Castors & Time management

Tasks to do

- Look for Castors
According to my story line, my castors require to have certain acting skill or time to practice..
Therefore, I have to carefully choose my castors and takes little time.

- User testing
After finished all the pre and post production,
it's good to have a user testing.
Make sure that users or audiences are interested into my video and interaction.
If there's any problems that time allows me to make changes, 
I have the chance to change it. 

- Video shooting
 Shooting is the most important and usually use longer time.
 Some of the seniors start shooting during semestar break
and I might start during sem break too.
This is because shooting always have problems with time management,
which castors might not be free all the time.
Besides, equipments have to book earlier too.
At least when I start my new semestar,
I can start with editing.

- Video Editing
The part which takes longest time is "rendering".

- Technical ( coding for mobile interaction )
This is the hardest part for me as I'm not really good in coding.
There are few ways that I can execute my mobile's interaction.
1. I can come out with a mock up flash player/application in mobile 
so that the user can click on the buttons in it and 
trigger pc's video options.
2. If I insist that user speak out the options and trigger the buttons
then there have to be someone behind the scene to click on buttons.
But there must be another software to link both computer.
There might be other options but I still can't find yet. 
Continue...

- Timetable for shooting ( day & time )
Need to fix time and date before start shooting so that everyone including castors are well prepared.
It will be more easier and convenience for the shooting to carry on.
Besides, I can even make sure my shooting will be finished on time and ready for my editing ( post production ).

- Storyboard planning ( stages & options )
Make sure the options are interested and necessary to be in the story.

- Location planning 
I might need some nice and special locations for shooting.
For example in my story, there are lots of shots will be taken in a bedroom (hostel)
but I wish to get a nicer room for shooting..
therefore, I might need to decorate the place.. (takes time)

techincal part

In this post, I would look for softwares or any methods to that I can use in this project.

As mentioned in my previous post, my users can interact or trigger my video's options/decisions/buttons through mobile phone. Therefore, I need to do research on softwares or any programming that could connect mobile and pc.

Sweii suggested that I can create a mock up application/flash player on mobile which has the same interface with a mobile phone keypad. Then when user click on them, they are actually click on a flash player.


RemoteMouse
So, I found this software which introduced by classmate, Redzuan.
They have few features :-

- Two finger tapping for double click
- Two finger dragging for scroll
- Function keyboard with arrow keys
- Touchpad with vertical and horizontal orientation
- Accelerometer based mouse
- Works over WIFI network or 3G


How to Remote Control PC with a phone using vnc

This is another software where a handphone screen can display everything on a pc.
If you log in to facebook through phone, it will also shows on the pc screen.

I actually thought of using two computers in this project. One of it is to show the user our video, another one is to connect a mobile phone and show the mobile interface (mock up flash player) so that user can interact with it.
However, I don't think this is not working because you have to scroll left/right/up/down on the mobile screen to view overall pc's display.

So, not going to use this way.

Research on Movies/Films for story line.

So, in order to get some interesting story line with the helps of other movies or story from books...

I've watched 3 movies tonight.. which is "the call", "house at the end of the street" and "the roomate"...

The Call

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1911644/

Basically..this movie is about a girl being abducted and she called to 911 emergency center and have a long conversation with the operator.

Basically both main character uses "mobile phone" throughout the movie which I think this might be what I need since I'm adding the "phone interaction" element in my video..

However, I still couldn't see any part of this movie is related to my main message..

House at the end of the street

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1582507/

Okay..this is another movie which I think is quite related to my message.

 A boy which looks nice, polite or even good looking but he turns out to be a psycho person due to some unhappy or unpleasant childhood memory. 

It falls under "horror" category which is what I want my video to be..so..

under consideration. 

The Roomate

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1265990/

So, this is another movie which I think quite fit into my message but the story is pretty straight forward.

People might easily guess the ending without finish it.. 

So..I guess it's just like what lecturers said,

" not impressive ending "..

Conclusion is that..I've to continue watch more movies tomorrow to get better story line. 

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After one night,
 finally think of a story that I can come out from this movie,
"the roommate".
Erm...basically the story content and characters are closer to our lifestyle.

So..story is about friendships of two roomates. 
They're great..get along with each other, close, hang out together..
share their secrets.. talk about friends around them.
Everything looks normal, however things became a little bit weird after sometime..

Let's say they're Sara and Becky. 
Sara found out things around here became a little bit weird..
friends around her is going away..
ex boyfriend suddenly lost contact after she moves into this new place...
Her kitten just disappear after sometime..

And at last, she discovers that it's all because of her roomate, Becky.

I haven't really think of how's the ending gonna be... but it might be like..
in order not to let Sara leave her again, Becky finally locks her in the room.
So this will be the last part which contains lot of decision making where Sara is gonna call the user/audience with phone provided so that they can help her find the way out.

The back part will be little bit looks like the movie "The Call" which, 
a girl being abducted called the operator and they hold this call most of the time..
and get back to it after some dangerous moments.

_________________________________________________________________________________

However, I'm still quite worry that the story line doesn't impress the users...
So..I might continue look for other movies/stories.

Story line research

In this post, I'm gonna do research on different story line which brings a message or the same message as mine.
So that I can come out with a more interesting story line or ending which impress users.

Message : Don't judge a person by it's appearance

Usually with this kind of message people will know, 
good looking = bad guy
bad looking = good guy

This is how people usually set the character. So, I need to do something different. 

I've few thoughts..

first. 

second.

KILLER.
It's about a detective investigating a case murderer and she/he makes lot of assumption and prediction of the murderer. The detective predicts that the murderer might be a guy which is a friend of the decedents. Base on the crime scene's condition, the detective is sure that this person should be a bloody murderer. However, things turned out differently. The murderer is actually a girl who nearly being raped / bullied by this bunch of guys.

interactive video research

In this post, I wanna find out different type of interactive youtube or video and analyse them. Find out which type or how many options given to the user are better.

8-bit harry potter

This is actually an interactive flash game.

American Idol Interactive Experience

This is something I think "looks" different but actually using the same method which,

you able to choose any character you want, 

and after that they'll allow you to continue choosing other characters..

But the feeling is more interactive, more like a game. It's not bad.

Hold your breath

Among all this, this is another type of video which only 1 option and only have 1 stage.

The way they interact with user is talk to the audience. The challenge the audience.

Anyway, it's kinda bored if only provide 1 option and 1 stage.

Bboy vs Joker

this is slightly different..

They got like few options for you to choose..but it's like a game. 

So you have to follow what they gave you, then you choose the same option.

Angry Birds Real Life Interactive 3D Game

This is just a very simple and common interactive video..except for one part,

which you have to click on the "mini angry bird" in the middle of the video playing. 

It's nice. I'll be considering to add in this element into mine.. :)

This is a video I found previously, which the audience able to communicate/interact with the protagonist through mobile phone.
Through flyers, the audience being informed that they have to send their contact number to the database..
and the protagonist will call to one of the audience's mobile phone.

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Lastly, I decided that it's necesary for me to add in this mobile element into my interactive video. 
After watching lots of videos which some of it I didn't add into this blog.. because they're not really useful.. 
just watching it because I've to get more references..
So, after watching them I think most of the interactive videos are using the same way which they require the user to click/choose the options ..and it would jump to the next scene..
and I definitely think this is quite tradition means quite bored.. 
except if they have nice storyline. 

So..mobile interaction is kinda new and special after all. 

Besides...in terms of the number of options provide to the user,
I would probably fix it around 2 to 3..maximum would be 3.
I watched some a video which they have 4 to 5 or even 6 options for the user...
but somehow, it's gonna be quite confuse.
User would definitely wish to restart the video and go for those options they did not choose..
and if there're too many options..they might get confuse whether which one they did not choose previously.
Therefore, I would prefer 2 to 3 options for my user.