Revolution
Approaching the last few days I’ve been steadily plodding along with the same sort of things I’ve been doing for the last few days, namely; fixing bugs (with help from Craig), re-organising my flash timeline structure and fine-tuning the sound and graphics of my project and trying to think of some cool taglines.
I had to have a massive overhaul of my general idea about four days ago which was far from ideal. It turns out, that as useful as cuePoints are, they have their limitations. In previous testing many moons ago I found that cuepoints keep animated symbols in sync for a decent amount of time, so when it came to completing my final invisible animated buttons for the movie file I was using I was horrified to discover that my cuePoints are synced for literally just a few seconds before they become out of sync. Short of having a cuepoint every five seconds it seemed completely implausible to complete the project in the given time. In retrospect I would have made a five minute film, instead of a ten minute one which would have been much easier to handle. I’ve managed to use a series of static buttons in the place of the animated ones, which I am now quite satisfied with and there has been no aesthetic change to my project. Phew.
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Sounds
After going to Cornwall where I’ve been recording the score for my film/narrative/thing, I was surprised what I returned with. The tracks I recorded to accompany my film where not what I had expected (even though I had no real idea what I was after), it doesn’t really seem to sound like music that should be in a film, but I think it’s quirky, refreshing and generally much better than I could have hoped for. Special thanks to Lewis, Ben, Rik for their input, and Hibbins for his digital ouput 
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Belated Synopsis
I was about to post here detailing certain dilemma’s I have come across since picking up my major again after the dissertation hand-in. It’s occured to me that I haven’t explained what my project is. So, here’s my synopsis from the minor:
“Previous attempts at interactive narrative have tended to focus on increased user input, interactivity and non-linearity, however, the unique selling point of my concept is that all of these notions are either subordinate or completely negated. The prospective people who consume these texts may have some trouble with self-designation; readers, users, viewers, audience members, it is the stuff of semantics. For the purpose of this piece I shall refer to them as readers.
When I first conceived this project, I knew I wanted to create a narrative container that would be able to engross and enthrall the readers. Coupled with my dissertation research and discussion groups with literature fans, video game fans and film fans I came to the conclusion that there was a seemingly efficient and mostly untried way to communicate a narrative using video, via high bandwidth web environment which is now readily available.
I believe this can be achieved by creating a film that is subsequently split into chapters, and at the end of each chapter, the scene pauses and becomes an interactive environment which would allow the reader to explore the resulting tableau and then continue the story once they are finished. Some might argue this may lead to loss of tension within the narrative, but using diagetic sound, music and the general look and feel of a living and breathing interactive environment will hold any tension that has been created during the previous chapter(s).
The other feature of this new format is the use of Adobe Flash 8 to allow readers to click on the screen at any time while the chapters are playing and depending when and where they click, the video will pause and a screen will pop-up over the video displaying extra information for the reader to digest. This information is extraneous to the story, while it enhances the narrative, it is not essential for the readers enjoyment of the text, hence rewarding readers who wish to put in more effort but not punishing those who do not.
Interactive Narratives have been for years limited to fumbling hypertexts which are then further limited to the select few who choose to pursue this virtually underground storytelling medium. The introduction of high bandwidth web has lead to the possibilities of now using video as an online storytelling tool. Although video has been around for many years on the internet, never has the bandwidth been high enough to support better resolutions, similar to that of television. Only very recently has this become a reality, leading to the release of products such as Apple TV. Following the release of Apple TV, Xbox 360 etc and deals between iTunes and the Sun-dance film festival (to allow iTunes users to download featured Sun-dance films for £1) leads me to believe that a new format could be more readily accepted into the current marketplace.
The whole philosophy behind this new format is that the transition from film to interactive film should be seamless. Therefore the only requirement of the reader is that they be reasonably computer literate and as Interactive films will be delivered via high speed broadband anyone who can download them, should be able to use them effectively.”
I’ll post again shortly, as I’m sure you’re all dying to hear all about the problems I’m having with my project.
p.s. if anyone has any tips on how to be less cynical, I’m all ears.
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Blogging
There are several reasons as to why I have never written a blog in my life; firstly, the word ‘blog’, I hate it. It really is a shame that before blogs became as huge as they have today they weren’t re-named something more palatable, in South Korea blog translates to ‘Bullogu’… I rest my case. If I was to start one, how formal should it be? How opinionated? What should I talk about? Obviously blogs are different from diaries, as diaries are private and blogs are for others, so you have to be careful as to your subject matter, your manner etc…
Anyway, now I have a reason to blog, my major project and I haven’t decided as to how I will write it yet but I’ll come to that when I do my first proper post. I could rant on forever about how rubbish I thinks the idea of blogs are, but I’d probably get cut to pieces by people more intelligent than me, so I will forget my misgivings for now and continue this ‘blog’ *shivers* as I would a production diary.
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