ASSIGNMENT 4 – TIME OUT
[click the photo above to experience a day in the life]
Category / THINKING IN FRAGMENTS
week #11
After long thought process we have finalised the concept and structure for our project work for Assignment 4. As mentioned before we are sticking to the our concept of Isolation from the previous assignment however for this upcoming one, we are taking a more moulding/ refining approach to the project. So our aim for this next assignment is to create a multi-linear narrative in which will consist of 3 distinctive scenarios and within these scenarios we’re planning on experimenting on perspectives, 3 to be specific. We will have 9 fragments in total and will be incorporating more audio recordings and sound effects that will intensify the feeling of the scenario.
To elaborate further, the first perspective will be a point of view shot and we were considering using a GoPro camera to really embody the fact that it is the subjects POV instead of maybe a second person holding the camera on top of them and following their every move. The second perspective will be what our subject perceives her reality to be. This will give the audience and insight to whats going on in her head, an example would be that even in a room full of people, she is determined that she is alone. DUuring our discussion on the second perspective, I think it would be fun to experiment and film it as we sometimes made twisted psychotic jokes about the scenario that possibly could work? The third perspective however will somewhat act like a CCTV surveillance camera and will show what reality really is.
We decided to choose 3 accessible and simple locations for our 3 scenarios as the location scouting in our previous assignment was too time consuming. However we did think less of the location and needed it to also be able to reiterate the theme of isolation in them. The 3 locations we chose are in a classroom, walking in an alleyway and at home, we figured these locations are relatable and identifiable with other students.
week #9/10
This weeks reading (9-10), “Interactive Documentary: Setting The Field” by Judith Aston & Sandra Daudenzi discusses the 4 essential modes of interactive documentary, mainly in online spaces one of them being “The Experiential” mode. This mode as Aston and Gaudenzi elaborates that it is used to bring users into physical space and creates an experience the challenges their senses and their enacted perception of the world. When I read this bit of the article it made me think about the what we wanted our audience to achieve of their experience in our project and how they would feel throughout each fragment and the project as a whole.
In assignment 2’s blogpost, I wrote about my experience with an online documentary that was in the form of virtual reality (VR). My partner and I back then explored very briefly the level of interaction VR can produce. VR has the ability to transport users into a re-created duplicate version of a space and time without having to physically be there and this increases the level of interaction, which I thought we could consider incorporating into our next assignment.
In context to developing the level of interaction for our next project, during out assignment 3 presentation, we mentioned the possibilities of us venturing into other multiple platforms to reach out to wider range in audience. However we are still unsure about what software/platform we will be using for assignment 4.
week #8
As week 8 comes to an end, we did not waste any time and got started on discussing our next assignment and project work. We took into account all the feedback given by the panel during the assignment 3 presentation and seeing how we can incorporate it into our next project work. We came to a conclusion of sticking with our original theme of ‘Isolation’ in assignment 3 but of course discovering ways to improve the user experience.
In our precious project work we did not really emphasize much on audio and limited ourselves to only having an audio track playing in the background. However after several comments were given to us by the panel about how we could explore sound in terms of recording what our subject is hearing in her head, the surround sound she is experiencing.
Another aspect of our previous work that we discussed to develop further was the fact that we just shot multiple clips at random that we thought would depict our theme and then uploading it onto Korsakow. It could possibly be the lack of experience of the software (Korsakow) but we didn’t take as much consideration into designing the narrative arc as we should have. Perhaps we will think of more ways on how to create that flow of the experience from start to end. To add onto that a question that rose during a discussion was how we would we make the experience more engaging and motivate user to click on the next SNU.
As we discussed on how we could develop our project a definite agreement was that we wanted the overall experience to be more cohesive with an overarching structure.
project work #6
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reflection post #5
Reflecting on this assignment, it is clear that not all narratives must be told in a linear fashion. The element of not having a strict storyline definitely contributes to creative freedom in the sense that creators are able to produce different types of media forms without being constrained and having to relate all content to one another. This enables every user’s experience to be unique due to the modular and interactive properties of the project. Another aspect of our assignment that I reflected on was how we employed different media elements to synthesise various fragments of media. An example of this is how we incorporated still images, slow motion, timelapse, stop motion and videos, all contributing different elements to the project.
One main element of media that I hoped we would experiment more in this assignment is audio. This is what I felt was lacking most in our assignment that we did not get to experiment on. In the background of our assignment , a clear noise of a busy crowd is being played over and over again. What I reflected on after fully interacting myself with the project, was that it would have been intriguing to play around with more sound elements and how it can affect the mood and feeling.
What we hope to develop further in this project is to attempt and explore this concept outside of korsakow. Stretching it out further with our next project and possibly engage with multiple platforms.
In conclusion, after going through this online screen media project, we figured that the importance of digital storytelling can be formed without having to produce a certain narration and instead showing rather than telling.
development post #4
As a group we really wanted emphasized on the idea of showing rather than telling. Throughout our filming process, we had moments of questioning our ideas and trying to think of ways to stronger amplify the feeling of being isolated. We came across a few problems attempting to project our concept such as being unable to show the character being in isolation besides standing/sitting alone or how we would identify and make the character stand out in a crowd. “Will the audience understand?” “Can they tell she’s sad?” All these questions arising as we filmed.
With all this concern and doubt with what we had created at the time, it was encouraging and a learning process as a group to get feedback from others and Hannah during consultation sessions. Hannah reminded us that it was okay to not tell the viewers what our project is about and that when they watch it, they will know. Reminding us of the importance of visual storytelling.
In my opinion something that could be worked on for our next assignment would be the element of perspective. Creating content with different perspectives will take the interactive feature in our project to another level. When viewing our project, viewers are only able to experience it from a third party’s point of view. Being that our assignment was experimental, we were caught up with the idea of showing viewers what a person being isolated looks like – not what they see. A more interactive way of approaching this concept in the near future would be filming in the perspective of the character. This amplifies the interaction between viewer and project as they would be in the shoes and mind of the character. This epiphany ties in with the characteristic of media that I focused on in assignment #2, virtual reality. Something to think about for future projects.
development post #3
One of the characteristics required for assignment #3 was the ability for it to be interactive with the users. In context to that feature, we were introduced to a new software called KORSAKOW by Florian Thalhofer.
“Korsakow documentaries are based on evolving modular storytelling and intimate, personal narratives…” Anna Wiehl (2016)
It was created to help filmmaker around the world to produce interactive online projects or documentaries through authoring database narratives. I am not the most tech savvy person and the only media softwares I have been exposed to for media making is Premiere Pro. The difference in why I found this technological software very intriguing as compared to others is through the complexity of it and the way it gives us a sort of creative freedom. It allows us to experience both being a producer where you get to create the content and customise the interface, and the “user” the one interacting and viewing a korsakow project.
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In terms of our project, we designed it in a way that it had start and an end, meaning that all the content in between is at random and independently connected to one another. We wanted to explore our concept on Korsakow further by having an interaction with one character and the different situations she experiences in a non linear way.
In our korsakow project, any clip chosen by the user will allow them to see what circumstance the character is in. Each fragment is attached with a quote or phrase that represents the characters thoughts, and the crowd noise in the background as to what she hears. It gives the users a sense of what the character is going through.
Our project embodies a very randomized and multi-linear feature which enables the navigation of the project to differ for each user. Every component has one life, so if once gone through all there will be a total of 12 clips. The project is designed in a way that you have the option to end it, with a question – Will you stop me now?
development post #2
Our initial idea was to explore the theme of emotions and incorporating it with colors and how colors contribute in expressing emotion and affecting the mood. However after several group discussions, we figured that it was more important to narrow down our theme and focus on digitally telling it’s story in depth rather than hitting the surface of a broad theme.
Therefore, for our finalised concept we decided to focus just on ISOLATION.
As for the media content of the project, we created them with the motif of it being experimental. The visual appearance we were aiming to achieve was a 35mm vintage film look, which at first we were hoping to shoot the project with an actual film camera as one of our restrictions. But after taking careful consideration towards time restriction and accessibility, we decided to take the idea of it being experimental to another level by possibly using post production to try and achieve that look in the final product.
Some of the restrictions we applied to our project consists of shooting in landscape, using only one main character and no dialogue. This is because, in order for it to look aesthetically driven which is an element of media we wanted to touch on, it was by preference for the content to have a constant orientation. Since our project is on the idea of isolation it only made sense to focus on one subject and really try to emphasize their feelings visually which comes hand in hand with the restriction of having no dialogue and relying on visual storytelling.
To further fragment our project, we have decided to experiment on different elements and forms of media. Therefore we will be delegating different content ideas into 4 forms of media. Casual video (a normal video) , stop-motion, timelapse and still images.
development post #1
Next of in the Thinking in Fragments studio , Hannah introduced our third assessment which focuses on two of Manovich’s (2001) online screen media production principles which is modularity and variability.
To explain these characteristics in a little more depth, from what I understand in the reading, modularity is the collection of many different types of individual types of media, each carrying different elements of media that because stored independently, it can be modified or separated in pieces without losing it’s independence. In addition, variability is the ability to produce your media components in different versions and formats. Based on these two principles, we are given a task in groups to create a digital interactive project that carries the two principles based on a theme.
An example that was shown to us that embodied these characteristics was the project Are You Happy? by Mandy Rose. This was inspired by another project that was made in the 1960s called, Chronicle of a Summer by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin. It took place in France showing how various historical events had affected the society after it occured. The project helped me understand the concept of modularity and variability because of the way it depicts these principles through it’s prompt. It essentially is based on interviewing a range of people and asking them the question of – Are you happy? The interviews were then compiled together to form a collaborative film documentary.
After experiencing these two projects , as a group, Sem, Arfi, Meita and myself discussed about what we wanted to do for our project, questions such as “how would our idea for the project be modular and variable?”, “does it respond to the prompt?”, “is it a linear project? Does the clips relate to one another?”, “will the content we create be able to work independently”