Creative Tech

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Looking back at the first semester of Creative Technologies, I have now developed more of an idea of where my interests are located. Before coming into this course, I had no idea in what direction to go as all my interests were jumbled up in my head (the more there are the more confusing it is...). 

Through the production of the video (Assignment 1), I was able to establish all these interests and gather them together in a more organised way but even so there were still quite a number. Through the video assignment I was also able to get a clearer view of what it is that I wanted to move onto, something where all these interests would combine into one thing. As a result of this assignment I was able to find out a lot more about myself, which was something that a struggle a lot with regularly. On addition, this assignment also gave me insight on video production, something that I had never tried before which I ended up enjoying. Overall this assignment has given me more of an idea of what to aim for through my studies...up till now this aim has not changed - only developed.

Through the blogging of the events (Assignment 2), I was able to analyse different pieces of work and how they affected people around, how they were attracted to it, how they interacted with it and how they were entertained by it. Through further research of similar pieces of work, I was also able to see different types of creativity and their affection on a greater scale (e.g. all over the world). Through this assignment I was able to gain knowledge/insight on how people would be attracted to these pieces of work, how they would be encouraged to interact with it more or be a part of it (e.g. streaks of colour follow your movements, everything fades to black if you remain still...). Through the knowledge gained from various pieces of work, I was also able to gain ideas for my own separate projects (which at the moment are still just thoughts) which play a role on what I aim to do through my studies.

So overall, after one semester of creative technologies, I now have a stronger idea of what I want to aim to achieve through my years of study and what I may want to go along to do in the future, whether its working for someone or doing my own thing.

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Yeah we ran into some ‘difficulties’ when filming. My mate forgot to bring the thing that attaches the camera to the tripod and well.....we had to improvise. As you can see the camera was attached to the tripod with a few plastic bags and adjusted firmly in place with a few highlighters and pens....We couldn't perform any hard-out and sudden movements but that wasn't an issue since these scenes had already been shot... We got the job done in the end anyways so all was good...

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I’ve now chosen the soundtracks to be implemented into my video sequence. The first soundtrack is called “Cold” composed by Jorge Mendez. This soundtrack evokes a sad instrumental atmosphere, such as when serious things have happened in ones life that are incredibly hard to move on from. Looking through the comments I noticed that through listening to this soundtrack people get the feeling that I’m attempting to establish in part of my sequence, therefore this soundtrack seemed to be a good one to use for the “descend” into depression part. The second soundtrack is Linkin Parks “Iridescent” instrumental version. Being familiar with the song due to it being linked to the transformers franchise, I remembered that its lyrics emphasized Failure and letting go of it; “Do you feel cold and lost in desperation, You build up hope but failure is all you’ve known, Remember all the sadness and frustration, and let it go...”. Through remembering this I noticed that the first line “Do you feel cold” could establish a link to the previous soundtrack “Cold” and therefore the two soundtracks can contribute with each other instead of just being a random ‘jump’. I decided to use an instrumental version of the Iridescent soundtrack as it has a more effective feeling if it were played like this rather than with the vocals on. With the vocals on, it seems like the sequence would be given quite a jump from non vocal beginning to vocal ending (e.g your silent at first and then a loud bang comes in randomly - out of flow). The soundtracks being keep instrumental keeps a good audio flow going.

Aside the soundtracks, I’ve also finished the visual part of the sequence. In other words the video is done but silent, no audio is on. The final outcome turned out to be longer than I expected. This is something that happens with my work at times, I collect a lot more research/media/materials than I probably need and end up producing a greater quantity of work than I need. For this final project I collected my media and I thought that with what I had I wasn't gonna exceed more than 2 minutes (roughly a would produce a sequence of 1 minute and a half), but things turned out the other way round...my sequence resulted in a length of 6 minutes and 20 seconds...dunno if this is good or bad. We were told that timing wasn't an obstacle, but with a timing like the one my sequence has, I'm afraid that people will begin to think that its some sort of ‘Masterpiece’ but then people don't seem to remember that just because its a great quantity doesn't mean its excellent - sometimes things with little quantity are more certain to be a ‘Masterpiece’ or something similar...Overall I guess I’m just afraid that people think this of my sequence and then it turns out to be ‘not that good’ but oh well.....

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Got all my media and did a few basic edits already, just got to put them together and polish it wherever possible...the weekends sorted...

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The game I created was inspired by the classic arcade game “Asteroids”. The objective of the game is to avoid the hazards bouncing around the canvas and survive for as long as possible. The player controls a small round “ship” with the mouse as using the mouse allows faster reactions when evading a hazard then when using the arrow keys. As the game progresses the hazards get bigger and faster as they bounce off the edges of the canvas. Obviously if this were to continue to happen then the balls would eventually grow out of the canvas so in order to avoid this, and keep the game easier to play, a power up spawns once the score hits 1500 points. Normally in games, once a player attains a power up, it disappears and it effects can no longer be used until it spawns again but the game I have created has a slight twist; it makes the power up both an ally or an enemy. The power up initializes all the hazards or in other words; it resets them. This can be both good or bad as when the hazards are reset they become easier to dodge and avoid due to their size but there also the fact that their positions change as well, so they could spawn on top of you and you would die. Overall the power up was aimed to be something that would help one survive but it has an ironic risk. The background of the canvas changes as the score gets higher and higher in order to evoke a sense of travel/journey through space. The secret page that has Ryan and all those stars bouncing around in the background was done so that if one gets frustrated they can just go to this page and have a laugh at it . The title of the game as well as the final statement on the death page were done in alien fonts in order to emphasize the fact that in this game you have to deal with alien invaders. The title translates to “Meteoron Incursio” which translates to “Meteor Invasion” (adding more to the unknown-ness). The message on the death page just says the typical thing..”Oh dear, you have died”.

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Some time ago, a bunch of us went down to the art gallery to check out the work of one of the students from creative technologies now doing his masters. I didn't really quite catch his name, but we called him TJ for short. TJs work was exhibited at the “Wavelength” section of the gallery along with three other exhibitions, but TJs was definitely the most entertaining to interact with. TJs exhibition was called “Hungry Pixels” and it did just as what is said in the description - you moved across the screen and the pixels emerged as they tracked you along. Through observation of how the exhibition worked, we noticed that the purple pixels made the outline of whoever it could detect and as the people moved along the blue pixels began to emerge. As these pixels began to be left behind they changed from blue to yellow and then from yellow to red until finally diminishing and disappearing. As the people move all you see is a mixture of all these pixels but once everyone stops moving all the pixels would eventually diminish and disappear. Through this observation TJ told us that that's exactly why the exhibition is called hungry pixels. The pixels feed off ones movement along its sensors and once one stops moving the pixels die out as there is no motion to feed on.

Similarly to the other events, this exhibition requires someone in order to function fully. If no one interacts with it then it will not do anything but sit there. Through this you could actually see the exhibition as a living organism as it does something when people interact with it, it doesn't stay there like a lifeless object. The fact that this idea is brought up through the analysis of this exhibition, sparks great interest as it gives technology a more human feeling and purpose. Most of the time technology is dominantly used for construction of products or stuff like that - they are just a machine that has one specific job and completely ignores everything else (lifeless). Even though this is true, if you make the machine interact with you in whatever way, it shows that it notices you and therefore the two of you can interact with each other. The machine may not be full with emotions and all but giving it the ability to notice you and therefore do something as a result of this makes it more fun and worthwhile to be around.

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Cutting some pieces out

After noticing that many of my old group-mates where very busy with their own work, I was reminded back to how in part of my script I would need and extra person for that specific scene. Whilst going through my script I cut out the parts that were heavily reliant on two people on the scene and rendered it back to only my character. At this point I was also reminded how some of the advice given to us about our moving image project was about having too many characters active, so through this it made more sense to cut out the extra character. With the removal of this character, I’m not expecting my sequence to be that long but as some other advice also said “the length of the video isn't an obstacle”. The character cut off wasn't really a major character and now that it has been cut off, filming has become a lot more achievable now with the time and work we have at the moment.

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I’ve now finished the creation of two of the three masks I designed for the film sequence. Originally I had three masks but due to filming out in the rain, the third mask tore apart. So at the moment I am planning on filming all the scenes using the first mask (on the right) first and therefore once those scenes are done ill quickly sketch the cracks on the mask in order to have the second mask ready for filming. The filming for the third mask have been completed and all that now left to do is take a few still image shots for it. This process will be repeated for the other two masks. One thing that does kindah bother me is the fact that the store changed the masks just slightly in dimensions, so now the newer masks are smaller and rounder than the older mask. The darkness of the masks was done with a charcoal pencil in order to be able to be smudged along the masks surface a lot easier and therefore resulting in a nicer fade. The darkness around the eyes signify the characters submersion into grieve and the growing cracks symbolize it taking control over the character, as in the character is being consumed by grieve.

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I’ve went on to make a rough sketch of what the appearance of the character will be or will be planned to be like. Since the group split, there may be the possibility that I may need to act out most of the scenes if not all, so when designing this character i kept in mind what kind of clothing I already have that could be used to portray this character in order to avoid having to make or buy a costume or something. Acting is something that I'm not very fond off when it comes to doing it in public but since this isn't like that then maybe ill have a bit more confidence.

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I have now come up with three designs for the mask that will be used through the film. The first one is the one that the character begins with as the first stage of grieve (Denial) is played through. It is given the lightest shade as it is the first stage of all but even though its just the first stage, the character has already stepped into grieve. The following mask is for when the character begins to develop anger and develops through to the bargaining stage. The mask begins to show cracks showing that the grieve is beginning to spread through to the character, so instead of seeing them as cracks you could see them as veins flowing a virus through a host. The third and final mask is the mask of depression, the darkest stage of all. In this design the cracks/veins have spread all around the mask/host and therefore have almost consumed it completely but not yet, there are a few white streaks let representing that it is not too late to do something about this depression. The images below the designs are inspirations found on the net. 

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I've now concluded my script and how the storyboard is going to be carried out. In the above screenshots I have listed the scenes of the storyboard and I have also listed a few details on what type of shots the scenes will be made up of. Throughout the script there will be various POV perspective shots in order to  make the audience more involved with the video what there are seeing. The POVs will be of both student and examiner so then this would probably make it more relate-able to us guys in the course (lecturers and students). After finishing the script, I highlighted the parts which may need filming in University grounds and also (in a different colour) highlighted the parts which I can film myself outside of University. Aside all this, I’ve also decided to have the entire film in black and white (or greyscale) in order to keep the low mood continuous throughout until the point where the character pushes back the depression and moves on. 

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Were breaking up the band....After having lots of ideas being flung around randomly and all within our group, we came to the conclusion that doing our own thing may actually be the best option. We will still work as a group in order to get the footage and media but we will work individually on our own separate vernissage. After establishing this, I went on and worked on the storyboard/script of what I’m planning on doing. I’m gonna go ahead and keep the “exam failure” story and develop the story with the order of the five stages in mind: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. I've decide to stick with the exam failure story in order to avoid giving this so much time that I could use for other things, and also the fact that it could potentially relate to most people - everyone has to have gone through some sort of failure in whatever test (school, uni, work, driving etc...) and after receiving the final grade they may have been like “I could/should have done better” and then submerging in disappointment.

As a start off I thought of having a few shots inter-cutting or panning through the exam cover, revealing what it is slowly and simultaneously displaying shots of parts of the characters mask looking at the paper before finally moving into a POV perspective shot from the character to the test (trying to make the audience see through the characters eyes, or in other words make them feel like they are part of it). Then probably have the character interact with the grade a bit (getting uneasy and stuff) before moving back to a POV shot of the character scrunching up the test (tightening his fists whilst holding the paper) as anger emerges. The character then gets up and walks over (roughly) to the professor and attempts for a re-mark of his test. Eventually the professor agrees to go over it again with other professors. The character then begins to build up “false hope” about the marking not having been done properly and that he should have got the mark he wanted. Once the test is re marked by several professors, it is given back to the character with the same grade. The character denies this again and the professors sit down along with him and go over the test. This results in the character understanding that the grade will not change and therefore this leads to him falling into depression. The depression scenes will just show the character being stuck in his own bubble of failure as he makes his way along the dark environment, emotionless (like a zombie or something). One of the scenes I’m thinking of doing for this part of the video is of the character laying down surrounded by darkness while his thoughts of failure are superimposed on top of the shot emphasizing the consumption of this depression on him. Following this, the character (curled up in a corner) notices a door via the light shining beneath it. The character decides to get himself up to his feet, supporting himself with his drawer and the wall and just as he does this he notices the paper again on top of his drawer. Some time passes before taking the test and putting it away emphasizing that he is beginning to fight back that sadness and depression. Through this process the character begins to remove his mask (which was darkening through the process of the video so far btw as if a manifestation) with slight struggle and as it comes off the character appears rather dazed as if just come out of a dark room into a lit environment (eyes adjusting) emphasizing the load that has been lifted. The character then makes for the door with a manner developing from weak and fragile to strong and confident as the “white” mask is left behind.

The notes (screenshots) I’ve posted here and previously have more details on these shots and how I plan to execute them. Overall through this video I plan to deliver something like “live is hard, but you cant let it triumph over you no matter how many times it beats you”...

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Today we had a talk with Pritika about our moving image project in order to gain more understanding of how to approach the vernissage project. Through the talk I noted down a few main points that were made about our moving image project. For the vernissage we were advised to avoid establishing multiple characters and locations, we could have around two maximum but nothing over that in order to keep simplicity. This can be done and doesn't really create much of an obstacle, so at this point were good. The white masks that were used were also said to be a bit...unconvincing as these types of masks everyone knows from the 2 dollar store. In order to solve this Pritika suggested that we edit the mask in order to make it more unique and less recognizable as a “store mask”. With my art and design background, I already have a few ideas to carry this out. Once we were done talking about the previous project we moved on to talk about our vernissage. We were planning to base the video on the five stages of grieve, and through some discussion of how we were planning to establish it, it was suggested to us that we did not have to go through all the five stages, we could show some which would most likely be more achieve-able to complete within the time that we have left. On top of this we were also informed that there was no time limits for the videos....this was the main source of stress for one of us...Sujay....Anyways, with this things pointed out we had more of an idea on what to do and what not to do for the vernissage.

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Here are some of my ideas towards this project:

So we have established that we will continue to use the white emotionless masks from our last project in order to symbolize the grieve that has began to grow within the character. I was thinking that as the character begins to go deeper into the stages the mask itself will become darker (dirtier, smudged or obscured) evoking the consumption of grieve. At the point of depression, the mask would be almost completely blocked by darkness and only have a few weak white patches still left around it showing that its still not too late to do something about this grieve, that you can still come out of it (re-emerge fro that dark abyss).

For the play through of the video, maybe we could start with several cross-cutting, panning and transitions of the exam paper (displaying name, year, subject etc..) eventually leading to the final grade mark. Doing this could give a point of view perspective and therefore make the audience see through the eyes of the character. After this we could have  the character already with the mask on as he looks at his paper (we show shots of the head along with the shots of the test paper before displaying an overall establishing shot). This way we wont have to worry about when and how we put on the mask on him. From this point onwards we move through the stages of grieve. Towards the end we could have the character removing his mask, struggling through and once it comes of the character looks rather dazed as if he has finally seen the light after being in a dark room for such a long period of time. The character then begins to slowly walk out the room, gathering himself up and collecting his thoughts before beginning to walk in a more confident manner out the door establishing that he is starting to get over it and move forward. As the character makes his stride out the door away from the camera, the camera pans down slowly to the mask being abandoned, forgotten and no longer an issue. After this final scene and before the credits (if we make any) we could display a message that we want the audience to take in from our project; something such as “things will happen through life and sometimes the world will be a complete bitch, but in the end its up to oneself to chose whether to have the strength to get up and keep pushing forward, or just give up and not accomplish anything at all....the choice is yours”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk82j1jQw_8 - this video probably gives a bettter understanding of what I mean..

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We have now briefly come up with a skeleton structure for our project. Similar to our moving image project based on sadness, we are planning to base this project on the negative side of things once again but this time we are engaging with the five stages of loss and grieve otherwise known as the Kübler-Ross model.  In order to display this to an audience, we need to have some sort of story that emphasizes each one of these stages and the process of going through them. So to keep things simple and not have to be stuck on this part of the project for that long (times short and stuff), we decided to go along and tell the story of an individual who has failed an exam. Doing the story based on a failed exam (or not getting the marks you wished) can also be more relate-able to most of the audience as probably most of them have gone though such a things at some point in their lives (e.g. “oh i could have done better...” etc). The five stages being explored are: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Through our last project we mostly dealt with depression and acceptance so as well as polishing these a bit more (and making them fit with our new story), we may be able to focus more on the first three stages. 

For Denial, we are gonna have the character finding out the about the grades he and everyone else got, and after having a look a his own grade he becomes heavily in denial. He placed so much work, effort and dedication towards this exam and he ends up getting a lower mark than most of the other students who didn't even make as much of an effort and just slacked off. As a result of this the character becomes to feel more anger - all the slackers got really good marks and him, who studied and all, got a very poor one. The character then begins to believe that there has been some sort of mistake during the marking process and that it must be redone. through this he begins to build up “false” hope that he will get a greater mark. Once the paper has been re marked a few dozen times by different teachers, the mark remains the same. Having gone through the answers further establishes this. Realizing that the mark he got is the real thing, the character begins to fall into depression as he has been shattered by what has happened...all that time and effort, for nothing - nothing will ever change that grade and it will remain like that. Finally after some time, the character then begins to accept what has happened. He may have failed then, but that doesn't mean he will always fail - if he remains the way he is he may expect to fail again and again, but if you pick yourself up and keep moving forward learning from your mistakes and letting go of the past...you may succeed where you failed before, you just need to put your mind to it.

Making mistakes is part of learning, if you don't make them how will you learn to develop your work and how to improve yourself onwards. Days where you fail will come and go, if you let this failure consume you into not trying to do anything about it ever again, then this choice may have a huge impact on your future life...don't give in and keep moving forward, I guess...the past is the past - focus on what will come...

[isthisprogress]

Project 4: Vernissage - Ideas (25/05/15)

Idea 1:

Making two videos and synchronising them through two projectors. 

Sub-Idea 1:

The videos would contrast each in content where one would be very dark and gritty, and the other would more comedic and cheerful. The only challenge with this that creating a single soundscape that captures both videos; would be difficult. 

Sub-Idea 2:

One video would show our character going through the real world and the other shows what is going on in his mind. The challenging part is keeping the real world interesting.

Idea 2:

Making a longer and more detailed video than the prior assignment.

Sub-Idea 1:

Making something very comedic that is more of a parody.  

Sub-Idea 2:

Exploring the ‘Five stages of Grief’:

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

Idea 3:

Making a video that is split between two perspectives; either top and down, or left and right. 

Sub-Idea 1:

Have two different people moving through the world, with a different lifestyle.

Sub-Idea 2:

Make a video that mimics a split-screen verses match, simalar to that of a video game.

[niishbct]

(via Image tagged in gifs)

[isthisprogress]

Let’s make this into a meme.