Final Presentation

Here's my final presentation made in Prezi.

Unreality - A serious case

We came up the one of our basis of our game is to use the Urewera case happened last 3 years ago. It's about the police raids happened when they got a source from a person where there's a terrorist activities happening here in the country.

Unreality - Composition

About a lot of days for us when we just sit and talk about the storyline since it's one of the important elements of this project. We figure about how are we going to implement this in a fluid way. I tried to imagine how is it going to work out like in a movie when there is a connection between the lines of the start and the end. There were cases when we have to improvise on our own story so suit on what we wanted to come up. But I suggested to the group that we have to get a good resource so that we could make something up even though we grab the idea from other people's work. One suggestion is to see a TV series called Twin Peaks. When I first saw it, I realize that there is something wrong with the story or rather it is weird in some way that it's not obnoxious. I kept thinking on how we can relate it to our storyline as these is a somewhat a vague clue in portraying the game. All I could see is a story of investigation of a murder and it could be use in a way of investigating a government conspiracy when the player tackles it. We also got some ideas about clues and riddles where we could put it up as it will reveal the  mystery beneath the unveiling government. Little by little we try to put all those ideas together as we go on to the ending of the story.

Unreality - Suggestions and Ideas

During our discussions about the storyline and what's going to happen on the game itself, there was some arguments between a stable story and a complex story. It's radical to stay on one side since the storyline is possible to make it into a simple story or a rather abstract story which has many possible routes that could lead to the ending of the game. So much to say about the storyline, I would rather focus on the gameplay itself. What I mean is to present the game as like in an actual film. There would be problem solving on how to truly solve a case of paranoia. It's much of a psychological game in this aspect and to put up a good game it's better to have something to be done rather than something left behind. In which case it's good to have a solid ending rather than mysterious ending which I would feel like it would be a let down for me.

Unreality

To start with this project, there are some things that suppose to be understand. Clearly, the purpose of this project is to portray another world within the real world. In other words, to make a storyline so realistic that would audience be engage to follow throughout the process of the game. So in order to start this, it should have a solid story to follow on. I joined Ben's group and he came up a theme about surveillance. The story goes around with government watching over and the incident on urawera. In my thoughts, there are a lot of things that needs to be simplified. There's a good chance that it will work out the way it is. It's better to take out the unnecessary ideas in order to have sense of direction for the players. The players would experience a sense of accomplishment on every task they're going to handle. For now we're trying to decipher the situation (gameplay) to manage the every aspects of this project.

Youthedesigner - Chosen Concept

As what I did from my aural terrains, I'm about to create a gameboy case which will have a theme of being ancient or steam-punk. I kinda  interested on this theme, because these consoles are now obsolete in the market which you can not easily find it in any local  gaming stores. In fact it would if this would need to be sell out again I would make a really good design about it that will remake the gameboy console into a whole new level. 

Project 2 - Youthedesigner

Since I didn't manage to finish my aural terrains project, I'll probably start over to this blog from now on. In this project we will have to do a CD case for the recordings of the aural terrains. We will focus on the visual design with some interaction from the sound from the CD. For the first part of this project, we will have to do some sketches. We start on doing some business cards. I'm not really good at drawing though but with the help of Illustrator and Photoshop, I can manipulate the sketches in order to beautify what I've drawn. The thing with this exercise is that how you deliver the design with some unusual sense of it that will standout from the rest of other people's design. On my planning, I did some doodles of characters and plumbing (I chose the plumber for the business card). I also realize about the clients profession. In my perspective, in order to gather customers to my client, his business card would be friendly and professional approach. I decided to make a symbol out of the doodles I made and the color scheme would be friendly colors like blue and yellow. 

Aural Terrains - Failed to produce

I ran out of time to circuit bend the gameboy as I have no experience on opening the parts of it. I tried to read some tutorials but there were kind of confusing for me but in time I would understand it if there's more time that I can do about it. There were other tutorials on how I should do it but there were parts that I need to get which they doesn't have on the local stores. Also the fact that I'm trying to be careful not to short circuit it or destroy any of the parts is also a hindrance for me as I got not much knowledge on its parts. In the end I didn't do the performance and pass this project.

Aural Terrains - New Concept

As I quickly browse and search for a new concept, I've found something really interesting in my taste which it might be possible to do. I decided to circuit bend a gameboy console and make some different pitches, noise or any kind of sound from it. 

I'm only gonna buy the cheapest one from trademe but it would take me some time to  deliver it as I don't have much time to do this and we got less than a week before the actual performance.

Aural Terrains - The given performance

During the groupings, I wasn't able to come on time. So the day after that, I tried to find a group which I think their concept will be interesting. I will follow their concept and perhaps add some suggestions and ideas for contribution which will fit with their concept. I tried to join one of the group which they are doing a performance. Their concept is about beats and static noises. I get to think that it will be good if I add the sound of the theremin. The only problem is that the days already passed when I decided to join their group and they're already in the middle of practicing. One of them said it would be unfair if I didn't turn up with the practice and just show up at the performance. So we agreed that I would try to finish the theremin in one day but I had a lot of trouble in making it and ended up not joining them anymore. So at that stage I was in a solo performance. I'm gonna try to think on what I need to do on this stage.

Aural Terrains 1st Project

During in one of our exercises we do in the creative field of sound, I was surprised that even just the sound itself can make a masterpiece of its own. At first, which I thought an ordinary sound is different from a piece of music but in fact it doesn't make much difference. In the exercise of hacking an toy/instrument, is one way of creating our own sound and have it possible mix it with the other sound elements that will be either harmonious or disastrous to our hearing. There is no good or bad in making a sound in terms of how we rate it. But each person could have their opinions of how they feel when they hear a sound that's been gathered. 

Gathering and Mixing Noise

When we did this exercise, I thought about gathering as much of sounds as possible without making it. Connor and me didn't think about what we're going to make after we gather all those sounds so we just went exploring and find many random sounds that is quite interesting for us. I find it quite fun when we did it because of those funny sounds that we usually go for. The next day Thomas and Ryan joined us and thought about the theme of the sound that we're going to make. There's some ideas that being thrown in the table and the most votes that we agree on is the food theme. During the process it was really quite fun on how we do the recordings since after we manage to get the sound from the food, we just have to eat it. When the sounds was compiled, we played around for quite some time and manage to do like a crescendo rhythm out of it. And then during the actual performance, it was agreed that there has some technical issues behind it but nevertheless it was good composition.

First Blog for 2nd Sem

Hi there and I'm back again for another journey of learning at the BCT studio once again. I think the standard will be higher at this time and I will work hard on it. For our first project we will deal on Audio and perhaps it will be not just music but the sound itself will be the main focus. We did some exercises like harnessing the noise on the boundaries of the city. It's quite fascinating to hear the sounds all together and distinguish those sounds individually. Sound is a common element in this world. We don't take much appreciation on it besides the music. I assume that it all goes to portraying the sound itself and harness its rhythmic element into combining those other aspects. When mix up all together, we could find that there's rhythm and equalization that can be appreciated as an art. It will somewhat get into a deeper meaning later on when we do more exercise on sounds.


One of the interesting trip was the anechoic chamber. It's quite interesting that you could hear some people talking even in a low tone of voice. The sound is closed and absorbed by the foam that surrounds the room. I think that doing a music performance inside that room will be disturbing to the ears of the music players. It feels like even the sound coming to your ears is absorbed by the foam as well which is why there's uneasiness to the people who go there. Over all there's a lot to learn in sounds to be quite interesting to hear

Project 4 - Never too late

There were some troubles again. The seller got disappointed at me for not getting the sensor on Friday and told me that he's going to refund the money. Anyway on what I've come up for a new idea, the sensor is only one part of the element. I was trying too hard to innovate the equipment  and not taking the brief in a sense of going in a deeper meaning. I took it too literally and forgetting what's really the brief is all about. So I tried to get back on what's on the brief and I thought about why are we even using the sensor in relation of the concept. Besides the camera itself would be pointless if the one that would be functioning is just the sensor. So I decided not to focus on the "arduino" sensor part anymore and move on with either processing and Max/Msp. In the meantime I will try the best as I can on what I can do with the programming with the short amount of time that I have. 

For the idea on what I just came up, it's about an augmented reality game where two players will join forces to battle out the fish monsters who would try to destroy the other fishes. I'm thinking the fish characters will be in 3D since that's the trend for all the gaming recently. However knowing that it's not possible to finish it, but if we still have time to do it, I will be willing to. Here's one of the examples of the augmented reality using a webcam.

There were also other elements that I think it's a feasible project. This one is how it reacts to the object by using a live webcam. They used processing on this visualization.



Augmented webcam study from flight404 on Vimeo.

what really inspires me on this project for the concept is the view from the top of a building. It would be really interesting to experience the thrill of looking down below of a building while playing a game.




The idea on this is about the people representing the fish. There are good and bad people in the society, so in the game it would be kind of like that. The good ones need to be kept alive but the bad ones needs to be taken out. So during the game the two players will have to help each other out. One of the player will take control of the fishing rod and the other one will have to play on the computer. So it's a matter of interacting with each other and cooperating to achieve a certain goal.

Connecting the idea of the sensor, it can be use to detect how far it needs to start the game. The sensor will function like the Xbox Kinect, like it will only work on a certain distance of the camera to the ground. We can use either an Ultrasonic rangefinder or an IR Proximity sensor. But it would be better to use the Ultrasonic rangefinder since it has a rather longer distance in detecting objects.

So this time I really have a strong concept about this project and I also connected the all those elements and got the right answer about it. I still want to do it if the other members still are keen to do it at the end of the semester. I really learned a lot on developing the creative process and I really should go deeper into the meaning of those things to have a really great and original idea.

Project 4 - It finally comes to the point

2 weeks passed after working on our programming and journals, finally I could focus on the project. The first thing I try to find is what we're going to show for the visualization. I tried to look for processing codes that can be used in webcams. I got one code which is nice to use but I feel that it's not enough for  the visualization so I just save it for later purpose. 

I got problems where I was trying to decide whether I'm going to buy the sensor or not because it's like gambling my money if ever it's gonna be use or not and whether it works or not. I was targeting for the Ultrasonic RangeFinder Maxbotix LV EZ42 sensor which will have a large beam width that can detect an object 6 feet away. Then I found out that the sensor that I was trying to buy is going to take a week before it will come because they don't have a stock at their store and they have to order it on the US and the presentation for the project will be the following week. I found one sensor that they have in stock which is the Sharp IR Proximity Sensor (Long Range) but it can only detect 5 feet away. So I try to find another solution out of it then found out that we can do like a sonar/radar visualization from the sensor. I found one example from it at this website http://hacknmod.com/hack/make-a-diy-sonar-system-using-arduino/ . Another thing was, instead of getting some objects detect by the sonar on top of a building, we  could use it underground the city.

After getting that idea, I was full decided to buy that IR Proximity Sensor. I explained my idea to the group but then Jonathan was worrying about jumping from one idea to another. He told me that "how could we explain on relating the first idea to this new concept idea". I know it's too late to implement this  new idea that I have come but I told them that's "there's nothing wrong if we try on doing it". Edrian commented when me and Jonathan were talking that we should insists to stick the idea on the spy concept since Kim said from the critique that the equipment kinda looks like a spying camera where it can be use to spy on places that people usually don't see. The sonar/radar idea also kind of relates to the concept of spying things as well. So from the concept of getting the data from a hidden space it develops into detecting objects or motions by using the sensor. I still haven't got the sensor at the moment but I do hope by tomorrow Friday, I will get it and if not there's going to be a huge problem for me and I know the group will be disappointed as well. So it's all or nothing now, I will work hard on getting the sensor and to get things done before the presentation day. 

Project 4 - Finding Visualization

I had some problems trying to figure out what suppose to make for the visualization of the equipment since I'm the one who got this idea. The only thing I could think of is getting the speed of falling from the top of a building to the ground or depends on how long the wire can handle. I try as much as possible to think about different things that can relate to our concept. I also try to learn arduino since I know it's going to be needed but it's no use. But the thing is that I was to restricted from the concept that we already developed. Like there's the concept of knowing the spaces from the building apart but there's not much that I could think of. Well I ask the group about it but they can't come up anything as well for the visualization. Another thing, if I only know how to program arduino, I could have already started on doing the program. I try to manipulate on doing the visualization by getting some examples from Processing and Max/Msp but it doesn't relate much on the concept of what we're trying to achieve. 

At that point I got stuck and I don't know what to do. I also got carried by the other works as well on the programming and the journals. If only I got more time to do it, I could have focus more on to this project. I can work a lot better if only Im focusing on one thing. That's why during those times where I was doing programming and journals, I manage to get it done. If I juggle on one thing to another I might not be able to keep up on it. So it's also a matter of multi-tasking but for me I really cant cope up if I do that. So the almost 2 weeks passed and still I can't come up with an idea for the visualization that could relate to our concept. I would like to experiment that's not related to the concept but it's going to be hard to explain on the presentation. One thing I know, we will definitely use a sensor to collect some data when the camera falls down from a building/structure. We test it before the critique on Friday without any visualization and there were some problems as well on the view of the camera. It will need to develop more in order to work out on what the vision of the concept.

Project 4 - Sketching and Modeling

Now that we had our concept, its time to move on to one of the first process of the project. Which is the sketch and the model of the equipment. Ke is the one who will be our 3D/CAD modeler. Anyhow we help him vision the suppose accurate look of the equipment. We draw some sketches and took a while to make a final one to pass it to him. In my vision the equipment is about 1.5 meters long. That's about the size of a table. We also talk about issues on how the camera will be put in the long wire. The thing is, it will have to fall straight and not swaying with the wire. I suggested to put weights on both sides of the camera so it would fall down in the straight perspective like how you see when you fall in down in some heights. And another the problem was the USB wire that's connected to the camera which doesn't have much long wire to go with it. This could be improve into further development but since we only have limited budget, we're sticking with the wired webcams. We also have to deal with the materials that we're going to use on if its a metal, then it needs to be weld. I got one good example for the visualization of the equipment itself.

So obviously the laptop will be hooked up to the webcam and when it falls down, the sensor will gather data and it will perhaps make some visualization out of it. We still haven't got any ideas yet but it will come out eventually as we go on with the on going research and development. 

Project 4 - Combining Ideas

When we had our time to make some research we found a lot of cool experiments that we saw from other people. There were a lot of discussions on the concept of the project that we're gonna make. First Edrian and Ke thinks about the idea of using the gorilla pod we're we can put the camera anywhere and anyplace since it's attachable to almost everything. Connor on the other hand thought about the idea of using the the alcohol sensor where it will have interesting data that we could get when we do the experiment. And for my idea, its about having a rig/rod in a edge of  a building and when it falls it will gather some data of speed/distance and it might have some visualization out of those data we will have. Take look on some of the example of what I thought for the project.

This would be one of the perspective of a camera when it falls.
And here's one of the great example of that is similar to my idea.

So after we discuss those ideas that we have come up, we combine all of it into a really interesting but smart idea. We decided to go for a rig that has tripod on it (which is the gorilla pod) that will gather sensor of distance and speed and later on it will make a visualization out of the computer. As we call it urban fishing. For now the concept was to get those video of the hidden spaces in the city or where humans can't really possibly access it neither walk on it. We want to show what it feels when someone falls down into one of those spaces like in a building, a tree, or could be in the sea perhaps. We will have to work further on these ideas and this will be our basic structure in the skeleton our the framework.

Project 4 - The Immense Interactive Camera

For our last project we were given a task to make an interactive camera that will visualize the city in a new way that people can not be seen daily. It would see some hidden spaces and will gather data that will make a visualization or an output. At first we thought of finding some ideas and inspiration in the city. I gave my group some idea about wireless connections or those signals that cannot be seen in the city.  Here's one of the example

Then we got into having a time lapse of the city that will show the space and time of the city that have an interesting blurred shadows when you see it. We're planning to go the top of the AUT tower because there's not much people who go there and don't see beyond the top of the building. Although James said it needs to be explored more and research about the visualization/output that it will come. Kim on the other hand gave us some ideas on using arduino sensors. We  have a lot of interesting sensors at mindkits.co.nz. We kind of skipping of ideas from one into another since we got those idea of using one of the sensors of arduino. We still have more to think of and hopefully we get into something that is really original.

Exercise - Bullet Time

We had an exercise about making a bullet time effect. Our group thought about many things on how is it going to work. Our concept is to use the spinning circle thing to rotate ourselves in the back of the green screen while camera is rolling. Then after quite some time in the green screen room, were did some test shot, I decided to make some prototype of what I think it will do best. So I made an animation in After Effects for a little bit and showed it to the group. We all agreed for the shot and headed to green screen room. We had problems for a little bit regarding the rotating circle since the rope is not strong enough to pull it with 2 people on top of it. So try to find out how we're going to do it. Then we just thought about rotating in the chair while sitting on it. So we've shot all the members and I took the footage and made an animation for about 2 days.. So here's the final one

The Ultimate Showdown from John Dexter Abaya on Vimeo.

Project 3 - A Horrifying Event

I didn't have a chance to present last Friday because I thought it will be the whole day and Kim only went in the morning. It didn't say in the brief that presenting only in the morning should be the only time to present so that's what I thought about. I'm still up for presenting it even though it's not completely working. And now the keyboard chip doesn't work as well, I can't make any video documentation about it.  Anyway if I just did this during the holidays and figures all the problems that I need to tackle on my device, it would work out perfectly. I think that I followed the brief directly as what it told to be done. "The user will have an interaction to the video and it will re-tell re-interpret re-told the story". I know the video's purpose is only to use as a source material. So that's why I decided for this idea about saving the main character by stomping the right shoe (the left shoe is to start the whole video) when the killer girlfriend comes on the screen. But just to show you what I've done here's the picture of it 

Project 3 - Finalizing for Presentation

I was cranking up for the patch that I'm still working on. There were lot of issues in there like, one of the reasons that it wont work is that some of the "if" statements is not clear enough to trigger some of the particular objects that suppose to work. I also realize that if you put too much connection on one trigger it will not work properly so as much as possible I want to make it make it less. One of the wrong things I've done is that I didn't ask much for help in the first place. I was doing all by myself. I could've ask James about my patch and he will know how to work on it. Perhaps this project will make me understand the meaning of collaboration with other people.

I also made the soldering as well for final since I cant use the other one that I soldered from last time because it doesn't work anymore. I made a switch from tin foils that when it contract to each other it will press a key. 

Project 3 - On the midst of confusion and frustration

I decided that I'm going for the shoe itself. It's going to be a game about walking from frame to frame with a handicap of the time limit. The idea that I was thinking is not new already. I got really frustrated about the fact that, this is already been done. So first I make the patch on max/msp and test out if it's going to work or not within the time frame. Another thing was the issue of the switch on whereabouts it's going to be put. Last thing, my idea is still confusing. The walking from frame to frame would be like running instead. I realized that when I was doing the patch in max/msp. There's more than a thousand frames just on the scene going upstairs. So it would be a more than a thousand steps which is really innappropriate for the user.

Project 3 - Ideas

Alright, it's been a while now since I haven't worked on my project so its time crank up. I gathered some ideas from some of my friends and colleagues. In the first place, I was thinking about how will it relate to the actual short film that we made for our last project. Then I thought about some of the shots that we did. Like the point of view shot, which would be a great interactive part for the audience and the device they will use. Then the next thing I thought about is the actual device that I'm going to use. Well first thing I know about is the use of shoes. It is wearable and you can fit the keyboard or mouse hack as the input the device on the inside of it. One good example of this is the use of a foot mouse. 

Another option for me is to use the shoe itself and put the keyboard hack inside the shoe to be plug in to the computer by USB. It will adjust the movement frame of the video and probably adjust the lighting/contrast and saturation of it. It might add some sound as well for more excitement.




It could make it to a further more development but this is the base of the concept. It's about putting the shoes into the character and feel what it's like inside the creepy house.

Project 3 - Wearable Device

I have no idea on where to start, but I'm getting excited about the up coming product of what I'm about to make. In this project we were told to make a wearable device that will re-tell, re-interpret the short film that we had made on the last project. I think that the concept of the short film that we have take and not the actual film itself that we're going to use.  To start this we have to hack from old/new keyboards that's wasn't used. Getting the keys from the chip is not really that easy. Some of the key's doesn't work (the letter keys). I might even buy a new keyboard because of that problem. One of the issues is that, I'm worried about the testing since I have one spare which it only works on windows platform. I'll check one more time if the other keyboard will work and if it's not I'm going to buy a new one. After that I'll hack it and solder the wires on it. Then onwards on building and designing my idea. I do hope I would have enough time to do that with the programming in MAX/MSP. I still have to think about the concept first and layout my ideas in order to draw the design for my cool wearable device.

Max Msp

We tackled about this sort of programming language called Max Msp. I think the basics of it is kinda easy. but it get's complicated when you explore the whole program. In this we apply what we learned on our programming subjects. I just need to get more tutorials in this one so that I could make cool stuff in our next project. I feel that I'm getting into it and understands how does this work with other softwares like Animata, Processing and Arduino. Although it still have some flaws on it that needs to be experimented and test, it's still is one of the best package that can be done by any users who want's to make cool gadget and devices.

Project 2 - Conclusion

I found out that there were a lot of setbacks in the film. One of the example is that some of the audience don't know the relation of the main character to the girl that killed her. Another one is that when I was texting, they can't see much of the message. Which means it doesn't say why the girl killed her at the end of the second scene. There's also problem where the main character got the picture in the hallway of the house. It suppose to show the picture of them together of the girl so that the audience would understand that they were a couple. The last one is that in the diary, it should show some pictures of the main character with some other girl. In that way the audience would clearly understand why the girl killed her after he see's the diary. So as you can see we still have many things that we need to do. If only there's more time, I could have taken more shots and add those details to the film. But nevertheless our film was really good I'm kinda satisfied of the result overall. 

One more thing I found this movie recently which is really similar to what we did.

Here's our movie! Enjoy! :D

Project 2 - Finalization

During the 2 1/2 post production days, I wasn't satisfied with the second scene because there are a lot of set-backs within the actual footage. One of it was, Caleb (the first guy getting killed) going with the other girl (Rachel). When I took it, it was really shaky because they were walking too fast, and I try to catch up with them. I wanted to have a more detailed shot by taking them a picture in a cafe or holding hands together in a park. The problem is we can't manage to shoot anymore with them together because of their own personal schedule. The solution I made is just to make a montage of pictures from the footage that I took and make it like a targeting point. I imagine on how would a wolf attack on a person, so I manipulate the snapshot in Photoshop and make a zoom blur to the picture except to the two of them. The pictures that I made interprets the girl that she's stalking at their back and about to pounce soon. It was quite effective and decided to put it in the video. 

I talk about, in the last blog, having a problem from rendering videos because of the file size is too big. It's because I often make some layers of colours in After Effects and exporting as QuickTime .mov. I ask Gabriel about my problem and he told me that exporting in H.264 would be the solution. Even it has many plug-ins on it, it will compress it to a smaller size and still runs smoothly in any video player. Added to that, Gabriel thought me a super-effective way of putting effects and stuff to one shot even without going in and out of Premiere Pro and After Effects. All I have to do is just right click the footage on the edit, and click replace composition to After Effects. My work got easy and I crank up working on the colours and transition. I worked on two laptops (Chris and Sam's) so that I wouldn't get behind schedule which I would thought. As I imagined the rendering takes ages. Took me 4 hours to render one scene. As productive person as I am, I did the other scene to the other laptop so that it would be a less work on the next day. I took Sam's laptop at home and work on the ending scene. I prefer working on Sam's laptop, it's because the speculation of the computer is better than my own computer. After rendering the ending scene I started choosing my audio.

What I did for my audio is that I wanted to get an dark mood atmosphere on the start. Referring to the last blog, I already made a preview of our film and chosen some of the audio that will quite fit well. In this case, I hadn't got much trouble finding some audio for the opening scene. I have my stock audios on my hard drive which I got from videocopilot. I bought Pro Scores last year when I was doing some of my own animation back in the days. I searched in my resource for dramatic sounds as well for the scenes where the story in diary comes in. The sound editing took me half of the day since I already visualize on what am I going to put. Chris recorded her narrating sound the day before I did the sound editing. I also recorded a little bit for extra sound effects with my voice, but I change the pitch and added some echo on it. To the last minute I went on doing the credits. I already started it when I was at home and even my group didn't know what's going to happen on the end. They were just surprised on what I did. It was really awesome. I put the animation of the blood with the title and timing it when the girl hits the guy with the brick. It's was the highlight of the film. 

Project 2 - Problem Arises

There were several shots that I wasn't satisfied to be included in our short film. I wanted to have a more meaning into it but the hindrance that making it not possible is probably the schedule that we had to shoot. One of the thing is, like when I wanted to shoot the whole house with the lights turn off in the first scene and one of my group mate said we can't because of her relatives is doing something. I just make a substitute for it although on what I had vision is not going to work. Another thing is some shots that are really not good, like for example the camera is somewhat shaking. They only do it for one shot and doesn't do for more because my group mates saying that they're running out of time but which I think they were just too tired shooting. Also matching the same sequence to another is also another problems that we have to deal with. There's one shot where the main character has his eyes close-up with an emotion of worried while the other is in shock and it's really different from the other shot of his eye where he got shocked. Even though we have storyboards to follow, some of them still forgot what to shoot so what happens is that we have to shoot those scenes to the following day, and makes it delayed to our production schedule. I think that they put so much workload for me to think about everything because most of the time I'm the one that decides on what's going to happen in the shoot, but I always deliver a good shot anyway in my perspective. I just hope that I can have a substitute for this problems and still make a good quality story from the film that were making.

In the technical aspect, I'm trying to render the videos that I have finish putting some color correction and it makes the size so big that when you try to play it will skip some of the frames. I'm still in the process of managing as much as possible to become smaller size but with my color correction on it. HD is already big enough so my solution would probably as much as possible, less plug-in effects so that it would run smoothly in the video players. 

Project 2 - First Shooting Day 1

We shoot officially for our film and find some problems technically with the lighting and the schedule since we only use the house of our groupmate. I try to manage the possible things we can do. I also had some idea of changing some shots in some the scene because of what I think it's better. But here are some of the good shots that I think would be allright.

I like this shot in a sense of uneven of the angle. Like there something in the background that you wouldn't know.

in this shot I personally like this because this is something that a horror is always seen. a back shot with a dark background on the side. It's typical but it really gets the point where there some unknown elements might come behind or in beside of the character/

the effect of the lighting is somewhat astonishing even for an ordinary light. I try to brighten the exposure and give it of a suspense look so that this opening shot will be a good beginning for a horror film.

even though it's really dark, there still some lights that coming from outside of the house that makes the sense of entering into the darkness. I also got this element in a horror which characters always go into the darkness without turning the light on.

Project 2 - Preview short film

Today we managed to make a preview of what's going to happen on our first opening sequence. We organize all the shot sequence and edit it on the same day. There were also added shots that we think it's more appropriate rather than in the storyboard. We played around as well on the technicality of the lights around the house. We try to imagine as much as possible on how it's going to look like during the night even we shot during the daytime.  I add the darkish blue style and put the suspense atmosphere sound in the film.

Here's what we have done for today.



Preview A Wolf's Diary from John Dexter Abaya on Vimeo.

Project 2 - Horror Styles

I researched some of the styles from vimeo. I find to liking the bluish dark styles because it gives more depth and mood to the horror genre.
Limbo - unfinished transition from Fabrizio Cutrona on Vimeo.

there were also styles that I consider to be part of our short film. Like in this one what I like about is the dark contrast with little bit of grain on the video. I could possibly put this on the killing scenes

Horror film test, cute puppy? from Tim Collins on Vimeo.

In this video what I like about is the old school style and dull colour with a reddish/blue saturation added with a dark contrast, giving the moods of grunge and revenge on the scene.


HV40 horror Test footage from Joseph Lavender on Vimeo.

Project 2 - Week 1

Our project this time is to make a 4-6 minutes video base on our chosen folk tale/short story, and the catch is we have to make it to our chosen genre. Our group, Chris, Sam and me started getting the main concept of a horror/romance genre. We also decided that we're going to do the story of the "Three Little Pigs". At first we gather these ideas and tries to connect them. Some of us have the same ideas that make us compromise to each other but of course we can't get out of having a struggle from putting their own opinions. We decided that we're not going to follow much of the story line and move on to our creative idea that will interact with our horror/romance genre. 

                                                            A Wolf's Diary

The concept:

It's about getting revenge for those pigs being so greedy.

The storyline:

There's this guy who went to his girlfriend's house because he got a text from her that something is bad happening into his house. He went there, finds her until to her bedroom. He founds a book on the floor and reads it (The girl's diary). He founds out in the diary that she killed the last two boyfriend that she had because they were cheating on her. In the end he found's out he was also caught cheating and he's next on the list. He was shock and turns around she's already there at his back, making a surprise attack on him.

The relation characters:

The wolf is the girl that's got betrayed by her three boyfriends. The boyfriends portrays the three little pigs. They can't get enough of their own girl that they cheat on her, which makes the girl (wolf) makes a revenge and attacks them. Like a wolf she attacks in a surprising way that the prey wouldn't even escape. 

At this point we managed to make a storyboard from opening-ending. We were about to finalize our shot sequence and the location of the place were going to shoot. On our next meeting were going to finish the scripts and getting ready to rent out the equipments.

Editing Excercise

In this exercise we manage to make our own piece of a short video that has a story that we made only by putting some pieces of the video and audio provided. We try to understand the concept of this exercise at first and we moved on to watching the videos. There are some videos that are inter-connected to each other which is some way, we combine them to make our own piece. I just realize how powerful the editing was, after I finished my own video. We could make our own genre by putting together some video and audio that will connect and mix perfectly to each other.

Here's some of the screenshots from the video that I made.

Project 1 - Drawing Robot

At the end of the production we learned a lot not just in our own project but also seeing how the other's manage to do their own project as well. Similarly, problems that arise from all the groups were about ideas and concepts. But refining these fuzzy logics, turns into a brilliant product.  

Project 1

There were limits on the programming where you can’t make it stop while in a loop, which I just discovered during the process of making it. I also observe that the robot that we were making is not really complicated, so I try to cut down the program into a simple terms and wouldn’t complicate it further since we also have to be aware of our timeframe. But in some way I manage to make another way of stopping it by simply adding a switch block on it. Discovering this kind of things makes me feel really good inside, which is a sense of achievement. There were numerous times that I have to deal with this kind of problem but I don't give up on doing it because I know there's always some way that can go pass through the problem. 

- Sharpening the programming skill

- Awareness of limitations and time

- Develop a furthermore solutions in the future.

Week 3 - Project 1

This week were doing a project of a robot that makes drawing of any kind. It might be a light painting, canvas painting, just a simple drawing of a pen and brush etc. We have to decide first what's the robot going to draw or any artistic. First thing we did is we research about drawing robots and the kind of art it will possibly can make.

I did some research on what kind of art it will make. Is it going to be abstract, mosaic, geometrical and anything that is possible that make's it look like an art. I also think about what kind of robot model that we should make. At first I thought about making a missile shooter robot, that launches paint balls or sort of a soft ball that will splatter into a canvas. In the end we decided on drawing on sand. Sand art has been in many generations. The object of this project is to create a meditating and peaceful harmony of art through the use of the robot as one tool in achieving this particular project.

The Orientation Week 1st Activity

It's the first week of the BCT and it's already hyping up. There were great activities that happened this week.
First was the Social Mapping which you have to put your interest in the sticky notes and connect it to other people with the same interest as well. When I was taking a picture, it happens that I forgot to put the SD card to the right place so I didn't get any picture, fail.. :(


Anyway after one of the lecturer Mr.Gabriel, told us to make a structure of that social map using the Gephi software and make a visualization of it. It's kinda interesting to use Gephi because it kinda like a Photoshop but at the same time your doing some sort of Programming when we entered the data in Microsoft Excel and importing it to Gephi.  I'm pretty sure we're gonna use this a lot during the course. After that we decided to pick one of the works we did and develop it further to an extent of what can be a more interesting way to present it. 


Overall I see that there are flaws in the making of a boring information or data into an engaging way so that audience or viewers would be attracted to it. It's a sort of marketing strategy as well in my perspective. Nevertheless this course would be really exciting in the future outcomes.