User:Softscan

===== JOHN KIRK ===== SOFTSCAN DIGITAL CINEMA

http://www.softscan.org/catalog.html

Documentary and experimental narrative videographer and filmmaker.

Made independent media in Australia from 1973 to 2009 Worked with John Hoppy Hopkins at TVX the video co-op in london 1970-1973. Worked with Bush Video doing experimental video in Sydney Australia 1973-1975. Made independent documentary series Community Documentary Newsreel on Super8Sound in the Rainbow Region 1976-1980. As Artist in Residence at Open Channel in Melbourne I worked with community theatre groups and made "Working Women", a dramatised documentary using role playing with prostitutes inside Fairley Women's Prison. Crewed as second unit camera and sound recordist in 1982 on the anti nuclear documentary "The Voyage of the Pacific Peacemaker" shot on Super8Sound and broadcast on TVNZ and in Australia. Moved to New Zealand and made "Private Eye Public Eye" a short narrative drama made in a Blue Screen Studio using actors doing structured improvisation against virtual sets. Made the Documentary "Kotahitanga O Nga Whakaaro" about Phillipino activist actors work shopping Augusto Boals "Theatre of the Oppressed" techniques with Maori on indigenous issues. Raised some investment and shot Kathy Dudding's film "Kanaky au Pouvoir" on the Kanak Independence uprising in New Caledonia. Helped set up Tautoko FM Tribal Radio. Set up and ran The Comprehesive TV Journalist Course for the Maori Programs Department at Television New Zealand. My interest in improvised film and the discovery of the Chris Crawfords "Story Engine" and Perlin & Golberg's "Improv" at NYU Media Research Lab led to my attempt at interactive cinema in "For Love or Money" back in Australia. This resulted in a short narrative video of the same name. Taught video to earn a living and started and ran Hunter Community TV between 1995 and 1997.

I am interested in computer generated narrative end embodied conversational agents.