After having experience several new media projects, as well as making our sketch for Assignment 1, Liam and I realised that most of the non-fiction new media projects were employing one of the key formal qualities of online screen media which is interactivity. Therefore, we wanted to explore the possibilities of making new media incorporating interactivity into our project work for Assignment 2.

We brainstormed a couple of ideas exploring ways of how interactivity can engage mass audience, but in order to do that, we must have an audience to appeal to, and since non of us are relatively popular Youtube or online influencers, we decided to take on another approach. One of the ideas that came to mind was to create a maze for users to navigate through either the entire Internet or in a particular social media app such as Facebook or Instagram. We thought it could be a good idea, and we discussed into great depth, however, we could not find a way to administer the game in order to monitor the progress of people playing it, the mechanics of the game, and so on. The initial idea was to use #hashtags in Instagram. Out of 3-4 hashtags false hashtags that will lead you to nowhere, only 1 will actually take you to another Instagram page, and the maze carries on from there. As mentioned, we were not too clear on how #hashtags worked (as silly as it sounds), but in order for it to work, we needed to have multiple Instagrams account, AND I discovered that if the user were to visit one of the account, he’ll be able to view all the leading pictures with the clues inside, hence the use of the hashtag would be redundant.

So back to the drawing board again, and we thought we should just stick to what we’re actually good at, or at least just slightly better than trying to overhaul the hashtags system on Instagram. Both Liam and I have relatively strong background on filmmaking, hence we decided to shoot an interactive horror scene where the viewer gets to decide the outcome. If you have read the old horror story books by Goosebumps, you’ll remember having little footnotes that tells you what page to flip to if you want the main character to do this, or that. We thought of employing that idea, by providing links to the viewer for them to choose what kind of outcome they wish. However, given the tight timeline we have to go out and shoot the multiple alternate endings on how the protagonists is going to die, I came up with an idea of doing an online Interactive e-Portfolio. Basically the same idea, without the horror, gore, and suspense. Viewers will get an opening message from the profile, and they’ll get to click on links to view that person’s resumé, showreel, social media accounts, and other miscellaneous stuff like their interests, hobbies, family portraits…etc. I’ll elaborate more in my next post on how we think this idea might explore the formal quality of interactivity and other online screen media qualities.

I’ve recently found this article regarding a VR project on The Conversation, which covers the topic of the Indigenous culture and people, facing threat from modernity and going under the radar for being the first people of the land.

The article goes on to elaborate how the VR film provided an immersive experience for people to observe the beautiful and enchanting environment of outback Australia as well as its lushes green rainforests where the Indigenous people predominantly occupy. This let me to ponder, on the post production process for making this VR film. Personally, I have very little knowledge on VR technology apart from how it works, but the mechanics behind it and how it can be edited, trimmed, and to what extent can be animated or composited, still escapes me. I might have mentioned in my previous blog posts in response to other studios that I have enrolled in prior to this that I aspire to become an offline editor in future. And being an editor requires one to possess a keen eye to detail, a sense of pacing, a good feel of mood, emotion, and contrast… However, thinking of applying all these traits of an offline editor into editing a VR video or film just doesn’t seem to gel.

Being an immersive technology, you require the audience to participate in the content of the media, instead of being just a passive audience. This means one can rotate his head around and witness everything that has been captured by the 360 degree camera, giving the illusion that he is right there while it’s all happening. This, however, would eliminate the sense of pacing and time, one of the key traits an offline editor embodies. Other traits that an offline editor might end up losing would be selecting the shots for the sequence. In traditional media, such as film, or TV, the editor would select the appropriate shot, camera angle, and take to follow up from the previous shot in order to make up one whole cohesive timeline and sequence. However, if everything was shot in 360 degrees, over a period of a couple of minutes or so, I don’t think there would be much footage the editor can choose from in terms of camera angle or takes.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, with 360 degree cameras emerging and VR technology coming up, would jobs or roles in the industry slowly die out or face “extinction”? It’s funny, because this VR project is trying to convey the message of Indigenous culture facing threat of being forgotten, while the technology employed to convey this message is something that might kill out older trades in the industry. Of course, we’ll always have films, TV series, dramas, documentaries, and more for a good ten to twenty years or so. But I think it’s still worth considering how are all these new technologies impacting the future of media in general.

I’m not sure how this post fits into the assignment 2, but I just found it thought provoking to consider how new technologies and new media might impact the occupations of not only both past and present, but in the future as well.

The trailer to the VR film can be viewed here.

During this week’s Thursday’s class, we were presented with several online projects used to convey, sway, motivate, or entertain the users and consumers.

One of the projects was a simple tool that allowed people to communicate without the need of registering or creating a new account. This separates itself from the torrent of programmes and apps to allow people to communicate from all over the world with the exception of creating an online account, one might have already too many accounts to keep track of these day. Hence this platform might come in handy for such situation. You can access the free website here.

Having seen the website put to use by my fellow classmates and tutor, made me recall an episode of Modern Family, called, Connection Lost. Which in my opinion is one of the best episodes of the series, just for the fact that the entire episode was based off Claire’s computer screen, and it shows her communicating with her family through Facetime and texts messages as she stalks her daughter’s (Haley) Facebook account to find out of her whereabouts. The episode exhibits almost all of the 5 principles that Manovich has mentioned in the readings, which mind boggles me how far we’ve come, not just in terms of modern technology, but filmmaking and script writing as well. In television series, there is always a “bottle” episode where the entire episode takes place in a single location, the iconic “Fly” episode of Breaking Bad is prime example. In this case, this episode of Modern Family does takes place in a single location, however, not a physical one, but in the realm’s of Claire’s computer. Which some might argue is a gateway through into a whole different dimension and opportunities to explore, a whole new virtual location, if you will.

This inspires me to do something similar or perhaps explore the possibility of doing screen capture or screen recording in relation to being interactive. The content of what I will be actually recording or capturing isn’t really clear at the moment, as I might have to go through several discussions with my group mate to see if we are on the same page with our research ideas. However, I am pretty confident we would like to tackle the formal quality of interactivity, hyperlinks, and if possible, branch out into exploring hypermedia.

Weeks 3 and 4’s readings cover the whole technical definition of what is new media, and it’s no coincidence that the chapter was called, “What Is New Media?”, from the book, “The Language of New Media.”

What intrigued me how was the author, Manovich, can classify and categorise multiple platforms of media, new and old, digital and analog, with such ease. Just thinking of the magnitude of how computers, AI, and algorithms have made an impact on people’s everyday lives can be overwhelming, however, Manovich was able to break things down to simple terms and classify various platforms, methods of production, exhibition and distribution, into an easy way for readers like myself to understand. An example would be how she broke down the principles of new media into 5 characteristics, and contrasting them with old media.

In the third principle, Automation, Manovich identified 2 types of automation, low and high level of automation. And as she describes how high level automation functions using a “smart camera” in a virtual environment where a user can interact with animated characters, engaging in conversations and dialogue based on the user’s emotional state, reactions, facial expressions and more. I can’t help but to be reminded of an episode I’ve watched on Black Mirror, called, “Be Right Back”. Where the plot revolves around a girl who communicates with her dead boyfriend through an app that gathers all of the past tweets, Facebook posts, comments, likes, shares, pictures, videos, basically developing an online avatar of the guy from his online profile and virtual footprints. An analysis of the video can be viewed below.

The reading also raises issues on media texts that could already exists as some form on the Internet.

“These technologies allowed us, over the course of 150 years, to accumulate an unprecedented amount of media materials…” (Manovic, 2002)

This line along with the paragraph this line was from reminded me of a time during my internship back home in Singapore with a post-production company, VHQ Media. I was interned as an offline editor, and I was tasked to find stock footage for a TV commercial of not just a few shots, but quite a decent amount of landscape shots of birds, weather, and more, which will be employed by the online artist at a later stage in the post production. I realise how reliant we have become on existing media that has already been shot or produced and then using it in another way or representation before it to takes on as a new role or function, as a new form of media, and I strongly believe it does not stop there. Websites such as, Getty Images, Pond5, and ShutterStock, provide stock footage, royalty free images and music, soundtracks, to users all over the world to create their own content. Sounds a little oxymoronic to me. You buy other people’s work to use in your own projects to make new media? This can also be tied up with Week 2’s reading by Adrian Miles on “all parts remain as parts” on the Internet, simply implying that, although I have bought the rights to use a certain stock image or footage from any of those stock image website, other interested parties are able to purchase that same footage or image, and are free to use them however they like.

The reading explains the simplicity of hyperlinks and the theory behind hypermedia, which I think it is worth exploring in Assessment 2, and I will uncover over the next couple of blog posts. Basically unpacking the “interactive” side of new media, and seeing what my group mate and I can do with open interactivity and closed interactivity as demonstrated in the reading.