CREATIVE MEDIA PRACTICE: FINAL THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS

Some weeks after finishing 'The Beer' here are a summaration and collection of thoughts I had about the final project.

• The feedback I have recieved from it by sharing the video on social media has been positive - many seem to have gotten the experience and enjoyed it in a way I imagined and hoped they would. The views on the first video (the true indication of how people watched it) have also reached 100 - which for me of my reputation on YouTube is very good.
• I'm particularly proud of what I achieved by myself. Compared to what I achieved with my last YouTube annotation video I felt I fully explored the uses of annotations and feel like I created an expereince that uses them in an engaging and unique way.
• On watching back I would like to make the experience larger - I would achieve this by adding more clues and more 'rooms' for the audience to explore. The idea of also including more potential suspects is something else I would look to add.
• I would have liked to improve the production quality of the project. Issues with booking meant that the professional lighting rig we had booked was not avaliable for us when we came to film the project meaning we had to make do with room lighting. Whilst it isn't too much of a distraction there were better options avaliable that I wished I had explored.
• On some of the shots I had to get in a second camera man to help out whilst I either sorted out the lighting or to focus on directing. Whilst I was a fan of some of his camera work, there were some inconsistancies between his style of camera work and my own. One of these was his use of pull focus which led to some of the shots being out of focus. If I was to do this again I would keep one consistent camera man - whether it be myself or someone else - to have a distinguished look to the film.
• Actors were also hard to come by and I used a lot of friends to be in this project. Whilst their attempts were valiant and I was appreciative of what they did for me - if I could have got in contact with actors and actresses who were comfortable to perform this could have improved the final product.
• One of the most interesting thing to note is the amount each views the videos get. As noted before, we recieved a 100 clicks on the first but interestingly the definitive end video has only reached 30 views. I would like to look into whether this was due to people losing interest in the story and if so how could I improve it.

In conclusion, whilst I accept on a production level there were obvious flaws with 'The Beer' in terms of exploration and reflecting on what I created I was satisfied. I felt I made exactly what I set out to do and this is something I would definitely be interested in looking into again - I have already made plans for a possible sequel or entirally different YouTube annotation video with hope to explore new different and unique possibilities!

CREATIVE MEDIA PRACTICE: THE FINAL PROJECT

CREATIVE MEDIA PRACTICE: Project Development

With the narrative already in place, just with some minor adjustments and tweaks, I decided that my next point of call would be to find some new and varied inspiration for my project.

One of the initial videos I found was Christopher Bingham's (aka slomozovo) 'B.R.O.X.' - an unfinished project he released some point last year.

 This grabbed my attention immediately as it was exactly what I wanted to create. This idea of using annotations he created a small world for his viewers to interact with. This reminded me very much of PC Games, such as the Monkey Island series of games in which viewers would point and click around a world finding things to interact with to find clues and information on how to progress.

 

 

With this in mind I started to adapt the script. I envisaged there being two 'main' screens of this video in being the Living Room and Kitchen in which both these rooms the viewer could click on various objects or people to gather clues. I also created a 'web' in a notebook of how I would envisage linking the videos together.

 

AN EXAMPLE OF A 'MAP'

 

I had to make sure that each video had a way of linking back to one of the main screens and also this map made it easier for programming the annotations when it came to uploading them.

 

The filming took a good part of a day with me directing the shoot with someone on hand to take camera duties if I needed help. Editting and uploading the video was also undertaken by me entirally. 

 



CREATIVE MEDIA PRACTICE: The Final Project Outline

After exploring all the different posibilities CMP had to offer it was time to pick one area to explore in particular. For me it was a choice between either triptychs and YouTube annotations. These were the two areas I felt like I was most interested in and that I had most interest in explore when I did. What was my final deciding factor was what I felt most satisfied in what I explored. This, as I had established in my previous blogs, meant that I would pick to do a YouTube annotation video.

As said before, I felt a bit fustrated at the lack of ambition I felt I showed myself after making my previous video after realising the full potential of annotations. I wanted to really create a story that the audience could interact with. Something that was a bit more complicated and less simple as what I did previously.

For a long while I've been part of a YouTube channel called 'SpaceCat', along with a few friends off this course and Film Studies. On this channel we create short sketches and little films. One of scripts I had written for it was called 'The Beer' in which the story is that one of the characters loses one of his beers and decides to interrogate all the characters in an overly intense manner. This sketch was initially filmed but due to a variety of reasons never got released. I decided that this script would be perfect for a story as not only could I develop the 'interview' idea shown previously in 'Washing Up' I could try to incorporate scenes where the protagonist could look for clues and the like.

CREATIVE MEDIA PRACTICE: YOUTUBE ANNOTATION

Before I start I must say one thing: I love YouTube.

I love it as a fan, I love it as a media student and I love it for what it stands for as a platform. It gives so much in terms of procastination, inspiration and the hope that I can make someone and broadcast it to potentially millions is something I find fantastic.

The other thing I'm a fan of is interaction - giving the audience the chance to become involved or even in control of a story is someone that excites me and in this day of media with the technology we have avaliable to us is something that is getting more possible every day.

The fact in this module I had the chance to explore both of these things coming together was a dream to me.

YouTube Annotations are, in short, a link that can be programmed into the video player. They have been used in many different ways from what I have seen. They can be used as links to other videos, advertisments to other channels or even a means of way to subscribe. This creates an easy way of navigating the network systems which most 'YouTubers' like to do. In the past the audience would have to scroll down and try to find the links in the small and complication 'info box' which may have previously been lost in a variety of text and mass of hyperlinks but now with annotations there was now a simple and easy way to do this.

The other possibility created through annotations was the interactive video. This is something I wanted to look into the most. My main source of inspiration came from the works of 'WheezyWaiter', a YouTube comedy blogger who often dabbles in multi choice adventure videos from time to time.

 

From this me, Josie Webster and Ian Gardner ("Why's it alway us three?") decided to do something similar about an issue that reigns supreme in our flat: washing up.

 

We decided to make a short interactive video in which the viewers aim is to try and get my character out of doing the washing up. We were quite proud of what we did for a first time effort but looking back there were many things that I wasn't happy about. For me it was too simple and that the idea of 'multi choice' wasn't really that obvious as the viewer was forced to go down one particular path. I also felt upon realising how easy it was to make one how much more complicated and expansive we could make the experience. It was these doubts that played a great influence in me picking my final project.

CREATIVE MEDIA PRACTICE: QR CODES

QR Codes was the only lecture I missed in CMP - so I will instead use this time to discuss my overall experience of QR Codes in this blog.

QR Codes are vastly becoming one of the best ways for companies to advertise or promote their products. QR in short is 'Quick Response'. The idea was first developed in Japanese car manufacturing as a mean to track vechiles production progress. Now, only recently, companies are using them as ways of reaching out to their intended markets. Using the technology of the smart phone which can recognise and read QR Codes which can link to sites allowing more information about or even where to buy the product in question. Perhaps the most bizarre example of them being used is where some people are even using QR Codes on gravestones to allow passerbys to gain more information about the deceased person their walking past.
I have used and explored QR codes in the past year of University in a similar module. We had to create an interactive media based story for a wide audience which used a range of different media elements. Myself, Mark Nugent and Ian Garder made a story where our reader started recieving messages from the future warning them about a politician called John Place who was only then a canidate but in the future becomes an evil tyrant who in the future brings about nuclear warfare.

One of the interactive elements was QR Codes. As part of our presentation we said we would place QR codes around Britains major cities (London, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Cardiff etc.) near key important locations showing them in the future to portray the dispotian horror of it all.

I found working with QR Codes there was a great sense of limitation. It was a handy and 'cool' way of sharing links but it was the content of the links that overshadowed the QR Code. They are by all means important today, however, and actually it was from working with them that inspired me to download a QR Code reader for my own phone to explore when I find them today.

CREATIVE MEDIA PRACTICE: ISADORA

Isadora for me was the one programme in particular that I looked at in this module that both excited me and infuriated me.

Isadora was created by Mark Coniglio. It's initial purpose was to enhance the performances of Troika Ranch, a media interactive dance company he was associated with. Isadora, according to its own site, is 'easy, flexiable, reliable and powerful'. It's an extensive programme that allows a wide range of inputs from its audience, from a simple mouse click to voice control and even motion, to create a truly awe-inspiring media experience.

We were set the task of creating an interactive media experience set around the theme of Halloween. Having just been introduced to Isadora that day and being told of its almost unlimitless possibilities did, in short, blow my small, Welsh mind initially. Normally I like to know the constraints of a project so I know my limits, however being told I could do everything with anything instead of expanding my creative horizons brought to a crushing thud. I was a bit overwhelmed. Members of my team were suggesting ideas and I had no idea if they were possible or impossible or what I could add or what we should take away.

Plus then there's the 'easy, flexiable and reliable' programming that comes with Isadora.

 

For someone who admittenly isn't much with programming the maze Isadora's presents you again frazzled me. In the end I was resorting to following the little red paths you create like a 5 year old with a 'follow the snail trail' game in a childrens magazine. We made a product eventually that I was proud with, but I felt personally coming out of Isadora that I was never in control of anything.

However, I don't want to appear like I hated or didn't appreciate Isadora. As someone who is a fan of allowing audience interaction I could see the benefits of Isadora in so many ways. I think I would need more time and experience of the product to gain a full benefit. This was a case of a kid being given the keys to a Ferrari when he had only recently passed his driving test. A surreal analogy, but one that I feel would suffice for explaining my relationship with this product.