The A&R Developments Site

* Titus Androgynous * First release by ArDev. . . .

ArDev are a small group of multimedia designers and producers. For this project as ArDev, we are 'not for profit' although individually, we produce titling, music and graphics for various and varied projects (if you need some development work, E-mail us). We have attempted to make this site simple so that it will load efficiently; no Shockwave, Flash, etc. yet, just a bit of info.,and down to it (well, except for the banner!). .(and the GIFS!). . (oops, and the Java!).
We have produced a short movie. This is something we had long wanted to do in order to improve our skills and involve other people. It is also, as far as we know, the first instance of a movie (albeit a short), being able to be streamed over the web in it's entirety. The movie is called "Titus Androgynous - A Short Film About Time" , and is supported by the National Lottery through the Arts Council of England. For the interested, it was edited in Adobe Premiere, graphics and effects were created mainly in Adobe Photoshop, and with the exception of the initial video input, it is digital through and through. Output from Premiere for MPEG encoding was in Indeo "raw" format and the compression system used was by Vitec. The Xing software compression engine is an acceptable compromise. Any pentium computer above a P75 is capable of decoding and playing real-time 352 x 240 (Video CD) MPEG streams with no additional hardware. We recommend the Softpeg player for it's versatility and quality. The movie is available for viewing from this site in RealVideo format. You will need the latest version of RealPlayer to view it as a live stream, and this is available for free from the RealAudio site. Streaming cuts out the need to download, but given the nature of web video at the moment ( this is a bandwidth issue, not the RealAudio/Video software, which is superb and adaptable), leaves a little to the imagination! If you wish, you can obtain a copy of 'Titus' in other formats including an MPEG version on CD-ROM, which will offer full screen, full motion playback with 44khz (CD quality) stereo sound. E-Mail us using the icon the foot of this page for further details or with any comments. The movie attempts to illustrate some aspects of quantum theory by showing how the 'many worlds' scenario would operate if applied to a sentient being able to perceive it. The being in question is a reading of the Mervyn Peake character Titus Groan, and the primary setting is that of a metaphysical Ghormenghast. We were on a tight budget, so the movie is a journey with a mainly original score and is we hope, atmospheric. Enjoy it. We intend to develop this site in future in order to showcase further works both by ourselves and others, so if you have a piece you would like displayed, let us know.