Interactive Media - Moodboard

As our first task for the Interactive project, we were asked to create a moodboard that reflected our interests, including places we have visited in the world, favourite colours and the types of font that we would like to use for our website.

I might redo this as I feel like something is missing...but for now...

Narrative and Authenticity

It's a continuous question that we ask throughout life: "Who Am I?" The question may be easy to ask, but can we really answer with absolute certainty?

Another question that may be raised is "why is it so difficult to be authentic in today's society?" There are so many social stigma's in the modern day that it can be hard to just be yourself - no wonder so many people may question who they are.

So how can we tell who we are? How can we show that we're 'authentic'? What exactly can we say about ourselves to make us 'authentic'?

Narratives can tell you a lot about a person - the way they tell a story can show the position they're in. Sometimes it can be empowering and give the narrator a boost in confidence. This confidence makes a story more believable. But it can also swing the other way and give a sense of disempowerment.

If the story is told from leadership experiences, it can seem egocentric - this may be because we have been conditioned to tell a story in a way that we think others would want to hear it, which in turn, can make it untruthful.

Some may think that a narrative is a 'vehicle' to our authentic selves, but there's also a chance that this is just a trace of the absent authentic self - this narrative is actually a desire we have to be what we want to be. These desires can come from several sources, such as our culture, class, faith, the social environments that we live in and family members. Despite this desire, some believe that social stigma's still hold us back from being who we really want to be. Is it possible that we have a fear stopping us from truly being ourselves and therefore forcing us to act in certain ways so that we are socially accepted by others?

These narratives are almost always about our relationships as well, either with ourselves or with others. We tell these stories as it helps us to find out about our authentic selves - David Balm suggested that we are not 'free to make decisions' as our true selves due to the conditioning we have received throughout our lives. Does this suggest that our 'authentic' selves have been taken away? Has the conditioning we have received in our lives make us more inclined to adjust the stories we know to what we think others would want to hear, or even what we would want to hear from ourselves, so that people would not think badly in any way about you and therefore stop you from being ridiculed by others?

The points made so far suggest that authenticity is something that we are aware of and something that, if possible, we may try to change.

One of the speakers suggested that we become to 'absorbed' in our everyday lives to think about our true authenticities. He also stated that "If authenticity is an 'ideal', we need to recognise that inauthenticity is possible and likely, and we will end up there at some point in our lives."

However, I think the last point that was made in this discussion was the most valid:

"The only way to look at your 'authentic self' is to die and look back at your life in it's entirety"

But as this is not possible, how will we ever be able to determine our authentic selves?

Apologies if this didn't make sense...I wrote this based on the notes I'd made..

Design Practice 2 - Moving Image

My first project for this term will be within Moving Image. In this project, 'Interpretation', we will be working in groups and each person will be assigned a specific production role. We will the plan and film a short fiction script which will be allocated to our group.

Our group has been given a script titled 'Last Chance', which is about a couple at university who split up just before the end of term. The male lead realises that he's made a mistake and tries to apologise and get back together with his girlfriend, the female lead. However, their friends try to discourage them and tell them both that it's not worth the time to try and get back together as they have a whole summer ahead of them, where they can have fun being single.

For this project, I have taken up the role of lighting design. In this role, I will be working closely with the camera crew and the directors to capture the right atmosphere on set and on screen. I will also need to make sure that during specific shots, the actors faces are well lit, so that we can see them clearly.

Depending on the type of shot and what the scene is, I'll be taking into consideration the technique of three point lighting - this consists of three lights known as the key light, fill light and back light. This is a standard method for lighting which is used in visual media, such as film and photography.

 

Standard three point lighting method

Knowing how all the equipment works and how to assemble them will also be important - there will be health and safety issues that I will need to take into account. As some of the equipment requires a lot of power, I will need to make sure that I don't overload any power sockets when using the lights by checking how much power each light requires before plugging them in.

The equipment can be quite heavy as well, so I need to take care when transporting the lights to our required locations.

I'll start posting some examples of lighting that I'll consider using soon...

Rule of Thirds

The Rule of Thirds is a compostional rule where an image is basically divided into 9 parts by two equally spaced lines going vertically and horizontally, like this image:

 

I know it's meant to be a 5 second film...but I haven't quite got round to doing that yet. I definitely will though! So for now, a picture of my brother (:

The four crosses where the lines intersect show the four important parts of the image that should be considered 'placing points of interest' in the frame of an image or film.

In theory, if the points of interest are placed on the intersections, the image/frame becomes more balanced and will enable the viewer to 'interact' with the frame.

Design Process Essay - Jan Švankmajer

It's taken me a while to decide on a designer I could write about, although I have to admit, I think I had an idea of who I would write about straight after the first lecture.

The designer I've chosen is Jan Švankmajer, a Czech animator and film maker. If you've seen some of my (few-and-far-between) blog posts, you'll know I've mentioned him quite a few times already! The work he produced was one of the first that I started to look at during my foundation course and I found his ideas intriguing. His use of surrealism in his work has fascinated me and inspired me to try similar techniques that he had used for my own projects.
This was the first animation I watched by Švankmajer:

Jan Švankmajer has primarily used stop-frame techniques for his animations, which is why I had researched so heavily into his work during my final major project for my foundation course. Although I know that the technique is quite out-of-date now compared to 3D animations, it's the technique I used to produce my first animation.


I started looking in the library to see if I could find any books that might relate to Švankmajer, but so far, I've only managed to find videos and DVDs that include his films and animations. I might take them out just to have a look anyway...but I've just bought this to help me with my research though (:

 

Until I get it...I'll just trawl through the internet and see what I can find.

I wouldn't be surprised if I suddenly change my mind in the next week...