The Bike Happening - Part 1

Three years ago I met with my friend Todd at Linnaea's Coffee Shop in the heart of downtown SLO. I had just come from a filmmaker's forum at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival (SLOIFF) and I told him that I had resolved to make a documentary.

We discussed an idea that he'd been kicking around for a while. He told me he'd always been fascinated by a much-loved local event known as Bike Night. We decided to start filming the monthly ride…

…in December 2008 we completed the final edit of our documentary, which we named The Bike Happening, and submitted it to the 2009 SLOIFF. I was pretty confident that it would get selected, because I thought we'd done a good job of capturing the atmosphere and emotion of the happening, but you can never be sure. Then, a couple of weeks ago we heard the news…

The Bike Happening has been selected for screening as part of the SLOIFF Central Coast Filmmaker’s Showcase.

Doesn't that sound fancy?

The showing takes place on Monday, March 9th at 6pm at the Downtown Brew (right across the street from Linnaea's) and is followed by a short question and answer session. Come on down and check it out!

Jim Irving - Interactive Map

When Jim Irving - a realtor based in Paso Robles - asked 3i Design to include a content-managed, interactive map on his new website, it meant we had another chance to collaborate. However, this project was going to be a little more challenging on the technical side, as I had to build a flash movie that could interact with a server and provide users with information about a number of property listings.

If you understood the previous paragraph, you can probably skip the next section, otherwise, read on.


OK, so at the risk of getting too technical and/or too simplistic, I think it’s worth trying to explain a little bit about how the map works.

Basics

The internet is essentially a huge network of computers that can be accessed using browsers (programs that read and interpret web pages) over an internet connection. When you visit a website, your browser is reading files stored on a server – a physical computer in a climate controlled room somewhere – and displaying them on your screen.

In many cases, the information stored on the server is static – it doesn’t change or get updated often – and the website is pretty much the same each time you visit it. However, an increasing number of websites are being updated on a regular basis, using a variety of methods to change the information stored on their servers.

Content Management

Many newer websites use a Content Management System (CMS) to allow their owners or administrators to edit and replace text, images and other data. Jimirving.com uses a custom CMS built by Clever Concepts and the items on the map are managed using the same system that controls their listings pages.

When a user (someone like you) loads the map page into their browser, the most current data from the server is loaded into the map and the listings appear in the appropriate places. When the user clicks on a listing, it accesses the data a second time and displays the text and images associated with that listing.

Interactive and Dynamic

The piece of the puzzle you don’t get to see when you visit jimirving.com is the administration interface. This is the tool that allows Jim and his team to position the listings on the map in the first place. Each listing is dragged and dropped into its precise position and its co-ordinates are sent to the server ready for use. The listings can then be updated or re-positioned at any time, should any information change.

Take a look.

Firestone Walker and 3i design

It’s always a pleasure to work on a collaborative project with like-minded professionals, so when 3i design approached me about some flash video work they were doing with the Firestone Walker Brewery I had to get involved.

3i are a very open, committed and humorous bunch, so I knew that working with them on comedic shorts intended to sell beer, I’d be destined for fun. The most ridiculous part was when Wyatt and myself had to improvise some of the sound effects for the videos. We basically locked ourselves in a conference room with a laptop and tried to not to laugh whilst we took turns recording a range of dirty laughs, appreciative groans and other silly noises (including Wyatt’s star-turn as a woman scorned).

Here are the results.