At the beginning of this project I was daunted by the idea of having to use Flash, as all of the other examples we were shown were flash based. After a bit of research I decided to make a movie, as editing is more of a key area for me to work in. I started looking at Lev Manovich for my theory research. After reading some of his book ‘Language of New Media’ I read that new media has to be mentally interactive as well as physical. An example he showed was a film made in 1929 Soviet Union called ‘The Man With The Camera’ and it was an avant-garde film consisting of shots of objects and places. Manovich explains how the film is about representation, and how the viewer has to mentally interact with the film to understand its meaning and context.
Once I got into the filming stage the project cam a lot more interesting. After filming I made three edits for my project, but then realized I needed all the edits to be in sync with each other. So I had to spend hours re-editing. The problem was one edit had too much at the start and one had too much at the end, so after many hours of editing I finally got three edits that were all in sync. I then put the edits into flash and made a mock up site. After the crit I had a fair few changes to make. First was the fact that none of the characters were introduced properly, also I needed to show how the real website would look, so I had to make a mock up of the showing someone hovering over the clip and it becoming bigger.
After I made the changes I think my product turned out successfully, I think my video related well to the theory side of the project, and I think the overall project was a success, I think the changes I made, made the whole project look and feel better.
Friday, 12 December 2008
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Dziga Vertov. The Man With a Movie Camera
'The Man With The Movie Camera' is a Russian film made by avant-garde film directer Dziga Vertov in 1929. This film is is refered to alot in Lev Manovich's 'language of New Media'. Manovich refers to it alot as the film only contains shots of objects and people that are only on shot for a few seconds and the shots are accompanied by a small sentence briefly explaining what's in the shot. Manovich talks about the films, narrative and filming style, and how for its time was pushing the boundaries of filming styles.
"It proposes an untamed, and apparently endless unwinding of
cinematic techniques, or, to use contemporary language, ‘effects’, as cinema's
new way of speaking.”
'The Man With The Movie Camera' is trying to provoke viewers by tempting them interact with the film, trying to get the viewers to understand what the directer is saying and pushing the viewer to make their own assumptions and opinions,
"Along with Vertov, we gradually realize the full range of possibilities offered
by the camera. Vertov's goal is to seduce us into his way of seeing and thinking,
to make us share his excitement, his gradual process of discovery of film's new
language. This process of discovery is film's main narrative and it is told through
a catalog of discoveries being made. Thus, in the hands of Vertov, a database, this
normally static and "objective" form, becomes dynamic and subjective. More
importantly, Vertov is able to achieve something which new media designers and
artists still have to learn — how to merge database and narrative merge into a new
form.”
I find the film very interesting, for a film made over 70 years ago it still has originality about it, its still challenging minds of the viewers, raising questions. I see the film as a way to make my video, to create something that challenges the viewer, engaging them. Making the question whats going on, and coming away with their own meaning and understanding. This is a hard task to achieve for a student, but something i hope to work on.
The Man With The Camera. Clip taken from 'Youtube' and is part 2 of the film.
"It proposes an untamed, and apparently endless unwinding of
cinematic techniques, or, to use contemporary language, ‘effects’, as cinema's
new way of speaking.”
'The Man With The Movie Camera' is trying to provoke viewers by tempting them interact with the film, trying to get the viewers to understand what the directer is saying and pushing the viewer to make their own assumptions and opinions,
"Along with Vertov, we gradually realize the full range of possibilities offered
by the camera. Vertov's goal is to seduce us into his way of seeing and thinking,
to make us share his excitement, his gradual process of discovery of film's new
language. This process of discovery is film's main narrative and it is told through
a catalog of discoveries being made. Thus, in the hands of Vertov, a database, this
normally static and "objective" form, becomes dynamic and subjective. More
importantly, Vertov is able to achieve something which new media designers and
artists still have to learn — how to merge database and narrative merge into a new
form.”
I find the film very interesting, for a film made over 70 years ago it still has originality about it, its still challenging minds of the viewers, raising questions. I see the film as a way to make my video, to create something that challenges the viewer, engaging them. Making the question whats going on, and coming away with their own meaning and understanding. This is a hard task to achieve for a student, but something i hope to work on.
The Man With The Camera. Clip taken from 'Youtube' and is part 2 of the film.
Bruce Naumen, Good Boy, Bad Boy
Bruce Naumen created a installation in the 'Tate' gallery, where he had two screens with one woman saying that everything is great, and the other screen had a man contradicting everything the woman said. The two videos are shot in the same way with Portrait close-ups. The video challenges the viewers to interact with the videos. The viewer is prompted to make a choice of which character they choose to follow or believe.
Lev Manovich talks about this new form of producing cinema in his book "Language Of New Media"*. Manovich talks alot about the evolution of technology, in particular the evolution of cinema, Manovich is trying to say that all technology is growing and cinema is trying to catch up, by developing new styles, new meanings and new perspectives, all to distribute data. He refers to a style of filming that i think relates to Naumen's video.
" a time-based mosaics of different shots — in the
end of the century it came with the technique to accomplish the similar result
without montage. In digital compositing, the elements are not juxtaposed but
blended, with their boundaries erased rather than foregrounded."
Here he's talking about taking different shots from within a film, or different angles and putting them together to create new meanings, changing the perspectives of the viewer. Manovich goes onto say
"we can better understand how this new key technique of
assembling moving images redefines our concepts of a moving image"
I think Manovich is trying to say how new forms of cinema are evolving to reach out and interact with the users, and this is what i think Bruce Naumen is trying to do. He has taken two different shots of two people contradicting each other and blended them so the viewer interacts with the cinema making their own assumptions and opinions based on the video they want to see.
*Lev Manovich Language of New Media, 2001, MIT Press
Quotes= Chapter 3 Composting, Compositing and New Types of Montage
Bruce Naumen, Good Boy, Bad Boy.
Video Is from 'Youtube' and is shot in the 'Tate' Gallery
Lev Manovich talks about this new form of producing cinema in his book "Language Of New Media"*. Manovich talks alot about the evolution of technology, in particular the evolution of cinema, Manovich is trying to say that all technology is growing and cinema is trying to catch up, by developing new styles, new meanings and new perspectives, all to distribute data. He refers to a style of filming that i think relates to Naumen's video.
" a time-based mosaics of different shots — in the
end of the century it came with the technique to accomplish the similar result
without montage. In digital compositing, the elements are not juxtaposed but
blended, with their boundaries erased rather than foregrounded."
Here he's talking about taking different shots from within a film, or different angles and putting them together to create new meanings, changing the perspectives of the viewer. Manovich goes onto say
"we can better understand how this new key technique of
assembling moving images redefines our concepts of a moving image"
I think Manovich is trying to say how new forms of cinema are evolving to reach out and interact with the users, and this is what i think Bruce Naumen is trying to do. He has taken two different shots of two people contradicting each other and blended them so the viewer interacts with the cinema making their own assumptions and opinions based on the video they want to see.
*Lev Manovich Language of New Media, 2001, MIT Press
Quotes= Chapter 3 Composting, Compositing and New Types of Montage
Bruce Naumen, Good Boy, Bad Boy.
Video Is from 'Youtube' and is shot in the 'Tate' Gallery
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Timecode
Timecode is a film made in 2000 by Mike Figgis, the film has 4 shots, and is shown in real-time. No editing, just 4 shots in which the viewer edits the film in their own mind by choosing which screen they follow. The film relates a lot to the video i want to make, by having videos play simultaneously and the viewer can choose which screen they go along.
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1493041433/
This Youtube video has been made by some American students in a case study referring to Timecode. They talk about readings by Lev Manovich. They talk bout his theories about new media and how media is evolving rapidly. They make a point that some cinema media is evolving and moving away from standard linear films. Thus referring to Timecode, they say that Timecode is based on a time code, and the fact that because in the film you see 4 shots of each time code the viewer chooses which time code they watch thus making their own edit and interacting with the film, the viewer see's what they want to see in the film, they see 4 shots as a whole but the attention is based on one shot, this is something which relates heavily to my work. Although this is a student project i found it very useful research and gave me some ideas to base my theory work.
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1493041433/
This Youtube video has been made by some American students in a case study referring to Timecode. They talk about readings by Lev Manovich. They talk bout his theories about new media and how media is evolving rapidly. They make a point that some cinema media is evolving and moving away from standard linear films. Thus referring to Timecode, they say that Timecode is based on a time code, and the fact that because in the film you see 4 shots of each time code the viewer chooses which time code they watch thus making their own edit and interacting with the film, the viewer see's what they want to see in the film, they see 4 shots as a whole but the attention is based on one shot, this is something which relates heavily to my work. Although this is a student project i found it very useful research and gave me some ideas to base my theory work.
Friday, 21 November 2008
Night of The Living Dead
I have decided to make my interactive music video a lot more interesting by giving it a twist. I'm going to make it a zombie movie. The story will be short and simple, but i want to give the effect of a zombie film. so I've been looking at zombie films to get an idea of filming styles and techniques that i need to use in order to make a effective looking video.
First i looked at 'Night of The Living Dead' by George A. Romero, the filming style is quite jumpy with lots of cuts and quick moving shots, i think this looks very effective and creates a good sense of style. I need to capture this style so my people will recognize my video as a zombie film, i wan to do this as zombie films have a very unique, yet slightly B-movie style to them.
I've also looked at '28 Days Later' by Danny Boyle. As a recent zombie films it still keeps the same style of traditional zombie films, with the fast editing and the dark shots, but i think it looks very effective and has an amazing style, a style which i hope to not replicate but have a similar look.
First i looked at 'Night of The Living Dead' by George A. Romero, the filming style is quite jumpy with lots of cuts and quick moving shots, i think this looks very effective and creates a good sense of style. I need to capture this style so my people will recognize my video as a zombie film, i wan to do this as zombie films have a very unique, yet slightly B-movie style to them.
I've also looked at '28 Days Later' by Danny Boyle. As a recent zombie films it still keeps the same style of traditional zombie films, with the fast editing and the dark shots, but i think it looks very effective and has an amazing style, a style which i hope to not replicate but have a similar look.
Dead Set
As research i looked at e4's dead set, which is a zombie style film set in the big brother house, I'm looking at this for filming styles, and ways to edit my video.
On the website i found this interactive video which is an advert for the show. You type in your name in the box and a video plays, the video is of a character from the show in the diary room, and she writes on the wall in her won blood "help me" and the she writes your name. I think the is very shocking and effective, as its very creepy to see some write your name in blood on a wall.
http://www.unseenscreen.com/
On the website i found this interactive video which is an advert for the show. You type in your name in the box and a video plays, the video is of a character from the show in the diary room, and she writes on the wall in her won blood "help me" and the she writes your name. I think the is very shocking and effective, as its very creepy to see some write your name in blood on a wall.
http://www.unseenscreen.com/
Monday, 17 November 2008
Andrew Cameron Dissimulations The Illusion Of Interactivity
In Camerons book he talks about narrative and its relation to interactivity. He says
"The form of the story permeates every aspect of our cultural life. History, politics, memories, even subjectivity, our sense of identity, are all representations in narrative form. Signifier's chained together in temporal, spatial and casual sequence. Narrative is a component of those deep structures with which we construct ourselves and our universe."
I think here Cameron's saying that what we experience as human beings creates narrative, we create narrative in what we see and here. This helps me in my creative design, as what I’m creating a narrative but as the user gets to apply there own feel to it as they change what they see they are interacting with the product in there own way.
"The form of the story permeates every aspect of our cultural life. History, politics, memories, even subjectivity, our sense of identity, are all representations in narrative form. Signifier's chained together in temporal, spatial and casual sequence. Narrative is a component of those deep structures with which we construct ourselves and our universe."
I think here Cameron's saying that what we experience as human beings creates narrative, we create narrative in what we see and here. This helps me in my creative design, as what I’m creating a narrative but as the user gets to apply there own feel to it as they change what they see they are interacting with the product in there own way.
Blu-Ray DVD's
For my multi-screen idea one way of making the product would to be using Blu-ray DVD's, using Adobe Encore you can set buttons so the user can change between the viewpoints.
although this is a rarely used option it does give me some ideas. The only problem with using this technology is will the user be happy with a drop down menu in the way of the screen as they change between shots, also how easy would it be to change shots compared to a Flash website
This link is to a website talking about the new technologies of blu-ray dvd's
http://www.blu-ray.com/info/
although this is a rarely used option it does give me some ideas. The only problem with using this technology is will the user be happy with a drop down menu in the way of the screen as they change between shots, also how easy would it be to change shots compared to a Flash website
This link is to a website talking about the new technologies of blu-ray dvd's
http://www.blu-ray.com/info/
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Arcade Fire Neon Bible Interactive Music Video
http://www.beonlineb.com/click_around.html
This music video works by the user clicking on the hands and head, each time they are clicked they perform different animations, the animation is broken up into segments so only certain movements work at certain times in the video. I think this video is made in flash with buttons activating the movies.
i think the video is very clever as it keeps the viewer interested throughout the video as it changes in animation.
This music video works by the user clicking on the hands and head, each time they are clicked they perform different animations, the animation is broken up into segments so only certain movements work at certain times in the video. I think this video is made in flash with buttons activating the movies.
i think the video is very clever as it keeps the viewer interested throughout the video as it changes in animation.
Beyond Myth and Metaphor
After reading an article by Marie-Laure Ryan on narrative, and how it communicates the viewers emotions and actions i've started to get an idea on the work i want to produce.
http://gamestudies.org/0101/ryan/
Ryan says
"The most prominent reason for acting in life is problem-solving. It is therefore the most fundamental narrative pattern."
She relates narrative to being like a jig-saw, the viewer has to see the information and put it together and form a sense of understanding.
This text is helping me understand how to start on my designing, i need to create something that the user has to use their brain and mentally interact with the product. At this early stage my idea is to create a movie with a Non-linear structure, so when the user views the movie they have to put the narrative together mentally in there head, so there fore they are interacting with the media, and creating their own experience.
Ryan's text on relating to the narrative jig-saw
"the reader tries to construct a narrative image from fragments that come to her in a more or less random order, by fitting each lexia into a global pattern that slowly takes shape in the mind. Just as we can work for a time on a puzzle, leave it, and come back to it later, readers of hypertext do not start a new story from scratch every time they open the program, but rather construe a mental representation over many sessions, completing or amending the picture put together so far. "
http://gamestudies.org/0101/ryan/
Ryan says
"The most prominent reason for acting in life is problem-solving. It is therefore the most fundamental narrative pattern."
She relates narrative to being like a jig-saw, the viewer has to see the information and put it together and form a sense of understanding.
This text is helping me understand how to start on my designing, i need to create something that the user has to use their brain and mentally interact with the product. At this early stage my idea is to create a movie with a Non-linear structure, so when the user views the movie they have to put the narrative together mentally in there head, so there fore they are interacting with the media, and creating their own experience.
Ryan's text on relating to the narrative jig-saw
"the reader tries to construct a narrative image from fragments that come to her in a more or less random order, by fitting each lexia into a global pattern that slowly takes shape in the mind. Just as we can work for a time on a puzzle, leave it, and come back to it later, readers of hypertext do not start a new story from scratch every time they open the program, but rather construe a mental representation over many sessions, completing or amending the picture put together so far. "
Friday, 7 November 2008
Ident Evaluation
For this project I had bad time management, I left the animating stage of the process till the last two weeks when we had no teaching, so working without teachers was very hard. So when it cam to crit time I was given a lot of changes to make, and a lot of work to do. I created myself a list of changes that needed to be made; once I started working I began to slowly start ticking of changes on the list. After I made all the changes I finally finished my idents. With the changes suggested by the teachers and the client I had a product that I was happy with. I don’t think this has been my best project to date but it’s only the start of the year. And I hope to progress from this and do better things.
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
The Science Of Typography
Here's an interesting paper on the science of typography, it's helping me understand and a little bit more on how to use fonts properly and effectively.
Click
Click
Wednesday, 8 October 2008
Superbrothers Animation
Found this video on www.drawn.ca
i think it reflects the style I'm looking for. it has the old school pixel style, but the colours are very dark. it has that "cool geek" style to it, which makes it very interesting to watch. it could also work very well as an ident, the way action reacts to the music, and the retro style it portrays.
DOT MATRIX REVOLUTION* from superbrothers on Vimeo.
i think it reflects the style I'm looking for. it has the old school pixel style, but the colours are very dark. it has that "cool geek" style to it, which makes it very interesting to watch. it could also work very well as an ident, the way action reacts to the music, and the retro style it portrays.
DOT MATRIX REVOLUTION* from superbrothers on Vimeo.
Wednesday, 1 October 2008
This is a really good blog for TV idents. Also has a link to a TV links podcast which has some documentaries, and some Tv indent clips
http://idents.tv/blog/
http://idents.tv/blog/
Sunday, 28 September 2008
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