As a part of this industry, it is a requirement that I play current games. Mostly I want to capture the essence of the experience, to appreciate the play mechanic or technology or story, and so playing a game for 100 hours is really not necessary. As a game creator, it is vital to do this on a regular basis for a variety of reasons.

In the last six months I have only fully completed a few major console games (in campaign mode - Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Portal, to name a few), and I am well on my way to completing Crisis Core on the PSP. Many games have gone unfinished (an hour or two in, or maybe five or six hours in). But in the last week I have taken a side step into Grand Theft Auto IV’s Liberty City and I want to talk about it, because I think I am going to try to finish this one.

So far, I have about six hours of game playing time. There are a hundred points of statistics that the game captures while you are playing (but these aren’t important for you as you are playing, just sort of interesting all the same). The game says I have completed %12 of the missions. If this is true, it will take me a long time to get to the end because I only play a few hours per week.

So far, here’s why I am living a few hours per week in Liberty City:

This game is the single biggest entertainment launch in history across all mediums.

This game has a very high metacritic score — the quality of the game is the pinnacle of today’s marketplace in terms of technology and user experience.

The writing is amazing. Among the best dialogue written yet in this medium.

The physical mo-cap acting is really great.

The universe is realized in stunning detail. One word: EPIC.

The music is perfect.

The player’s sense of power over the environment and over “people” absolutely impacts real-world self-esteem and stress in a more powerful way because of the high level of “realism” in this generation of game technology. This is really fascinating to experience personally.

Employing this power over the environment and over “people” is a choice. Do you randomly kill “people” or do you simply play the story line?
Game developers at Flashpoint Academy are discussing this product daily right now, sharing experiences and discussing how the game could have been improved. One thing we all agree upon: young people should absolutely not have this game. This is purely adult entertainment — 18+ for sure. If you know anybody with an Xbox 360 or PS3 with children in the house, lock this game up!

Monday, May 12
Jeff Kliment
Newest Rec Arts faculty, coming onboard June 1. Former faculty at San Francisco Art Institute, former lead sound designer and project manager at LucasArts, and former music recording / Foley / ADR engineer at Russian Hill Recording.

Tuesday, May 13
Jun Mhoon
CEO of I Am Music Online, Jun is a digital aggregator / content supplier for iTunes, Amazon, Real Network, Napster, eMusic, Google, etc.

(more…)

Flashpoint students attended Chicago’s private preview screening of Iron Man on Monday, April 28th at AMC 21 River East Theater.

Rob Fetters, Chris Arduser, and Bob Nyswonger, also known as the Psychodots, came into town this week for four days as part of our spring PRODUCTION-IN-ACTION. Part I took place Monday and Tuesday in the Flashpoint music recording studios as the band re-recorded Not a Pretty Face with Bernie Mack (below) engineering. During the afternoon session, RA students took the controls, punching through vocal parts for verses and choruses.

Part II takes place today and tomorrow on a soundstage where FP Film students will be involved in the shooting of a video for the song with Peter Hawley directing and Amy Rising producing.

Game and Animation students, who helped with our set-up on Monday, are also creating a game to go along with the video.

All in all, it’s another terrific immersive-learning experience for FP students.

With Actor Jay Leguizamo

With Actor Luis Guzman

With Actor Freddy Rodriguez

Edgar & Ellen Website

Ken Nordine (born April 13, 1920) is an American voiceover and recording artist best known for his series of Word Jazz albums. His deep, resonant voice has also been featured in many commercial advertisements and movie trailers. One critic wrote that “you may not know Ken Nordine by name or face, but you’ll almost certainly recognize his voice.”

The son of an architect, Ken Nordine was born in Cherokee, Iowa. In Chicago he attended Lane Technical College Prep High School and the University of Chicago. He has three sons with his wife Beryl whom he married in 1945. He initially attracted attention when he recorded the aural vignettes on Word Jazz on Dot in 1957. Word Jazz, Son of Word Jazz (Dot, 1958) and his other albums in this vein feature Nordine’s narration over a cool jazz background. He began performing and recording such albums at the peak of the beat movement and was associated with the poetry-and-jazz movement. However, some of Nordine’s “writings are more akin to Franz Kafka or Edgar Allan Poe” than to the beats. Many of his word jazz tracks feature critiques of societal norms. Some are lightweight and humorous, while others reveal dark, paranoid undercurrents and bizarre, dream-like scenarios.

Nordine was Linda Blair’s vocal coach for her role in The Exorcist,and Word Jazz inspired Tom Waits’ spooky, spoken word-type pieces, such as “9th and Hennepin,” “Frank’s Wild Years” and “What’s He Building?”

On television, Nordine did a series of readings on a show titled Faces in the Window, and Fred Astaire danced to Nordine’s “My Baby” on a TV special. Nordine’s past radio series were Now Nordine and Word Jazz. He currently hosts a weekly radio program and maintains residences in Chicago, Illinois, and Spread Eagle, Wisconsin.

Ken Nordine completed a DVD entitled “The Eye is Never Filled” with a scheduled release date of 14 May 2007.

DogEar Records Blog 
さて、TBMのCDが完成したその翌日、ノビヨ師匠とわたくしはDistant Worlds Tourのシカゴ公演のために遠くアメリカまで旅立ったのでした。さすがに何日間かほぼ寝ていなかった状態でしたので、いつ飛行機が離陸したかも覚えてないくらい、ぐっすりと眠れました。といっても乗り継ぎを含め、トータル15時間ほどの移動ですので、ただ寝ているだけでも疲れる距離ですよ。
しかし、いつもいつも移動はつらいと思いながらも、こうしたコンサートに出席するたびに、心から来れて良かったと満足感いっぱいで帰るんですよね。
果たして今回のコンサート後はどうなるのでしょうか？

TRANSLATION:  “The day after we arrived at Chicago, we visited the “Flashpoint Academy,” the school of “Digital Media Art College,” to do the workshop and tour. There is a cutting-edge facility for the advanced sector, and I feel like I want to put myself in the school as a student again!”
Thanks again for everyone who made this such a remarkable event and occasion for our instititution.”

When I was in college, Security was the name of the most popular band at school, and thinking of them was the only time I ever thought about security on campus. But now I am on the other side of the classroom and it seems every couple of months there is a shooting on a college campus. Last week at Northern Illinois University, just 65 miles west of Chicago, there was a shooting, killing five and injuring more.

Security on campus means something very different to me now.

Yesterday was parents’ day at Flashpoint and I spent time telling the parents of film students that one of the things we do is create a safe environment for their children to work in. I was speaking about emotional safety, the safety to be vulnerable and explore, but I could have just as easily been talking about their physical safety.

I don’t have anything new to add to the violence on campus discussion. Yes, it’s sad. Yes, it must stop. Yes, the emotional well-being of students must be looked after and help given when and where needed. All of the same things I wrote about last spring after the events at Virginia Tech.

Today, I just wanted to take a moment and reflect on the events at a college just down the road from mine.

PeterH

This is a picture of the Red Camera all stripped down. Not all that impressive looking, but it is a piece of technology which is going to change the film production process.

For eight days beginning Jan. 30 and ending Feb. 8 Flashpoint Academy produced The Intruder, a short Twilight Zone-esque film, using the Red Camera. It was the first time the camera had gone out as a rental in Chicago and it was yet another way Flashpoint is at the “bleeding edge” of both educatio