My proposal for the final project is inspired by those stories in which you can pick the outcomes and endings. Everyone starts out with the same story, but at the end of the third page, they are given three options, A, B, and C. From there, the story can branch out even further, so that each of the options has its own three options, and one of those options has another three options. I would do this, except with animation, video, sound, and website design. As I am also a writer, I could combine the images with a little story for each option. However, it wouldn’t be so much of a story as it would be a journey.
I imagine the opening page to be mostly black and in the center, a spiral of neon words, much like Bruce Newman’s Having Fun/Good Life, Symptoms. Included in this spiral of words is the word Begin which will take the viewer to the first page of the project and will start the video.
The first page would be a house or a street the viewer is starting on. The coinciding story with it will feature a character who will be making the journey with the viewer. The house or street includes a picture of such a house or street, made odd or creepy in Photoshop using image adjustments, layer overlaps, etc. The picture could also be a video. It would be set on a black background. Black backgrounds have been used in the past two examples provided in class, and I love the effect, probably because it simulates a similar kind of theater you’d find in a museum. The sound I’d use would be that of day traffic. The words of the story would fade onto screen, and then the question of the next destination would arise. The library? The Cathedral? Downtown?
Each destination would have its own list of three more destinations. As the destinations progress, the pictures grow darker as the day progresses. Eventually it will be dark, and I like the idea of including some neon signs so that neon signs can be an overall visual theme to the piece. The end to one story may be getting drunk and lost in the streets of South Side. The end to another story may be falling asleep at home, and another story may end with getting in a stranger’s car and never returning. The sound will vary with each destination, from day traffic to laughter in a bar to the ticking of a clock to rock music. I’d have to find out what I have to work with.
Animation would come in for the words, though perhaps I could do some with the video/photos as well, making them travel across the page like they did in The Flat, or stick to the spiraling theme that was used in Bruce Newman's work. And of course the options given on the side would stick with the theme as well, portrayed as neon signs.
The specifics will still have to be hammered out, but right now I have a pretty good image in my head what the piece of work will be. All I hope now is that I acquire the technical knowledge to work on it.
Revised Proposal
I've taken inspiration from Bruce Newman’s Having Fun/Good Life, Symptoms. The very beginning of the project would begin with a simple black background, and in the center of which there is a neon sign that reads "Begin". It takes you into the first "page" of the story. The story will be artsy/poetic, a story about a character who travels to different places, all which mean something different to him/her. Either it is a place where he/she lives, a place where he/she works, or a place where he/she gets lost and wanders around in.
The first page would be a house or a street the viewer is starting on. The coinciding story with it will feature a character who will be making the journey with the viewer. The house or street includes a picture of such a house or street, made odd or creepy in Photoshop using image adjustments, layer overlaps, etc. It would be set on a black background. Black backgrounds have been used in the past two examples provided in class, and I love the effect, probably because it simulates a similar kind of theater you’d find in a museum. The sound I’d use would coincide with the place where the picture is taken. If it's on a street, then you'd hear the sound of a street. If it's in a back alley, muted street sounds and perhaps an occasional drunken laugh (though of course I don't really want to go wandering around back alleys in the middle of the night to get these sounds, aha). The words of the story would fade onto screen, and then the question of the next destination would arise. The library? The Cathedral? Downtown?
Each destination would have its own list of three more destinations. As the destinations progress, the pictures grow darker as the day progresses. Eventually it will be dark, and I like the idea of including some neon signs so that neon signs can be an overall visual theme to the piece. The end to one story may be getting drunk and lost in the streets of South Side. The end to another story may be falling asleep at home, and another story may end with getting in a stranger’s car and never returning. The sound will vary with each destination, from day traffic to laughter in a bar to the ticking of a clock to rock music. I’d have to find out what I have to work with.
Animation would come in for the words, though perhaps I could do some with the video/photos as well, making them travel across the page like they did in The Flat, or stick to the spiraling theme that was used in Bruce Newman's work. And of course the options given on the side would stick with the theme as well, portrayed as neon signs. All I hope now is that I acquire the technical knowledge to work on it.
FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL
For the final project, I plan on doing a “create your own adventure” project. It will involve various itineraries that the audience can choose, and will be done mainly with photographs, Flash animation, and text.
My final project will be on a website with a black background, and the project itself will be on a black background as well, which will emphasize the content projected. The first scene will be a picture, most likely of a person standing on the sidewalk, facing opposite the camera. This frame will be the only one on which an actual person appears, as the narrative will be written in second-person and the following pictures are supposed to stand in for what the audience would actually see if they were in the scene. Beside the photograph of the person will appear the words “GO” in neon green letters. This is what the audience will click to begin the animation.
The first picture will be of an entrance to a bedroom. This is where the “adventure” begins. The first picture will flicker onto the screen (if I can find a way to make a picture flicker in Flash) and one option will appear for the audience to click. Most of the pictures will have two or three options, but as the animation has to start somewhere, they’ll need to at least leave the apartment. So the option pictured will say ‘Leave the Apartment’. This will then take them to the outside of the house, which is when more than one option will appear. One will say “Go South” while another says “Go North”. “Go North” will take the audience to a unique destination, as will “Go South”. And this is how the audience will be taken on differing adventures around the city: to the busstop, to the bar, across the bridge, up the stairs, down the street, etc. By the end, the pictures will all be taken at night, signaling a progression of time. Some will end up back at the apartment, others down an alley or a bar. Pictures will be provided for each option. I’m thinking that each “adventure” will take about ten to fifteen clicks to reach the end. I’ll be using most, if not all, of the photographs that have been uploaded onto my website thus far for my website.
As far as animation goes, the pictures will, as previously mentioned, flicker on and off. The animation will have to be fast for the flickering to have the effect I want, so probably at least 12 fps. The text itself will do the same, buzzing and flickering like a neon sign might. When a new page begins, they’ll flicker on and then glow brighter when the mouse hovers over it.
The photographs will all be edited not only so that they become “strange” but so that they match the neon words glowing in the dark beside them. I will toy with all the levels so that each picture has high saturation/contrast. In this, they will “glow” a bit on their own.
The photographs and text will be created in Photoshop. The rest will be done in Flash, as Flash is needed for the interactiveness the project requires. Then it will all be uploaded onto its own page onto my website.
As far as audio goes, I was thinking of capturing audio clips that might represent what each photo shows. In the first photo of the person on the sidewalk, the audio would be a quiet street. For the bedroom, perahps softly playing music and the sound of a TV playing downstairs. If I wanted for things to become “strange”, I could toy around with the “realistic” audio, maybe messing with noise reduction and other tricks that you can do in Audition. The audio wouldn’t be loud, as I want the piece to have sort of a drifting, surreal quality to it.
One of the “adventures” will end up at the bar with its neon signs in its window. This will surely tie the whole project together and will incorporate the theme of darkness/neon/color throughout.
Note: Some sounds in my Final Project were used from SoundBible.com