Epic Mickey

 

Warren Spector has revealed that upcoming Wii title Epic Mickey was originally planned as a multi-format release.

According to the Official Nintendo Magazine, Spector said that the decision to make it a Wii exclusive meant that they could deliver the best possible game they could.

“The reality is that we started Wii development in 2008, but before that we were a PC, PS3, and 360 title.

“It’s burned in my brain – [Disney Interactive boss] Graham Hopper pulled me into my office one day and said ‘What does it take to deliver on the goals we have for this product? And I said, well, you need enough time and enough money to be competitive. And it’d be awfully nice if we could focus on one platform.

“At that time we were talking about a Wii port and I was begging people – no, we can’t just port to the Wii, it’s not going to work. It needs to be its own game. A lot of the design ideas just won’t work on the Wii, we need to give the Wii its dues. Graham looked at me and said ‘What do you think about a Wii exclusive?’ And I went ‘Holy cow – yeah!”

Epic Mickey sees players control Mickey Mouse as he attempts to restore harmony to a cartoon wasteland.

 

Camden Walk Of Fame

Development is still on going for the creation of the Camden Walk Of Fame. Musical figures including Jarvis Cocker, Jazzie B and Robin Gibb from The Bee Gees are still backing the plans to create a Walk of Fame on the main streets of Camden Town.

The documentary Film is well in the mix now, with yours truly (Bedroom London Ltd) on board to do the in show graphics.

The idea to lay a heritage trail is largely the brainchild of club impresario Lee Bennett and would see a series of slabs dug into the pavements to credit the famous names who have passed through the legendary music venues in Camden Town – just like the “stars” that line Hollywood Boulevard.
Mr Gibb described Camden Town as an “epicentre” of talent, adding: “I think it’s something we should have had a long time ago in this country because we have such a wealth of musical talent. Historically and culturally it’s all come from this country in the past 40 years and its time we celebrated and honoured that culture.”

Film-maker Nick Mason has captured a series of celebrity endorsements on camera. S sneak preview of the film shows Soul II Soul star Jazzie B raving about Camden Town.

“It was the easiest place to kick a lock off a door so that was the place it all went down,” he said. “The Walk of Fame is an innovation.”
Other bands said the area became so synonymous with good music that there were sometimes more record company executives than fans in the crowds at clubs like the Dublin Castle, Barfly and the Electric Ballroom.

The Dub Pistols described Camden as an “A & R man’s dream” while The Cribs and the New Young Pony Club recalled how they were both signed after doing one gig in the area.

Others proved their fondness for heady party days by… not remembering them. Jarvis Cocker said: “I can’t exactly recall… Camden in the Britpop era… erm…”, before a five-second pause. He did remember a gig at the Underworld around 1992, when Suede supported his then-fledgling band Pulp.

“A week later they were massively more famous than us,” Mr Cocker added.
The film was made by production company Fasten Your Seatbelt last summer.

Mr Mason said: “In an ailing music industry live music is now more important than ever – Camden is responsible for launching countless music careers.”

Watch this space for updates and more information on this exciting project …

2010 Blockbusters ….

So summer blockbuster season is over …. but whats going to be big in 2010 ???

Any of these …. let us know if you know something we don’t

Iron Man 2
Kick-Ass
The A Team
The Wolfman
Robin Hood
The Expendables
Inception
Tron: Legacy
Toy Story 3
Predators

Chanel , not all pearls no more!

Lily Allen burst through a trapdoor on to a catwalk in the Paris Grand Palais and began singing her hit Not Fair.

Models parading the new collection around a reconstruction of the Hameau de la Reine, Marie Antoinette’s play farm at Versailles, will perhaps go down in fashion history as the moment when Chanel finally shook off any vestiges of a fusty, tweed-and-pearls image.

For all the dark glasses and affected enigma, designer Karl Lagerfeld is every bit as much a showman as Prince, today’s front row guest of honour.

The fashion industry now is about entertainment as well as product, and Lagerfeld delights in this.

With Allen’s appearance providing the theatrical element of surprise, and a finale of three models faux-romping in a bale of hay ramping up the staged sauciness, today’s Chanel show had more in common with an episode of Strictly Come Dancing than with the sober in-house fashion parades from the days of Mademoiselle Coco Chanel herself.

The rustic theme may turn out to be one of next summer’s key trends, however. Lagerfeld is not alone in proposing barn dance chic at Paris fashion week, with Stefano Pilati at Yves Saint Laurent referencing haute-peasant looks from the YSL archive at his show yesterday evening. In particular, clogs – the dominant shoe of both the Chanel and Celine collections – may be set for a comeback.

Allen, looking scrumptious in gold and black Chanel sequins, did rather too good a job of proving that Chanel does not only suit twiglet-shaped models, casting the catwalk models in their costumey milkmaid get-ups and heavy wooden clogs into stark relief.

The models, who had clearly been instructed to “do sexy” for the cameras, looked thoroughly unconvinced by their outfits as they mugged and pouted.

All exciting stuff for Chanel … keep it up!

Doctor, Who ?

The BBC has unveiled a new logo for Doctor Who for 2010.

The show’s official website today revealed that the ‘taxi-style’ look adopted under Russell T Davies’ reign on the show will make way for new branding that plays on the iconic Tardis design.

As well as a new title sequence with the name in full, the BBC has plumped for the letters D and W in the shape of the Tardis, which will be used in merchandising and brand extensions.

Red Bee Media is overseeingthe new branding of the show, including the logo, which was created by Tony Pipes and Matt Rhodes.

A BBC spokesman said “Doctor Who is a series which has constantly evolved and regenerated for over four decades. In celebration of the new Doctor, Matt Smith, we felt that the time was right for an exciting new brand identity for the show.”

Incoming showrunner Steven Moffat told Digital Spy: “A new logo. The eleventh logo for the eleventh Doctor – those grand old words, Doctor Who, suddenly looking newer than ever.

“And look at that, something really new – an insignia. DW in TARDIS form. Simple and beautiful, and most important of all, a completely irresistible doodle. I apologise to school notebooks everywhere, because in 2010 that’s what they’re going to be wearing.”

Matt Smith will take over from David Tennant in the lead role in early 2010.

Whats the views on the the logo ?

is this the new LOST …?

Flashforward, the high-concept US drama series, has become the fastest-selling Disney series of all time, and broadcasters around the world are showing it as quickly as possible in a bid to beat piracy.

The programme, in which an unexplained event makes people around the world see into their future after blacking out for two minutes, has premiered in Britain on Channel Five, in Australia and even been dubbed into Russian within days of its US premiere.

“Even before Mipcom begins we have sold it to 100 territories, already making it the fastest-selling series in our history,” said Disney Media Networks president global distribution Ben Pyne on the opening day of TV trade festival MIPCOM.

He said persuading other networks to premiere the programme quickly was part of a new policy.

“This helps to reduce piracy but also allows bigger-than-life global marketing campaigns and get shows into audiences homes sooner.”

On Friday, eight days after its US premiere, the Russian version of Flashforward, known as Remembering What Will Be, was first shown.

In the UK, the programme aired on Five four days after US network ABC premiered it. Its second episode airs tonight.

Previously television companies would send tapes across the world to promote shows – but now that could be done over the internet, with broadcast quality clips that could be adapted for local use.

So watch this space … and let us know what you think ….

Cineworld promotes Disney Pixar’s Up

LONDON – Cinema chain Cineworld has launched a viral game featuring Google Maps, in which people will compete to show how popular they are to promote Disney Pixar’s 3D film ‘Up’.

The aim of the game is to get the most digital balloons attached to your home, seen on Google Maps, by asking friends and family on your online social network to each attach a balloon.

The game can be entered at www.cineworld.com/up and includes integration with Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Created by BD-Network, the competition is designed to mirror the film, about an old man who attaches balloons to his house to make it take off from Earth and take him on an adventure.

The top prize is four tickets to Disneyland Paris and two runners-up will get either a private screening of any film or unlimited access to Cineworld for a year.

Jason Waghorn, group account director at BD-Network, said: “This is a huge step forward in a distributor and cinema chain working in partnership to drive awareness of the film, interaction in the subject and of course box office sales.”

All exciting stuff – so get those balloons attached : )

Hep us win …. http://www.cineworld.co.uk/up?nickname=bedroomlondon

Internet now bigger than TV ?

Spending on internet advertising in Britain grew 4.6 percent in the first half of 2009, outperforming the wider ad sector, which slumped 17 percent, and making it the country’s biggest ad medium ahead of TV.

Online advertising spend grew to £1.75 billion pounds, with the medium accounting for 23.5 percent of all spend, ahead of television for the first time.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) biannual report, a survey conducted independently by PricewaterhouseCoopers and WARC, said key drivers of the growth were marketers using online as a direct response medium, “taking advantage of its targeting, accountability and measurability”, and booming e-commerce activity.

“This is the first major market where online has overtaken television to become the biggest single medium,” said Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the IAB. “This is a significant milestone.”

According to the report, the internet accounted for 23.5 percent of all spend, compared with 18.7 percent in the first half of 2008.

Television accounted for 21.9 percent, press display for 18.5 percent and direct mail for 11.5 percent.

The IAB report said the internet had avoided the advertising slump in general media, due to the strong demand for paid-for search on sites such as Google and resilience shown by classified online ads.

The study abreaks down the online display market by industry category, with technology the biggest spender, accounting for 19.1% of the market, followed by telecoms (13.3% rising from 9.7% the previous year) and finance (13.2% up from 11.9%).

Consumer goods saw significant growth up from 6.2% in H1 2008 to 8.1% in 2009 as FMCG marketers steadily increased digital budgets.

So what is going to happen to our could old Telly Box ? Will the new age family cather around the Laptop to watch the TV and what will all the living room furniture point to ?

Who ever knows whats around the corner with exciting changes in media – this article just sparks off many more questions indeed.

Tweetie 2 for iPhone

Users of Tweetie, the popular Twitter client for both Mac and iPhone, have reasons to be excited….. a new version of the iPhone app, Tweetie 2 (aptly codenamed “Bigbird”), is confirmed to be on the way.

In a preview of the new version, Scott Kleinberg of ChicagoNow detailed his experiences with beta builds of the upcoming release. From the screenshots provided, it’s clear that several interface improvements have been made, including a quick menu that provides easy access to several new features while posting a tweet. Other improvements include the ability to send video tweets, persistent session handling that restores the app to its previous state, conversation threading, draft management, and geotagging.

While Scott’s review suggests that the changes and improvements make Tweetie 2 feel like a whole new app, Tweetie developer Loren Brichter indicates that it really is — it’s a complete rewrite from the original app. In addition to the major features, the new version also boasts integration with several 3rd party services, and a host of configuration options, from new gesture options to custom Twitter API settings.
Of course, not everyone will be happy with the update. There is already a stir among beta testers over the app’s use of pinstripe backgrounds on the profile and single tweet views. Also, there is the issue of cost: Tweetie 2 will set you back £5, as it is being offered as a new app instead of a free upgrade to existing users. When it comes to upgrades, most desktop applications follow a pattern where minor updates (such as upgrading from version 1.0 to 1.1 or 1.1.2 — often refered to as “point releases”) are provided free of charge, and major updates (from version 1.0 to 2.0) usually require the user to purchase the new version of the software.

With iPhone apps, however, Apple does not provide a system to allow developers to do this. Developers can release upgrades and bug fixes as free updates to their applications, but if they invest a lot of time into a major update to their app, they have to submit it as a new, different version of the application rather than an upgrade to the old version, and there is no option to allow users who have perviously purchased the original app to receive a discount on the new version. So users are faced with having to pay full price for the upgrade, which in this case, is another £5

In my opinion, this is not an unreasonable amount to pay for a major upgrade to an already great application, but there are users who feel they shouldn’t have to pay for the upgrade. My advice to them? If you can’t spare £5 for the amount of time and effort that was put into making a decent, feature-rich upgrade, don’t bother using it. Stick with the original Tweetie or find another app that you’re willing to pay for.

So, controversy aside, Tweetie 2 looks very promising. The latest beta build that was provided to developers is expected to be the final build, and if things go well, we should see it hit the App Store in the coming weeks. An update to the desktop version of Tweetie is also in the works, and will probably surface after the iPhone app is released.

What do you think of the new version? Will you be upgrading when it’s released? Let us know in the comments!

Film to premiere on mobile phone …

RAGE is the first feature film to premiere exclusively on mobile phones and even better …. It wont cost you a penny!

This unique mobile premiere links directly to Sally Potter’s vision for the film, as RAGE tells the behind-the scenes story of a crisis at a New York fashion house through a series of intimate interviews, as if shot by a schoolboy on his mobile phone over a seven-day period.

The filmmakers have partnered with Babelgum for this revolutionary release strategy, which sees RAGE simultaneously available on mobile, online, digital screens and DVD.

Check out more information on it here http://ragethemovie.com/