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Project THREE: Work-in-Progress

  By weiyunsoo • April 22, 2015

2 more days till the due date! We have finally gotten everything down (well, almost)! Trying to be organised, so we had our GoogleDocs with a checklist and our probe (so we won’t go off track). So here are our list of sketch ideas:

1. Putting the narrative structure through various angles and compare the difference.
2. Putting the non-narrative structure through various angles and compare the difference.

3. Using the boring old platform, YouTube annotations to create interactive narrative structure.
4. Using the boring old platform, YouTube annotations to create interactive non-narrative structure.

5. Spicing it up a little, using the YouTube videos to allow participants to create their own story with YouTube Doubler in a narrative form.
6. Spicing it up a little, using the YouTube videos to allow participants to create their own story with YouTube Doubler in a non-narrative form.

7. Testing the constraints of narrative structures in Korsakow, Periscope and Vine.
8. Testing the constraints of non-narrative structures in Korsakow, Periscope and Vine.

The last two was for hybrid genre. However, we still can’t think of a good sketch to show the hybrid genre of live streaming and interactive video. So altogether we have 12 sketches down. As of today, Wednesday, 22nd April 2015, I have at least gotten our non-narrative sketches filmed and ready to be edited while Peter has completed is narrative sketches.

 

Screen Shot 2015-04-23 at 5.28.42 PM

Seeing this project coming together, I feel extremely excited. I feel like a kid entering the candy store, wanting to try everything. Unfortunately for the time constraints, I have to make sure I do not run off topic again. We were always reminded to “WORK SMALL AND BE SPECIFIC.” As the weeks pass by, despite some struggles in understanding the concepts, I am thoroughly enjoying this course because we get to experiment on plenty of things, get feedback and criticism from the peers as well as the lecturer to improve as well as getting to know other projects by my peers. This workshop is really an interesting concept and I am pretty sure I walk out of the class every week with more information in my mind.

Now, back to editing my non-narrative sketches (it has finished rendering)!

 

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Project THREE: The Probe

  By weiyunsoo • April 22, 2015

In this question you are bypassing interactivity which opens up your exploration and does not tie you to interactive video (only) – what is important is the first person perspective and how it is conveyed – working with online video and potentially online interactive video tools and services.

The contribution you are making is to nonfiction documentary online video practices that aim to profile an individual’s story. You are seeing how the linear first person perspective is altered when it is re-appropriated into tools and services that have certain constraints and  narrative/non-narrative structures.

 

Peter and I decided to change our probe after the feedback  session in class this week. We started exploring more on first person perspective and how its form alters over the various tools and services.

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Reflection: Week 6b – “Probing Project THREE”

  By weiyunsoo • April 18, 2015

Reporting:
I did not attend this week’s second studio session. Thankfully, I had my partner, Peter, to catch me up to date with our work. The agenda was also put up on the module blog so I managed to continue my work from home. We were to discuss and finalise our probe for Project THREE sketches. I have been pushing back this project due to my other assignments so I am pretty much freaking out right now. I have messaged Seth, our lecturer, for feedback on our “things of interests” to see if they were acceptable. We were on the right track but Peter and I are always complicating things with new technologies.

Mindful of our old habits, Peter and I came up with the three ideas that would be (well.. at least to us would be) non-related to one another. Here is the list of it:

––

1. we are interested in the interactivity element from the 89 steps. so what happens if the elements are used in new online services on Periscope? 

– how is Periscope interactive?
– how can Periscope be made interactive in different ways?
– will it only be in real time?
– how do we incorporate 89 steps to this?

OR 

MEERKAT VS. PERISCOPE

– how would these services help in interactive online videos?
– what can these live streaming services work with interactivity aspect of 89 Steps?

2. youtube doubler – as a form as participatory

– what is this youtube doubler?
– what is this tool related to 89 steps? – location + playing with sound
– in terms of participatory, what can you do with this youtube doubler?
– what happens when viewers are allowed to create the narratives with given found footages?

3. online video in real time.

– Maria was walking up the stairs in real time. How can we make online videos in real time?
– With real time, it would be boring and long, how do you make it interesting in terms of non narrative/anti-narrative?
– using 89 steps elements, playing with audio and narrations, how do you make real time videos more interesting? (look in a different perspective)

––

While I was sending this email, I kept asking myself, is this really simplifying things? Is this how you relate back to the case study in terms of the location, the element of ascending the stairs in real time, etc.?

Relating:
Our ideas were literally all over the place. It is a difficult topic we have chosen but I am adamant that I can pull it off. After receiving feedback, I realised that we were thinking way ahead of the project. We complicated things instead of unraveling the case study. The issue here was that our understanding on relating back to the case study seemed different to what Seth had told us. Reading through Seth’s comments from the email reply, his questions prompted me to go back to the start. The questions guided me to understand what this studio prompt was all about. The first was “What did I like about 89 steps?” I started linking my interests to the suggestions he made for Peter and I.

Reasoning:
Seth prompting us to return back to the beginning of the research was a tremendous help in many ways. I had been trying to look for ways to backtrack and see where I went wrong for days and I did not know where to start anymore because we were so far into our research that I lost track of the relations to the case study. The next prompt was from our interests, what else could we make more interesting in terms of the narrative/non-narrative form. Being able to see the case study in another perspective, thanks to the prompting, we decided to change our three draft ideas.

This was the best possible way of solving this issue. I can’t think of any other possibilities.

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Reflection: Week 5b “Project THREE Brief + Presentation”

  By weiyunsoo • April 10, 2015

Reporting:
After the Easter break, we continue with our fifth week classes. We continued with the remaining groups for the project two presentation. There were plenty good case studies like the game montage and Vine collaboration and the non-narrative reviews  YouTubers such as Devin Supertramp and Phillip Bloom. Project three brief has been discussed at the end of the class and we had a few minutes of group discussion to flesh out some ideas. Peter and I were discussing on this new service called ‘Periscope’ and we thought it would be an awesome idea to tie it back to making interactive game shorts into video format. There it was, our first idea was born! We had shared our idea, where we wanted it to be like the ‘Twitch Plays Pokemon’ (just without the codings and stuff), to Seth and we had something to ponder about. Our first sketch idea was:

We are interested in the interactivity element from the 89 steps. so what happens if the elements are used in new online services on Periscope?

Unfortunately, we ran out of time to discuss further so Peter and I had to work with whatever we just discussed over the weekend and come up with more concrete ideas.

Relating:
Something I realised over this brainstorming session is that these sketch ideas are really open. It is so vague but instead of just cracking up with one good idea, I should be coming up with different ideas and finding the best one. Seth had mentioned about making three ideas that are completely different from each other and then choose them in terms of which one we feel more interested in. This was a little more open with creativity as compared to the previous sketches we have done for project two. I am definitely getting a clearer picture on what sketching is all about. In terms of my knowledge, I am still not completely sure on the interactivity and participatory aspect. It is going to be a trouble in the future projects and I know that it will only slow me down especially with the time constraint.

Reasoning:
I understand that my basic knowledge on participation in online videos isn’t enough for further reference. Our projects are going more in depth with our case study and if I do not have strong knowledge in my field of research, I will be producing half-assed work.

There are a lot of thinking to do as well. I have been focusing too much of ideas that I have seen instead of coming up with something new. The whole reason of this studio is to experiment and pick on certain elements of an online video and THEN transform it into something different.

Reconstructing:

I believe starting to read more on my field would be helpful to my research. The key concepts from the readings could help in my brainstorming when thinking of ideas and find out what has been used in the past. Also, checking with our lecturer would seem like a good idea to make sure we are going on the right track unlike my last project.

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Reflection: Week 5a – Presenting Our Project TWO

  By weiyunsoo • March 30, 2015

Reporting:
Project two was presented to our lecturer today. Well all I can say it was… a good effort. We presented our ten sketches through our thorough research on our case study, 89 Steps. Peter had explored in the user-action aspect of online video. He experimented with the various online video platforms suitable for interactivity shorts. I explored in the technical and participatory aspect of the interactive documentary. I picked out certain technical shots that enhanced participatory affect as well as using participation like alternate endings.

Our issue today was… I guess our presentation preparation did not prioritise the timing but more on the content for the sketches. We were so focused on how to explain the sketches that we did not time our presentation. Even that as well, we failed to make time for explaining how these sketches helped us understand in relation to the case study video. I had trouble trying to understand questions being thrown in during the Q&A session because I did not quite understand some of the concepts.

Relating:
I had a similar problem once back in college. We had timed the presentation more than three times but we still were press for time. When we presented, one of our group members accidentally talked more than she was supposed to and one of us did not have enough time to explain her part. All in all, I probably think I have problems with timing during the actual presentation.

Reasoning:
Practice makes perfect! – Timing is very important. If you see TED talks, the presentations are heavily timed, practiced until they memorised their script. When someone knows their facts well and presents with full confidence, the audience will pay attention to them. A lot of preparation is needed and sometimes some people have a talent in talking in front of the people. The good thing about this course is we will be presenting for every single project and so it will give me a chance to familiarise myself with presenting in front of a crowd.

Looking back on this issue, I believe that it wasn’t only just the timing issue but rather more on the content.  I also think this content issue was my fault for not trying to clear up misunderstandings of the project brief with my lecturer.  I need to also read up more on the concepts I am working around in so that I can clear my doubts as well.

Reconstructing:
There are a lot of things that I need to take in consideration in the future. This issue helped me review the problems I had so far. We should have explained less on the sketches and more on the concept of how this sketches made us understand the concept of narratives. We did not describe enough on our sketches in relation to our case study. I felt this was a little difficult to grasp. How can I make this easier for me to understand? What does this mean to understand the hybrid narratives of my documentary short case study? Should I back track a little and figure things out again or just use my sketches and connect them back again?

 

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Sketch FIVE: Flashback Scene

  By weiyunsoo • March 30, 2015

There was a scene where they took a picture of the current room for the listing. The next was a video of the past and what Martha and her children did in that room. I found that technical style worth learning. The use of found footages and current photos to emphasise the memories at that place makes it more powerful. So, I decided to do a continuous video of that style. I took past footages of my old high school videos and tried to recreate that style. I did a similar style in the past but in reverse.

The technical side seemed simple enough where you take found footages and use it as a flashback to let the audience know about the past memories of the room itself. I used the hallway of my high school and created a moment there. I felt a powerful technique to show reminiscence and memories of being attached to it. The interaction of showing the viewers the past helps them understand the sentimental value of the apartment. Hence, in this non-linear narrative, gives a good interaction to give the viewers the same feel of the sense of attachment just like Martha.

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Sketch FOUR: POV

  By weiyunsoo • March 30, 2015

Participation does not just mean being able to click and and alter the narrative. It also means that you feel like you are there with the people in the film itself that makes it a sense of participation. It also has a feel of participation by using certain shot angles. For example, the first person shot gives a more powerful perspective that makes you feel like you are with the people in the film. The sense of being there has a participatory effect.  I immediately felt like I was opening the door for Martha or I felt like i stood next to her watching her unlock the doors. I went up the stairs with her in real time and I felt like I was listening to her talk as we walk up the stairs.

This sketch is to understand how first person shot helps enhance the participatory aspect. I felt that by feeling like you are the eyes of the person, makes you feel like you are experiencing and witnessing the situation in the film with the person.

This technique really helped me understand the feeling of having a sense of presence in the film. It is a linear narrative where the participants go through the story of the subject.

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Sketch THREE: Looking around the Apartment

  By weiyunsoo • March 30, 2015

For this sketch, I was inspired by the apartment chapter. In that chapter, the participating aspect on looking around the apartment is by using a mouse to click left and right to show what Martha does at every corner of the apartment. I decided to try it on as a video format.

I decided to do a panning shot to show the apartment but I could not add people into it because it was a little complex in the editing aspect. I did a comparison with a panoramic shot as well.

I find this lacking in the element of participatory. I could not replicate the participatory effect in the video format. This sense of non-narrative is difficult to replicate in interactivity form.

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