last post

The project is done, the portfolio handed in and the video can be found on You Tube...all in all the module 'digital media foundations' is over and with it our group work. In conclusion I can say that Lotti, Mai and I were a great team, working well together, listening to each other and being happy to meet up and work on the project even though the creation was not always as easy as the imagination.
Unfortunately we also came to this conclusion when we finished the video and encountered problems with Adobe Flash. why we had to go back to our first plan: putting the video on You Tube to make it an interactive narration. To be honest I am not entirely satisfied with the outcome of the project because I hoped for it to be a great video representing exactly what we imagined it to be. Now I have to admit that imagination and reality is not always easy to combine and it was not possible to do it any other way. We are still happy to have finished the video in time and are not any less sure of the video's message and beauty, it might not be perfect but we are only first year students and willing to learn how to do it better next time. Here is the link to our project, I hope you will still enjoy it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEoQzfQq8FA&list=PLYXKqY4hv7ML4eMw1rhYmq74rBxU_erEU

individual evaluation

In semester two, we were told that we have to create a project for the course digital media foundations. I was looking forward to the group work where we could apply the theories we learned this year to create something practical. Due to this, students could see the link between theories and practical work. Furthermore the teamwork made us achieve new skills needed for media studies, such as individual research, working with different media and planning, all whilst keeping the project’s goal in mind. In the following text I am going to analyze how all these points added to our video’s outcome and in how far they still apply or changed during the process.

            First of all, I will quickly outline our project’s goal to explain its advantages and disadvantages for the target audience. The video we were creating over the past weeks has a simple but important message we wanted to share with people; it is a story about how one often goes through life without noticing the beauty of it. The end is supposed to tell people that they have to be positive about changes in order to end up happy. At first we thought that the target audience could be anyone but after having done some brainstorming we realized that children would probably not get the depth of it, although they will surely enjoy the interaction of the video. The target audience is therefore rather for people established in life or young people who feel unsatisfied with the path they are taking in life. At first users might need some time to understand the project’s meaning but they can surely identify themselves with the main character at times as people tend to get stuck between work, money and stress and forget about the important things. The video is about routine and how to get out of it and although it may not realistically help people to achieve this, it can push them to think about their lives which is the first step to change.

            From the beginning on the roles in the group were clearly defined. Lotti did the background drawings, I sketched the character and Mai edited them in Photoshop and put them together, so that we could get started with Flash and work on the moving picture. When all the drawings were done, we divided work again and decided that Lotti and I would create the buttons for the interactive part and Mai put the motion picture together.  Problems appeared when it came to creating the shop, outside and inside, with Photoshop as we wanted it to look as professional as possible and did not imagined it to be so hard to create something when you have a clear vision in your head. The time was another problem because in a group one has always to adapt to others and we underestimated the project at first. However we turned out to be a good group, we worked together, listened to each other and thus managed to get everything done in time and achieved to create something we are all satisfied with.

            Furthermore this project made us aware of how important the link between theories and practical work is. Without the knowledge of different media, we would not have been able to create such a project and hence, the use of tutorials, explaining articles and lectures form the basis of our video and were inevitable. The project does not only rely on theoretical knowledge mixed with practical skills, it also reflects cultural theory by dealing with today’s society. The fact that a video wants to make people aware of their way of living relates to the contemporary generation, viewing everything through a medium, even their lives. We decided to make an interactive video because it is a current media trend and the most popular way to get users’ attention these days. Moreover it combines a lot of theoretical knowledge we gained this year such as the use of Photoshop, Adobe Flash, stop motion and cultural awareness for example how media can influence the world. One can say through theories and tutorials everybody can gain practical skills and therefore those two elements are equally important in a process of creation.

            All in all, I am positive about both the development and the outcome of this project such as our individual evaluation during that process. This practical work made me enjoy media studies a lot more and I learned a lot, not only about different media, but also about teamwork and individual research. If we would have started earlier, we might have been able to improve certain aspects of the project but, considering everything, I think the project will achieve exactly what it’s meant to, as it is a simple but yet effective message.

sunny ending

some samples of how the street could look like when the character walks out again and sees his life from a completely different point of view. Let the sunshine in your life!

interior design

after having finished working on the character and the outside setting, we are now moving onto more precise work, like creating the different spices and ingredients which have to be displayed in the shop. These will be the ones the user can choose from afterwards to create his new life. I did some brainstorming on how our spices should look like and here's the result of my online search

presentation

today, basically about half an hour ago, we had to present how our project is developing and show the first outcomes. Here is the link to our presentation that we did on prezi.com:

http://prezi.com/pes2fgiajkgo/untitled-prezi/?kw=view-pes2fgiajkgo&rc=ref-34597965

We explained how we are moving on with the project, shared some background details about creating everything, showed some of our drawings and finally presented our opening scene to the class to give them a little idea how the final project is going to look like. Here's the little sneak peak in case I made you curious:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_wby-kAASbqRDF6V21yVDJPcUk/edit

We got very good feedback from our tutor and classmates, which made us feel confident about continuing like this. We realised that the three of us really do make a good team and are very proud and happy about our project. It has both a very creative but also good technical side to it and this was only possible with team work and our different skills. I am very glad to have Lotti and Mai as my groupmates and I am confident that we will be happy with the final project. Now all we have to do is keep our time planning in mind and not get distracted or fall behind the plan.

I am looking forward to sharing more scenes with you soon!

As we're all back from the break by now, we met up a few times and had another seminar where we could work on our project, show each other what we got done during the 3 weeks of Easter and discuss how we will manage to get everything finished in time. During that seminar, Mai tried to get used to a sound program, I finished off some drawings of the character and Lotti worked on her blog.
Here are some results of that seminar and the previous weeks:

a break from uni...or not?

So after deciding who has to work on what during the holidays, the three of us parted ways. Lotti stayed right here in Kingston, Mai flew back to Norway and I went back to celebrate easter and spend the holidays at home with family and friends, in Luxembourg. Even though it is called a break from university that doesn't mean we could leave all the work behind. To finish our project in time we divided up the work and everybody knew what has to be done for the next seminar in order to move on with the video.

As Lotti and I like to draw and love creative work, we decided to start making drafts over the holidays and sent them to Mai who would start fitting our drafts into the video by using different softwares. Mai is good at working with video editing programs and photoshop, her task was to get started on the digital backgrounds and once she had the drawings to see how it would fit in with her digital design. Lotti wanted to do the backgrounds which have to be drawn for example; "candyland" and I decided to draw the character from the video.

As days go by I find myself quite often starring at a blank page, a pencil in my hand and music in the background to inspire me. Well that didn't help much! I could say I got a lot of work for digital media done during the previous 2 weeks of break, but to be honest, it was only about 3 days ago that I finally got some characters down on the page, I didn't erase immediatly again. Artists (even though I doubt I could call me one) are complicated. Finally I was more or less satisfied with what I brought to paper and my first drafts of the character are finished! What a relief to know where you're heading! Now I can concentrate on the details and draw the character in every position we need him to be for the video.

here is a little sneak peek to how the character will look like:

I hope you like it! Keep checking the blog for more information on how our group will proceed!

Spice up your life!

It is decided! Our project has a title and it's called "Spice up your life"
we thought this title would be perfect for our project whose aim is to make people aware of their currently boring life and how easily they could change or how we would say "spice it up" a little!! As the shop in our video is supposed to look a little like a bakery, where ingredients can be added to our life we thought the title couldn't be more convenient!

ps: after having thought about why the title sounds so familiar I finally realized (about 5 weeks after having picked it) that it is slightly inspired by the song 'spice up your life' - The Spice Girls. Not that we ever intended to do so! It's a small world, sometimes you think you have this genius idea no one ever had before you and then you realize the words coming out of your mouth are not your own after all. Life's like a puzzle somehow everything is related, so who cares, as long as the project will turn out as fabulous as the spice girls themselves ;-)

working on the proposal

after finally having decided what the project will be about, our group met up to work on the proposal which we handed in a few days later to give our tutor the details about our project and also to present it to our other classmates. Everyone of us wrote their own proposal, summing up the main ideas and defining what we will need to create our video, and then we came together to take parts of everyone's written piece and put them together into one.

As I don't want to bore you with all the details and software requirements (my tutor will have these informations anyways and you will be able to see it in the final draft) the following text is what I wrote about the main ideas and our inspiration. I'm sure it will give you a clearer idea of what we are about to create!

Main ideas : an unhappy person can be seen on screen, walking through the grey city where everything and everyone looks the same. Suddenly between all the grey, plain shops, one shop stands out; it’s colourful. The person enters out of curiosity, and finds himself in what it seems a different world. The shop “spice up your life” is colourful and extraordinary and offers as it says to change people’s life. Different ingredients or complete packages can be chosen and be applied to a person’s life, which will thus change. Due to the interactive narration, the user can chose for the character which offers to pick. These offers consist in fun, luxury, freedom… the additional ingredients which are sold at the counter are for example; love, happiness, colours… After having tried as many options as the user wants the character to, he can click on the “back to reality” button which lets the person leave the shop and go back to his world. The world outside however has changed meanwhile due to the realisation the person had come to whilst being on the life adventure. It is sunny and colourful outside and the character now wears a smile and walks tall, these changes intensify the moral of the story, everybody can change his life and sometimes it just needs a little spice to realize this. After a few seconds when the person steps outside, a voice gives the users a message to remember and take with them, in order to understand the story’s moral and its goal.

Motivations and inspirations: We wanted to tell a story which inspires the users themselves and help them to accept change in life. The motivation is definitely to not just complete a project and tell a basic story, but to push people into thinking about their own life and whether they are happy with. As everybody already experienced a situation where he/she ask themselves if the way they lead their life is right and whether change make them happier, we thought it is a story which people from all backgrounds and age would take interest in.

Target audience: from age 14-100 as everybody faces these thoughts at some point of his life, mainly when growing up or being stuck in a routine at a later phase in life, we believe that this story is appealing to everyone aware of leading the own life.

I hope this more detailed description will help you understanding our project and made you curious what it will look like in the end! I'll keep you posted!

getting started

a few weeks ago when we first discussed the group project for digital media foundations and we were told to team up with 1 or 2 other classmates, it was clear for Lotti, Mai and me that we would stick together and form a group. This decision was not only made based on the fact that we knew each other from previous lectures or seminar but also because we would get along quite well when it comes to deciding on a topic.

After it was clear that we would be a team, we sat together and decided to pick the topic 'fashion' as it is a subject we are confronted with everyday and the three of us really like to deal with. However after another meeting we came to the conclusion that making a video about fashion might be interesting for the three of us but it doesn't have a message nor a real story to tell.
As it was clear for us that we would like to do an interactive narration, we dropped the fashion theme and went looking for another story, something interesting and appealing to everybody if possible and something with a message.

On a saturday, Lotti and I therefore decided to go to Central London to simply look at people and buildings and maybe get some inspirations. Inspiration is supposed to be everywhere, it is part of our everyday life so it was clear to us that we would find some ideas in London. If we weren't able to find it in this crazy, creative, artsy and amazingly busy city, where else could we possibly get some inspirations from?!
So after walking around town, up and down the oxford street and around picadilly circus we decided to go to the modern Tate museum and look at some more or less famous artworks.

Suddenly it worked, after discussing the fashion theme again, an idea struck us. Why not create something what concerns nearly everybody in this city? Walking through London you see a lot of different people but sadly most of them (except the tourists, and sometimes even those) are stressed: running around, getting upset when somebody stands on the wrong side of the escelators, sleeping on the tube to gain a little extra-time and checking their smartphones non-stop in case something tremendous has happened in the past two minutes. Once we noticed that people practically all behaved the same stressed way, it struck us that not only the people look the same but also everything around them. Well yes London is an individual city and people such as shops try to stick out but honestly in the end everything looks the same.
This thought is the basis for our project. We quickly decided to make this our topic for the project, making people aware of what kind of life they are currently living and how they could change it by simpy realizing this.

This is how our project got started and where the idea came from.

I will keep you posted about how it is going to evolve and what it will look like in the end!

urban zoo

from romanticism to futurism

welcome to the new age!

dancing is like dreaming with your feet

smoking girl

I created this in my first digital media seminar today, it is not only my first post for this uni blog, it is also the first result of me working with photoshop. I hope you like it and as I got many more of these seminars, more posts will follow soon!