Words You Can Use: The BAVC BLOG

By Carl Weichert, Training and Resources Strategist

My SXSW report in chunks . . .

Chunk 1

Most of the panels I attended were focused on some type of gaming. The first two I want to talk about were:

• The Future of Virtual World & Game Development: Rise of the Indies

• Cross-Media Cross-Pollination: Mashing Up Video Games and ARGs

Rise of the Indies was presented by Corey Bridges, Co-Founder of multiverse.net. Bridges reviewed the shift that’s occurred in the broadcast, music and newspaper industries as a result of people distributing their own content via sites such as YouTube (neatly summed up by Bridges: “Sucks to be you, Media Oligopolists”). He went on to assert that the video game industry was the next on the chopping block, citing issues in the current model, issues similar to those in broadcast and so on.

Trends mentioned by Bridges that are opening the industry to indies: faster connectivity, middleware (software that allows other softwares to talk with each other), and the move towards a universal client for virtual worlds (meaning a player in one virtual world, such as Second Life, could visit another world, such as There, with the same avatar).

He also discussed the rise gaming in social network sites, such as Facebook, that now allows users to add games, such as Scrabulous. to their pages, and software such as Flash that allows for easier development of simple games (if you want to check some out, try Kongregate.com). (more…)

By Mindy Aronoff, Director of Training & Resources

During the first tech boom, Hugh Forrest, the dude that puts together the SXSW Interactive Fest, was talking about how that conference differs from the music and film one . . . “There’s less of a distinction between the speakers and the attendees. There’s kind of a feeling that everyone is in the same boat and we’re all kind of going the same direction. The people leading the panel might have a little better idea of where the boat is going to end up than the people listening to them—or maybe not.” (Italics are mine.)

Even though the boat has gotten so much bigger, Forrest’s observation still holds true. Did I learn a lot from the panels last week? Not really. Not in a traditional sense. But I picked up so much from just being in the same space as Valleywag, Gawker, Mahalo, PostSecret, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Adobe, Citizen Agency, Pownce, MySpace, Laughing Squid, Meebo, Maker, Upcoming, Flickr, Zappos, Twitter, Udderz, Black Web 2.0, Fast Company, LinkedIn, Opera, Microsoft, TMZ, Robert Scoble, Six Apart, BoingBoing, RazorFish….oh, you get the idea. ‘Bout 8000 people, people. Jeez.

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by Nooshin Navidi,
BAVC Development Associate

A couple of weeks ago BAVC held a work-in-progress “screening” of media projects from 10 BAVC fiscal sponsors and members. Each maker was allotted ten minutes of presentation/screening time and ten minutes of feedback time. As BAVC Director of Creative Programming Wendy Levy announced at the beginning of the night, the presentations were not meant to dig into the nit picky details of a person’s project, but really serve as a sort of “speed dating” for filmmakers — a time for quick, generous and substantive comments from fellow mediamakers. Judging by the great turnout and the quality of feedback shared throughout the evening, it seems as though this event is well on its way to becoming a regular event for members here at BAVC. In an era where technology has made working at home alone in the dark easier and easier, creating time and space to share projects with other makers and viewers face to face can be invaluable in shaping tight and engaging media masterpieces.

My “speed dating” re-cap of the 10×10 film and media projects presented . . . (more…)

By Jazmin Jones, BAVC Youth Producer (Digital Pathways and YouthLink Grad)

Last Monday I boarded a plane to Austin, TX so that I could attend
the NAMAC Austin Conference: The Frontier is Here. Yianeth Saen, a fellow young filmmaker and member of BAVC’s Factory video program, was my travel companion and roommate for the week. Yianeth and I arrived at the Sheraton in Austin just in time to meet up with some of the other young adults attending the conference. Over chips and salsa
at a nearby Mexican restaurant, Yianeth and I had the opportunity to
learn all about the other teens who had also traveled from out of state.

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