Month: September 2005

Podcast Books

Christy
You’ve probably heard on books on mobiles being very popular in Japan, but now there are entire books available for download as a podcast. The difference between these and audio books? Evo Terra of PodioBooks.com coined the term podiobooks to describe ‘serialized audio books which are made available in podcast format’. This is another technology which makes it easier for authors who can’t get/don’t bother trying to get published through mainstream distributors to be read by audiences. Paul Story (yes, that is his surname) is one such example, writing a novel specifically for podcast. Apparently, he uses the expectations of the audience (awaiting the next chapter) to drive his output. There are also poetry podcasts available at Slam Idol Podcast.

Thanks Jeremy.

Manga on Mobiles

Christy

Sony Japan is jumping on providing manga comics on mobile phones. Rather than just provide the images, Celsys’ has developed a program, Comic Surfing, that shows each frame and slowly surfs over the whole comic, makes the phone vibrate on action scenes and will have sound. A video on the comics is online at Wireless Watch Japan. Sony have signed deals with 10 manga artists to provide over 300 comics. According to The Age, ‘manga maniacs spent an estimated Y100 billion ($A1.2 billion) on comics in 2004’. Viewers of the manga on mobiles will pay Y315 ($A3.80) to download five manga titles a month by an artist of their choice.

The 3 Channel Rule

Christy

I was asked to keep news about this upcoming project quiet, but considering it has been covered in the Hollywood Reporter, and the producers were the special guests at the recent mo:life event, I think it is safe to talk.

Jim Shomos and Paul Baiguerra of Global Dilemma, have created the ‘world’s first “dramedy” to be shown simultaneously on TV, mobile and the Internet’ and apparently the ‘first Australian made live-action series released for mobile phone’ and the ‘first interactive comedy-drama available to an Australian mobile audiences’. Their drama, (Oz readers: in the style of Secret Life of Us), will be available over Hutchison’s ‘3’ network, pay TV station Channel [V] and the website. The contracts, Shomos and Baiguerra said at the LAMP workshop in Melb, were the first of its kind in Aust. The series will be x3 three-minute episodes each week with the audience being able to vote on what they want to see the next week. The scene will then be shot accordingly. This type of interactive drama is akin to the early experiments in Aust (and of course internationally) by Griffith University students: Voyear Motel and Hardboiled.

Apparently, it will be launched in Australia in early October. I have a 3 phone and so will watch the relationship (if any) between the platforms. This isn’t really cross-media storytelling of the kind I’m encouraging — it is the remediation of the same content over media rather than each providing different information — but it is a good start.