Screening the project

3D display

3D Glasses

viewer short distance from screenin booth

Stereo Sound 

headphones 

darkness 

synergy between gaming, cinema and reality

My Initial film Idea

progression on my 2nd year project with a greater sense of immersion and 3D scale similar to the current gaming generation. the project will play with the aspirations of gamers becoming their controlled character through a first person POV perspective.

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The function of this film is primarily as practice for my skills in VFX and Sound mixing as it will be heavily reliant on these factors when creating both the atmospheric track, the animated HUD and interactive tracking features. in order to achieve this I shall be using Adobe After Effects and Adobe Audition.

Concept research #5

I found a video of some game play from the video game Mirrors edge (2008), I found this interesting mainly due to the realism. Besides the vibrant colour correction this game is very realistic in terms of the motion of the character, it is rare in 1st person games for the gamer to see the characters body when looking around e.g. look down to see the characters feet however in this game this occurs regularly as the character jumps from building to building and occasionally has to roll on impact of hitting the ground in which the legs and feet are revealed. I found this style interesting as you can only usually see your characters features in 3rd person games however it adds to the simulation if they come into frame in first person games. This is a feature I would consider including if I were to give my project this first person style. Also the camera movement is another factor to consider for my project as when the character changes direction the camera will tilt with her as well as when she jumps  this is effective as it slowly reveals the next obstacle as she turns to face it. 

Concept research #4

I have now been looking into first person games and the conventions used to immerse the audience into a virtual reality as though they are looking through the eyes of the specific character. What ive discovered which was obvious when playing both 3rd and 1st person games is that 1st person games are certainly more immersive mainly due to the fact that in 3rd person games the character is taking up part of the frame. This is helpful if you enjoy viewing your character especially if you created them or the fact that you can check behind your character for enemies etc. However the 1st person POV is certainly more realistic in terms of the gamer feeling as though they're in the game. This is mainly used for fast paced action games and cinematic games which heavily rely on the narrative.



This screenshot from Farcry 2 (2008) shows a level of realism which is rare in video games of this genre, occasionally when a character you control is shot you can choose to treat the injury before carrying on. If chosen, an animation is displayed in which your character will attend to his injury, in this case bend over and flick the bullet out with his knife. This sense of being affected through injuries may cause gamers to be more cautious in their playing style which increases its reflection on a battlefield in reality.

To increase the sense of being a part of a virtual reality in these games, some gamers are now able to use a modern development called oculus rift which is released in 2015 however a few gamers already own a pair. This piece of equipment features goggles fixed with a head strap in which gamers view their first person games through the goggles whilst the motions and controls are simulated so that the gamer can control a character by turning their own head with a 360 degree capability whilst controlling the characters directory using the normal controls. when combined with headphones this creates a simulation which heavily immerses gamers and enables full concentration on the game at hand. This might be something to consider when presenting my project, an installation with this style of simulation could be quite effective.

Hunting Dragons Short Film

This is a short film I edited in September for Adam Bloom (Director) who graduated from UCA last year. It was a good practice both being on set and editing whilst working closely with the director. The challenge whilst editing this short was to ensure that the awkwardness in the party scenes came across, which meant including silence and extended cuts whilst keeping the duration and the two timelines to a swift pace. To do this I used the actors/Actresses reactions to show the awkwardness in the Wides and CUs i had in the rushes.

Shot on location in Muswell Hill and North Greenwich
Camera: Canon C100
Edited: with Premiere Pro
Synopsis: Two Police Officers, Sally and Mark attend a party together as a couple for the first time. Asked how they met, an awkward re-encounter plays out as it is realised they were both posing on an online social media game as 13 year-old boys to catch paedophiles…

http://vimeo.com/107633178

Research for concept #3

I have looked into how I would achieve a 3rd person style for my project if I choose to go for that style. It features a giro with a go pro mounted either end of a swivelling rod to achieve 360 degree footage. As seen from the montage below, using this equipment creates a similar look to that of a third person video game in terms of framing  

Research for concept #2

I have looked into a range of 3rd person video games in order to get a sense of how they allow the gamers to interact with objects in the virtual world whilst allowing the game to flow whilst remaining cinematic.

The first game I looked into was Watchdogs (2014)
This third person game allows gamers to control protagonist Aiden Pearce in an open recreation of Chicago city. Aiden Pearce is a highly skilled hacker which gamers can use at their disposal whether its to hack into enemy agencies or a civilians bank account, its an open world so gamers can do what they please with his abilities.



This image above is an example of how some modern video games feature a HUD in a 3D space. in this case the character whom Aiden is about to hack is highlighted with a diamond shaped animation which tracks the selected characters face whilst he walks past. a drop down display is also used to provide information on the selected character. It is this interaction within the 3D space which modern games offer. This is a convention which i need to consider when creating my new project.

 

Due to Aiden Pearce's background and personality being written into the games story, gamers cannot create their own character however they can still buy clothes and weaponry to customise Aidens load out. So even in fixed narrative games with fixed characters there are still elements of customisation even if they're not as accessible as most RPG's   

Research for concept #1

Ive began researching the conventions of modern video games and there methods of immersing the audience. From what I have discovered, the majority of these modern games are either in 1st or 3rd person any others are mostly sports or strategic games. The 3rd person games are mostly RPG's in which some cases gamers can customise their own characters facial features, body, clothing, hair and even personality. This gives gamers the option of creating themselves in this virtual reality which is extremely immersive, some video games even give the option of scanning your face onto the character with a connected webcam.

This is featured in games such as NBA 2K15

   

3rd year project ideas

Last year I created a short and slightly experimental film which combined conventions one would find in retro video games with reality in which the character would teleport from location to location in a left to right 2d format. Although this project received great feedback I was told I could build on it for 3rd year. 

I was given a range of points to consider in order to progress this project:

longer duration

more interactivity with the virtual world

an animated HUD

more of a 3D perspective of the virtual world

add a narrative 

Summer Projects #3

For this project we got in touch with a YouTuber who had a huge following from the gaming community which meant that we had to come up with a concept which they could relate to as well as keeping the interests of the subscribers we already had. we came up with a silly superpower idea which would give all the characters ridiculous powers and would end up effecting each-other with a domino effect of triggering each power. The video was our most popular yet reaching over 36,000 views.

   

Summer Projects #2

our first project for the Night club chain was to make a promo for our local club Moka. For this we wanted it to be more original than the generic club promos so we decided to add a sense of a narrative. for this the audience follow a young adult from what looks like a typical night for a male of that age with the video gaming and snacks until he receives the text which changes the scale of his night "Moka?". We tried to keep the intro while hes at home fairly short using a style heavily inspired by director Edgar Wright in a montage type style of 1-3 second jump cuts. The promo was targeting social media platforms so we had to keep it under 3 mins in order to keep the attention span of our target audience so the club shorts are also fast choppy cuts to show all the events occurring in this one night. We also manipulate time in a lot of the shots especially any moving camera shots as they were sped up to keep in rhythm with the soundtrack so whilst also keep the duration of the shot. A range of camera equipment was also used to achieve some of the shots, especially for the slow mo entrances and the VIP booth. we used such equipment as a shoulder rig, slider, Steadicam and a few ring lights. 

Summer Projects #1

 

Throughout Summer I had been working with a group of local mates who had set up a YouTube channel creating comedic videos about our local Crawley area. The first video was released which was a mockumentary which used tongue in cheek humour to play with stereotypical views on the area of Crawley, this video gained a surprising 17,800 views. Since then the YouTube channel has vastly grown in popularity and now make video promos for a law firm and a night club chain. This has obviously been a great experience for me as I have had an insight at what its like to be pressurised to finish projects for demanding clients as well as gaining technical skills through practice, especially in the field of editing.