Been a while, eh? Sorry for the ever, ever, ever, so late response, but yes - White Enamel is finally launched, but in parts (as intended). Part One is but a simple introduction to become acclimated to the process of the online experience and has amazingly an overwhelmingly positive response. I say "amazingly" in that I had reservations on how well it would go over. White Enamel was a project I'd begun literally 10 years ago and could never get around to completing. Because it's a personal project, whenever a paid film came to surface I'd have to drop it and give priority to the films. In the meanwhile, other personal projects, films, activities, and well.... life, got in the way.
But I always wanted to finish it. The project, like Woods Movie, is too large to ignore. To not complete it (or Woods) would make all the previous efforts and time invested in vain, and that jack, would be a catastrophic. Everything in life can be replaced but for one element - time. And to have wasted the time it's taken to work Woods, to work Enamel, would be a waste of life.
Finally, recently I'd dug up the old files, dusted them off, redusted again (because they're intentionally dusty), and have begun launching the multi-part experience.
Despite the overwhelming response, I can totally respect the criticisms it deserves. "Rewak" shared his disappointment -
"A Flash website where you click on a few things is all WE is? That's not new, innovative, experimental, anything, it's old and outdated! There's a reason these things went out, they were boring and unsustainable. I'd be shocked if they actually made it to completion, these types of things popped up all the time in the late 90's/early 00's and all you'd get was a few parts and the updates would stop. Would have been better of just making a movie."I get that, I understand. White Enamel was originally built long ago, when that was the standard. But actually, it still is today. Of course Flash has made an exit on some devices as per Steve Jobs, but White Enamel isn't meant for an iPhone or iPad, it needs a full blown desktop or laptop to be experienced.
The internet is being reinvented every single day and this is something developers struggle with each and every day. What will be redundant tomorrow, what will be irrelevant next week?
Pretty much all of it.
This very forum is so "outdated" yet it maintains itself and is as fresh as the day it was built. Ironic that it is an outdated forum about an outdated film.
Yet they both have survived, and survived very very well. To the point they're not outdated. And why is this? Because its members keep it alive. Or are they outdated? I think not. The Stones, are they outdated? How about Miles Davis?
As I shared, I have respect for Rewak's criticisms, huge respect actually, because they're correct and accurate criticisms and are essentially what I feared in even continuing with White Enamel. But for what it's worth I can respond point by point to help explain...
"A Flash website where you click on a few things is all WE is?"White Enamel is far more than a few clicks. It's an interactive hybrid experience in which the user reveals the movie in there own ability to explore the asylum itself. Each time you find the camera, you can see what occurred in that room 40+ years ago when the asylum was active. Remember, you've only experienced Part One, which is more or less a teaser. I made it simple, clickable, and easy to navigate to allow the user to know what they're getting themselves into. It won't be so easy or forgiving as the parts unfold.
"That's not new, innovative, experimental, anything, it's old and outdated! There's a reason these things went out, they were boring and unsustainable."What is new? Define innovative. Innovative to whom? Yes, by all means it can be considered old and outdated. But more-so that this concept has been attempted, poorly, before. And it had been attempted very fucking well before. The greatest version had to be hotel626 and asylum626 which were actually promos for Doritos believe it or not. Unfortunately because they were ad campaigns they've now been retired, which is shame, they were brilliant, and far more interactive than I'm capable of developing. How they did some of the interactive effects is beyond me. They broke all the rules. And they took it down.
What they did NOT have though, was content. Click, interact, upload, download, not of it is worthy unless there is worthy content. Case in point, White Enamel is not American Horror Story Asylum. AHS is horrible is content. Great effects, awesome effects, but effects for seriously lacking content. Not lacking actually. Rather - just not.
I know this, and I know it well. I built the original AHS, and I was consulted for AHS Asylum. Suddenly I was the Myrick to their Book of Shadows. And you know how well that went.
But until the net is more than a click, type, drag and swipe, I'm afraid White Enamel will come across as old and outdated.
Unless I make it with pictures and text with YouTube or Vimeo embeds, which is today's standards.
Think about that for a moment. Pretty damn ironic is it not?
I'm not being cheeky or defensive towards Rewak. I still maintain that Rewak is correct is reaction, I'm simply justifying why I still chose to release White Enamel.
My only disappointment is that Rewak is disappointed. I wish I could invent a better method, but truth be told I think WE's content speaks for itself, it has required little or no assistance from me. In content. In development it's needed an insane (pun not intended) amount of assistance. But the content is pure. Nothing is fake, it is all 100% authentic, which is the true horror.
"I'd be shocked if they actually made it to completion, these types of things popped up all the time in the late 90's/early 00's and all you'd get was a few parts and the updates would stop. Would have been better of just making a movie."I'd be impressed if I made it to completion :-) but I have every intention of doing so. What differs here is that the audience is a target audience, I try and make them a part of the process. This allows me another authority to answer to which I dread, yet I also celebrate.
Yea, they popped up all the over in the 00's. The only correction I will make here is that none of this was happening in the 90's. But yea, in the mid 00's many "flash" sites came up with new innovations to explore and entertain. I know this, I'll put aside my modesty for a moment and concede I'm one of the guys who invented it. Only one of many, but I am on that list, so I know what Rewak means.
The good ones will have staying power so long as their owners keep their sites alive. For instance, one I have enjoyed since the early to mid 00's is an "innovative" site that remains to this day, and still remarkably gets updated by its owners -
www.elevatormoods.com. The fucker's older than dirt on net standards, but it's classic.
I will check it out when I have internet
