Back to the screens with real/virtual crossover and pie

The first show of Series 3 of The Cool Stuff Collective just aired (it will run all week 🙂 ) and there are a lot of changes.
We are now filming live in schools with an audience. This is great as the show if for kids we get to hear and see if they really do like what we do. (Good news on that front so far!). We have changed from a comedy character and sketch basis to a live interaction vibe. This has some interesting challenges as the production team have to create a TV recording setup in situ. Which is no mean feat. Lighting and sound are no longer a known quantity as in a TV studio.




We also have two new front of house presenters. Vicky Letch and The Blowfish, who add to the live dynamic with their interactions with one another and the audience.

I still turn up to do future tech and this week I showed Vicky the Skylanders game and hardware. I have blogged about this before. What I wanted to show, and hopefully there will be some more like this, is the interaction between real and virtual environments.

Skylanders has physical toys with NFC chips in. When you select an actual toy it in turn selects that character in game. An important thing is that the toy also acts as the memory card for that characters levelling up. Data flows form the game to the toy. If you take that character collectible and take it to another persons house to play the game you are carrying your progress with you.
I love the mixed mode real/virtual concept and I had wanted a similar real to virtual product in the mix of the piece, but sometimes trying to show future developments seems to bump into regional marketing PR madness. Something may be out in one country, even all over the web, but the physical thing can’t be shown in another country for reasons best known only to themselves 🙂

One of the extra bit I end up having to do is strop off at the end of my enthusing about future tech when Vicky asks a complicated question about a field that I am not part of. This is nearly acting 🙂 I try and keep a sulky face on

My other (favourite) part is when, during the voting of chillies hot or pants not, when the crowd vote on a toy brought in by one of the kids, and a verdict of pants is reached there is a call out to super geek. I get to enter (stage right darlings) with a white lab coat and some safety goggles to custard pie the unlucky volunteer. This is the sort of saturday morning I grew up with watching Tiswas! Another ambition ticked off the list then 🙂

The team at Archie Productions (check out the end titles of the show for all the names) do a brilliant job making this show and it’s great working with them. We have filmed 4 so far and have another 8 to go 🙂