Alongside getting our proposals and the ball rolling on our projects, we began with the task of making a documentary on a select text we were given, ours being "The Performative Documentary" by Barker, Dineen and Broomfield.
In short, the text was trying to argue the question as to which out of "performative" documentaries (E.g. Documentaries which re-enact scenes using actors) or "Real-Life and Challenging" Documentaries (E.g. "Bowling For Columbine", director really involved with subject) portrays the truth best?
To express what we had learnt from this text, as we were put into groups to make these presentations, we created a mini documentary which compared the two different type of documentaries against each other.
Filming was great fun and really did help us to get into the feel and groove of making documentaries. The text was very heavy in my opinion which sadly dampened the fun and creativity of this piece. A smaller text would have been much better as we could have really gone to town on the whole thing, instead of having to summarise and compress the knowledge from all 22 or something pages!
Never the less, the documentary is something I'm proud of and it went down well in the screening so that's a positive. :)
Unfortunately I haven't got a copy of the documentary but instead here is a link to the video which Jeff has uploaded to his Youtube account:
http://www.youtube.com/jeffwhite1990#p/u/10/3OVXlq1VJPI
That's it for now but check back next week for the next bit of progress. :)
Take care,
Joe.
Friday, 26 November 2010
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Proposal, Research and Preparation (Plus Photos of Ideas/Notes)
Here today we have my proposal for my documentary as well as some links to other work I've looked at for research and also the photos I said about earlier of my notes/ideas which are penis free. Since my last post, I have included my girlfriend's dad Phil, and my friend and coursemate Jeff White to take part in Decembeard with me so that there is more than one outcome of beard style/growth. I was going to ask my friend Tom however due to geography it was much easier to get Jeff to help me out instead but perhaps in the future I could do a second documentary on just the beards growing and include him too.
Firstly then, here is my proposal:
MEDI 236 DOCUMENTARY PROJECT:
PROPOSAL
The focus of my documentary will be on the social challenge “Decembeard”, with an insight into the history and culture of beards and facial hair.
Working with influence from the McDonalds and fast food documentary “Supersize Me” by Morgan Spurlock, I will be participating in “Decembeard”, a social challenge whereby I shall grow a beard from scratch, starting on Dec 1st and finishing on Dec 31st.
Throughout this month I cannot shave, trim or style the beard in any way until “Manuary”, Which is January and the month where participants can decide whether to trim and style their beard or completely shave it all off.
Alongside my initial challenge, I will interview others who have agreed to participate to compare experiences, as well as including a history of beards and facial hair throughout the ages, focusing on the symbolism beards have become associated with. (For example, only high classed Ancient Egyptians were allowed to grow beards as they were seen as a sign of nobility and strength).
The target audience will be mainly men from the age of puberty and older, whilst the medium I shall document in is mainly film such as for the interviews and my video diary.
However, with the history and transitions created out of stop-motion and After Effects to allow for a more interesting and engaging insight into the history.
It was hard to start a proposal as I've never done anything like this trying to "convince" and explain to someone why they should be interested in my project!
Never the less once you get going, the words were there in my head as I've been working through how I'll make this project over the last week or so (hence the delay in this next post) and so putting it down on paper was quite easy once I'd gotten over that first hurdle. Introductions are always the hardest part to write.
Next up we have here some research into documentarys etc. which have helped me to build up the content for my proposal and project so far.
First up is obviously going to be "Supersize Me" as I've been rambling on about bits of this a lot so far!
First is the intro to "Supersize Me":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V168xofxgu0
I really like the animation style and obvious diagrams and visuals in this scene as they really accent the narration and the points he is trying to get across. I think I could really get on board with working in this way and with the workshops I've been having into After Effects and other animating software, I really think I could do a scene like this well (not in a vain way just saying I would love to have a go as I have an understanding of how to know!) and hopefully just as clear and exciting.
Next up is some videos on beards which I found interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCP5VqmDsf4&playnext=1&list=PL37C6BA647A226115
In this one the use of reversed filming is really effective and although I don't think I will be showing my beard growth in this way, it's still an interesting piece which I debated about incorporating for a while. Perhaps as a future project?
Next up is an animation of the man who took a photo of himself EVERY day for 6 years!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B26asyGKDo
This is truly incredible footage and not ot mention ridiciously disciplined! This is the style I want my beard to be shown in at the end. Nice and simple and raw. :)
Here we have a man doing the same but with a beard being grown as well and done for 8 years instead! It's insance the amounts of dedication these people have!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc_PU3D3QNE&feature=related
And here is one of a pregnant woman during her pregnancy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBUsWwMXTjE&feature=related
This one is a little too slow for my liking and doesn't show transitions very well but still it is worth mentioning. :)
And finally I've actually found one of a beard growing as my final example of this time lapse! Although these are all time lapse based pieces, the transitions are what I've been looking at and especially the backgrounds. This change that happens around us as we grow is something which truly fascinates me as it's not just the man growing but the enviornment too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY8gja0_CCA&feature=related
So there's some of the best research bits I've done and in alecture recently we also looked at "Bowling For Columbine" by Michael Moore. Again this simplistic style and very hands on interactive style of documentary, where the director is directly involved with and addressing the viewer and the documentary, is what inspires me overall and is the main aspect I want to be present throughout my piece.
At first I thought the style might be more reminiscent of a documentary with a Expository style, but thinking it over, documentarys like this differ and become more interactive by the documentor making his/her view very clear and emphasising it through collaberation with "real life" people/witnesses, not actors and also through a general collaboeration with the project and subject(s) it/themselves.
Also, the animations used to explain in this piece are again showing just how a simplistic animation can help break up the visual and narrative to spice it up and keep it fresh and appealing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUSpszWfu_w - Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine".
Finally, in this blog are also the photos of my notes etc. from the beginning of this project right up to now with the ones showing order and content.
I'm sorry if you can't read them cos they're a bit small, but basically they are firstly all 4 documents together with top left being the notes from that first 236 lecture, then below is the content and order I've been putting together and next to that is the additional notes once I'd narrowed down my subject. Then finally top right is my list of rules for Tom and Phil which outlines what they have to do when taking part in Decembeard. Originally as you can see here, I asked quite a lot from them so when they actually take place (although now it will be Phil and Jeff) I will dumb this down and give them a more simplistic outline of what they've got to do. :)
That's it for now but check back soon for more on how I'm progressing along with this project, including footage, more images, notes, research and anything else I can think of that would be relevant to this project. :)
Take care,
Joe.
Friday, 5 November 2010
MEDI 236 Introduction
Hello and welcome to my new blog workbook for MEDI 236 A.K.A the Documentary Project.
In this module I will be creating a documentary on a subject of my choice with regards and references to other practioners work and styles.
Having already learnt we were going to be doing this module in the second year I originally thought I would do it on Buddhism, as I learnt a lot about it during my A-Level in Philosophy.
However this idea felt too safe to me and I decided to start from scratch, and if I couldn't think of anything better I would come back to this.
Below is my list of other ideas I had taken from my initial ideas and notes. I would normally upload the notes but to be honest they're very messy and also a couple of my coursemates have drawn penis' all over them so it's not the most professional approach to explaining my beginnings!
Initial Ideas List:
Buddhism - Go to temples and ask a major question/try to answer it
Improve on this idea and have my own journey!
Spiritual? Go to different religions e.g. Buddhist temple, Church, Gurdwara (Sikh Temple)
Modern Travllers/homes
Lifeboat down Exmouth
Dad's new Puppy Bea and the RSPCA
Fishermen/seamen and their lives down Exmouth
Plymouth in general (history etc.) (Crap idea)
Challenges!
Gym Challenge E.g. since probably gotten bigger over Christmas, documentary of me getting healthy again?
Learn a trick? I.e. Juggling?
Riding a Bike guy (bloke from another year in Media Arts who learnt to ride a bike for the first time as his documentary)
Volvic Challenge
Growing Plants
Finally getting a Tattoo? Scabbing etc. WHOLE PROCESS?
Haircut/hair growing?
FOR ALL KEEP VERY SIMPLISTIC - THINK "SUPERSIZE ME" by Morgan Spurlock
It was only when my girlfriend Eden said that my beard was getting a bit scraggly after that final idea that she realised how good it would be as an idea for me to grow a beard from scratch and do a photo each day!
This idea from such a beautiful creature is what I have concluded to do for my documentary. The challenge of growing a beard is already a social event which me and a few friends have taken part in before last year called DECEMBEARD.
Taking the words DECEMBER and BEARD, those who take part must shave on the last day of November and then resist from shaving all december until they can style and shape whatever facial hair has grown in January (although to stay in style with the other title, most called it MANUARY, MAN and JANUARY since it is mainly men who are growing the beards, unless any women take part who have Hirsutism!).
As I've said above, my main influence for a challenge based documentary came from Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me" in which he ate only Mcdonalds food for a month.
However along side this initial challenge he included a history and back story to many of the points and subjects which arose in his documentary.
For my own project, I am going to be taking part in this challenge of Decembeard and explaining what and why it exists, as well as why people have beards and what they have meant over the years.
Already I knew that a big beard (such as Merlin's) has been associated with wisdom etc. but what else have beards represented and been connected with?
From here on in I will be preparing firstly my proposal of my idea (which I'll post next along with the photos of my ideas which don't have willies on them!) and then getting an early start on the project by getting myself ready for taking part in Decembeard since it's November now and the early bird catches the worm etc. :)
Take care,
Joe.
In this module I will be creating a documentary on a subject of my choice with regards and references to other practioners work and styles.
Having already learnt we were going to be doing this module in the second year I originally thought I would do it on Buddhism, as I learnt a lot about it during my A-Level in Philosophy.
However this idea felt too safe to me and I decided to start from scratch, and if I couldn't think of anything better I would come back to this.
Below is my list of other ideas I had taken from my initial ideas and notes. I would normally upload the notes but to be honest they're very messy and also a couple of my coursemates have drawn penis' all over them so it's not the most professional approach to explaining my beginnings!
Initial Ideas List:
Buddhism - Go to temples and ask a major question/try to answer it
Improve on this idea and have my own journey!
Spiritual? Go to different religions e.g. Buddhist temple, Church, Gurdwara (Sikh Temple)
Modern Travllers/homes
Lifeboat down Exmouth
Dad's new Puppy Bea and the RSPCA
Fishermen/seamen and their lives down Exmouth
Plymouth in general (history etc.) (Crap idea)
Challenges!
Gym Challenge E.g. since probably gotten bigger over Christmas, documentary of me getting healthy again?
Learn a trick? I.e. Juggling?
Riding a Bike guy (bloke from another year in Media Arts who learnt to ride a bike for the first time as his documentary)
Volvic Challenge
Growing Plants
Finally getting a Tattoo? Scabbing etc. WHOLE PROCESS?
Haircut/hair growing?
FOR ALL KEEP VERY SIMPLISTIC - THINK "SUPERSIZE ME" by Morgan Spurlock
It was only when my girlfriend Eden said that my beard was getting a bit scraggly after that final idea that she realised how good it would be as an idea for me to grow a beard from scratch and do a photo each day!
This idea from such a beautiful creature is what I have concluded to do for my documentary. The challenge of growing a beard is already a social event which me and a few friends have taken part in before last year called DECEMBEARD.
Taking the words DECEMBER and BEARD, those who take part must shave on the last day of November and then resist from shaving all december until they can style and shape whatever facial hair has grown in January (although to stay in style with the other title, most called it MANUARY, MAN and JANUARY since it is mainly men who are growing the beards, unless any women take part who have Hirsutism!).
As I've said above, my main influence for a challenge based documentary came from Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me" in which he ate only Mcdonalds food for a month.
However along side this initial challenge he included a history and back story to many of the points and subjects which arose in his documentary.
For my own project, I am going to be taking part in this challenge of Decembeard and explaining what and why it exists, as well as why people have beards and what they have meant over the years.
Already I knew that a big beard (such as Merlin's) has been associated with wisdom etc. but what else have beards represented and been connected with?
From here on in I will be preparing firstly my proposal of my idea (which I'll post next along with the photos of my ideas which don't have willies on them!) and then getting an early start on the project by getting myself ready for taking part in Decembeard since it's November now and the early bird catches the worm etc. :)
Take care,
Joe.
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
End Blog for MEDI 116
Looking back over my blog and the website we've made, I must admit that this module has been very unique compared to the others in terms of the final product and documentation style along the way.
I've never attempted to make a website or use a blog and have found both actually quite enjoyable once you get into the swing of things. I mean the blog is literally an electronic diary of this project to fill in after each day, well nearly each day as it does slip my mind sometimes when busy! But being able to simply type and upload what we've been working on instead of all the printing, cutting out, sticking in etc. that comes with sketchbooks has been a pleasant break and quite possibly something I will think of doing with future projects.
However, in terms of MEDI 116 this is the last blog entry I will enter for this project as I shall be handing in my work tomorrow and starting to finish MEDI 117 ready for the exhibition.
This module has been an overall enjoyable, if not stressful at times (in particular the last week before Easter!) experience and working with websites and using my blog is something I most likely will want to work with again.
So thanks for reading and if you want to, check back now and then for any new stuff I might upload and document during my time here at Plymouth Uni and otherwise.
Take care,
Joe.
I've never attempted to make a website or use a blog and have found both actually quite enjoyable once you get into the swing of things. I mean the blog is literally an electronic diary of this project to fill in after each day, well nearly each day as it does slip my mind sometimes when busy! But being able to simply type and upload what we've been working on instead of all the printing, cutting out, sticking in etc. that comes with sketchbooks has been a pleasant break and quite possibly something I will think of doing with future projects.
However, in terms of MEDI 116 this is the last blog entry I will enter for this project as I shall be handing in my work tomorrow and starting to finish MEDI 117 ready for the exhibition.
This module has been an overall enjoyable, if not stressful at times (in particular the last week before Easter!) experience and working with websites and using my blog is something I most likely will want to work with again.
So thanks for reading and if you want to, check back now and then for any new stuff I might upload and document during my time here at Plymouth Uni and otherwise.
Take care,
Joe.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
MEDI 116 Presentation Feedback and Evaluation
As a group we felt the presentation went really well and received some positive feedback and only one minor negative point.
Starting with the positives, our group dynamic of systematically working through each stage of development showed really well throughout the presentation so I'm guessing we showed this side of the process effectively.
The use of stop-motion for the map opening worked well to draw in the viewer apparently and was a good starting point and centre for the website.
These comments were really encouraging and alongside the negative will work as great evaluation points.
The negative comment on the other hand was just about how the background (a montage of photos of the market in washout and faded effect) didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the website and the sketchy hand drawn style we were going for.
On the plus side, at least it was noticed that the sketchy theme is consistent throughout each page and so being evident in all areas of the website must successfully link each piece together.
But also with regards to the background perhaps if we'd had more time we could of fixed up a better layout. We tried the wood effect so it looked like the whole website was on a desk like the map, but this didn't work so perhaps if we worked on this again we could redesign a background.
Also I've noticed that the titles are a bit too sketch like and seem quite scruffy as the camera with which we took the photos was not very high quality.
A final note for improvement is that most of the websites we saw had themed transitions from one area to the next which made us wonder whether if we'd had time could we have done something better than the standard "your on one page, click, your on the next" effect.
Looking at Tom Summer's groups website, the use of stop-motion to show the character running was very effective and in connection with the map animation may have worked well as an evaluation point. It also carried their story along very well so perhaps if we'd had more time we could of built up more of a personal guided tour feel where a man guides you around the market to each page.
For example, when on the home page map, click on stall and then it cuts to an stop-motion animation of someone walking to that store then the actual page fades in perhaps? It's a bit late to be thinking about this all now as we've finished the website but still for future projects more attention should be paid to the transitions an flow of the website from one area to the next.
Alongside getting feedback for our own website, it also gave us a great chance to look at what everyone else had made.
I particularly like the websites by Simon Will's and Joe Stutter's group where a "Google maps" style 360 camera effect was used to great success. How this would even be possible I can't quite understand at the moment but perhaps in the future I will learn this technique as it looks very professional when it was put up on their websites.
Overall, the presentation went well and I'm pleased with our own presentation and the website we have produced.
That's all for tonight/this morning, I've also included a link to Amy's Flickr page where you can some of the photos we used in the website.
I've also finished my evaluation and sent it off for Andy to have a look over so check back tomorrow night where I shall talk through the whole experience, my evaluation and bring this blog on MEDI 116 to a conclusion.
That's all for now, take care,
Joe.
The link to Amy's flickr for some of the photos we used in our website:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fish_eye_fish_pie/sets/72157623723495717/
Starting with the positives, our group dynamic of systematically working through each stage of development showed really well throughout the presentation so I'm guessing we showed this side of the process effectively.
The use of stop-motion for the map opening worked well to draw in the viewer apparently and was a good starting point and centre for the website.
These comments were really encouraging and alongside the negative will work as great evaluation points.
The negative comment on the other hand was just about how the background (a montage of photos of the market in washout and faded effect) didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the website and the sketchy hand drawn style we were going for.
On the plus side, at least it was noticed that the sketchy theme is consistent throughout each page and so being evident in all areas of the website must successfully link each piece together.
But also with regards to the background perhaps if we'd had more time we could of fixed up a better layout. We tried the wood effect so it looked like the whole website was on a desk like the map, but this didn't work so perhaps if we worked on this again we could redesign a background.
Also I've noticed that the titles are a bit too sketch like and seem quite scruffy as the camera with which we took the photos was not very high quality.
A final note for improvement is that most of the websites we saw had themed transitions from one area to the next which made us wonder whether if we'd had time could we have done something better than the standard "your on one page, click, your on the next" effect.
Looking at Tom Summer's groups website, the use of stop-motion to show the character running was very effective and in connection with the map animation may have worked well as an evaluation point. It also carried their story along very well so perhaps if we'd had more time we could of built up more of a personal guided tour feel where a man guides you around the market to each page.
For example, when on the home page map, click on stall and then it cuts to an stop-motion animation of someone walking to that store then the actual page fades in perhaps? It's a bit late to be thinking about this all now as we've finished the website but still for future projects more attention should be paid to the transitions an flow of the website from one area to the next.
Alongside getting feedback for our own website, it also gave us a great chance to look at what everyone else had made.
I particularly like the websites by Simon Will's and Joe Stutter's group where a "Google maps" style 360 camera effect was used to great success. How this would even be possible I can't quite understand at the moment but perhaps in the future I will learn this technique as it looks very professional when it was put up on their websites.
Overall, the presentation went well and I'm pleased with our own presentation and the website we have produced.
That's all for tonight/this morning, I've also included a link to Amy's Flickr page where you can some of the photos we used in the website.
I've also finished my evaluation and sent it off for Andy to have a look over so check back tomorrow night where I shall talk through the whole experience, my evaluation and bring this blog on MEDI 116 to a conclusion.
That's all for now, take care,
Joe.
The link to Amy's flickr for some of the photos we used in our website:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fish_eye_fish_pie/sets/72157623723495717/
Monday, 19 April 2010
P.S Our Script for the Presentation
Here as well before I sign off for the night and focus on 117, is our script for you to read in it's current state. No doubt after we meet up tomorrow before the presentation it will have been altered again but here it is so far:
MEDI 116 PRESENTATION SCRIPT
1ST SLIDE TITLE
Amy: With our website we started off researching many of the websites from the module brief and from other sources to see what type of website we wanted to create.
From each of these websites we looked at the good and bad qualities and found aspects of some websites, such as Gorillaz.com’s interactivity on the “Plastic Beach” game or the ability in the Folk Songs for the Five Points website to make your own unique music using their sound clips, very inspiring towards how we wanted our own to develop to the viewer.
With this research we were then able to have a clear idea of what we wanted the website to look like, leaving us with the question now of what area we wanted to express. Here are the links to some of the websites we looked at.
Jeff:
We began by spider diagramming for places around Plymouth, a place we could all access easily, for ideas on where we could base our website.
Our initial ideas consisted of main tourist areas such as the Bus Station for example, which is a large focal point of the city, but these areas seemed too obvious and simplistic so we tried to make the area the website expressed more abstract and interesting.
From here we used the Bus Station as the subject and tried to think of ways to express the area using objects and unusual mediums.
Ideas stemmed from using a chest of drawers where each separate draw held different information or an area of the bus station, to a sink where sounds of water and the gushing taps could be used to melt one area into another.
We certainly got the abstract aspect right, but trying to explain and link the two aspects e.g. why a chest of drawers would be connected to a bus station and so on proved more hassle than it was worth and so we opted for a different subject and approach.
Anastasija: We tried a different tactic and as we liked the chest of drawers idea, we started thinking of where we could find such an object and so fell upon our chosen subject of Plymouth’s Indoor City Market.
With the Market, we had a wide range of areas with which to incorporate and express into each drawer.
We eventually decided to drop the idea of using a chest of drawers as we did not see the need for it when the market has so much we could express already, but this does not mean we just listed what each stall had to sell.
Instead we wanted to go a step further and create a more personal experience for the viewer to explore.
Joe: Whilst me and Jeff worked on actually making the website using flash, Amy and Anastasija went out to the market to collect photos and information on the market such as the history, layout and so on.
However to take the website a step further, they gathered interviews with the stall owners and shoppers so that alongside the photos of the market, the viewer could get a more realistic feel and understanding of what the market is like, through the real opinions of those who work and shop there.
On the link are the interviews Amy and Anastasija collected and some of the photos we used on the website.
Amy: Although we worked efficiently and to the best of our abilities as a group, there were inevitably going to be a few problems we encountered.
The first of these was that the original website was quite standard and boring at first which led us to want a hand drawn map of the area to emphasise an overall more personal feel.
The original idea was to have a flash of the markets doors opening and then a film of someone unscrumpling the map and laying it flat. We tried filming this but found many problems in trying to get the right effect and so in the end opted for stop-motion animation of the map ball unfolding by itself.
This worked much better and for added effect we added sounds of the paper being scrunched up.
We also were going to add the sound of a pencil scratching as it drew a circle for when certain stalls on the map were highlighted but found from our research that websites became very irritating when repetitive sounds were used so we opted for a more simplistic approach so as not to annoy the viewer.
Jeff: The main problem with this project was that we found the first interview recordings we collected were far too quiet to be heard and so new interviews had to be collected.
This was quite a big setback but whilst Amy and Anastasija did this me and Joe again worked on the website so when they returned we were ready to add the interviews straight away and make up for lost time.
Anastasija: We also realised that this website should be accessible to everyone and since our interviews are audio files, we have included the scripts for each interview.
This aspect of the pages did make them text heavy but we want all people to be able to understand and enjoy the content so by having both audio and visual content for the viewer, those with hearing or vision impairments for example can still enjoy our website to the full extent.
Joe: With the website itself and using flash, there were no major problems and all ran smoothly in making the website, however when we came to publish and open the website in firefox there was an error and it could not be opened.
At first we tried changing all names of the files into lower case as for some strange reason using capitals can affect the website working? But eventually we came to understand that it was because we were using an old version of Firefox and so once firefox had been upgraded it worked fine.
Amy: Overall, the website worked really well to give the personal and modern feel to the market that we wanted to express.
For example using our own scrunched up effect of the hand drawn map instead of Plymouth Councils actual map of the area and sketchy style titles coupled with quality audio and visual content worked well to portray a more human feel to the website which we feel helps the viewer interact with the site more and get a better taste of the friendly levels on which Plymouth Market operates and the unique shopping experience it has to offer.
Check back tomorrow for how the presentation went, take care,
Joe.
MEDI 116 PRESENTATION SCRIPT
1ST SLIDE TITLE
Amy: With our website we started off researching many of the websites from the module brief and from other sources to see what type of website we wanted to create.
From each of these websites we looked at the good and bad qualities and found aspects of some websites, such as Gorillaz.com’s interactivity on the “Plastic Beach” game or the ability in the Folk Songs for the Five Points website to make your own unique music using their sound clips, very inspiring towards how we wanted our own to develop to the viewer.
With this research we were then able to have a clear idea of what we wanted the website to look like, leaving us with the question now of what area we wanted to express. Here are the links to some of the websites we looked at.
Jeff:
We began by spider diagramming for places around Plymouth, a place we could all access easily, for ideas on where we could base our website.
Our initial ideas consisted of main tourist areas such as the Bus Station for example, which is a large focal point of the city, but these areas seemed too obvious and simplistic so we tried to make the area the website expressed more abstract and interesting.
From here we used the Bus Station as the subject and tried to think of ways to express the area using objects and unusual mediums.
Ideas stemmed from using a chest of drawers where each separate draw held different information or an area of the bus station, to a sink where sounds of water and the gushing taps could be used to melt one area into another.
We certainly got the abstract aspect right, but trying to explain and link the two aspects e.g. why a chest of drawers would be connected to a bus station and so on proved more hassle than it was worth and so we opted for a different subject and approach.
Anastasija: We tried a different tactic and as we liked the chest of drawers idea, we started thinking of where we could find such an object and so fell upon our chosen subject of Plymouth’s Indoor City Market.
With the Market, we had a wide range of areas with which to incorporate and express into each drawer.
We eventually decided to drop the idea of using a chest of drawers as we did not see the need for it when the market has so much we could express already, but this does not mean we just listed what each stall had to sell.
Instead we wanted to go a step further and create a more personal experience for the viewer to explore.
Joe: Whilst me and Jeff worked on actually making the website using flash, Amy and Anastasija went out to the market to collect photos and information on the market such as the history, layout and so on.
However to take the website a step further, they gathered interviews with the stall owners and shoppers so that alongside the photos of the market, the viewer could get a more realistic feel and understanding of what the market is like, through the real opinions of those who work and shop there.
On the link are the interviews Amy and Anastasija collected and some of the photos we used on the website.
Amy: Although we worked efficiently and to the best of our abilities as a group, there were inevitably going to be a few problems we encountered.
The first of these was that the original website was quite standard and boring at first which led us to want a hand drawn map of the area to emphasise an overall more personal feel.
The original idea was to have a flash of the markets doors opening and then a film of someone unscrumpling the map and laying it flat. We tried filming this but found many problems in trying to get the right effect and so in the end opted for stop-motion animation of the map ball unfolding by itself.
This worked much better and for added effect we added sounds of the paper being scrunched up.
We also were going to add the sound of a pencil scratching as it drew a circle for when certain stalls on the map were highlighted but found from our research that websites became very irritating when repetitive sounds were used so we opted for a more simplistic approach so as not to annoy the viewer.
Jeff: The main problem with this project was that we found the first interview recordings we collected were far too quiet to be heard and so new interviews had to be collected.
This was quite a big setback but whilst Amy and Anastasija did this me and Joe again worked on the website so when they returned we were ready to add the interviews straight away and make up for lost time.
Anastasija: We also realised that this website should be accessible to everyone and since our interviews are audio files, we have included the scripts for each interview.
This aspect of the pages did make them text heavy but we want all people to be able to understand and enjoy the content so by having both audio and visual content for the viewer, those with hearing or vision impairments for example can still enjoy our website to the full extent.
Joe: With the website itself and using flash, there were no major problems and all ran smoothly in making the website, however when we came to publish and open the website in firefox there was an error and it could not be opened.
At first we tried changing all names of the files into lower case as for some strange reason using capitals can affect the website working? But eventually we came to understand that it was because we were using an old version of Firefox and so once firefox had been upgraded it worked fine.
Amy: Overall, the website worked really well to give the personal and modern feel to the market that we wanted to express.
For example using our own scrunched up effect of the hand drawn map instead of Plymouth Councils actual map of the area and sketchy style titles coupled with quality audio and visual content worked well to portray a more human feel to the website which we feel helps the viewer interact with the site more and get a better taste of the friendly levels on which Plymouth Market operates and the unique shopping experience it has to offer.
Check back tomorrow for how the presentation went, take care,
Joe.
Presentation is done and ready!
Having finished the script for the presentation last night, instead I went in to Scott yesterday to meet my group and together we made the powerpoint to go along with it. This was a much better idea than just me making the presentation as together we made the powerpoint and then readjusted the script to fit in with the main points we as a group had established as the most important focal points.
Now I feel we have a stronger and more interesting presentation with samples of our influences and research plus Amy's flickr account showing the photos we took and this link:www.soundcloud.com/arixonmedi116 which has all the interviews sound clips Amy and Anastasija recorded and now those who view this blog can hear them as well.
Addressing the whole project together to make this presentation has really helped to evaluate the good and bad points we've encountered so that our critical evaluations can be much more in depth and expressive of the whole creative process with this module.
For example, some of the problems we encountered such as firefox being unable to open the website until it was upgraded to a better model had slipped my mind and so know I can put these things into blog (as i've just done) and explain how i felt about this problem and other aspects of making this project in my evaluation.
I've also realised I haven't uploaded all the sketches and plans we've done so here is the storyboard we made for how the website could play out:
That's all for now but after the presentation tomorrow I shall blog about how it went and how I felt about it etc. etc. then begin writing my critical evaluation from what i've learnt with the feedback.
Take care,
Joe.
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