Flash Mobs: An introduction – Reading One

After attending the first lecture for IM2 and reading the article ‘FCJ-030 Flash! Mobs in the Age of Mobile Connectivity’ by Judith A. Nicholson I developed a deeper understanding of the Flash Mob concept that I discovered on YouTube quite a few years ago.

Some of the key points from Seth’s lecture…

  • An SMP (social media producer) plays an integral role in media teams and on most television shows . They must have a good understanding of ethics and must say the right thing at the right time.
  • Our tasks is to plan and host a participatory event and the end result will be a prototype of an interactive documentary, rather than a finished outcome.
  • Think about the prompt.
  • We must document the process of creating the event online. These processes that we document will become the content for our interactive documentary.
  • Our group must carefully consider the demographic, time and location as well as the modes of social media that will be used to promote the event if we want success!

One example that appealed to me was ‘Conduct Us’ by Improv Everywhere. I like the way in which the members of the public got involved on their own accord, rather than being approached and asked individually. The set up was inviting, and once one person got involved, others joined in. I thought it was a playful idea that made the individual feel as though they power to control the situation, despite the orchestra being very well rehearsed and in control.

Some of the aspects I liked about the 2013 IM2 events…

  • Illuminate Tibet: Effective name and logo, relevant interviews, nicely made video on Vimeo & a compilation of related tweets, images, videos and news reports to establish the issue at hand.
  • Work Your Quirks: Highly active Facebook page, Instagram account and Twitter account, a video showing the problem solving techniques used in their meetings and free food (to attract the crowd).
  • R U OK Bubbles: Locations list on their Storify page that helped them choose the most appropriate venue for their event.
  • Used to Be: Nice WordPress site and imagery as well as a creative Prezi project timeline.
  • Birthday Attention: Creative and entertaining Zeega site.
  • Zen for Ten: Catchy title.

The aspects that can be used for my group’s project…

  • Film the event well with a multi-cam set up (wide shots, mid-shots and someone moving around capturing close ups) and good quality sound recording equipment to help put together a high quality interactive documentary.
  • Document interesting and relevant articles relating to the event.
  • Document inspirational Flash Mobs.
  • Define age group, the time of day and the location (taking into consideration the weather).
  • List all of the potential negative outcomes and discuss backup plans.

My brainstorming so far…

  • Raising awareness for a serious political/social issue.
  • Develop a catchy title and logo for the event.
  • Invite friend and family.
  • The event must be fun and easy for the public to get involved. Perhaps we will give away free food or a momento to attract the public.
  • Choose the demographic based on the activity. Who do we want participating?
  • Choose our location, date and time based on the demographic.
  • Promote the event on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Don’t forget the hashtag.
  • Film the event well.
  • Provide participants with a slip of paper with the details for the interactive documentary.

Potential issues to raise awareness… (these are all extremely broad)

  • Close the Gap
  • Climate Change
  • Use Your Manners
  • Remove the stigma associated with mental illness

Here are some of the key points of interest from the article…

  • The Flash Mobbers: The Participants
  • The Moberators: The Organisers
  • In 2003, cities across the world experienced flash mobs, with the very first account held in New York City.
  • The concept utilised ‘…three types of mobile communicating: mobile texting, targeted mobbing and public performing’ (J. Nicholson, 2005).
  • These events proved a huge shift in the use of mobile communication.
  • With the huge number of technological devices at the hands of the public, these events were often reported (recorded and uploaded online) more than the number of those that participated.
  • The popularity of these events prompted a website to form that was dedicated to promoting upcoming flash mobs in cities world-wide.
  • The flash mob concept is believed to have formed after the success of mobile phone communication in the organisation of the anti-globalisation activist movements against WTO in the late 1990s.
  • Mobile phones were also integrated into the participatory nature of the performances, proving the importance of these devices in the lives of the public.
  • Criticisms surrounding the introduction of the mobile phones included concern over ‘…the value and appropriateness of the practice in various public and semi-public spaces such as schools, cinemas, hospitals, restaurants, cars, public transit vehicles and places of worship’ (J. Nicholson, 2005).
  • Telephone conversations were no longer private with mobile phones accessible in public spaces, which caused offense to some.
  • The lines between work and leisure were blurred when mobile phones were adopted for both aspects of an individual’s life. Governments introduced laws against the use of the devices in certain situations such as cars.
  • These concerns prompted an opinion that ‘…a technology [the mobile phone] with such potential to empower the individual has turned into an irritating clique-machine for the hipster sheep?’ (Tom, 2003). They began disrupting real life conversations.
  • Although mobile phones initially offered individuals the ability to communicate one-to-one, messages started being forwarded to others allowing immediate sharing of information from one individual to many. This allowed public gatherings to be organised quickly and with ease.
  • Political unrest in the Philippines in 2001 saw the organisation of protests which eventuated in the president to resign, proving the power of mobile communication.
  • Mobile communication has also been utilised by government bodies to spread information instantly and also serves as a device for individual political or or commercial purposes.
  • ‘Mobile privatisation’ or ‘private mobilisation (Williams, 1992; 1974).
  • ‘shaped by specific social, political and economic conditions in existence in particular places’ (J. Nicholson, 2005).
  • ‘Repeated flash mobbing credo was ‘the power of many, in the pursuit of nothing’ (Tom, 2003)’.
  • Flash mobs can be identified by their lack of leader and lack of targeted issue or political goal.
  • ‘Flash mobbing is defined in the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘a public gathering of complete strangers, organized via internet or mobile phone, who perform a pointless act and then disperse again’ (Bill, 2004)’
  • They are for fun, they are leaderless, they result in quick disposal and exist in places where public gatherings do not usually occur.
  • The term mob changed meaning after the French Revolution.
  • The mob mentality concept developed by crowd theorists describes a group that are the opposite of the smart mobs.
  • Proven to be a brilliant marketing tool.
  • Flash mobs leave members of the public feeling empowered, they have the power to create something moving, just for fun without governments and corporations.

Integrated Media Participation

What did you do well?

I comprehensively logged my progress throughout the semester and adhered to my weekly participation contract goals. I worked well in collaborating with my group, asked questions when unsure, utilised my technical and creative skills for the weekly sketch tasks, read each weekly reading, attended all lectures and took notes. I utilised the class and blog instructions introducing the new software. I used Korsakow well, adapted suggestions and participated in class discussion. I also watched a range of interactive documentaries to broaden my understanding of the medium.

What have you learnt to do better?

I have developed a deeper understanding of the purpose of the subject in helping to prepare me for the ever-evolving and challenging industry. I now know how to adapt to different forms of software to tell stories and therefore distance myself from the familiar and traditional film making structure and techniques. I understand the purpose of interactive documentary in the way the relations are more important than the content and the way the parts form a whole. I have also learnt how to utilise my blog including categories and linking to useful sources that will be useful later in the semester. I have slightly improved my formal critiquing and writing skills.

What could you have learnt to do better?

I would have benefited from relating the weekly readings to my own work and adapting those techniques into my work from an earlier stage. I also could have improved my interview techniques from an earlier stage as I required those for the group Korsakow film and this would have assisted in creating better quality content. I could have consistently utilised my blog in creating more detailed critiques of other works, as some weekly posts were too brief.

Text in Interactive Documentary

This week’s interactive documentary inspiration is Grayson Cooke’s film Live Audio-Visual Performance in Australia. I viewed this film under Seth’s recommendation. He advised that it may inspire us to reconsider not using text in our group K-Film. After viewing the film and observing Cooke’s use of text, here is what I thought…

  • Text is used in the preview windows to provide a clue to what the content is about.
  • The bold capital white text on a black background is 1-10 words in length
  • The text may be a vague phrase that the subject mentions in their interview or an unusual word that is said. This means that the user will still be surprised when they watch the clip as they don’t have any visual clues regarding who is going to speak or what it is actually going to be about.
  • This idea is used to encourage the user to choose their next clip based on content rather than visual interest. The user is likely to chose a clip based on a title that intrigues them the most.
  • Text is also used above the main viewer window stating the name of the subject and occasionally a small description of their personality.Screen Shot

If we were to reconsider introducing text into our final K-Film we would need to be extremely careful about the words we select. Our film is all about surprising the viewer with the philosophical words that the subject provides us with in the interview. Many of our clips do not include a personal story along with their advice therefore we believe it would spoil the content if the words summarised the footage the way Cooke employs text. We want our users to select the clip based on the feet that appeals to them the most.

We may still consider adding text to the main viewer window to accompany the footage, but once again we wouldn’t want it to detract from the experience of hearing the words from the subject’s mouth. It would not be consistent if some videos contained text and others didn’t, but some videos are short, sharp and to the point so it may be difficult to add to that, unless we add in something to do with the visuals, maybe where it was filmed or some extra information about the subject.

Final Tech Notes

After composing our second draft of our group Korsakow film we came across a few issues that needed solving before we began constructing our final film. Emily, Ren and myself have come up with these solutions and guidelines for the final week of class and Korsakow construction.

We decided against creating a GIF for the preview thumbnail clip. Instead we will edit a few seconds of footage containing the most movement, adjust/drain the colour (so it is almost black and white), remove the audio and export a low quality h.264 file for Korsakow. We think the different visual will help avoid detracting from the main viewer window and create some consistency amongst the variety of shots that were created using different cameras and film making styles.

We have also practiced exporting our H.264 files and compressing them further using Mpeg Streamclip. We aim to compress our h.264 files to below 10 MB (as small as possible whilst still containing a bit of quality). We will then label our preview and main video files the same so it is easy to match up during the SNUifying process.

At the moment our interface design is going to consist of the main viewer window placed centrally in the window and surrounded by preview windows, resembling a frame surrounding a photograph. We have decided to base our interface design on an idea that relates back to our concept of personalities contradicting appearances.

We have tried to capture a variety of shots of feet from a variety of angles, but found that most of them were shot while the subject was sitting or standing, only a few were walking. The movement in the camera will hopefully make up for the lack of subject movement.

Our key wording process is evolving as the clips are being created. Themes are being drawn from the information provided by the subjects in the interview. These themes are present in many other responses and will help connect the clips.

No major dramas with filming or editing the footage. Some audio contained some wind that we will try to remove using audacity.

Tech Notes for Final K-Film

Emily, Ren and myself have been refining out concept and developed our interview techniques. After showing our class another draft we were told that it is more interesting if the subject elaborates on the question and gets more personal. We were also told to shoot the clips in varied set ups (some close ups, some extreme close ups in a different angles and using static and hand held), to develop a collage of our styles.

We have moved away from asking “what is a significant lesson you have learnt?” to “What is an important piece of advice you would give somebody?” and then getting them to elaborate and get more personal by asking “How did you learn this?” or “Who taught you this?”. The developed questions are much easier to answer, especially when we are approaching a stranger on the street.

We are also shooting the footage of the subjects feet without them realising, creating an opportunity to capture more relaistic movement and stances. We will select the best part of audio with the best part of video and edit them into a complete fragment. We will then view our clips and note down the themes present in the responses and connect our fragments based on those theme. These could include love, happiness, relationships, self-respect and success.

We are recording the video footage using a DSLR camera and recording the audio using a lapel mic to capture a close and personal audio response. After shooting the footage and capturing the audio, I convert the footage to apple pro res 422 (HQ) using Mpeg Stream clip and this free audio convertor to change my clips to .wav for use in Final Cut Pro 7.

We are in the process of editing our fragments and so are still undecided about whether to remove the section of audio where individual states the question in their answer e.g. “The most significant lesson I’ve learnt is…”. We believe that removing this will make the film more ambiguous and therefore poetic.

We will put together our first draft of the final project this week.

K-Film Inspiration

The film I selected for this week’s Korsakow inspiration is Hands: Thinking Out Loud. Under Seth’s advice, I viewed this film due to its similarities to my group’s concept.

RED

  • Personal
  • Observant
  • Familiar
  • Artistic

BLACK

  • Volume of music too loud, it competed for my audio attention. I was interested in hearing the noise from the clip in the viewer window.

YELLOW

  • The soft acoustic overarching soundtrack, it connected the whole film, but allowed breathing space while I contemplated the clip that had just finished
  • Combination of the audio from the main viewer window and the previews playing with the soundtrack, made the film crowded and exciting
  • Black and white preview windows, distinguished between the main viewer window
  • The interface design of four boxes, evenly place in the centre of the screen. The consistency of the design would allow an individual who was not familiar with K-Films to adapt to the structure.
  • Relations based on theme
  • Short clip, including audio plays in the preview window
  • The titles

GREEN

  • Lower the volume of the soundtrack so it sits balances out with the audio from the clips.

Documentary, Data, Montage

This week’s reading We’re Happy and We Know It: Documentary, Data, Montage explores the significance of data in interactive and web-based documentary.

The classical documentary developed from the development of the revolutionary photochemical image making that allowed individuals to visually document their surroundings. This practice evolved into the idea of traditional documentary acting as an ‘electronic public sphere’. The documentary is thought to ‘to mediate society to itself, to let one part of a society see another, to create a very particular kind of dialogue’ (Dovey, Jon & Rose, 2012).

Documentary in the 20th century evolved into a tool that was considered capable of altering opinions and the world, whilst still observing it. With the increase in internet access, the web is filled with potential documentary content which has allowed the emergence of IDocs. As video is now part part of HTML5 instead of an add on, it allows links to form between video and other online media content.

Access to live social media self-expression information provides the possibility for documentaries to continually emerge as the content is produced moment-by-moment. This can be referred to as ‘living documentary’ (Dovey, Jon & Rose, 2012).

Devices such as smart phones and search engines (browser history) have the ability to record information such as where an individual is going and what they have been doing. This information that is collected through these devices can be used in new and unexpected ways to form engaging content that varies viewer-to-viewer.

‘It is this translation between searchable social media communications, to data (as numbers), to algorithms that predict behaviours and taste, that is the economic driver of Web 2.0’ (Dovey, Jon & Rose, 2012).

There in an endless amount of information that can be collected from ‘…our interactions, searches, likes, uploads, or tweets…’ (Dovey, Jon & Rose, 2012). From this abstracted information ‘…trends, predictions, and recommendations…’ are assumed (Dovey, Jon & Rose, 2012). This economically benefits giant internet companies such as Google, but also benefits culture, the public and education.

Open source tools such as Popcorn Maker utilise links from both pre-existing and emerging media from other sources on the web. Relationships form between the fragments, reinvigorating the media available on the web and transforming it into ‘semantic video’. These films are ‘continually re-contextualised’ as new content it collated into the film (Dovey, Jon & Rose, 2012). These open source tools have been employed for documenting political events as they unfold.

Problems emerge with the huge amount of data that is accessible in a singular film in Popcorn Maker. These problems include the ‘apparent randomness of navigation, with the lack of perspective produced by the excess of millions of documentary video clips, the dominant temporal logic of online communication that tends towards the perpetually unedited present’ (Dovey, Jon & Rose, 2012).

Manovich’s spatial montage as the idea of ‘juxtaposition of images within multiple computer windows’ is particularly relevant to the way in which the open sourced tools are being utilised to create meaning from seemingly random fragments available online.

The combination of images (from Flickr), text (from Twitter), videos (from Youtube) and other accessible media content (from sites such as Creative Commons) evolve into a whole interchanging, unpredictable documentary through taking advantage of meta-tagging and search engines. This technology allow innovative ways to form arguments. There is a need for database documentary montage aesthetics to form, similar to the way in which popular styles developed in traditional cinema.

Utilising the information available on the web allows the formation of ‘relational, contingent, specific and emergent’ films.

K-FILM Inspiration

This weeks K-Film inspiration is Fibonacci Korsakow #2 by Matt Soar.

As usual, I will utilising the list and the hats to critique.

RED

  • Personal
  • Poetic
  • Rhythmical
  • Homely

BLACK

  • The background layer that shows the SNU design.
  • The shots that were intended to be static, but included slight movement.
  • The big pauses between each window loading.

YELLOW

  • The way the interface is organised so the preview and display window fits together like a puzzle. This unifies different windows across the film.
  • The repetition of circles
  • The main viewer window and previews all appear at different points in time- this could just be the download speed, but it works to the film’s advantage.
  • The varying quality of the clips. This made the work feel like a collage.
  • Short looped clips. This made the work rhythmic.
  • I liked that this film felt like a work in progress.

GREEN

  • Use a different background window with every fragment. I think the background image could work.
  • Introduce more movement into the clips.