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| 'We will be building many unique and creative experiences' |
| Noelle Cloete, Pyxus Multimedia Studio |
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Node Knowledge |
Content Production for Location Based Media
The following is a simple summary of the content production process for a Node experience. For each new client, Node runs an introductory workshop, and offers consultancy or hands-on involvement at any stage of the production process.
At Node we aim to provide a stimulating and exciting, full audiovisual experience of the highest quality: we believe, with a Node Explorer, it is possible to place somebody at a specific location into the middle of a documentary, a feature, or a game. It is important therefore that a Node experience can be created and assembled easily from the same set of assets which a producer would combine to make a television programme, a DVD or a short film, i.e. video, still images, graphics, sound, dramatic voice, narration, music, animation and text.
What’s different about location based media?
We’ve learnt that it is never easy to predict how somebody will move around a geographical space. They might be on their own, in a group, or even with their children. And they might be in a busy city or on a trek in the wilderness. So a bit of psychology is needed in creating a Node experience! Certainly it’s necessary to test, test and test throughout the production process: to walk the course and take into account every distraction that might occur, and to put yourself in the mind of every member of your user group: age, language, mobility, sight and hearing impairment, all need to be taken into account.
Skills required
A combination of the following skills will probably be needed:
- production/project management
- research
- scriptwriting
- sound and video production
- interactive design and development
- graphic design
- computer generated images (CGI)
More than one of these roles could be undertaken by one person, e.g. a producer/project manager might also write the script and carry out the research. The Node Engine is designed in such a way that any designated person within the team could take the lead on the production of a Node experience from audiovisual content.
Mapping your space
To enable GPS to trigger your content, you’ll need to identify the geographical space you’re working in, and put the relevant co-ordinates into the Node Engine. Node’s training workshop demonstrates how to do that, and how to draw the zones onto these maps so that you trigger audiovisual content exactly where you want it.
Collecting and creating the assets
As with television or a DVD production, the first step in the creative process is for the outline structure, length of experience, key features, script and storyboard to be agreed.
The second step is research to find existing content, such as moving and still images, audio and written materials. These might be owned by the client or site, available from local sources such as libraries, or from a rights owner such as a broadcast company or photographic collection. Costs of using these assets may vary significantly depending on the site: many sites own archives, and will make them available free of charge, but sometimes a copyright fee may be required...
Once assets in existence have been identified and priced the production team can decide what they need to create themselves: For example, there may be archived video footage available but it could be cheaper to take a camera and shoot what is required. Soundscapes and narration are then recorded, and a CGI sequence might be created. The editing, postproduction, and encoding of sound and video will also need to be factored in.
There will of course be a requirement for some graphic skills to design an interface which pulls everything together in the same way a web or DVD developer would work, creating a series of graphically enhanced maps of the location and menus and submenus from which the user will choose the media that they are interested in.
Content deployment
Once all of the foundation content is prepared it can be uploaded into the Node Engine by any one of the team, using Node’s simple web-based interface.
It is then ready to be deployed to the Node Explorers on site.
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