AT&T U-verse TV's "My Multiview" App Lets Viewers Create Personalized Multiscreen Mosaics

(source: www.itvt.com )

"AT&T on Tuesday unveiled My Multiview, a new interactive TV app for its Microsoft Mediaroom-powered U-verse TV IPTV platform that allows viewers to select the channels for their own Multiview (multiscreen mosaic) display (note: U-verse TV launched Sports, Kids and News Multiview apps in the fall of 2009, and this year has offered special Multiview apps for a number of major sporting events).

According to the company, the app lets viewers select up to 55 channels as favorites, watch up to four of their favorite channels on the TV screen at one time, and control which channel appears as the main picture with audio. "Instead of browsing through the program guide or surfing one channel at a time, you can tune to My Multiview to scroll through the picture-in-picture screens to see all your selected favorite channels," AT&T states in its press materials. "For the first time ever, you can customize your Multiview so you can choose and control which of your favorite channels you watch on your TV screen at one time," Jeff Weber VP of video services for AT&T's Mobility and Consumer Markets arm, said in a prepared statement. "AT&T U-verse and My Multiview are changing how you watch TV. The channel combinations for My Multiview are virtually endless, and we're proud to offer our U-verse customers even more personalization with this exclusive app."

AT&T says that My Multiview is customizable for each U-verse receiver in the home, allowing each family member to create and save their own Multiview based on their personal preferences. Viewers access the app by selecting "menu" on their remote while watching live TV, and then scrolling down to select "My Multiview." Viewers can easily create their favorite channels list by selecting "info" while they are in the app, and choosing the "add" option next to the channels they want to appear in their Multiview, AT&T says. According to the company, the app is being rolled out on a market-by-market basis to all U-verse TV customers and will be offered at no extra charge."

Making of Touching Stories: Director Geordie Stephens and "The Most Interesting Couple in Britain"

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Excerpt from a very interesting article re. the interactive design of "The Most Interesting Couple in Britain" :

"The Most Interesting Couple in Britain" opens like a typical British sitcom: A husband and wife sitting opposite each other at their kitchen table, enjoying a spot of tea, discussing the news of the day. But after the scene ends, the viewer has the ability to play it again with new information, for example, checking out what each character--including a dog--is actually thinking. The layered performances feel like a never-ending comedy sketch, almost Monty Python-esque. It somehow gets funnier and funnier every time.

Adding those diverging story lines, and the ability to control them, creates a more engaged audience, says Geordie Stephens, director for Tool of North America who worked for 12 years as an advertising creative at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. In this Touching Stories film, the viewer becomes active in retelling the story according to their mood or sense of humor, he says. "There's a whole notion of storytelling becoming more pliable and something that you can actually interact with and alter and change and be a part of so that it's more entertaining," he says."

Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote New Details -

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(source: http://www.filmofilia.com/)

"Back in May we had a little chat about Terry Gilliam’s upcoming (and let us say – long waited as well) project The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, so you already know that Johnny Depp is no longer on board to star in it.

Just in case you missed this news, the movie will now star Ewan McGregor and Robert Duvall. There have been a lot of changes, but, is that a strange thing when you have windmills involved in the story? Guess not…

Let’s start with The Man Who Killed Don Quixote official synopsis: “From the unique mind of Terry Gilliam comes his most anticipated film. A decade in the unmaking. Don Quixote leaps into life in this bold and high-spirited comedy. Don Quixote. Eternal optimist. Madman. Knight. A noble soul who never lets truth get in the way of a great story. Toby.

Frustrated young filmmaker turned unwitting sidekick. Mistaken for Sanch Panza, Toby is charmed into the old man’s eternal quest for his lost lady-love. As their adventures across Spain veer from the sublime to the ridiculous, Quixote reveals himself as a delusional idealist. Yet could he be the real knight of legend? Torn between reality and fantasy, Toby must charge headlong into his own imagination. Don Quixote rides again.”....

Read more:

http://www.filmofilia.com/2010/06/30/terry-gilliams-the-man-who-killed-don-qu...

8-Bit Twilight: Eclipse Game Brings Team Edward vs. Team Jacob to YouTube | Underwire

(source: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/06/8-bit-twilight-eclipse/)

"The Twilight Saga: Eclipse brings more action than the previous two films in the shimmery vampire franchise. But with Twilight films, “action” is pretty relative — and often interspersed with the requisite awkward silences and dialogue.

Luckily, through the magic of videogame nostalgia and YouTube, those who wish Bella would just pick a guy, start one massive battle and get it over with already can finally find peace with Twilight Eclipse: The 8-Bit Interactive Game. The “game” is actually a series of YouTube clips, each roughly a minute in length, detailing with welcome brevity the trials of Twilight pseudo-heroine Bella Swan.

Watch as she practically demands that her suitors, Edward and Jacob, fight over her, then insists they not get hurt! Marvel at how much better vampire baseball looks rendered in pixelated 2-D! Praise the internet gods that someone finally put the words “I’m done with piggyback rides, baseball games and shirtless gay wolves!” in Bella’s mouth! Giggle when Jacob “poofs” into a werewolf!

Each video ends with embedded Choose Your Own Adventure-style annotation links that let viewers tell Bella what to do next, which kind of feels like empowering those teenagers at the multiplex screaming “OMG, no!” to finally get what they want out of life. Actual winning in this game is achieved by — spoiler alert! — finding the one path where Bella doesn’t do something so asinine and self-involved she gets herself killed. (We play these things so you don’t have to.)"

Read More http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/06/8-bit-twilight-eclipse/#ixzz0sSJOI9Mp

'Your secret' - I really like this video. Very. Special. Inspirational. Lovely. Thank you.

'"Your secret" is a movie about you.

Something quite different as compared to my other works, this short movie evokes a complicity between the spectator and the narrator. Something cheerful, something mysterious, something simple, something that hopefully maybe brightens your day.

Hope you'll like it.'

(c) Jean-Sébastien Monzani - jsmonzani.com - all rights res