Interactive Storytelling Development

In February 2021, I began looking into interactive storytelling. I felt I had a good understanding as I had experienced choose your own adventure books when I was younger as well as having played games like ‘Life is Strange’ that implement choices and story paths. I also watched ‘Bandersnatch’ when it was first released, I even went back three or four times to see the different story paths.

Interactive story telling had always intrigued me and the possibility of media having different endings or different branches and the audience having some kind of control made it even more fascinating, so having the opportunity to explore this was amazing.

Even though I had a strong grasp on this subject I still learnt a lot in this module. I especially liked discussing how interactivity can enhance the audiences experience. As I explained in a previous blog post, adding interactive elements immerses the audience in the story and it “becomes an experience”, Smith 2021. While exploring this further I found Tom Abba wrote in the Journal of Media Practice that, “a viewer of classical film form expects to reach the final reel and have the story satisfactorily concluded.” He goes on to say that Interactivity may cause a lack of closure for viewers.

After pondering this for some time I can’t decide if I agree or not. Abba wrote this in 2008, since then I feel cliff hangers and unanswered questions have been more and more common to leave room for sequels or ongoing franchises, therefore current audiences are less likely to expect an ending that is all tied neatly in a bow. In relation to interactive stories, there may be some audiences that don’t go back to find the hidden endings or feel unfulfilled by having too many endings and not knowing which is the true ending. However, this then leaves room for interactivity to increase the closure provided to the audience, for example, if the viewer doesn’t like the ending, they can go back and get a new one, they may even find it satisfying to find all the different pathways.

You can also look at this through Uses and Gratifications theory and assume that some audiences use the ability to interact with their and have some agency over the story to gratify their need for control in real life, as well as using media in general to escape from reality. This means Abba’s statement can be seen as both true and false depending on the kind of audience.

From the beginning of this project I knew that making an interactive story was going to be a challenge, it is essentially like writing two or three stories in one. Because of this my group and I decided we should stick to a very simple plot and allow the interactivity to make in immersive and engaging for the viewer.

An example of this is we have included a few decisions/branching elements in the plot where regardless of which option the viewer picks, the same or similar outcome occurs, the reason we wanted to include this was so the audience begins to feel as out of control as the character they are following. In my research I found audiences do not like it when you mislead them or ignore their decisions and doing this is generally advised against. GDC, 2016.

However, this gave me all the more reason to include this in the plot, there is no better way to make an audience feel and understand your character than by dragging them through the same experience. By disregarding their choices and making the audience angry, confused and feel out of control, they will learn exactly how the character is feeling in that moment too.

During this production we decided not to set out specific production rolls as we all wanted to experience different rolls. So far we have not yet started filming but are due to this week. Leading up to this point and taking more of a lead in the producers role as well as scriptwriter role I have found my research has definitely impacted one more than the other. From a producers point of view, handling the paperwork and keeping the production on track hasn’t really been impacted by my research into interactivity. However, when we came to writing the script, I had a whole new way of approaching it.

The group sat on a MS Teams call to write the script, we had a vague plot worked out but we knew we needed to keep our options and plot open for decisions to be added. Due to my research I knew we should include a simple decision first to introduce the audience to the idea and functionality of the interactive film. We also knew we could branch out too much or make the story too complicated as the more complex it becomes the harder it becomes for us to make it and for the audience to understand it. During this writing process I feel the team worked really well together and had a good understanding of how to keep things interesting without being too complex.

After analysing both interactive and linear films I feel our creative decisions were impacted a lot. Dead Lonely, (Aardman Animations, Rapt Media, 2016.) opened my eyes to just how simple an interactive plot can be, but still be immersive and entertaining. I also learnt from their example about how you can get the audience to replay your story multiple times. I tried to take influence from this when it came to writing our plot.

I was also heavily influenced by ‘It Can Pass Trough the Wall’ by Radu Jude. Although not strictly classed as a horror film, there were a lot of eerie horror-esque elements to the overall composition and plot. This is explained by Madsen in the Short Film Studies Journal. In my analysis of Jude’s 2017 film, I discussed the fixed camera shot following Sofia, and how this and that there are no cuts in the film create the feeling the characters are being watched. (Smith, 2021.) We took influence from this as our film is a horror/thriller. We decided that we wanted to have some elements that create a similar feeling, through out the film we want to include over the shoulder shots from the stalkers point of view to make the audience feel like they are watching the character and again, forcing them into the shoes of the stalker.

In conclusions this module has been incredibly insightful and I will never take the ease of linear scriptwriting for granted again. I am beyond excited to finish making this film as is the rest of my team and we have high hopes for its outcome.

Bibliography

ABBA, T., 2008. As we might watch: What might arise from reconsidering the concept of interactive film?, Journal of Media Practice, 9:1, p. 19-27.

Aardman Animations, Rapt Media, 2016. Dead Lonely (a Zombie Romance). [Viewed: 19/02/21] Available From: http://www.raptmedia.com/customers/aardman-dead-lonely/

GDC, 2016. All Choice No Consequence: Efficiently Branching Narrative. [Viewed: 029/03/2021] Available From: https://youtu.be/TEa9aSDHawA

Madsen, D., 2017. Childhood fears: The importance of horror elements in It Can Pass Through the Wall. Short Film Studies, Volume 7 (Number 2) p. 187-190

Smith, I., 2021. ‘It Can Pass Through The Wall’ – An Analysis. [Viewed:29/03/2021] Available From: https://imogensmithmedia.wordpress.com/2021/03/07/it-can-pass-through-the-wall-an-analysis/

Smith, I., 2021. Research and Analysis of Interactive Storytelling. [Viewed: 29/03/2021] Available From: https://imogensmithmedia.wordpress.com/2021/02/19/research-and-analysis-of-interactive-storytelling/

Professionalism and Running a Project

Being professional in the work place has always been very important. However, because so many people work from home now, it is even more vital to give off a good impression and act professionally.

This blog post is going to delve into what I have learnt about professionalism and running freelance projects from home.

To start with I did a number of questionnaires to benchmark three factors; my emotional intelligence, how enterprising I am and how I feel about my future career/how prepared I am.

My results from these three questionnaires revealed that I am very emotionally intelligent, quite enterprising and am very close to being ready to start my career. All these factors mean I am able to work well by myself and in a team, I can listen to and understand feedback and put my emotions aside to complete the project to the client brief. It also means I use my opportunities to my advantage and help bring more opportunities towards me. I am currently spending this year building up my work experience to improve all these aspects. I plan to take these questionnaires again at the end of the year to track how my skills have developed.

After these questionnaires I began looking into how I can be more professional with clients. Of course there were steps I had already completed, such as; having an appropriate profile picture on my email, meeting platforms and social medias. I also make sure to only post appropriate content and use appropriate language on social media.

Another way to increase professionalism is to use a good email sign off that is consistent. I think it is best not to have a sign off that is too formal like, ‘sincerely’. But in the same breath, you don’t want to be too informal as it could give the impression of laziness or not caring. I looked into some examples and have decided my email sign off will be, ‘Best wishes, Imogen Smith.’ This is a simple and kind sign off but remains fairly formal so gives the right impression.

Another way I have increased my professionalism is by making a letter head that is branded to my production company as well as an invoice template with the same branding. I have also recently made a client briefing document that allows me to track what work the client wants, who the audience is, the deadline and other factors too.

This leads me on to how I run my projects. My first step with a new project is to, introduce myself to the client giving a quick run down of who I am and what I do/specialise in. I ask the client for more information abut the brief, what they hope to achieve, colour schemes and logos they may require. Once I have this information I fill out my client briefing document with all this information so I can refer back to it whilst working.

The most important part of my ideation process is the use of my trusty giant post-it notepad. I write down everything I need to do for the project in steps. For example, if I had to make a poster I would write down the colour scheme I needed to use, the layout ideas I had, then what needed to be included on the poster such as a logo, text needed any images.

My next step is to use the app ‘TODOist’ on my phone. This is a to do list/notes app. You can make projects and add tasks and sub tasks to the project, you are also able to add due dates and reminders and share projects with other people by typing in their email. With TODOist, I make a new project and add the due date, if I don’t have a specific due date I add a date in which I would like to have finished the project. I then begin adding the different steps I need to do, using the tasks function, this often starts with research into the client, and then moves on to an idea drafting session. I add dates to each task of when I ideally would like to have that step completed in order to finish the project early or on time. Sometimes steps require more than one task, for example when researching I might have two or three questions I want to answer or specific information I want to find out, in this situation I would add a subtask of what extra things I would need to do within that task.

Using TODOist allows me to track my progress on the project as I can check off tasks I have completed and I can see if I have passed due dates or not. Each day in the dashboard, that days task will appear so I then know what I need to do that day. Using this format of list also helps me to feel like I am being productive as it is satisfying checking off a task I have completed. I also have the option of sharing the project with the client so they can see how far I am progressing and this also helps to provide proof of hours worked when working out how much pay I am owed.

In conclusion, professionalism aids me not only in getting and keeping clients but helps my productivity and makes projects run a lot smoother. Using questionnaires to track my progress also helps me to establish how far I have come in my freelancing career and how my work has progressed.

‘It Can Pass Through The Wall’ – An Analysis

It Can Pass Through the Wall is a 2017 short film directed by Radu Jude. Jude was born in 1977 in Bucharest, Romania. He graduated from the Media University of Bucharest in 2003 and has gone on to win many awards for his works. The story takes inspiration from Chekhov’s 1887 short story ‘In the Coach-House’. In the Short Film Studies article, ‘It passes through time and space’, Stojanova discusses the similarities between Jude and Chekhov’s stories.

Both stories share the element of a character telling a ghost story within the plot. However, the characters differ somewhat in Jude’s film, the character of Sofia is actually a young boy in Chekhov’s short story and the death the characters discuss is not a neighbour but the master of the house they work for. The themes of both stories are largely similar.

This blog post is going to explore the themes, the symbolic or metaphorical content found in the film and how it creates meaning.

The theme presented in Jude’s, ‘It Can Pass Through the Wall’ is the fear of death and fear of the dead from a child’s perspective. After her grandfathers neighbour commits suicide, Sofia ‘witnesses’ this death through the screams and cries of the neighbours family outside the apartment as well as ghost stories and conversations shared between her grandfather and two of his friends. Fikse, Larsen (2017).

Another theme in the film is the Ghost story the blind man tells. It highlights Romanian beliefs about death and how the dead can still communicate after death and terrorise even. The blind man also brings in references of Satan by talking about a black dog, this further scares Sofia and makes the elements of ghost and invisible things become more pronounced.

The first thing I noticed about this film was the intense battle between sound and image. Before we see anything at the beginning of the film, we hear two old men talking and playing backgammon. When the image does appear we get introduced to these characters. This battle continues throughout the film, as we hear the screams and cries of the dead neighbours mother, we do not see where they are coming from as we only stay in the apartment. Even when the blind man is telling a ghost story, the camera does not show more than a partially obscured view of whoever is talking. When the film ends we continue to hear sound after the image fades.

As Gills (2017) explains this creates tension between what is seen and heard, therefore making the viewer fell tension from the beginning and not knowing why. I believe this use of sound is a metaphor for who children view the world. When I was younger I remember not fully understanding adult conversations or what was happening in situations, like I had an obscured view or I wasn’t present in the room when the conversation started. I think this is how Sofia was feeling in the film, not really understanding what was happening, but knowing someone had died, as well as not being in the room for the conversation so only overhearing what was being said.

Something that aids my theory and the story in general is the camera work. The film is done in one continuous shot in the middle of the Grandfathers apartment. This fixed position visualises the limited point of view of a young child over hearing a conversation.

There are several ways to view the fixed camera shot. Firstly we establish early on that the camera is following Sofia around the apartment which leads to the obscured view.

Shots 8-14 and 19-25 are all focusing on the exact same door frame which gives a partial view of the bed Sofia is sleeping in and her over hearing of her Grandfather’s conversation. Raskin, 2017. The camera work and fixed shot aid the audience in feeling the duration of the situation not just viewing it. One simple way to interpret the camera following Sofia is that it is just to highlight the childhood fears and experiences she is having. However I think it is a lot more deliberate than than.

Mišeljić wrote about the camera being an invisible stalker, always watching Sofia, the presence undetected by the adults in the room. The stalker could be the dead neighbour or as Banerjee explains, it could be the gaze of the spectre, that ‘haunts’ the space of the film. Or perhaps as Fikse and Larsen wrote, it could be a ghost of some kind, observing. All three of these metaphors are similar in theory and very possible. Whichever idea you prescribe to, the viewer become a voyeur through someone or something else’s eyes.

Bibliography

Banerjee, T., 2017. Gaze of the Spectre in It Can Pass Through the Wall. Short Film Studies, Volume 7 (Number 2) p. 165-167

Fiske, P., Larsen, E. E., 2017. The Girl and the Ghost. Short Film Studies, Volume 7 (Number 2) p. 161-164

Gills, L., 2017. Sound Versus Image in It Can Pass Through the Wall. Short Film Studies, Volume 7 (Number 2) p. 169-172

Mišeljić, J., 2017. The Invisible Stalker in It Can Pass Through the Wall. Short Film Studies, Volume 7 (Number 2) p. 191-193

Raskin, R., 2017. A Schematic Breakdown of It Can Pass Through the Wall. Short Film Studies, Volume 7 (Number 2) p. 136-143

Raskin, R., 2017. An Interview with Radu Jude on It Can Pass Through the Wall. Short Film Studies, Volume 7 (Number 2) p. 145-147

Stojanova, C., 2017. It Passes Through Time and Space. Short Film Studies, Volume 7 (Number 2) p. 181-185

Research and Analysis of Interactive Storytelling

In this post I am going to be laying out the research I have undertaken into interactive storytelling and analysing a short interactive video.

Chris Crawford, game designer and writer said in his book, ‘Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling’ his definition of interactive storytelling is, “A cyclic process between two or more active agents in which each agent alternately listens, thinks and speaks – a conversation of sorts.” (2013) An example of this would be the first agent being the device the story is being watched on (e.g. a computer or phone) and the second agent being the viewer.

Interactive games, films and videos are becoming more and more popular and being explored in a large variety of ways. In order to research and learn about interactive storytelling I analysed Dead Lonely (a zombie romance) this is a collaboration between Aardman Animations and Rapt Media. Dead Lonely is a short zombie romance story that follows Fred, who is looking for his wife Barbara. Fred acts as a surrogate for the audience, this means the audiences makes choices for Fred as if they are Fred. As well as this, the narrator talks to Fred as if he is able to respond, however, in reality the narrator is speaking to the audience and explaining the choices they need to make for Fred.

When watching through the short I experienced six different endings. There are two happy endings which are very similar in which Fred is reunited with Barbara, the other four endings I experienced were a variation of Fred meeting a grizzly end and getting into some kind of accident that results in him dying. If you make choices that result in Fred dying, you are given the choice to try again, but if your choices lead to Fred and Barbara being reunited you have finished the short and given the choice to play it again from the very beginning.

The interesting thing with interactive story telling is how it flips normal narrative on its head. By adding interactivity it becomes an experience, the audience is no longer a passive observer, this is an idea that I came across in Miller’s Digital storytelling, they explain how quickly an audience can switch from an observer to an active part of the narrative (2020). Interactive storytelling is incredibly immersive and engaging, this not only creates a more enjoyable time for the audience but increases the probability of the film being re-watched over and over. For example, I watched Dead Lonely six times just to see what other possible endings there were and what choices I could make. Something else I find really interesting is how the idea for the narrative is really simple and by its self may not have been as great to watch, but because of the interactive elements it is brought to a new level with a lot of depth that makes it so entertaining.

The narrative material in interactive stories differs from ordinary stories quite a lot. For example The narrator in Dead Lonely is speaking as though Fred can hear him, as if they are having a conversation. In reality, the narrator is speaking to the audience, they are explaining the choices ‘Fred’ has to make. By including this narration, the audience is given context to the choices, as well as this, after the choice has been made the narrator explains why that was a good or bad choice, e.g. at one point you are asked which gift Fred should get for Barbara, after picking the flowers you are reassured by the narrator when they state something along the lines of, ‘good choice Fred, Barbara always did like flowers.’

In an ordinary narrative, when a character is given a choice to make the character would have no input in this choice which could leave the audience with a lot of what if questions. For example, if a character in a horror film had to choose to go left or right to escape the killer, The audience may disagree with the characters decision and be left wonder would would have happened if the character did something else, could they have escaped and survived? Would they have died anyway? With interactive narratives, the audience is given the opportunity to make these choices for the character and even go back and explore other choices over and over again.

What are the pros and cons of giving the audience some control over story?

Pros	Cons
Lets the audience feel in control. It’s very engaging and immersive. It means the audience may re-watch to find out all the possible results and endings.	If the audience isn’t happy with a result they may not re-watch. Audiences can no longer passively view this content because they are required to press buttons to continue – this may mean it gets less views as some people could be to lazy to have this control.

In 2016, Cassie Phillipps spoke about choices and story branches at a GDC talk. From watching this video I learnt a lot about how to develop choices and branches in storytelling. One of the things they discussed was how important choices are, it improves the narrative and makes the experience more fun. However, the audience cannot have too much agency, this would cause a very complex narrative and would take too long to think of every single possibility. This is where the idea of smaller choices that feel impactful comes into play. By asking the audience left or right they feel they are making a big choice for the character, that is the only two options, one could mean life and one could mean death. In reality you could choose left or right or straight ahead or turn around or go up the stairs but the audience doesn’t feel they are missing out on these options at the time. It is important to make the viewer feel like they are in charge in interactivity whilst still only allowing them to follow the set narrative you have devised.

Bibliography

Aardman Animations, Rapt Media, 2016. Dead Lonely (a Zombie Romance). [Viewed: 19/02/21] Available From: http://www.raptmedia.com/customers/aardman-dead-lonely/

Crawford., C, 2013. Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling. 2nd edition. United Kingdom. New Riders

GDC, 2016. All Choice No Consequence: Efficiently Branching Narrative. [Viewed: 04/02/21] Available From:  https://youtu.be/TEa9aSDHawA

Miller, C.H., 2020. Digital storytelling : a creator’s guide to interactive entertainment . 4th ed. London: CRC Press. p.80

My Editing Process

This blog post will be going through how I edited my final images for my Photography project.

The brief I was assigned to create a maximum of 10 images responding to the topic, ‘community in the age of individualism’. Early on in my ideation, I wanted to focus on the graffiti community. Knowing that Covid-19 would definitely impact my ability to go out and shoot especially with other people, I decided to focus my project on the work in the community. I wanted to achieve environmental portraits of the artwork that highlighted the textures and locations of pieces, as well as capturing the evolution of an artists work within this.

As time went on, I started to notice faces throughout Southampton and decided I wanted to capture these pieces. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, this artist is called FacesOrFaces.

After doing my first shoot I reviewed the images and began editing.

My first step in editing is always to open my images in Adobe Bridge, I go through them all and give them star ratings out of five. This allows me to see all the images and disregard any that are perhaps out of focus or didn’t turn out as well.

I then filter my images in Bridge so I only see the ones I rated as five stars. I do this so I have a clear idea of which images I am working with and if there is something I need to reshoot. As we can see from the screenshot above, there were some locations I was able to get a lot closer to and get more detailed shots, and some places I was limited in how close I could get to them.

After I have a sense of what images I have to work with, I like to physically draw and map out how I want to edit them. I especially do this with projects that have a lot of overlaying of images, again, as mentioned in my Previous post, I was taking inspiration from David Hockney’s Joiners for this project so felt mapping out my intentions would really benefit me before beginning the next stage of editing.

As the premise of each collage was the same, I only needed to draw out one map. This image shows that my original intentions were to have a background then have images highlighting the key parts of the image, i.e. eyes, nose, ears and mouth.

Before doing any editing of individual images, I did a draft edit of one collage. On my first attempt I found that the images were hard to distinguish as the colour and lighting was so similar, it was hard to make out the lines where they joined together. I decided to edit and crop all the individual images in order to make the seams more distinguishable. The reason for this was that I wanted the final product to look like a jumbled up puzzle, and have a more disjointed appearance than an image that blends together seamlessly.

I used the Photoshop Express app on my iPad, to crop images tighter and as well as rotate them and add a vignette, so that the edges were more visible in the final product.

Then came the final step of editing; In the Photoshop app on my iPad, I drew round the outline of the face on a new layer using the brush tool. This was so that I could see an outline in order to line up the individual images without having images blocking my view by being in front of other layers.

Next, I deleted the layer with the full image and began adding layers with images of smaller sections of the main image, e.g. I first added a cropped image of the bottom half of the face and lined the image up with the outline I drew. I did the same with the top half of the face, and then began adding more images of closer up details, such as the nose, mouth, eyes, ears, and any extra lines or details.

By the end of this process I have an image that resembled this:

I then made the layer with the outline invisible and saved the image. I didn’t delete the outline just in case I needed to go back and make some changes. After receiving feedback, I made a few minor changes and saved my final images.

I really like the way you can see the progression of the artists work and how their style has changed over the years. I enjoy how each image is a little bit different because of the way they appear jumbled up. I tried to layer the images a little bit differently each time so there would be overlapping in different areas of each image. I especially like how the vignette makes the seams pop out and appear more disjointed.

Updated Research

Whilst I have been walking around Southampton, keeping an eye out for graffiti, I have discovered some interesting pieces.

I keep seeing the same faces painted onto walls, junction boxes and other places. I decided I really wanted to focus my project on this particular artist.

After conducting some research I believe I have found the person behind these paintings.

FacesorFaces is a London based artist who has also worked in Southampton whilst at University. I have reached out to them to try and learn more about their art and the meaning behind it. However, I did not get a response. Because of this I have had to look deeper into the artwork and try to come to my own conclusions about the work.

The artist did a Q and A on their Instagram story and I was able to find out some information there.

As we can see from these screenshots Faces gets their inspiration from “80s New York artists like Keith Haring”. Faces also states that the skateboarding scene has had an impact on their artwork and their outlook.

As well as this, Faces sates that a key part of their works development has been from drawing the same thing over and over again. I am really interested in trying to capture this development through my images.

When looking at Haring’s work we can see the inspiration Faces as taken in developing their almost cartoon/doodle-like style.

I also found that a year ago Faces did an interview with CarbonLIVE magazine. In this interview, Faces discusses how they ‘love the creativity and individuality’ of graffiti culture. This interview highlighted that, ‘The faces and characters started as a representation of humans as a way to celebrate all people without specific details such as gender or race.’ and went on to express how these factors can ‘hinder’ others opinions of the work. Faces went on to express how they don’t normally make the meanings behind their work known as they like the viewer to make their own interpretations.

For my project I will be photographing these faces and trying to tell a story through them. I want to create a portrait of the artist through their work. By using the locations and backgrounds as well as textures around it I will create collages of images to make up one image.

Because I wanted to create collages, I have done some research into photographers that have done similar works.

I have been looking into David Hockney’s ‘Joiners’ project. In the early 80s, Hockney began making intricate collages from polaroid pictures. After a while he began using 35mm film photographs and taking a more abstract approach to his collages.

I really like the way these images aren’t restricted to staying inside a box and they flow over the lines and overlap. I feel taking a similar approach with my images will enable me to show multiple elements of Faces’ work.

Prosumerism

I wrote this essay in the end of 2018. I feel it’s subject is even more relevant today so I am deciding to post it on my blog.

Prosumerism is the process of a consumer becoming a producer. There are many factors that come into this, such as Participatory culture and Consumer culture. This essay will be looking as the impact prosumers have on how we ourselves use the media and how the media then uses us/generates content for us.

Consumer culture is the focus on the spending of consumers money, “a central feature of consumer culture is the relationship between people and material goods” (Encyclopaedia.com 2002). For some time, advertising has been more focused on obtaining the consumers money, this closely links to capitalism as the epicentre is money and therefore power within advertising. Advertising has spread from magazine and newspapers, to TV and online, therefore has spread throughout social media. However, with the development of new media and the convergence between new and traditional media, consumers began to produce content because it became much easier to do so. Convergence is the theory that, “media ‘platforms’ are beginning to merge into a single computer-based form.” (Price 1997). This makes prosumerism easier because, if everything is one computer-based form, then every media text is accessible from one place and can be accessed by anyone, including content you make yourself.

Participatory Culture, Jenkins (2006) describes as the consumer becoming a prosumer. Not for money or fame but because they enjoy creating. For example; writing fan fiction or making videos on YouTube. Jenkins also explains that companies such as Facebook have added features to allow the consumer to produce their own content, thus making it easier to become a prosumer. 

The beginning of a consumers moving to producers can start with the consumers having a negotiated or oppositional reading of the media they are presented with. A negotiated reading is where the consumer partially agrees and disagrees with the dominant/preferred reading, they then make their own reading relating to themselves. whereas oppositional reading means the consumer completely disagrees with the preferred reading, this is done when the consumer is decoding media texts (Hall 1980). This relates to prosumerism because, if the consumer does not have media texts available to them that align with their values and experiences, or that they can relate to, then they may feel encouraged to make their own media texts, to enable others with similar experiences have texts to enjoy and relate to. For example, I have often felt that media texts are catered more for men than women, and therefore when I started studying media, and creating videos for assignments as well as a hobby, I found they often had lead female characters, because this isn’t as common as male leads. 

I found it easy to move from consumer to prosumer as social media makes sharing and accessing anything incredibly easy. Another way to look at it would be that it has become more enjoyable to create. With computer programmes and cameras/equipment being easier to use and have very few limitations, it has become enjoyable to have this freedom of being able to create anything. Again, the growth of social media aids this as it is so easy to share your own content. This could also be linked to peoples need for approval, sharing your own content and receiving approval through likes/views/shares could encourage consumers to move towards prosumers. An example of this could be the rise of YouTubers, audiences saw that YouTubers were gaining fame, popularity and money from making their own content and this brought on a rise in the number of prosumers. However, this rise could also be due to consumers finally feeling as though they have a platform to share on as well as receiving the gratification they desire. 

Uses and Gratifications theory suggests that audiences get four uses from media texts; diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance (Hodkinson 2017). I believe that if a consumer does not have these four uses for the media texts that they consume, because the media does not cater for them, then said consumer is much more likely to create their own content online or seek out content from other prosumers.

Moreover, new media allowing the consumer to become a prosumer has positive and negative impacts, the positives include the consumer having more choice in what they see in the media. As well as the media being able to rely on user-generated content to further their brand. However, a major negative is the prosumers using social media sites to promote their own ideologies and report their own news. A downside of this is the spreading of extreme views and fake news or just the spreading of incorrect information. An example of this is during the June 2017 general election. This election saw a spike in young people registering to vote as well as using their vote. I am sure there is some correlation to this spike in young voters and the number of memes telling people to register to vote. Encouraging people to exercise their right to vote causes no damage. However, there was also a plethora of memes in, (labour leader) Jeremy Corbyn’s favour. As well as memes demonising (Conservative PM) Theresa May. A lot of these memes did not focus on the Labour party’s manifesto, but focused on the fact Corbyn makes his own jam and grows veggies in his allotment. It is fair to say that some young voters may have been persuaded by the ‘Corbyn the lad’ ideology rather than his manifesto. This shows how prosumers views can spread, even as a joke, and influence voters’ decisions whether it for the better or not, if the memes had swayed in a far-right view it could have had a disastrous effect. The day after the general election, The Guardian released an article online, questioning if it was the memes that lead to a spike in Labour votes as well as giving ‘the best’ examples.

I think a positive of the increase in prosumers is that it encourages pluralism. This is the theory that the consumer can dictate the content and construction of the media, and that all people in society have a chance to express their viewpoints (Price 1997). If consumers have the power to generate their own content, then many more viewpoints will be present throughout media. Furthermore, a wider range of demographics will be present in media which in turn will lead to media texts appealing to more people, therefore making more money. An example of this is the release of Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’ 2018. The first Marvel film to have an almost entirely Black cast as well as the highest grossing film of all time by a black director (Mendelson 2018). Unsurprisingly brought in huge support from the black community. I saw this first hand as I was working in a cinema at the time. This proving that diversity in media is good for business and that prosumerism aiding this diversity is an incredibly good thing. 

Antonio Gramsci is well known for criticising pluralism (Thomas 2010). He believed that the media would manipulate the consumer to believing they could dictate the content of the media, when in reality the hegemonic dominant ideology is still being presented. With the increase of prosumerism, Gramsci’s theory seems less likely because if there is no gatekeeper between the prosumer and the way they are releasing their content, then there is no one to force the dominant ideology through.

In conclusion, prosumerism has its negatives such as; the spreading of fake news, extreme views and the swaying of public opinion. However, there are so many positives. This includes; creating diversity in the media, e.g. more female and black directors. As well as this, allowing people to have freedom with their work, for example a filmmaker not having to work their way through a production company, but being able to release films through YouTube. Another positive being, the ability to voice your opinion and make a difference, an example of this is the protests after the Florida school shooting in February 2018. Social media was used to spread the idea of a school walkout after the US government didn’t change their gun laws. There was a massive response to the campaign and it is all thanks to the ability of being able to share your own content and voice your own opinion. 

Moving forward I feel social media having more censorship would be much more damaging, than it is for it to continue the way it is now. Although it is easy to spread fake news or extreme views, this is manageable. However, allowing more censorship would put prosumers at the risk of having their content censored/gatekept meaning, the possibility of the media stamping out diversity. 

Bibliography

Encyclopaedia of Communication and Information, 2002. Consumer Culture [Viewed: 02/11/2018] Available: https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/consumer-culture 

Hall S, 1980. Encoding/decoding’. In Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (Ed.): Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies. London: Hutchinson 

Hodkinson P, 2017. Media Culture and Society: an introduction. (2^nd Ed). London: Sage

Jenkins H, 2006. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press. 

Mendelson S, 2018. ‘Black panther’: A the Box Office Records It Broke (And Almost Broke) In its $242m Debut. [Viewed 19/11/18] Available: https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2018/02/19/black-panther-all-the-box-office-records-it-broke-and-almost-broke-in-its-242m-debut/#68ec6b2a7195 

Parkinson H, 2017. Was it the Corbyn memes wot won it? Here are some of the best. [Viewed: 15/11/18] Available: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/09/corbyn-memes-wot-won-it-some-of-the-best 

Price S, 1997. The Complete A-Z Media & Communications Handbook. London: Hodder & Stoughton. Pg. 58, 180.

Thomas M, 2010. Discussing Gramsci: Pluralism and Hegemony. [Viewed: 19/11/18] 

Available: https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2010/03/20/discussing-gramsci-pluralism-and-hegemony 

Analysing the Online Presence of Media Professionals

Today I have been tasked with analysing the online/social media presence of media professionals. I am doing this to evaluate if their social media is reflective of their website and work. This will help me to create a social media strategy for myself and aid me in keeping my brand identity throughout my online presence.

The first Media Professional I looked at is, Alexandra Cameron.

Cameron is a portraiture and natural light photographer.

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Her Instagram states clearly the kind of work she does as well as contact info and other work she does such as making Lightroom presets. We can see in these screenshots that she includes a lot of highlights so that people can easily find behind the scenes content. Having these highlights also means that Cameron’s main Instagram feed can easily be reserved for just photography work. We get a clear grasp of the work she does from the first page of her Instagram.

We can see Cameron’s website has a very clear visual appearance as well. It not overly cluttered and allows her work to pop off the screen. Her website also shows a long list of sections which implies that she regularly updates her website.

The portfolio section of her website is again very clear. It is all categorised so it is very easy to find her work. There is very little writing on the website but this just allows the work to speak for itself.

We can also see the words ‘policy changer’ in her Instagram bio, a highlight called ‘Dear Instagram’ and several pictures of the same model. this all refers to the recent event where Cameron, Nyome Williams and Gina Martin had an Instagram policy changed as they kept censoring Black Women’s bodies. Rather than boycotting the platform, they continued to use it to voice their opinions and get the policy changed.

The second Media Professional I looked at is Kevin Folk. Folk is a German filmmaker and photographer.

We can see from these images that his Instagram follows a similar approach to Cameron’s in that he has the categorised highlights to make it easier for people to find specific content, and then the feed is reserved for work based content. However, Folk’s Instagram seems a lot less cluttered than Cameron’s, he has fewer highlights and a lot less in his bio. This makes his Instagram feel a lot neater.

Folk’s website opens with a full screen show reel of all his work. This really showcases his work and grabs the attention of the viewer as it is moving so it keeps the eyes interested and interacting.

We can see at the navigation bar, there is a lot fewer sections than on Cameron’s website. Again, this comes across as neat and concise.

The ‘Services’ section allows us to see all the work that Folk is available for. We can see here that he does a very mixed range of things. When you click on each icon it takes you to a more focused portfolio. I think this is good because it allows a client to view more easily if they are capable of what they want to create and therefore know if they should hire them.

The website also has a projects tab which again makes it very easy to see all the projects they have worked on. This really showcases the range they have.

Overall I think both people have a good grasp on an online presence and I will be taking inspiration from them when thinking of my social media strategy.

Preliminary Shoot

After conducting my research into Southampton Graffiti artists and graffiti photographers, I began walking the city and looking out for graffiti I wanted to take pictures of.

to help formulate my ideas I first started taking pictures with my phone whilst I was out walking.

Solent Showcase Gallery had mentioned a few places too look for. The first place I visited was an alley way in Bedford place. I found this location very interesting as there was so many layers of paint on the walls around me. The alley way also extended for quite a while but sadly I didn’t have time to explore it all. Below are some images I took on my phone to give myself an idea of what’s there and enable me to plan my shoot out beforehand.

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Another place that was mentioned to me was the subway in the common. I visited with a camera just to explore what was there and see what kind of shots I could get. I experimented with focusing on the architecture of the subway and using it to try and highlight the artwork. I also did some close ups of paint chipping and the artwork in general.

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After taking pictures at the common, I wanted to swing by the alleyway I looked at previously, but unfortunately the battery on the camera ran out before I got there.

These preliminary shoots were really useful to help me plan my main shoot and find what techniques I want to use as well as what aspects of the graffiti I want to focus on.

Ideation and Initial research

In my Photography class we were given the task to create a series of images that responds to the brief ‘Community in the age of individualism’.

I began thinking about communities in my area that I find interesting. My first thought was the local street art community as it is something I have always been intrigued by. However, it is a well known fact that graffiti artists like to be anonymous, I started to consider how I could find out who the artists were or to use their work to tell a story about their life whilst remaining anonymous.

One of my ideas to get around this is to create images of the artists work that use the environment around them to showcase it, Almost like an environmental portrait of the work itself instead of the artist.

I decided I should do more research into the community first before picking an artist to focus on. I contacted the Facebook page, ‘Southampton Street Art’ to see if they knew any names of local artists, Unfortunately they didn’t, but they suggested I speak to Solent Showcase Gallery as they frequently work with local street artists.

Solent Showcase Gallery were very helpful and gave me a list of places (such as Bedford Place alley ways and the underpass in the common) that are covered in graffiti. They also provided me with tags to look out for such as WASPKAMS/KAMS, SLOB, DEMO and ABUSE.

After finding out this information I discovered that WASPKAMS/KAMS also has work in Portugal which may be information I can use later.

My next step is to take a long walk around Southampton and try to find tags and pieces I like the most. I will make a note of these locations and possibly take some test shots, then I will go out with a camera and begin my first draft.

In my research I found two photographers to take inspiration from. The first is Martha Cooper, a 77 year old who has been photographing street art around the world for 40 years.

I love the use of colour and silhouettes in some of her work. I particularly admire her work from the 70s and 80s about the New York Graffiti scene. I like the candid nature of the people in these images.

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The second Photographer I have found is Ian Cox. Amongst other work, he travels round the world going to street art events and photographs the work.

what I like about his images is that they focus on the art itself and the environment it’s in using shadow and lighting to achieve this,

My aims and objectives for this project will be, to develop a narrative that enables the viewer to get to know the artist without ever meeting them. I will use the environment in which I find the artwork to create portraits of the work. I also want to highlight that graffiti can be seen as art and not just vandalism.

in conclusion, I will continue researching artists and use my findings to create meaningful images by using the right locations and surroundings to highlight key parts of the artwork. I will use the influence of Cooper and Cox to play with shadows, light and colour as well and the building structures around to achieve my aims and objectives.

Bibliography

Baravelli. M.V., 2017. 40 Years of Photographing Street Art Around the World. [Viewed: 24/10/2020] Available From: https://www.lensculture.com/articles/martha-cooper-40-years-of-photographing-street-art-around-the-world

Cox, I., 2020. Ian Cox Walkandy. [Viewed: 26/10/2020] Available From: https://www.wallkandy.net/

Solent University., 2020. Solent Showcase Gallery. [Viewed: 22/10/2020] Available From: https://www.solent.ac.uk/showcase