To Conclude!

When we were first told about this brief  i was close to tears, it seamed a big challenge but looking back I've quite enjoyed it.  At first the brief seemed very short and not a lot of support, but the more i got  into it the more I've appresated that, its meant we can take the topic off in our own direction. If i did this unit again i would probably extend my flash website a little more (now I've learnt and begun to understand the program) Even though i have'nt used all the software we have learnt about this topic i feel my knowledge on programs such as i-movie and flash as grown incredibly. 

All in all i feel this project has been a success...

Almost The End

Well hasn't it gone fast, Its the last week of term and the last week of this final unit, Multi Media.  I've burnt my Flash document onto a CD, and have created a cover using the same graphics and imagery as in my film.  I created it in In-Design, using the measurements from an existing CD.

Front Cover

Back Cover

I have just got to update you now! (my blog) and i am finished. Till next term.

Creating My Film and Website

Today i have been putting my mini film together, i have moved my chosen images and videos into i-movie HD. I put two special effects on both my images and my videos, they are sepia and old film. I have also chosen to overlay them all with a sound effect of a projector. Rather then a slide show i wanted a silent movie so i inserted an overlays in-between each image so all the images and videos flow.

When i had created my video i imported it into a flash document, in which i put my designing a website into action. I created buttons using images of cupcakes that i had taken and used an elaborate gold frame to present my video in. I have decided to display my video in a website format, with a link up menu to a home page and also my 'how to'. My initial idea was to simply have my video fed through a projector and projected either onto a worn wall or onto a tree trunk, this is something i could later look at if i wanted to display it. Below is what a tree projection may look like.

Another idea i was having was on the home page of a simple website having three pink flamingos swinging and wen you clicked on them it took you to a different page or cupcakes swinging on string but then i thought id keep it quite simple and classic to match my "oldie worldy" film. Which is why i kept it to a gold frame.

---X---

Below are some screen shoots of my actual website pages:

This is the first button-Home, this is were all the other buttons come back to.

This is the second button-About, a small blurb scrolls down through the gold frame.

This is the third button- Movie, my movie with soundtrack plays when this page is opened.

First of all all three of the pages had the three buttons on, so for instances from page two you could go to page three.  But i had a few problems because both the second and third frame both had music or sounds in.  I decide that as part of (part b) i would make the decision and direct the buttons the way in which i wanted it to be watched 

so; from page 1  you can go to page 2 or 3.

      from page 2 you can only return to page 1.

      from page 3 you can only return to page 1.

  
After deleting the extra buttons from page two and three i realised that my system worked quite well.  I am very pleased with how my flash document turned out.

Script-Page 2 of Flash

I read through the first chapter of the classic Alice in Wonderland story (by Lewis Carrol) i took a quote which i really liked i thought it fitted in well with my film, in which i wanted the story to be left up to the audiences imagination. So this is what i wrote...

It is difficult to explain in words what my film is trying to exactly say, and therefore it is up to my audience to interpret it in their own way. The photos and videos acquire a life of their own and virtually take over the direction, leaving the imagination to decide were the story goes.

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

So to understand this film, does this mean you are also mad...?

Picking the Right One

My original idea was to have my film as an old fashioned projection, so it made sense to have a projection sound affect playing over my film. I found this on sound effects under audio on 

i-movie.

I then raided my little sisters CD collection and found Disney's Greatest Hits, after an hour of drifting back to my childhood, i came across two songs called;

Golden Afternoon-Alice In Wonderland (but it had vocals) 

The Sorcerer's Apprentice- Philharmonia Orchestra 

I decided to go for the second one as the first had vocals which i did not want.

Also from watching the YouTube versions of some older Alice in Wonderlands some of the earliest versions seamed to use very instrumental pieces of music. 

My "How To"

The second part of the brief is to create a set of Instructions or a manual which is entitled 'how to'.  Following our lecture from Nigel on hot and Cold Media i have been thinking long and hard about this part and how i could relate it to my video then i thought... its simple my video is on its own a manual and is hot media it has been designed and burnt onto a disk and is now an original copy.  The way in which i have put my images and videos together in i-movieHD is a set of instructions without me telling the computer what i wanted to be done i would still be left with just a set of photos rather then a mini film.  i decided the way in which this was designed and put together and if you gave someone else for original set of images they would do it completely different from me and so my set of instructions is my 'how to'.

Brief -(part b)

Flow and Course will form the basics for a manual or series of instructions which will be entitled 'How to.....'

Manual-

* Of or relating to the hands; manual skill.
* Done by, used by, or operated with the hands (music, a keyboard, an organ etc played with the hands)
*Employing human rather than mechanical energy: manual labor.
*Relating to, or resembling a small reference book, especially one giving instructions.
*A book of instructions or information.

Instructions-
*The act or practice of instructing or teaching: education.
*Knowledge or information imparted.
*Usually, instructions. Orders or directions.
*A command.

I am not going to take the words so literally and write instructions of how i made my video or blog. Instead i may use the 'how to' as one of my buttons and have a selection of words or paragraph to relate to my film as my instructions.

Text

One idea i had was to have text or script running through my film but i decide against this idea as i wanted the story to be interpreted the way the viewer saw it rather then what i told them to see.  I have used a small amount of text though my Flash site.  I wanted to choose an old fashioned style font.  These are a few examples i have looked at, i have decide to go with zapfino because i love the elegance of this font it looks like it has been done with quill and ink.

apple chancery

brush script MT

charlemagne std

edwardian script itc

Zapfino

Alice in Wonderland

This is a review i have found of a selection of Alice In Wonderland films over the years;

This is the 1903 version, the whole film is only nine minutes long and was made in England as a silent movie.

1915 version- also a silent movie with the feel of The Wizard of Oz. This version uses title cards and poems, which don't really work as the book is extremely verbal.

1933 Version- This was the first Hollywood production, sound version. It ran for seventy six minutes combining both books; Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the looking glass. It also had an all star cast.

1972 version- Was made in England and is about teaching children about growing up. Not original colours used for costumes.

1999 version- This is the last film to have been made although 2010 a new version is being realeast (Staring Johnny Depp) This is simular to the 85 version in the way it is teaching Alice a lesson, lots of special effects used. No original songs used.

Development of the Journey so far

Today i started filming, I dressed my sister up to have the feel of Alice in Wonderland without trying to directly recreate the look.  I took her into the Westgate Gardens in Canterbury and using my own interpretation of a lost girl i took some video on my mobile phone.  The quality was not great with a 2 mega pixel camera but i didn't mind as i wanted a rough quality, crackled image.Video Settings;

image quality- high

image size- 960x1280

image resolution- 176x144

I also took around one hundred images, this time on a 5 mega pixels camera. I choose to take them on this (high quality) because i then had the option of lowering the quality of the images myself.

Story boards and Mood Boards

This week i have spent some of my time working out story boards and mood board (Idea of colours, imagery, etc i may use)  of how i want my images/videos to fit together.  

MOOD BOARD

STORY BOARD

Sound

Sound Research- The Antirom

The Antirom group was formed in 1994 by a mixed of Londoners as a protest against "ill-conceived point and click 3D interfaces" grafted onto repurposed old content-video, text, images, audio and so on and repackaged as multimedia. The members of Antirom felt they could do better than this multi-mediocrity, or at least no worse. The idea was to understand what made an interactive experience engaging. Inspired by Gerald Van Der Kaap's BlindRom, Antirom's eponymous first CD-ROM was a collection of small interactive pieces that were playful, fun, often silly and usually explored only one interactive idea at a time. Keen to get away from the basic computer interfaces of mouse and keyboard, Antirom started to experiment with external sensors to trigger elements on screen. This led to the creation of an interactive shop window for Levi's. Using touch sensors that can be activated through glass and a large plasma screen in the shop window, Antirom developed a selection of interactive toys that would work with a grid of nine sensors stuck to the window. Passers by would stop and play with the interactive window whether the store was open or not. So to conclude this group of people used early technology in an experimental way.

Kraftwerk- Are an influential electronic music band from Dusseldorf, Germany during the early to late 1970s and the early 1980s. The signature Kraftwerk sound combines driving,repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies and strictly electronic instrumentation. The group's simplified lyrics are generated by computer-speech software. Kraftwerk's distinctive sound were revolutionary in its time, and it has had a lasting impact across many years of music.

Audio Edit- Today i tried editing sound for my video. There are three free downloads that i could use, macupdate.com, versiontracker.com or audacity. Audacity open source software for recording and editing sounds, which is an option that i could use. it is quite simple with basic controls, it has effects like fade in and fade out. If you download a plug-in from thier website it even supports virtual studio technology (VST) which is a interface for intergrating software audio synthesizer. You can use Audacity to; record live audio, convert tapes and records into digital recording or CD's, edit MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files, cut, copy and mix sounds together and change the speed and pitch.

The Story-Alice in Wonderland

*Alice is sitting outside with hersister when she spots a white rabbit. Fascinated by the rabbit she follows it down the hole.

*At the bottom of the long fall she lands in a long hallway full of doors.

*There is also a key on the table, which unlocks a tiny door; through this door, she spies a beautiful garden.

*The door is too small, she finds a drink with a note that asks her to drink it.

*There is later a cake with a note that tells her to eat; Alice uses both, but she cannot seem to get a handle on things, and is always either too large to get through the door or too small to reach the key.

*While she is tiny, she slips and falls into a pool of water. She realizes that this little sea is made of tears she cried while a giant. She swims to shore with a number of animals, most notably a sensitive mouse, but manages to offend everyone by talking about her cat's ability to catch birds and mice.

*Alone, she goes on through the wood and runs into the White Rabbit.

illustration by Ralph Steadman

*He mistakes her for his maid and sends her to fetch some things from his house. While in the White Rabbit's home, she drinks another potion and becomes too big to get out through the door. She eventually finds a little cake which, when eaten, makes her small again.
*She comes across a Caterpillar sitting on a mushroom. He gives her some valuable advice, as well as a valuable tool: the two sides of the mushroom, which can make Alice grow larger and smaller as she wishes. While stretched out, she pokes her head into the branches of a tree and meets a Pigeon.

*The pigeon is convinced that Alice is evil, and although Alice tries to reason with the Pigeon he tells her to be off.

*Alice goes back to her normal proportions and continues through the woods.

*She comes across a little house and shrinks herself down enough to get inside, The house belongs to the Duchess.

*The Duchess and the cook are arguing and seem unconcerned about the baby that there looking after, Alice decides

to take the baby with her, but the baby turns into a pig and trots off into the woods.

*The next character to bump into Alice was the Cheshire cat, The Cheshire cat helps her find her way through the woods, but he warns her that everyone she meets will be mad.

*Alice next goes to the March Hares house where is is giving a tea party- A Mad hatters tea party with the March Hare the Hatter and the Dormouse.

*Time stopped for the Mad Hatter and since then the time has always been six o'clock; it is therefore always teatime.

*After a very intense Tea party with some argumentative woodland creatures. Alice leaves through a tree with a door in it, when she goes a little further it is clear that the door is the original door she entered her adventure through.
*She walks on through to find herself in the Queen of Hearts garden. There are three gardeners dressed in playing cards and are painting the roses red (this is because if the queen realised they had planted white roses they would be beheaded) .
*The Queen then arrives, Alice helps to hide them in flowerpots as the Queen has ordered for them to be executed.
*The Queen invites Alice over to play croquet, Which is not an easy game because the mallets and balls are live animals.
*The game is interrupted when the Cheshire Cat turns up. The King of Hearts is not very happy about this at all.
*The Queen takes Alice to the Gryphon ,who then takes her to the Mock turtle. They both tell Alice strange stories about their school under the sea.
*The Gryphon drags Alice off to see the trail of the Knave of Hearts.
*The Knave of Hearts has been accused of stealing the tarts of the Queen of Hearts. The evidence against him is looking bad and Alice is appalled by this and does not agree with the procedures at the same time she begins to grow larger again.
*She is called to the witness stand, by which time she has grown to her full size.
*Alice refuses to be intimidated by the bad logic of the court and the bluster of the King and Queen of Hearts. Suddenly, the cards all rise up and attack her. *The cards all rise up and attack her, at which point Alice wakes up, her adventures in Wonderland have all been an amazing dream.

-THE END-

Introduction to Flash

Flash tutorial- Creating buttons
Flash is used for animation and controlling interaction, also to create a simple website. When saving in Flash you should use the saving format (.fla) or if you intend to export the file to the net you should save using (.swf)

*First of all i created a set of buttons in Adobe Illustrator, i did this by going to file, new and making sure RGB was highlighted and the page was set to 640 x 480 pixel.
*Apple R ( to show rules)
*Create a set of shapes, that will later become your active buttons, use the fill tool to colour.
*Save
*Next open Flash and set up a new document by going to Modify and Document. Check the dimensions are also 640 by 480 and the frame rate is 12. Here you can also set a background colour.
*Go back into Adobe Illustrator, highlight the buttons and click eidit and paste.
*Highlight one button at a time then Modify- Convert to Symbol- Ok, do this for each shape this then turns the flat shape into a active button. ( to show that all the shapes have been converted a box with a circle inside will then appear.)

*Along the top is a time-line with the words up, over, down and hit.

Up- how a button looks before anything is done.

Over- When you move the cursor over the button.

Down- When you click down on the button.

Hit- The hit area is the space around the button that still reacts to hitting the button.

*Next Go to insert-timeline-key frame, change colour for different actions and save it.
*Each button you want to do, modify timeline-convert to key frame.
*Open I-Movie, click on audio and drag sound to timeline
*Edit split selected audio clip at playhead.
*To export sound, file-export, click share, export sound to AIFF, save onto desktop.
*File and import to libuary, choose sound and double click on shape so it is highlighted.
*Go to sound and select-save file and then preview.
*Create new layer to type scrift, windows and action or the arrow symbol at the bottom.this brings up the action button.
*Global function and time line control.
*Double click STOP.
*Go to button layer and create layered intervals at various sections by highlighting and inserting keyframes

on (release) {
gotoAndstop (5);
}

Wonderland?

After looking at the lists of words the first set that jumped out at me were; Hair-Suite i was discussing hair and a suggestion came up to have a look at Meret Oppenheirn, fur cup, spoon and saucer (1936). As soon as i saw the image by Meret Oppenheirn it reminded me of an object that would be found at the mad hatters tea party, in Alice in Wonderland.I also found a few other photos of objects that were made of hair, that are quite disgusting;

I searched on the Internet for images of Alice In Wonderland, to give me inspiration... when i came across a photo-shoot done in 2003 for Vogue magazine, the photographer was Annie Leibovitz. Below are a few of the photos.

I then came up with an idea of making a short film/slide show of a similar theme to Alice in Wonderland, about a young girl on a journey. I then realised that maybe my choice of words were the wrong ones and after looking back over them decied that my idea had drifted away from hair-suite and was now a lot more suited to flow-course.

Flow- flow being the way i put my work together, a set of images or videos merging into one another to create a smooth running film.
Course- and course being the way throughout the sequence of images the young girl is on some kind of course or a journey,having a beginning a middle and an end like a story.