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https://github.com/g105b/cinematimemachine

hackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhackhack
https://github.com/g105b/cinematimemachine

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README 

        
# Cinema Time Machine



## What is this?



This is The Superteam's entry to [Hack24 2015](http://hack24.co.uk). We're making an interactive story of cinema to celebrate Broadway Cinema's 25 year anniversary.



We decided to approach this project by developing a visual installation, intended to be displayed in public areas within the cinema, while adding SMS interactivity via Esendex APIs for that extra bit of texty goodness. 



In its default state the installation displays images from the last quarter century of cinema mixed in with scanned covers from Broadway programmes published since 1990. The images are shown in a lovely grid. Every 30 seconds a film fact is dsplayed as a prompt to encourage viewers to text the name of their favourite film and a short message. The submitted films titles are shown full screen along with the film's poster which is pulled from the Open Movie Database using their API.



What makes this project awesome is that even without interactivity, it provides an interesting visual backdrop that can remind people of how great the last 25 years of film culture has been. But! When you allow people to share their favourite films with the room, well... then you have something truly magical.



## This is pretty good, but what else would we do in t'future?



For version 2 we'd like to add interesting facts about the films people share such as revenue generated, critics ratings and so on. Perhaps allow people to submit names of film stars too because, why not eh?



## Who made it?










## The concept



The brief was to celebrate Broadway's [25 years of cinema](http://www.broadway.org.uk/news/2015/04/broadway_welcomes_hack24_nottinghams_24_hour_coding_competition), and produce something sharable. The concept is to create an intereactive film documenting cinema through the individual years. Additional culture references such as music, video games, fashion and world events could be included to give context to the films and years. The film could be projected into the cafe bar and other areas of the Broadway cinema and online. The installation could allow use of specific hastags so people can interact with the screen by texting and tweeting in their stories relating to what they see on the screen. In addition to the main installation, there could be an auto updated Twitter stream which would share people's film memories.



[h24-web]: http://www.hack24.co.uk/



## Installing for local development



### System requirements



+ PHP, version 5.5 or higher.

+ Node, version 0.10 or higher.

+ Node Package Manager (NPM)

+ NPM package Bower, version 1.4.1 or higher.

+ NPM package bower-installer, version 1.2.0 or higher.



Node and NPM can be installed without root permissions, and multiple versions managed using [Node Version Manager](https://github.com/creationix/nvm)].



### Installation process



1. Download project source code either using git (`git clone http://github.com:BrightFlair/www.brightflair.com`), Github for Mac/Windows, or as a zip/tarball download (http://github.com/BrightFlair/www.brightflair.com/tarball/master or http://github.com/BrightFlair/www.brightflair.com/zipfile/master).

2. Navigate to the project's directory (the git repository, or the extracted archive directory) and [Get Composer][get-composer] using `php -r "readfile('https://getcomposer.org/installer');" | php`.

3. Install all server-side dependencies using `./composer.phar install`.

4. Install `bower` and `bower-installer` Node packages (`npm install -g bower bower-installer`).

5. Install all client-side dependencies by running `bower-installer`.

6. Serve the project at [http://localhost:8080](http://localhost:8080) running `./vendor/bin/serve`, et voila!



## Web log(s)



### Saturday 12:00 - 13:00: Ideas generation



Because we like to live life very much 'on the edge' we had not formed a clear plan for the day in advance of arrival. This being the case we took the first hour to brainstorm, mind map, and generally come up with something un-rubbish to work on. We thought of potential projects based around a few of the briefs before settling on a hack that would answer both the Esendex and Broadway briefs simultaneously.



### 13:00 - 14:00: Planning



We thought it would be a good idea to look at the tech requirements early on so signed up for an Esendex developer account and had a quick play with the API which was, as promised, very simple to use. Hoorary! I also drew a happy tree on a postit note as I wasn't really sure what I was meant to be doing. Greg installed things from 'the internet'.



### 14:00 - 15:00: Lunch



Healthy-yet-nice food was provided in the Mezzanine bar. There were chicken things, greek salad, samosas and olives. Also there were nice fruit flavoured drinks available in plastic cups.



### 15:00 - 16:00: Getting down to business



Greg installed more things from 'the internet'. Packages and so forth. Helen told me (Pete) to do something useful so I started documenting our process which you are now reading here. Greg is currently (15:24) making a auto-updating loop which will instanltly display any SMS sent to our virtual mobile number on screen. This is surprisingly exciting to everyone in the team.



Next we met with [Mathew Trivett](https://twitter.com/mathewtrivett), Broadway's Creative Producer to see if they had any visual materials from the past which we could integrate into our project to provide context. He mentioned some old photos including one of Quentin Tarantino when he came to the Broadway for the unofficial UK premier of Pulp Fiction. (But he wasn't totes sure where it was.) He did however have a load of Broadway programmes dating back over the past 25 years. 



### 16:00 - 17:00: Back to Superteam HQ



We decided to return to Derby so that we could work on computers with real-sized screens. We continued to brainstorm ideas and sketch out wireframes while on the shuddery bus.



### 17:00 - 21:30: First visualisations



We used this time to pull together images and start getting things working onscreen. We discussed ideas for possible features but tried to keep everything MVP for fear of 'shooting for the stars only to get stuck in the treetops'. If that's not a real expression I suggest that it become one.



### 21:30 - Sunday 06:30: Recouperation



We decided to allow ourselves the briefest of nine hour breaks to have a beer and a sleep. It's important to not go mad while hacking.



### 06:30 - 10:00: Refinement of prototype and content generation



Back at the Derby office we continued work by writing code, finding more required imagery and getting text content sorted. This thing was really starting to take shape now!



### 10:00 - 12:00: Back to Nottingham!



Jumping in the Superteamobile we raced (at legal speeds) back to the Broadway to finish things off. We tidied up the code and did other things and ate some pastries. Also we demonstrated our hack (or 'installation' as we were now calling it) to Hack24 staff who were, we thought, very nice about it. 



### 12:00 - 14:00: Making the video



With our installation (or 'winning entry' as we were now calling it) finished we had a couple of hours to present it in the best possible light through the medium of video. We thought about doing something clever with editing but were a bit tired so instead just talked at the camera for four minutes. Still, I think we got the point across quite well. 

[Watch our video you lovely folk!](https://vimeo.com/126722502)



### 14:00 - 17:00: Nervous waiting



The feeling of having finished everything left us feeling all light and floaty, which was very nice. We decided to float off to the Nottingham Contemporary to look at art. Greg and I watched a video about drums. Or maybe war, I'm not sure. There were also lots of sweets on the floor. We wanted them but it wasn't clear if they were complimentary or a valuble piece of art so we just left them alone.



### 17:00 - 18:00: Announcement of winners



All hackers reconverged in Screen 4 of the Broadway to find out who had won in each of the six challenges. First up was the Broadway challengs. Our challenge! Despite what I said just before we weren't really expecting to win so it was a great surprise when we saw our team name up on the screen. Unaccustomed as I am to public displays of emotion I let out a loud "Woooooo!" in what I approximated to be an enthusiastic manner. Like when the shuttle safely touches down in films and everyone does high-fives. We were inveited down to the stage to collect our prizes (a year's membership to Broadway and an Ototo music development kit each!) before our video was shown. Lovely stuff!



The other categories were announced and happy winners big happy faces were prominent. The non-winners (because there are no losers here) were in similarly high spirits. I'll try to get a list of all the entrants and include it below with links to their projects.



### 18:00 - Late: After party at Das Kino



Everyone needed to chillax a little so we all shuffled off to Das Kino which is a trendy nightspot that, to my eyes, resembles a youth club from the 1980s complete with table tennis tables. Nothing wrong with that.



### Conclusions



I really wasn't sure what to expect from a 24 Hack event so I tried to go into it with an open mind. We intentionally kept our project as simple as we could and that seems to have been the right thing to do. Our only real goal for the weekend was to get 'something' finished which we'd be able to use as an example of working together. We did that, and the fact that we won a prize just made it all the more special. I truly hope that Hack24 will be back next year as it was a fantastically organised and well run event. Many people were involved in that but credit must undoubtably go to [Emma](https://twitter.com/MrsEmma) and [Andrew](https://twitter.com/MrAndrew) who were the main driving force. Good work chaps, good work!