References

Blogs

Ixalon, 06 September 2006. Home. Manchester Glyph Hunt. Available from: http://manchesterglyph.blogspot.com/2006/09/home.html [Accessed 16 March 2011].

Online

Eisenberg, M., 2010. ‘Inception’ viral campaign posters get real. Available from: http://screenrant.com/inception-viral-campaign-posters-mikee-63331/ [Accessed 03 March 2011].

iPhoneness, 2010. 40 best augmented reality iphone applications. Available from: http://www.iphoneness.com/iphone-apps/best-augmented-reality-iphone-applications/ [Accessed 03 March 2011].

Mobile-barcodes, 2011. About QR codes. Available at: http://www.mobile-barcodes.com/about-qr-codes/ [Accessed 09 March 2011].

Ardinois, P., 2008. An introduction to QR Codes. Available from: http://www.slideshare.net/ardixiv/an-introduction-to-qr-codes [Accessed 09 March 2011].

Apple, 2010. Gorillaz Plastic Beach for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad on the iTunes App Store. Available from: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/gorillaz-plastic-beach/id369717697?mt=8. [Accessed 10 March 2011].

Lostpedia, 2006. Hansoexposed.com. Available from: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Hansoexposed.com [Accessed 16 March 2011].

Lostpedia. 2006. User:elpaw/london. Available from: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/User:Elpaw/London [Accessed 16 March 2011].

Online Video

ABC. 2006. Hanso foundation commercial – UK version. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5RQplPKl-Y&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 10 March 2011].

ABC. 2010. Lost Season 1 Pilot 1x01 Scene Of The Death Of Gary Troup is Sucked Into The Engine Of The Plane. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bT_oap_jg&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 10 March 2011].

ABC. 2006. Interview with gary troup (clip 1). Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn4CsiYhrAc&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 11 March 2011].

ABC. 2006. Rachel blake – video 1 (lost experience). Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_nMiMB2Gao&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 11 March 2011].

ABC. 2006. Hugh mcintyre interview on jimmy kimmel live. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBInGFmOToU&feature=player_embedded#at=19 [Accessed 11 March 2011].

Universal. 2010. Scott pilgrim vs. the world theatrical trailer hd. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NUBVcit5VM&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 14 March 2011].

Adult Swim. 2010. Scott pilgrim vs. the animation. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BitByGeWGxU&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 14 March 2011].

Savewhatyouare. 2006. San diego comic con 2006 – lost panel: Rachel blake up close. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBMJ12BpR_U&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 16 March 2011].

ABC. 2006. Lost Experience: sri lanka video (full). Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-eHEYswgK8&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 16 March 2011].

ABC. 2009. Lost mobisode 8 –buried secrets. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dROdYqV3Hzg&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 16 March 2011].

Ubisoft. 2008. Lost video game (lost: via domus) trailer. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRAIqXFoV1o&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 16 March 2011].

ABC. 2008. Find 815 – video 01. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEaBktFpPOs&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 16 March 2011].

ABC. 2008. Dharma initiative booth hack. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW6xkv9vwos&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 16 March 2011].

Darababyd. 2009. Lost – comic con 2009 – polar bear painting. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1chBwd_km0&feature=player_embedded [Accessed 16 March 2011].

End of Blog

Well, the presentation went surprisingly well. Was quite amazing how well it went.

Just as our group got up to present what we had rehearsed a good 5 times, they then decided that we were going to change the lecture hall, the one we had practiced and got to grips with. Needless to say, majority of our group was extremely pissed off, including myself.

Anyway, we got to the presentation and we had a few hiccups, sure but I'm pretty confident ours was one of the best presentations out of them all. The lecturers all seemed to be impressed with it, no difficult questions we couldn't answer and one of the lecturers didn't look like he cared so it all went swimmingly!

Going to start the critical analysis essay now, get that knocked out the park. If I knew that our presentation would go that well, my essay would have been completed already. Majority of it is complete already done, only got another 1500 words to write. EASY!

It's been fun to do this module but dear lord, i'm glad it's all over!

Presentations

Sitting in the Stevenson lecture theatre at 9 o'clock in the morning isn't anyones plan of an ideal Thursday morning. Fortunately, it isn't for a lecture, it's for our presentations that every group has been working on for the past month or so. At the minute, it's a case of bricking it and waiting to see someone else's presentation to be able to gauge how good ours will be in comparison.

Group 1 started off and lasted for about 25 minutes. Without sounding rude, watching their presentation settled whatever nerves I initially had. The presentation slides were nice and simple and watching them present was obvious that they hadn't rehearsed their presentation nearly as much as our group has. As irritating as it was having to come in to rehearse SO many times, it will actually pay off. I did like their app mock up though, it was really impressive and i'm jealous and want to know how the hell they did it! It genuinely looked like they actually made the app. Their website demonstration was impressive also and it's obvious they put a lot of work in to it. All their work was well thought out and visually good looking, but their presentation skills kind of let them down.

Group 2 began with all the assessors being ushered out the room under the premise that their is some sort of emergency and they had to leave right away. Not sure what is going on or how long it will take for them to come back so I decided to start doing this but it turns out the presentation is still going without them in the room. We're told that all the lecturers have been taken to an immersive room, which sounds interesting and I presume that they'll be given the same visuals and audio we have. It's a good approach of how to do the pitch. It's integrated radio quite well, which is one of the aspects i've wanted to see how each group uses it as the radio students have been kept to themselves for most of the year and this is the first time we've worked with them. Group 1 didn't appear to have a radio student so they didn't use it at all but that's fair enough.

Group 3 has taken a similar start to our group by playing a teaser video as the start of the presentation. I know this group didn't rehearse until last night but so far it's an impressive slideshow and the presenters are very confident in what they're talking about. Aw crap, now we're watching a trailer for their idea and I know i'm in it somewhere. Not looking forward to seeing myself. Trailer looks very slick and i'm not even seen :D Radio is being used to offer background stories to the characters that wouldn't be able to fit in to the show, which is pretty smart. Crap, a photo of me comes up on the screen and I look like i'm shitting myself. Great! Other than that, sounds like a good show, i'd watch it. Considering they had one rehearsal, a good presentation, well thought out plan and strategy. Complete opposite pitch to ours, as theres is all media to show, ours is mainly theoretical with a couple of examples.

Group 4 finally started after a technical glitch with the projector and they are looking at the long distance relationship brief. They have decided to start their presentation giving their statistics about their solution before actually telling us the actual idea, more of a thought process style. Ok, makes a bit more sense now that we have seen part of the first episode. It seems to be about a group of chinese students who live in the UK and dealing with their relationship back home. Nice spin on long distance relationships seeing as most will probably look at boyfriends and girlfriends. Very entertaining clips we saw, no radio student again but to be honest, I could see this being like a cult web show or something, very good writing, editing and directing. The presentation slides are very flashy and eye grabbing, they did a very good job with it. Only issue with the presentation is just the order, would of been better with the first episode shown after a quick description of their plan.

One group left to watch before our group goes up and present and bizarrely, there is sense of nervousness which is strange seeing as all I do is plug my laptop in and pressing next in powerpoint.

Group 5 have began with a trailer for their project. They've decided to look at the Arts brief, the first one yet. The video is very impressive and very professional, but that is expected seeing as their editor is Nick Perry who is a bit of a god when it comes to editing and definitely someone I see as a bit of an inspiration. Slideshow is professional as well but again, done in Keynote which is Nick's signature really. Radio is used to broadcast a art critic who is a little bit eccentric. I suppose there's not really much you can do with sound for the art brief but should have really come in to consideration at the start of the module. Oh well, the radio student was obviously happy to just go for a simple radio addition. I'm a bit proud of our radio student as she was very forceful in getting radio involved more than just the standard radio box method. She is happy with the contribution radio plays in our project, as it's a stand alone product and doesn't get ignored as it's an integral part of our project.

One thing i've noticed about all the presentations so far, before we go up and present, is that no one is giving out freebies to the panel, so we will be the first, and maybe the only group to do so. Is it a bribe? I suppose so but to be honest, it's a damn good bribe! There's also no promotional material either. So far, we seem to be the only group to go all out on the promo materials. Anyway, time to GO GO GO!!!!

STRIKE!

Due to the Lecturer's strike on Thursday, our presentation pitch got moved to the following Thursday which also meant that our essay wasn't due until the week after either. At this point, i've done 1000 words of it already, so all it requires is my final thoughts and some references to theory of cross platform practice, which i'm not entirely sure I quite understand. Ah well...

Anyway, the printing of the posters and the postcards came out great. I didn't know we were having a photo of Dr. Phobia and Lori printed as well so that was kind of cool too as they were signed.

Now the posters I have a bit of an issue with and I didn't fully figure out until we started putting the posters up around the university. The QR, as cool and useful as it is, people aren't really going to use. The only reason i'm using it is to see if the others code actually worked. On top of that, our website doesn't really load correctly on mobile phones so at the minute a bit pointless but as a future endeavour, the website would be correctly formatted for mobile phones. The other issue I had was that I was told to put the future website name on the posters, not the current one, otherwise, it looked unprofessional. That's where the problem lies, as we don't have our website on that address, putting the posters up is kind of futile seeing as no one is actually going to be able to see our website. Maybe we should have bought the domain name but at the end of the day, it's an extra cost that is slightly unnecessary when we can save money by using a temporary website as I imagine the site won't be touched again once the presentation is over.

So balls!

On another note, I have been given, well I accepted as I knew that it was being hinted to me to do it, a new task of mocking up a tour bus that we are going to show in the presentation. It involved sticky paper and ink but I have it completed but I won't post a picture of it yet, just to save on spoilers for the presentation. Even though no-one is reading this I imagine but still, better safe than sorry.

The presentation is ready to go so everything from this point is kind of just killing time. I've been working on setting up my website which is now live and has one showreel on it, so it doesn't look too lame anymore. Will work on finishing it over Easter anyway. On top of that, me and a few others are concentrating on a 48 hour sci-fi challenge where you make a film in 48 hours, but the extension has given us all time to relax and look at that in depth.

Really, other than the posters and postcards being out and about, there isn't much else for me to blog about until after the presentation. So until then...............

Workload Overload!!!

So, today has been a rather productive day for me. I have been working since 1pm and have just finished at 7pm. Sure I spent the last half hour tidying my room but it's still pretty damn productive! Now an advance warning, this is not a fancy post with images or videos, i'm far too beat up to bother with that hoo ha, so it's literally just text.

So, since I completed the App demo, I managed to get my mate to create the spiders once more but with a closer zoom on the spiders. He did it with ease, which I appreciated as it meant I could crack on with creating the demo. The first demo didn't impress one of the producers who was expecting the hand to be moving to show the spiders crawling. Unfortunately as the camera was only booked for the one day which we only found out in the last half hour before it needed to be returned, we sort of panicked and didn't do the movements the way she would of liked them anyway. Also the screen wasn't marked up so I couldn't have the screen mask follow the phone effectively. This is something I would obviously rectify to get it right. Anyway, that was done and then we went in for a meeting on Saturday to have a time rehearsal for our presentation.

It was here that my workload began, with requests left, right and centre. The most important of all was from our writer who was dealing with getting some postcards printed. It turns out that they needed a 5mm bleed space around the edge just in case. Now, I will admit I struggled to get my head around this. So at start, I put a 5mm white border around the edge of the current design. The printers called back telling us that was wrong and the text needed to be moved in 5mm, which served for a major brain melt down, as I had to go through each design and save the text separately in order to move it differently from the background. This took forever and my brain actually physically melted by the end of it all.

While trying to sort all this out, I had people asking me to play the videos to show them with me saying no, because I need to get the postcards sorted otherwise they won't get to the printers before they closed at 2pm. Tough deadline but I met it w/ 5 minutes to spare. Didn't take in to consideration the lack of willingness for anybody to do anything when they are closing in 5 minutes. So we have to wait until Monday for them to tell us if they are correct. Dear god, they better be correct!

So then after that, I started learning how to create images with transparent backgrounds, as the director working on creating the website needed the text logo separate to put on to the website. Nice and simple really, you just create the image, put a transparent layer behind it, get rid of the stuff you don't want to see and save it as a .png format, which is a pain to find in Photoshop, you have to go through save for web & devices rather than the normal save as method. So that was done.

I also gave the radio student who is creating the powerpoint slides for the presentation the webisodes i've edited to put on to one of the slides. Apparently, the .mov files I gave her weren't playing for some reason, no idea why but that provided a further headache for me. I created a job list for myself that gave me 9 tasks to complete before 8pm. All tasks were done with ease really, it helps knowing what i'm doing in the first place.

Tomorrow we have the meeting and I will try to sort out the powerpoint situation and hopefully we will have put the postcard situation to bed. I'm very tired and this module is getting pretty intense now, but with minimal editing for me, which is sad so I'm looking forward to this all being over and getting back to some proper editing. I have a feeling the directors, radio students and writers feel the same way!!!

Augmented Reality App Test One

My only friend, who is a first year foundation degree animation student, created a load of spiders for me to make my app demo. He went far too much in to detail on the spider as I was literally only expecting a black circle with legs that moved on the screen. After a bit of masking, green screening and editing, I knocked up a demo. I'm getting him to re-render the spiders with the camera closer as the keying process loses the legs of the spider, and just looks like tadpoles floating around the screen. Anyway, here is the first test:

Will experiment further with the masking on the phone as it looks a lot better with the hand shaking as the camera moves. Anyway, that won't be posted until after the presentation....

The L O S T Round-Up

Now the reason I spent 3 posts on the LOST ARG. This was the most AMAZING example of Cross Media Practice, as it exhibited the same sort of media that we are now looking at. It included video, website, radio and live events. Obviously, it went a hell of a lot further than we could ever achieve, what with a book being written that was actually released, and I own, free chocolate bars given out and active mega sponsors that were included in the promotion of the ARG.

To simply put it, this is what we should be marginally trying to aim for in creating cross platform products. LOST is a show that really did push the cross platform because other than creating this ARG, they also released micro episodes that were released to Verizon mobile owners in the States, and later put online:

A video game that was available on PS3, XBOX 360 and PC:

And another three ARGs, one of which failed due to the recession but all no where near as grander scale as The Lost Experience. My favourite was the final one as it set me off on my new obsession of silk screen posters, to which I now own FAR too many but still:

And that's it! I promise not to talk about LOST anymore, from now on, I will only be talking about my XPP project. This was just how I got to grips of what Cross Platform Practice was.