Category Archives: Narratives

I used Coreldraw x3 to edit my photos and did a quicktrace over them to get a simplified version of each image. This way I feel it makes it more cartoon like and would be easier for me to make the motions realistic and could easily make certain objects in the room buttons quite easily. By using photos as basis for my images it saved time so I didn’t have to create them from scratch, giving me more time to get my head around Flash.

I included a lot of hover buttons in my Interactive Narrative which I spoke about in my presentation. By taking ideas from the Flash sites I had looked at enabled me to change these to suit my ideas and make my interactive narrative more interesting. Each of the buttons I had in the main room had a movement occur when you hover over it. This happened in all the flash sites I looked at in different ways but primarily for the same reason; movement attracts users to click in certain areas.
I included music in my interactive narrative in the form of a music player. By doing this the user could choose what they wanted to listen to and encourage them to stay on the site for longer. There were 3 choices of song and these continue to play throughout the game until chosen to stop or change song in the music player feature.
I had a hidden object in one of the drawers to encourage people to explore the room further before just making their choices. This was based on the Series of Unfortunate Events website as they had hidden eyes around the site and a counter saying how many the person had collected during their visit.
I had 3 different views of the bedroom giving the impression the person was in the middle of the room looking around it because I really liked the 360 revolution used in The Secret Garden Party website. I felt it gave more depth to the scene making it a lot more interesting to navigate through.

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Interactive Narrative: Ideas

Posted on December 12, 2008 by sophiemagnante

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Looking at http://www.unfortunateeventsmovie.com

Posted on December 3, 2008 by sophiemagnante

My favourite part of this website was the audience interaction that they had decided to use. During your whole visit to the site there is a counter at the top which counts how many eyes you have collected. As you navigate through the site you realise they are hidden on various pages, which then convinces the user to continue looking through the website to find the eyes, but also reading more information about the film making it very good advertising. Some people find this kind of thing boring and don’t bother with it so they have also incorporated rewards to encourage even them to join in and collect the eyes and in turn navigate through the whole site.

<!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–> <!–[if gte mso 10]> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} <![endif]–>On the homepage there are many objects that move, some when you hover over them but some just periodically which makes it more visually interesting and the user is then drawn to certain areas on the website. I like how plain the homepage is and like the Scooby Doo site there is little information so it makes the user have to navigate through the site to find what they want and on the way may come across other things too.

There are three main menus on this site and all of them expand up from the bottom to create intricate and interesting lists for the user to navigate through. I feel this makes it more likely for people to stay interested and want to explore various parts of the site as it’s so unpredictable and every page your taken to is completely different. It also makes navigating through the site as everything is organised into sections and grouped together in an easy to find manner.

<!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–> <!–[if gte mso 10]> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} <![endif]–>This is the first website I’ve analysed which has used music constantly throughout the persons visit. It changes on certain pages to create different moods and atmospheres but is generally the same style to express how the movie is. This website for a film and I think it does a very good job of informing the users about various aspects of it.

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Interactive Narrative: Looking at http://www.cartoonnetwork.co.uk/microsites/scooby/index.jsp

Posted on December 3, 2008 by sophiemagnante

Spatial Awareness:

This website follows quite a linear structure which makes it appear a lot neater and organised so that the user believes it will be easy to navigate around; a very important aspect for a website aimed at children. The menu is to the left with a large space to the right where there is an image that is constantly moving. This movement attracts the user and draws them to look at this area but the movement gets repetitive quite quickly due to the fact it’s on a loop, so they are then almost forced to look through the menu and navigate through the site.

Use of Media-text, Animation, Video, Stills and Audio:

I particularly liked the use of images as links on this website and thought it was very appropriate to make it more visual as it would be aimed at children. At the top of the screen is a reel of images from various cartoons which scroll constantly along the top. After you click on them and the new page loads they are then scrolling in the opposite direction to add variety and make the screen look slightly different. I think the use of having a constant scrolling motion is very visually effective and draws the user’s eyes to that area. They are then more likely to click on one of the links because there’s a time limit before it reaches the edge and disappears. However, they haven’t taken complete control of this section as there are arrows to either side of the reel so that the user can navigate through as well. There are also images used for the links to games and when you hover over the image, the name of the game appears underneath where it says “Choose a Game” in this still. This is also a very clever method of making people explore the site and no information is given away on the homepage and they have to actively explore and navigate through the site to find what it is they’re looking for. When you hover over the menu down the left hand side images appear out each side as well to make it more interesting and make the user want to look around the site more and see what happens when they hover over different objects.

Audience Interaction:

Similarly to the Secret Garden Party website, once the links are clicked on a translucent square appears in the middle of the screen so that the background and homepage can still be seen, encouraging the user to continue exploring the site. I think is a very good technique and would quite like to use this idea in my own interactive narrative to keep the page interesting and the user constantly wanting to move on and explore more. There is also a menu option within the link displayed so the user feels that they have a bit control over the website and can choose which area within that section of the website to look at.

Genre Archetype:

This is an Entertainment website for a TV Programme.

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Interactive Narrative: Looking at http://www.secretgardenparty.com/2008

Posted on December 3, 2008 by sophiemagnante

<!–[if !mso]> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–> <!–[if gte mso 10]> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–>

<!–[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]–><!–[if !vml]–>Spatial Awareness:

I particularly like this website because when you move your mouse to either the left or right hand side of the page it scrolls around gradually doing a 360˚ revolution of the surrounding area. This makes the user feel part of the website and more involved than usual as they can choose which section of the background to stop and look at. I noticed when scrolling from side to side the website uses several layers in a very interesting way. The background is made up of a few layers and as you move around certain parts move faster than others. This makes it more realistic for whoever is using it as the angle then changes for various objects as it would do if you were actually standing in this place. They use another layer which includes stationary objects like links, the logo and the dates. I feel they have done this to give each view a similarity so the user feels comfortable to explore knowing that there will always be links for them to navigate through as well.

Use of Media-text, Animation, Video, Stills and Audio:

This websites use of animation is really interesting and unexpectedly new features appear on the page all the time. At the time I took this still there was a dragonfly near the centre and if you look at the rest of my photos it’s not there as it simply just passed through. I think this intrigues the user to keep looking and as the new objects just pass through the screen, the user will want to stay on the website to see what else happens and what new things appear. As it’s always changing it may convince them to revisit the website and see what happens that time as well. This website also uses animation, audio and images with the various links on the page. None of the links are obvious and require the user to hover over them and these sets off a new action. I think this is good method of making people navigate through the website because they not only wondering what information they can find out but they’re looking for where the link to this information is and what will happen when they find the link. Another way they’re making the user navigate through the site is making the mouse image change when you’re scrolling around the scene causing them to see all the areas of the site rather than just the first part.<!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–> <!–[if gte mso 10]> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} <![endif]–>

Audience Interaction:

The links on the page set off various animations, audio and images which I’ve already spoken about and these encourage the user to keep investigating the site so they find all the information and pages. Once the links are clicked on they appear in the middle of the page in a translucent space so that the user can still see what’s happening in the background but are also not too distracted by it. I feel this method also keeps the viewer interested in the other areas of the website as they can still it around the edges of the translucent space. This way, once they’ve finished reading the information they have chosen to look at they are more likely to continue to look around the site rather than if it was a plain background, as they may have forgotten about the main website page. Each link has a menu list down the side where the user can decide which area of that topic they want to read about. It also has links to various other websites so that they can choose which parts of the site they like and read more about it on different websites too.<!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–> <!–[if gte mso 10]> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} <![endif]–>

Genre Archetype:

This website is for a Music Festival.

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One Shot Film: Final Edit

Posted on December 2, 2008 by sophiemagnante

http://www.youtube.com/v/ngi0YgwhLrU&hl=en&fs=1

What have I changed?

<!–[if !supportLists]–>1. <!–[endif]–>I have integrated the girl’s thoughts into the subtitles and made it flash between the two adding a feeling of panic. I feel this works well and compared to the boy’s calm subtitles that stay up for a longer period of time, it really emphasises how different the girl’s feelings to the situation are.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>2. <!–[endif]–>I have used music in the background and edited it in time with some of the more important subtitles to give it more structure and more interesting to watch as it’s no longer just sentences between the two characters but there’s a slight rhythm to it.

3. I have taken the emphasis of the conversation away by having the music to distract the viewer and having the girl’s subtitles flashing quickly before you have time to read it properly. This makes the main focus of the film the feelings of the characters and overall mood, being represented through the music, subtitles and body language.

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One Shot Film: First Edit

Posted on December 2, 2008 by sophiemagnante

http://www.youtube.com/v/99MheeH-zwY&hl=en&fs=1
Originally, I thought I would end up using the second take because it was better rehearsed, the overall timing was better and the beginning section managed to get the wave in view during the camera pan. However, the body language in the first take was a lot better and more over-the-top; I discovered when adding subtitles the bad timing in the first take worked better and gave the viewer more time to read them; and the fact the wave wasn’t in shot didn’t really matter.
My main reason for choosing the first take was because the lighting was so much better. As we were just using daylight as our only source of light it was hard to plan and as the second take was filmed a bit too late the sun had already started going in making the shot look very flat and dull. The first take has really effective light coming from the right hand side creating slight shadows to the left hand side which end up giving the characters a lot more definition around their body and more depth to their faces. Using Premier Pro, I tried to emphasise the light by adding in some lighting effects to right top corner which I think works well and draws attention to that general area which is where the girl is trying to leave to. By emphasising the right, it made the left hand side look a bit duller which also emphasises how little the girl wants to be trapped in that corner.
The body language in the first take was a lot more convincing than the second take and emphasised how the characters felt. The girl was constantly moving about to show how uncomfortable she was and her desperation to leave. Whereas, the boy was a lot calmer and liked the fact he had bumped into her. This was slightly less apparent in the second take and both characters ended up being a lot static and not showing their feelings too much.
When editing in the subtitles I used red for the girl and blue for the boy to separate what they were saying and had them aligned to their side of the shot. I purposefully wrote all the boys subtitles in one and at most two lines so that his words would run over into her side of the shot to show how comfortable he was and he liked the situation. Whereas, with the girl’s subtitles I put them on as many lines as were necessary to keep them just over her side of the shot and really emphasise how much she didn’t want to be talking to the boy. I only had one line up at a time so there was no confusion with the order of the conversation and I could then easily put the girl’s thoughts playing over the top of exactly the right sentence. I added background noise to try and make it less quiet while the girl was talking as it had a slight echo and sounded quite empty.
I quite liked my edit of the film and my reasoning behind each thing I did but found when I watched it, I thought it was boring and didn’t reflect the mood I was going for. I decided to use this as a basis but I would need to play around with other ideas to get it exactly right.

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One Shot Film: Deciding Which Shot To Use

Posted on November 25, 2008 by sophiemagnante

http://www.youtube.com/v/hZn3ku_UQtE&hl=en&fs=1 http://www.youtube.com/v/UsIzQwt1ExM

This is the film without sound before I have started to edit it and it contains two runs of the story both slightly different to each other and I have been trying to decide which one to use as my final film. I watched the whole thing through a few times and have made some notes and comparing the two.

I think I will start to edit both and see which one works best with the subtitles and sound.

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One Shot Film: The Script

Posted on November 25, 2008 by sophiemagnante

<!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]–> <!–[if gte mso 10]> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} <![endif]–>

Once we had finalised the basic plot and knew where we were going to shoot the footage we could complete the script and put in stage direction so that when it came to filming we all knew what was happening. Matt wanted to write the script so he made up a draft before we knew the location and we all helped edit and finalise the story. We decided it would work best to shoot the film but take out the sound so that we could have the girl’s thoughts playing over the top of it. Using subtitles we would then be able to let the viewers know exactly what the two people said to each so they can compare between the thoughts and speech. We wanted to make these very different so it seemed the girl was being a lot more polite to the boy than she was in her head. By doing this we realised when filming, we didn’t need to make sure the microphone was in the correct place to be able to hear people; it didn’t matter about cars passing or background noise; and the people not being in the film could comment over the top and decide how it looked and how to make it better. Also, even though we had a script laid out it was still only a draft and any of us could change parts to suit our own films, as long as the timing was correct. Me and Matt still had to learn our lines from the script so that the timing would work when were editing and so it looked like we were having a conversation rather than just standing awkwardly. So we learnt our lines and came back the next day to shoot the film.

Draft of Script

B- Boy G-Girl

Meeting between B and G after they have had a one night stand. B is not as fit as G remembers, she was very drunk. Upon seeing B again, she regrets it happening, is glad he left early and hopes none of her flatmates saw him. B wants to ask her out again…

Scene begins with a pan following G as she’s walking. B comes into shot and she sees him waving at her.

Why the hell is he waving at me?!Oh crap I remember!

B: You alright there, Hayley right?

G: Hi…yeah, how you doing?

Fuck I don’t remember his name, did we?

B: I’m great, did you have fun last weekend? [Cheesy/sleazy grin]

G: It was ok but I was a bit of a mess.

B: I think we both were. [Reveals huge teeth]

G: Yeah [Flinches]

OMG the teeth! How did I miss them?!

B: Well sneeze away, don’t stop on my account.

G: Oh don’t worry, I won’t.

I hope no one’s looking.

G: So umm…what are you doing around here?

B: I’m going to work, I live just up there. [Points in direction G is walking]

Shit he lives round here!

B: Where are you going?

Lie! Lie!

G: Oh I’m just…going to see a friend.

B: Really? It’s just I remember walking back from around here.

Lie again!

G: Can’t be I live quite far from here.

B: Oh ok, well I was a state in the morning. [Cheesy grin]

That was close.

B: Sorry I left so early.

G: Don’t worry, it’s not a problem.

Really, not a problem at all.

B: Yeah I had to go home that morning for my mum’s birthday, we went to church.

G: Aw that’s sweet.

Praise the Lord!

B: Thanks, I don’t normally go but she likes me to go with her sometimes.

G: Hmm

Shit, here it comes! Don’t ask…please just don’t!

B: Look, do you want to go for a drink sometime?

G: Maybe…but I’m really busy at the moment. How about I call you when I have more free time?

Like in the very distant future.

B: Yeah that would be good

G: Cool, but I’ve got to go and I’m sure you need to get to work.

Please go to work!

B: True, I’ll see you around?

G: Sure you will. See you. [Walks off]

B: See you. [Watches her leave]

Never again! Good job he didn’t stay for breakfast, I’d never live it down.

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Sophie Magnante

Category Archives: Narratives

Interactive Narrative: Final Version

Interactive Narrative: Photos and Editing

Interactive Narrative: Ideas

Looking at http://www.unfortunateeventsmovie.com

Interactive Narrative: Looking at http://www.cartoonnetwork.co.uk/microsites/scooby/index.jsp

Interactive Narrative: Looking at http://www.secretgardenparty.com/2008

One Shot Film: Final Edit

One Shot Film: First Edit

One Shot Film: Deciding Which Shot To Use

One Shot Film: The Script

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