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Our work on Playstation Home Showcased at E3


July 15th, 2008 · Online Worlds, Playstation

As a Creative Director at Millions of Us, I’ve had the opportunity to work on some really amazing and exciting projects. From what some have already figured out, and as reported by Virtual Worlds News in March, our company, has been working to create spaces for Playstation Home the last several months. The idea is to create some really cutting edge virtual and social experiences in this new 3D world, for some of the biggest titles in the video game world.

Yesterday at E3, some footage of this work was unveiled to the general public for the first time:


Google unveils a “Lively” new experience


July 14th, 2008 · Online Worlds

This is one of those highly top secret projects I’ve been dying to tell people about, but had to remain absolutely silent about until launch. Well, as of Wednesday last week the cat is out of the bag and all over the press. Google entered the virtual world social space and we were a part of the creation of the offbeat and unique project.

For the past few months, I’ve had a very exciting chance to be a creative role during the development of experiences in an awesome new virtual tool by Google called “Lively.”
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WWE in Gaia garners Webby recognition


May 2nd, 2008 · Alternate Reality Experiences

Webby

http://e.static.blip.tv/Millionsofus-WWESummerslamInGaia927.jpgAlready the recipient of an LACP Spotlight award, last fall’s WWE SummerSlam in Gaia campaign has been recognized as an Honoree by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, best known for putting on the Webby Awards, aka “The Oscars of the Internet” heh.

That means we get to put up this cool and very official Webby logo on our blog.  Kneel before our Webby power!

“TERMINATOR: Dark Discovery” – an Alternate Reality Experience


March 7th, 2008 · Alternate Reality Experiences, Viral videos


Terminator: Dark Discovery from blair on Vimeo.

ARG – An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants’ ideas or actions.

For several months, I’ve been working on writing and directing a top secret project to create a live-action thriller alternate reality game campaign. 2 weeks before the launch of the new Fox show “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” a website for an unusual company appeared. In their first video they claimed to have developed a tachyon camera that sensed faster-than-light particles and could therefore generate images of the future. Their first blog post generated significant online controversy, with 53 posts suggesting ways of testing the camera’s capabilities. In their second video, the researchers followed the audience’s suggestions, taking photos of mirrors, newspapers, and cityscapes. The images they revealed suggested a dark and apocalyptic future. Soon the audience became directly involved in the story, digging up similar camera devices around the United States. Finally, the researchers found themselves being hunted by a deadly entity seeking to stop their work permanently. The drama built to an explosive conclusion in the parking lot of Enitech’s offices.
Now that it’s concluded you can watch the full story from start to finish. If you want to know more, check out Enitechlabs.com.

Links to more press coverage of the Enitech saga here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Special thanks to Evan Jones over at Stitch Media for all his incredible help and expertise on this project. Some of my behind the scenes photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blairerickson/sets/72157604264425470/

Bringing CNN’s I-Report project to report on the news from a virtual world


November 15th, 2007 · Online Worlds

artslirptThis is a project I produced recently that took a rather interesting approach to virtual worlds. Rather than explain it, I think CNN’s article probably does a better job reporting on it than I could (hopefully because that is their job):

CNN enters the virtual world of Second Life
November 12, 2007 — Updated 1649 GMT (0049 HKT)

(CNN) — So, what exactly is news in a virtual world?  CNN aims to find out by opening an I-Report hub in Second Life, a three-dimensional virtual world created entirely by its residents.There, CNN will look to those most familiar with the virtual world — the Second Life residents themselves — to determine what constitutes news “in-world.”

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Winning the LACP Spotlight award for WWE campaign


October 15th, 2007 · Alternate Reality Experiences, Online Worlds

Winning awards is always neat, and this project was especially fun and thrilling. We brought World Wrestling Entertainment into Gaia Online with an alternate reality experience like no other… Kind of a celebrity meet and greet that turned into a secretly pre-planned chaotic disaster. Like wrestling itself. Hard to define but here’s a video that helps explain it…



And now there’s a little pointy award now sitting on my very messy desk at work ready to impale someone if they should trip.

Me on CNN Headline News about the LA Cinema project


June 18th, 2007 · Social Media Campaigns, Viral videos

UPDATE on the Cinematic Geography of LA project: CNN Headline News wanted to interview me about the short film we created that became a hit on YouTube. This was basically a brief behind the scenes piece to talk about how we created the film:

Video Project – A Tribute to Communism


May 12th, 2007 · Viral videos

130,000+ views and counting.  This was my satirical tribute to the glorious accomplishments of many decades of communist governments around the world. After so many attempts in history, it seems the ideology still has legions of fans and supporters. The notion behind this film was to quickly explain how and why communism works exactly as it does on the state and the people living there.

YouTube and GoogleVideo are littered with sincere tributes to communist regimes around the world and throughout the 20th Century (like this one, this video, this one, this, that, this thing, and this one).

Seems only fair to raise the honesty bar a bit on them. Learn more about the basic concepts of communism here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism.

UPDATE: Over 8,400+ comments on YouTube so far and some of them are pretty interesting while others are hilariously angry. Check them out here.

Read the crazy HATE MAIL I get after the jump! :)
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Video Project – The Cinematic Geography of Los Angeles


April 7th, 2007 · Social Media Campaigns, Viral videos

This is a film I created after driving all over Los Angeles for many days taking photographs, and researching iconic cinema locations. What appears in this film is the end result. A whirlwind tour around the various locations around the city of Los Angeles and photographs of how they appear today compared with how they appeared on the cinema scenes.

Click here to see more photos of the cinema locations.

Viral Campaign – Why Children of Men Should be Nominated


January 7th, 2007 · Social Media Campaigns, Viral videos

This is a video I created to help publicize a criminally underrated masterpiece. Alfonso Cuarón’s amazing dystopian vision “Children of Men” was completely ignored by Universal and dumped quietly at the box office despite glowing praise from critics. I made this short to help generate more buzz behind this overlooked masterpiece.

Click here to read more of the press reaction from our grassroots viral campaign.

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