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imogenbennettblogsdp · 5 years ago

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Non linear story telling - Session 5

So this blog is going to be different from the others (mostly for me that is) because of CONVID-19 the lesson is coming via virtual teaching - which ironic as its a virtual course - so how have I coped? developed my knowledge? what did I learn? well keep reading and I will take you through as I ask myself the same questions.

working by myself in the comfort of my pyjamas sounds nice but the problem is i’m very easily distracted, and live in a loud house hold with no room to be by myself so personally its not an ideal location for my learning and I tried to deal with it by doing it in my room by myself which doesn't help much but its the best I can do, I also learn by explanation... in a visual way, reading is not my forte (even tho there is a voice over, I found myself drifting off or not focusing entirely which is my problem not the lecturers). I also found that in a class i’m more motivated by other people working to, Floyd Allport in 1920: ‘The social Facilitation effect’ he found that people worked better in teams (even if not on the same project) than people working individually. “the mere presence of other people engaged in the same task as us can boost our motivation.”. So to summarise I can definitely tell that learning in a class surrounded by others and having ability to ask the lecturer a question straight up other than over emails. In future (fingers crossed) I will not take that for advantage.

Listening to the slides talking about non linear films Pulp Fiction I mentioned, this sparks a personal evaluation as I studied pulp fiction in the past for my level film course so I have quite a bit of knowledge on the film.

The way Quintin explored the non-linear structure is very fascinating almost episodic and circular (he seems to dabble in a few) I like how he opens the story and ends it the same... in the diner with the bonnie and Clyde homage couple.

One mention in the slides, when Vincent actual dies (Spoiler i’m sorry) half way through the film in butch’s storyline. Which creates irony for the ending scene, when Vincent is asked what he will do in future... we knows he dies so it creates a different vibe for the audience but also allows to understand that we can't get to attached to the characters as in their dangerous job, they can die at any time. I like the way Tarantino played with narrative in this. it intrigues me and is very different to the norm linear structure we're all familiar with.

From the slides I read this line about Interactive storytelling written by Carolyn Miller “Interactivity is a conversation between the user and the content...People who participate in interactive entertainments are given two gifts that are never offered to audiences of passive entertainments: choice and control. They get to chose what to see and do within an interactive work, and the decisions they make have an impact upon the story” I really agree with this especially allowing the audience to feel like they have control. personally I enjoy that aspect and it widens my experience giving me something non interactive stories can't, which is making me feel like I'm apart of creating the game and that my choices matter.

paper based interactivity is interesting although personally I don't think ill be as invested in this type of interactive storytelling type as I find it hard to read a book as it is, with the added complexity of multiple story I don't think ill be able to follow. on the other hand interactive reading is made simper with visuals without losing the ‘reading’ element of it. which Is where I introduce to you “Episode”. episode is a interactive story telling mobile app which allows the reader to chose their own storyline and characters look ( what I mean by this is in some episodes the reader can personalise their characters looks which I feel adds a lot to how the reader views the story - A lovely added touch if you ask me!-

Episode is great in the way you can play/ read and create episodes from the comfort of their home to the top of a pyramid (providing they get a great internet service that it).

For a task of creating our own interactive story, I find this a good way to challenge the two softwares, originally i was supposed to make a story on twine but to be honest I tried to work it and I hated it instantly... no hate to twine but its very much not my forte, compared to episode its just text and is quite boring/ Dull I feel I am limiting myself. (as you can tell Episode is quite colourful and cartoon like which I lean more towards (and the fact you can create the characters and animate them more). So I asked my lecturer and he confirmed I will be making my story on episode... now before you moan saying ‘i’m not challenging myself’ I am ok, I really only made one episode story and that was via mobile, I’m now doing it on PC which looks like a bunch of coding.

And to sell you Episode even more...YOU CAN GET PAID TO DO IT!! here is the link again for you to rush over and begin your story haha ..... yes they pay you based off your user reads (how many people read your stories) which is great and can encourage more story to one made.

I made a ‘rough’ Episode and I found it quite fun, its nice to see something you achieve

The way you create episodes on PC is much different to the app... harder.

its formed in the way like a play script or code. but it is unforgiving with spelling errors, one error and the whole script errors- not allowing you to view it-. very annoying when you in the flow of writing and you want to preview it and you get shot with tons of these red errors.

Especially when you have no idea where they are or how to correct.(watch all my blogs from now on have perfect grammar and spelling haha. I found my self googling what's the problem was or deleting it a redoing it. other than that when you get the hang of it and learn all your errors... its fun. I could easily make a whole story and get lost in writing. but then again that's what I do... I get lost in my writing and I love it. perhaps it'll be nice to explore that and be able to have a purpose to write again, even if it is for a ‘game’. Another annoying mention is that I wanted to link the story I made but you can't punish it until you have 3 episodes for it...ugh. maybe I'll finish this random story and publish it for you to be amazed #NextJK. like I said ill like to explore this further... perhaps my idea for my media rich projects who knows (eyes_waggle_motion)... oh gosh too much episode writing. I actually screen recorded the episode I created and put it in the google folder...Enjoy!

Playing Black mirror’s Bandersnatch I found the experience fun and interesting, one thing I found happened with other people swell as my self is that after I had my personalised story, I went back to fix what i ‘did wrong’ (essentially I played all the story lines through making a hour and something film into almost 4 hours... wow that shows how much free time I had) and I guess that's something people get wrong with interactive films/games. they feel although they can change or correct something...go back and change it which ultimately ruins the experience (when I say they i’m mostly referring to myself). When I killed a character I didn't really feel that emotion of grief I should have as I know I can go back and keep them alive, kind of takes away the personal touch.

I liked how it was all based around the book Bandersnatch (which I just researched isn't an actual book... which again resinates to Transmedia in the way they created the book for the film, they are widening the world of the film- more about Transmedia in blog 6-

I wanted to see how else interactive games were made, and I remember form a long time ago I watched interactive games/video via Youtube. So I looked into it and found this video.

youtube

which Is very clever in making an interactive story via multi video links and has a good message.. helping the viewer understand debt. - just to say I got it all right and ended up paying my debt :) - although a criticism I would add was that they forced the debt onto you at the beginning, what ever you picked they made you buy the drone which kind of takes the personal touch away but other than that it was a good awarenesses video. Perhaps in future I would like to explore interactive videos ill do it this way (Youtube is a massive content sharing website so it'll most likely get the most interaction via youtube).

I then watched Aloe Blacc’s “love is the answer” on Eko, ‘They allow the user to interact with multiple narratives within a single film.’ Firstly I really liked this episode, it's based on a recording of a music video for Aloe’s song ‘love is the answer’. it was interesting to see the different directions and roles people undertake at the same time: Aloe the artist himself, Nick the floor manager, Leo (i think) is one of the back up dancers swell as Hannah. Almost portraying what happens beyond the screen, what people do to create such things - like a community as-well as the artist-.

interesting way of a music video, more of an interactive type, noting I just realised; referencing back to my previous point that people will watch the multi storylines over, and over again. its actually quite benefiting in this case... the song will get stuck in your head leading the viewer most likely download the song on Spotify and listening to it over, and over again... not talking from experience. this is also a type of Transmedia as its not just on Mtv’s music channel or the radio/ youtube, it reaches out to another audience (the interactive audience). just to let you know I followed Hannahs story first as I was curious to wards her role was (I thought she was a model of some sort)

one of the things I like which this ‘music video’ has is when you go onto Aloe’s storyline the music is much louder, to suggest it's prominently his story, he's the focus..it is his voice after all and you are closer to him. making it more immersive again - giving you a choice to hear it at that volume- .

what I didn't like about it? personally I did find it a little boring. its not like there's not much happening action wise, perhaps if there was more interactivity it would intrigued me more? maybe if you chose the location of the set or colour of lights... the little things.

I liked this session... it was nice to dive back into episode and writing, something which I casted away for a while. made me feel inspired and that's a nice feeling.

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imogenbennettblogsdp · 5 years ago

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End Game - Final evaluation on key learning's.

Well sadly its the end of the road for us, I have completed all my session’s on digital practice and time to reflect as a whole...

I really enjoyed Digital Practice and was glad I picked the module up, I found it very informing towards the media side of film (more on the side of marketing which I never had an interest in before but now I’m looking into it more and would like to learn more)

so what have learnt from the experience of these 6 weeks of Digital Practice?

Surprisingly to me the thing I enjoyed most and took from digital practice is Blogging, I never blogged before; the most Ive done was write reflection essays but even those felt formal, but with this style of blogging feels like its mine...personal. and I've enjoyed it so much that I've actually began my own blog. from blogging it allows me to revisit my work and thinking process and further educate myself (in some blogs you can see I do further digging into certain things i mention) that allows me become more invested and educated in subjects. Also who doesn't love a good research.

From the first session on the module I misunderstood what it would bring and I was happy for it to Re-lite my spark in my visual design hobby and projects (I touched on this is early blogs of me exploring female figures etc) and with Photoshop (and now Canva added to the toolbox) by re-lite I mean now I kind of forgot about it thinking it was just my art project but never quite realised I can bring it into visual design.

Out of all the sessions id say Session 3 - visual design resinated with me the most as I defiantly dived into it, I found the side of symbolism, semiotics and ‘Denotation and Connotation’ very fascinating.I feel like I can create stronger pieces (and take into my studies with film) knowing theories like semiotics and Synecdoche, things I certainly didn't know before.

I didn't feel like there was much teamwork in this module (especially with the cobvid-19 situation) but then again compared to my other modules teamwork wouldn't really fit in it, even with the group work with fairytale making (session 4) I felt like I was still working alone and did solo work as opposed to in a group... which Im not bothered with. I liked it. It allowed me to dig into my own head and ask myself questions to reflect - mostly referring to the blog side-

For Assignment 2 I will be using techniques learnt in session 5, Interactive Storytelling, I’m planning on creating an interactive non - linear story using ‘Episode’. I'd like to explore it further as i feel i can create a genuine good story as well as play with the multiple choice element.

thank you for reading. Goodbye.

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imogenbennettblogsdp · 5 years ago

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Transmedia storytelling - session 6

again as said in previous blog (week 5) I am virtual learning from my home, which as in that blog I felt not as productive as I would have in a class room but under the circumstances I find I accomplished and learnt quite a bit. Also the working in Pjs is a plus...

Web 2.0 is something we have touched on before, in the first sessions which is important as Web 2.0 has become something everyone is very familiar with (even if they don't know what the word means) and that Social Media, with social media its very much broadened to a active audience, we are contanstly looking, creating and thinking about what we are seeing which can be pretty much anything. take my edit instagram account for example, I am constantly seeking new techniques by others (almost collaborating by sharing editing styles with people and I am making ‘User Generated Content’. Also Web 2.0 offers audience participation ‘Participatory culture’, for example the Comment section. this allows the viewer to give feedback, praise and even abuse (even though that's not what its particularly meant for) This gives the viewer a feel of incorporation towards the creator (or photo, video, information- if on wiki).

*Referring to the voice over presentation video* the way marketing use ‘User Generated Content’ is very interesting and it has changed the ways we receive ads and how marketers approach sponsoring etc, I wanted to look more into it/ provide evidence to this and with two popular examples being - Youtube and Game ads. when you watch a video on youtube by a content creator what do you usually get:

Ads.

Youtube (a popular Web 2.0 website) is a Queen Bee hive for Ads... swarming. compared to old visual Ads being Ads on tv in the commercial break or flyers, these ads can be incorporated in the video, being at the beginning of the ad like the 1st picture above, or in collaboration with the creator of the video. I found this very intriguing and interesting, Im quite fascinated by idea of marketing and this little investigation (even tho I'm pretty familiar by being a YouTube veteran) so perhaps in future I can explore it more.

As I am watching the ‘Harry Jenkins film’ I now feel more supported in what I have said previously in the Blog, Mostly where I mention my instagram account, he says “what were seeing in the digital age people are taking media into their hands... and innovating and experimenting” with that media which Is exactly what I am doing, I am taking content and mixing it up making it into my own.

‘Conversion Culture” Having different platforms to see it (say youtube, insta and TikTok) which is shaped by us rather than corporations, we have control. we can all collaborate and mix information together (on say wiki) which leads to much more complex ‘than what someone in a board room can come up with on their own’. I also found this interesting and very off topic to the video but I realised that a very Recent and Popular example can be how the Convid-19 information is spread out, TikTok a very content creator based app which mostly is used by younger generations and if you go on it now you'll see a lot of information on how to stay safe and social distance during this pandemic which is very interesting... Could it be argued that kids are paying more attention because they see this entering ‘their world’? not just seeing it on the news (which they might not watch as heavily as the app).

interesting as It creates more of a world for the viewer

Talking on the Transmedia topic of having multiple platforms I was shown the Blair witch project website. This fascinated me and reminded me of my personal experience With this, ‘Ingrid goes west’ a film near and dear to my heart, which is mostly based on instagram (and how it effects us) #LIFE. I was reminded of this film as the creators also made Ingrid's and Taylor’s (the influencer in the film) instagram account real which is quite fun and I enjoyed looking into it and felt like she semi excited in a way, provided more of a world outside of the film.

Taylors instagram* I found this so clever and funny, with the captions down to the T. also something to note that loads of fans are allowed to interact with Taylor like Ingrid did, Commenting quotes (especially “Damn girl that looks yummy as fuck!” which is a popular comment you'll see). Its clever if you ask me. I myself have to admit to commenting that quote as- well. (but I'm being involved!)

Watching the ‘Transmedia storytelling’ video with a cinderella adaptation. watching this had made me think. about A- what story I want to create/adapt. and B- how it links so well to todays generation. And yet again watching this reminded me of something I have seen that is off similar structure. An Ad for the social media app ‘Own it” created by BBC. showing how little connections through sharing can lead to bigger things. (this made helped me understand the Transmedia storytelling video more as I know its all about the connections between things and seeing it visually really helped.)Im not looking forward to doing this task though, storyboarding and mind maps are not my friend and I don't enjoy them, (I may have mentioned this before) but I like to freestyle it and see where it takes me instead of planing and expecting etc. Also Im not a fan of Lucid Charts, I find it hard to use and complicated to what it is which I know is unproductive as I should be using a variety of sites to improve my skills but you can't help but hating something... Lucid chart is my kryptonite.

For my Transmedia story I decided to do it based off of Joker (2019), I chose this as it has a major event in it which I felt I could use events for, also I really like the film so why not.

I started to think about what I would focus the story around and it was hard to pin-point a certain one, I did pick joker killing the 3 men on the subway (Spoiler!) as that is essentially in my opinion what cracked him into becoming the ‘Joker’. *Refer to the story map in google docs*. Being honest I didn't enjoy it as much as I though I did, I found it quite confusing for what I had to do for a while (so like what directions do I go in? what characters do I use?). Something I also didn't like which is strange is that I didn't like making all the social media accounts... strange because I usually make tons in my own time (I have 6+ personal instagram accounts :/)

I did start using the software ‘Zeebob’ but I found it quite (this will make me sound snobbish but,) cheap. I just felt it limited me and to what I could create and just didn't seem realistic,

so I made two on here but ditched it and went for the real thing... making actual accounts for the posts. Guess which is which... the 1st one is zee bob and second is an actual account I made. The upside of making the actual accounts is having the freedom and more ability to do more things (like on twitter I can retweet stuff that I feel the character would and who they follow which adds personality to the account.

Of course the downside of making actual accounts is that I couldn't fake the likes or followers which takes away the realism to the accounts.

Out of all the accounts and social media’s I created, surprisingly the @GothamNews was my favourite, probably because i spent the most thought on this; creating the logo (on Canva) .. and finding the cool retweets like the van which I thought was like striking gold to add to the realism.

I did make a mistake that i knew occur from using the same account and changing it (E,G, I made a twitter account and kept changing the name,pictures, retweets etc)... Notice that Arthur’s and GothamNews background photo is the same... well I just noticed that too and its why I need to pay attention to it. so tiny lesson to myself for future and if I was going to do this for real I would create separate accounts and spend more time to trying to find the fitting photos for each character and why? it makes more sense for the news account to have trash as (in the film) Trash was the relevant topic, but joker not so much - he doesn't strike me and the recycling type.

While making the accounts I tried to add as much passive detail as I could... adding the subtle detail, like (as I mentioned) who they follow, retweet, like, what's in their bio, what's their background photo etc. referring a little to one of the earlier sessions in visual design (semiotics 'Denotation and Connotation').

(especially Jokers) I paid attention to the way joker writes, to my knowledge he isn't very educated so his writing is very childlike and he writes how he hears (eg when we see him write ‘hope my life makes more cents etc) it so that was a nice detail I added.

here are some notes I made for when I was thinking about the map:

- plan event - riot

- bruce Waynes dad saying “stop trash/ campaign

- joker “maybe my life would make more cents if I was dead”

- Marty “tonights show will be interesting “

- jokers video going on air

overall I think I will take the idea of broadening the ‘World’ I create (with film) by creating different platforms. I found this lesson a lot harder than I would of found it in class due to my focus being lost and feeling like im not putting 100% into it unfortunately.

And who knows maybe ill get loads of followers on one of the accounts and become famous.

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imogenbennettblogsdp · 5 years ago

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Moving image and Semiotics - Session 4

Todays session was focused on the moving image and semiotics within it, at first the word semiotic scares me, mostly because it is a word I am not familiar with. so how do we conquar that issue? well we learn the word.

Semiotics (noun) - the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.

so what does that mean? well I think it means, what the viewer takes away from the image (eg, what they think the message is). I did some digging on the web and found this website (which pretty much confirms what I suspected the word means). “the relationship between a sign, an object, and a meaning. The sign represents the object, or referent, in the mind of an interpreter. “Interpretant” refers to a sign that serves as the representation of an object.”

Moving on from that, I was presented with this image:

instantly I think of Authority and western cowboys, because the American police force wear badges and they are massively represented in film and tv (more than UK police) you will probably recognise this phrase “hand in your gun and badge” for police getting fired more than you'll recognise “your fired fellow policeman, hand in your baton”. (well I do anyway). and cowboys are from America which leads me to think of America when I see this image.

I found this little task interesting, it made me notice how much thought I can generate from looking at one image. and that the power of what films can do as well and how I can study them. This links to Metonymic meaning (a psychological approach to studying screen).

Synecdoche (another big scary word) which is a figure of speech that relates to a whole thing (eg, If I was to say “gimme a slice” you would auto-magically think of pizza, and would hopefully give me that slice) and this is important for film. (as described in the slide) we can use it to determine on screen characters, I use this in “Joker”(2019,Philips)

as when he has the faceprint on we can say its a mask/ trying to make people happy - using semiotics that what we see when we see clowns

From this image alone I can see that joker is wearing clown makeup which makes me think that his character is using a mask to hide who he really is and to put a ‘face’ on that he feels other people will like, this gives me the feeling that his traits are venerable and sad. He is using Clown makeup to make people laugh/ happy, using Semiotics its what we relate Clowns to (or use to). Clowns are made to make people laugh and happy which is what joker is portraying. (if I was to go deeper into this I would relate laughter to madness and so forth but this isn't an essay... although I did enjoy this little break down).

This is all pretty similar to what I explored in session (blog) 3. connotation and denotation with looking at images and exploring the messages behind them, only difference is in this session i’m looking at moving images. (I did touch on semiotics but it wasn't my main focus of that blog - hence why I go into more detail in this one).

Stuart Hall & Encoding and Decoding. This is slightly related to Synecdoche and semiotics in terms of interpretation but this has a twist, it's more of an active spectatorship. My summary - when your presented with messages from tv or film you will interpret it depending on your experiences/ background etc, its quite interesting as its a more risky approach to decoding. Risky as in someone can take total offence in something or they might not react to it at all. Risky.

Then I was shown a video Close Reading - Jennine Lanouette’s Visuals and Action on an analysis of a scene from ‘Mad Max’. I paid a lot of attention to this video essay and found it really helpful to see the theories I've been looking at in action. (I like to analyse scenes/ films and she had some really good points). I like her decoding of the bad guy:

She touched on the fact that the viewer sees an dirty/ intimidating car with a skull mounted on the front and those images register in our unconscious and we know the car is not friendly. (she plays on the viewers interpretation) and inside we see a man whose face is covered with a mask and sunglasses - which we instantly don't trust as we cannot see his eyes (my words - which is the window to the souls and his is blocked... prompting the idea ‘does he have a soul?’) I liked her technique of watching the scene first all the way than going in detail through each frame/shot looking at each detail (which is good at gathering detail but thinking of it that can be very time consuming, so perhaps every other shot).

This leads me to my next task... Decoding in groups. We were given scenes from different films. Okay so in the class I did the ‘Phoney’ scene from Grease but I didn't really enjoy it personally (not my type of film, which I know is very unproductive and silly as all film analysis is analysis. looking back I wish I gave it more of a chance but I couldn't decode much). So for my analysis here I am going to talk about ‘Garden party’ scene from Get Out. as I saw a lot of potential in this film and picked out quite a bit.

Now for this analysis I will be giving away spoilers... as I have already watch this film (and loved it) so to reference Stuart Hall theory my interpretation will be different as from experience I know the plots.

starting off we see Chris (protagonist) and his girlfriend introducing him to a couple, Rose is wearing red which represents danger whereas it contrasts with Chris’s blue (blue = calm like water) shirt. so on the first bat we register that there is some type of danger emitted from rose, making us not fully trust her.

The couple that Rose and Chris talk to are ironically wearing black which makes us think of a funeral attire, relating to death. but what has died? is it psychical or mentally? or are they simply dressing for the future?. and with my dramatic irony knowledge the “black is in fashion” line the man says is quite cynical as these people will take the bodies of the people who are of different colour to them. so saying that a body is in fashion makes me not trust these characters and also dislike them too.

Chris holding this camera makes me think of him as an observant character, he is constantly taking stuff and ‘has a good eye’, from my knowledge he ‘may’ be the one to escape (no spoiler there). But notice how everyone else is watching him, like he is a piece of art... or more relatable to the situation, a piece of meat (or a pair of trainers) it makes the viewer uncomfortable and almost want to shout to Chris “Its behind you!!” (from personal experience it won't make a difference, he can't hear us). The background is also interesting, the dense forest makes us feel like we're trapped and isolated “middle of nowhere” springs to mind. (the lady in the back is also wearing red to represent danger).

I will also like to talk about this interaction “Good to see another brother around here” I find this scene to be most intriguing when you have seen the film, only because it adds to the dramatic irony of the scene. Andre (I had to research his name as the woman doesn't introduce him, which is interesting in itself to make me think she doesn't see him as a person more of an accessory, referencing back to the line “black is in fashion”) his body language is off, he is acting like an old man (no offence to old men) from being slightly hunched over and the way he holds his drink, His costume design also points me in that direction of old man (again no offence) the sun hat to blazer with a sandy colour. it is a big contrast to Chris who supposedly is around his age (psychically).

I found this task interesting, its nice to dive into a scene and focus on detail and using decoding to... decode it. This experience was different to how it was in class where I was working in a team which is a 50/50 for me as I didn't have the freedom to dive deep and develop my ideas as much as I did right now, alone. And in that particular team discussion we weren't really productive, I wanted to focus on the task but I could sense that wasn't the same for the rest of the team. Whereas it can be productive, you see things you didn't see before, and relating to the Stuart Hall theory, they would have different experiences to me which means a variation.

Next task in teams we looked at fairytale writing, Going against type and changing an already well known character/story. Being the classic teenagers we chose to focus on Jack in the beanstalk but instead of beans...its drugs. (so “jack and the drugs” has more of a ring to it if you ask me. Part one of the task was to think of the details, location - Bristol (because Bristol is apparently the capital city of cocaine, and myself being from Bristol I don't agree with this but I find it funny to take the mick out of where I live...who doesn't) but I found this fun and essentially the best part of story witting. setting up the scene or painting the canvas, picking out the legos before you use them.

Then as a group started to write the story using the Pixar prompt story structure by Ken Adams.

it is a bit messy but to admit to you we were having a little bit too fun with it and focused a little too hard on task one. But reflecting on this if I did this task alone I most likely would of struggled to think of what to do as I do find it difficult to pin an idea down and stick to it whereas in the team I had the opinions and help from my team to focus and develop an single idea. I also had fun doing this which isn't it the whole point? to have fun and enjoy it.

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imogenbennettblogsdp · 5 years ago

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Visual Design and the art of persuasion: session 3

Week 3 - Visual Design and the art of persuasion:

In Today's session we explored visual design and art of persuasion. firstly we looked at the semiotics 'Denotation and Connotation' Ideology by Roland Barthes, Denotation is what you see, so when you first view an image what do you think of? whereas connotation is a deeper understanding into the message of the image (or whatever you are looking at) perhaps researching and looking into why they used what they had and what does it mean. For example I looked at a poster by 'Panzni'

I first looked at the picture in pairs and thought about what were their intentions with this advertisement and what were the connotations and denotations. I noticed the net bag and that made me think of the 'market feel' to enhance that the product is fresh. I then noticed the colours (red, green and yellow) ands my partner researched the colours and found they are the colours of Italy (flag) which is where the product is trying to 'locate from' and enhance the Italian feel. Also how the poster looks like a painting to again give more of a quality (luxury). I enjoyed this exercise and felt as it prompted more of an examination side for me and will help me when creating my own content in future. I will definitely consider more things than just a shape, eg, consider colour, font, text, material etc.

I then looked at Persuasion: "the process of steering someone’s beliefs or attitudes towards a particular idea or set of ideas." using colour, semiotics (signs with different impacts/meanings). Along with Roland Barthes ‘Denotation’ Lets say for example this image: “THE RED ICEBERG”

we can tell its an American image from the 10Cents, but lets dig deeper into the message it's portraying. when I first look at this I instantly am drawn to the red iceberg with the Soviet Union logo on it, this portrays that as big as the Soviet Union was it was inevitable that it was going to end in death (hence the gravestones). I also noticed it was almost a reference to the ‘Titanic’ (sunk in 1911) with the ice berg and boat, which lead me down the path of thinking that this was Soviet Union propaganda for a second as the iceberg was the downfall of the Titanic. but then I thought perhaps this was a tactic of fear used by USA to scare the public into thinking the Soviet Union (iceberg) will sink them and are evil.

I wanted to understand this poster more which meant looking into the (semiotics) ‘Connotation’ part of Roland Barthes theory and some further research into it, I noticed the date of publish ‘1960′ which it was published during the Cold War. ( I mean obviously it had to represent some war but I'm not as educated in the wars and was interested/ needed to further research to be able to understand the messages and image). I used this article to help me research further. I found this part of the article most helpful and could support my idea of the iceberg sinking

“The message under this painting is saying that the Soviet Union is dangerous and warns of the dangers ahead should Uncle Sam fail to steer clear of the "Red Iceberg." So if you let communism take over, or if you believe in it, its saying that you are going to suffer or end up like the other countries that the Soviet Union had taken over and spread its Communist influence to which had failed to do so. Its also saying that the Cold War is driving the US into the Red Iceberg and the US is going to suffer great damage”.

I enjoyed this task, especially digging deeper outside of class, it allowed me to have a real think of why people use propaganda and why it is so important (it can be used to manipulate people bad or good. its a dangerous tool and during the Cold War it was used excessively) I also liked the fact I felt like I was a reporter in a way. I am really intrigued by this concept and will like to explore it as the idea of propaganda and controversial subjects with it.

This particular image also caught my eye:

As it reminds me a lot of the packaging for tobacco as is a very strong message, can be considered controversial in a way as it does affects people differently (as is basically about babies dying).

Previously I did actually explore this with a charity "Refill" and pitched that we should use this concept on plastic water bottles (with animals effects on the labels) to encourage people to use reusable bottles (I prompted metal bottle) so I was quite familiar with the use of the concept of showing after effects.

Apologies if these images trigger you in any way:

I figured if we could put images similar to these on plastic water wrapper with say a turtle stuck in plastic or a bird chocking on water caps or even just polluted plastic itself in the water I feel it will influence peoples decision on buying ‘just another water bottle’ compared to buying a reusable bottle they can keep! so if I was to task this task further into a product project of marketing etc I would like to pursue this idea (especially with the environment media of this time, marches etc I know it won't goes unnoticed) and getting a further understanding into theory like Ronald Barthes helps me consider the detail.

I then looked at Gestalt Theory laws:

-similarity: having all the subjects look the same (eg, beer glasses in the air multiplied to create a foreground. Or having multiple images and a stand alone image different to make it standout more, this can be used to highlight a product to make it look more 'unique'.)

-proximity: having multiple shapes close together (not touching) to create a single image (eg, the 'Mystery Island' uses lines for the island and dots for the reflection of said island underneath to create an image.)

-continuity : using illusions to create an image (Eg, a single golden arch of the McDonalds logo on one side of a bus stop is my personal favourte and allowing the other arch to reflect creating the famous 'M' I find it a clever way of advertising and gets people to look or even taking a photo of it, which shares the ad).

-closure: using shapes,space and colour to create an image (Eg, the WWF logo of a panda uses white and black shapes to create the animal with out completing it.)

-Figure and Ground: hiding images within the images. (Eg, the CoCo Cola ad which used hands and a colour to create a hidden bird image, this made me think of the 'Easter egg' in the Toblerone packaging with a bear image hidden in the mountains.)

what I taken away from this was the use of 'illusions' that can be worked into advertisements and how I could use them, I liked the examples but its not really the direction I wanted to take (I want to go more towards the photography side and 'photoshop' and less towards 'graphics', however I will take the Theory into consideration and use them when I see an opportunity to experiment with it, perhaps with continuity - play with water reflections? I like that idea.

Next I did the activity of creating my own advertisements/ campaigns (Posters) on a website called Canva, which I really enjoyed; I found the website easy to use. Despite the fact you have to buy a lot of the materials and mrs cheapskate doesn't find that as easy (most likely won't be purchasing anything). I did find it hard to come up with ideas at first and find desired backgrounds that were for free) but I got the dice rolling and couldn't stop. the path I went with as it was close to International's Woman's Day, I wanted to use that subject and promote the day. As mentioned in previous blog I want to experiment with the woman's figure and provocative content so I came up with two designs around that subject:

The first one is by far my favourite one, I used the Moto "free the nip" as it is a wide campaign woman are promoting as the app instagram deletes any post that shows a woman (not mans) nipple which is something they should change and allow women to express. I'm really proud of this, if I was going to expand it I would get a model pose with paint on the breasts "just tits, get over it" to enhance the message and not hide the reality. I also found it fun to play around with hunting for images and colours I wanted to use. If I was to reference my earlier learning of Ronalds Barthes theory of connotation my image I would say that I used the colour pink for the woman to also imply the ‘Breast Cancer Support’ charity which colours are pink. When the lecturer put this image on the board infant of the class, a sense of satisfaction and excitement took me and I wanted to see how people reacted; it was like the feeling it was all worth the time (As said in previous Blog, I like to share things I create so this was nice Thank you lecturer for putting it on the board).

The second image is a more 'taboo' poster i created that I'm not as impressed with but feel as though it has comedy aspects towards, it can make the viewer either uncomfortable (if you are reading this and are uncomfortable, I apologise) or laugh (if you are reading this and are laughing, yay me !). I did try to use Gestalt Theory of closure by using the ... shapes (objects) but I failed and didn't enjoy it. I don't think I want to expand on this idea as I can't see much potential with it and its not something I would want framed on my wall, the other image on the other hand definitely.

I also wanted to create a poster for the app TikTok which if you were hiding under a rock it is a very popular content sharing app (the equivalent to ‘Vine’) I also took the simple approach as I felt it suited it more, If I was to take this idea further I would want to explore the same concept but with montage of various 'tiktokers' to show the community side of the app which is a very large aspect, less of a post-poster and more of an interactive poster.

I enjoyed this session and love the fact i took theory work and produced my own from that understandings of the theories. In reflection to my previous Blog I really like blogging ( I hope I am doing it correctly aha) I can see I have taken a style of ‘writing how I think’ and feeling as though I'm physically taking to someone, that helps me anyway. So thank you for reading and Im looking forward to my next session.

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imogenbennettblogsdp · 5 years ago

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My exciting digital adventure - Session 1

This session we had some introductions to the module and grasp the idea of what we are getting ourselves into.

from the presentation I am excited for the 'digital journey', I immediately started thinking of what I would like to explore and am ready to take a dive into my digital past.

We then taken part in a little group research task to find out about the internet, in why team we were given 'Network Society' at first we decided to ask ourselves what we think it is and actually were were pretty close, after looking online and finding a few articles we found out that the Network Society is a way of people to join together (virtually) to share and collaborate on social media (and digitally) on the whole becoming this whole society of people connected through internet (clue is in the name). I found this task okay, ironic how we immediately all went to the internet to find our information (joining the society ourselves) we did have a little trouble translating some information to suit our vocabulary as there were some pretty advanced/ high tech language being used. Overall I liked it and learnt new things to do with our internet and vocabulary that will help me with future tasks to come.

'My digital adventure' task.

We started to look into this task of something interesting about ourselves and the internet, a journey if you must.

So for me I found this hard, firstly not been able to think of anything 'interesting'. Secondly I had too many ideas I couldn't choose one! (how annoying is that). I discussed in pairs in the class a variety of my digital journeys and found that I talked about my editing instagram a lot so I finally decided on one of the reasons I choose to attended university in the first place... My love for Editing. I took the diagram in a pretty linear direction; I am also very bad at diagrams so for me to be able to use an software that can layer it out was helpful although looking back at this mind-map It is quite spreader out (The diagram is clearer and in the google drive folder)

More detail - as you can see by my simple mind-map it all started with little me wanting to express my creativity while also sharing my creations. If you must know the first time I saw an fan edit was on the app “Vine’ (yes I did link an website even though the app was closed in 2017 ) and i took to instagram to find some more (using #’s such as ‘fan edits’ or ‘video edits’. a little editors insider tip is that there's an #omgpage that editors use for exclusively edits only... but you didn't hear it from me)

I thought about how I got into the hobby of fan editing, then how I progressed to me today and most importantly why I chose to edit at the time instead of just watching them. I mean why do we do anything. but I realised that I enjoy creating things for other people to watch (when I persistent at doing so) like if I created something I want people to see it, if not what's the point in creating if you cannot share it. (If you could do a backflip while juggling 3 monkeys on a volcano YOU THINK I WOULDN'T SHARE IT!!)

I was really into editing and my process has developed, believe it or not its quite hard to get started with editing, you find yourself asking loads of questions such as: how do I get started? what can I edit on? how do I edit? why don't ducks quacks echo?!! (ok so that last one was for me... if you have the answer PLEASE TELL ME!) but really as anyother process its all about playing around with softwares or apps (in my case apps) I used a lot of apps and It took a while to find one I can actually understand/ like using. Which app have I chosen you ask, well VideoStar is where I lay my arms and say is my favourite editing app! Not only did I have experience in it from my younger years of creating music videos of myself (and I'm tempted to link a video for your enjoyment and my suffering.. there cringy but that's not the task I am talking about) but It was simple and if used correctly can produce edits like those who use PC (mobile editors were sometimes looked down upon due to the fact they can't make as high quality edits as PC users but its not about that really...well to me it isn't, every Industry has its hierarchy)

I sent years on video star improving my skills (it does take time) but I'm glad I stuck to it and was able to create such cool edits as I have. and I'm still improving (even though unfortunately I don't have as much free time as I did to create edits, I still watch and collect tips and tricks by other users. its all about keeping the knowledge fresh)

To watch them and go to my account press THIS (please watch them :) )

I enjoyed this task of reflecting on my digital story with editing, it allowed me to reminisces on my story and remember why I got into it at all. I feel like that's important sometimes for a creator, allowing themselves to reflect and remind. remember little me at the beginning (and laugh at how rubbish I was compared to now... not as rubbish) become proud of what you achieved now.

A little off topic but I wanted to mention it, when my lecturer started to introduce his work I got really excited and began to ponder things id like to work on, what I thought of straight away was one of my favourite ideas... ‘Female Fantasy’ (that's the topic name I thought of off the top of my head) some previous context is that In my Art A-Level I did a project called 'Eye Candy' I explored male fantasy ideology and provocative females (mostly sexual themes and figures) because I have a real interest into it and enjoy exploring it so for me to get another opportunity to re-spark that interest is exciting for me. creating controversial content of the female both from a male and females point of view. I played around with photoshop and montage a lot, mixing photos together, from magazines of naked Kate Moss in vogue to digital editing of a nun overplayed with a provocative body parts.

Overall from this session I actually learned what is in-store on this module and I'm really excited to explore and experiment. (mostly for the visual aspects it) with posters and interactive projects. I am quite excited to try out blogging although it will be a little challenging as I am quite bad at writing and grammar and sometimes don't make sense (but hey you made it this far! so it must not be too bad).

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imogenbennettblogsdp · 5 years ago

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Interactive games (Extended Task)

In this session I learned about interactive storytelling (linear and non linear) took to the virtual learning tactic.

For my Extended Task I wanted to look into interactive story telling (from session 5 non linear and linear storytelling). As said in the session 5 blog I have a lot of experience in interactive stories from playing them to making them.

'The Episode app is a mobile storytelling network and platform. Episode features interactive Hollywood-caliber stories built from the ground up for mobile, not the passive entertainment of TV and movies. In Episode, your choices decide the path of your story.' - from the website itself (https://home.episodeinteractive.com/about ). Episode is used by a variety of an audience, mostly used to 'bring stories to life' by authors who want to reach out to wider audiences, oppose to audiobooks or movies (and way more cheaper!). It's really clever idea actually, what can't we ‘live’ without? what's always in our hands? Mobile Phones, so what better way to reach out and draw people in by allowing them to access an interactive story by Apps. and its works with over 12 million registered creators and 100,000 stories and 7 billion episodes viewed on Episode so far, along with collaborating with celebrities like Demi Lovato, Dolan Twins and Cameron Dallas. And making spin offs of major feature films and seasons like Mean girls, Pretty little liars and Clueless! pretty impressive for ‘just an app’.

I think the major appeal of episode is the fact that anyone can create or play. Just the average Joe and create a major Episode hit from the comfort of their bed. I have made a few stories (unpublished) in the past. To explore this further I will set myself the task of researching and creating an episode (and maybe extended task, a series) and publish it this time! who knows maybe ill become a hit and you'll be reading this in 10 years as research for my upcoming fame lol.

This makes creating non linear/ linear stories were easier than ever. you would take some characters and write each scene (scenes were pictures).

I created a mini step by step on how to get started in creating an Episode (using the youtube video to grab the pictures). and to extend my extended task I uploaded a simple basic video tutorial on my google drive folder to demonstrate more in detail.

Unfortunately I am quite inpatient and that effects the way I work by rushing creating then fixing up after to add details etc, looking back I realise that isn't the most smart/ efficient way of working and if I want to create top notch work I should focus on spending more time on my work and the creating process. I will also watch youtube videos as research on creating not just episodes but any future practical work (in film and digital practice)n as I'm a visual learner so this will help me improve as a creator (even though it'll take some time and struggling to keep focused, but all in the process!!)

Apart from Episode I also had experience with interactive stories in Games as well such as TellTales:

Before closing down on the 14th November 2014 TellTales were very popular interactive game company developed and published 40+ Games (not including cancelled games). Founded in July 2004 i grew up with TellTale games (they were the games I mostly played on console and I played a lot of games). It reached a lot of people with its games.

its most popular games- walking dead getting over 80 game of the year awards as well as many others.

thanks to the 21st century tech and social media you don't need to buy the game to play it..or play it by that matter. these games are widely broadcasted on the video sharing website youtube with over thousands of play-throughs of the Telltales games. personally my favourite and popular is the play-through of “The Walking Dead” the game only has over 80 Game Of The Year awards! (I viewed from one of the biggest content creators PewDiePie the episode I linked has 14 million views alone!)

Although TellTales were very popular they did have their critics. the major thing TellTales were criticised on (and argued is the reason to their downfall) was the fact the players choices didn't effect the outcome of the game. I found an article arguing in more depth about this ( I am going to be quite biased on this as I am a fan of TellTales games) but even if it didn't effect the outcome of the game the choices did give you some control and self-achievements, like if you anger a character or help them out the game lets you know if you effect them or not, *I liked that*. still its the little things that counts (and who knows maybe later on in the game if that character lives they'll help you out or it'll unlock more chocies).

Doing this Extended task Into interactive games has allowed me to explore something I'm passionate about and dive deeper into creating as well as watching or reading interactive Games. I enjoyed it especially the practical side of creating the episode on ‘episode’ and I will definitely be creating more!

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