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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:

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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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Reflection: Week 4b “Issues/Problems in Studio OVE”

  By weiyunsoo • March 27, 2015

Today we learnt to write a good reflection. The 4Rs are good guideline to writing an effective, impactful reflections. Our first exercise was to write a reflection blog post on the issues or problems that came up during our studio sessions for Online Video Experiments. Here goes!

Reporting:
Back in week three, we were discussing about the sketch ideas. My partner, Peter and I were discussing to come up with a concept statement. We put our two case studies together and came up with a vague statement, “We aim to achieve a participatory narrative where the user decides through interactivity.” It was too broad so we narrowed down to ‘multi-narrative in terms of participation‘. Peter suggested, being inspired by the interactive documentary, he thought of constructing a multi-linear narrative of a mundane life. Unfortunately, we had not gotten the idea of this project so we were off track.

By the end of week four, we had gone back on track after many feedback from Seth and our peers. We were supposed to pick out certain elements from one case study and re-create them to understand the process. We were not supposed to create original contents in relation to our case study but break things down from the case study. Now we know!

Relating:
It was an eye opening process when I made the first mistake. It made me understand the project clearer. I still had questions on the process of sketching at that time as it was a new concept to me. We used Peter’s case study as an inspiration to start our sketches when we actually just had to use the case study to tear apart some elements and recreate them in a way that benefit us to learn. I definitely have a clearer structure on making my sketches now. The skills required for me to complete this sketches are a little easier for me as we are just recreating certain aspects from the case study.

Reasoning:
One of the reasons why this issue has to be addressed because one mistake in the beginning can lead to a different path. The sketches are to prompt you to research on the different elements from the video itself. If we do a different style, it does not fulfil the criteria from the project brief.

Reconstructing:
This issue is definitely a crucial problem that needs to be tackled at an earlier stage. With the time constrains for these ten sketches to be completed, all my uncertainty has to be cleared at an earlier stage or I would be rushing my work at the last minute, producing a quick and shallow sketches. Making mistakes in the beginning is a good thing so that we can learn from them and we know not to do it the next time. My teacher in high school once said, ” They are not mistakes, just learning experience.”

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Reflection: Week 2–What is Online Video to Me?

  By weiyunsoo • March 16, 2015

It has been two weeks of being introduced to online videos and I pretty much think that this is a very subjective definition. It really depends what it is to you. I watched through a few presentations from my peers today about web series, interactive narratives, tutorials and reviews from the web and it got me thinking that online videos come in different forms and genres.

The best way to understand what online video is comparing it towards traditional media like cinema or television. If it is a copy of a film from the television, it its not exactly categorised as an online video. Online videos are short, DIY and in a less professional format that allows us to create video content almost daily. An example of daily contents are video logs or short comedy skits.

We also had an interesting discussion today. Would it still be considered an online video if it is just still images and audio soundtrack? My opinion would be no it would not be an online video but if it is a series of images like a montage I would say it can be considered. Arguably, our lecturer, Seth had made a good point if there is soundtrack, and duration, it could be considered a video.

A lot of things to ponder about for online videos. I hope to get a grasp in this practice by the end of week 3.

Cheers!

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OVE Studio: Day ONE !

  By weiyunsoo • March 6, 2015

After two weeks of summer break, I am finally back to blogging! I think ever since that intensive course with Networked Media, I found that blogging isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Anyways, let’s move along to the topic for today!

Online. Video. Experiments – Experimenting videos that are available on the Internet. I picked this class to learn the various online videos practices. I believe that with technology these days, the videos online are spreading like wildfire. I want to understand the hype of all these.

I came into class with an empty mind, I probably ended class with an empty mind as well. I have to admit that this studio concept is all new to me that it probably was a little confusing. Just a little recap.

1) We are having a new learning concept – ‘practice based research’.

2) We will be doing blog reflections to keep our research progressing daily

NUMBER ONE! The thing that caught my interest is that we would be experimenting  on online video practices. That means we make an online video from scratch and research on it instead of just analysing past projects. My lecturer had mentioned something related to this practice before and it opened my learning tremendously. Copying someone’s style of editing is not cheating but more of a learning process and if you are more creative, find easier and a more effective way to edit it.

NUMBER TWO! Seth had mentioned in class about the importance of reflection. I find this technique rather useful. It is just writing things that comes to your head to keep it visible for you. The good thing about these reflections are they are not formal academic writings and you can always come back to edit the information or add more when you come across the same topic again.

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