You Are Viewing video

Me and the guys from Bureau BlauwGeel have been working together on their new website: http://www.bureaublauwgeel.nl

 

The CMS-based website uses video files to create a dynamic, living and breathing background.

Each menu item has a background image that slowly zooms in to keep that dynamic feel.

 

Although the background and interface always adjust to the size of the browser window, the content is allowed to run off screen. The flash scrollbar allows viewing all content.

By using a custom URL for every project and page in the flash site, the site becomes searchable for Google and allows direct linking to a specific project, for example: http://www.bureaublauwgeel.nl/#/werk/website-en-shop-dutchspirit

Tracking pageviews from flash allows the use of Google Analytics.

Yesterday we presented the “Youth Participation” arcade machine to the kids at the Leon van Gelder, who literally stormed the machine to test it the hard way! In the end we got a few nice recordings of kids telling the local politicians what THEY wanted to see different. More video’s after the big debate at the Groninger Forum!

Elco from D66 Youth Participation was there with his own filmcrew to get some in-depth interviews too.

This project is about kids telling local politicians their opinion. They can do this using an arcade cabinet that presents them with a couple of questions and then lets them record their own video message.

The arcade uses only three simple buttons which control a isadora application, which controls a PS3 eyetoy to record video. The interface was designed by me.

The folks at Bureau Blauwgeel have put together a very cool trailer of the Copenhagen Live Video project that we did together! Watch it here:

Last week the Copenhagen video player has gone live. The player shows live video reports filmed by the youth delegation of VROM (Dutch ministry). The player shows live video streams being broadcast from mobile phone video cameras. Reporters don’t have to upload anything at all, they just switch on their phone camera and the video appears on the website. Older video reports get added to the archives automatically.

Through the website www.volgkopenhagenlive.nl numerous reports have been streamed, giving visitors a personal look behind the scenes of the conference.

Apart from the Live video, the flash player includes a youtube channel viewer. This viewer analyses a youtube channel by converting a youtube RSS feed. Then, using the new youtube AS3 API, the player is able to load videos from a specific youtube user.

Video experience website www.scholtenhuis.nl has won a “Gouden Reiger” media award at the Keying into the brain festival for communication and interactive media.

The festival is organised for communication professionals, creatives and non-profit organisations like museums, heritage foundations and the government.

On april the 28th the flash project “Scholtenhuis” went officially live. The opening of the website was performed at a press conference in the Groningen Archives Building and was hosted by Gijs Wanders (former NOS news reporter).

The project book, DVD and website tell the story of the “Scholtenhuis”, which was the head office of the SD (“Sicherheits Dienst”) in World War II in Groningen, The Netherlands.

Image: Press conference at Groningen Archives.

The project is based on archive materials from WOII and on interviews with surviving witnesses. These interviews were filmed and helped tremendously to virtually recreate the Scholtenhuis building.

The project itself started with recreating and rendering the entire building using 3D software. These environments were used as backdrops for live action sequences, filmed in an Amsterdam studio with the help of professional actors.

Image: A scene is being filmed in a bluescreen environment.

A major decision was not to create a movie with a storyline, but instead to recreate the atmosphere of the Scholtenhuis. While virtually exploring the Scholtenhuis website, you get an impression of everyday activities, and of the people that worked there.

Image: The scene is integrated into the 3D environment.

While all of the movie loops were being filmed, work on the website started. We wanted the interface to be as simple as possible, but at the same time provide access to the incredible amount of media, interviews, audio fragments and documents that are available for every scene.

This was accomplished by carefully designing the interface for the rooms. A room provides access to related interviews and media, and also to persons that worked in that room. When watching a person’s details, links to other rooms and media become available, and this way you can navigate throughout the entire Scholtenhuis.

Image: Each scene contains its own links to interviews, persons and documents.

This way we were able to keep the main interface quite simple. Just by showing the floorplans of the building and the chain of command of the SD officers, you can reach every part of the website.

Technically, the main challenge was to build a system that allows navigating between many different kinds of media, using either the main interface, or through crosslinks that appear dynamically. There’s lots of interface elements, media players, and popup windows that influence the behavior of underlying parts of the site, and thorough testing was necessary to ensure a smooth user experience.

We were able to keep the site content continually up to date by building a database that contains all written text, documents, photography and links to all the interviews and movie loops. Apart from that, the database also shows the relationships between all this information. The flash website is able to build up the entire environment using this database information.

Image: a custom CMS is used to link the many project elements together.

This way the development of the user interface and the development of the actual content could progress simultaneously, which has saved us a tremendous amount of time, and also enabled us to work separately.

The project has gotten a lot of media attention, being featured in newspapers, on the NOS website, radio 1, and RTV Noord.

One thing that this website really proves is how a big project like this doesn’t necessarily need to be executed by a big media agency. Instead, all of the people who worked on this project are self-employed / freelancers.

The main team consists of a filmmaker, writer, 3D artist, database specialist, graphic designer, and flash interaction designer, which is me . Apart from that there were actors, sound engineers, a bluescreen keying specialist, and many more.

Visit the scholtenhuis website here!

To learn more about how this project came off the ground and how all the parts came together, please watch the “making of…” movie!

UPDATE: the project is currently being featured on dutch design magazine Publish.nl.