We started Day 1 of the NuVu Genius Camp with the "Marshmallow Challenge," where students quickly planned and built a structure made of spaghetti, tape and string, topped off by a bright (and weighty) marshmallow. Timed at 18-minutes each, the three building sessions gave students a chance to prototype and test out their ideas and also improve their methods with each go-around, with the hope of building a higher structure each round.

Here is Team VuNu securing their foundational spaghetti to the table.

Team Cobra tried out a unique two-footed spaghetti structure with tensile strings.

The moment of truth: Team Dynamite tests out their structure by topping their design with the marshmallow. After the first round, the students realized just how much weight the marshmallow casts on the structure and began to thicken their foundational spaghetti.

By the second 18-minute round, most teams were testing how to use the strings for tensile support. Here is Team VuNu building a post and tensile structure.

Here Team J Squared uses all that they have (including the tape dispenser) for their base structure support while tightening the strings to create more tension support all around the tower.

In round two, Sam's Team reaches for a higher tower structure.

After many prototypes and iterations, in round three, Teams Arcteryx and Blue Steel attempt to build the tallest towers.

Here Team Cobra secures down their structure in the last 2 minutes of round three.

Success! Sam's Team sits back in delight as their structure easily supports the marshmallow spire.

The final scoreboard showing three iterative rounds of the Marshmallow Challenge and successful tower heights from each of the teams.

Here is the trailer and process paper of Carson and Jonathon from the Film Fiction studio for their movie titled "Counterfits." The film delves into questions regarding a society filled with "designer babies," babies whose DNA and genetic traits have been altered and pre-selected by their parents before birth. INSPIRATION Two years ago a family in Virginia went to a fertility clinic, and were able to choose the sex of their baby. Scientists are now saying within a couple of years, people will be able to pick and choose the genetic traits that go into a person. Parents will have the option to choose the looks and personality of their offspring. People predict in the future there will be segregation between the humans with normal DNA, and the humans with altered DNA. These facts inspired us to make a movie that will remind people to think before they take such a huge step in science. QUESTIONS The question our movie asks is a question about society as a whole. Is it right to alter someones DNA in hope for them to have a better life? Having designer babies will change society, so the world needs people to take a step back and think will this actually benefit society? AUDIENCE'S RESPONSE We want people to feel fear when they walk out of the theater. In the movie the humans with the enhanced DNA turn on the humans with regular DNA. Hopefully the audience will understand the likelihood of this type of science turning on us. Setting and Worlds. The first scene is in a concentration camp; this takes place in the desert. It is the home to people with normal DNA must stay. It is supposed to have a dreary atmosphere to it. The next scene is in Washington DC, it is supposed to have a clean, and futuristic feel to it. Then the next scene is at an underground hideout. There will be one room like a modern looking living room, and another room, which will be a laboratory. The last scene takes place in another laboratory. It is the research lab where geneticists try to make DNA faster and smarter. It is supposed to have a cold and emotionless feel to it. Characters and rules in the society. The rules in this society are that humans with altered DNA are a better form of life. People with normal DNA are known as subordinates, and the people with accelerated DNA are known as counter fits. The protagonist is Vincent, who has normal DNA, usually acts on emotion rather then logic. Blaine is another human with unaltered DNA. He is an ex-military pilot, who has a tough exterior. The next person is the supporting character named Jones. He is an older man who used to be a geneticist until he saw the horrible effects it had on society. He is a calm person who carries wisdom and regret. Our other supporting character is named Robert. He is Vincents younger brother and had enhanced DNA. He believes that subordinates should live in a separate society from counter fits. He represents what can go wrong with altering DNA. Time. Our film takes place in the future. There is a social transformation between now and the future in our movie. Humans are faster, stronger, and can choose the looks and personality of their offspring. Over time humans with unaltered get worse jobs, and are not able to keep up with the rest of society. Segregation, and discrimination become a huge part of society. Then the United States orders for all of the citizens with unaltered DNA to live in a concentration camp. TECHNOLOGY. The main technology transformation is the difference in the human DNA. In this world choosing what your child will be like, is similar to a shopping experience. There are some minor day life alterations that technology has changed. Phone calls can be made by holograms, cars are a smaller and jet packs are used more often. Story structure. The protagonist, Vincent, narrates this story. It is told through his point of view as he takes us on a journey to put an end to counter fits. The story begins with two subordinates being trapped who revolt, bringing change to the society by the end of the film. This story alters depending on each event, making this film an event story. Cinematic Style. The film is packed with action, and drama among the characters. This film has a fast pace and rhythm, because the main character is always changing his goals to end designer babies.

Here is the trailer and story created by Joesph and Grace in the Film Fiction studio titled, "Advanced Placement." The trailer was inspired by a video made by the activist group called "Witness" which portrayed the terrible realities of the juvenile prison system in California. FACTS/INSPIRATIONS:? We were inspired by a video made by the activist group called Witness. Their video portrayed the terrible realities of the juvenile prison system in California. In the video we saw children our age being refused opportunities to learn and interact with others their age. These children, the majority of whom committed minor offenses were being treated like adult career criminals with no future. In the video we saw these children being more or less robbed of their childhoods which lead us the track that ended with this future we have created. This is a link to the video. ?QUESTIONS: On a personal level, our story is about the confusions and misgivings of childhood. However on a greater and more philosophical scale our story asks the question: what is the significance of childhood and what would our society be like without it? Politically our story questions the price of national paranoia and the cost of sacrificing freedoms for safety. ?? AUDIENCE RESPONSE: We feel that our primary job is to tell the most compelling story possible from which viewers will interpret the core themes. We want our audience above all to think about how these themes pertain to their own lives. We also want people to think beyond the world we have created and into their own reality to take a moment to examine their childhood's impact on themselves. ? WORLD/SETTING: The world of the film is our own, although a slightly augmented version. Our film takes place in a not too distant future much similar to that of Children of Men. The buildings and means of transportation are the same yet they are aged and bleaker. The film will include two settings: the prison and the outside world. The prison will be a type of totalitarian New England boarding school in a thick forested area. The outside world will be a world engulfed in war and a state of constant threat and terror much similar to the state of the US post - 9/11. ? ? CHARACTERS: COMMUNICATION: SOCIETY RULES: ?Characters and character development are not the focus of the story although they are still quite important. The characters consist of a group of boys with a focus on Jon: the protagonist. These boys will be a group among hundreds of prisoners/students at the institution. Jon will be a somewhat reserved though inquisitive person, deeply confused and starting to become critical of the institution. ?TIME: The film is set in the near-future anywhere from 30 to 60 years from now. The scenery is futuristic yet also dilapidated and deserted. Buildings are very much the same to keep the viewer grounded in their current time. ??TECHNOLOGY: Overall the technology gives a very totalitarian feel to the world. Riot police is far more common in the streets. Surveillance of the public is excessive with cameras everywhere. The computer interfaces are much like that of Minority Report, computer interaction is very much a part of everyday life. STORY: There is no narrator or voice-over and the story structure is fairly simple. The focus is on a combination of the character and the world. Ultimately the character is more of a symbolic representation of all teenagers or youth in general making his own traits less relevant. The story will chronicle the life of Jon, a child growing up in the proposed society. He will be separated from his family at birth and be forced into the brutal institute where most of the film takes place. Jon will live in this savage environment though he does not take pleasure in the violence that surrounds him. One day, Jon will find an old American high school movie (Breakfast Club) after some further research into the matter he will realize that he is being robbed of his childhood. After realizing this, Jon will eventually escape the institution only to be confronted with the realities of freedom. CINEMATIC STYLE: Our film will use mostly hand-held camera techniques almost documentary style. However, to capture more abstract shots a traditional cinematic filming approach will be taken. For example the prison scenes will be filmed in the more documentary style while the final shot of the boy looking over the city will take a more cinematic approach.

Last Friday we had our finale for the Filming Studio. We had five projects in total, a documentary, two music video clips, a drama, and movie review. You can check out the final projects

Some students invited their families to the review. Here is Diallo's mother and brother.

A story, trailor, and process paper of the movie "Influx", created by Emilly and Abe. INSPIRATION What happens when reality and imagination collide? According to Influx a world can be destroyed. We began by brainstorming scenarios based on personal interests including the idea of an entire story taking place within one persons imagination. We were both interested in how dreams work and how they affect us. This prompted us to look at a psychological story line. Our story was not one that was based off or created through facts because we wanted to focus on the mystery of things we acknowledge to be very real and present, but cannot see. A current problem that we did draw inspiration from was global warming. Influx has a lot to do with how humans effect their environment and the self destructive nature that we have. QUESTIONS As we began creating our story we considered what questions we wanted our viewers to leave thinking about. These questions and concerns about the world are what we began to build Influx out of. The questions we focused on where: What is the boundary between imagination and reality?, How does reality change based on your imagination and vice versa?, and What are the effects of human self destruction on the surrounding environment?. AUDIENCE RESPONSE The intention for Influx is to make our audience have sympathy for the child who hosts the world of Influx in his imagination and then to recognize the parallel idea that Earth hosts humans. We want our audience to realize that you cannot take your surroundings for granted as many do. We also want to show humans incredible ability to create the things that ultimately cause their own destruction. CHARACTERS The main characters in the story are the Host, the Duplicate, the group of rebels and the Enforcers. While only the ending scene directly shows the Host the viewer learns a lot more about him than youd expect. The whole world is his creation and multiple times within the movie his memories are shown. The Duplicate represents the Hosts brain/intentions throughout the movie. In a way the Duplicate is the Hosts version of himself in his imaginary world. The Duplicate is used to communicate with his creations. During Influx his personality is often concerned or worrisome because he is the only character who knows exactly what is going on and what is at stake. Similarly to the Duplicate the Enforcers represent a piece of the Host. The Enforcers are like the white blood cells of the Hosts mind. Their one task and ultimate goal is to physically protect the Host from anything that may harm him. While this is a good intention ultimately it gets in the way of the Hosts success because the Enforcers are so obsessed with this one task that they rarely look past it or consider other methods of protecting him. The final group of characters are the Rebels. The Rebels are the ordinary people within the Hosts mind. They are his creations. Before he enters his coma they effectively live his life. Their imaginary existence is like a shadow of the Hosts reality. After the Host falls into a coma these ordinary people begin maturing without the Host. When the Host stops having experiences so do the people in his head. When they learn of reality, the possibility to not only regain these experiences but to have their own unique ones the ordinary people become Rebels. They spend the majority of the movie trying to find a way to leave the imaginary world and become an individual. RULES AND TIME The world that Influx takes place in is the present. It does have a more futuristic feel though due to the fact that there are many fanciful aspects to the world that are created by the Hosts imagination. While time does progress throughout the movie it does not for the Host. Because he is in a coma his life is in on hold which directly affects the imaginary world within his head, even though the imaginary world does still continue to movie on and mature. When creating an imaginary world there are a lot of rules that we had to consider. For example, an issue that we spent a lot of time working on was what are the capabilities of our imaginary characters? What could they do or learn on their own and what did they take from their host? Coming up with the rules altered our whole movie. It forced us to work out the unrealistic and contradicting pieces within our overall idea for Influx. The rules we came up with are: 1. Throughout the movie the Hosts knowledge/thought process does not mature. 2. Enforcers represent the Hosts body and have one goal: to protect him physically. They always act as a mass and are uninterested in anything that does not involve protecting the Host. 3. The Rebels are the ordinary people within the imaginary world. As the host falls into a coma they have to begin thinking and doing things for themselves instead of drawing on his memories and experiences. 4. The Duplicate represents the Hosts brain. He knows how to escape from the imaginary world and get back to reality. 5. If the Duplicate leaves the imaginary world the Host will wake from the coma. 6. If the Rebels escape from the imaginary world, the unreal will collide with reality ending both the lives of the Host and his creations. 7. When the Rebels and Enforcers fight the Duplicate feels pain because he is in war with himself. These rules allowed us to create a much more believable world and to organize our thoughts. They took a long time to come up with because they are directly related and change everything within our story. SETTING AND TECHNOLOGY The setting of Influx is one of the most interesting and important components of our movie. By the end of the movie the audience learns that the whole movie takes place in an imaginary world within a childs head. Throughout the movie the feel of the world changes as the world morphs from a innocent dream to a tumultuous reality. The movie begins with a futuristic, yet cartoonish feel. This is to show that the world is coming from a five year olds head and it is supposed to have a very childish feel. As the movie progresses and the Host child enters a coma the setting becomes darker. We still use the bright colors from the more cartoon like version of Influxs world, but in a different way. The bright colors appear in lights that glow in a much darker world. Like many movies the look of the setting slowly must change to give the intended atmosphere of the movie depending on what is taking place. We also used creative and futuristic technology to make the world seem different than our own. The child has created new technologies to do things that in reality currently are only things to dream about. Many of the new technologies show up in the form of toys or entertainment similarly to Back to the Future II. STORY Influx begins with the classic idea of good guys vs. bad guys. The rebels want their own reality, the Enforcers try to stop them. The viewer begins to root for the Rebels in their quest. By the end of the movie good vs. bad becomes unclear and is replaced by a more complex concept. The big realization at the end of Influx is that the Rebels and the Enforcers are, in fact, one. They make up one person and in the end it is the Rebels, who were assumed to be the good guys who ultimately become the more destructive characters. Their actions not only kill themselves but also, their world and the child whose mind created their world as well. Because of this Influx is an Idea story. It is based off of learning and gathering new information as the movie goes on. During each scene you get more insight into whether this world is actually real or imaginary and how the Host affects the world. By the end of the movie the audience will understand how reality and the dream world tie in together and relate. At the beginning of the movie the audience does not even know that the imaginary world is imaginary. Influx is based off the experience of gaining this knowledge. CINEMATIC STYLE Our film is fast paced because it becomes a race to the finish as the Duplicate tries to beat the Rebels to reality and the Enforcers attempt to keep everyone within the imaginary city. This race gives Influx an accelerated pace and makes for a very intense climax. Our movie is going to be filmed in the classic cinematic way. Everything is very clean cut and the viewer is supposed to feel as if they are a part of the story instead of observing it.

Post by Carli Jaff Everyone has their own taste in music, from Mos Def and Kanye to Led Zeppelin and ACDC all the way to Bon Iver and Of Monsters and Men. But, what if there was someone who was trying to rid your world of the music you loved and replace it with their favorite music? I dont know about you, but that is one of the scarier scenarios Ive heard in a while. Well, lucky for me and you, thats not going to happen. However, in the Super Remix Hero studio, that nightmare is becoming a reality- virtually. For the past week, nine enthusiastic students have been working hard on creating a storyline for their very own interactive video titled Super Remix Heroes. With the help of two highly accomplished coaches, Josh Randall (electronic dance musician, video artist, video game developer, and Creative Director at Harmonix) and Kerry Roan (Lead on the Camera & Lighting Editing team at Harmonix) the students have learned how to successfully use both Photoshop and After Effects! By the end of next week, these nine students will have created an extremely impressive and detailed interactive video!



Day 1 On day one, Josh and Kerry introduced themselves to the students and showed them some of their greatest accomplishments. These include Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and The Beatles: Rock Band. In addition, Josh and Kerry showed pictures and videos from the Florida studio in order to give the students an example of what their final project could be. In the afternoon, Josh and Kerry told each student to animate a scene by hand (without computers!!!) by using a flip book in order to gain appreciation for the computer as well as the hard work that animators put into every little image. Creating a flip book is harder than it looks, Klara Ingersoll said as she continued to erase, re-draw, and erase again. After many iterations, eraser shavings, and ripped pages, the students ended up with some great starts to their animation careers! At the very end of the day, I took pictures of each student, printed them out, and handed them out. Josh and Kerry told the students to cut themselves out of the picture and cut themselves apart at the joints (in the picture, of course!). After this, the students used sticky tack to animate themselves manually. By 3 oclock, the nine hardworking students had begun to turn themselves into animators!



Day 2 Students arrived bright-eyed and ready to work, learn, and animate at 9 AM on Tuesday morning. Josh and Kerry started off the game by showing the students an example of an interactive game that they created themselves! They hooked up MIDI Trigger Finger (a drum pad) to the audio-visual performance software Resolume Avenue. The game is basically a music-performance game with visuals tied in; it is similar to playing the drums, but now there is imagery tied to each different sound. After the students understood Josh and Kerrys game and how it worked, everyone watched animated videos for inspiration, such as Captain EO, DJ Qbert, and Space Channel 5. For the rest of the day, the students used Photoshop and After Effects to animate the pictures of themselves that I took yesterday. Josh and Kerry taught the students how to animate their bodies on After Effects by using the Puppet Pin Tool, a tool that will allow one to bend the image any way that they like. Another great thing about After Effects is its ability to play an animation on a loop. Because of this, students were to create five different one-second animations that would play on a loop. Once finished, everyone submitted their favorite animation to Josh and Kerry, who then put each animation in Resolume and made another interactive game. At the end of day two, we all knew that the students were getting antsy to start brainstorming for their final project...

Excited to be settled in the new space!!!!!!!!

Last Friday, we had our big final review for "Reinventing Breakfast". 20 students from the Sloan School at MIT came to see our students' projects and learn more about the program. They also got to taste the yummy food our students made.

Our Fall 2010 studios (topics, descriptions & bios) are online! Check out the exciting topics we'll be exploring starting this September! Students will explore ideas on alternate possibilities in a world based on known or postulated laws of nature. The studios will delve into topics such as space mining, alternate worlds, film and music fiction, and nanotechnology. Using graphics, digital modeling, audio and video technologies and photography, students will represent their ideas and viewpoints on future innovations. If you have any ideas on sci-fi exploration, please contact us!

Istvan and David spent the day calculating how to power and propel a spaceship powered by fusion. The initial idea of using light to propel the spaceship turned out to be not efficient enough to travel to another solar system within the lifetime of a person. They discovered a theoretical limit to the acceleration which an ideal spaceship could achieve with a fusion reactor as its power source. A new idea is to use a Hall-thruster. More to come!