On Tuesday, I went, at the invitation of South East Media Network (SEMN) to Pinewood Studios to take part in a workshop with representatives of some of Europe’s most beautiful palaces – e.g. Versailles and Chambord in France, Schonbron in Vienna, Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen and in London, Historic Royal Palaces representing The Tower of London, Kew, Hampton Court and Kensington Palace.
Apart from LocoMatrix, 5 other UK companies were presenting their work including Cogapp from Brighton. The morning session was spent with presentations from the Palace people hearing about their needs of media (think Theme Park but for real). Media companies went next with their presentations, with me delivering a “spot your formal garden” competition and some ideas on how we could develop games and adventures that would allow exploration of their gardens and park – maybe mixing in the history of the surroundings, and taking on the roles of characters from that history.
After lunch, we played a LocoMatrix treasure hunt in the formal gardens of the studios (yes they really have them – see below. Finding 4 waypoints from picture clues was particularly satisfying as the whole thing had been created remotely using Google Maps plus a few pictures from the Pinewood website – and yes it all worked perfectly.
Brainstorming sessions came next – talking through some of the main issues of the guests such as how using new media can be made to generate extra income and create a better experience before, during and after visits to the palaces.
At the end of the day, Gina Fagen of SEMN took us on a tour of the studios where we visited the Foley Studios (turn up the volume) and saw motion capture at work (they’ve even motion captured a horse – see video on website) thanks to Centroid 3D.
Thanks to Gina and Audra for arranging the day.
