Sem, Samantha, Meita and I dedicated week 11 to finish off the production side of our project or filming and editing of the whole media clips/fragments prior to, implementing it on Korsakow.

Following our last assessment #3 division of work. We were able to apply and adhere to that production process we did before. Since there were more elements to incorporate as this project will be exhibited in the Media Presents event, we decided to best work in the same way as before because it evidently, functioned coherently in the previous assessment.

So, during the production, Sem and Samantha helped with the camera handling and filming, Sem also enjoyed editing the clips and had more experience in that field as well, Meita is the main subject again in our project as she is the focus and character our narrative is formed within, but this time, she was also responsible for poster making for the Media Presents exhibition. In my case, I was responsible for the Korsakow design and projecting all the fragments filmed and edited, to be on Korsakow as the final implementation. In spite of the nature of divided work, we also still were able to collaborate together and were involved in every stage in an efficient manner.

Surprisingly, the media production as a whole were undergone very smoothly following, the schedule created in week 9-10. During week 11 (filming) our assumptions and depiction of what our project would look like came to life. The scenarios and the three-views were filmed exactly, the way we pictured it at least, for me. Some were, even better – which was surprising, as the last assessment, were more tedious and wasn’t as satisfying, for my group and I as it was done spontaneously. I found that we were able to go through the production quite smoothly because we were on the same page and discussed it thoroughly enough before going into production or filming. We drew all of the content mostly, on the basis of various inspirations. These inspirations were taken from the various sense of horror films, after effects and a music video.

Here is the process, inspirations that we comply with, as well as, how we were able to execute it:

In terms of the Korsakow design for this project, I actually collated this all together in a much more simple way as it was important for me that the interfaces or interactivity feature of the project, to not overweigh the media clips/fragments. Due to the very complex clips/fragments that we have with heaps of after effects depicted within it, along with, the general ‘depressing’ and dark narrative, I was really inspired with the idea of having the project’s interface to be in a form of a CCTV surveillance monitor or I would describe it as – a ‘stalker-like lair’ because the display of this sets the intended mood.

Besides the general interface, Sem, Samantha, Meita and I discussed the ways in which the project will exhibit multi-linearity because of the 3 perceptions the viewer/”user” is able to interact and watch the project within. But, the narrative flow of which the project is depicted through is on the same path. This means 3 scenarios that the 3 perspectives could be viewed within are projected in an orderly manner: classroom, alley and home. This goes parallel with intertextuality we would like to incorporate as the scenarios interconnect and depict our character’s day at that period of time.

I designed the keywords in which the viewer/”user” could experience all perspectives in each scenario with infinite lives. This is because I wanted them to be able to compare and draw meanings of each clip/fragment without leaving any. At the same time, through this engagement, the user is able to move forward to view other scenarios from each clip/fragment with the same ‘start’ and ‘finish’.

One of the feedback and mistake that happened for the last assessment #3, was that I didn’t know how to not cause abrupt ending from viewing the first clip. For example, there is always an option to end, even from the beginning fragment. This means, viewing the first clip will lead to 2 options – 1 to move forward and the other is the end. The last assessment #3, I think Hannah noticed that some viewer engagement could possibly lead to this abrupt ending, without interacting with the rest of the fragments. Also not being able to view it all over again because of the existing one lives for each media clip/fragment. I kept that in mind this time when designing the Korsakow side of our project and thankfully, found several ways to implement it.

There are several ways in which, I experimented on to avoid abrupt ending on the design. One short way is to have all the media fragment function infinitely. But, not wanting to make the user loop over and over again to view clips/fragments they haven’t viewed yet, I tried playing with other features namely, SNU rating, maxlinks and keywords.

The keywords describe each scenario, following the number describing each perspective (1 – first perspective, etc.). The first and second perspectives of the fragment will look somewhat like the above picture. Always having these characteristics to which it applies, including that the first two perspectives will always have a higher SNU rating than the third – making sure that the two perspectives will appear more often.

One of the most significant elements I found was the maxlinks that limit the options of the next preview. For instance, viewing the first perspective will lead to the second and third. Supposedly after, the user should move forward to the second perspective. However, if they engage with the third first, the options for the first and second perspective to appear again is mostly high. This is due to, the higher SNU rating and constraint of only having two max. links – avoiding the transition to move forward leaving the rest of the unwatched clips/fragments.

Another significant element in the design is that the third perspective might have lower SNU rating than the first and second perspective, but not the transitional clips/fragments. The transitional clips/fragments that lead to, the next scenario hopefully, will appear, after the user engages with all three perspectives in one scenario (I made sure to test this out). At the same time, it doesn’t make you loop multiple times to move forward because I made sure that the chances of transition are always high as this fragment and keyword also stick with every third perspective clip/fragment.

Besides the design side of things, I really tried to incorporate the user experience as best as possible in the days left before it is due. But I found that the simple interface really helped with the engagement of the project. Additionally, editing the media fragments/clips for this project Sem, Samantha, Meita and I really discussed to make sure that we go in-detail to portray isolation as a mental health issue and something serious. From the beginning, we always put forward incorporating glitches, destructiveness, etc. to solidify the intended feeling or expression. We developed this further through consolidating audio.

Since we didn’t have the chance to explore the means of audio for the assessment #3, we had our focus straight to the content this time and thought that it will be the perfect opportunity to attempt on it.

Meita and I are from Indonesia, both of us had a good understanding of poetic writing in the formal Indonesian language. So, we thought that to add to the feeling of being ‘foreign’ from everyone else, our character, should narrate a poem in Indonesian language and let that be translated in the clip/fragment for all of the first perspectives. This worked really well and became really valuable because the rest of the perspectives my group and I used atmospheric sound and Sem incorporated audio that was very destructive, pitchy and sharp – in which, is supposed to depict her (the character) mind and feeling. But, the poem with her point-of-view genuinely, balanced out the other two audio forms.

By all means, the project might not at all be perfect. But, we really enjoyed creating it and made sure that it had a crucial value. Sem, Samantha, Meita and I tried to respond to the feedback given to the best of our abilities. Hopefully, the intention of evoking the feeling of being ‘isolated’ is something the viewers/”users” would take from viewing our project.