Interactives5-followupproject

HAND,PIX&BLOGGER

After completing the 'BrainOperation' Interactive project I decided to construct another of my own interactive in the form of an 'interactive portfolio'....

...I done this to practise with Flash/ActionScript. It allows viewers to navigate through some of my selected work. You can look at my hand drawn work, photo's and links to my my online Blog & gallery. Allot of the buttons are invisible so look out for 'back' text...

HAND,PIXandBLOGGER by ~teebiebaby on deviantART

For the main picture I used some Christmas wrapping paper... I was wrapping some Christmas presents and noticed the highly reflective surface on the reverse side. I taped a piece onto a door, pushed my face onto it, screwed up the paper abit and took the photo. I edited me out of the photo. I thought it worked quite well... and considering I couldn't get a raw image like this through using PhotoShop adds to the sense of the image being totally unique.

T.

Interactives4-TROYSBRAINOPERATION(SUBMITTED)

TROYSBRAINOPERATION

Here is my finished effort... the voice are so dumb dont judge me too hard...

BrainOperation by ~teebiebaby on deviantART

Interactives3-InteractiveHeadsplat

WORKFLOWDESIGN2

EVALUATION
When given this project my instinct was to freeze up as previous experience's with Flash didn't go my way. However I approached it with a fresh head and accepted what I might be able to gain from being able to use this software. I knew that I needed all my scenes, buttons and sounds ready so got on with those. Before the main 'find a character' screen I'd have a main screen, on that you can select 'me', from there the next screen would be of my brain which you can click to bring up the 'find a character' screen.

AM I HAPPY?...
Considering that I'm not used to this program I found the development quite painful. However my persistence paid off as I figured out how to program the navigation of my project. Ive always liked this picture and it feels great to know that I programmed behaviour for it to be interacted with. Taking the creation a level further in turn helping me develop another format for my design work. This project has taught me the most so far and has proved useful in helping me to understand Flash&ActionScript.

Interactives2

TASK

Produce own intercative narrative, using FlashCS3/FlashActionScript.

THOUGHTS

Hmmmmmmm? Flash?..... erm?... not too great on Flash, but this gives me a perfect reason to get kinda good with it.

Ive always wanted to interact with some of the characters I draw. This would be the perfect oppourtunity to do so. I chose this picture because its full of weird characters and would be fun to record all the voices.

HEADSPLAT-TroyBrowne

CONCEPT

Interactive Image. The idea would be to select a character out of a busy crowd, they will say something and you'll be able to go back and select another.

WORKFLOWDESIGN1

T.

Interactives1

Action VS Interaction

Most parts of my day are spent interacting with some sort of interactive computerised interface. I wake up to my mobile phones alarm, I scramble, half asleep try and interact with the snooze button as quick as I can. The kettle goes on(interaction most important) Then wake up to some breakfast comedy on channel4. I'll be flicking over and adverts and programs urging me to press the red button and visit this certain website...

(Television now boasts its interactivity services. It lets you pause, record and re watch missed programs. With all this choice and so many users, an easy-to-use interface must of been of high importance to the developers)

OK... so Ive left my house... I'm Interacting with my phone again to get the MP3player on. Mobile phone technology nowadays allows you control allot of created content such as video, images, music etc all with a user friendly control system. Because of the mass popularity of mobile phones, mass accessibility was priority for happy users

The most important Interactive in my life is the PersonalComputer. It allows you to create written documents, write programming, create sound/music files, create&print imagery, create video, prepare presentations... etc.

Which brings me on to the Internet. Most of advertisements on the web is someway interactive. Rather than watching advertising on screen it allows users to engage with a subject in their own direction and on their own terms, in turn creating a successful interaction.

T.

OneShotShortMovie2

DAY2
...because we couldn't cut scenes, the thought of having physical cuts seemed more interesting. Because of where we were(apartment block) the elevator doors seemed to act as perfect physical cuts between the different floors. Elevators go either up or down and we all tried to capture that in a narrative sense. Someone suggested relationships and the different levels in which you engage with the person your in a relationship with;

At the start of a relationship (first contact) things are good, laughing, flirting, intimacy etc.

The middle part of a relationship it could have turned abit sour so maybe there are arguments, fighting, trust issues etc.

The last part of any relationship is sad for one or the other, crying, begging, guilt etc.

CONCEPT
a man would get into a lift and go down to the ground floor. He would encounter three characters each displaying a level of engagement with his or her partner.

Man in lift - Steven Bailey - 'Impatient operator' - Tense, fidgety, sighs allot, interaction between characters.

1st floor - Laurel Plain-Jones - 'First contact with partner' - Happy, laughing, arranging to meet up again, compliments.

2nd floor - Troy Browne - 'Middle part-Argument' - Angry, shouting/cursing, threatening.

3rd floor - Jacqui Pickup - 'Last part-Breakup' - Crying, debating breaking up.

Camera - Realexis Christofides - Shoot limited space, don't move camera.

STORYBOARD

FILMING

Filming was an issue as a caretaker was doing his rounds when we were filming, so on a couple of occasions we were interrupted by vacuuming. Our 'performances' wasn't too bad however the time in between floors was too long and not much was going on. We were interrupted again at the bottom by a guy waiting for the lift, which highlights the importance of having control over a set.

LEVELS (SUBMITTED EDIT)

AM I HAPPY?

To be honest... not really. I don't think the characters expressed enough, the level of engagement with their partner. In all not enough was happening. The physical cuts was the best input however if we'd utilised this further I think the outcome would have been more interesting. A way we could have done this would to have had each floor make a significant impact, by possibly having more than one person on each floor... maybe a crowd of people all at the same levels of engagement with their partner IE; first floor, doors open and 20 people are there, all flirting, laughing and joking with their soon-to-be.
I feel that this project to be quite 'closed' due to the short time frame in which we had to work with and minimal allowance on camera movement. Allot of our ideas were shot back to suit the requirements.
I haven't finished thinking of new concepts for this brief and intend to work on my own over Christmas.

T.

OneShotShortMovie3

DAY2 - cont...
A quick experiment for 'one shot'. Our group decided to throw 20 balloons over the side of a 6 storey staircase and film from both top and bottom positions.
For this experiment I wanted to have a narrated story told. Something sad, as when I watched the balloons falling I realised a calming feeling. The balloons gave me the idea for a story about a child's birthday, told from his slightly older sisters point-of-view.I decided to make my own soundtrack on Fruityloops I considered the mood of the footage and thought a toy box sound would be ideal. Id have the story dialogue overlaid.

'BALLOONSTAIRCASE' experiment

OUTCOME?? Poor camera quality, not enough balloons.However I thought the sound worked ok... sound quality was an issue as I recorded it using my crappy laptop and crappy laptop mic, but hey Im only playing around.

T.

OneShotShortMovie1

TASK
We were asked to produce a 2minute short film. Using only one angle we were asked to produce content using either 'Meeting' or 'Irritation' as a title.
GROUP
Laurel Plain-Jones, Jacqui Pickup, Realexis Christofides and myself.
CONCEPT
We all decided that 'Irritation' would be our title. We realised the importance of irritating with everything we shown in shot. Irritate with the angle/viewpoint, irritate with the content etc...

After brainstorming we decided to have an aggravated situation with the camera out of view of it. An argument of some sort but only picking up the sound.

The irritating angle would be shot behind a bench, between the slats on the backrest, reducing the viewpoint and annoying the audience.

The scene would be of a girl sitting on the bench with her back to the camera, her phone goes off (so brings the annoying interference a mobile phone has on audible technology), the girl answers and is quite obnoxious, meanwhile in the background a group of people are having an argument. The girl (whom is face-less) sometimes blocks the view of the argument hopefully irritating the audience further as they (audience) normally plied with explanation are given none and is continually getting blocked from working out whats happening for themselves.

STORYBOARD
SUMMARY
The filming was really funny to act out as Laurel and I were the 'arguers'. It was hard to keep a straight face whilst making up things to argue about. I was happy with what came out and feel we considered 'Irritation' into everything we shot.
However for some reason the cameras settings were wrong and the footage was shot in frames and lost all the sound, factors that will be highlighted from the start of the next project.
Deborah (lecturer) thought it worked well and understood all the 'irritation' factors we included.