DP1 One-Shot 'An Apple A Day' (Finally!!!!)

I had to compress the fil so the quality is reletivitly poor, sorry...

My edited version (second time around) of our One Shot film.

Images for my Interactive Story. Original sketch and edited versions

Structure of my story interactive story

This is a rough drawn out plan that I made to give me an indication to where my interactive story will go. My story has two stories which run parellel with eachother and eventually lead to the same conclusion should the user be correct in their decision making.

Interactive Narrative: Screen Shots from games Evil Twin and Rayman and how my idea relates to them.

Looks like something from a dream and very surreal imo. I am looking for something similar for the setting of my interactive story as I think it will definately help capture the audience's attention and help me to keep them engaged.




Here is a shot from the Sequel to Rayman one, which was dubbed Rayman: The Great Escape. The graphics aren't great but this was amongst the earlier games I got involved in and I remember that decision making as well as quick, sensible choices would be a vital part of getting through the game, much like our interactive stories will be imitating.



And here is a screen shot from the very first Rayman game when it was released on the Sony Playstation. I remember playing this game when I was around the same age as the target audience that I'm aiming for with this task (around six to nine years old). This game was also 2d and relied on tones and lighting effects it the to help create the illusion that the characters and setting were rounded when infact they were all 2 dimensional. This more basic, generic yet effective style will be more the sort of thing that I am aiming for in terms of the backgrounds I create however I will make them look as professional as possible.

Interactive Narrative: Sketches

Here are some rough sketches of designs and ideas I had for my interactive story which will be made in Flash, although I will use other prgrams such as Photoshop to help create backgrounds etc.


Character ideas
The following are a few rough drawings of the character I imagined making. The chracter would be made up and not human, in an attempt to reach out to my target audience for the story which would predominantly exist of six to ten year olds.


I started off by drawing a character which looked similar to a rabbit and was friendly in appreanance. I then moved on to coming up with some attributes that the chracter would have, such as being able to fly for instance. I dropped the idea of the chracter having powers shortly after as I realised I was overcomplicating things and should focus more on the interactive aspect, which I would find more challenging

I also considered having a sidekick for the main character/hero, which I have named Hansel.



I also sketches a rough Idea of some of the possible 'worlds' and lanscapes which I would base my interactive story in. Again I thought about the target audience when doing this. I also thought about the layout of the page and tried to create some sort of uniformity as to where my text and buttons would be placed.

This sketch is a rough idea of what 'Cloud Land' would appear like should the user decide to enter this location;

The idea being that the light in this world is being taken away by the 'baddies' and Hansel must recapture this light by overcoming them as well as any other obstactles.


My other idea for a alternate world should the user choose it is called 'The Magic Forest'. Here is a rough sketch of what this world would look like, as well as some markings where I will have certain features on the page positioned.

Evaluation for One-Shot (not yet finished)

DP1 One Shot Evaluation

Introduction: For the first task I came across in design practice one, I had to work together in a group to create a short film that would have to abide by a rule which had been set in place. The rule was that the tripod that the camera was mounted on was not to be moved throughout the course the shot. The positive that came from having this rule was that it allowed me to focus more heavily on audience engagement and techniques used to keep the spectator interested considering the restrictions we had.


Working as a group: I found the thought of working in a group quite daunting at first as I felt problems could easily arise should any of us have conflicting ideas however, there is always a challenge when working with others and I thought that we dealt with everything fairly and got along very well with each other which made the project all the more manageable and enjoyable from that standpoint. We started off by listening to each other’s ideas and then trying to pick out the best features of each whilst simultaneously bearing in mind the practicalities of fulfilling each idea in the time we had and the resources available to us. The strength or conducting ourselves in this way was that we would come up with an idea which was both interesting and logical. The only weakness of this may have been that due to the time span and the recourses we had in terms of costumes, settings and props, we were perhaps a little less adventurous than we may have been. We improvised however and often found a way around any problems.


The Design Process: Although the vast majority of the multimedia course involves working on computers, I decided to make a series of illustrations of possible scenarios for our one-shot film that would be plausible considering the rule that had been given. Later I would scan these into the computer since they were relevant in the design process of the task. My scenarios included a shop keeper scene where an altercation between them and a particularly difficult customer would arise. I felt that the shop situation would be ideal to create a strong dialogue and considering that the camera would not be moving all over the place, compensated well. One of the strengths if this was that we could have people walking in and out of the shop and into the film to make it more interesting and create a constant flow throughout the film which would create more movement on screen.

Another idea was to have someone simply make a sandwich, however this person would have some sort of mental disability and thus, find a mundane task all the more difficult. I would try to make a comedic feel about the situation however, rather than create a potentially offending and upsetting scene. I imagined it being something similar to one of Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean episodes, where he too, is faced with many everyday tasks that usually go wayward, to the amusement of the audience; however at the same time, his mental issues endear them rather than make the spectator feel any unease. The strength of this idea was that we could use a lot of light humour, which is a powerful tool, especially in short-films and episodes; however we eventually opted for a more serious idea.

My final idea which didn’t get taken further was to have a bus stop setting, which two characters as the focal point. One of the characters would have some form of A.S. which caused him to be very robotic and unaware of many common human emotions, and the other being a friendly old lady. The idea would be that a great sense of awkwardness and tension would be garnered as the frustrations of the A.S. sufferer would become apparent during this predominantly one sided conversation between the two, eventually leading to him simply getting up and walking away. The strength of this style of short film making would be that it would help the audience try and get a feel into how the mind of a character works and perhaps empathise with them on certain levels, or maybe even find is bizarre behaviour. The weakness of this however was that it was very difficult to find a sheltered bus stop in a location where we would be allowed to film, both in terms of safety due to roads and the fact that the general public would be walking around the area. Problems such as traffic noise and the positioning camera equipment also posed as large obstacles.

The idea that got the go ahead was a hospital scenario in which the primary feature would be to have the camera representing a real life person, in this case the patient. I’ve seen films before where this first person shot is used and often it creates quite an unusual, disorientating

One Shot- (Practicalities, Thoughts etc)

Well, all great ideas need appropriate backing in order to support them and when you are on a lowely student budget as myself and presumaly the other memebers of my filming group (who are all fine examples to humanity) it is important to ensure that even if your idea(s) are amazing, they can be supported with appriate props, settings, actors/ actresses, equipment and loctations etc.

Part of the challenge of the One-Shot project that I found (although Im still trying to edit and plan the film in my own time to add to it) was the actual organisational skills which were required to ensure the group was constantly aware of what the their individual tasks were as well as details such as location/room bookings and what times we were due to pick up the all vital equipment and start filming our magical piece of footage. (keeping in mind the set rule of not being allowed to move the tripod on which the camera was fixed to throught the whole of the clip...)

I was on the verge of a mental breakdown by the second week as I feared that my group had not met up enough amongst other things and that time was running out for us to actual shoot this film and be ready for the editing process which was just around the corner in this emphatically fast and testing three weeks. On a cold and blusterly Thursday afternoon(yes ive gone into story mode now)me and the rest of our team met together to discuss some final ideas and book some key factors such as the location for our film and the all important eqiupment that we needed to actually carry out this delicate operation.

We did just that and Mr. John (The techniction) was actually pleased with how we carried out our plans and the way in which we had a list prepared three days in advance of the day we intended to film (Monday) that we handed to him. 'Well done he said', it was like being given the Queen's blessing or something to that effect. This of course, was after we had arranged to use the TV studios in Waverly on Monday, by booking them before we approached former RAF member, John. So, Thursday essentially turned out to be the arrangement day if anything. Monday wasnt particuarly great for all five members of our group to film on but with the magic of improvisation and willingness, we managed to meet together to get the film shot and redy for editing, which was the very next day in fact!

We didnt just have to improvise in terms of when we were available to film but also the actual idea of the short film we were making as once again 'practicalities' reered its ugly head and we had to deicide what the most realistic and achievable scenerio would be. Rather than have a stituation in which a patient(camera) would be looking up from a hostpital bed at the on-looking doctors and nurses, we created a scene in which a patitent (again acting as the camera) would have a consultant style meeting with a doctor over an underlying illness which was bothering them. It would be more capable to create a doctors office setting we figured, than it would to make the scene look as if it was in a hospital with the patient (camera) looking up at doctors, nuerses and surgens, especially given the short space of time we had to gather features such as props and costumes.

The uniqueness of our idead I felt (unless some other groups have done this already) was that to try and cope with the rule of having the camera on a tripod which wasnt allowed to me moved, we made the camera out to be a real life person, and as a result, placing the viewer in the position of someone in that sitation and thus causing them to ask question such what they would do in such circumstances. This we hoped would help counter the barrier of the restrictive movement and generate some ineterest and intrigue for the viewer. An added effect of the spectator seeing things through the eyes of the character is disorientation, especailly considering that the character (camera) in our film was noticably unless and started to deteriate throught the consulation with the doctor.

Also to substitute for the lack of avaible camera movement due to the rule set in place, I thought that it was important to create a dialogue between the characters involved (in our case mainly the patient/camera and the doctor/consulation)that would be lively enough to engage with the audience and keep them interested long enough to portray the story we wanted to tell, which was patient who was deteriating throughout a consulation with their doctor. By using a first person camera shot and spontaneous, noticably dialogue as well as the adition of camera effects (which im still trying to add to the film now) we hoped that we could bipass the rule that had been handed to the us all and maintain an element of excitment and intrgue throught the three or four minutes which our clip lasted for.



Thank you for reading (if you did), right now Im very tired so goodnight!!!

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Trailer

One-Shot Summary Part One

I have just come to the end of my three weeks working on the filiming phase of design practice one which was called 'One-Shot'. I enjoyed the project largely because I have an interest in film, cinematograhy and the ways in which different ideas can be put together to create a certain meaning.

We worked together in groups and part of the challenge was to ensure we were all well organised and knew what one another were doing so that we could work efficiently in the short time span we had to plan, make and edit our peice.



Here are some points I wrote down when first thinking of some ideas for our one shot film (bearing in mind the rule of the camera not allowed to be moved from the tripod throughout the clip.)

One-Shot Design 2 'Shop inccident'

One-Shot Design 1 'Bus Stop'

'Bus Stop'
For this idea I wanted to have a character similar to that of Christopher Boone, a character from a book I read by Mark Haddon called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time in which 15 year old Christopher, the lead character, suffers from AS. The condiction restricts his abilty to empathize with human emotions and the feelings of others, whilst at the same time having very strong beliefs of his own, often seeming very unusual to the common person.

The narrative of the short clip would basically be the character, suffering from a condition such as AS, sitting at the bus stop, anxiosuly waiting for his bus to arrive. Before long, to his dismay, an elderly lady sits besides him and tries to make conversation. The character then begins what turns out to be an epic struggle as he tries to put an end to the small talk and what seems a simple, mondane situation turns out to be a tortuous one as he eventually loses his patients and walks away.

I liked the idea as it provides an insight into the mind of someone who thinks very differently to most people and has an unusual yet intriguing outlook on life.

One-Shot Design 4 'Surgery'

One-Shot Design 3 Entitled 'Making a Sandwich'

Introduction to the world of Multimedia

Hey im Kieron and I am enjoying the fist few days of the Multimedia inductions. We are known for being the 'drunks' of the design subjects so hopefully we'll all live up to that repuatation. I studied Media, Film Studies, English and ICT at A-level last year.

The tutors all seem like adults who still have the child inside them very much alive and kicking. They are very animated and thats what we need since this is the ultimate creative course and the best course.. of course.

The help and safety talks have been useful and have been ideal to listen to in the semi drunken states we have been in these last few mornings im sure.

I did the whiteboard task on Tuesday and really liked the concept of short animations consisting of many still frames taken from altered drawings. I thought that many people had clashing ideas which made it hard to articulate everything on the whiteboard but that just went to show how vibrant minded some of us students are I guess.

Thats enough for now... catch ya later aligater(s)