November 29th, 2009
Let’s be honest, Interactive Awards don’t mean shit. Unless they’re awards people have heard of, real people, not just people who are in the running for them. But the BAFTA in the UK, like the Oscar in the US, is pretty much universal currency, bring one of those home and there’s no explanation needed.
In 2003 BAFTA introduced a host of “Interactive BAFTAs”, a project I worked on was nominated for one in 2004, but they were quietly dropped in 2005 for reasons unknown. There still exist a few hotly contested Interactive awards buried within other events though, such as the Interactive category at the Children’s BAFTAs, which was last year won by my old company Littleloud. Tonight was a second Brighton triumph as Seb’s PlugIn Media posse landed the very same award for their excellent Big And Small site.
PlugIn walked it home really. I’ve never seen such a level of detail in a childrens game, it was a no brainer. If my four year old had been judging it he’d have gone for the same.
I had absolutely no part in this particular scoop but still I am feeling the joy, if only in the reflected glow upon Brighton’s Flash community. Happy days.
Posted in awards, flash, flash brighton, papervision | No Comments »
November 19th, 2009
It would seem the weight of guilt doesn’t get lighter by sharing, so this week I took two days out of my schedule to:
- update the portfolio
- implement the new site skin, designed by the very talented Charis (of WiredPortfolio) back in January.
Amongst the projects added from the last year are:
There’s also been a lot of extra-curricular (i.e. non-Flash) work this year, mostly Processing/Generative Art related. I’ve written a little about the “creative coding” book I’m currently writing (to be published in Summer 2010), but for fuller details of my Generative Art, my writing, and other more experimental work, you should visit my (award winning) personal blog here. Which is where, amongst other things, you can see a video of my work projected onto a Brighton church.
Posted in 3D, awards, books, flash, flex, freelance, generative, processing | 1 Comment »
December 1st, 2008
There are only really two types of awards – those that your mom has heard of, and those that she hasn’t. And while I’m still really chuffed about the two DiMAS awards I accepted last week, this was slightly eclipsed last night by Littleloud, the company I used to work for, bringing home a BAFTA for their Bow Street Runner Flash interactive.
I had no involvement in it at all, but my friend and colleague Iestyn Lloyd lead the project, and almost had a breakdown because of it. It was simply not physically possible for one person to work any harder on a Flash project, so the kudos it has received since is very well deserved.
I had a piece of Director work nominated in the short-lived Interactive BAFTAs back in 2004, but it failed on the night, which was very disappointing. This is why, while I am extremely excited for the Littleloud crew, I’m also seeeeeeething with jealousy. Perhaps they’ll let me touch it next time I’m in.
Posted in awards, flash brighton | No Comments »
November 29th, 2008
While I have always been a proud member of the Flash Brighton group, I became even prouder on Thursday night when we, collectively, scooped a well deserved Strongest Community award at the 2008 DiMAS awards.
Inspired by the New York group FlashCodersNY, Flash Brighton (or FlashCodersBrighton, as we were originally called) started only two years ago, as a mailing list with a few irregular meetings, mostly kept alive by the enthusiasm of Seb Lee Delisle. But since then it has grown to almost 200 members, with regular weekly meetings attracting a consistent stream of quality speakers, initiating collaborative projects, transatlantic link-ups, big screen spectaculars, a one day conference last year, and never, so far, charging a penny for any of it. But, most importantly, it has formed into a highly cohesive group of Flash professionals who like to work together and share their knowledge.
At the awards ceremony the group was commended on how much we had achieved in a short time and the potential of our relatively young collective. But what really stood out was how our presence had become felt not just in Brighton, but across the web.
Pictured above collecting the award are (from left to right):
Al MacDonald – Viral Games Guru at the mighty Kerb.
Richard Willis – Ace Coder and Copywriter responsible, amongst other things, for the fantastic copy on the Flash Brighton blog.
Jo Summers – Creative Systems Lab alumni and lynch-pin behind the organisation of Flash Brighton’s weekly meetings.
Matt Pearson (me) – looking momentarily distracted by something shiny in the rafters.
Seb Lee Delisle – The brains behind Plug-In Media, PaperVision team member, international conference speaker, and founder/manager of the group.
Owen Bennett – one of Brighton’s finest ActionScript freelancers.
Sarah Bird – of AnimNation fame and DiMAS Freelancer Of The Year nominee.
And, the lady who presented the award – whose name, we’re embarrassed to say, no-one can remember.
As Rich pointed out, as well as the Community award, Flash Brighton’s members were all over the DiMAS like a rash this year, having contributed to works nominated in seven of the twelve categories . And I should add, with hopefully a sufficient amount of modesty, that I’m supremely chuffed to have come away with a second award that night too; winning this year’s Best Blog award for my writing on zenbullets.com. I won’t be giving up the day job quite yet though.
Posted in awards, blogging, flash brighton | 6 Comments »
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