Today we worked on our project and divided it into separate parts of the project to work on. These were:

-1000 word report, which relates to the studio prompt, as well as documenting the progression of the project over the course of the semester

-blog posts, with embedded sketches, showing the affordances of Snapchat, and how this works within our goal of created an effective skate video within the platform.

-pitch video, which will comprise the majority of the project, which will show exactly how this hybrid platform will operate. It seems unfeasible for us to manipulate Snapchat to create what we intend, as the ‘Our story’ feature is only available to businesses and large events, and definitely out of the budget for this prototype. This video will incorporate elements of Snapchat, in conjunction with theoretical elements not present. As it will be formatted as a pitch, it will be a very descriptive piece, which shows many of the features available.

The sketches that we will work on this week will show the criteria for the skate video.

After some feedback from both the panel and tutor, Nate and I have decided to move away from live streaming as the focus for PROJECT FOUR, and have to travel back towards interactivity as a primary focus. We plan to incorporate elements of Snapchat, to explore the narrative aspects of the service within skate video. Our prototype is leading towards a hybrid version of Snapchat, which would incorporate tagging and linking between users. Some of the formatting from Pinterest, which visually links images, could be applied to video.

From these videos a story of sorts could be created, which is entirely created from user-generated content. The framework is quite loose, with tagging and linking between relevant content creating the majority of the process. There would need to be some sort of moderation, as by nature Snapchat videos are spontaneous, and therefore lacking in production value. There is a similar website for Vines, called Vine.co, which collects the most popular Vines, and presents them within one website.

It is undecided how much of this platform we will be able to create, i.e whether we should make it within an existing service, or create a realistic representation of what we imagine the website/app to look like.

As Seth said, it is important to not get caught up in the technical aspect of it, which I think is very crucial for us to keep in mind as we progress with PROJECT FOUR.

Today Nate and I presented to a panel of RMIT lecturers, which was essentially the same presentation as PROJECT THREE. One of the main changes we made was developing the outcome for PROJECT FOUR, which led to more of a focus on Periscope as an online tool, whilst still taking elements from other online tools and services such as Snapchat, which emphasise creating content that is designed to only be viewed once, or for a designated amount of time.

The feedback we got mainly in regard to audience, and how this could be shown if the video was only shown live. It was also noted that the aspects of being live removes a great deal of the aesthetic quality and narrative structure of skate video.

This has caused us to reconsider focusing on live-streaming, and instead retract it a step, and re-focusing on Snapchat, and the implications that it has upon narrative in skate video.

Description of how the mechanics of the presentation on Friday works, and what differences are necessary to present to a panel the following Monday. I think I need to focus on creating more visual material while presenting, I feel this subject really hinges on the visual understanding of the audience, and because a lot of the work is theoretical, it is crucial that it is conveyed in a concise and well-communicated manner.

A definitive idea for how PROJECT FOUR will progress is essential, which is a point where we are struggling a bit in.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to brainstorming ideas regarding pushing online video, especially in regard to platforms. While broadly discussing ideas for PROJECT THREE, Nate and I found ourselves creating wildly ambitious yet creative ideas surrounding combining differing platforms, such as melding GoPro and Snapchat into a single platform. These ideas were relevant because they explored narrative with online video, which addresses both the studio prompt and our individual prompt.

Whilst these ideas are interesting, I think it will be much easier to create a more tangible idea, in order to create the sketches. A few of the sketches will not involve using a different service to test out how narrative is affected, which was the plan for the majority of the 14 works. An example of this is timeline commenting, as is popular on music-sharing website Soundcloud, but applying it to video instead of just strictly audio. This will be done in Premiere Pro, with graphics illustrating how we would achieve this if it were possible using a readily available service.