minutes free and fancy doing me a favour, sign-up, log in, and upload some art - it doesn't have to be serious art (water colours, chalk and charcoal, etc.), it could be a cool photograph you've taken perhaps, or some digital art that you've created in Photoshop.

Anyway, give it a go!

http://www.pixartra.com

Wired

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 18:04:40 GMT

I think I may have consumed around 16 cups of coffee this weekend and slept for about 8 hours since Thursday night.

I'm editing.

Good times.

Stephen Maggs Estate Agents (A Chaos Web site)

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:21:01 GMT

I've just revamped my dad's web site, Stephen Maggs Estate Agents, finally (in between all these other web projects I'm doing this week). The old style was awful (see disgusting picture on the right) - I have a feeling it looked cool in its day (about 5 years ago) but I've no idea why - maybe I'm kidding myself.

Anyway, fresh new look...

http://www.stephenmaggs.co.uk

A one console future is 'inevitable'

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:39:17 GMT

Outspoken gaming boss Denis Dyack has delivered a surprise speech at the Leipzig Games Convention, claiming that the future will see one console become a "unified gaming standard".
Dyack believes the standardisation would mean lower hardware prices, cheaper development and lower game prices and that it would end confusion amongst gamers.

Gaming - News - A one console future is 'inevitable' - Digital Spy

It's called a PC you moron. Consoles will always be a competitive market - it's where the money is. Everybody benefits with multiple consoles. The competition drives innovation. Can you imagine one console that does everything that never changes? Technology advances, new versions of consoles appear. You will never get a console that can do everything as developers will always push things further. And, heck, it's hardly surprising that many people are buying two consoles this time round (Wii60 anyone?).

Publishers and gamers benefit from the rivalry, technology gets pushed forward (360 gets released first, innovates over PS2 and Xbox, PS3 copies and adds more innovation, 360 updates itself twice a year, Nintendo can't compete so innovates in a totally different area). And the competition is then fought with the first party titles (PS2 had GTA, 360 has Bioshock, Fable 2, Mass Effect, Halo 3, PS3 has PS3 Home and MGS).

Pushing for one console is like asking all other chains of supermarket to close apart from Tesco. Competition means a better product for users.

Seriously, if you want a standard, look to the PC which provides a more common ground with hundreds of companies (Dell, HP, Packard Bell, etc.) providing hardware. There's a reason I never buy PC games anymore - the hardware you buy is out of date before it even gets to you. The last thing you want is for consoles to get in that position - and it would if you had a common standard platform as each manufacturer would compete to add more, as is the case with PCs. Everyone having different hardware is a bad idea as far as developing games is concerned - at least with a console you avoid this.

Name one developer that wouldn't want one standard platform to develop for that never changes. Of course. But we're all consumers too. Without multiple consoles, you lose the competition, you lose great games (and risky games) and you get locked into multiple hardware issues, drivers, cost cutting and all the issues that put people off buying PC games, and all the issues that put people off making PC games.

The Last Drive Edit: Day 4

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:17:52 GMT

Yes, it's a Sunday.

The last few days have been spent importing the material from The Last Drive concerts onto a hard drive ready for editing.

With around 45 tapes to digitise (equating to around 40-45 hours worth of footage), that's no light task.

As always, the project started off with technical problems. My workstation is a Vista PC running Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 and the computer would recognise the camera that is doubling up as a DV deck, but Premiere wouldn't interact with it. Also, with 45+ tapes, the hard drive here wasn't going to be big enough.

The next idea was to import the footage using Movie Maker (Yes, the free Windows software) and then import this into Premiere (which I have done in the past) but Premiere would only recognise the first minute and a half of each 45 minute tape.

So, I ordered a new hard drive from Amazon (a 500GB MyBook from WD), booted up an old XP Media Center and set about importing all the footage.

Four days later and the final tape is going in now, ready for me to start the edit tomorrow. The brief on this project is pretty much wide open. We're using the third night's worth of footage to come up with a concert DVD, with some 'extras' featuring the other two nights that were filmed.

Chicken Flinging And Other Weight And Measure Games

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:50:22 GMT

We've launched our next set of educational games and activities through i-board today.

This month's activities, Weight and Measure, has been designed for year one children, and allows them to grasp the concept of weight and measure through experimentation using scales and containers.

There's some cute games in here. My favourite is the Chicken Flinging game (which has been renamed "Chicken Catapult" - probably for animal cruelty reasons).

This game allows children to grasp the concept of comparing weights to the size of something else. It's a bit 'open' so children could try and get the chickens to land on the same branch, on different branches, or simply fling them up as high as they can go.

Anyway, if you fancy having a play, check it out on the This Month Free page.

My PMC Died (...And an old interactive project, Gridsearch)

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 10:13:10 GMT

Bless it. My Portable Media Center has kicked the bucket.

A couple of years ago, I bought a Creative PMC (and then, later on a Samsung YH-99 PMC). These devices were set to be the next big thing in portable media. They were well ahead of the iPod in their capabilities - they hooked up to your PC, automatically synchronised all your music, all your videos, all your photographs and any recorded television shows. You could also rip your DVD collection to it. They've been phased out over the years and never really took off. Partly because you really needed Windows XP Media Center edition to make the most of it (Media Center is now built in to Windows Vista) and partly because they were a bit bulky and not nearly as cool as the iPod, but it was nice to have all my media with me, wherever I was, and you weren't tied into iTunes either which is the sole reason why I don't and won't get an iPod.

Until I can decide what device to buy next, I've opted for a Creative rock for £20 - it's a little 'shuffle' device. Cheap and tiny! Really tiny! And it works with all my music, from any online store.

One of the cool things we did with the PMC was build an interactive 'game' for it, combining real life action with these synchronising devices.

I worked on "Gridsearch" (alongside Arivind Abraham) which was an interactive 'event' that took place in Bristol a few years ago. Members of the public could 'play' - we gave them one of these PMC devices, along with a 'crime solving' kit (with some of the cool stuff you see in CSI such as UV lights, the blood/semen detection spray).

The players would use their kit to solve the crime, interacting with technology (using the PMC by simly plugging it into workstations to download maps, autopsy videos and interview tapes automatically using sync technology) and interacting with actors to solve a story involving the death of a teenager on a university campus.

For example, you could download crime scene photos and autopsy videos from a Crime Lab workstation and then question suspects in real time (interacting with our actors). You'd download a map to the apartment of the victim and travel across Bristol. You could then explore the apartment of the victim, and download photographs and videos from their computer, and investigate the crime scene using UV Lights, detection sprays and evidence gathering kits. We also built a website that you could use to upload evidence and get an analysis in real time. Thinking back, it was a hot project to work on.

It was actually a really cool project and, when I've made enough money to start exploring personal projects, I'd like to revive the idea. Our story was rather dark (and explored necrophilia in a twisted story that's rarely explored in this country) but the result was a 'next generation' murder mystery but without the dodgy costumes.

More S'kali News

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:50:21 GMT

There seems to be a bit of an influx of S'kali news at the moment. The film, a Perantauan Pictures/Befour film, which I edited, became available on Jaman last month, is now available through Firecracker.

From Firecracker:

Now available on demand on Firecracker, S’kali is a breath of fresh air coming out of the fast developing indie scene in Malaysia. A coming of age story following a group of teenage friends in suburban Kuala Lumpur as they approach a crossroads in their lives, S’kali serves as a snapshot of contemporary Malaysia, and addresses issues of ethnicity in multi-cultural KL all too often ignored in Malaysian cinema.

You can watch S'kali on demand at Firecracker TV.

There's also an interview with writer/director, Arivind Abraham here.

Also there's some news regarding a physical digital release from Perantauan Pictures:

And to our fans in Malaysia who can't purchase the digital downloads at Jaman and Firecracker due to licensing reasons, a HD-DVD and regular DVD will soon be available on demand via Amazon.com. We are working very hard on getting a local DVD available as well.

Finally, a hint, from the interview, of the next Perantauan Pictures/Befour film which I'll be editing (quote taken from the Firecracker interview):

In Malaysia we had announced that we were going to be shooting a comedy about immigrants in Malaysia that we’ve put on the backburner for now for a variety of reasons, but we are developing a lot of television at the moment that we’re pitching as well as different films that we have on our slate, and we’re seeing which one is the most viable to do next. However, in the UK I’ve just completed shooting a short film, and just completed a spec horror script which I’m in the midst of shopping round to agents to hopefully go into production as soon as possible...

Horror script doesn't do it justice. I hope this comes through because it's a very intelligent script and extremely contemporary with how it relates to current events in the world.

The Last Drive Concert DVD

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:28:14 GMT

Next week, I'll be editing on a concert DVD for Befour/Perantauan Pictures with some of the crew that worked on S'kali last year (which, by the way - as a quick plug - you can rent or purchase now from Jaman).

The Last Drive is a Greek garage revival rock group which formed in 1983 and broke up in 1995. In January 2007, the band announced on their web site that they got together again for some gigs. They are regarded by many as the most important Greek rock group of the 80's and one of the most important and influential groups of Greek rock history.

The footage for the concert comes from three gigs recorded in Athens back in May.

Anyway, I have 48 tapes to work through (lucky me), and so I have a shiny 500GB Firewire drive arriving Wednesday to capture the rest of the footage before I dive into it next week.

Perantauan is also working on a documentary for cinema/DVD release over in Greece. The concert DVD will be released on DVD.

Currently Listening To: I'm Alright Now, by David Ford, from the album Songs For The Road.

W-Loss - Weight Loss Surgery and Obesity Support (A Chaos Website)

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:16:33 GMT

We have just launched W-Loss on behalf of a client.

W-Loss offers obesity support through an online forum, and provides information about weight loss options including dieting and various forms of surgery.

W-Loss was created on behalf of several surgeons who have got together to run the support group, and the site itself is in Flash and includes a BMI calculator for working out whether or not you are of a healthy weight.

W-Loss Website

S'Kali now available to rent and buy!

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:38:53 GMT

Well, this is kind of exciting!

S'kali, the feature film which I edited last year as part of my involvement with Befour, has now been released to rent and buy though Jaman.

Head on over and rent the movie for $1.99, or purchase for $4.99.

Buy/Rent S'kali here

The synopsis (from Jaman):

Can friendships survive growing up? As we mature and move on with our lives, do the ties that bind get stronger or do we drift apart as memories fade away? Ravin, Sze Huey, Bahir, Tzao and Tehmina are five close friends who are now on the cusp of going off to university and beginning the next chapter of their lives. This young interracial couple face the prospect of having their relationship torn apart by outside forces such as their traditional parents, but slowly begin to realise that their own deeply buried prejudices may be where the true divide lies.
Set against the backdrop of the ubiquitous Malaysian mamak stall, our young circle of friends face joy, confusion and conflict as they venture into the daunting world of adulthood. Will they survive love, life and friendship under the lights of KL?

Sadly, the film isn't available in HD (which is a shame as S'kali was filmed and edited in HD, back before HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray players graced our consoles).

Anyway, it's great that this film has some ongoing distribution. There's still no word on a UK release, but as both companies are pushing forward with newer (and, ambitious) projects, it's not such a bad thing.

Chicken Flinging

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:22:18 GMT

After the success of our "dancing bear" game last month to teach first year children about directions, I've been working on a Chicken Flinging game as part of this month's batch of activities. It's a great example of an education computer game for anybody who doubts the notion that such a thing exists. It requires creative thinking as well as some maths skills (as the results depend on the size of the chicken and the number of weights). Kudos to Jack, our artist, for some rather funky birds!

Other activities for this month (all 'measure and capacity'):

Animal Scales (Non Standard: Comparing weights of animals)
Animal Scales (Standard: Comparing animals to a 1kg weight)
Container Filling (Standard: Filling containers with a 1 litre jug)
Container Filling (Non standard: filling containers with a small jug and a cup, allowing banking of results for printing and comparing)
Chicken Catapult (Fling chickens based on their size and the number of weights you use)

All these activities will be up at http://iboard.co.uk/thismonthfree/ this week/next week. In the meantime, last month's positional word activities are still there.

Work Update

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:57:17 GMT

Here's what I'm currently working on:

Websites

Look It's My Car - We have a redesign of this web site due out in the next few weeks to run alongside a marketing campaign, as this site comes out of beta testing.

WLoss - An information site and support group for weight loss surgery. This one is being designed in Flash.

There's also some ongoing work on a new social site in early development.

Multimedia/Games

Chicken Flinging - A Flash based game, due for release along with several other weight and measure activities. After the success of our 'dance mat' style game last month, to teach children concepts of positional words and directions, this chicken flinging game should prove to be a lot of fun!

Film Work

The Last Drive Concert DVD - A DVD for release in Greece showcasing the reformation of one of the top Greek bands of all time.

There's also various promotional DVDs I'm working on at the moment too.

I've also received the first draft of a fantastic script which we hope to produce early next year under the "befour" name. I shouldn't say too much just yet, but the script is horrific in the best kind of way and explores real life issues that currently affect us all but in the guise of horror.

The next month or two will also focus on a redesign and reorganisation of my own projects which means regrouping the Chaos sites (Chaos Development, ChaosW3 and Chaos Games) to refocus on some new and exciting projects and publishing deals and also the ongoing development of some personal projects, funded by web site work. As well as getting the next movie made over here, the other thing I'm eager to do is to revive my work on Melloweh, an online game I built a prototype for a couple of years back. The game was an artificial life project based on the Docking Station engine from Gameware Development. A small team of us built a prototype including the construction of several scale models which were photographed and used in game (see in-game screenshot).

Animal Disco

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:47:51 GMT

The "Positional Words" games I've been working on are now uploaded, including some disco animal games.

These games have been created for reception children for use on an interactive whiteboard in a school environment, but a bunch of my friends have become hooked on the Dance Moves game whilst I was working on it, so you may want to check it out anyway!

http://www.iboard.co.uk/thismonthfree/

Current Work Projects

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 10:11:18 GMT

Things I am working on at the moment - Looks like I'll be busy for the next few months!

Video/Film

The Last Drive Concert DVD (For commercial release in Greece).

Web Services

A distribution platform for a solicitors enabling them to upload and display multiple documents in PDF format for plots of land. Enables users to select multiple documents to download as a zip file. With an admin back-end for managing the documents.

Web Sites

A flash web site with demonstration videos and animations for a weight loss surgery.
A web site for a private health care surgeon.
An art social web site with comment/rating facilities as well as a tie-in to Windows Live Expo/eBay for selling art.
A web site for a fashion shop.

Games

Educational games for interactive whiteboard distribution - currently working on "positional words" and "size and shape" activities.
At some point, to continue my work on Melloweh and release as a web based project.