After presenting our pitch on our interactive screen media project called Crash Course, I’ve been able to sit back for a couple days and reflect on how all the elements of our project within Korsakow, and its mediums capture the qualities of variability and modularity.
The principle of variability lies within Crash Course because the viewers are able to create their own experience and/or path each time they come into contact with it. This would only be increased when the amount of stories/SNU’s in the project were exponentially amplified leading to a larger path and more movement between clips creating more choices and lives to the content. What truly makes this project variable is that anyone can join the experience and will still be able to pick up what is going on. This is because each clip stands alone and gives the viewer an insight that will allow them to continue and understand what the parallels are.
The principle of modularity is also a large part because (as said above) each SNU is independent and can be understood without having to web each clip together. As said it “emphasizes separating the functionality of a program into independent, interchangeable modules, such that each contains everything necessary to execute only one aspect of the desired functionality”. The only effect that the project has on continually watching clip by clip allows for a more comprehensive understanding and can make individuals lead a path of just injury stories or just crime stories.
One of the main concepts that I learnt about when creating online screen media, is that for a lot of the projects including ours, you just make a significant amount of content. By this is mean you need to have more than 13 SNU’s (audio/visual stories) within your interactive documentary. Since I saw groups taking 10 pictures and 15 videos, they may be short but it created a diverse range of clips and gave the media site depth and a sense of excitement. I feel with the next assessment where we will grow our project and look further than our own friends but to random individuals that want to share their stories and be a part of something new and big, it will change the game. The ability to have a variety of SNU’s online will group themes more specifically, instead of being kind of about crime or kind of about losing money. Instead it will have clusters of themes specific to the bone.
This brings me to my next point that I learnt through working collaboratively. That is there has to be someone to will take charge and help direct people on what to do and what each individuals constraints are. See, I found that at the start we said 30 – 45 second stories, which were short sharp and to the point. But when as the week/s went on we were being lazier with our time frame and I feel it impacted on the result of our project. If we were able to have each story being the same time (under 1 minute) then the users could keep their hand on the mouse and be ready to click the next clip. However if it drags on and says and then, and then, and then, we could lose spectator involvement.
I’m looking forward to using other software, other than Korsakow such as Adventr and Odyssey. I feel like these are a bit more complex and can show the stories in a more exciting and engaging way, especially Odyssey.
In closing, I feel this project went very well and am excited to create a larger project that can bring many people to be involved. My question is though, what is an interactive documentary application that we can use that has a map of the world?
