Author Archives: geoffreylong

Geoffrey Long is a media analyst, scholar, and storyteller exploring transmedia experiences, emerging entertainment platforms and the future of entertainment as the Lead Narrative Producer for the Narrative Design Team at Microsoft Studios. He is an alum of the MIT Comparative Media Studies program, a FoE Fellow with the Futures of Entertainment community, and a co-editor of the Playful Thinking book series from the MIT Press. His personal site can be found at geoffreylong.com.

Taking one right in the ear.

So I mentioned that I was taken out of commission on Saturday with a 104-degree temperature and a sore throat, which I chalked up to the flu. Thanks to some nurturing from Kate, I was back up and running by Monday afternoon. I even felt well enough to go see Van Helsing with Ferraro, which […]

Mysteries!

So as you know, we drew ‘mystery’ for our genre in the 48 Hour Film Project. Which got me thinking — when was the last time you saw a mystery movie in the theater? Seriously? I have a theory that mysteries these days are the realm of the 1-hour TV show, like Law and Order […]

How many emails do you get in a month?

So I just got my new PowerBook back from the shop. Yes, friends, my new PowerBook just spent a month in rehab because, apparently, its logic board went bad. Yeesh. Luckily, it was under warrantee, but I still had to make do with my old machine for a long time, which sort of kneecapped my […]

Going Hollywood.

I’ve done a lot of things in my life, and last weekend I added another new experience: I produced my first indie film. Granted, it’s only an eight-minute short for the 48 Hour Film Project, it was really the baby of Bill Coughlan, my “assistant producer” Kate Gibson probably did more actual producing than I […]

A thousand dirty glances.

Wow. I think the look on the face of King Abdullah II of Jordan in this story sums up our popularity everywhere:

Fuzzy Neil!

I’m so buying one of these for the new apartment, if for no other reason than to constantly chuckle at the image of a fuzzy Neil. That’s awesome. I should mention, by the by, that my own picture up there is outdated, as I have changed over to my Summer Look. As in, clean shaven […]

Cast your vote: cool or hideous?

So I just got an e-mail ad from J.Crew about their patchwork madras shirt. I’m not sure if this is really cool or really ugly! Personally, I’m totally intrigued by it and am seriously tempted to buy one! But, knowing that my designer sensibility is a little, um, out of touch with the rest of […]

Scanner snapshot preview?

How nice would it be if you could have your scanner do a quick photo of what’s on its scanning tray, instead of having to essentially do an entire low-res pass just to tell you where the edges are of what you’re trying to scan?

Hey, you could do that!

Apple just posted a new iPod commercial which is pretty cool, but as I was watching I thought, “Hey, you could DO that! You’d need to post the ads on some flatscreens and embed RFID tags into the iPod, or at least some Bluetooth sensors, but…” Like I said before, I need to sleep more.

Friendster Recommendations?

Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if someone wedded the social networking apps like Friendster and Orkut to the Amazon Reommendations engine, so that the system could go out and find people that like the same stuff that you do? Not just this silly “click on one thing you like” thing that Friendster does, but seriously […]