BIIIG News!

I’ve been sitting on this bit of news for two months until everything was finished and definite. Now I can finally share our excitement.

Two scenes from Rock Paper Scissors will be featured on a DVD of companion exercises for a Humanities textbook, published by the mammoth “McGraw-Hill Publishing”:http://www.mhhe.com this year. The DVD comes free with the textbook “Landmarks in Humanities”:http://catalogs.mhhe.com/mhhe/viewProductDetails.do?isbn=0073207268 (the reference to a CDROM on that site is incorrect — it’s actually a DVD). The book will have an initial circulation of half a million. Here’s McGraw-Hill’s description:

bq. ??LANDMARKS in Humanities is a single-volume survey of global culture designed for students of humanities, cultural history, and history of the arts. In chronological sequence, LANDMARKS highlights the most notable monuments of the human imagination–those works of art and architecture, literature, philosophy, and music that have been foremost in shaping the world’s cultures.??

The “companion DVD”:http://www.uwgb.edu/univcomm/news/inthenews/inthenews2004/education6-04.htm was produced by Creative Mindz, a multimedia production company in Ohio. There’s nothing close to the sheer scope of this on the market right now. It contains interactive activities for each chapter in the text, which include audio and video exercises highlighting art throughout the globe.

One scene from Rock Paper Scissors will be used as an interactive lesson in how different layers of audio affect the experience of a film. Students can watch the clip and toggle on/off the dialogue, sound effects, and music tracks. Another scene will illustrate an actor’s performance, accompanied by behind-the-scenes photos of the preparation process.

The final master of the DVD was sent out to the publishers on Monday. We’re very excited and grateful to the folks at Creative Myndz — especially Gregory Cornelius and Bonnie Mitchell — for this opportunity. We’re looking forward to the release of the textbook later this summer.

*** By the way, the subscribers to our free newsletter got this news last week. If you want to stay informed and be the first to know in the future, sign up now using the box at the top of the page (the free newsletter section). We’re jealous of our supporters and wouldn’t dream of sharing your address with anyone else!