CDK Research: I met with Sebastian Loh from the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He is doing research on education and the monitoring of player's activities while they are in virtual learning experiences(VLEs). We had an interesting discussion.

Movie Activity:I was nicely surprised to see the group photo taken at the conclusion of Ted Perkin's seminar on film financing. The course is excellent and highly recommended to anyone serious about finding out how Hollywood really works. Visit http://www.conquistadehollywood.com/englishhomepage.htm and see if you can recognize anyone in the middle of the back row.

Blacksteps was initially established to promote, distribute and create products with the Monja Kids Creative Development Kit.To see the latest in regards to the CDK, please check the blacksteps/cdk blog.
However, blacksteps is involved in many other projects in the fields of art, education and entertainment. Recent projects include:
-video and photo documentation of the Asian Storytellers' Conference and Showcase (a few photos can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/81053308@N00/ )

-work on CD artwork for a project related to Soul Coughing

-intense scriptwriting work with my writing partner Philip Morgan, so that we can complete our feature-length script by our day-after-CNY deadline.

-research and pre-production for my short film, A Day at the Races, which will be distributed by KAD Entertainment www.kad4u.com

-rehearsals and meetings for a short film (film-not video) to be shot in February.The film is to be directed by Boo Junfeng, an award-winning director working with Joey Lam, Fran Borgia, Yang and Shawn Lee.

-discussions and planning with Amith, one half of the unseen guest.(www.unseenguest.com). I am hoping to document the making of the unseen guest's second album. Like the first, it will feature Indian traditional instruments played by musicians in Amith's hometown of Calicut in Kerala, India.
These guys are great and I was honored to have been asked to do the cover artwork, assisted by the beautiful and talented Tracy Bay at Caffeine Media.
I mentioned traditional instruments, but the unseen guest is not world music...part blues, part Irish melodies, part Indian travel journal...a unique musical expression of life, to put it simply.

-preparation for the blacksteps booth at the International Conference on Computers in Education to be held next week( www.icce2005.servy.net/). I am especially looking forward to meeting Sebastian Loh, who runs the Instructional Gaming Forumhttp://igforum.us

-meetings with teachers to brainstorm for a virtual learning experience to be started next week.

-Judging and attending an awards ceremony for Panasonic's Kids News Network. The theme was 'culture' and the other judges must have agreed with me that the story on Chinese Opera in today's world was outstanding-it won in several categories.
At the awards ceremony we also discussed the seminar on digital photography that I will teach next year. An old friend of Compudia(the CDK IP rights holder) was there and our happy reunion continued later in the day at the opening of the Star Wars exhibition at the Science Center.

-Construction and refinement of a virtual model to be used for education purposes.

Plus the usual....

The official logo. It was created with 4D design, who are behind the refrigerator: www.therefrigerator.net In the refrigerator's music section are unusual music videos created by Stephen Black for Margaret Explosion, Personal Effects and Pete LaBonne.

Blacksteps Pte. Ltd .

Blacksteps was established in 2005, initially to promote and distribute the Monja Kids Creative Development Kit as an educational tool to develop and encourage creativity.
In May of 2005, an exclusive distribution license was granted to Elchemi Education (www.elchemi.net), who also distribute educational software for Microsoft, Adobe and Apple.
Working with Elchemi in Singapore as well as with schools in Japan, Hong Kong and the United States, Blacksteps is establishing the CDK as a tool for developing creativity and creating customized learning experiences (also referred to as serious gaming).
The exciting results of these experiences have led to many new ideas and product possibilities.

In addition to the CDK and digital media projects, Blacksteps also:

-is an authorized agent for the licensing of the Monja Kids characters

-is the exclusive worldwide agent for a virtual project featuring characters created by the artist David Severn

-is involved in all aspects of movie creation, including scriptwriting, direction, art direction and music co-ordination

-is the agent and managerial office for the fine art and editorial photography of Stephen Black

-is the agent for scripts written by Stephen Black, as well as by Stephen Black with various partners.
A Day at the Races, a short film set in Singapore is currently in pre-production.