A Gridcosm DVD?

"Final Phase" of DVD production begins!
2006-07-10 : Okay, so here is the deal. Lenara is in Portland, and we are going to spend the rest of July working on the DVD. As in finish the DVD!

What does this mean for you? Well, if you just want to get a copy of the DVD, then it means more waiting -- but hopefully for not too long!

However, if you have something to contribute (see list of ideas below), then you better get moving!! Lenara and I (Jon) are making the deadline Sunday July 16, which is only a few days! So please contact us... now!

More info as we actually get the content together.

For a few years now, we have tossed around the idea of a DVD which would include a high-quality version of the Gridcosm "fly-through" animation. (Here is a low-quality sample, and another).

Video editing and authoring tools has made this goal obtainable now, so we plan to move ahead with this! We are not absolutely sure of the details of the end result, but we will definitely be selling them at-cost and hopefully be able to professionally reproduce them including a booklet or at least a decent insert. More details on this front as we figure out some loose ends.

Lenara will be the main force behind throwing this thing together, with assistance from Jon and Ed. The main feature on the DVD will be a smooth, high-quality fly-through created by Lenara, which features levels 0 through 1000. We may include a more up-to-date animation as a bonus (we are passed level 2000, after all!), if time/technology permits. However, the animation that Lenara has is finished, including several great soundtracks and while it is not all of Gridcosm, it is mind-numbingly beautiful and long enough to completely fry your optic nerves.

What else?

• Brief commentary/musing/pseudo-intellectual analysis
• Mockumentaries
• Slideshow/narration of favorite levels (can be just some JPEGs with audio or something like this, for non-video-makers)
• Your own automatically-made fly-through animation. (Please do not attempt to construct one manually; you will go insane.)
• Audio files of readings of "Gridpoem". (set to music? several levels in a row? videos of interpretive dancing and puppets?)
• Tangent Gridcosm art (art never posted, alternate universe Gridcosms, etc.)
• Documentation of your Gridcosm process
• Gridcosm action/adventure including car-chase (or better, bike-chase)

Well, you get the idea. There isn't an explicit limit on length of submissions, but ideally "short" (perhaps 5 min or less) is good. Further, we reserve the right to edit things a bit (hopefully with time to clear the edits with the creator) or even reject things altogether (for example, we have enough flame-wars in the Gridcosm discussion, so we don't need a video documentary of every poorly blended piece!). However, we simply do not have the time or expertise to assist with creation of your submission -- so it's a good idea to find the digital video geek friend of yours now.

Your submission should be in DV NTSC format, preferably shot and edited at this quality (i.e. avoid lossy compressions and lower-quality sources). The files can end up being pretty big, even for just a couple minutes, so we can accept miniDV tapes or files sent in on CDs or DVDs (DVD-ROMs, etc.).

As far as deadline goes, well, we are still working out some wrinkles, but I am going to set a goal of getting all material by March 1, 2005. Very likely we will be able to accept stuff a little after this, but don't drag your feet too much. A couple of months to make a couple minutes of video isn't that ridiculous. (I do know video editing can consume outrageously huge amounts of time from personal experience. So set your goals reasonably!)

Keep checking this page for more news. And do not worry about ordering right now -- when they are available, you will be able to get one. If not, then we will make more. But hopefully we will have a huge pile in the first batch, so it won't be a problem.

You can contact us about the DVD project over here.