So, I thought I should add this in just to go over what the brief was for this assignment and see where our idea conforms to.

A brief, brief of the brief is: find a way to use different ‘screens’ in a new and unique way.

So, we tried to. And to some degree we did use screens in a different way to how people would in everyday life, as not many people jump into their computer screens or come out of them. Also, people look at posters and that’s about it, not many people look at a poster as a utensil or weapon poster on the wall where you can pull a laser-banana gun from. So, to some extent yes, we did manage to use screens in a different way to the norm. However, we only used screens within a video which can be viewed on a computer, phone, tablet or TV. We didn’t exactly try to project our video through onto black-ink water to show a natural source as a screen. But we also didn’t need to over-complicate the video nor concept, as it is a lighthearted bit of fun that uses different screens.

The video itself I feel came out quite well and that the concept of what we originally set out for was evident in the piece. I feel the video kept a good tempo throughout and didn’t have a slow moment.

One thing about the video that the guys realised was that making a non-animated character interact with animated elements didn’t look natural at all, and so the default home-screen background with the different icons and applications was scrapped for a static effect. I feel like this effect kind of works for the video, as the static/broken computer screens almost shows the two characters shouldn’t be in a virtual world and that something is going wrong, or is going to go wrong.

The story-line of the video also has a very strange under-lying message that if you antagonise a computer-guy or someone who likes computers (Lee’s character) and you take them into cyberspace then you instantly are on the defensive and in their domain as this scrawny and harmless looking person turns into the terminator as they tear through everything in their path to show they are superior when it comes to the virtual world.

And in a way this is where the Animator vs Animation elements come into play, as we have Joe’s character who thinks he is in control of the lesser being Lee. However, all of a sudden the tables are turned and the roles are reversed

The concept as I explained on the previous post was a combination of a chase/ tag game which will take place in both the real-world and virtual.

What we wanted to do was something that pushed our thinking of how we would go about doing this concept, but didn’t end up being a 15 minute long video. So we decided to make the video somewhere between 1-3 minutes long in theory so that we could keep it short and sweet in order to keep a nice tempo throughout the video. Therefore, if the video did work well and it was easy enough to edit, then we could make a follow up in the future that will be a minute or so longer to expand upon our work.

In order to keep the video short, we wanted to have only two actors, the chaser and the person being chased. In terms of the first plot we decided to do a side-scrolling of the two characters running from screen to screen throwing different items at one another, and we wanted the two to use their surroundings to fend off the other character in a hunger games type style (with less bloodshed hopefully!). Then we wanted to keep the idea of using our surroundings, but in the real-world by pulling items from posters and using chairs as obstacles.

In terms of my part in the concept, I was one of the main people to come out with the idea and rough plot for the piece, which was developed upon by Will in a storyboard and shooting plan.

Then Me and Lee were supposed to be the main actors in the piece itself, however due to personal circumstances which I couldn’t avoid I had to withdraw from filming and be replaced by the other Joe. Which is a bit of a bummer for me, as I was looking forward to being in the film. So in this project I have to admit I was only involved in the beginning as the original concept maker or lore-master if you will (I thought Lore-Master sounded cooler!).

For my part in the research towards creating the idea of the Screen Capture I looked at these two videos and the game tag.

I decided to look at Animator vs Animation as it quite simply shows the battle between user and creation within a virtual space. So I thought the idea could be used to an extent in that we could use screens to create this battle between to people in the virtual world and real world.

What I liked about the video is that it shows that as editors and visual artists we acknowledge the icons on screen in Photoshop for example but only use them for one purpose. Whereas, in the video these icons are used in ways we wouldn’t really think of, as we are usually correcting or improving our work, not fighting off our own creation. So I wanted to take that element of using the everyday object and making a tool of mass destruction if possible.

For example, I thought about getting someone to dive into a recycle bin on screen and bring out a png of pebbles and start throwing them, whilst the other person frantically tries to swat everything back using the search bar.

Secondly, the Paper Cuts video taught me that I could use everyday objects in the real world in a video game-esc way, and thus combine the Animator vs Animation elements with the real world.

For example, I thought if the two characters were chasing one another in the real world then one could pull a piece of food off of a poster on the wall and throw it at the other person. Or, one person could pull out their phone, go on google and search for a weapon and pull it from their phone into the real world. Or, potentially even blue-screen a computer where the other person has jumped into.