One Millionth Tower

Information / Credits

One Millionth Tower website: http://highrise.nfb.ca/ Helios Design Labs: http://www.heliozilla.com One Millionth Tower is the first interactive web documentary to be built entirely in HTML5 and WebGL. Created by The National Film Board of Canada, One Millionth Tower is the result of unique collaboration between apartment residents, architects, animators, filmmakers and web developers to re-envision what a declining highrise neighbourhood could be. One Millionth Tower is a lush visual story unfolding in a 3D virtual environment where visitors to the online documentary can explore how participatory urban design can transform spaces, places and minds. “One Millionth Tower is the sum of the labours of many,” says Mike Robbins, Creative Technologist at Helios Design Labs. “The exciting part is realizing what possibilities this technology opens up.” When Helios joined the team, they took the linear story and placed it into a 3D environment, eliminating a traditional video player and allowing viewers to explore and discover the experience for themselves. Helios then designed a complex audio control mechanism that mixes dozens of different tracks based on camera position and time of day to create a fully immersive soundscape. Next an additional layer of contextual information was added by integrating social media, Google Street and Satellite View, Flickr and Wikipedia. The site even listens to the weather, so if it’s raining outside, it’s raining in here too. “As we built the site entirely in HTML5 and WebGL, it means that not only does the entire experience happen on a web page, without any plug-ins or apps, it can also works seamlessly across desktop and mobile devices, regardless of operating system.” explains Robbins. “Our work on One Millionth Tower is at the forefront of a growing movement to turn the browser into the ultimate app, changing the way we’ll create and interact with online digital content.” HTML5 is perfect platform for anyone who uses flash or digital video as a marketing tool, and is interested in making in impact through the web. HTML5 is being used for making games, creating music videos, telling stories, or offering up just plain visual excitement.

DIRECTOR Katerina Cizek SENIOR PRODUCER Gerry Flahive 3D CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST Mike Robbins (for Helios Design Labs) heliozilla.com ANIMATORS Lillian Chan Howie Shia Kelly Sommerfeld COMMUNITY MEDIA PROJECT LEAD AND CREATIVE ASSOCIATE Heather Frise POST PRODUCTION AND TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Branden Bratuhin ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Sarah Arruda HIGHRISE RESIDENTS Ob Priti Faith Jamal Irene ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Graeme Stewart Brendan Stewart Alana E. Young William Macivor Lara Herald Michael Mclelland (for E.R.A. Architects) era.on.ca Jason Thorne Centre of Urban Growth and Renewal (CUG+R) and planningAlliance cugr.ca planningalliance.ca COMMUNITY MEDIA PRODUCTION SUPPORT Maria-Saroja Ponnambalam Kristyna Balaban ORIGINAL MUSIC COMPOSED BY Jim Guthrie © National Film Board of Canada (SOCAN) 2011 WITH A SONATA BY Owen Pallett “WORLD OF HIGHRISES” RESEARCH Maria-Saroja Ponnambalam Krystina Balaban PHOTOGRAPHY Jaime Hogge Lillian Chan ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY Julio Bittencourt Angela Catlin Brent Foster Paramita Nath Graeme Nicol Lazaro Saavedra David Schalliol Graeme Stewart LIVING PROOF VIDEO PHOTOGRAPHY Graeme Stewart Sandy Kemsley Brendan Martin Brendan Stewart EDITORS Heather Frise Branden Bratuhin Katerina Cizek WEB DESIGN Helios Design Labs Art Direction: Alex Wittholz and Joanna Durkalec Producer: Mike Robbins HTML/JS Coding: Salpy Kelian and Daniel Sundy 3d Modelling: Matt Brushett SOUND DESIGN Tim Muirhead DANCERS Donna Fenanov Lucienne Faith Jamal DANCE VIDEOGRAPHER Michael Hagedorn SOUND RECORDIST Igal Petal DIALOGUE MIX Chris Miller ADDITIONAL MUSIC “Five Offerings” composed by Owen Pallett, reproduced with permission from Open Wallett & For Great Justice Records. “Away to Me”, “And We got Older” and “The Ballad of the Space Babies”, “Habitat” composed by Jim Guthrie, reproduced with the permission of Jim Guthrie. COLLABORATIONS AND CONSULTANTS Brett Gaylor, Ben Moscowitz, Robert Richter, and Mark Surman (for Mozilla's Popcorn Project, Mozilla Foundation) Charles J. Cliffe and Matthew Deir (for Dragonfly Information Technology Inc.) Tom George, Graham Losee and Cherie Oldenburg (for Design Axiom) Boaz Sender (for Bocoup) Dean Jansen (for Universal Subtitles ) Russell Mitchell (for ANC United Way, Microskills) Jaime Robinson (for United Way Toronto) Kay Blair (for Microskills) Elise Hug and Eleanor McAteer (for Tower Renewal, City of Toronto) VISUAL RESEARCHER Elizabeth Klinck VISUAL ARCHIVES Satellite images courtesy of Pictometry Canada Corp. & Digital Globe Inc. COPY EDIT Gillian Burnett SPECIAL THANKS Stéphane Bousquet Rosalyn Brown Jiri Cizek Daniel-Konrad Cooper Noah Cowan Loc Dao Sean Dixon Olivier Dyason Arlene Gould Jesse Friedman, Google Benoit Jacob Michael Fukushima Christine Kleckner Allan G. Ladouceur, Pictometry Canada Corp. Christopher Logan Renee MacCarthy Rob McLaughlin David Miller Paramita Nath David Oliver Joël Pomerleau Sylvie Prieur Helen Spitzer Sergiu Raul Suciu Kate Vollum OPEN SOURCE TECHNOLOGIES HTML5 WebGL Popcorn Jquery Three.js Blender WebM Ogg Vorbis TECHNICALCO-ORDINATOR Marcus Matyas PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mark Wilson HIGHRISE PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR Rachel Punwassie CENTRE ADMINISTRATOR Josiah Rothenberg MARKETING MANAGER Moira Keigher EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Silva Basmajian