Narrative Project

http://n0220956.deviantart.com/art/Wembley-106035451

The link above shows the finished results of my interactive narrative project. This was created using macromedia flash, and it called Wembley. The basic idea behind the project is to take the user on a journey where they have to make their own personal decisions to achieve certain outcomes. There are two possible outcomes at which the users can achieve, either a win or lose, there are two of each of the win and the lose outcomes in total. The theme of the interactive narrative is of course football, I chose this theme because it is of particular interest to me, I also thought about actually playing the game myself and realised that it is completely based on decisions and actions. These real life decisions and actions determine if a tackle is completed perfectly, or a foul is committed, these reflect on whether the decision is a win or a lose.

The interactive narrative includes images, animation, sound and text. The images I used for my interactive narrative are what I managed to find on Google, these images had to be of the specific player in the same or a similar shirt. As I was half was through completing the project it was pointed out to me the risk of copyright. However I made changes to the shirts and the logos using Photoshop, and I was told that this would not be too much of a problem as the brief did not include publishing the narrative, it was only to present it. I created all the animations myself, all of the animations are very basic and suite each frame perfectly for the theme. The sound I used for the interactive narrative reflect the mood of the outcome, if the player wins the game there are cheers, if the player loses the game boo’s can be heard. There is also the sound effect of a football being kicked, this sound plays whenever a link is clicked on, this adds a more realistic element to the game. The text is the most important part of the narrative as this explains the choices, which determines the user’s decisions. The user interaction is one of the most important elements of the flash narrative, this is because the user has to make the decisions, therefore it is important for the narrative to be simple, and clear to use, I feel that I have managed to achieve this on a reasonable scale.

During planning and creating the interactive flash narrative, I spent most of my time in the computer room with other multimedia students. One of the members of my seminar group asked me if I knew why his links were not working correctly, I noticed that he was not using instance names and therefore his problem was easily revolved. I was also helped by one of my classmates at finding specific sound clips for my narrative, which was very helpful. Although this was not group work many of my group had time to help one another and work together on the project.

Overall I feel that I have created a good flash narrative, I feel that it is entertaining for all types of people even if they are not interested in football. I feel that I could have spent a lot more time on the narrative, if we had of had more time to do it in. We had around a week to plan and complete the project so in some places it is slightly rushed, although overall I am happy with my interactive narrative.

The Meeting One Shot Video

Above is my one shot video called 'The Meeting'. We were basically selected into groups one morning and were told that we would be shooting a one shot film with the title 'The Meeting'. Our idea came to us when we were first sitting in our group trying to think about what our story could be about, it was suggested that we should re-enact the meeting that we were having at the time, because it was quite an awkward situation and no one was really sure what to say to each other.

Our film basically begins with four people entering a room for a meeting about a group task that they will be performing in the future. The one shot we decided to use was a constant 360 degrees rotation for the full two minutes of the film. We planned to have the camera in the middle of a table and have the four people sat at each side of the table, so that different facial expressions and body language could be portrayed within each person. As we practiced this we found the rotation difficult, one reason for this was we had to use a power cable to keep the camera on as the battery had not been charged before we rented the camera out. The second reason was that we found it difficult to keep the camera at a consistent speed as it rotated, while keeping the camera man out of view. The final reason was that as the camera was rotating there was only a brief second that the actor/actress was in view as it passed and therefore wasting time filming the wasted space between the actors/actresses.

The idea behind our movie would be that there was no dialogue therefore we could each edit the movie individually because the work was a single project after all. We used this method so we could all add our own subtitles to the piece so that they would all be individual and have different meanings. Therefore the constant 360 degrees rotation was not practical because there was not much time to insert the subtitles before the image of the person had passed. As a group we decided that we should have the same rotation idea but pause on each actor and actress to allow time for us all to insert our own subtitles. We held the image of the person for around 3 seconds and then increased speed on the camera movement through the wasted space so that we were not wasting valuable recording time.
We finally filmed the scene to the standard we required after many re-takes and 5 hours of filming. I then had chance to edit the video to my own style as shown above. I decided to include thought bubbles instead of subtitles, I did this because the idea of subtitles is to show what the person is saying, however there was no mouth movement and my thought bubbles show that there is no communication whatsoever between the four students.

One shot video Editing Practice

Above is thae practice that i performed on editing video clips. I did this task so that i could be familiar with the features of editing and cutting clips of film so that i would be prepared for this process after shooting my one shot video.

Complimenting Colours

Here are the two photographs in the state of before and after, I created by altering the colours to pairs of complimentary colours. As I researched the definition of complimentary colours I found many websites showing a visual example of the colour spectrum. I found that complimentary colours were to be found opposite to each other on the colour wheel.

The first image I chose to use was an image of the bandstand in the Arboretum in Nottingham. I decided to take a photograph of the band stand because it involved I strong green colour and was surrounded by blur railings. I found that the colours blue and yellow were complimentary to each other because they are opposite to each other on the colour spectrum. Therefore I edited the green colour of the bandstand to a strong yellow, and highlighted some of the weaker blue colours on the railings and to some parts of the band stand. I really like the effect that the yellow creates when added to the blue of the railings, the yellow lightens up the image to give a sense of a warmer atmosphere and a more exciting mood.

The second image I used was a photograph that I took of a large house located just outside of the Arboretum. I found out that the colours green and red were complimentary to one another, and therefore decided to change the sky from the light blue colour to a light red, simply because this was more realistic than a green sky. I then decided that a nice effect would be to create the roof into a green colour to give a moss style effect, this turned out ok but I didn’t feel that the image had enough of the colours to compliment each other. I decided to add the effect of a warm glow to the windows to give an eerie effect to the house, I also added the red effect to the street lamps to add a scare factor. I like the effect and mood that the new image gives off but I don’t feel that this looks as professional as the image of the bandstand, simply because I airbrushed in the glow from the windows. This often looked slightly messy and also a bit rushed.

Thirds

The Rule of thirds is basically breaking down a photograph or film shot into equal thirds, horizontally and vertically. To make a photo more balanced points of the picture, which are intended to attract the viewers gaze, should be placed over these intersecting thirds or points of interest.

Below is my video, which demonstrates the rule of thirds visually, the monument is placed considerably off centre, creating the focal point of interest. The cannon and trees are set along the bottom creating an additional point of interest. It is important that the clear space does not contain any distraction.

Pixilation Project

Here is my video i created for my Pixilation Project. Most of the video is experimentation on what could be done using pixilation. The general story behind the video is the idea of olympic games, this is shown in the various events including the relay race, bike race and long jump. The beggining of the video is experimentation of changing clothes, the t-shirts are the same style but in different colours which gave it an interesting effect.I decided to add an exciting tint to the colour using the saturation/hue tool in photoshop. Obvious colours shown are pink and green, i got the inspiration for this style of colours from the music video "That Boy That Girl" by Hadouken. I also took inspiration from this video because if the pixilation effects used, not only the colours.I feel that the video has finished ok but there are many improvements i would make if i was to do the project again, one of these would to have a clear story from the start and aim to stick to it. Another improvement i would make would be to include a stand for the camera and keep it still. Most of the photographs that we took were by us holding the camera and then moving for the next shot, however the effect would have looked much better if the camera had stayed generally in the same place.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8AV3KGRxw64

I Pod Nano

IPod Nano

There are many reasons why I want all the products that I buy to do more for me than just to function well. This is based on everything I buy from clothes, to technology even to food. I have decided to choose my I Pod Nano as my favourite designed object that I own, I chose this based upon the amount of time I spend using the product, and also because it is one of the most valuable items that I own.

The IPod Nano I own was the first version of the Nano to be released; This version of the IPod had reduced dramatically in size from its predecessor which was the main selling point of the product. As you can see by the photos below, the mp3 player is extremely small and slim which makes the product more attractive and convenient and also includes all the required features including many more.

I wanted the IPod to do more for me at the time of purchase, rather than just to function well. I wanted people to see that I had the new Ipod to basically impress, I wanted the attention from people to eventually gain a higher social status. This can be considered more clearly when buying clothing, most people want to buy clothes that will make their appearance better, whereas they are not considering the function. For example, winter coats often look very stylish to wear but do not keep you warm during colder weather.
However I also wanted people to think that I could easily afford the Ipod, when I couldn’t so that they may think better of me. These are very vain reasons but are true with most people. I bought the Ipod at an age when I didn’t have a job and didn’t realise the value of money

The Ipod is the upper class population of the MP3 player world, basically because they are the most expensive products but also hold the most modern features on the market, these include games, clocks, and a stopwatch. These features are just add ons to the actual function of the Ipod which is to listen to MP3 tracks., therefore the Ipod is basically a fashion accessory, when compared to MP3 players that solely fit the purpose. The slim design allows the ipod to fit in any sized pocket and is not a noticeable weight.

I was wiling to pay a lot more money for the Ipod nano at the time of purchase because I had already tried other ways of listening to MP3 music. I had started off with a small MP3 player that cost around £40, it only had a small memory which I found to become a major disadvantage. I then moved on to a mini disc player. This allowed me to record as many discs as I wanted, however I found the recording process too slow. I then moved on to the first Ipod that came out on to the market, this was enormous in actual size and was a pain to carry around.
Therefore having all these different experiences with digital music players I decided that it would be more worth while to spend a lot more money on a small compact, reliable Ipod with a large memory.

Therefore personally I decided to pay extra for the Ipod with the more appealing aspects because of the bad experiences that I had with the previous MP3 players I had used in the past. I feel the need to spend more money on technology with appealing aspects is down to pressure. This pressure comes from all around, during television adverts, radio adverts, on posters and bill boards and even from friends and family. We all want to have the up to date technology because we don’t ever want to fall into the past and not be able to keep up in the future.