I will still with the members of Nagini, Mia and Taras as a group to do the last assignment. As we summarized the feedback from the previous assignment, we decided to do the project about ‘movement with hands’ as the theme of the assignment four.

BRAINSTORM:

We are going to use ‘Korsakow’ as the media tool to produce interactive screen production, mostly like what we did in the third assignment because we almost figured out how to use ‘Korsakow’ to get connection among landscape in order to make interaction with the viewers, so it might be a good choice instead of using a new media tool.

The project might be a non-fiction project and be formed of four concepts, which are patterns, audios, landscapes, and movements. We will use multimedia elements to complete the project which are images, videos, and audios. In the last assignment, we fully used the elements of images and videos, so for this one, we want to develop deeper research. One of the group did the project about how genres of music affect viewers’ feeling if looking at the same video. It became the hint to lead us came up with the concept of audio by connecting with images and videos.

More specifically, the images for thumbnails, the videos for clips shot in each landscape and the audio for the background sound. Similar to the third assignment, we are trying to come up with 4 landscapes and shoot videos about ‘movements with hands’ in each landscape for 10 to 15 seconds each clip. Every clip in the landscape might have similarities with one in other landscapes (as the picture shows). Based on this idea, once the finished project is done, the transaction between landscapes will be completed based on the ‘similar’ actions the viewer clicks.

 

PREPARATION:

BIGGEST:

• Creating a Korsakow film with four concepts, which are movements, hands, patterns, and landscapes. (The concept of audio will connects the entire work.)

BIG:

• Movement of hands – focus on the actions on ‘hands’ happened in each landscape.
• Patterns – it might be regularly or irregularly but still using ‘hands’ as the main subject.
• Landscapes – four landscapes would be provided.
• Audio – audio might be the background sound through the whole project.

SMALLER:

• Four landscapes – Beach, Merri Creek, South Yarra River and Southern Cross Station.
• Thumbnails for each landscape – the thumbnails can be considered as ‘images’, which is one media elements.
• 20 video clips in total. (but we still need to consider if it is necessary to add more)
• Movement of hands – we still need to work on it because it is the theme of the project. But we have the basic idea, like hands imitating the waves, hands imitating train tracks and use hands to block sunlight.

 

IDEAS:

• Four landscapes – Merri Creek, Southern Cross Station, Botanic Garden, St Kilda
• Two tags – the keywords of the project are ‘hands’ and ‘landscapes’
• Three types of media elements – image, video, and audio
• Three sorts of screens – Landscapes, hands, and hands in the landscape (In another word, there are three types of videos: still images of landscape with audio; hands doing movements in the landscape without audio; just hands movements (repeat patterns) with audio.)
• 28 media clips all up (but not sure).
• All in black and white so that the audiences might focus on the actions. However, we will film in color and then make all into black-and-white because it would make our mind opened and free to change minds.
• Each landscape will be still, with audio overplayed over the top

***We might put audio with the hand only videos, like ASMR

Feedback:

It is glad that all groups are interested in our project. Some of them thought it is cool with using the Korsakow because it is the media tool which is hard to use, it is complex when differentiating ‘in keywords’ and ‘out keywords’. Focusing on movements is a good idea because it would be simplified the project and do deeper research in one specific area. One of the group said the audio part is the funny part of the project because it is interesting to do the observation based on changing the relationships among audio, movements of hands, and landscapes.

For the issues we still need to consider are:

• The original locations we chose were Merri Creek, Southern Cross Station, South Yarra and St Kilda. However, according to the feedback, we found there are too many places about water, such as South Yarra, St Kilda, and Merri Creek. Thus, we finally decided to go to Botanic Garden instead of St Kilda. We will shoot the videos at the place with the trees and flowers instead of the place with the river.
• Another issue is about the interface between each landscape and action. We thought about the interface and decided to order the media materials at random. There are two key words to explore in the project, which are ‘hands’ and ‘landscapes’, at the same time, the audio always overplayed over the top. When the viewer clicks one image, the videos will appear would be at random, but the similarity between the selected image and the video is they have the common keyword.
• The most frequently asked question is the differences between Assignment Three and Assignment Four. In Assignment Three, we did the similar actions in four landscapes and it would be more narrative. However, in this project, we more focus on ‘hands movements’ and it would be nonfiction project. We added the element of ‘audio’ this time to explore the sense of audio and visual.
• When we talked about the angle of shooting, we decided to shoot from the above in order to use a close shot to just focus on hands. The person’s clothes will not appear on the screen because it would distract the audiences’ attention and what we want to achieve is that the viewers can pay enough attention to the hand itself.

Reading:

The reading for week 9 and 10 discuss the topic of interactive documentary and divided into four interactive modes, which are the conversational, the hypertext, the experiential and the participative.

For our project, we tend to the experiential mode. The reading mentioned that, ‘This type of locative documentary invites the participant to experience a ‘hybrid space’ where the distinction between the virtual and the physical becomes blurred.’ Our project aims to invite the viewer to participate in it by changing the relationships among the movements of hands, pattern, locations, and audios. Some of these four elements are intangible but we are trying to use media platforms to make them understandable. Moreover, followed by the reading’s principle, ‘The experimental modes brings users into physical space and creates an experience that challenges their sense and their enacted perception of the world.’ Our project trying to get the interaction with the viewers by letting them experience the senses of visual and audio. In another word, by looking at the still images, the movements of hands and listen to the audio, so that to research how the viewers change their thoughts and mind.