5.4.11
Week 12.
The last session and something had to wrong didn't it... After finishing our sound mix and edits for our 'You Game' video we attempted to export it, all was well until we tested it in Quicktime player... the footage appeared with lines... Oh dear! We then exported the footage again, using a different setting... this time the lines had gone, hoorah but frames were being dropped.. back to the drawing board! Although when I went home and tested our first export which had the lines, it worked fine on my Macbook, very strange... Before we transfer the export into a flash player then into Dreamweaver we are hoping that by changing the field dominance to none in the Final Cut Pro browser window, this will remove the lines when we export it for the 3rd time. Thinking back over the last 13 weeks or so, I didn't think I'd learn as many useful skills such as Chroma Keying and Motion Path. As we got going with filming, I began to think that it was going to time consuming- especially with the animations within Final Cut Pro which took the most time- I was quite surprised that the Pacman sequence took the longest as the motion path was either too slow or too fast... this actually took more time than the guitar hero sequence which I thought would be the other way around!!!! I'm pleased with the outcome of our group work as myself and the group are aware of how much work, dedicated time and effort, and at times frustration when animations weren't working when we wanted and rendering, that has gone into creating this piece- where in 3 and a half minutes we have explored the blurring of reality and immersive game play within a playful narrative- that at first the viewer is confused by what they are watching but as the viewer progresses through the games, hopefully the visual markers within the footage start to make sense and the viewer becomes aware of what is happening and has a sense of pleasure in recognizing the games we used.
28.3.11
Week 11.
From reading Atkins' book, more than a game: the computer game as a fictional form. I found the following interesting and very true and it reminded me of the online game- Second Life where people get so caught up in the excitement of this virtual world that they would rather spend more time 'situated' there than in the juxtaposed 'mundane' real world;'The computer game is entertaining because it is extraordinary in content and form, because it never tries to normalise itself and simply reflect the mundanity of existence. If it did, quite bluntly, then it would be no fun' ( 2003:145)
Bibliography
Atkins, B. (2003) More than a computer game: the computer game as ficti0nal form. UK: Manchester University Press.
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| GUITAR HERO |
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| GUITAR HERO |
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| MARIO |
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| PACMAN |
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| PONG |
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| DOOM |
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| STREET FIGHTER |
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| THE SIMS |
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| THE SIMS |
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| DOOM After much umming and argh-ing, we decided to change PONG to the original footage that we shot (as shown below) as we felt visually it was the weakest with the 'spinning Tom'. Also, having just the subtle sounds of PONG has a better impact than the animation... I think! Hopefully, as a first time viewer, the viewer will experience confusion at first and then gradually throughout the video, it will start to make sense to the viewer... |
23.3.11
Invasion of privacy?
Today I was sent this in an email and it reminded me of the lecture addressing the issue of 'privacy' and thought I would share it as it's quite interesting and scary but also shows the power of technology these days!!
You used to be able to get lost in the crowd, but not anymore. Double click on any area in the picture to bring the person closer. Or, just click the mouse and use the mouse wheel to bring them closer.
This is a photograph of 2009 Obama Inauguration. You can see IN FOCUS the face of EACH individual in the crowd !!!
You can scan and zoom to any section of the crowd. . . Wait a few seconds. Double click anywhere . And the focus adjusts to give you a very identifiable close up.
The picture was taken with a robotic 1474 megapixel camera (295 times the standard 5 megapixel camera). Every one attending could be scanned after the event, should something have gone wrong during it.
22.3.11
Week 10.
This week will be a continuation of our group work in progress. This week has been quite busy as we have taught ourself how to green screen, using the Chroma Key and also using motion path.
Here is our example of the sims green diamond. We achieved this by using still images of the sims diamond, then putting them side by side in the timeline then changing the speed to give the appearance that the diamond is spinning.
Here is our example of the sims green diamond. We achieved this by using still images of the sims diamond, then putting them side by side in the timeline then changing the speed to give the appearance that the diamond is spinning.
This image shows footage from Pong. In our original footage we had our protagonist running back and for, we then changed this to the prog becoming the 'ball' and curls up. In order for us to achieve this, we photoshopped this image and in fact it is two images with the layer of the protagonist covered. We then put this into final cut pro, where we will use motion path of our curled up protagonist that is shown in the previous blog.
For guitar hero, we filmed our protagonist in front of a blue screen. In final cut pro, we imported footage from the guitar hero game- the song 'Raining Blood' by Slayer as this is classed as an 'Expert' level within the game and thought it would be quite interesting to use. After importing the footage, we added the video filter, Chroma key so that it removed the blue screen. We then layered our guitar playing protagonist with the footage of guitar hero and then added a posterize effect to the protagonist so that to some extent it looked authentic of guitar hero. We also used the colour changer effect on guitar hero so that it was lighter and easier to see. Here is an example of the guitar hero footage without effects and our protagonist on the blue screen. The final edit will be shown within the finished video.
Within the mario 'level' we are incorporating found footage, which links Mario and Street fighter quite nicely as after 'mario' goes through the tunnel he comes up as street fighter. This works well as it is quite a fluid transition.
Week 9.
With only a few weeks left, the project is a GO GO GO! This week I am really pleased that we have managed to collate all our graphics and sound clips we wish to use and also we had another shooting day which went really well. Below is also examples of work before and after discussions with group and tutors;
Here's an image manipulated through a timely process of importing/exporting numerous times due to lag in Flash. Below shows the main protagonist curled up to represent the ball in pong. Here you can see we manipulated the background so that it acted like a green screen. In final cut pro we will use the Chroma key so that we can incorporate our 'ball' to our footage ;
From watching We Live in Public, I saw similarities to a site that hosts Little Sister which is a cctv drama and 24hr online surveillance soap (2000) which similarly as WLIP focuses on voyeuristic networking technology;
http://www.azapp.de/littlesister/
Here's the start of the process in replicating the DOOM bar;
Within Final Cut Pro, we will animate the bar so that the faces will change every so often.
This is the health bar from Street Fighter, we will animate this so that when Player 1 is hit by the Hadouken, the health depletes and the KO image will appear similar to the image shown below.
(the Hadouken we will use)
(the Hadouken we will use)
Here's an image manipulated through a timely process of importing/exporting numerous times due to lag in Flash. Below shows the main protagonist curled up to represent the ball in pong. Here you can see we manipulated the background so that it acted like a green screen. In final cut pro we will use the Chroma key so that we can incorporate our 'ball' to our footage ;
To achieve the 'spin', we nested the 300 odd png files and changed the speed in final cut pro to achieve the above clip. we nested the images so that it remained as 1 file within the timeline without any gaps.
Whilst thinking about our project we are still in the process of how to creatively show our final project, today I came up with the idea of having a flash player embedded within a PSP interface where the user can press the buttons to start/pause/stop/<</>> and so forth. Below is a mock-up of how it will be realised;
From watching We Live in Public, I saw similarities to a site that hosts Little Sister which is a cctv drama and 24hr online surveillance soap (2000) which similarly as WLIP focuses on voyeuristic networking technology;
10.3.11
Week 8
During the MCS Leeds field trip, I visited the royal armouries . Within the 'peace' exhibition I came across examples of hacking;
The images below show objects made out of guns in an attempt to protest against guns and war;
What I found particularly interesting is the idea that the electricity circuit is an extension of the central nervous system. 
The images below show objects made out of guns in an attempt to protest against guns and war;
This week we are working on making a taster of our project so we can visualize how it will eventually look and how it is going to work. We are hoping to use the motion path in final cut pro to direct the animations. This weekend, we are finishing the rest of the shots so that all the footage will be filmed and ready for editing. During the workshop this week, we constructed the replica doom health bar, we also began animating the graphics from each game. The next couple of weeks are going to be very busy but hopefully we will stay on target and not fall behind. This week I have been reading the following books which I'm finding very interesting and can see Wiener's theory of Cybernetics and the idea of feedback being integrated and recognizable within the everyday;
-Marshall, M. (1967) The medium is the massage. Penguin group: London.
What I found particularly interesting is the idea that the electricity circuit is an extension of the central nervous system. 
- Harkin,J. (2009) Cyburbia: The dangerous idea that's changing how we live and who we are. Little, Brown: UK.
I particularly found interesting the power struggle between technology and humans;
' ... most previous social theorists, include Wiener and Brand, saw technology and media as tools to be used by humans for their own purposes, McLuhan preferred to think of them as having become so much a part of ourselves that it was difficult to know who was in control. 'We shape our tools' said McLuhan 'and thereafter they shape us'... we are no longer masters of our media technology but slaves'.
4.3.11
Week 7
This week and the following week, my group and I are planning to get all the sound together for the individual games and also animate graphics in Flash. Having had feedback from the presentation, we have taken on board what has been said- we are planning on re-shooting next week as there are parts of the footage we have had further ideas about and that can be shot better. What was interesting when researching video games and theories we were able to relate theories of immediacy, remediation and immersive media for our project as ultimately our idea explores video gaming conventions and iconography through remediation into the video form. By intentionally using the video form, we are reiterating theories of immediacy and simulation within an ever-growing technologically advancing society. The games we have chosen reflect iconic moments within video gaming history that, through technological innovation, has resulted in a shift towards immersive game play.
Whilst thinking about the theories that can be related to our project, the one that we found most fitting and imperative to the project was the idea of the blurring of realities and how this is most common in video-game play. What is interesting about video-games in particular is its move from non photo-realistic such as Pong to more immersive, photo-realistic gaming such as The Sims where the users sense of control is magnified. The suggestion that the gaming medium is a unique cultural form is reiterated in Kings’s argument that ‘there’s no other cultural medium that, like games, reinvents its own technical abilities every few years. New game technologies mean more depth, more complexity and more ways to play. Technology drives innovation’.
Further influencing our project was the theory of immediacy. In using the video form we intend our project to be fully immersive and as a group we made a decision to reject putting the video in a website format as the user would be far more aware of the interface and therefore be a participant of hypermediacy which we are trying to avoid as little as possible. As Bolter suggests, ‘‘The logic of immediacy dictates that the medium itself should disappear and leave us in the presence of the thing represented: sitting in a race car or standing on a mountaintop’- in our instance being the character/main protagonist within our representation on blurring realities.
The inspirations for our project was firstly the movie adapted version of the comic book, Scott Pilgrim vs the world which remediates gaming conventions into the video form. From looking at this particular screenshot from within the film, it is just to say it is similar to our project it blurs reality with virtual reality, in this instance through the iconography of the ‘life’ image. The justification for our project to have a narrative is proposed through Giddings’ argument that ‘Films based on games and games based on films bring into focus the distinctiveness of the act of playing a game from other forms of screen media consumption. A sense of ‘being in’ the game is central to understanding the nature of player-game interaction and potentially, therefore a key element in the pleasure of digital gaming.
Whilst thinking about the theories that can be related to our project, the one that we found most fitting and imperative to the project was the idea of the blurring of realities and how this is most common in video-game play. What is interesting about video-games in particular is its move from non photo-realistic such as Pong to more immersive, photo-realistic gaming such as The Sims where the users sense of control is magnified. The suggestion that the gaming medium is a unique cultural form is reiterated in Kings’s argument that ‘there’s no other cultural medium that, like games, reinvents its own technical abilities every few years. New game technologies mean more depth, more complexity and more ways to play. Technology drives innovation’.
Further influencing our project was the theory of immediacy. In using the video form we intend our project to be fully immersive and as a group we made a decision to reject putting the video in a website format as the user would be far more aware of the interface and therefore be a participant of hypermediacy which we are trying to avoid as little as possible. As Bolter suggests, ‘‘The logic of immediacy dictates that the medium itself should disappear and leave us in the presence of the thing represented: sitting in a race car or standing on a mountaintop’- in our instance being the character/main protagonist within our representation on blurring realities.
The inspirations for our project was firstly the movie adapted version of the comic book, Scott Pilgrim vs the world which remediates gaming conventions into the video form. From looking at this particular screenshot from within the film, it is just to say it is similar to our project it blurs reality with virtual reality, in this instance through the iconography of the ‘life’ image. The justification for our project to have a narrative is proposed through Giddings’ argument that ‘Films based on games and games based on films bring into focus the distinctiveness of the act of playing a game from other forms of screen media consumption. A sense of ‘being in’ the game is central to understanding the nature of player-game interaction and potentially, therefore a key element in the pleasure of digital gaming.
The second inspiration is from the film Existenz where the viewer along with the main protagonists are taken on a journey through to a ‘new world’ where the blurring of reality and virtual reality becomes apparent and even to the extent that the main progs and the viewer question which is which. This type of gaming is indeed very immersive and we chose Janet Murray’s explanation of the term as it is fitting to our project and apt towards the critical approach we are attempting to take- ‘Immersion is a metaphorical term derived from the physical experience of being submerged in water. We seek the same feeling from a psychologically immersive experience that we do from a plunge in the ocean or swimming pool: the sensation of being surrounded by a completely other reality’.
Comparing our vision of Doom to the actual game footage examples.
Footage taken from shots (DOOM and PONG) - Working progress/ still issues with PONG and
the recreation of this game.
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