Reflection

I think that by attending this course it has helped me improve my knowledge of media and how digital media works. It has shown me that there are many routes that digital media can go down and that the possibilities are endless. The media is created by people for people and by having a place where Web 2.0 is common and possible it means that both the internet and the media can never stop evolving because people are constantly adding and changing parts to it. So I think through doing this course and assignment it has shown me how to understand that and potentially predict where the media is going.

In this assignment I have been taught how to use theory in my work to my advantage and how it can alter the viewers thoughts by subconsciously appealing to parts of the mind that receive and digest images. The main part that I found interesting and exciting was learning about Gestalt theory and way our minds are programmed and how companies use those tactics taught by the Gestalt theory in everyday media and we don't even notice it.

I think overall this course has helped me understand the human mind and how media effects it and our daily lives.

My Project

For my project I have chosen to do a promotional poster for a singer that I created. The poster will advertise a new album coming out and will feature the Gestalt Law of proximity.

These were my favourite rushes that I did, most of them I liked due to the repetitive nature of the background and how my model and her clothes stood out from the bland colours of the back.

Although I enjoyed the other photos I needed one with a plain background that text would be able to be read off of so I ended up choosing this photo:

After editing this is what the photo looked like:

I then used Adobe Photoshop CC to edit it further and to create the text on the poster.

My poster links to Gestalt theory due to the snake shown in the album name also being the 'S' as well as the continuous pattern of colours used in the poster.

Week 20 - Workshop 7

15/3/17

New and old media

transmedia

henry jenkins

expanding stories out

three little pigs

pride and prejudice:

youtube
the lizzie bennet diaries
the lydia bennet diaries
Maria lu
domino: gigi darcy
collins and collins

twitter
facebook
tumblr
google +


visual marketing with global reach
cloverfield
dark knight - comi-con

campaign ideas
starbucks - whitecupcontest - instagram
mcdonalds - mcdstories - twitter

creating a story world

Week 19 - Workshop 6

8/3/18

Interactive and non-linear storytelling

Non-linear/experimental narrative

pulp fiction
im not there 2007
mr robot 2016
Kill Bill
Memento 2000

 "In ergodic literature, nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text
espen j apesth

interactivity is the connection between user and content

Video Games
Until Dawn
Walking Dead
Dishonoured

hypertext
a way of connecting text assets

hypertext fiction
a way of connecting text assets to tell a story

hypertext fiction
hall of infinite doors

Aloe Blacc - Love is the Answer

What is the story?

How does the non-linear structure work?

designing interactive narratives

Horror storyline

http://twinery.org/2/#!/stories/c9eb8fb7-6694-4ceb-b999-d8af8a7366a9/play

Week 17 - Workshop 4

1/3/17

Signs and Signifiers

In class we were told to analyse a clip for the signs and signifiers, I was given a clip from the 1978 film Grease. In this clip we as an audience learn a lot about the protagonists Sandy and Danny, both consciously and subconsciously.

Here are some stills of the film which are particularly telling.

In the clip above we learn about the 'T Birds', the group of men that Danny is a co-leader of, this is shown through the positioning of the men - he is the centre of the group as everyone surrounds him. He is also the centre of the frame, leading the audience to be drawn to him. As we hear Rizzo call Danny's name the whole group turns to look at the women in an almost predatory manner with sly smiles and lingering eyes.

The shot then quickly changes to similar proxemics of the girls, all are framing Sandy the main character of the movie in the centre. They are mirroring the men with their facial expressions as well. The two groups contrast as well however with their costumes, the women are wearing stereotypical pink whereas the men are wearing black. This shows the differences in the groups.

As Sandy is introduced Danny is shown to be amazed, his facial expression changing completely as the men behind him don't change, contrasting the change in Danny even more. He moves towards Sandy eager to be closer, now taking up most of the frame.

Sandy's facial expression changes as well as the audience see her overjoyed, in the back of frame you can see the Pink Ladies' facial expression and Marty smirks. It shows their true nature when it comes to Sandy.

Kenickie is really the only character left in frame other than Danny since the others are out of focus causing the audience to look and analyse the two guys in front and realise Kenickie's feelings towards Danny acting differently than his standard chill out demeanour. Danny realises this himself and starts to revert back to his relaxed, non fazed self.

As Danny's character changes so does Sandy's as she recognises that he has changed. We see even though it isn't focused Rizzo observing and Marty smirking, this shows their true intentions further. The differences between Sandy and the girls is quite obvious now as she is wearing the cheerleaders uniform rather than the pink jacket.

Rizzo makes it quite clear that she is happy about the rift now between Danny and Sandy as she cruelly grins to an off-camera Danny.

Danny walks away after the encounter clearly upset as he has his head hanging down as Kinickie tries to make him come back to the group.

Doritos/Mountain Dew Superbowl Advert 2018

This advert is a brilliant way of crossing over two products, since they use famous faces to promote them as well as very famous catchy songs. The advertisers have also tried to include references to each actors past roles, Peter Dinklage with the fire as a link to his role on Game of Thrones as they feature dragons in the show and the Morgan Freeman being surrounded in white causes the audience to think of his role in Evan Almighty as God. 

The beauty of the advert is that you don't need to know the references to enjoy it, the same for the actors you do not need to know a someone to find something funny or entertaining. The experience is enhanced by knowing these quirks not restricted. 

Updating a fairytale: The Three Little Pigs

We needed to update a classic fairytale to fit modern day standards, I decided to update 'The Three Little Pigs'. 

Once upon a time a wealthy father dies leaving behind three sons. The sons sold the family home and decide to make their mark on the world by building their own houses. 

Every day the brothers fought, fighting over who was the best.

Because of that they decided to have a competition where whoever made the best house would win.

Because of that the youngest built his house on a cliff by the sea in Italy, wanting to get the best views to trump his brothers.

Because of that he middle child built his house in New York, to enjoy the entertainment the world could offer. 

Because of that the eldest decided to move to Ukraine a non-extradition country, to hide from the US government because he found out that the money he inherited from his father was stolen.

Until finally one by one the FBI visited the brothers to arrest them because they were an accessory to the crime, "Oh no!" The youngest cried, "I knew nothing of it." He shouted, but the FBI would not listen. "Please, I'm innocent!" The second sobbed, but again the FBI would not listen. When they went to find the eldest, they realised his plan and could not arrest him. 

And ever since then the eldest brother waved to the FBI who were across the border shaking their fists as the eldest laughed.

This lesson has helped me understand the use of mise-en-scene and how a story is told through them. I think it will help me in future when creating stories and plotlines especially if I need to think outside the box and create something unique.

Week 16 - Workshop 3

15/02/18

Visual Design and the Art of Persuasion

This lesson we learnt about the hidden meanings behind media campaigns and adverts. We can understand the use of these through the theories from many theorists including Ferdinand de Saussure and Roland Barthes.

Persuasion and Semiotics
Companies use persuasion within their adverts to help promote their products and their ideals, they do this through several tactics and by following theories.

Ferdinand de Saussure - Signified and Signifier Theory
The signified and signifier theory is related to semiotics, which is defined as "the study of signs and symbols and their use of interpretation". The theory states that when there is a 'sign' it signifies something to the viewer. We as an audience see it constantly within our daily lives through social media, speech and advertisements. For an example: a 'star' can reference the bright light in the night sky caused from a faraway sun in another galaxy, whereas it can also mean a celebrity.

signifier = signified 

star = a bright thing in space

star = a celebrity

'Language is a system of signs that express ideas" - a course in general linguistics (1966)

Roland Barthes - Denotation and Connotation
The denotation of a visual image is what all viewers from any culture and at any time would recognise the image being depicted. This theory was created by French theorist Roland Barthes, it links heavily Saussure's theory of the signifiers and signified.

Denotation - what the media explicitly says/shows

Connotation - what the media suggests

Persuasion
The process of steering someone's beliefs or attitudes towards a particular idea or set of ideas. Persuasion is used in adverts for charities and prevention notices, they tend to have a similar nature of being harsh and thought provoking.

Prevention adverts showcase this style of persuasion perfectly. The image below is an advert for fire prevention. It shows a used matchstick in a spotlight, drawing attention to it, refusing to be ignored. At the end of the matchstick there is a skull blackened by soot, this is a shocking image that causes the viewer to become more absorbed in the image and the message behind it. At the top in white, bold capital letters that contrast against the dark background it reads "Protect your child from it.". This can be connoted that the advert is against children playing with matches hence the skull and the text above it. The image is simple yet it creates a strong impact on the audience who if they have children are more likely to make sure their matches are kept out of reach.
Colour

Advertisers use colour in their work to capture attention of the audience. However not only advertisers use colour to gain attention from the public, public health warnings as well use them. Throughout our lives we have seen different colour signify meanings. Even if we don't recognise it consciously, but we have learned that blue is mandatory, yellow is hazard, red is prohibited and green is safety. Through this subconscious learning we know what to do in daily situations when we see the colour on a sign.

Suggestion through Typography
"Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, appealing when displayed."

Verbal language and visual language overlap and create typography. The font of text and the size of it alter the meaning of the image.

"The visual component of text is an independently organised and structured message, connected with the verbal text, but in no way dependent on it and similarly the other way round." -Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design

The Signs and Signifiers of a Film Poster

The Gestalt Theory

“The whole is other than the sum of the parts” - Kurt Koffka, a Gestalt psychologist .

The quote above summarises the theory simply. An indepth description is 'the human eye and brain perceive a unified shape in a different way to the way they perceive the individual parts of those shapes. This global whole is a separate entity that is not necessarily formed by the sum of its parts'

Gestalt Law 1: Similarity

The human eye tends to build a relationship between similar elements within a design. Similarity can be achieved using basic elements such as shapes, colors, and size.

Gestalt Law 2: Proximity
Simple shapes arranged together can create a more complex image.

Gestalt Law 3: Continuity
The human eye follows the paths, lines, and curves of a design, and prefers to see a continuous flow of visual elements rather than separated objects.

Gestalt Law 4: Closure
The human eye prefers to see complete shapes. If the visual elements are not complete, the user can perceive a complete shape by filling in missing visual information.

Gestalt Law 5: Figure and Ground
The human eye isolates shapes from backgrounds.


For the activity for today's session we had to prototype a poster advertisement for a brand/product of our choice and use a Gestalt approach to utilise within it. This activity is the one where I will be working on it further and having it as my main product so I chose to create my own brand/product. I have chosen to create a singer's promotional poster for a new album.

This workshop has helped me learn about the theory behind design, the hidden meanings in the image as well as Gestalt Law and how it helps the marketing of a products by looking at human psychology.

Week 15 - Workshop 2

01/02/18

In digital practice this week we learnt about narratology which is the art of telling and receiving stories, the classic story structures we see in society today and typical character archetypes. There are many ways to receive these stories but one is visual, which we are focusing on in this lesson.

In general we find stories everywhere, they come in different styles and forms featuring in myths and legends, everyday conversations, television programs and adverts, social media and many more. Stories are a part of human nature, something we have learn from our ancestors. One of the most famous early stories told by Neanderthals shows a hunting scene. Found in the Chauvet Caves in southern France they are dated from 32,000 to 30,000 years ago.

There are several reasons why stories have been told through the ages, the reason for the one above is most likely to be for survival, entertainment and for the artist to remember. However there are many other reasons for stories in modern day society they can be to help people to heal, to sell products, to aide in explanation and many others.

Whilst some stories are long and lengthy and take the audience on a journey of emotions which cause them to invest in characters, there is also the genre of short stories. Now while both take the reader on a journey short stories need to be more precise down to the limited amount of words to describe the scene and plot. This difficulty is exaggerated for the sub genre of 'six word stories' which as the name suggest can only contain six words and have to tell a story.

A popular six word story is:

"For Sale: baby shoes, never worn" - Anonymous, some believe the author to be Ernest Hemingway.

This length of story causes the viewer to think, allowing them to create a backstory to the sentence and therefore emote to it. The story above implies that the seller was going to give the shoes to a baby but now does not have the need to, as they were "never worn". This can be due to a few reasons but as a reader I viewed the hidden meaning to be that the voice of the character was a woman who had a miscarriage and lost her baby quite late on in the pregnancy. 

I wrote three of my own six word stories:

"Beautiful roses discarded on the floor."
"He drove away, no destination needed."
"Tears filled her eyes, regret also."

Bryan Alexander, a known writer and creator, said "For a given audience, a story is a sentence of content, anchored on a problem, which engages that audience with emotion and meaning."

The Pixar prompt is modelled off the companies classic story structure where it begins as a "once upon a time" story then progresses to "and everyday" then "until one day" and then "and because of that" where it ends as "until finally". By using the structure it helps story tellers configure a story which the masses will easily follow and understand. I used this structure to create a story, featured below.

The Pixar Prompt

Once upon a time... a little girl's birthday came around, she was turning seven
....and everyday... her excitement grew...
...until one day... she handed out her birthday party invitations but they had the wrong day...
...and because of that... no one came to her birthday...
...and because of that... she cried and cried because she was so lonely...
...until finally, the next day... there was a knock on the door, it was her friends wishing her a happy birthday.

The theorist Vladimir Propp, states that there are several characters which are continuously used in classic stories they are: the hero, villain, donor, helper, princess, dispatcher and false hero. Depending on the style of story it can be suspenseful or surprising, as said by Alfred Hitchcock, by addressing the threat at the beginning of the tale it creates suspense for the reader as they wait for the threat to emerge. Whereas with a surprising story the author keeps the threat hidden luring the reader into a false sense of security so when the threat emerges the reader is surprised.

Visual Storytelling 

With visual storytelling in images our brains fight to generate a link between them, urging us to find a correlation so we can create a story. If the creator doesn't establish a link between the images the audience do it themselves, this is where we find different types of reading: preferred/dominant is the link which the author wants the reader to make, oppositional where the audience reject the preferred/ dominant reading and create a reading themselves, then there is negotiated reading where the audience acknowledge the preferred/dominant reading however modify it to suit their own values and opinions. We were tasked to create a story using visual elements with sixty minutes, below is the basic storyline we created.

An affair

Two people waking up, clearly love each other
Them saying goodbye, the other staying home
Boy on phone
Mistress arrives
Them in the room
Girlfriend heads back, left her phone
Mistress in bed with boy
Laughing
Shauna heading up stairs
Hand on door handle
Over shoulder, mistress and boyfriend in background.

In this workshop I learned more about the art of storytelling and how I can affect the readers view on the storyline by including or leaving out certain aspects of the plot. The workshop helped because when I am creating a story I can decide what view I wanted the audience to have on it and how I want the end result to be. 

Week 14 - Workshop 1

25/01/18

This week in Digital Practice we were introduced to the course and were told what to expect in the future as well as what the course would involve. 

We were taught about the idea of 'digital mapping' and were instructed to think of a funny/embarrassing/exciting moment in our lives where we used digital technology and how it influenced us. 

At first I thought that this was a difficult task since I like to think that I have been able to somewhat distance myself from technology when it comes to experiencing situations and that I would rather live in the moment than getting my phone out and filming/posting to the internet. However through being reminded by a friend about one moment in the first week of university ('Freshers') that caused me a lot of embarrassment but also a lot of laughs was when I attended the Karaoke Night at the university SU. 

The night started out with me and my flatmates seeing a tweet on the Bath Spa SU Twitter page, it showed a digital poster advertising a karaoke night, which was probably created on the editing software program After Effects. 

Me and my flatmates decided to go, after arriving I had a few too many drinks at the bar and a friend signed me up to sing a solo, all whilst giving me the impression that it would be the two of us and not just me. 

After some persuading and more liquid courage I got up on stage and ending up singing the iconic song from the film Titantic, it was Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". I started to sing reading off of a TV set up on stage which played the lyrics through a YouTube video. 

This embarrassment happened to be filmed by the many people on their phones who were in the SU and was posted onto Snapchat and because of this I was Facebook messaged by a few people who wanted to congratulate me on my performance. 

...Months Later...

My birthday rolls around and the video of me singing pops up again and was posted on both Facebook and YouTube by friends.

Through this story four types of social media were used to post and advertise the experience and two types of media were used to create it. I didn't realise how such a crucial and funny moment of my university life was so heavily influenced by digital technology, and even though I 'lived in the moment' I still have the story recorded which I am very happy about and I can relive it. I think I need to allow myself to record those moments so I can look back in future and have fun experiencing them all of again.