Video[game] Tuesday

It might be May Day, but it’s a pretty miserable Tuesday out there in Adelaide-land; cold, grey, rainy and heading down to 9 degrees later in the week. That is a rare thing around here, and I know the rain is good for the land, so I’m not (really) complaining. But when you’re from the UK (especially North Wales/Manchester) you can’t help but look forward to blue skies.

So… I have a couple of video-type-things to bring some sunshine (and desert) in to brighten up (y)our days…

Desert videogame

First off, I was introduced to this fantastic Flash-based videogame last week when I was poorly (thanks Alex Kelly for being a constant supply of awesome*). It’s quite gorgeous both in the way it looks and how it was produced. I can’t embed it here so to give you a flavour I’ll show you the video that talks about the people behind it. I encourage you to go and have a play, though, it’s really cute.

What I love about it is the sense of pride and ownership the kids have – you can see it in the video, in their faces, but also in the characteristics of the game. Spawned from a community project over in Roebourne in the Pilbara, WA, the kids were first involved in making a zombie film. From that basic engagement a few of them decided they wanted to work together again under the name ‘LovePunks’… and you can’t deny the world needs a lot more love right now.

Thanks (again) to Alex* I’ve already made contact with Big hART, the group behind it, and hope to catch up with them when the bus and I are in their vicinity!

River/ocean perambulation

Secondly, last weekend (after being sick for a week) I felt like I needed some fresh air & exercise, so I went for a walk***. It took me five hours to stroll along the Torrens River from Thebarton to the ocean, and then up to Grange. It was a stunningly warm, clear day and I took a bunch of photos. Since I’m trying to get better at making videos, I thought I’d have a play with them. So here’s a really basic little slideshow put to the beautiful soundtrack of Rosie Catalano‘s  “Because of the way it goes” taken from her freemusicforfilmmakers blog (because she’s nice like that**).

 

PLUGS

Good people are behind these things and some of them need your love…

* Alex and her roller derby team “Malice Springs” (seriously, best roller derby team name EVER) have a crowdfunding campaign to get a roller derby rink in Alice Springs. You should support the hell outta this, I know I have!

** Rosie is a truly delightful lady with heartwarming compositions and a heavenly voice. Anyone in Sydney on May 24th should go to her ‘intimate, candlelit warehouse’ video launch event for the single “My Secrets”: http://www.rosiecatalano.com/my-secrets-video-clip-launch/

*** Thanks to Jason Sweeney for suggesting the route for my walk and Amy Milhinch for being my current Host. Jason is currently seeking sound-based contributions for his work with Vitalstatistix‘ Adhocracy. If you make such things you can contribute via Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/adhocrasound2012