Creative media practice project

For my final project in creative media, I decided I wanted to use QR codes to tell a story from around Liverpool. My story that I wanted to tell was of Batman saving people around Liverpool, but instead of Batman saving people, I created his character so that he was not very good at his job to make the story more of a comedy for people. The idea of the QR codes and place them on a map to show that if this was a real project in Liverpool I would have the QR codes placed at different locations to show what crime Batman would have fought in that specific place.

I had to plan out different scenes which I thought would be good for a Batman scene. I thought of a few different scenes, one being a man robbing a shop where it takes a few seconds for Batman to realise what has happened and the man gets away.

Once I had all of the scenes that I wanted to shoot written out, I then needed to find actors. Unfortunately there where not many people available due to many having work to do themselves. I also had a problem on my first day of filming, not long before we were supposed to film, I had a text from the main actor saying he would not be able to make it as he was sick. This caused a set back but luckily I managed to get another actor to take his place.

Once I had all the actors that was needed for the shoot, I then went to film my project. Unfortunately, due to the bad weather, we were only able to shoot 4 out of the 6 scenes that I wanted to film. The rest of the week also had heavy rain weather which meant that there was no other night that we could have filmed the rest of the scenes.

I thought that my final project could have been expanded and improved on. One of the main things that I should have added to the project was making a reason as to why people would be interested in going out and exploring these QR codes around Liverpool. One idea could have been that we could reveal who Batman actually is at the end of the experience.

Below, I have added the picture of the Google Map that my QR codes have been placed on.

Our interactive YouTube video

For my interactive YouTube video, I was in a group with Mark and James McKeown. In our group, we discussed several different ideas as to what we could create for an interactive video. Some ideas we had discussed was a mystery story or a story of a boy piecing back together what had happened the night before by several objects around the room.

We had all agreed that a boy piecing his night back together by clicking on different objects would be fun and entertaining for the player. When we were discussing our idea in more detail, the group then decided that instead of creating a story based on just a boy, we came up with the idea of a girl and boy that are in a relationship that take a break from each other for a week due to them having so much work on.

From this, you are then able to choose whether to go down the path of the girl or the boy. Our group planned out that they are both going to out, the girl goes on holidays and the boy goes drinking all week. Because we did not have anyone that was able to act in the video, James and I had to play the part of the boy and girl.

Depending on what path you chose, it gave you different options of extra clips to click on. I thought our idea was good and was enjoyable for people interacting with the game. Our over all project was finished really well and I thought our group created a great interactive video.

Below I have added the link to our interactive video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyqKv6vXOok

Interactive Youtube videos

Interactive YouTube videos have become quite popular in recent years. Interactive videos are when you play a video on YouTube and it will then give you an option as to what path you want to go down.

These types of videos have been used for advertising, education and also to make people aware of things such as bullying. They are also used often as just a game adventure such as murder mysteries and zombie interactive videos where the player can choose their own options to tell different stories.
This gives the viewer the opportunity to pick which path they go down within a video.

In class, we looked at a few different interactive video's on YouTube. The main one that we looked at was a young boy where we had to choose whether or not he took a knife out with him. Later on in the video we then had to choose whether or not he would get involved in a fight that had happened. This type of video gives youths the opportunity to look at what small decisions can have big impacts on their lives.

Below, I added in a link to a zombie interactive video which gives the viewer different choices to make throughout the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p1yBlV7Ges

Creating our own QR Codes

Once we had learnt about QR codes, we had been given a brief to create 5 or more QR codes in a group. Our QR codes could be anything from a story to a mystery or even just advertisements.

Mark, James and I worked in a group together to create our QR codes story. We discussed some different idea's of what to do but we decided to create QR codes telling how a robbery had gone wrong, where the girl in the group gets caught and the three boys get away. With the QR codes, we decided to tell the story of the woman and what happens when she gets out of prison.
Mark, James and I then discussed what we wanted to have on each of the 5 different QR codes. First, we found a clip of a robbery using Youtube, where it showed one person getting caught. We used this footage to show the woman in the group getting arrested.

We then used the rest of the QR codes to tell a story of how the woman in prison along with one of the men in the group where together. One of the QR codes we used to show that the man then hid the jewellery that they had stolen away from the rest of the group. We then used text messages on another QR code between the couple to show how the man had killed the other two men in the group so that him and his partner could be together when she got out of prison.

I thought that the QR codes where a good idea. They create a fun way of getting connected with the internet as is it very simple and quick to use.

Below, I have added the google map with our QR codes.

QR Codes

For our third session of Creative Media Practice, we learnt about QR codes and what they are. QR codes are codes that we are now able to scan with smart phones which takes us to a specific link that has been added to each QR code.

QR codes are being used world wide now for many different reasons. Many QR codes are used for advertising and as a fun way of looking up different websites. Many clothes shops, museums, restaurants, drinks and many more businesses throughout the world have created their own QR codes to promote their products.

QR codes are a simple and easy way for people to connect to websites which makes the chances of people going to these websites a lot higher as it is a very quick way of looking up the website.
Below is an example of a QR code advertisement which was for Calvin Klein and was shown on a large billboard in New York city centre.

Split Screen Part 2

Once we had decided on what exactly we all wanted to do for the split screen, we went to mark and James flat to film our project. Unfortunately because we had limited people, James, Emma and I had to act for the project.

Our group started of by filming Emma talking in the living room, we made points on the floor so that she would know where to walk to and from and still be within the camera shot, but also so that when we were putting the split screen together she would be walking into James space and making his screen smaller.

Next we filmed James' part. for his part, he was just sitting down on the sofa reading a book. Because we were going to be making his screen smaller, we had to get him to act annoyed and to try and push the screen back to make more room and to make the split screen more entertaining to watch.

The last part that we then filmed was when I had to act as though I was having a party. For this, I used a big balloon to try and push into James' screen and to take up some of his room.

When editing our split screen project together, we used AfterEffects to create the effect of the screens getting smaller and pushing against each other. Our group also used sound effects to attract the viewers attention to different screens and different points.

Split Screen

For our first class of creative media practice, we looked at split screens. Split screens is when the camera screen is decided into several different pieces and has different things playing on each screen. 

To begin our first class, we looked at different ideas that can be created through using split screen and watched different examples of split screens. Once we had all a good understanding of different split screens, we then gathered into groups of 3 or 4 and came up with our own idea for a short split screen idea. 

I was in a  group with Mark, James and Emma. In our group we came up with an idea that we were going to have one screen appear first with someone reading, next there will be a screen appear to the left with a girl talking and inturpting the person on the main. We then added in another screen on the right side which was someone having a party. 

Once we had our split screen planned, we decided to go to Mark and James' apartment to film the footage that we needed for our first class and continued to create the rest of our project the following day in class.

Below is a link to a split screen music video showing what each of the different instruments are doing at each stage.

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