The first task of a new member/student of IFCU is to create their avatar.  It will be photographically based, conceived of as “a close up that introduces a character.”  It can be treated, distorted, but it  (1)  has to recognizable.  (2)  should convey some sense of character.  (3)  should want to make your audience know more about the person behind the face.

All new avatars will be posted for peer review to determine if they are recognizable and also to gather some sense of what the image makes the viewers feel, think.  It is the first instance of the nascent filmmaker discovering the audience responding to their work.

All avatars (staff, and instructors as well) will be framed at 2.35:1 aspect ratio (classic theatrical anamorphic widescreen ratio).  These avatars will exist in multiple variants throughout the site, at various resolutions as they are used to visualize networks, classmates, individuals on the IFCU Map, and so forth.

72 Photos is a web photography portfolio that has an interesting look which might be extended to the whole of the IFCU Portfolio.

Take a look at how Couchsurfing implents their Search Feature. Select country, city, then populate the map with surfers. Click on the map “pins” to get a glimpse of the individual surfer, and can click through to see their full profile. Not elegant, but an effective, responsive interface. Question: should the IFCU map (including Jaman, IFCU Crashpads, Six-Degrees, etc) be based on the Gmaps API? Is is possible to use something sexier like Google Earth? Or is it possible to skin Gmaps in a way that gives it a less pedestrian look? A sidenote: notice the bandwidth selector in the upper right.

This unassuming promo video (for Social Annotating service Diigo) is a great example of making a screencast that doesn’t suck. A combination of a house music groove, plus lots of appropriate “camera” movement — movement which helps clarify meaning — makes the thing move. We need to find out if they built this the hard way, or if there is screencasting software that facilitates this kind of work.

Not adoptable, but certainly a instance of the kind of inherent (no-need-to-document) useability and wit IFCU needs.  Turn it on here.

Free Range Studios is an interestingly advocacy-oriented multi-talent shop, combining marketing, identity and design. Additionally, and most intriguing, they’re the most successful viral web-movie producer, with credits including The Meatrix and the remarkably effective — and appalling — Story of Stuff. (Watch.)

I’ve looked at their web design portfolio, and they’d have to up the bar to make it for IFCU, but I’m interested in talking to them because (1) they typically work for rather straightlaced entities and thus their designs must reflect this and (2) they have a real gift for using storytelling to make their point.

Jaman: Movie download service for world cinema    Whether we just do Ford’s globe portal into Jaman (with some attendant relationship), or we get more solid with them.   Thinking.

Stephen Watkins, a young Australian animator who’s just joined a San Francisco firm (www.gunshop.tv, who look like bozos) is ideal for producing IFCU promos. He’s very talented, and has two very different styles he’s demonstrated, both of which have real charm. One is a naif cutout animation look:

Play Movie

The other is a surrealist look:

Play Movie

If we like him, we should bring him in early, because we’ll want to tie the animation look/style in with the site’s look, and keeping on eye on the Secondary Identity for IFCU.

This is an old KCRW Theatrical Promo. The filmed-but-cutout style of the human animation has stuck in my memory for over ten years now and makes me wonder abt using something organic like this in terms of avatars. (Don’t worry, I know it’s way outside the box.)