Had an email conversation with Robin Sloan regarding EPIC 2014. It’s a fascinating dialogue that points to how cool marketing and thinking needn’t cost a lot. It makes me think of the quote Jonathan Schwartz sometimes uses (attributed to Bill Joy I think) – “Innovation happens elsewhere”. Now Robin is working at INdTV in San Francisco, and Matt Thompson is working at FresnoBee.com in Fresno.

Robin says:

“… EPIC 2014 was made by two young journalists, Robin Sloan & Matt Thompson, while they were both working at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida…

Re: cost — EPIC was totally home-brew, so the only cost was in terms of time spent on it. Hard to see how much time we spent on the ideas — they kinda bubbled up over the course of many weeks — but the actual Flash production came out in a frantic rush over three or four days. I’m quite sure a seasoned Flash producer (which I’m not) could crank out something as cool & stylish in a week or so.

I gotta admit though, both the narration (by Matt Thompson, the Fresno Bee guy) and the music (by electronic musician Minus Kelvin) account for a lot of the movie’s effectiveness. So keep that in mind.”

Update:- we had to drop the zip link due to bandwidth issues. So, if you want the file beam me an email.

He makes one last point which is great news – “And keep your eyes peeled — an update is coming in a week or so that will take EPIC to the year 2015.”