Cobwebs College @ #rdcHQ!

Cobwebs College is now in session! The crew picked up work where we left off last meetup with a quick review of the script and a primer on what needs to be done to complete our animated series. Everyone received a new schedule that breaks down the rest of the script over the next four months. With much of the character development now completed, the emphasis is now on production which will involve a variety of animation, multimedia and graphic design programs. Our goal is to have our movie completed in time for our launch party! This week we are recording audio tracks for the scene, “Young House” … Stay tuned!

#rdcHQ News Update: Earth Day 2013

Elsewhere at #rdcHQ, the elves have been busy helping out where they can – they were last spotted at Pacific High School where a Champion Redwood was planted in celebration of Earth Day 2013. Nathan Malamud captured the event for posterity in his latest RDC Home Movie … Check it out!

You can read more about the event in an article by the Curry County Pilot entitled Redwoods Go Global and at POCSA (Beta) … Go #rdcHQ Go!

RDC-2013 Application [5.4 MB]

Greetings from #rdcHQ!
It is that time of the year to begin our search for new talent for the Rural Design Collective! We have a lot going on in our Project Pool this year, and we have several active tracks under development. Please note that the first deadline for application submissions is May 15.* Our project pool includes the opportunity to work with MathML, honing our illustration skills creating vector graphics for an international “Codes of the World” initiative, and working to build and promote a more sustainable world! There is a lot in store — a lot of great ways to actively make a difference in projects on a global and local scale — so much depends on YOU and how the #rdcHQ Project Teams shape up this summer!**

Big #rdcHQ News: The WWW Premiere Launches!

At long last, “The Beginning of the Sustainable World” WWW Premiere is here! This is our first full-length RDC Home Movie and we truly learned a lot about video editing and what is involved in organizing a community event such as this.

Click to launch “The Beginning of the Sustainable World” in #rdcHQ Theatre!

The presentation runs approximately two hours — view it in segments as time permits or make some popcorn and have a public screening in your area! Our goal was to capture the feel of what transpired that evening on December 21, 2012 to the best of our ability. Many folks involved with this event envision a full weekend with panels, tracks and other ways to educate and take action on matters of sustainability.

Behind The Scenes: Kudos and Credits

This premiere has been months in the making, and we would like to thank our performers, collaborators, audience and screeners who provided valuable feedback … and everyone else who made this a historic event!

We want to specifically thank PortOrford.TV, Sustainable Man, Green Fire Productions and The Seattle Channel for giving us permission to use the video on the web as it was presented at the event. We would also like to thank Port Orford Community Co-op who presented at our forum, and we will be working on a follow-up movie to highlight their efforts at a later date. And, of course, we couldn’t have done it without the crew at the Savoy Theatre, our editor, and the artists who shared their talents with us that evening.

Behind The Scenes: Navigation Hints

In the video player user interface, We have provided a menu to aid in navigation which lists all of the videos with their beginning time stamp so you can start watching at any point in a given segment. Unfortunately, we were unable to link the menu to the appropriate spot in the video due to limitations with the wonderful embeddable player at Vimeo. There is an API available for this and open source code at github, but we were unable to get it to work reliably cross-browser so we opted to launch without it. NOTE: When we or someone else finds a fix for this, we’ll update our codebase!

If you want to access an individual segment with active timestamps, we have provided links to the video files on Vimeo below for your convenience.

Segment One
      “The Beginning of the Sustainable World” — 12.21.12 — Introduction
Segment Two
      “The Beginning of the Sustainable World” — 12.21.12 — Part One (Environment)
Segment Three
      “The Beginning of the Sustainable World” — 12.21.12 — Part Two (Society)
Segment Four
      “The Beginning of the Sustainable World” — 12.21.12 — Part Three (Economy)
Segment Five
      “The Beginning of the Sustainable World” — 12.21.12 — Tree Gifting

“Stay Tuned!”

We’ll be updating the Resource Library section of our web site with information and links on how you can start an event like this in your own community … Stay Tuned!

Greetings from #rdcHQ! We’re getting really jazzed that our launch date for “The Beginning of the Sustainable World” WWW premiere will soon be here! A few more edits and we’ll be sending out additional invites for private screening.

Watch our trailers in the meantime to get ready for the big event —

Behind The Scenes: About The Art

We thought it would be fun to take a look at the design thinking behind our two event posters. Each feature the photography of a different artist, Scott Peden and Rebecca Hargrave Malamud, and both photos have a bit of interesting history behind them.

“Washington Tree” by Scott Peden

Scott Peden / Washington Tree: Washington Tree is a Giant Redwood located in Big Basin Redwoods State Park in California. As Scott explains, “the Tree we today call the Washington Tree was also once known as the Taft Tree. The earliest proof I can use to date it as the Taft Tree is an undated postcard by photographer AP Hill, designed in a particular style that was used between 1907 and 1914.

William Taft was President of the United States from 1909 to 1913. Taft easily carried California in the 1908 election as a progressive, but rapidly fell out of favor with his party. I recall hearing from one of the Rangers about 15 years back that it may have been fear of damage to the tree that the name was changed. There is a lot of myth as to how the trees were named, and who named them. AP Hill left Big Basin in 1920; by then the majority of the more interesting trees had names.”

“Salmon Cheek” by Rebecca Malamud

Rebecca Malamud / Salmon Cheek:
The mark for the “Sustainable World” poster is a digital illustration based on a photograph of Humbug Mountain by Rebecca Hargrave Malamud. The photograph was selected specifically for its unique perspective facing north as the tallest oceanfront mountain in Oregon juts out abruptly into the Pacific. The stewardship area encompasses the mountain [ POCSA Map, 416KB ], with the small community of Port Orford nestled yet further north. It was once known as “Sugar Loaf Mountain,” until it was renamed by explorers. Research during the production of “The Beginning of the Sustainable World” led to the discovery that the Chetco Indians originally called it Meepp’ush, literally, “cheek” from Thok’eh-meep’ush, “salmon cheek” … hence the name of the photo.

The final mark used on the poster is superimposed over another photograph of South Beach at Floras Lake, also by Rebecca Malamud.

“South Beach at Floras Lake” at the Memory Palace Project