[IMC-Video] Fwd: ::fc-announce:: rhizome movies

[a. mark liiv]

----- Forwarded message from Adrian Miles <adrian.miles at rmit.edu.au> -----
     Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 12:04:41 +1000
     From: Adrian Miles <adrian.miles at rmit.edu.au>
  Subject: ::fc-announce:: rhizome movies

hi all


some of you may be interested:

This work is distributed under a Creative Commons licence. Details
available at:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

It is written by Adrian Miles
adrian.miles at rmit.edu.au
http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vlog/


Five rhizome movie templates are available via <URL:
http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vlog/archives/2005/08/24/rhizome-movies-1-to-5/ >.

Each is available for download and within each template there is a
readme.txt file, which contains simple instructions.

These rhizome movies are lightweight templates to produce networked
multilinear video and audio works. YMMV.

To use any of the rhizome movies you simply edit the accompanying XML
file to point to the media objects you wish to play. Upload the .mov
file *and* the relevant XML file (which must always be in the same
directory as the .mov) and you can publish this online.

These have been informally named rhizome movies because of their
method of distribution and construction.

They are freely distributed under a Creative Commons licence so that
a variety of rhizome movies can be made, in a variety of locations.
Feel free to add your rhizome movies to the del.icio.us tag
rhizomeMovie and to use this tag <URL:
http://del.icio.us/tag/rhizomemovie > to find other rhizome movies.

Technically each rhizome movie is a QuickTime file that, on launch,
reads the associated XML file to determine what content is to be
played. This uses the 'child movie' feature of QuickTime, where a
parent movie can load and play external content. This means you can
load content in a format that QuickTime reads from any viable URL. It
also means that you could use other means to generate the XML
structure (as long as it mirrors the XML structure provided) so that
you could generate variable movies.

rhizome one
This is the first one. It loads two separate videos alongside each
other, each loops continuously. Mouse enter into one video pane mutes
any sound in the other video pane.

rhizome two
This one adds a controller (pause, play etc) for each of the two
video windows inside the movie. There is no mouse enter behaviour.

rhizome three
This template retains the video controllers and now adds a third
track into the rhizome movie. This third track is for a sound track
(it will not be visible in the movie) and this sound track will play
continuously regardless of what is going on with the video. There is
a controller provided for each of two video panes.

rhizome four
This has two videos and one sound track, like the third rhizome. But
now when you mouse into the video the other video pane speeds up. It
also mutes the current video pane and turns volume on for the one
that gets faster.

rhizome five
The last one to date. This is the reverse of four. Instead of
speeding up videos it now slows the video. Like four (and three)
there is a soundtrack that will play on at normal speed regardless of
everything else.

Caveats
Safari on os x seems to not enjoy these. Firefox is fine. IE on
windows does nasty things to QuickTime, change now.

FAQ

What are they?
rhizome movies are light weight interactive movies that let you load
other videos into it. Each of these plays, and loops continuously.
They are independent of each other so you can load files of different
duration into each of the video windows. There are different simple
behaviours for each of the rhIzome movies.

Where does the XML file have to be?
Each rhizome movie has a script inside of it that looks for a
specific XML file and reads its contents at run time. The XML file
must reside in the same directory as the rhizome movie, and cannot be
renamed.

Can I rename the rhizome movie?
Yes, you can call it what you like, but make sure it still ends in
.mov. The only thing you cannot rename is the XML file.

Where do I put the  movies that are going to be loaded into rhizome.mov?
Well, where you like really. Just make sure that you point to them
properly within the XML file. If you want to deliver this online then
what you want to load into the rhizome movie need to be served via
http or rtsp.

Do the URLs I put in the XML have to be full URLs?
Well, technically no. They can be relative paths, and they would have
to be relative to the location of the rhizome movie (not the web page
where you might embed the rhizome movie). But you are much better off
writing full URLs in the XML file because that means your rhizome
movie will work no matter where it is, as long as it can a) read the
contents of the XML file, and b) see the network.

What file formats do my child movies need to be in?
Any format that QuickTime can view. At the moment that is .mov, .mp4,
and some varieties of .avi, as well as various other formats. The
Apple QuickTime site maintains a list of file types that QuickTime
supports.

What size should my video be?
Each of the video panes is 160 x 120 pixels. You can compress your
video to be larger but it is only going to be visible at 160 x 120
pixels.

How compressed does it need to be?
Up to you, but remember you are playing 2 videos from 2 sources at
the same time inside of another movie. So the lower the bit rate and
frame rate, the better things will be. If you try and load 2 20 mg
videos into this, then outside of big broadband on a dual processor
G5, not a lot will actually work for anyone. (Remember, this is
networked video, the network is narrow, and small.)

Um, what's a child movie?
A rhizome movie is a container movie that loads two other videos (and
sometimes a soundtrack) and then plays them. These two other movies
are child movies. They exist independently (and play independently)
of the container (parent) movie.

And I would do this because?
That's for you to answer. In the rhizome movies you get independent
tracks that play together but separately from each other, and which
loop. Fixed, linear timelines are irrelevant when you publish video
on a computer. This is a simple machine to help get your head into
that time.


-- 
cheers
Adrian Miles

hypertext.RMIT
<URL:http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/vlog>
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