The Beijing Film Academy- Asia’s largest film education institution - has unveiled a project to shoot 10 mobile movies for mobile phone users. Together with the New Cinema Magazine they will select 10 short film scripts, 3-5 minutes long. The scripts will then be made into films by Chinese veteran directors.

The films will be shot with digital, high-definition video cameras and Nokia will provide technical support to uploading the films. Besides being screened on mobile phones, the films will also be converted into traditional 35 mm and digital format for web based digital screenings and digital movie theatres. Film director Li Shaohong said:”With technical advancements improving fast for web and mobile media, online viewing and mobile phone screening will boost the box office incomes of Chinese films. “

On the 30th of June live on the Downing Street website, the Prime Minister will be answering posted questions about the up and coming G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland. Focusing on the top issues at the top to this year’s to do list.

Current topics, such as Africa and climate change, will be the key issues being discussed during the live chat.
For a chance to submit questions in advance simply go to www.direct.go.uk.

Talking bus stops have been erected in Bristol as part of National Deafblind Awareness Week which occurred this month. The blind and the deafblind can use electronic key fobs to trigger spoken information from boxes housed at the stops. An automated voice reports the current time, bus arrival and departure times, route and the stop number. The system is reliant upon Real Time Passenger Information (RTI) which uses satellite tracking of the buses and relays information to the boxes at the talking stops.

Though the technology has been in partial use before, this Bristol scheme marks the first instance of a comprehensive city-wide venture. Executive Member for Transport and Development control, Dennis Brown, said ‘Many people who are blind or visually impaired may be deterred from using buses because they can’t read the timetables at bus stops or see from the real time displays how long they have to wait until the next bus arrives.’ Hopefully this interactive technology may create a precedent to be followed around the country.

Tunbridge Wells Council has taken action to improve their support for voluntary organisation and businesses in the borough.

From this week charities and businesses within the Tunbridge Wells area will be able to search for funding opportunities for free. The council has joined with Grantfinder, producer of Grantnet - a national grant finding facility- to provide detailed information on financial support. The database which previously could only be viewed by paying a fee can now be accessed by all voluntary and business organisations within the borough.

Searching Grantnet will help those seeking grants and funding for projects, to find national, regional and local funders simply by entering their details. Once they have done so a password will be immediately sent to their e-mail, allowing access to the database.

Grantnet is continuously updated, providing information in a range of formats such as, short summaries, overviews and in lenghty and extensive detail to help organsations establish their elegibility at the outset.

Southampton is leading the way in its use of localised SmartCity cards. These combine the many features found on many different cards into a single card. The service was originally launched in 2001, but is currently being updated with new features. Holders will now be able to record their participation in the NHS Organ Donor Register and prove their age. They can already use the card for discounts at leisure centres, to borrow books, CDs and DVDs at libraries and on some university buses. Pupils at Bellemoor School can clock up lunch-money for school dinners on the cards.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister would ideally like every citizen to hold a SmartCity card. Cabinet Member for Resources, David Beckett, said: “Southampton has grasped the government’s smart card agenda with both hands and is now setting the standard for other councils across the country and around the world”. The scheme has become highly regarded to the extent of being consulted by other British cities and even foreign countries for advice.

This summer the meeting of music and sound comes together through the magic of technology. The Culture Online commissioned project - Rosetta Requiem - is set to create a collective voice for palliative care users. The project produced by Rosetta life - the charity that works with people with life-threatening illnesses to give full expression to their creative talents - gives hospice users the opportunity to commemorate and celebrate their lives.

At each of the 15 hospices around England Rosetta Life have installed an Apple based Digital Arts Centre packed full of laptops, desktops, video and still cameras. They have also gained the support of several artist such as Billy Bragg, Michael Nyman and Emily Young who have given up their time to help hospice users and their families produce music, songs and films to be performed throughout the year.

From July the finished pieces of art produced by the patients will be broadcast on the Rosetta Life website through the latest version of MSN messenger. The first of four live web broadcast is due to go out on July 6 2.00-4.00pm. Children from Gt Ormond Street Hospital will link up with children from St Nicholas Hospice in South Africa and children from sudbourne School, Brixton in a performance of their songs.

New methods have been seized upon by Liverpool’s electronic Netherly Valley (eNV) in the quest for increased internet access for the community. They have furnished a van with a satellite wireless connection, allowing remote internet browsing in the heart of the city. An lorry or bus was considered initially, however the cost was found to be prohibitive. eNV aim to make the van a welcoming, non-traditional venue for IT use that will not scare people off with bad memories of the school classroom.

The van will provide people with email access, and has been used by local groups attempting the research of Liverpool history and at fun days to explore issues of health and society. Job-seekers are also a target audience. Samantha McDonough of eNV, said ‘the number of people using the van has more than doubled over the last 6 months alone – we hope to build upon this success and expand our service across the whole of Liverpool’.

Why a council, six months or more after the launch of the project, should now attempt to publicise it is another matter.

Swansea Council are proposing to show their meetings on the internet in an attempt to engage the local population. Discussions would be presented as a web-cast, allowing citizens to watch decision-making from a computer.

The leader of the Council, Chris Holley, said, “We are determined to find ways to modernise council meetings, to make local democracy more open…We want to encourage and make it easier for [locals] to see how we go about making the decisions that affect their lives up close.”

The council is also contemplating, amongst other things, making meetings later in the day to encourage a larger public audience.

Arts Corp. of Tokyo have developed a life-size mannequin with countless faces. Her features are created by internal DVD technology which realistically projects any face onto that of the blank model. A speaker facilitates speech, which is synchronized to lip movements.

Modern film or music stars might be a likely choice for users, though Art Corp. president Jun Ishikawa has cited Cleopatra as one of his goals for creation. The face of the Egyptian queen and other historical figures would be created by computers.

Scientists at Tokyo University have created a video art work that lets viewers interact as never before with film. Whilst for most films a viewers engagement is passive and linear, the Khronos projector allows people to grab an area or object within the film and cast it back or forward in time. Multiple videos have been used with the technology. Notable examples of interaction include a cityscape, part of which has been thrust forward into night whilst the rest is in broad daylight, and a water fountain whose plume had been seized and moved about.

Whilst the grabbing has thus far been done either with a mouse or tablet or a large touch screen, the creators hope ultimately to house the technology behind a ‘organic-feeling…deformable’ screen. Those interacting with it could then use their hands or a tool such as a stick to poke and prod objects through time as they wished. Interestingly, small projectiles such as tiny pebbles could be thrown at the screen, causing water-like time ripples.