Intergrated Media 2 students this semester are being asked to produce moving-image (time-based) content for mobile phone distribution through an engagement with second life. The mobile platform asks for differing approaches to this type of content that possibly moves away from the real-life recordings that are prolific on YouTube. Here is one response to the flickr video platform, ‘Zoom through some of my pics’ by Timo Arnall (Timo ironically is involved in mobile research), which I found through the Creativity Machine post, WHAT IS FLICKR VIDEO FOR?.
Tag Archive for 'aesthetics'
Some Flickr users are protesting against Flickr (Yahoo) adding video to their services. “We Say NO to Videos on Flickr”
http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article4802.asp
Which came first, the Interaction or the Design?, Source: Interaction-Design.org, 18 June 2008
Submitted by Mads Soegaard, by Jonas Lowgren
Interaction Design” refers to the shaping of interactive products and services with a specific focus on their use. Broadly speaking, there are two main senses of the concept, coming out of different intellectual traditions but increasingly converging in practice and research.
A video interview collection of opinions on the duration of one minute for video for the oneminutes project.
http://www.fridayarts.net/blogs/?p=3677
Internet video site YouTube needs no introduction. Its status as
both a branded channel and a medium in its own right has redefined
“new media” on both sides of the art and corporate entertainment
divide. But most of its content resides somewhere in between, and its
currency lies in the vernacular nature of the items posted there–to
the extent that the memes incubated on YouTube are trickling down
into the language of contemporary artists’ work and, in turn, re-
emerging on the site.
I have got most of the clips into the ‘Glasshouse Birdman’ prototype and are now starting to look at how the categories and tags work in terms of how I would like the user to engage with the themes that have emerged in the content. I realised that clips could be kept in separate categories by controlling cross-overs with tag names, but sometimes a clip has something to offer in other categories. For example, giving a clip a tag name that features strongly in another category brings all those clips from that category across with it into the original category that has been selected. Often from my perspective this makes the theme to random if this is not the desired effect. One way around this within this interface design is to post the same clip twice with the same title but in a different category and with a different tag name.
category = birdman; tag = animal lover; clip title = big brown snake
category = feeding; tag = aviary; clip title = big brown snake
This means clips can be repeated to appear elsewhere while still having some control over themes. In a hidden kind of way clips that seemed more important that others could be repeated to appear in a number of places. Repetition becomes a feature of the narrative structure.
Today, I presented the ‘Glasshouse Birdman’ prototype in a MCD studio postgraduate session. Many people present where not aware of my research topic. I decided not to provide any context to see what people thought I was researching. Initially there seemed to be some frustration with how the prototype was presented, especially if as I described the plan was to present VD for use in real-life scenarios. People suggested that the prototype looked to polished and finished rather than being a work-in-progress. A version that looked more like a sketch (drawn in crayon) with other supporting visual diagrams was the suggested alternative. Something that showed the process and behind the skin structure.
With the floor open for what this specific practice was researching there was some discussion about exploring non-linear narrative with a point made that this was not necessarily a new area of research. Therefore, where was the research going to be taken? A question that instigated some ideas on what the practice was exploring in terms of new territories. Classification, Tagging, Folksonomy emerged as one tangent - social media. The semantic web another. The idea of looking at how narrative is being compressed led to thinking about new types of audiovisual literacies. I mentioned that one thing I found myself doing is comparing production processes. These are the differences between how I would have recorded and post-produced a work like this for a linear montage edit. There was a suggestion to look at how this content would be structured in a linear version which I have been planning.
I pointed out the difficulty of working with so many new fields of study like interaction design, design research, software development and how none of these fields are where I come from in terms of prior knowledge. One idea was to find a specific theoretical model to bring all these together as way of critiquing and theorising the research. Experience Design was one suggestion. The session was useful particulary in terms of thinking about a revision of the research focus and questions. The original research topic is very broad but has influenced the resulting practice as a form of critique on online video practice. But, the topic could be revised along with the research questions in terms of shifting the focus at this stage to a focus on a new emerging territory.
Reference: Bill Buxton, Sketching User Experiences,: Getting the design right and the right design, San Francisco, Morgan and Kaufmann, 2007.
The Glasshouse Birdman prototype is coming together as a work-in-progress. It has been a useful experience to learn how this type of production is recorded, authored and structured.
Montage editing: In comparsion to the usual broadcast production there seems to be little need to use montage editing. In most cases the granular nature of videodefunct works with scenes as short duration single continuous shots. Even dialogue with the style of approach suits being uncut. I was surprised that this would be the case in a documentary style prototype. It is amazing how much conversation and observation is presented in small self-contained fragments. In fact montage editing seems strange in this environment not only from a production perspective but also as clips. The multi-channel composition asks for scenes to be realised as shots played back concurrently rather than edited into montage sequences. The breaking up of time in a montage sequence seems very odd after working with single continuous shots. Although, I think sharp short montage sequences could be used to enhance single continuous shots in the triptych. Also, longer edited montage sequences, I found due to edits and change in shots information ended up being big file sizes with compression. I
Recording notes: I did find myself shooting with the zoom and handheld camera moves I would not normally use to get coverage as part of aiming for one continuous shot. Working solo I experimented with a radio mic because I knew this work would rely on Terry telling stories as he did things. Also, I had to dress in Terry’s clothing as the birds freaked out when I was around on the first day, so a audio person would have made things even harder. In retrospect, the radio mic sound brought up ideas about online video audio where in comparison to television and cinema the subtleties and complexities within reason are not so important or even lost through most computer speakers. The radio microphone recorded the audio close to the Terry including his dialogue and sound associated with his actions. These sounds in miniature video frames are what is needed to make things clear for the viewer, the sounds that help communicate what is happening on screen. But, I did have some technical problems with the radio mic on movement which could be refined. Also, more time could be put into mixing in atmospheric underlay to make things richer and make up for all the audio being recorded close and narrow through the radio mic. Post-production processes do need to be simple though when you are working with so many singular clips.
In the hypertext environment where the clips are highly granular, self-contained and inter-linked, a lot of the content can be used, with all sorts of supporting narrative threads. I even considered a behind the scenes category for example. There is real opportunity to be self-reflexive and work very informally compared to the restrictions of a single montage edit in terms of camera coverage, the narrative structure and what has to be discarded. In this example it is really surprising the ratio of content that is usable. A highly sustainable way of recording.
Categories and Tags: I am starting to make narrative structures work using categories and tags in hierarchical levels. The user enters categories then brings up tags. The narrative can be contained within a category by keeping the tag only within that category with no cross-references which leads to a type of dead-end for the user. Introducing some tags that cross-over into other categories utlises the hypertextual nature of the interface and makes the multi-channel viewing more dynamic. The trick seems to be to keep tags to a minimum and make the cross-over choices with some consideration. I did find myself re-thinking categories as I got to know the material better.
Interface design: There could be some changes to the way the interface is modified for this content. For example I like the three audio tracks running with the louder being moused over. But with the single person focus there is no real need to hear three lots of dialogue across the triptych - the volume could be lowered on the clips not being watched. More later on other revisions with the categories and tags.
I travelled up to Queensland recently to record some video material for a VD prototype. I was interested in making a prototype that reflected a more traditional documentary approach compared to the earlier abstract nature of pedestrian. A work-in-progress prototype that is accessible to a broader audience. Content that demonstrated an intimate type of human story. My questions to myself – How would VD as a player work structurally with content that viewers can connect with on a personal level? How would that content need to be prepared in comparison to the pedestrian experiment?
So, I was on the lookout for a personal profile that reflected a personality and a passion. I had the wonderful opportunity to work with an Uncle of mine. Terry is a wildlife carer who mainly looks after injured birds. It is an interest that he has had since he was very young. Over a period of few days we recorded some material together and it was a new experience to work with someone I knew really well in comparison to winning the trust of a stranger for television broadcast.
With the VD application in mind I was thinking constantly about self-contained fragments, what I could capture in most cases in one scene, within a short duration of time. An approach that has similarities with recording material for factual television, but in this case I was not really thinking about coverage for linear editing. The coverage was about providing an overview of the story that gives viewers an insight into the character and his particular interest through an observational process. Now, I am logging the material and working out whether some scenes may be edited together into sequences.
Geert talking to Tom Sherman about his Video Vortex presentation including some views on his notion of vernacular video. This YouTube clip was made by the Masters of Media group.