2nd Progress Report to SEEDA – November 2008
The Talking Walls Progress Report – November 2008
Please find below the progress report for each task listed on the Gantt chart for The Talking Walls Beaulieu Abbey project.
Task 2 – Sourcing Capital Equipment
The Talking Walls has purchased from PC World a new design laptop to support the Alienware Laptop in rendering the animations of the 3D virtual abbey, along with a 320 Gb external hard drive (Western Digital Passport) for backing up the project and moving files easily between the machines. It has also purchased a second monitor for for use with the 3D modeling program allowing a larger workspace. The cost of this and a new mouse for the laptop cost The Talking Walls approximately £1100.00.
The arrangement to hire from Clear Thinking UK Ltd the use of further machines, including printer, scanner and software for an amount of £200.00 per month as per project cashflow has continued through this past quarter.
Task 3 – Sourcing Manpower
Sandy Whitehead continues to work on a freelance basis for 3D modeling and illustrational work.
Rebecca Furse has been working on the 2D characters on a freelance basis.
Seanine Joyce has been working with The Talking Walls to compose and record music for the characters and for the general background of the tours and other areas of the application. Seanine Joyce is working on a contractual basis for a revised amount of £3,000 from £2,500.00. The extra amount is for the Gregorian choir recording. This comes under the subcontractor area and is not new money required, just re-purposed from the content creation amount.
Alex Hogg has been sourced to complete the voice-overs for all the characters except for Queen Eleanor. A figure of £1000.00 has reserved for the complete process of voice-overs, including the hire of the recording studio (New Forest Productions – http://www.nfpp.com/). We cannot book this and complete until we have the sanctioned script for the tours from Beaulieu. This is currently undergoing approval by the Montague family at Beaulieu, having been written and edited by Susan Tomkins, the archivist at Beaulieu.
Task 4 – Project Briefing
Meetings have continued to be held with both Beaulieu and freelancers to ensure everyone is aware of the project contents and timescales.
Emails have continued on a regular basis with Susan Tomkins and at relevant times with Stephen Munn of Beaulieu to ensure direction and content of the application.
In the last month response has been slow from Beaulieu mostly due to their busy season and more recently holidays.
Task 5 – Research components / style
This area is complete, we have the style agreed and the components we need to continue the project.
Task 6 – Build 3D Model
The Abbey is currently in 3DS Max, the finishing and animation program waiting for the script from Beaulieu to animate the tour in accordance with the script.
Task 7 – Animate movement through the model
This area cannot start until we are in receipt of the audio script from Beaulieu. This has been written but I cannot have a copy of this until it has been approved by the Montagu family. A recent email has intimated that it may be with me by the end of November. On receipt, I can then spend the first couple of weeks in December animating the tours.
Task 8 – Source period games
The images have been created for the games / puzzles. There are initially 3 instances of 3 different games: question and answer game, sliding puzzle and jigsaw. This area, as all areas of The Talking Walls, can continue to expand as further projects.
Task 9 – Design Interface
The interface is currently being built and ready to link to the interactive content and uploaded to a test site.
Task 10 – Build Matrix
Work still continues on perfecting the interaction of the 3D matrix, and will be ready to use to link to the interactive abbey and other content in the next couple of weeks.
Task 11 – Source facts and images
The Fact Sheets are composed and waiting for the additional images, ready for linking to the KubeMatrix.
Task 12 – Design characters
The characters are now drawn and devised. The fictitious characters’ names have been changed to be more relevant to names of the time in England, a couple were too Germanic according to the archivist at Beaulieu. Storyboard / comic strips have been devised and the last couple of stories are currently being drawn by Sandy Whitehead and Rebecca Furse.
Task 13 – Animate characters
I have further developed some of the monks in 3D, and animated them to walk etc, so when looking at the preset animated tours, the viewer will be able to see them walking through the abbey.
Task 14 – Write script
We are still waiting on the audio script for the tour and for each of the characters to use in their part as a chosen guide around the abbey. Please see appendix A for the email history regarding the character scripts. The scripts for the story comic strips and the introduction of each character have been written by me. They have been passed by Susan Tomkins after slight amendments to tone of voice and names.
Task 15 – Voice over recording
In a meeting with Seanine Joyce, we revised the amount of the contract to include a recording of a Gregorian choir that Seanine had sourced and who were prepared to allow her to use their recording for The Talking Walls.
Seanine was not able to source someone for the character voice-overs. I have managed to find a budding actor, Alex Hogg, who has agreed to read the scripts and do the voice-overs for each of the characters. I have also sourced a local recording studio who has agreed to allow us to use their facilities to do the recording. The total cost is £1000.00. This has come from the amount set aside for the 3D and Illustration work which I have pinned back slightly to allow this cost.
Task 22 – Market Assessment
This has taken place and will be re-visited on completion of the project.
Summary
Overall the various design elements are on schedule for completion, but there has been a change for the completion of the project. This, unfortunately, needs to be moved to at least the beginning of January 09, possibly the end.
This is mostly due to the lack of immediate provision of the audio script from Beaulieu. The script was talked about and promised at the beginning of the project and describes the route of the audio tour that was planned to be in place last summer. The script was still being edited last month and although it has been put forward for new approval by the Montagu family, it cannot yet be given to me until this approval has been granted. So it could still go back for more editing, approval etc. Please see appendix B.
The script is quite important as it not only gives the preferred visitor route of the abbey, but also the pertinent information for each area visited. If it is taking the archivist this long to get it approved, there is not a chance that I would be able to write this myself and have it sanctioned. Without the approval of content, I would not be able to use it and therefore that area (the most important) would not be allowed to be used. So I have to wait.
The script, once it arrives, will also be used by the characters, each with their own little additions, for the user to listen to while they ‘guide’ you as you watch the tour. These additions will need to be approved, but this should only need approval by Susan, the archivist.
I will need to then arrange for the recording studio and for Alex Hogg to visit and go over the scripts ready for recording. This should only take a day.
Once I have the tour animated, the voice overs done and the music – I will need to mix these together to arrange the final tour, and related elements, then pin them into the KubeMatrix interface.
A more recent concern was that of the kiosk installation. Having not heard about this for a while, I inquired as to it’s progress with Susan and then with Stephen Munn, the commercial director at Beaulieu. It seems there has been a misunderstanding and this has not been looked into. Please see the emails attached, appendix C. I have re-submitted the report made regarding kiosks and their costs, and am currently waiting Stephen’s response. It would appear though, that the kiosk installation is probably not likely to happen until at least January or possibly later.
If this still hasn’t been installed by the completion of the actual project content, I suggest that we show the completed project to parties concerned on a PC and then host a version of it on a website that can be accessed by membership only. This will allow us to see who is accessing the site and test it’s success.
Commercialisation
A marketing campaign will be launched to advertise the application on completion, inviting previous interested parties in The Talking Walls, and possible new clients, whether it is installed on the kiosk or hosted on a website.
Mike Wilman and I are meeting next week to discuss this in more detail. I would be happy to provide the result of our meeting, for further information on this aspect.
There is a possibility that due to The Talking Walls being the focus of my part-time Phd at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, that the application, once complete, will be installed in their gallery. I am meeting with my Director of Studies Dr David Birks (http://wsa.soton.ac.uk/dr-david-birks/ ) and second supervisor Ed D’Souza (http://wsa.soton.ac.uk/ed-d-souza/ ) at the beginning of December to learn more about this possibility and how there also might be a collaboration on further projects with The Talking Walls.