Astrochaps Movember Quest

November 24, 2011 5:11 pm

Here at the NSC Creative HQ we like to refer to ourselves as the ‘Astrochaps’, and fill our lives with cosmic quests and galactic adventures. As the month of November is upon us we have taken a giant leap for chap-kind and decided to raise some money for the chaps of the Earth by growing a moustache. Yes… we are taking part in Movemeber.

Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces around the world. The aim of which is to raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

On Movember 1st, guys register at Movember.com with a clean-shave face and then for the rest of the month, these selfless and generous men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Mo Sistas are the women who register to support the men in their lives, raising funds by seeking sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.

If you would like to donate some money to the cause. Please visit our team page: http://uk.movember.com/donate/team-details/id/290900

We’ll be posting some photo’s of our magnificent Mo’s very shortly. Happy Movemeber!

Another Day in the Office

October 7, 2011 4:22 pm

IFF 2011, the results are in… We Are Winners!

May 20, 2011 3:02 pm

We Are Astronomers reached for the stars and won big at this year’s Immersive Film Festival in Espinho, Portugal held between 29 April – 1 May 2011.

We Are Astronomers took home the honours of ‘Best Script’ and ‘Best of IFF’ in the long show category.

We’ve already received lots of lovely emails from new fans of the show that saw it for the first time at the event but do please get in touch if you want to share your love via Facebook or the dedicated website http://weareastronomers.com/

Here’s the IFF description of what the awards are all about:

‘Best of IFF’

This award will distinguish all main aspects of an Fulldome production such as: content, technical implementation, innovation, artistic achievement, production values, creativity, originality, narrative, design, entertainment value, and advancement of visualization in the artistic and scientific fields of Fulldome technologies.

‘Best Script’

This award will focus on the creativity, originality, design, entertainment value of the narrative, creating the best balance in storytelling.

Thank you to everyone involved in IFF 2011, the organisers, sponsors, jurors and of course the attendees. We hope to join you next year with new shows and shorts.

NSC Creative on the road

May 13, 2011 12:17 pm

As a result of our epic ‘Creative Business of the Year Award’ win picked up at this years Leicestershire Business Awards we’ve been given the keys to a car branded with our logo on for a few days. I feel a roadtrip coming on…

We Are Astronomers @ IFF 2011

April 26, 2011 1:28 pm

It’s always so exciting going to a place for a first time and that’s what “We Are Astronomers” will be doing when it’s premiered in Portugal at IFF 2011.

IFF (Immersive Film Festival) is taking place from 29 April to May 1 at Centro Multimeios Espinho, Portugal. Sadly, none of the NSCC team will be going there physically but we will be there in spirit. We hope the festival is a massive success, Immerse Yourself!

We also have the short dome piece “Astronomer 2.0″ in the competitive section which is adapted from “We Are Astronomers”.

Check it out here but obviously it is much more awesome in a dome!

If you’re lucky enough to attend IFF we’d love to know what you think of “We Are Astronomers”. Comment on our blog or you can head on over to http://weareastronomers.com/

Fulldome UK… The aftermath!

April 6, 2011 4:45 pm

On the 12 and 13 March we attended Fulldome UK 2011. We’d brought an offering of ‘We Are Astronomers’ and Max Crow who did a marvellous job of talking about Storytelling in the dome.

Screengrab from Max’s “unique” presentation!

It was the first Fulldome event for some of the team so they’ve been interrogated and here are some of their thoughts:

“It was great to see what else is out there, how other studios (and individuals) are using the dome, initially on a traditional astronomy front, but secondly on a level of celebration, using the canvas in different, creative ways.” Austin Durose

“I think it would be ace for the recorded Workshops to be uploaded to youtube or vimeo. People who were there can review them and see the ones that they missed. Also at the same time it becomes a resource for other people to learn about Fulldome and acts as a way of promoting Fulldome and the event.” Liam Wardle

“Fulldome UK was a good opportunity for me to see NSC Creative’s work within the context of a much wider community, a community I previously didn’t really know existed. Seeing a wide range of work, commercial, artistic, technical demos and student alike, furthered my own understanding of Fulldomes capabilities. Alien Action, Jeepers Creepers, The Royal Pea, Fractals, Nano Cam and the Best of the Jena Fulldome Festival Reel where my highlights.” Ian Smith

There were some insightful talks on the history of projection, the language of immersive cinema, the challenges of bringing dance into the dome and some interesting tech demonstrations.

There were lots of new things to see in the dome so we’ve chosen our favourite from each day (and no, we are not allowed to choose our own show!).

Our winners for ‘Best Fulldome Thing of the Day’ were:

Alien Action – Saturday 12 March.

Rising (From Jena Best of Showreel) – Sunday 13 March.

Others worth a special mention were: Nanocam, Dynamic Earth (WIP excerpts), Jeepers Creepers and SpacePark360.

Alien Action is also our WINNER OF THE WEEKEND! This was way ahead in votes from our team and definitely the most memorable film of the weekend (partially because a few members of the team were singing along!)

There are some more snaps from our time at the festival over on our Facebook page here >

Thanks to the Fulldome UK team and ThinkTank for putting on a great event, roll on Fulldome UK 2012.

A fisheye day in the studio

June 12, 2009 10:08 am

We have been quiet on the NSC Creative blog lately as we have been busy finishing off our new Fulldome film We Are Astronomers but now that is all wrapped we hope to get much more content on here.

Here is a fun timelapse that we did with our Canon 5D and Sigma 8mm to capture the last day of production on WAA in the NSC Creative animation studio. Normally we are pretty still, staring at our monitors, pushing pixels around but this day was surprisingly active, enjoy!

Music by our NZ friend and collaborator Rhian Sheehan