Interactive Space Project: Making Maps

Finally my interactive project has been uploaded to making maps. I am very happy with my project. I made the theme prominent, ie, study vs party and seemed to have worked well .There is a narrative in my project in the fact that if you party with no work then your going to fail. However, on the other hand if you work hard and study, you will reap rewards. This is shown in my interactive space project.
        To be honest, at fist I thought HTML was impossible to use! I found it extremely difficult even when I had both lecturers being extremely patient with me......I still didn't have a clue! And so the next day I went into uni and taught it myself eventually after a ridiculous amount of time I seemed to have got the hang and I got it done! Once I learnt how it worked I found it quite simple, just time consuming.
       If I got the opportunity to make another project then it would be of a much higher level because I now understand more clearly what I am doing.
       I also enjoyed taking the pictures used in my project. I edited them on my mac computer. I used different effects to create a certain ambience in the project. For example, with the studying pictures I edited them to black and white to make them slightly more dull than the coloured bright pictures used. With the party pictures they were the opposite. It was common sense really in the fact that naturally when people think to do work it is usually a negative feeling, on the other hand going out is exciting. And so I tried to employ that in the project. I found choosing the pictures the easiet part whilst using dreamweaver more difficult. I tried to use some techniques in my photography, for example, I blurred the edges on a picture:

 Here is my final Interactive Project:

I did this to take the focus off the picture to concentrate more on the A* pass.

I also used other techniques to improve the pictures enhancing them etc. I have much preferred this project than the animation project because I found it so difficult. But I understand practice makes perfect!

http://makingnewmaps.com/

My Own Edit to One Shot Film

Finally I have edited my own film REVERSE as we did as a group previously. I enjoyed editing it and used a variety of music techniques to bring the film to life and give it depth and texture. It took me a while to synchronise the timing of music parts with the film. The text used also correlates well with the music as seen. I am happy with this and i think it is a much better improvement from our group edit. I prefer this film in colour its more interesting....and here it is:

editing pictures for interactive space project

Today I have planned what pictures I am going to put in my project and I have edited them to suit the mood of each picture. I have pretty much been stereotypical in how i have edited my pictures. For example my story is based on going out to a party or choosing to stay in to do work. The work pictures are in black and white and the party pics are bright and colourful. I have used blurred effects and distorted a couple of the images. I shall be putting them together on Tues to come up with my space!

Interactive space seminar--IDEAS

In our seminar, to help with our interactice space project, I found this very interesting and very realistic. Even though I will be ony using photographs in my project this you-tube obviously uses video footage is much more complex. It gives you choices throughout the video as I will be doing in my interactive space project. Lots of camera techniques are used and the mans face is not seen thorughout the video which is quiter unusual. there are also lots of closeups in which detail can be used however, the format is small.
This has helped me in giving me ideas in the way I will be taking pictures in my project.

HTML????????????

Im finding HTML rather confusing right now -linking, hotspots etc, however I am sure iIwill get the hang of it with some practice. I also am still not 100% positive what my interactive space project is going to contain!

interactive space seminar

SPACES/ZONES....


Architectual Wayfinding. I learnt that there are 5 primary elements to architectual wayfinding.


1 paths
2 markers
3 nodes...
4 edges
5 zones
These are the design criera for highly legible and comprehsible urban enviroments.

I also learnt the circulation system is the key organising element of a site or buliding. People use circulation systems to develo a mental map.
There are difeerent spaces that contain diffeent zones. The way the space is designed is created so a use can be performed. They all vary.
We transition to different spaces. Eg in bathroom we take our clothes off or bedroom, however you don't do that once you walk out the room.
Eg the square in Nottingham. The square is very common to have events eg xmas stalls, etc...
Or in Australia Brisbon, eg China Town there is a street there you drive on the oppoisite side of road in China Town to reflect the Chinese laws.

This seminar gave me more of an insight that bulidings are bulit to function accordingly.

Ideas for interactive space

A second practice I did was something very basic, cleaning up my room:

Interactive space

 think this will be my most favourite project so far. We have been set the task to take some pictures and create a narrative. I could perhaps use it in my final project. However I have decided already what I shall be doing. Tonight I am going out and my project will be based on this.

Today I have been busy taking pictures and experimenting to create a narrative. Just by using simple techniques.

The first is simple making a drink:

One Shot Group Edit- REVERSE

This is our final film. We attempted to be as inventive and creative as possible. I thought we came up with a strong film which worked well. We had Dan Cody going forward in time, whilst the rest of us went backwards. I enjoyed making this film. We spent a lot of time discussing how we were going to perform in the film but we just ended up doing our own thing. I thought it worked quite well and looks relatively clever. Mark set up the camera composition whilst Nadjet and I chose the spot. It is quite quirky and the mise-en-scene also works well. We also managed to include everyone in our group inside the mise-en-scene.
Negative points about our film included Dan Cody not being in the centre of the frame. It took it a little offside which didn't ruin the film, but put  damper on it.
 At the end of the film Dan is shouting ACTION however it is backwards (reverse footage) .
And, here it is:


One Shot Group Edit from Mark Boam on Vimeo.

Ideas for one shot film

Our group came up with the idea that if we reversed our footage then we could come up with an inventive, intelligent idea. We used you-tube to grab some ideas. Here is an example I looked on you-tube to give me some inspiration.




Through looking at this video we came up with our final film.

One shot film Practice!

For my second project of multimedia we were to get in groups to produce a one shot film. We did that and were given the opportunity to experiment and have a practice using the title, 'you decide'. We planned what we were going, I was poorly when we came to shoot so unfortunately missed it!  This is how the film came out in the end:


One Shot Original Footage from Mark Boam on Vimeo.



For our test shot, we also experimented again, however this was not long enough. We came up the idea of reversing footage which worked well and so decided we would use this technique in our final group film.

One shot test shot from Mark Boam on Vimeo.

My Station Ident

Recently for my first project, I had to design a Station Ident using 3D Max Studio. To be honest I found this one quite a challenge. This was because I have never used this software before, the closest to it-photoshop which is no comparison. I found it interesting and had the opportunity to design anything I wished. When practicing and learning how to use 3D max I learnt how to create "jumping jellies".
This is a rendered still frame:

By learning how to 'wind up and snap' I used this knowledge in my final station ident and also added a twist and changed the name. I changed the colours and added audio also. 

My station ident turned out like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogMivIGQlxU

My audio is not in perfect sync with the video however I think it worked in a way. I also created a flower in my station ident which I found interesting and learnt how to clone objects.  Since our station ident was to be based on ourselves I used my name and created a flower since poppy is my middle name.  Yes it is basic however was all I could manage at this stage. Hopefully I won't find the other two projects as difficult as this one was. And may be able to design something more complex. 

However, these three weeks have given me an insight into animation but I don't think I will be wanting to do it in my future career. What I am beginning to become interested in is screen writing for media. I have been doing some back ground research and it looks very interesting. 

I did some other research into station idents and came to the conclusion that the signifiers are the colours, logos, theme and audio put into the making of the ident producing a type of brand. Many of them don't really stay in the public eye for long, they dye off. Exceptions do occur as an example the Nokia theme tune ident. In my station ident I am obviously not trying to sell anything however it is a reflection of me and would look acceptable on social networking such as twitter, facebook or even fliker.  The semiotics included in my ident were feminine and light hearted. The signs were obvioulsy the wording, ALEX and the flying flower. Semiotics were not complex, they were rather basic. Roland Barthes was actually the person who influenced and designed the conception- semiotics in the late 1960s which is a broad term used. However, in my station ident I do not have a lot of semiotics used and my sound is also basic using two types of 'Boing' used to give the ident a bit of depth and character.

My station ident  does not have a noticeable genre, I think it is more of a social construct if it was to be put into a genre category. Obviously does not have a horror/thriller/romance/adventure etc. My ident is what it is really. Through more practice and time I am sure I would be able to grasp 3D max and produce a better station ident but was great introductory project in which i received help from my animation teacher.

          

My Mulitmedia

A piece of multimedia technology im interested in at the moment is the iPad. Yes it is just one giant ipod however it is much more complex and great to use for social networking. In which I am on face book a lot of the time!!
The iPad is designed to suit a broad range of users since people can choose what applications they want to download. The iPad is not designed to be essentially a computer to do all work on every day, but are great to use for bussiness and social.
People meeting up in cafes for meetings can use the iPad to demonstrate and show representations and ideas. On the other hand people can use the iPad to play games and generally entertain themselves whilst talking to others online.

I think it is a fantastic invention as well as listening to music, and placing your photos albums on it too. A neat creation as like on the i phone is that you can turn around the Ipad to suit either portrait or landscape view- depending what your looking at. The speed of the internet is pretty impressive to wiht wi-fi network and optional 3G networking. Yoe can even download books and read them on the iPad. They are great organisers too with notes sections/ calender/ calculater etc. It really is a decent mulitmedia invention.

Some people think they are a waste of time saying we can just use laptops/ ipods/iphones etc. But it depends on the person. Off the internet i have downloaded a picture of the iPad.

Whiteboard Animation

As part of my introduction to multimedia, I had the opportunity of taking part in making a interactive drawing film!.....and so I have seen, it is now up on you-tube! I quite enjoyed making this since it gave me an insight into what factors are intwined with multimedia.

Sketching

Yesterday I throughly enjoyed the drawing lesson that took place. I didn't  realise we were going to be having lessons in drawing, however my first project set is on animation. I felt yesterday that having lectures on sketching is essential in creating my station ident to help me design it.

Our lecturer advised to start drawing anything frequently and so today I sat and drew a Jack Wills bag in my room. Since our station ident is about ourselves,- I am interested in fashion so thought this is relevant to my animation project. Since I have no qualifications in art, I thought this would be a good place to start!  I have incorporated it into my blog as follows.

Today, I also had my tutorial in which I found very useful, because I now know what Im doing in my coursework! The most challenging part of the course so far is learning how to use the animation software, but i'm sure I will get the hang of it! Tomorrow I am going to start researching for assignment one. So far I am taken to Reverse Engineering and Market Research-however I have a lot of studying to do!

My Design Process

 During my A levels for my media A2 coursework, I produced a short film documentary genre. I did a lot of research analysing other short film documentaries. I found the BBC channel useful for this. I studied documentaries such as Eel Girl. I also studied sequences from feature films such as Mr and Mrs Smith, Parent Trap to get an idea of lighting, mise-en-scene etc. With the production of my short film I also had to design a poster. And so I also studied and analysed other documentary posters to gather information and ideas eg, The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane. In order to film at The Public I had to produce a Location Recce to confirm it was suitable to film at The Public.

Here are two shots of the exterior and interior of the building:

I decided to film in The Public in West Bromwich. This gave me an insight into design in which a lot of research and planning was needed. In order to design my film I needed to produce a storyboard. I have uploaded my storyboard onto blogger:

I found the storyboard vital in that I could lay out my ideas and so I could get a clear idea what my film was going to include. I could therefore plan, virtualise and produce a narrative.

In order to develop my ideas I wrote three different treatments. This was to include, outline of ideas, resource list, strengths, weaknesses and a conclusion. I also got ten people to fill out a questionnaire in what kind of films they find entertaining and interesting to watch. This helped me choose what to put into my film. For example, asking if it would be ideal to have one presenter throughout the film, what people find boring about documentaries etc.

Even though my film was only five minutes long in total, I recorded over 90 minutes of footage so that it gave me the opportunity to choose what was going to be the final product. I had three drafts in total and used Final Cut to produce the film. I learnt so much from this project not just design but underlying  theoretical significant information in filming.  Learning how to use a camera, using professional software such as final cut was a challenge however a useful introduction to studying multimedia as a degree. I have taken my a level in media as background knowledge into what is essential to know as a multimedia 
student.

test post

is it working?????