CD-ROM
The judges said:
Wild Reef Interactive is the most innovative press kit CD I have
ever seen produced by a museum. It was fun and easy to navigate.
The quality of the video, interviews, audio, graphics, downloads,
and information is first class. It provided an excellent overview
of the museum as well as a comprehensive and in depth look at
the exhibit, serving the press who could not attend the exhibition,
as well as those who could.
A tip from the producers:
The Wild Reef CD-Rom electronic press kit is intended to capture all of the sights, sounds and color of Shedd's newest permanent exhibit. Since Wild Reef is only the
second expansion in the aquarium's 74-year history, at a cost of $47 million, it deserved the type of press kit that equally delivered on the immersive experience. The
Wild Reef CD-Rom kit includes intro animation that sets the exhibit tone for the press kit, a Wild Reef virtual tour, downloadable high-resolution photos and news
releases, video interviews with key Wild Reef players, videos of animals, information on Shedd's conservation initiatives, an interactive electronic
"build-a-shark" computer game found in the exhibit and plenty of information to appeal to any news organization.
Video/Film
The judges said:
Well done! This a good example of the power of media to entice people to museums and understand the drama of exhibitions and the unique stories they tell. Media has to be
powerful and startling, this is. The score on the second set of spots and timing of the editing was exhilarating!
A tip from the producers:
The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza along with The Andy Warhol Museum presented a selection of Warhol's fine art in context of historical artifacts. By combining
source materials and related artifacts, this collaboration was a different approach to Warhol and his work than a traditional art museum. A carefully contextualized
examination of the artist's response to, and packaging of, the assassination and its key players, Warhol & Jackie: Artist and Icon included Flash-November 22,
1963; Red Jackie and 30 Jackie portraits. The exhibit explored the themes of fame, glamour, propaganda, and devotion and highlighted the religious and repetitive
aspects of Warhol's assassination-related art.
The goal of the television spots was to convey both the historical and artistic aspects of the exhibit by combining the glamour of Warhol's images and by using
historical television footage of the assassination. There is also no narrator, which causes the viewer to pay more attention to the spot.
The judges said:
The National Constitutional Center is a dynamic and engaging Web site. It is comprehensive, easy to navigate, and makes the user want to visit the Center!
A tip from the producers:
The key goal behind the design of the new National Constitution Center Web site was to balance dual needs of enticing visitors to our state-of-the-art museum while
furthering our institutional mission of enhancing constitutional literacy.
Our homepage both provides prospective museum visitors all the essential information needed to plan a visit to the NCC, while also reaching out to educators and
lifelong learners with easy-to-access content designed to engender a broader understanding of the Constitution and its continued role in our lives.
Our digital web-based interactive Constitution, based on award-winning author Linda Monk's book, "The Words We Live By," offers a clause-by-clause
explication of the text of the Constitution. The Constitution Newswire contains scrolling news headlines, refreshed daily and linked to the full news story. And visitors
to the NCC Web site can plug in their zip code and pull up contact information for federal, state and local elected representatives.
The NCC Web site is managed by the Department of Interpretation, and is a program of the Annenberg Center for Education and Outreach. The design and development of
the new Web site was a highly collaborative team effort. Staff representatives from the interpretation, marketing, development and public relations department all
participated in the design and development of the NCC Web site and a similarly-comprised Web board continues to oversee the site's day-to-day operations.
Video/Film
The judges said:
The Tech Awards video demonstrates a sophisticated use of video production techniques on a limited budget. The script and text captions were very well written, and
complicated stories were simply and dramatically presented for a broad audience to raise awareness of the awards and garner additional support for the Tech Awards
themselves.
A tip from the producers:
The Tech Museum Awards honor innovators and visionaries from around the world who are applying technology to improve the human condition in the categories of Education,
Equality, Environment, Economic Development, and Health. The 2003 Tech Award Video was the centerpiece of the annual awards gala, showcasing the compelling stories of the
25 Award laureates. It was designed to bring the awards ceremony to life by telling the extraordinary stories of the laureates and inspiring the audience. Each segment
distilled a complex technological application to its essence through creative layering of photos, video, and Web screen shots, spoken and written words, and music.
The work of the laureates varies immensely ranging from an organization that builds safe, affordable bridges in rural Nepal to the developer of pre-filled single-use
syringes that deliver Hepatitis B vaccines. The video must communicate the significance of 25 Award Laureates, framing the problem and outlining the solution offered by
each Laureate in only a few minutes.
We produced the Awards video in a few short months between the selection of the Laureates in late summer 2003 and the Awards Gala on October 15, 2003. As much as
possible we aimed to build the video from source assets from the Laureates themselves. This involved collecting still images, text and video from 25 laureates in
Bangladesh, Canada, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nicaragua, Nepal and the United States. Email and an FTP site allowed us to collect digital assets quickly.
New developments in digital video means that even small organizations are now documenting their work. But, not surprisingly, the quality of digital assets varies
dramatically and we learned quickly to allow time in the schedule to track down original analog source files when necessary. We bridged time zones with a
"Pronunciation Hotline" voicemail box for laureates to call in and record names and terms. We had 25 wonderful stories to tell, and we had to weave them
together from all kinds of materials given to us by the finalists themselves, and unify them with a tone that could carry the whole piece in a coherent way. With such
diverse stories, investing in music and voice talent was especially critical. The audio set the emotional tone and provided the glue that unified the stories.
Bronze: National Constitution Center Web Site