Toms Blog

Test

2010-11-30T20:26:00.002Z

Just trying something out on my site, need a random post, so this is it......

Last minute entry

2010-05-19T14:07:00.001+01:00

Checking the news today on google i saw a story about greatest inventions i was quite interested to see where the inventions i had chose came in the Tesco organised survey, they used 4000 people between the ages of 18 and 65, and created a list of the top 100 inventions.

All the inventions i chose were present except the Television, the closest is Sky+ which falls quite far behind in the rankings, i think this is quite strange, possibly people forgetting the invention because they are so common now in our everyday lives??

Education and Games

2010-05-08T12:47:00.000+01:00

I found a really useful pdf. on the study of games used for education it can be viewed here...

Education and Games

2010-05-06T13:15:00.003+01:00

Educational games have been around for a long time however they have never been very popular.

Video games have historically received more criticism than other forms of recreational learning because they are often perceived as or associated with issues such as mindless entertainment, enhanced social recluse, sexism and consumerism. (Wikipedia)

People seem to percieve an educational game as lacking content that they will enjoy, this leading to them losing popularity.

The first educational game i came across when growing up was 'zoombinis' the aim of this game was to relocate the population of zoombinis. While on this journey you faced a number of different challenges in the form of different logic puzzles. The game claims to 'build advanced math thinking skills'.

As the player progresses through the game it becomes more challenging, this is the key to the learning part of the game, as the game gets harder you are taught more and more.

More recently educational games have become more common although the educational qualities are sometimes hard to see. Websites such as Nickjr. and Nickelodeon are aimed at different age groups but both have games that aid in the learning process.

Recent studies have found that these games do have an effect on children and some people are encouraging schools to introduce games to be played while in the classroom.

“The UK study concluded that simulation and adventure games - such as Sim City and RollerCoaster Tycoon, where players create societies or build theme parks, developed children's strategic thinking and planning skills”. (mcyclopedia)

Overall i think this sums up how educational games should be used and for what effect, 'tools to enhance the development of important computer-based skills that will spill into other areas of learning and society.' So as the children play the game they are improving computer skills as well as a possible multitude of other skills at the same time.

I hope to create this within my game, allowing the player to gain some knowledge of inventions that have changed the lives of man, as well aiding in the advancement of there computer skills.

Inventions

2010-05-06T10:02:00.000+01:00

I initially wanted to cover inventions from the start of man, however the amount of inventions during this point in history are few and solid information is hard to find, i so i have chosen to look at invention from the last few hundred years where everything is much better documented and information much easier to find and compare with other findings.

At the moment i think i will be looking at the following:
Steam engine
Automobile
Camera
Telephone
TV
Computers
And then a final level will be 'futuristic' (robotic? etc.)

Shigeru Miyamoto

2010-05-05T15:49:00.002+01:00

Shigeru Miyamoto is a Japenese video game designer and producer, as stated in an earlier post he was the creator of 'Mario', other titles created by him include Donkey Kong, The legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Pikmin and F-zero. Majority of his career has taken place at nintendo headquarters with him now having the role of managing the nintendo entertainment analysis and development unit.

His role in the video game world is huge and his creations are known by all mario games are some of the most popular in the world and have earned the company millions of pound. He is a huge influence on game designers nowadays and his groundbreaking games that he designed 30 years ago have led to games we play today.

Both GameTrailers and IGN placed Miyamoto first on their lists for the "Top Ten Game Creators" and the "Top 100 Game Creators of All Time" respectively.

Platform games

2010-05-05T12:55:00.002+01:00

The platform game (or platformer) is a video game genre characterized by jumping to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles (jumping puzzles). It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps. The most common unifying element to these games is a jump button; other jump mechanics include swinging from extendable arms, as in Ristar or Bionic Commando, or bouncing from springboards or trampolines, as in Alpha Waves. These mechanics, even in the context of other genres, are commonly called "platforming," a verbification of the term "platform." Wikipedia

I have started developing some ideas for a game, my initial brief to Sue showed i would create a platform game, i feel this is achievable in the time given to us although reevaluating slightly i have decided i was planning the game on a large scale which is not reasonable in the time i have, therefore i have decided to shrink the game slightly so i am able to get a working game by the deadline.

I have now developed my idea to a point where i have started researching and putting ideas together. At this point I will be choosing a selection of life changing inventions and implementing them into a level in a game, the user will also be given information on the invention giving the ability for them to learn as well as play a game.

Mario

2010-05-05T12:25:00.001+01:00

1981 saw the creation of one of the most iconic video game charactors ever, Mario. He was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto. Mario started life as 'Jumpman' in the game Donkey Kong (1981), Shigeru continued to use 'Jumpman in every game he made, the name developed to 'Mr. Video' and then finally settled on 'Mario'. 1983 saw the introduction of 'Mario' in his first game 'Mario bros', this game was a big milestone for 'Mario' as this is where it was decided he was a plumber and he had a brother Luigi.

To date the Mario charator has appeared in over 200 games and is used as a nintendo mascot.

Quote

2010-04-29T17:12:00.000+01:00

Looking more at the idea of making a game i have decieded to try and develop a game from one of the quotes given to us when we were presented with the brief.

'Soon silence will of passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation and mediation.' Jean Arp

The quote directly talks about the development of man and man made artifacts which are continuously being developed. We live in a world today where everything makes a sounds and distracts people from what there doing.

I think as an initial idea i could develop a game that looks at inventions over time, possibly meaning the game is some what educational?

Exam Brief - Intro

2010-04-29T12:15:00.002+01:00

Our final brief has been set, we have the freedom to create anything we want for this project. We have been given a selection of quotes we may or may not use which will potentially help us with an idea.

Over the Easter break I have thought about what i might like to do, i remembered the talk we had from Seb a while back and this influenced me to want to create something in flash. This seems to be the perfect opportunity. Flash gives you the ability to do a number of things such as animation and web design. However i feel i will use it to create a game.

My initial thought is to create a platform style game similar games like mario, sonic etc.

Sweded

2010-02-24T12:07:00.001Z

The Film 'Be Kind Rewind' was developed from the idea of films being erase form vhs tapes and then remade so no one would ever know that they were not the originals. People are told they were from Sweden so they could be sold for more.

"Sweded"

Films that were erased and recreated are referred as being sweded. These remakes are unedited with only a single take per scene. The tapes are described as having come from Sweden as an excuse for higher rental fees and longer wait times. Jerry fabricated the word "sweded" while arguing with Craig (Chandler Parker) and his gang.
In light of the theme of sweding, director Michel Gondry sweded a version of the trailer of the film, starring himself. On the official website, users can engage in sweding, which puts their faces on the VHS cover of a movie. The Be Kind Rewind YouTube minisite also encourages filmmakers to create sweded versions of popular movies.
The concept of the original website designed by Tequila reinforces an interest in online copying. Asking users to swede their favorite websites, making alternate versions of Google's website. This website originally hosted at BeKindMovie.com has been taken off.
The theme of sweding also relates to film history, in that the collectively-made remakes represent our social memories of film, and through film. (WIkipedia)

When the film was released they created a number of websites and a youtube channel encouraging people to make there own 'sweded' films. Youtube link

I am to create something like this however aiming for a slightly more impressive and professional result.

New Idea

2010-02-23T17:32:00.002Z

After a tough weekend of coming up with ideas i have come across something i wish to start developing. The basis of the idea is having a number of people dressed as characters from a range of different films. Such as those mentioned in the brief e.g. Ghost busters, Crocodile Dundee and Cocktail. I believe this element will easily cover the 'Guilty Pleasure' part of the brief. As for reaching the target audience i aim to add some comedy value to the piece. At this point in time i am unsure whether to create an almost fly on the wall documentary or just a more narrative piece.

An obvious source of inspiration here would be the recent film known as 'Be Kind, Rewind'. The story of this film is based around a video store who managed to delete all the footage off of all there VHS. They set about to re-create these films so no one will ever no what happened. The film, being a comedy obviously leads to some quite funny recreations. For example this scene they are recreating Ghostbusters:

The film for the comedic value is made to look as if the costumes/remakes are made by some extremely amateur guys. I want to avoid this and give the piece a more professional feel, the costumes should look more like the real thing. This will help give the illusion that the people wearing the costumes are overly passionate about them.

Feedback

2010-02-13T17:20:00.002Z

Having spoken to Giles about my idea followed by him viewing my partially completed animatic i realise i have a fair amount of work to be done, i think this week (half term) i will continue to confer with Giles. By mid week i aim to have a more complete animation that is easier to understand.

Existing/Previous examples

2010-02-04T14:33:00.000Z

E4 has a strong branding image looking at the brief i saw they gave some examples of previous sub brands. For example they have previously created Big Thursday, Second Chance Sunday and the 9pm Strand. Below are a varity of link to some of these campaigns.

Second Chance Sunday

Second Chance Sunday

As we can see from these examples the branding of these campaigns is always very strong, they are relatively comical and they convey messages clearly. I think in order to create a successful campaign i will need to replicate these qualities. The E4 branding often seems to feature the purple from the logo within the ad, and the logo appears in unusual places. The voiceover is very strong and clear and produces a comical tone however still covering what is needed.

The E4 Brand

2010-02-01T09:22:00.000Z

The E4 channel was initially broadcast in 2001, it was launched by Ali G this gave the channel the image of having an 'irreverent attitude'. Since then it has continued to grow.

This image shows the average number of adults that view E4 in a week, focusing on there target audience of 16 - 34. As we can see there is an average of 5.6 million viewers watching E4 each week. This diagram also shows the number of customers cinemas receive on average a week as a UK total this is only 2.2 million showing that E4 has a great potential when it comes to broadcasting film.

Further research into the target audience for E4 i managed to find the following:

E4 Total

AGE Percentage

16 - 34 59.3

35 - 44 15.47

45 - 54 14.41

55+ 10.82

So we can see that there target audience is clearly the inital band of 16 - 34.

The top rating films to be shown on the Channel 4 brand in the month of January 2010 were Slum Dog Millionaire (10.58 million), The Simpsons Movie (6.01 million) and Night In The Museum (5.52). The viewing of films still seems quite popular with people and the films shown here fit the target audience well.

E4 more uniquely is being recognized for its potential last year '10 of the top 15 converting programmes in 2009 for 16-34 year olds were on E4, reflecting its unrivaled reach of this audience'. I think this shows that the channel is quite innovative in what they do, i hope to come up with something different that hasnt been done before and has potential to develop the brand.

Cyriak Harris

2010-01-19T15:43:00.002Z

After seeing last years winning entry for the E4 e-sting i decided to research the winner. His name was Cyriak Harris who happens to be a animator from Brighton. I decided to complete a small presentation on him, in order to do that i spent a while looking at his work and even emailed him for information (he was very helpful)

Below is his showreel which features some truly inspiring pieces.

His style of animation is truly unique, and his ideas follow this trend, the animations are both clever and witty. With topics from current affairs used in his work as well as random images such as cats, car and images from his home town.

When i emailed him i also asked for some tips on how to be more creative, this is a very hard question as everyone works differently but i got some good advice which i will use during this project.

'How to be more creative...? God knows, I just do whatever pops into my head... I guess a good rule to remember is the first idea you think of is probably either terrible or has already been done. Its pretty easy to be lazy and follow a familiar conceptual path that has been well trodden by everyone else (you just have to look at tv adverts to see this). I always try to build links between unrelated themes, rather than just chucking completely random stuff together - even insane logic is logical, and will trigger some kind of subconscious response I guess.'

For more animations see his website....Link

D & AD Project

2010-01-19T12:14:00.004Z

Having had time to read the newest project brief, i have decided to look into completing the E4 brief for the D & AD. The brief gives me the opportunity to create a 30 second television advert to promote monday movie night. With this a 5 second ident is also needed this is created from the 30 second clip. My first thoughts after reading the brief is that it must be fun and interesting.

The first thing i have done is to visit the e4 website and view examples of existing idents and adverts for the channel.

This piece won the 2009 ident or e-sting competition this year, i think this instantly sets the mark for the kind of thing expected by the channel. It is a very clean animation, its quite quirky and definitely original.

Evaluated

2010-01-04T17:50:00.000Z

Now reaching the end of the project i am lokoing back at what i have manage to achieve. I have created a multi-linaer story that has a variety of roots a user can take, it gives a slight feel of freedom, how ever i do believe creating a fully believable storyline that a user has full control over is extremely difficult. But i think i have achieved a concept to the idea, which gives a basic understanding of the creation of an immersive and the freedom of choice is there. The project itself i am quite proud of, illustration and flash animation are not really my strong points, however i put that aside and tried to illustrate to a high standard which i think i have achived. As for the flash part of the project i found the animation still quite hard however i have kept it relatively basic looking which fits with the idea.

I feel the project was enjoyable and i definitely extended my skills. I am pleased with my final outcome. I feel the piece has demonstrated what i outlined in my proposal at the beginning of the project.

Avatar

2009-12-18T00:57:00.002Z

I managed to get to see an advanced screening of James Cameroon's newest film 'Avatar' this evening. The film itself is visually stunning and would recommend it to anyone to watch just for that reason. However while watching the film i considered how it could relate to this project. Essentially the storyline of the film see's the main charactors controlling avatars. Which in modern day terms is similar to playing Role Playing Games(RPGs) such as World of Warcraft. The idea of being able to control a second body from your own is not new (For instance Bruce Willis was in a film earlier in the year called 'Surrogates'). However i think they have taken a modern day trend and really pushed it and created an ultimate evolution of the current RPGs state. I think if interactivity actually gets to the state where we control a second body, surely interaction will be able to evolve no more. Essentially its virtual reality in a second body. I think this will be the pinnacle of interactive development. One of the quotes i used before was that interactivity involves 'world building'. If your controlling a second body then the world is already created and the user can become fully immersed in the experience.

Interactive Online Stories

2009-12-11T20:25:00.000Z

I have been looking at online examples of interactive stories here are a few i have found...

The Flocking Party

This website has a story which is set in the future. During the story you find out how things have changed and why things are like they are at that point in time. To navigate around you have to find the little red dots on each page which link to other pages. The red dots let you jump around the book. the first time i used it i went from page one to two then to seventeen. However you dont need to read the story in any real order to make sense of it.

If you go to this page it explains how the story is 'multi-linear' rather than linear or non linear. Essentially the storyline is there however there is a magnitude of different ways to get to ending. The actual interactivity of the story is very simple however interesting. The links are red dots, which when hovered on reveal which page number they lead to. Then on most pages there are items you can hover over that animate in some way. This adds another degree of interactivity and creates a deeper hole for the audience to get sucked into.

Facade is another example of an interactive story. This system however is different and in some respects more technically advanced than the previous example. In this story you are presented with two characters who invite you into there home for a party. The actions performed in this story are decided depending on what you type into the chat box. The characters are installed with basic AI allowing them to decode what you say and come up with a respectable response. Some people argue that this kind of example would be non linear meaning everything you do has unwritten results. However if we look further into this we can see that for the AI to be able to respond with respectable answers there must be a database of some kind which associates words to possible outcomes. This would surely mean this is still a multi-linear storyline. This can be backed up by the descriptio on the website itself:

'You, the player, using your own name and gender, play the character of a longtime friend of Grace and Trip, an attractive and materially successful couple in their early thirties. During an evening get-together at their apartment that quickly turns ugly, you become entangled in the high-conflict dissolution of Grace and Trip’s marriage. No one is safe as the accusations fly, sides are taken and irreversible decisions are forced to be made. By the end of this intense one-act play you will have changed the course of Grace and Trip’s lives – motivating you to re-play the drama to find out how your interaction could make things turn out differently the next time.'

The fact that the story has been summarized here clearly shows that this is a multi-linear storyline that has multiple potential endings, this allowing a user to play several times before getting repeat scenes.

I think for my project i will use ideas from both of these allowing some user input, like buttons and also having different possible outcomes, so the story has variation and the user is more likely to play again.

Decode:Digital Design Sensations (V&A)

2009-12-10T19:07:00.001Z

On Wednesday 9th Dec we visited the Victoria and Albert Mueseum in London. More specifically we visited to see the 'Decode' exhibition. The experience was great, i think if i was still struggling to come up with an idea and not already started brainstorming my final idea, this exhibition would of been a big boost. The projects on display were really inspiring. From the generative art at the start of the exhibiton to more interactive elements such as a video wall. All of which had interactive elements to them.

One of my favourite projects was created by Simon Heijdens, it was titled 'Tree'. It was a very simple idea, which led to some interesting results. The basis of the project is a large tree projected onto a wall, however this tree interacted with realtime wind data so it swayed in the 'wind'. As well as shedding leaves which landed on the ground around your feet. They also moved when walking through them similar to real leaves on the ground. Although simple i thought the mix of technology and interaction was really good and felt myself compelled to learn exactly what was happening and how it worked. I think potentially the project could be expanded to show more in depth view of the weather. For example during rain the animation could rain as well which could be 'touched' by a viewer.

Another really interesting project was created by 'Everyware' whch was called 'Oasis'. The project was very much hands on. You are presented with a large sandbox, filled with black sand. The idea was to move the sand around to reveal parts of the screen which was hidden beneath the sand. Once the screen is revealed slowly groups of 'fish-like' creatures start grouping at the clearings. You can then hide this area with sand and reveal a different area, where the 'fish' then move to. The project was really pleasing you really felt you were impacting on this interactive 'pond' and the creatures were being affected by your input.

I think Andrew Cameroon ('Dissimulations, the illusions of interactivity'. 1995) has the perfect quote to describe and round-up the exhibition he says "Interactivity refers to the possibility of an audience actively participating in the control of an artwork or representation. " This perfectly fits into what the exhibition offers. And projects on show all involve the audience . Watching some people interacting with some of the projects you can see from facial expressions how involved and intrigued they are with the work. I think if an interactive project has managed to achieve this it has done exceptionally well.

All the more interactive parts of the exhibition can be viewed on this website: V&A Decode

Frank Miller - Inspiration

2009-12-06T12:08:00.000Z

Wikipedia:
Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957)[1] is a U.S. writer, artist and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300. He recently directed the film version of The Spirit, shared directing duties with Robert Rodriguez on Sin City and produced the film 300.
Link

Looking at his work has given me an idea of creating a colorless world. Similar to that from his films like 'Sin City' and 'The Spirit'. I plan on illustrating my interactive story so the detail will not as detailed as that from his film which are all live action, however i hope to create a kinda of film noir feeling to some of the story.

This is an example from his comic art collection. The simplistic colour scheme works really well and creates the exact mood he is aiming for. The image gives a very dark and mysterious feeling. I have already taken into account that illustration is not really a strong point of mine however i feel i should take a chance in order to progress my skills and learn new things. I think i will mainly use a greyscale colour palette when drawing.

Worlds Largest Multi-Touch Wall

2009-12-01T11:49:00.000Z

An installation at the Nürburgring, Germany has been noticed as the biggest of its kind.The wall has been designed to keep users informed of news and activities at the race track.

Some of the Facts and Figures:

The Interactive wall consists of 15 HD projectors
Resolution: 28,800 x 1200 pixels
Size: 45 x 2 meters
Allows 80 users to use at any one time.
30 Directional speakers
34 million pixels in total

Above the Interactive part of the installation is a giant LED Wall 425 square meters in size.

More Info

This is a truley amazing piece of equipment. The sheer size is enough to impress most people. The technology used for detecting user touch is known as Laser Light Plane Illumination (LLP)(click to view wiki page) Information on the technology is not very easy to find the wiki entry seems to be the best offer of information. It seems like quite new technology with questions about how safe it is still being passed round. However i think it could be quite a useful technology for interactive walls in the future, especially due to it offering multi user ability. It also seems very accurate which is a benefit to installations that require user input as this needs to be accurate so the user experience is as smooth and stress free as possible.

Digit London

2009-11-19T13:12:00.007Z

On the 16th November we travelled to London to visit an Interactive design agency called Digit London. The whole experience was really helpful. We were given a brief overview of the company itself with examples of work they are currently doing like the Marks and Spencers website. It allowed users to create a virtual piece of patchwork to add to a giant patchwork which is designed to show support for climate change awareness, and to show support for the upcoming Copenhagen climate talks. The idea is really user friendly with bright colours and simple to use controls i think anyone could use it and most people would want to use it due to its graphical design. Due to time constraints they were not able to listen to all of our ideas which was a shame however the people who gave there ideas for discussion came out with some useful resources such as designers to look at and places to visit.

One of the mentioned designers was Marc Owens. He has created some quite odd creations. However his theory behind the creations is really interesting. For instance his creation 'Avatar Machine' was created so the user could view there own life as a third person game. This quite taken from his website explains his aims.

'The virtual communities created by online games have provided us with a new medium for social interaction and communication. Avatar Machine is a system which replicates the aesthetics and visuals of third person gaming, allowing the user to view themselves as a virtual character in real space via a head mounted interface.
The system potentially allows for
a diminished sense of social responsibility, and could lead the user to demonstrate behaviors normally reserved for the gaming environment.'

Avatar Machine [LONDON] 2008 from MARC OWENS on Vimeo.

I am hoping for my project to create a similar feel where the user feels they are no longer in the 'real world' but are part of the storyline leading them to believe there choices are uniquely effecting the storyline.

Another helpful part of the trip i found on there website. It is known as 'Feed'. It is a set of six principles which are designed to help with the creation of interactive projects.

The six points are:
Ordinary
Physical
Flow
Reward
Surprise
Play

Each has reason for being there with a small set of 'rules' that have been created by the Digit team. To view the PDF click here. I will definetly consider these when producing my interactive project as they seem to be a set of strong binding principles that have worked well for this successful design company.

Arduino Chips And Augmented Reality

2009-11-18T14:02:00.004Z

During our lesson today Sue introduced us to some projects and interactive installations which use a sensor to enhance a user experience. I have looked more in-depth into the Arduino and found it would be very useful for creating a interactive installation. It is a cheap and effective chip that can be used as a sensor, for light, pressure and movement. Keeping this in mind we could use it to activate certain things to happen within an animation, for instance with the motion detector you could have a certain video display. The pressure pads would also be a really good thing to use as you could use these for the floor of an installation to detect where someone is standing. A good example of this is at the Arts-depot in London which has installed a 20 meter bench which is connected to a projector, this projects different animations onto the wall depending on the amount of people on the bench.

The installation is entertaining for the user and people get involved moving seats to start different animations. I do not know how immersive this installation is, it could be argued that you cannot be fully immersed in the bench experience as there is constantly inference from other members of the public walking past, other sounds and the animation is not fully fluid. Therefore i think the immersion of the bench is quite limited. However i think i should definitely consider using this kind of technology within my project as it has potential to really get the user involved and give them a really deep experience.

Another technology that i have come across is known as 'Augmented Reality', it has been around for almost a decade, first being used with things like the playstations eye toy. Augmented reality is basically added extras to what the webcam can actually see. The idea is quite simply and has recently become available to the home computer user. Once the main project has completed all a user needs is access to a webcam and a copy of the identity image. This is used as a kind of barcode.

This gives a quick example of how the use of augmented reality has started moving to mobile technologies. The above example i have added to give an idea of how the system works. I think there is real potential for this technology and upon further research i have found that the iphone has recently released several apps which use augmented reality.

This example shows the potential of the idea. As before though i would not say this is an immersive experience, it is interactive as you are becoming more involved between the environment around you, and your iphone. There are apps being developed which will push this further by adding choice, for instance choose what to show, nearest bar, houses for sale in area, places of interest etc.

Commercially this technology seems to be starting to catch on. Lego stores around the world have recently installed an augmented reality system that allows users to see what the box of lego there interested in lets them build.

I think this is quite an interesting experience allowing the user to almost try before they buy. The interaction is very simple again but it is there.

Interactive Media

2009-11-13T17:41:00.004Z

After receiving our new assignment yesterday i have been thinking about what classes as interactive, how much involvement and freedom must a user/viewer have? I have started by looking for definitions of interaction and interactive media. Here are some of them:

Wikipedia

Interactive Media: Interactive media, a type of collaborative media, refers to media that allows for active participation by the recipient, hence interactivity. Traditional information theory would describe interactive media as those media that establish two-way communication. In media theory, interactive media are discussed along their cultural implications. The field of human–computer interaction deals with aspects of interactivity and design in digital media.

Interactivity: In the fields of information science, communication, and industrial design, there is debate over the meaning of Interactivity. In the "contingency view" of interactivity, there are three levels: Non interactive, when a message is not related to previous messages; Reactive, when a message is related only to one immediately previous message; and Interactive, when a message is related to a number of previous messages and to the relationship between them.

From this Wikipedia has shown us that the basis of something to be interactive, is that it must allow a user to participate with the media. Also that there must be relationship between events.

My first thought was to search for 'Interactive media' on google, this obviously returned thousands of results, some examples found have almost no interaction to them. For example a video of a dancing character that has three different dance moves depending on what keys you press. To more diverse ideas such as a never ending loop of animation which has small elements within it that are click able and produce small alterations within the animation.

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/flow

Follow the link above to view a really good example of such an animation. The animation is quite strange and makes little sense, however you find yourself intrigued by small hot spots where you can click and extend the viewing experience of the animation. The animation itself is drawn very basically no real detail. I think if i was to follow this kind of idea i would do a similar thing and put my mind fully on creating a long and interactive loop.

Another thing i decided to search for was an interactive story.

http://learninginhand.com/articles/interactivestories/organizerexample.pdf

I found an example of a mapped out story here. The idea of an interactive story allows the reader to have a choice what happens to the characters, essentially giving them a perfect story because they are choosing what they want. This has been done for years with books such as 'Goosebumps' and 'Choose your own adventure', these books where aimed to draw young people into reading books which allowed them to create there own story. These examples so far have been developed to allow a user to entertain themselves and have fun.

Other forms of Interactive media are aimed at aiding in making everyday life more technologically advanced. I remember at the beginning of the year i went to Berlin, at the airport in Gatwick they had installed a small billboard which at first seemed perfectly usual, however once you looked at it properly you realise it was a touchscreen game, developed for cadburys to advertise there creme eggs, although a very simple game where you had to squash the falling cream eggs it encouraged passers-by to get involved.

Recently we have seen a sharp increase in interactive surfaces. Microsoft for example have put forward concepts of an interactive table. This has the ability of touch screen which allows a user to interact directly with anything from pictures from a holiday to exchanging business cards mobile phone to mobile phone.

The table has extreme potential and is demonstrated as being not only a personal experience but one you can share with friends. They describe it as creating a virtual world, this is a key point made by Microsoft and really backs up the interactive part of of the project. 'The multimedia storyteller must be a world builder, creating miniture universes that have there own internal statesand mysteries to be discoveredby peeling back layers of space and layers of meaning.' (H, McLellan. 2001)'

This quote will be a key quote in my project as it describes really well what a user is expecting to get out of an interactive piece of media. The creation of a 'world' really emphasises how the user is expecting to become extremely involoved with the media, almost becoming a part of it.

One last look

2009-11-10T20:07:00.002Z

I've enjoyed this project a lot, i think looking at the way different companies have advertised there products both virally and as adverts is quite stunning. From the BMW short film to an everyday tv advert they are all aiming at one thing, to get the viewer interested so he/she goes on to try/research the product. So im hoping that with the help of mine and Jameels viral Aquapax will see an increase in sales, even if initially it is only a small increase. We have posted our viral on youtube at 6 o'clock today and i will add the amount of views we have in 24 hours time, we are hoping to have one or two hundred views as we our sending links to friends and family and hoping they will spread the viral efficiently!

Almost Complete

2009-11-05T14:49:00.008Z

Having now almost completed our viral, i decided to look at some more virals, to see if we had achieved something we could class as a proper viral. I found a series of three virals posted by volkswagon.

The aim of this series is to promote that people like things that are fun. They do this by bringing us an everyday task and altering it so it is fun and interesting to do. The only hint we get that this is a volkswagon advert is the fact that they show there logo at the end of each viral. The virals are all longer than others i have looked at that tend to range from 15 seconds up to a minute. So i decided to delve deeper into the time frame of virals, this led me to finding two exceptionally long virals.

Assasins Creed 2

BMW

These two virals are exceptionally long but work in very different ways. For instance the first creates an atmosphere helping the viewer to feel engaged with the characters, and hopefully build interest in them therefore leading the purchasing of the game. where the second has very little to do with BMW except the car, which is being advertised but this is done while being very subtle. For instance the vehicle being escape in is a BMW, which has the off road abilities, is quick and has good maneuverability. However at no point are we led to think 'Oh this is just another BMW/car advert'. I think this helps prove that it doesn't matter as such how long a viral is as long as it keeps the viewer engaged. At this moment in time our own viral is looking at being around the one minute mark, i think this is perfectly exceptable and should work really well.

An update....

2009-10-29T19:18:00.003Z

Over the last week myself and jameel have met up several times to film and edit small pieces. There is a lot of work to do but we are starting to get somewhere. We have decided to have a couple of extremely impressive shots that are obviously near impossible then a few shot that have a more realistic approach to them. Here is a sneak preview of one piece half way through the editing process.....

Over the week i have been watching the top videos on Youtube, as well as looking at different methods of getting your own video to the 'most viewed' page.

I have found a few different methods but the most common are as follows....

1) Essentially spam your viral everywhere! Or at least a link. Adding a link to your viral on lots of different forums is a common method, often falsely labelled to lead people to the video. Your viral should be added to social networking sites as well, post it to all your friends, hopefully they will watch and pass on.

2) Tagging, When you upload a video to youtube you are asked to added tags to your video so it can be identified more easily. This can be abused easily and numerous tags can be added to give your video more chance of showing up in a search.

3) Thumbnail, another youtube trick i found was to give your video a alternate thumbnail. Something which is more likely to draw people in.

Most of the methods i found are forcing an internet user to accidentally stumble on your viral/video and then like it and pass it on. Essentially giving your viral a kick start. Spending hours using these techniques would definitely boost your overall views but i don't think it would help the rating of the video as i think people may be annoyed that they have be mislead to something they may not necessarily like or want to see. To create a good viral that would spread really well seems to be a very hard task!!

Team Work

2009-10-21T15:21:00.006+01:00

After a discussion today in class i have decided to go ahead with my idea making it as impressive as possible. While doing this me and jameel have also spoken and decided to work together in the creation of the aquapax viral. We have started drawing up ideas and have decided on 3-6 different shot of throwing plastic bottles in to bins. At the moment our ideas involve skateparks, basketball hoops, and cliffs, visual references and more advanced storyboards are being drawn up tonight.

In the mean time i found this clip for the american football fantasy league game. It uses players 'skills' to potray why they should be on your fantasy league team. There is minimal visual effects added but the results are very satisfying giving a very realistic look to each clip.

First Idea

2009-10-17T01:39:00.005+01:00

My first idea has been generated from looking at a variety of videos from the internet. I have decided to look at the point of the bottle being recyclable as my main focus for the viral.

I found this video which i really liked, it showed someone had spent great lengths of time practicing something most people don't really have an interest in. However the 'home video' feel of the video with little editing helps give us an interesting video which keeps us watching and impressed by his skill. The fact that this video has received over 3 million hits also indicates that people enjoy watching this video. This got me thinking about how i could relate to aquapax and a viral...

I adapted my search terms looking for 'can throwing' and 'bottle throwing', which came to some interesting results as seen below....

As we can see from these people have a lot of spare time and the results are quite good. If i am to create something like this more flair would be needed, which with the added help of after effects i believe can be achieved. The quality of the films themselves are very low. Little editing, shaky cam, bad quality. Almost like being shot on a mobile phone or similar low quality piece of equipment. I think to create this effect i will shoot in quite a high quality first as this will aid in the editing process as elements will be clearer to mask out and add effects to etc. For now i will draw up a basic storyboard demonstrating my ideas, and will jot down notes in my sketchbook about locations and how they will be better and have more 'wow' factor then the ones in this post.

New Brief - Aquapax

2009-10-16T22:03:00.001+01:00

On Thursday we were introduced to our new brief. The brief is to create a viral for a product (Aquapax). The product is a mineral water which is sold in a carton rather than plastic or glass bottles. There are several reasons for this the main being that the risk of contamination is greatly reduced. Where plastic bottles allow tastes and odors to seep through the plastic due to its oily polymers. The carton is also far more environmentally friendly, being mostly paper it is much more bio-degradable, disappearing completely within 7 years, the production of the packaging is also extremely clean with a minimal carbon footprint, smaller than any other bottled water company. The water itself is extremely pure, with perfectly balanced ph levels and tiny amounts of nitrates , where other leading brands have up to 20% more nitrates in them. The product due to its purity is completely safe for children from any age unlike other mineral waters.

I think from this some of the key points to pull out for the viral are:

Purity (of the water)

Safe for everyone

Minimal contamination risks

Environmentally friendly

Re-usable packaging

I think within my viral i will look to present one of these factors as to present them all could lead to an advert being made and not a viral!

'Tracking'

2009-10-06T01:01:00.000+01:00

Ive decided in my project i will create a film about a member of the public going about a day to day task. This task being shopping. Reading that back to myself does make it sound like its going to be hard to keep peoples attention, because who really wants to watch someone walk round a shop? So this is where the elements of 'future' come in. I will generate a short piece showing a shopping experience where the user is 'tracked' and a shop is merely a wonder round without the hassle of a basket, or queing in a line at a till.

Ive looked at films like minority report and the Terminator films for some inspiration. The following clip from the most recent terminator film was created by the studio who created the tracking effects in the film.

-----Link-----

The video shows machines tracking and scanning different characters in the film. The film uses the Grey-scale look as mentioned in a previous post as well as flickering etc. Looking closely there is a lot of random number/letters flicking around which gives a very technical kind of look. Definitely something i should look in to. I know of a random text function in AE but i think to give a more unique feel i will look to some expressions to create a more realistic outcome, and will feel more proud of the final result. I will look to AEs track functions as well and then tidy them up by hand. I think the process could be quite lengthy but hopefully worth it....

Inspiration

2009-10-03T18:22:00.000+01:00

While talking to Sue on Thurs she mentioned that she new of a music video made entirely up of the band being caught on different CCTV systems. They couldn't afford for a flash expensive music video so used there t=rights to claim back all footage of themselves from the local councils etc.

The film although made for a music video is a really good example of how we are already being watched. In a vast array of different locations.

Looking at the film i can also build my animation to give a similar sense of a CCTV screen. Using Dull colours often only greyscale/ Black and White. Flickering lines and often heavy graining. Adding these to my work would help the viewer come to the conclusion that they were watching a monitor rather than a 'film'.

Future Surveillance

2009-10-03T00:07:00.000+01:00

For this project i have come up with the idea of using the idea of surveillance and how it could affect our lives. Looking to the media for inspiration i have found some basic statistics such as the fact that the UK is one of the most 'watched' countries int he world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8159141.stm

Looking at this link we can see how dramatic some of the statistics are. This brings us to the question of where will we be in 10, 20 or even 100 years time. Will this technology run our lives, will it help us with day to day tasks or become a hinderance leading us to become dictated by cameras?.

My first ideas are to look at one of two aspects each an opposite. So on one hand a dull surreal world where everything is monitered to make sure all is in line. Or a slightly brighter world where our day to day activities are made easier by different surveillance methods.

Genre Case Study

2008-11-05T12:37:00.000Z

CASE STUDY FOR GENRES: WAR

The genre of war has fascinated mankind since the first humans. For instance cavemen kept images of fighting and hunting on walls of caves to tell stories of their experiences. It can be seen in Greek mythology through to the Romans. War can be seen illustrated on walls, in tapestries and documented in books. The 20th century saw the development of film, this has seen a huge amount of fictional and non fictional film created to illustrate all aspects of war, and this has led to it becoming one of the most popular film genres.

More recently the developments of computer games have meant the genre of war has been strengthened and became popular. This has increased peoples knowledge of the history of wars and how it affected different people.
The genre of war in films is a very verisimilitude genre. This being due to the way they are created to give an impression of actuality and making characters ‘real’. It would fall into a category known as ‘cultural verisimilitude’ this being that the films relate to events and people outside the genre. This can be supported by Branston and Stafford (1999 p.73)

The first war appeared around the 1900s; however it wasn’t until around 1915 the film industry really picked up, with the release of the film ‘The Battle Cry of Peace’. This film depicted an idea of what would happen if a hostile Europe attacked and overrun American soil. During the Great War more films were made which mainly illustrated the horror or futility of warfare. One of the most famous films was named ‘The Big Parade’ (1925); it was a silent film about one soldier and his adventure in war. It was the first of its kind and is thought to of influenced many other films in this genre. This can be supported by the work of Suid (1978, p.15).

‘The Big Parade’

The similarity between this film and one such as saving Private Ryan, although some controversy about this film was created because of over playing the creativeness of the war scenes, this can be supported by the work of Albert Auster (The War Film, p.205 - 214)

The genre of war is mixed with almost all of other film genres. The more obvious is action as a war film is majorly based on a frontline, with fighting and anger. This fighting could almost be described as horror, as more modern films have graphically increased what the viewer sees, often on the frontline this is huge battle wounds. Other examples are films like star wars, this mixes with the genre of Sci Fi and Fantasy.

http://tcal.net/images/fight/phantommenace.jpg

The use of special effects plays a large part in creating a realistic battle in films after 1970, such as the 1978 film ‘The Deer Hunter’ this film was described as being almost indistinguishable from a slasher style film, and that it pushed realism to its furthest extreme. Adapted from work by Wetta and Curley (1992 p.4).

The Deer Hunter – Russian roulette scene

Although this film uses the war as a base for the film to show how the war affects a group of men, the film itself is unrealistic and untrue. However the film is thought to offer deeper meaning, really trying to show how the social lives of people can be changed by war. Films like this and ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1978) although grotesque and maybe unrealistic in a sense have deeper meanings and larger truths. Compared to films like ‘The Green Berets’ (1968) that use an overly large amount of heroic acts.

Apocalypse Now

The Green Berets

Heroism is a large part of most war films. A main character is seen to do something which makes him iconic in the film. John Wayne featured in many war films and the majority of the time he was depicted as a hero. Such as the film Back to Bataan (1945), where he is the leader of a group of civilians who join the war.

‘The themes of nationalism, honor, duty and heroism are all common to war adventure genres.’ As quoted by O’Conner and Jackson (1979 p.28). The audience feels comfortable if they have a character which they can ‘rely’ on. The hero is normally in the thick of the action through out the movie sometimes giving the impression of almost invincibility, as every one else suffers in some way.

The genre of war can has many different ways of being portrayed from POW style films which include being captured, living in and also trying to escape the camps, such as the 1963 ‘The Great Escape’. You also see the war from different perspectives such as the captured and then there is from the capturer’s point of view. The films often depict a character as being a hero for example the 1994 film ‘Schindlers List’ which saw a man trying to free large amounts of Jews during the war.

The Great Escape

Schindlers list trailer

The second of these films ‘Schindlers List’ aim at telling a story with some historical truth to it. Almost dedicating itself to Oskar Schindler story and life. The film made a large impact on everyone. It drew interest from political and religious leaders and intellectuals from outside the film industry. (Morris p.216). The film ended up as almost a memorial for the holocaust.

The genre is sometimes seen as an anti war genre rather than just ‘war’. This is due to how it shows the graphicness and realistic nature of events. One example of one of the most believable war films is ‘Saving Private Ryan’. The Guardian stated, ‘the first 30 minutes are considered the most realistic recreation of war in movie history’ (Ellison 1999).

Due to hype of this movie viewers were getting the impression that ‘every previous war-flick had been a jingoistic cheese-fest starring John Wayne’ (Carson: 1999). Other films take the whole idea of war and throw realism out the window. For instance Sci Fi and Fantasy, films which see strange creatures, weapons and gadgets giving a whole new idea of war.

Starship Troopers 1997

Although the audience knows this is overly fictional it still attracts an audience and gets them involved in the action of the film.

One more thing to look at about the genre of war is how it is represented in some games. The general idea is that you are to win the war, you control the fight making the decisions etc. games like call of duty 4 allow the player to fully immerse themselves into the game getting to almost be in the war. The advance of multiplayer functions means you are ‘fighting’ against real people which have added whole new elements to ‘war’ games.

My personal idea of a ‘war’ genre film from my research is that it must contain a large portion of action in a battle scarred landscape, where there is a hero sometimes more than one. The hero may be captured and tortured and try to escape. On the rare occasion the hero dies normally quite a dramatic and emotional sequence occurs if this happens. I think a film about war is easily identified usually because of what I just listed and because it is an everyday event we see on the news in papers, magazines games we play it is all around us so we can identify the key things to decide it is a war based film.

Bibliography
Branston G and Stafford R (1999), The Media Student’s Book (second edition), Routledge: London

Eberwein, R., 2004. The War Film. Rutgers University Press.

Esquire.1999. The Screen: And the Leni Riefenstahl ward for Rabid Nationalism Goes to. . . [Online] http://www.esquire.com/features/the-screen/Riefenstahl-Nationalism-0399 . [Accessed 27 Oct 2008]

Morris, N., 2007. The Cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of Light. Wallflower Press.

O'Connor, J. E., Jackson, M. A., American History/American Film: Interpreting the Hollywood. 1979. Ungar.

Suid, H. L., 1978. Guts and Glory. Addison-Wesley.

Wetta, F. J., Curley, S. J., (1992). Celluloid Wars - A Guide to Film and the American Experience of War. Greenwood Publishing Group.

Wikipedia, 2008. War Film. [Online] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_film [accessed 27th Oct 2008]

References

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_urb-war.html
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TNwgH7Db8H0C&pg=PA1&dq=war+in+films#PPP11,M1