VANCOUVER – (April 30, 2012) – Innovative iOS content creators Moving Tales’ release three Ebooks available through Apple’s iBookstore, “The Classic World Tales Trilogy”, “The Unwanted Guest” and “This Too Shall Pass”.  A collection based on Moving Tales’ three animated storytelling apps, “The Classic World Tales Trilogy” Ebook is packed with digital innovations including reformatted wide screen images, user enabled Read Aloud functionality with high-lighted text, auto page turning, built-in dictionary, word search, index, bookmark, as well as a user enabled soundtrack.

“We are excited to release the Enhanced Ebook Trilogy collection of the three tales from our beloved storytelling apps of the same names”, said Moving Tales’ Matthew Talbot-Kelly. “We brought ‘The Pedlar Lady of Gushing Cross’, ‘The Unwanted Guest’ and ‘This Too Shall Pass’ together in one amazing feature rich Ebook volume.

In addition to the completely reformatted wide screen … Read More »

Last week we had a very rare critically misrepresentative review of our “Pedlar Lady of Gushing Cross” app. In the article “How Interactive Ebooks Engage Readers and Enhance Learning”, the writer attempts to characterize “The Pedlar Lady” as not offering “any real value through interactivity”. Not only does this statement ignore the substantive interactivity in our apps, the authour chooses to ignore any educational merits in the app. (Just one example: as in all of our apps, with “The Pedlar Lady” app, a user can record their own voice to be heard alongside the provided music, sound effects and animation.) Needless to say, I find this kind of unsubstantiated journalistic “criticism” frustrating. But we can’t win – if we let the misrepresentation slip by unchallenged, it may compromise our critical presence in the digi-sphere. Yet if we respond to point out the error, we can come across as defensive and thin skinned.

With so many of the available “interactive ebooks”, the interactivity jarringly interrupts the user’s immersion in the story. Sometimes less is more. Just because one can add a gratuitous interactive moment in an app, doesn’t mean one should. We are not interested in prioritizing mindless interactive stimuli over the potential immersive qualities of the exciting new kind of storytelling experience offered by devices like the iPad. From our point of view, it’s about intention, about having the technology serve the narrative opportunity, not overwhelm it. It’s about balance, selection, editing. It’s about substance and presence. It’s about presenting a rich and resonant experience for those who give it time. … Read More »

You have found your way here. Good. Welcome. We plan on having some fun with this blog. Our main intent is to give you a sense of some of the peripheral happenings to the creation of Moving Tales titles. One might say we will riff on process matters. We might provide a glimpse of the production or research processes, we might tell you of initiatives we are considering, we might ruminate or speculate on various matters. We might post images, video clips, audio clips, links etc. You know how it is, blog stuff. Importantly, we want to hear from you too. Please join us.

As lovers and advocates of well considered words, traditional culture, and playful slow media, we asked ourselves how should we engage with Twitter which, on the face of it, given its impulse-driven fast moving nature, seemingly stands … Read More »