Client Project finished

Client project is now finished. Testing earlier in the week revealed that I had some web compatibility problems Internet Explorer 7. As I had included some example HTML pages in my final product, in order to display the animation how it would be seen on the web, this was a potential problem. After re-exporting the flash files as version 6 instead of 8, it seems the problems have been fixed and the animations work across various web browsers. There is a small amount of difference in the synchronisation of the sound however from Firefox to Explorer.
The best versions can be viewed in Mozilla Firefox:

Version 1:
www.adamart.co.uk/general-store/widescreen.htm

Version 2:
www.adamart.co.uk/general-store/widescreen2.htm

Sidebar version:
http://www.adamart.co.uk/general-store/sidebar.html

Client Project progress: Music recording session

On Monday I had Bonnington studio hired out for recording the music that accompanies the General Store advert. It went well; with several variations of style and length recorded. I had used Nina Simone's "My Baby Just Cares For Me" as a pointer to what I had in mind. This proved to set a high standard that was difficult to match, and obviously we couldn't simply copy the track. However, I was happy that we had a lot of recording that could potentially be used and the edit is looking good so far.
Thanks go to Henry Cole for being sound engineer and pressing the right buttons. It is down to him that we got such a clean and clear sound with expert microphone selection: one true stereo Mic and two mono mics were used to create four tracks of sound which were mixed together to create a single stereo track. The streo mic was put up to the piano strings and the two other mics were placed in a triangular formation further back in the room in order to capture the reverberations of the sound as they bounce around the room.
Thanks also to Asha Patel for her piano playing skills.

This clip is just for fun and not an indication of the finished music:

Reseach Artefact Number 5

Artefact 5 examines web access from DVDs as an extension of a branded feature such as a film.
After researching the software that enables DVDs to have embedded hyperlinks in the menus, I discovered that it is a troublesome feature,
See this: www.2-popforums.com
and this (nice use of sarcasm) : www.tfdvd.com
The problems sounded like technical glitches that the software developers had no appetite to fix. This lack of appetite may be to do with the DVD industries belief that people just don't watch DVDs on systems that have internet access.
I couldn't think of a DVD that I had watched that had this feature so I created a short questionnaire asking people if they had experienced web access from DVDs and if so what it was like. See this survey.
I also set about creating my own DVD with Studio Pro which uses apples DVD@ccess applet. The other option seems to be Adobe Encore which has no ability itself to include hyperlinks and relies on Sonic eDVD to be used in conjunction. Studio Pro seemed like the easier option and I so I created a DVD of my White Rabbit narrative which links to the website that I had previously created for it. I will evaluate my artifact based on the findings of the DVD and the survey.

DVD menu plan:

Client Project progress

The sound production for the General Store advert is now well under way.
I recorded the voice over with Jennifer King last week and it went well. Amazingly we were all done after about 2 hours. Jennifer didn't need much directing at all; she had good sense of pace and timing and understood when to add emphasis. At first I was concerned that her voice lacked character but now I am thinking that it fits the brief very well - sweet and young and should catch the ear of the target audience of students.




I have gathered and recorded other sound effects and am mixing a track for the conveyor belt. The latest version is below.
All that is left to record is the music - fixing a date when my musician and sound engineer are both free at a date when the studio is available has proved very difficult. I am currently waiting for Rob Squirrel to confirm that the studio will be available next monday during the holidays. If we cannot use the studio next week then I will use the easter holidays to fully complete all the versions of the advert minus the music and record the music as soon as we are back from easter. This would be cutting it finer than I wanted but is still perfectly feasible to complete before the deadline.





Other news is that Fairtrade want the advert to clarify the use of their logo much more precisely. Their general attitude is that with more work we would get approval however they are concerned that the store may not stock a high enough proportion of Fairtrade branded goods and that the advert refers to products which are both Fairtrade and non-Fairtrade. I think we can get the organisations approval (we must to avoid legal entanglements) However, I plan to complete a version of the advert which fits what I think they need, and also have a version that does not contain their mark in case they do not approve the version in time for the deadline.
This means some extra work but not too much as the large part of the versions of the adverts will be identical.

Artefact 4

The idea was to use the animation from the previous artefact but to adapt it so that the user had a browse button to upload their own mp3 track which would play along to the animation instead of having a selection of pre-defined track play buttons. Customisation is the name of the game for this experiment.

Technical hurdles have meant that the coding for the design has not been completed in time for the deadline. It has not been a simple matter of getting the correct code within the flash file (although that isn't completely figured out) but also having a web host that allows writable file permissions on the folders.

As a result I wrote the evaluation based on these technical difficulties (couldn't have talked about anything else!) instead of the evaluation being based on the idea of custamisation.
After discussing this with Jools at the presentation we decided i should move on for the next artefact. However, I feel I have invested too much work (and about 35 quid for a new web host) to abandon this. I think I will put it on the back burner.

version 1 - (artefact 3)

version 2 - (artefact 4)

SPP - Career direction

Through the third year I have specialised in AV production and Flash animation, however the overall direction that I have intended for both Client and Research projects is branding and advertising. I feel that I am building a strong portfolio to support this with my work with the General Store Advert and Web 2.0 interactive advertising being the focus of my research literature review and artefacts.

I have been concerned with not having specialised in just one firm area. I can do Video production but am no expert camera operator; I can do Flash animation but have a great deal to learn with ActionScript. Knowing this helps define my mid term goals:

• Learn more ActionScript, particularly in conjunction with using sound and embedded video within Flash.
• Keep developing interface creating skills (yet more Flash but also Adobe Encore)
• Get more Video production experience (remake White Rabbit..?)

Having randomly met some people in the branding and advertising areas within the East midlands, and also some small time film producers and runners, I am more and more confident that companies exist in the east midlands that my skills could cater for. Although, in the main people working in film are specialist in their areas and the industry requires individuals to have specific skills. If I had to define my main area of expertise in AV I would probably say editing.

However, I like to think that being on a Multimedia course I have played it just right – I am not an expert cameraman or a web Flash specialist – I am a Multimedia designer: capable of creative ideas carried through from conception to implementation across a variety of media.
Whatever that means…

Possible specific routes post uni:

• Fire Factory and the like would be fantastic to work for.
• Other possible routes: Setting up and heading a similar company making music/corporate videos and advertising. Would need a camera crew and a 3D animator or two.
• Part time MA in Motion Graphics as a lead to lecturing.

The Fire Factory music video shoot

Fire Factory shot their music video in the green screen room at Waverly. I and a few others took the chance to be runners.
In the morning this meant lugging a lot of equipment up the stairs and helping to set it up; I hadn't shot in the green room so just setting up was a good learning experience. The lighting was varied as it included 2 batteries of daylight fluorescent strip tubes. They were used to create dramatic, futuristic reflections in the sun-glasses of the lead artist.
I popped back in for the afternoon to see the actual filming underway. This meant staying quiet and out of the way but that was fine - just watching was a good insight.
The Fire Factory people tolerated us students well enough and I don't think we got under foot too much. We may have even made their jobs a bit easier!
The director has also promised that we can also take a look at the post production work at the studio. Am very much looking forward to this.

Research project Progress

It isn't until I have finalised artefact 1 and 2 that I have come to really understand what i am researching by making them.
The artefacts are about console and interactivity, but as I have said previously, it is the interactivity of the visual and audio play between the user and environment that they are presented with (see Guiness ad). It is not about the interactivity of giving more user control (differing, non-linear creating options - see aveaword). This second type could be tested in future artefacts.

The ads and the questionnaire are up (see here) and I have posted the link to 20 facebook friends as a guinea pig test. 1 response from a user was that it all seemed to work ok and that the process I created was not confusing. This is good news.

I really want to keep going with testing interactivity via the play of visuals and audio but also combine it with the user control element. The next was artefact was intended to be a player that gave the user different AV clips and enabled them to edit their own advert around a given theme. This could be great fun as stuff I have made in the past has been exciting when audio has been laid over the top of visuals without knowing what the outcome will be.
By chance I have stumbled on something which does exactly what I have described:
The Sweeney Todd website has a cut your own trailor section and I think it's pretty good: SWEENEY

Replicating it might be difficult - I might do a media night with friends - maybe I could control a adobe premiere time-line while they told me where to place the clips maybe...

Client Project progress

Had my proposal presentation with Deb Tuck today. Went well mostly although managed to fumble the order of things and muck up PowerPoint. Good things were said but it is Deb's concerns that i want to document. First, I should show the storyboard and sound plan:

The storyboard shows a conveyor belt with various items rolling into view. The belt is erratic and the crockery keeps clinking. The room is noisy as the narrator calls out the items that come along - he/she is obviously bored.
When different items start rolling into view the narrator is at first surprised then excited. The noise dies down and seconds later is replaced by up beat piano music; the items are sparkling and all of a sudden colourful; the conveyor belt becomes smooth. The items progress into representing experience - the main element of General Store - smelling, tasting, learning or just looking.
This means that we have a crescendo of noise and shambolic movement followed by a sudden calming, rhythm and sparkle. This is also reflected in the sound design below.

Main concerns are that the progression around 13 - 18 seconds of the 30 second advert will not be realised well enough. The viewer needs to properly understand that when the feeling changes in the advert to be sparkling and upbeat; this relates to the good things that the shop represents and has on offer.
Hope that wasn't too badly explained.
The voice actor and music should ensure that this is not a concern but the visuals must play their part in the transition aswell.
Another concern was that the monotone colour is too flat and boring. A more colourful pallet should be adopted to accentuate the transition. This can be added without detracting from the brand pushing that the add is doing. (the design all stems from the store logo).

Sample can be found HERE!!!

Artifact #2 defined and ready

I now have two versions of an online mock Oxfam advert. They have differing levels and types of interaction and as part of my second artifact I want to have some user opinions.

I haven't created the questionnaire yet using auto form, but the questions have been made. I want to test the process on a guinea pig first before committing to a questionnaire and emailing the URL to Multimedia students and Facebook users.

This is what it looks like at the moment (no link to questionnaire):

http://www.adamart.co.uk/client-projects/welcome.htm

I am also thinking about future artifacts and ways of evaluating which I hope to discuss in the near future.

Career research

After my discussion with Jools and Simon about my portfolio and defining career direction I looked into some ads.
I found this one on bannerblog.com :

http://www.bannerblog.com.au/jobs/2008/01/rmg_connect_seeks_flash_designer.php

This is interesting for me as it is requiring Flash animation skills and video editing - two of the things that I am most adept at. (It is in Australia though so i won't be applying).

This also sounds interesting for a long term future type job:

http://www.bannerblog.com.au/jobs/2008/01/spin_seeks_senior_interactive_producer.php

I am thinking of splitting the main page of my online portfolio into two sections though - video and Flash, as most branding & advertising companies seem to look for 1 or the other and not both Flash and video.

I saw a report on TV that said there is a direct correlation between the low happiness level of a nation and the high level of advertising it is exposed to. (UK having the highest level of adverts exposed to each person and lowest level of happiness). Do I want to be a part of that, is a good question.
So I am also looking into joining a convent and devoting my life to God as I bet it's such an easy simple life and two elderly ladies who knocked on my door said it would be good for me.

Artifact #01

Click the picture above to link to a page containing my artifact.
Let the clip play and then the writing appear before clicking on anything as it could get confusing otherwise.
Much more scripting is needed to lock up buttons until the instructions have disappeared and been read by the user. I consider it to be a work in progress as their are many more things to adapt to make it more of an interactive experience. It is complete enough in order to evaluate though.
The main thing missing is sound and I would like to create and implement sound clips as my second artifact. The advert could then be re-evaluated on the basis of quantifying the improvement as an interactive experience post added sound. This could be done on line using a questionnaire perhaps, or hosted live with a group of people.

Multimedia Portfolio

I have started making an online Multimedia portfolio which can be found here:



What it actually is, is a homepage which links to individual pages that hold my videos and other bits of web work. Most of these pages already existed and can be found within this journal.
I should also point out that it needs lots of work:

• for one thing the pages containing videos need proper control panels, and I need to balance load time Vs picture quality.
• Also lots of little things like having the links open in new Tabs instead of replacing the homepage.
  
• I would also like to make the homepage look and feel more friendly and personable.

After showing the page to Jools and Simon they both pointed out that what is needed is a clear strategy for what should be included in the portfolio. They suggested looking into job adverts, seeing what sort of things are demanded by the area of jobs I want to apply to and then amend the portfolio accordingly.
So, I need to look at job titles, bite the bullet and think about post Uni existence.............. I think I'll do an MA ;¬]

PRP Artifact #01

My first artifact is to be an interactive web advert. After looking into stop motion animation, and then having a go at a short animated video I set out to make an advert using the Oxfam logo.

The reasons behind these choices are as follows:

Making a stop motion video requires a still camera which I had over the Christmas break and so I could begin the artefact before starting term 2.

The rambling aesthetic stop motion creates suits the materials I used which in tern suits an advert for a second hand shop.

The concept is an old school work desk littered with bits of bric-a-brac, some of which spell out the Oxfam logo. The pieces scatter and it is the users job to form them up again Into the logo.

Following my literature reviews new found understandings of interactivity I plan to centre the entire advert on the desk and the items on it in an attempt to engross the users attention fully on a small world of bric-a-brac. ActionScript Programming will also play its part and is still under way.

Certain underlying principles of web design (as taught by Snodgrass in year2: accessibility, low file sizes etc) will not be achieved by this artifact. I am deciding to ignore these on the basis that this is an experimental element of the project that just deals with ideas of interactivity within an area of personal interest - brand design.

Test video: I created this purely to realise the process needed for non-digital stop motion to work within Flash, and is an indication of aesthetics to come in the finished advert.

Advert base:



With buttons:

With buttons and video:

Live Client Project

Click above to link to General Store.

Following a meeting with Graham of General Store a few underlying principles have been established that must be adhered to in the production of the advert .
Key bits:

• (a visit is an) Experience
• Finding things out - Learning
• Ethical sources
• Quality Ingredients
• Specialist in hard to find items

The store must be set apart from main stream coffee shops - General Store customers do not tend to be Star Bucks customers - and the store should capitalize on a feeling of loss of identity that coffee shops like Star Bucks are suffering from (http://tinyurl.com/ypxfy3).

General Store has real advantages in it's character and quirkiness. The store is eclectic in it's presentation and Graham notes that the layout of the store is designed to reveal surprises along the way as you walk through.
The sort of items stocked are intended to provide customers with all the items in order to be self sufficient in their coffee/tea making. For instance grinders, percolators, stove tops, containers, etc are stocked. This is a deliberate attempt to make people more knowledgeable and progressive in their consumption habits. Books are a big part of the store and the web site also has a 'guru' explaining thousands of words and terms used in the coffee/tea/chocolate worlds.
Graham prides himself on his ability to cater for people looking to avoid or find certain ingredients.

Insect Advert follow up - quality control

SEE PREVIOUS POST -
Insect Repellent Finished version (Wednesday, December 05, 2007)

"What I need to find out is how to convert video clips into web friendly versions without loosing so much quality. The horizontal lines that appear during movement seem to be a familiar characteristic that occur after file converting."

After a number of failed attempts at exporting the video from Premiere with varying compression types resulting in worse quality, I went back to exporting as DV AVI but with the deinterlaced box ticked (still lower field first). Then normal procedure of taking the file through Flash results in far less horizontal lines on the swf exported file.

Research Artifact Number 1

First Artifact will be a web page advert using still photos in which the user determines the narrative/aesthetic course that the advert takes. Depending on what area of the image is selected should determine the next photo seen.
Whatever direction taken; what should be revealed in the final shot is the product or logo.
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Ideas for the actual aesthetics/content include:

Stop motion idea
Bird's eye view shots of trinkets (jewelery, Lego, action men, string etc) which move to combine and form the shape of the product being advertised using stop motion animation.
Watch the above video by PlanB. The shots from above - like the opening shot with the ball of cotton that reveals the PlanB logo - could be simple scenes to mimic. However, it is not obvious how to make a non-linear scene and I need to figure out how this could be done.

Bedroom scene
Shots that gradually reveal more of a saucy bedroom scene (will it be saucy or will it show something unexpected?).
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The challenge will be in finding out the ActionScript needed in producing a non-linear set of shots and this will be what I will investigate over the Christmas break. I would also like to have all of the photographs taken and be ready to post produce the advert.

Personal Research Project

Abstract

This research examines the use of the word, ‘interactivity’, in order to come to an understanding of what this word means within advertising on today’s World Wide Web.
In outlining the current changeability and progression seen through the advancement of web 2.0 characteristics, what is identified is also the new direction of interactivity that advertising will take in social networking.
Interactivity is shown to be a complex and all-encompassing engagement of any media, which in the case of internet advertising, the report divides down into two descriptions: physical and psychological. What becomes apparent is that a broad understanding of interactivity already exists due to the presence of some rich media adverts which make reasonably advanced use of both physical and psychological definitions. In addition to the more playful interaction previously seen in adverts, the increasing use of network sites opens up new possibilities for conversation between brand and consumer.

Click on the image below to link to the finished project pdf:



Thank you to Laura Bolt for proof reading skills.

Insect Repellent Advert - Finished version

Right click and open in new tab on the still above to see a low quality version of the film.

Production thanks to:

Edward Allan - actor
Matt Choules - acting and crewing
Russell Tanham - Voice acting and foley
Adrian Snodgrass - use of flat at an inconvenient time

What I need to find out is how to convert video clips into web friendly versions without loosing so much quality. The horizontal lines that appear during movement seem to be a familiar characteristic that occur after file converting.
I tried using an AVI to SWF converter which was a bit more dynamic than Flash itself but still did not achieve the required level of quality.
See any depict shortlist (http://www.depict.org/shortlists/206) for a good bench mark of what the level of quality should be.

Client short follow up - Static & Noise example

Moon Shot UK by James Harris

A good example of the use of static and noise to depict time elapse of an undetermined length:

http://www.depict.org/shortlists/206/


It's actually very convincing transmission break up with varying degrees of static, flicker, buzz and white noise.
Will try to find out from the makers how it was achieved.

I got my static burst in Insect Repellent from an old VHS tape which has break up between programs. I recorded it from VHS to Mini DV and then captured into Premier. Problems arose during the transfer because the player seemed to automatically cut out static break up in order to keep quality high. Luckily for me this cleaning process is not perfect and a short burst - maybe 1 second - was recorded onto the DV tape. This was enough to use in the advert.
A more controlled and deliberate creation of the affect (as I presume was done in the above "Moon Shot" video) would be what I would want if I were to use the affect again.