Here are references to all the sources I used to build my video:
ALONI, Y (2019) Super 8mm Film Effect Tutorial | Premiere Pro (FREE OVERLAYS) [Online Video]. October 8th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn3EJW_wvTA&t=202s [Accessed 12th May 2020]
DEL REY, L (2019) Lana Del Rey - Norman F****** Rockwell [Online Video] December 20th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soRjcajliHE [Accessed 12th May 2020]
DRAKE (2018) Drake - In My Feelings [Online Video] August 3rd. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRS_PpOrUZ4 [Accessed 12th May 2020]
XXEQUINETUTORIALS (2013) Free "Flicker" Overlay [Online Video] April 30th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK5VmozOiCo [Accessed 12th May 2020]
8mm Frame [Online Video] Available from: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jfwjjy6y72o2byp/8mm%20Frame.mp4?dl=0 [Accessed 12th May 2020]
Old Film Grain [Online Video] Available from: http://www.mediafire.com/file/abh4bs7gqc94slk/Old_Flim_Grain.wmv/file [Accessed 12th May 2020]
Tuesday 12 May 2020
Monday 11 May 2020
Independent Project - Final product
I have now finished my video and I'm ready to submit it. Overall, I think I have been successful with what I wanted intended to do for THIS video, but I'm still disappointed I didn't get to make my original idea. I will probably save that project for third year or at least I'll be doing it at a later date once the lockdown has been lifted, but I really wish I was able to fully realise that idea.
My piece is a music video called "lockdown sucks" showcasing the dull and empty life that living in complete lock-down has made people. The crude title reflects the crude reality we currently find ourselves in, uncertain of when things will start looking up for us. It is a music video edited to the track 'Over Yet' by Hayley Williams, and features a vintage, amateurish quality to give it character. The idea for this video is that it is an 'every-man video', meaning that it is just one traditional and boring experience of the lockdown from a regular man. It is not supposed to be particularly ground breaking in terms of meaning, it is just the lockdown through my lens.
Here is a walkthrough of my video:
The video begins showing the effect that the lockdown has had on society, with empty shopping centres, streets, car parks cropping up one after another. Shops display closed signs, CCTV cameras watch the audience, as they explore the closed world we now live in. We see the creator doing mundane things to amuse themselves such as dying their hair and getting their hair cut, going for a walk along a pond in a suburban park before reminiscing to better times. The audience watches a flashback sequence set in Los Angeles, with shots of multiple people gathering together, laughing, eating, and enjoying their lives. This juxtaposes against the next sequence, of the creator's family bored at home, doing whatever they can to stay sane. This mellow note is uplifted by the next part, where the audience sees the support the general public has given to the NHS by displaying images of rainbows all over the town. This positive message shows that there is happiness and hope on the other side of the lockdown, and we just have to get through it as a nation. The final few shots show a sad reality as we see multiple gravestones, reminding the audience why we are in a lockdown in the first place.
https://vimeo.com/417751567
My piece is a music video called "lockdown sucks" showcasing the dull and empty life that living in complete lock-down has made people. The crude title reflects the crude reality we currently find ourselves in, uncertain of when things will start looking up for us. It is a music video edited to the track 'Over Yet' by Hayley Williams, and features a vintage, amateurish quality to give it character. The idea for this video is that it is an 'every-man video', meaning that it is just one traditional and boring experience of the lockdown from a regular man. It is not supposed to be particularly ground breaking in terms of meaning, it is just the lockdown through my lens.
Here is a walkthrough of my video:
The video begins showing the effect that the lockdown has had on society, with empty shopping centres, streets, car parks cropping up one after another. Shops display closed signs, CCTV cameras watch the audience, as they explore the closed world we now live in. We see the creator doing mundane things to amuse themselves such as dying their hair and getting their hair cut, going for a walk along a pond in a suburban park before reminiscing to better times. The audience watches a flashback sequence set in Los Angeles, with shots of multiple people gathering together, laughing, eating, and enjoying their lives. This juxtaposes against the next sequence, of the creator's family bored at home, doing whatever they can to stay sane. This mellow note is uplifted by the next part, where the audience sees the support the general public has given to the NHS by displaying images of rainbows all over the town. This positive message shows that there is happiness and hope on the other side of the lockdown, and we just have to get through it as a nation. The final few shots show a sad reality as we see multiple gravestones, reminding the audience why we are in a lockdown in the first place.
https://vimeo.com/417751567
Sunday 10 May 2020
Storytelling and Gaming - References
Here is a full Harvard referenced list of all the sources I used when creating my game.
13LEAGUES (2020) Superstition S2 [Online] Available at: https://13leagues.itch.io/superstition-s2 [Accessed 10th May 2020]
CORE DESIGN. (1996) Tomb Raider [DISC] PlayStation. Derby, England: Eidos Interactive
CROWSCROWSCROWS (2018) The Temple of No [Online] Available at: https://crowscrowscrows.itch.io/the-temple-of-no [Accessed 10th May 2020]
CROWTHER. W & WOODS. D (1977) Colossal Cave Adventure [DISC] PC.
DIGITALEXPOSURETV (2017) Twine 2.0 - Introduction / Tutorial #1 [Online Video]. October 28th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKFZhIHD7Xk&feature=emb_title [Accessed: 10th May 2020]
DESIRELINES (2020) Pup in the Park [Online] Available at: https://desirelinesgames.itch.io/pup-in-the-park [Accessed 10th May 2020]
FRAYTAG. G (2017) Freytag's Pyramid. 1st ed. [EBOOK] L.Kip Wheeler, p.1. Available at: https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Freytag.pdf [Accessed 10th May 2020]
ITCH.IO (2015) Itch.io - indie game hosting marketplace [Online] Available at: https://itch.io/ [Accessed: 10th May 2020]
KILMAS. C (2009) Twine [SOFTWARE] Windows PC
MCCREE. N (1996) Tomb Raider OST (Soundtrack) Derby: Core Design
MCCREE. N (1997) Tomb Raider II: Starring Lara Croft OST (Soundtrack) Derby: Core Design
NAUGHTY DOG (2017) Uncharted: The Lost Legacy [DISC] PlayStation4. Santa Monica, California: Sony Interactive Entertainment
NINTENDO (2018) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate [CARTRIDGE] NintendoSwitch. Japan: Nintendo
PLATINUM GAMES (2009) Bayonetta [DIGITAL DOWNLOAD] NintendoSwitch. Japan: Nintendo
TRSEARCH (2002) TRSearch [Online] Available at: https://www.trsearch.org/ [Accessed: 10th May 2020]
VOXEL VAGRANT (2016) 01 Narrative Design in Twine [Online Video]. November 27th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnhCfyEMQmg&feature=emb_title [Accessed: 10th May 2020]
13LEAGUES (2020) Superstition S2 [Online] Available at: https://13leagues.itch.io/superstition-s2 [Accessed 10th May 2020]
CORE DESIGN. (1996) Tomb Raider [DISC] PlayStation. Derby, England: Eidos Interactive
CROWSCROWSCROWS (2018) The Temple of No [Online] Available at: https://crowscrowscrows.itch.io/the-temple-of-no [Accessed 10th May 2020]
CROWTHER. W & WOODS. D (1977) Colossal Cave Adventure [DISC] PC.
DIGITALEXPOSURETV (2017) Twine 2.0 - Introduction / Tutorial #1 [Online Video]. October 28th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKFZhIHD7Xk&feature=emb_title [Accessed: 10th May 2020]
DESIRELINES (2020) Pup in the Park [Online] Available at: https://desirelinesgames.itch.io/pup-in-the-park [Accessed 10th May 2020]
FRAYTAG. G (2017) Freytag's Pyramid. 1st ed. [EBOOK] L.Kip Wheeler, p.1. Available at: https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Freytag.pdf [Accessed 10th May 2020]
ITCH.IO (2015) Itch.io - indie game hosting marketplace [Online] Available at: https://itch.io/ [Accessed: 10th May 2020]
KILMAS. C (2009) Twine [SOFTWARE] Windows PC
MCCREE. N (1996) Tomb Raider OST (Soundtrack) Derby: Core Design
MCCREE. N (1997) Tomb Raider II: Starring Lara Croft OST (Soundtrack) Derby: Core Design
NAUGHTY DOG (2017) Uncharted: The Lost Legacy [DISC] PlayStation4. Santa Monica, California: Sony Interactive Entertainment
NINTENDO (2018) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate [CARTRIDGE] NintendoSwitch. Japan: Nintendo
PLATINUM GAMES (2009) Bayonetta [DIGITAL DOWNLOAD] NintendoSwitch. Japan: Nintendo
TRSEARCH (2002) TRSearch [Online] Available at: https://www.trsearch.org/ [Accessed: 10th May 2020]
VOXEL VAGRANT (2016) 01 Narrative Design in Twine [Online Video]. November 27th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnhCfyEMQmg&feature=emb_title [Accessed: 10th May 2020]
Independent Project - First draft
Just wanted to make a blog post showing my first initial draft of the music video, with the previous track I was using. This short development was just to explore what direction I wanted to take the video in. Whilst the final outcome looks and sounds a lot different, it was useful to make this and get my ideas flowing into practice.
https://vimeo.com/417753530
https://vimeo.com/417753530
Saturday 9 May 2020
Storytelling and Gaming 18 - Final product
I wanted to create a post just to show a screenshot of what the final product looks like, as well as give some final points:
I'm actually quite proud of what I have created. It's been a long time since I have done any sort of creative writing, so creating a story this long has been challenging but also enjoyable at the same time. I went into this with a lot of inspiration for the Tomb Raider series and I think I have created quite a faithful adaptation of the source material whilst creating something new and unique and in a completely different medium.
I will definitely be using Twine again in the future, whether it be for a University project or for my own personal enjoyment. I'm not very experienced in coding so this software is very easy to get the hang of, and the minimal coding is a big bonus for me. One day I would like to push myself to try more coding and create a 3D narrative experience of my own, but this was a great way of expressing some creative ideas in a format that I was comfortable with. Also, when researching how many great and spectacular Twine games other people have made, I would love to try and create something similar to those sometime.
For now though, I am very satisfied with my final outcome and I'm excited for other people to try it out and give me some feedback on it!
KILMAS. C (2009) Twine [SOFTWARE] Windows PC
I will definitely be using Twine again in the future, whether it be for a University project or for my own personal enjoyment. I'm not very experienced in coding so this software is very easy to get the hang of, and the minimal coding is a big bonus for me. One day I would like to push myself to try more coding and create a 3D narrative experience of my own, but this was a great way of expressing some creative ideas in a format that I was comfortable with. Also, when researching how many great and spectacular Twine games other people have made, I would love to try and create something similar to those sometime.
For now though, I am very satisfied with my final outcome and I'm excited for other people to try it out and give me some feedback on it!
KILMAS. C (2009) Twine [SOFTWARE] Windows PC
Wednesday 6 May 2020
Storytelling and Gaming 17 - Other ideas
Throughout the process of creating my game I had several other ideas that I considered but ultimately decided to avoid them. I thought it would be interesting to collate them here in a blog post.
There was one set of choices that I wanted to include in the final game but I ultimately decided to scrap it. After the dart trap scenario I thought about including a wolf that had been injured by the dart trap and it was up to the player if they wanted to leave it or put it out of its misery. Then later on, there would be a path with weak ground and if you hadn't killed the wolf, the wolf would catch up to you and the weight of the player and the wolf would cause the ground to collapse and set the player on a different path. I decided to scrap this idea for a number of reasons. I couldn't figure out a way that this wolf would have survived trapped in this tomb for however long. I also thought it was a pretty dark and cruel option to give the player, and I didn't want the player to regret a choice they had made. Plus who wants to kill a wolf. :(
Another idea I had was to go in a different route with the Twine story all together. Before I even knew I wanted to make a Twine game, I had an idea of creating a more deep and personal narrative that would focus on love and relationships, something akin to Life Is Strange. I thought a narrative like this would be a little more interesting than the treasure hunting direction, but ultimately I decided to against it because I just didn't know enough about narratives of that genre to be confident in writing one myself.
There was one set of choices that I wanted to include in the final game but I ultimately decided to scrap it. After the dart trap scenario I thought about including a wolf that had been injured by the dart trap and it was up to the player if they wanted to leave it or put it out of its misery. Then later on, there would be a path with weak ground and if you hadn't killed the wolf, the wolf would catch up to you and the weight of the player and the wolf would cause the ground to collapse and set the player on a different path. I decided to scrap this idea for a number of reasons. I couldn't figure out a way that this wolf would have survived trapped in this tomb for however long. I also thought it was a pretty dark and cruel option to give the player, and I didn't want the player to regret a choice they had made. Plus who wants to kill a wolf. :(
Another idea I had was to go in a different route with the Twine story all together. Before I even knew I wanted to make a Twine game, I had an idea of creating a more deep and personal narrative that would focus on love and relationships, something akin to Life Is Strange. I thought a narrative like this would be a little more interesting than the treasure hunting direction, but ultimately I decided to against it because I just didn't know enough about narratives of that genre to be confident in writing one myself.
Tuesday 5 May 2020
Storytelling and Gaming 16 - Finishing touches
I was reaching the end of my development on my game, so I was just making all the finishing touches. For example, I changed some of the colours of the game from the default, like the background from white to black, and the button colour from blue to gold. The black background was to sell the darkness of these tombs and ancient spaces (but also because I prefer dark mode on all of my apps) and the gold was to reference the final artifact, as well as the fortune of adventure that I was trying to tell with the story.
I made a disclaimer at the beginning of the story just to give some information on the game, like an old manual book for a PS2 game would. Just to tell the player what the story is about, there are secrets to collect and that the game features music tracks.
I also let me classmates try the link and see if it was working, and they enjoyed their experience with the game which was great to hear. They suggested adding some more elements like images and expanding the choices in the game which was great feedback that I will consider if I were to make a Twine game in the future.
With that, the game was complete!
I made a disclaimer at the beginning of the story just to give some information on the game, like an old manual book for a PS2 game would. Just to tell the player what the story is about, there are secrets to collect and that the game features music tracks.
I also let me classmates try the link and see if it was working, and they enjoyed their experience with the game which was great to hear. They suggested adding some more elements like images and expanding the choices in the game which was great feedback that I will consider if I were to make a Twine game in the future.
With that, the game was complete!
Thursday 30 April 2020
Storytelling and Gaming 15 - Music and sound
By watching tutorials from DigitalExposureTV on YouTube I learnt how I can include music and sound effects in my Twine story. This helps to enhance the immersion of the player navigating the story, and just adds another level of quality to the game. Now I originally wanted to have particular ambient tracks playing on a loop in the background, but I couldn't figure out how to get them to continue playing on each page. Each time I tried it, it resulted in the music cutting out after the first page, so I had to scrap the idea of having a continuous track in the background. What I was able to implement however, were short little tracks that I would play at key moments.
For example, during the very first page of the story there is a short choir song that plays, which is supposed to represent the style and atmosphere of ancient Greece. I suppose I had this idea of an echoing amphitheatre when I used it. Another example would be when the player uses a gun, they will hear a gunshot.
In order to do this, I had to download the tracks and upload them to a free website I created using Yola, and then copied the link address and with a piece of code, made it so that when the player would enter that page, the sound clip would play. Very simple stuff but makes the experience a little more interesting.
The tracks I used where actually from the original Tomb Raider (1996) video game. I know I'm obsessed, but the tracks used in that game where so effective at capturing the atmosphere of being in those tombs and cities, and I thought they would fit perfectly with the style and tone of the game that I had written. As for sound effects, I downloaded them from an assets website.
CORE DESIGN. (1996) Tomb Raider [DISC] PlayStation. Derby, England: Eidos Interactive
MCCREE. N (1996) Tomb Raider OST (Soundtrack) Derby: Core Design
MCCREE. N (1997) Tomb Raider II: Starring Lara Croft OST (Soundtrack) Derby: Core Design
TRSEARCH (2002) TRSearch [Online] Available at: https://www.trsearch.org/ [Accessed: 10th May 2020]
For example, during the very first page of the story there is a short choir song that plays, which is supposed to represent the style and atmosphere of ancient Greece. I suppose I had this idea of an echoing amphitheatre when I used it. Another example would be when the player uses a gun, they will hear a gunshot.
In order to do this, I had to download the tracks and upload them to a free website I created using Yola, and then copied the link address and with a piece of code, made it so that when the player would enter that page, the sound clip would play. Very simple stuff but makes the experience a little more interesting.
The tracks I used where actually from the original Tomb Raider (1996) video game. I know I'm obsessed, but the tracks used in that game where so effective at capturing the atmosphere of being in those tombs and cities, and I thought they would fit perfectly with the style and tone of the game that I had written. As for sound effects, I downloaded them from an assets website.
CORE DESIGN. (1996) Tomb Raider [DISC] PlayStation. Derby, England: Eidos Interactive
MCCREE. N (1996) Tomb Raider OST (Soundtrack) Derby: Core Design
MCCREE. N (1997) Tomb Raider II: Starring Lara Croft OST (Soundtrack) Derby: Core Design
TRSEARCH (2002) TRSearch [Online] Available at: https://www.trsearch.org/ [Accessed: 10th May 2020]
Friday 24 April 2020
Independent Project - Overlays
My video in it's current state looks pretty boring, so I have decided to add some overlays to make it look like it was filmed on super 8mm film. This is a technique I have seen multiple music artists use for their videos, so I thought I would do it to my own to make it look a lot more interesting.
I found an overlay that looks just like this on the internet as well as some other vintage film effects like grain and camera flashes to give the video a bit more personality.
I was a little worried that these would make the video a bit distracting, but considering how dull I think the video is normally, I think these effects give it more character. It also differentiates itself from other music videos I have created in the past, which will make my portfolio of work look more varied.
I watched this tutorial to learn how to do it:
ALONI, Y (2019) Super 8mm Film Effect Tutorial | Premiere Pro (FREE OVERLAYS) [Online Video]. October 8th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn3EJW_wvTA&t=202s [Accessed 12th May 2020]
DEL REY, L (2019) Lana Del Rey - Norman F****** Rockwell [Online Video] December 20th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soRjcajliHE [Accessed 12th May 2020]
DRAKE (2018) Drake - In My Feelings [Online Video] August 3rd. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRS_PpOrUZ4 [Accessed 12th May 2020]
XXEQUINETUTORIALS (2013) Free "Flicker" Overlay [Online Video] April 30th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK5VmozOiCo [Accessed 12th May 2020]
8mm Frame [Online Video] Available from: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jfwjjy6y72o2byp/8mm%20Frame.mp4?dl=0 [Accessed 12th May 2020]
Old Film Grain [Online Video] Available from: http://www.mediafire.com/file/abh4bs7gqc94slk/Old_Flim_Grain.wmv/file [Accessed 12th May 2020]
 |
| Drake - In My Feelings |
 |
| Lana Del Rey - Norman F****** Rockwell |
 |
| Raw footage |
 |
| Filter + overlays |
I watched this tutorial to learn how to do it:
ALONI, Y (2019) Super 8mm Film Effect Tutorial | Premiere Pro (FREE OVERLAYS) [Online Video]. October 8th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn3EJW_wvTA&t=202s [Accessed 12th May 2020]
DEL REY, L (2019) Lana Del Rey - Norman F****** Rockwell [Online Video] December 20th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soRjcajliHE [Accessed 12th May 2020]
DRAKE (2018) Drake - In My Feelings [Online Video] August 3rd. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRS_PpOrUZ4 [Accessed 12th May 2020]
XXEQUINETUTORIALS (2013) Free "Flicker" Overlay [Online Video] April 30th. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK5VmozOiCo [Accessed 12th May 2020]
8mm Frame [Online Video] Available from: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jfwjjy6y72o2byp/8mm%20Frame.mp4?dl=0 [Accessed 12th May 2020]
Old Film Grain [Online Video] Available from: http://www.mediafire.com/file/abh4bs7gqc94slk/Old_Flim_Grain.wmv/file [Accessed 12th May 2020]
Thursday 16 April 2020
Storytelling and Gaming 14 - Implementing the story into Twine
Like I said in my previous post, the hard part is now over. The story is completely finished and all I have to do is put it all into Twine.
This is how Twine works as a software. You create pages in Twine and each page will be one single webpage where the text will be displayed in your browser window. You create multiple pages and then link them together using a bit of code.
For example, here is how the page interface looks:
So here is a page where I have pasted in some of my story, and at the end of this passage I want the player to make a choice between two different options. To do this, I have to use some special but simple code that Twine uses. In this instance, to create a link to a new page, I use:
[[Assess the situation and play it safe -> page 7a: play safe]]
[[Keep going -> page 7b: keep going]]
So the square brackets is what creates the link to the next page and by having two of them, it creates two new pages, and therefore two choices. The little arrow followed by the page number is just a way for me to name the page, otherwise it would be blank.
Here is how the main interface for Twine looks:
So each of those white squares represents a page, the arrows following them show the sequence of events, and as you can see from page 6 (my example with the two choices) it creates a branch which creates two different paths of events. Ultimately it all flows back into the same linear story though.
And finally here is how my whole story looks in Twine in one timeline:
Fairly long but still very linear which is one of my own complaints with this narrative, though to be fair, my inspiration for my story is quite linear narratives anyway so I'm not too bothered by it. Now it's all fully implemented, I get to add some additional features.
KILMAS. C (2009) Twine [SOFTWARE] Windows PC
This is how Twine works as a software. You create pages in Twine and each page will be one single webpage where the text will be displayed in your browser window. You create multiple pages and then link them together using a bit of code.
For example, here is how the page interface looks:
So here is a page where I have pasted in some of my story, and at the end of this passage I want the player to make a choice between two different options. To do this, I have to use some special but simple code that Twine uses. In this instance, to create a link to a new page, I use:
[[Assess the situation and play it safe -> page 7a: play safe]]
[[Keep going -> page 7b: keep going]]
So the square brackets is what creates the link to the next page and by having two of them, it creates two new pages, and therefore two choices. The little arrow followed by the page number is just a way for me to name the page, otherwise it would be blank.
Here is how the main interface for Twine looks:
And finally here is how my whole story looks in Twine in one timeline:
KILMAS. C (2009) Twine [SOFTWARE] Windows PC
Independent Project - LA footage
I found a lot of footage on my SD card from when I went to Los Angeles a few years ago with my friends on a college trip, and I thought I could re-purpose it to fit in my video. I can have a juxtaposition between all the fun and happy times I had in LA, surrounded by friends, eating in restaurants, busy traffic etc. against the emptiness of my hometown, the loneliness and how boring life at home is.
I have imported the footage into my video and given it a different filter and colour-direction than the rest of my video, as an attempt to make it look like a flashback. I have made this portion of the video a lot lighter and washed out than the other footage to give it a sepia tone style without actually giving it a sepia tone. This is just a way of trying to differentiate this section from the rest of the video, and make it clear to the audience that this is a flashback.
I have imported the footage into my video and given it a different filter and colour-direction than the rest of my video, as an attempt to make it look like a flashback. I have made this portion of the video a lot lighter and washed out than the other footage to give it a sepia tone style without actually giving it a sepia tone. This is just a way of trying to differentiate this section from the rest of the video, and make it clear to the audience that this is a flashback.
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