thomasw02

[thomasw02]

Physical Computing Assignment 1

[thomasw02]

#ctec501signal - Final Entry - Thomas Woodfield - SigHawk

https://thomasw02.tumblr.com/post/184711342260/tues-7-may

https://thomasw02.tumblr.com/post/184733907515/wed-8-may

https://thomasw02.tumblr.com/post/184756710820/thurs-9-may

https://thomasw02.tumblr.com/post/185555024510/we-made-a-shift-in-a-few-key-areas-today-we

https://thomasw02.tumblr.com/post/185555027055/today-we-talked-about-the-different-formats-we

https://thomasw02.tumblr.com/post/185555081660/this-week-we-have-been-planing-out-the-story-for

https://thomasw02.tumblr.com/post/185555086635/the-turn-from-concept-to-physical-thing-is-proving

https://thomasw02.tumblr.com/post/185555090500/weve-now-largely-planned-out-act-3-it-starts-int

https://thomasw02.tumblr.com/post/185555094235/remmy-wrote-out-act-1-onto-little-cards-so-that

https://thomasw02.tumblr.com/post/185555099520/ben-has-told-us-to-get-filming-so-we-are-pushing

https://thomasw02.tumblr.com/post/185555104855/the-last-few-days-we-have-done-a-bunch-of-filming

https://thomasw02.tumblr.com/post/185555109575/the-endings-of-act-3-have-been-cleaned-up-while-i

https://thomasw02.tumblr.com/post/185555114265/i-was-unable-to-attend-open-studio-due-to

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I was unable to attend Open Studio, due to unavoidable work commitments, but the consensus from the play testing we got there, is that the experience largely worked: it put pressure on people during the decisions, they identified with the character, and were engaged all the way through

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The endings of act 3 have been cleaned up while I was in hospital, with codes for all the different endings. They’re being done in a montage style, with scenes in different orders because of the choices made earlier. It all looks really great and has implemented all the different ideas we had earlier on in brainstorming. We are ready to start filming these act 3 scenes.

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The last few days we have done a bunch of filming, both at uni and at max’s house. It’s been more difficult than I expected, but also it has turned out really well. Patricia and I have done the majority of filming, while Sophie, Max and Jordan further modified the script and planned shots, and remmy acted as the main character

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Ben has told us to get filming, so we are pushing our schedule forward. Script is being finalised, and shooting is planned to start on Thursday at Max’s house. We are reminded to keep it simple (unlike the similar Bandersnatch film from Netflix) as it is all about relatability. We are aiming for around 10-15 minutes for the completed film

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Remmy wrote out act 1 onto little cards, so that we could playtest our story without having filmed anything. The notes taken from playtesting with these cards are below

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We’ve now largely planned out act 3. It starts int he apartment for continuity with the other acts, and then it leads into the outcome essentially of all the other choices in the film. There are no choices available in act 3, instead it is an overflow of the choices made earlier. This is good in that it can convey the helplessness that students feel in being trapped in their pathways due to decisions made earlier

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the turn from concept to physical thing is proving to be really difficult. Its hard to organise the scenes in a logical way, because often choices that are made, dont come into effect until much much later. We attempted to use a powerpoint to organise it, but in order for that to work, the choices effects would have had to take effect immediately, and they often dont. We need to start filming asap, but we can barely pull together a coherent linear script or filming schedule.

It seems that im alone in my concerns, the rest of the team seems perfectly happy to continue and so I am not super worried, they’ve got a plan and aren’t too concerned, so im trusting them.

I cant help but feel like I haven’t been particularly useful in the process so far, due to my failure to grasp the concept. Hopefully once we settle into the more gritty and tangible part of the project ill be able to help more.

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This week we have been planing out the story for our project. We are looking at a roughly 15 minute story, split into three acts.

Act 2 is where we are currently writing from, and are finding it difficult to finalise. We want it to be the lowest point in the story, and are looking at ways to make the viewer feel the emotional drag of expectations and failure coming to a head.

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Today we talked about the different formats we could use for our project, and decided on something that was a combination of the video game and film formats. On one hand we didn’t have enough expertise to develop a video game, but wanted to include the interactivity of choice into it, so our final project format will be a choose-your-own-adventure style short film.

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we made a shift in a few key areas today. We decided that we want it to be set in real life 2018, to make it feel more real and important to the viewers; and also we talked about how the little details, like having breakfast, and getting enough sleep, being implemented into the story would potentially both ground the project, and also make it remind people watching about the importance of mental health

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Poster Assessment

One of the best tings I’ve learnt in the BCT so far has been the importance of Iteration in creative design. Previously I have always been a bit of a perfectionist in my original drafts, often taking lots of care with a first draft and doing very few additional drafts afterwards. Often this meant that I would struggle to get started, with the pressure of getting it right first try.

However as I’ve learnt, iteration and the iterative design process has helped to develop my design skills. As David Wynn and Claudia Eckert write in their article Perspectives on iteration in design and development, “Iteration has positive effects, such as enabling progressive generation of knowledge, enabling concurrency, and integrating necessary changes”

In my poster, I wanted to show the viewer an obvious picture of how iteration can develop an idea. The setting for the poster is from the 2016 film Dr Strangefrom Marvel Studios and director Scott Derrickson, which originally shows the titular hero bending time through an apple, showing it go from ripe all the way to eaten and breaking down as it gets older and older. I replaced the apple in this case with a number of different designs of the lightbulb, from the earliest carbon-filament bulbs developed by Edison, to the most efficient and high-tech LED bulbs of the modern day. I used a lightbulb as it the most obviously recognizable symbol of an idea. I hope that my poster conveys the idea that iteration of an idea through time can develop it into something amazing, in a clear and concise way.

Wynn, D.C. & Eckert, C.M. Res Eng Design (2017) 28: 153. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00163-016-0226-3

Derrickson, S. (Director). (2016). Dr Strange [Motion Picture]. United States: Marvel Studios

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thurs 9 may

Today we focused on social issues that we wanted to address with our project, given that we were focusing on ‘choice’

We had a big brainstorm session, and generally settled on the idea of expectations on young people and mental health issues involved in that. Details on how that links with choice specifically are yet tbd

pics below

We also began brainstorming more specific ideas, as seen below

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wed 8 may

Today I finished my programming assignment, ran a few bugs but essentially finished it in the morning

The more interesting thing of today was the studio time. First we had a massive brainstorming session, where we used an obscene number of post it notes, and we had some steady, helpful(?) narration from Charles about how we needed to go faster, with more ideas, and that we needed to scrap our preconceptions of the program: we needed to remember to to work with a “bottom-up approach” where we focused more on the concept, our individual input and ending with the physical project artefact and not the other way around.

attached are some photos of our brainstorming process:

After our brainstorm phase, we began our research phase, which we did some of in class, and continued at home. We collected our research into a big spreadsheet

My research this evening was to watch/experience “Bandersnatch”, from the team behind Black Mirror. Our central theme is essentially choice, and I wanted to see what I could learn from a choose-your-own-path film.

During this, while there was no hard facts that I learnt, I did learn a number of things about the human experience, or at least mine; when we are making a choice in a realistic setting for a character who is not us, we tend to project our own immersive decisions in the moment, as I didn’t choose the options for the protagonist that would be the most interesting, but the ones that I would personally do in the circumstance; often I had little choice, and the illusion of choice wasn’t always frustrating, sometimes it was comforting to not have to make the decision; when I got opportunities to rethink decisions with added context, I didn’t always change to the (now) obvious one, instead getting frustrated and resentful of the fact that I now have to rethink a decision because I wasn't given enough information in the first place; and there were points in the story where I didn’t want to choose an option, simply because I was invested in the story and didn’t want to “screw it up” if I made a bad decision.

All of this learning will be fully documented, and may be used to make hypothesis for testing in our project.

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tues 7 may

Today I mostly worked on may programming assignment, I initially built my program without OOP and so today I basically built it from the ground up. It largely works, except for a couple of weird bugs, where the balls get closer and closer together every time they hit a wall, and when both balls hit the wall at the same time, they cant escape.

In regards to Signal, our group had a massive brainstorming session today. Below I have attached images of the whiteboard we used during our brainstorm, but I will summarise some of the key points here:

- We really liked the idea of a ms-dos game akin to Zork from 1979, but with the idea that peoples experience is based on the decisions they make, or draws attention to the decisions they make in the later stages of the game.

- Potentially this would bring attention to the difference between an ms-dos such stripped back experience and perhaps a movie or game that has a visual and sound aspect too, and whether people would interact with the game differently with extra sensory stimulation.

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3 things that have resonated with me

Avengers: Endgame (soundtrack) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avengers:_Endgame_(soundtrack)]

My girlfriend’s enjoyment of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (and how from the perspective of someone who would never consider enjoying fantasy film, but how good characters and story and a whole heap of other things lead to her becoming obsessed) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_(film_series)]

Nazi Experiments on jewish prisoners (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_human_experimentation)