Green Screening

The idea I had in my mind was that green screening was going to be easy, I just grab a piece of something green, do what I do when acting with it, and use keying to put another video in place of the green parts, this part was easy.
The hard part was mapping this new video to move with the green screen map that our character Neil uses. When filming the map waved around a fair amount, I should have thought it through and made Neil keep the green screen map as still as possible, this would have allowed for easier editing.



I finished mapping out the movements of the pirate map and stared the rendering process, I didn't realize it would take 40 minutes to render an 18 second clip.

My clip was rendered and I put it in with the rest of the movie but when played back it had no sound. Nobody told me you had to select the option of rendering the audio as well.

I had to wait another 40 minutes.

Digital Pirate Map : Final

Victoria University of Wellington
School of Design
DSDN112: Intro to Interaction Design
Project 2B: Navigation Interface
Digital Pirate Map

I designed a futuristic technology similar to a map but with the function of being digital to enable quick and easy use as well as being built from a flexible material to enable easy storage and the ability to be folded to fit into one's pocket.

This short film illustrates the use of this technology.

A special thanks to Mantra for the use of their music 'The Bunnyman' and 'Flashback'
Also thanks to Juanitos for the use of their song 'Black Samba'

Thank you to everyone who helped me in the creation of this movie.







Here is the link to my completed video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNeS-HtTAls&feature=plcp

I wasn't quite happy with how it turned out, technology just wasn't on my side, there were supposed to be some captions throughout the party montage but these got cropped out for some reason, I also had other technical difficulties, overall I'm content with how it turned out, it could have been a lot worse.

In one of our studio sessions we were asked by our tutor to list five words that our movie should portray about the navigation system, my five words were


Simplistic, Quick, Compact, Malleable, and Themed. I think I managed to portray each of these five words.

Simplistic, the Digital Pirate Map was shown to have a simple use which Neil used well whilst under pressure from the group of angry people chasing them.

Quick, Neil used the map to navigate the four friends out of cemetery quickly enough so as to avoid being harmed by the angry people chasing them

Compact,Neil was able to tuck the map away in his pocket, when not using the map it was not noticeable most of the time, yet he still carried it.

Malleable, several times we saw Neil folding, unfolding, or rolling up the map, showing off the flexibility  of its structure.

Themed, one of the main features of the digital interface was that the user followed dashed lines to get to their destination which was marked by an 'X' just as a pirate map would be. In my movie I wanted to illustrate this point of inspiration by having the main character dress up as a pirate.

Music

Any good film has music, and any law abiding film maker has rights to any music used in his films.
I immediately thought of my friends involved in musical acts and asked if I could use their music in my film. The band 'Mantra' released The Bunnyman EP in 2011. I asked my friend Jeremy Richardson, the drummer of Mantra if I could use some of their music

• Conversation started October 13 

• 12:57pm
• Jayden Rhinosaur Hamilton
  

  
  

  Jeremy, I wanted to ask you a massive favour.
  I am making a movie in the next few weeks for a design project and was wondering if you could licence me the use some of Mantra's music in it.
  Everything at University needs to be copyright legal, this gives me a great opportunity to use local music of people I know.
  I am unsure as to who owns the rights to Mantra's music but I was assuming that because you were 1/4 of the creative power behind the group you had 1/4 of the rights.
  If this is the case are you able to allow my use of the music; do you need to consult the others?
  The point of my project is to illustrate the use of a navigation interface of Kelburn Campus and I am turning this into a comedy movie.
  Thanks Jeremy,
• October 20 
• 3:29pm

  Jeremy Richardson
  

  
  

  yeah thats algood man
  
  I have chosen to use snippets of the tracks for Bunnyman and Flashback as a part of my film.
  
  
  

   I also asked if anyone else had music that they wanted to contribute towards the film, a friend and Actor in the film Anthony wanted to ontribute music. H sent me through some demos and I judged them on how they would fit into the party scene which I required audio for. Unfortunately none of the music fit a party atmosphere.

  
  

  From here I had to desperately search for free music online. I used the website http://freemusicarchive.org/ and searched for party music. Almost all music on this webite is free to download but also illegal to edit as it has a no derivitive licence.

  I did however find a track called Black Samba by Juanitos. It is not exactly the kind of party music I was hoping for but it does a good job of creating a lighthearted if ever so seedy atmosphere.

Making A Movie Happen

A lot of work went into making the movie, the most important part of this was finding people to help me as actors and other roles.
I used Facebook to tell people what I was doing, I had a number of my friends whom I had invited say that they wanted to help in some way, some were more reliable than others.


Here is how I went about it:
/////////////////////////////////////////

Make A Movie

Invite-Only Event · By Jayden Rhinosaur Hamilton

 

• Monday, October 29, 2012

 

 I need people to help me with filming a movie, this primarily includes actors, but if you can offer your help in other ways like filming or music this would be much appreciated.

This is going to be a short film for a University project, we must illustrate the use of navigation interface (digital map) and I am choosing to do this via comedy movie.

The general plot line involves some boys who go to a party and cause some ruckus that results in them having to run away from people who want to hurt them.

Please let me know if you are interested in the slightest way and I will try to plan filming and other things around your availability.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

I had some of the following responses:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

I WANT TO ACT IN IT.

 Sounds interesting.

 Dibs on playing Rok Kongo, the cheerful backpack-wearing psychopathic adventurer

 M!W! would be keen on doing some soundtrack work too if you need one!

 Can i be Neil? :p

 flick me a pm if you want me. id be keen tho. pretty good at causing ruckus

 I can be ye pirate grrr any excuse to not shave hahaha

 Maybe

 I'm getting married this weekend, so I can't make it. Sorry about that.

 Can't make it this weekend brah.

 I'm physically unable to throw up so I don't think it would be a realistic character for me to play

 I can definitely do this, sweet

 I'd love to help but I'll have to get time off work, are we filming on just the one day or over many?

 Anthony and I are interested in playing villains if there are villains in it. Also where will the batcave be?

 Have moustache, will act.

 Me and Josh can defanitly cause rukus. You just have to tell the people afterwards that we were acting so we don't get stabed

keen :)

Keen whenever you need me :)

////////////////////////////////////////////////

 As well as the initial invite I needed specific information for certain scenes here are some of my requests and the responses I recieved from them:

///////////////////////////////////////////////

 

 

Jayden Rhinosaur Hamilton

i also want to do a scene where one of our main 4 is intoxicated and throws up over a balcony and onto some people, this will involve spraying water out of someones mouth onto some people, if i can get people who are not afraid of a bit of water who can get changed into dry clothes after the shoot that would be awesome.

  ohh i might be able to do that. does anything have to be done other than getting water all over meh?

 

 

Jayden Rhinosaur Hamilton

I am going to need some girls who can slap a guy after hes tried to pick her up.
slaps need to be realistic but not too painful.
pickup lines include:
'here i am, what are your other two wishes?'
'i seem to have lost my phone number can i have yours?'
'if sexy was a crime you'd be guilty as charged'
'you're so beautiful you made me forget my pickup lin

 ohh ohh I can slap good ! haha ..Hope you find a good slapper

How about "Cut the **** ****muffin, the time for horse**** has passed and I heard you like it up the-" *SLAP*

or or "Did you fall from heaven? Because your face is ****Ed up

Jayden Rhinosaur Hamilton 

 i have been told by tutors to keep it as g rated as can be.

 

//////////////////////////////////////////

 

 Clearly some of the responses to my inquiries were more serious than others.

 

Raw Footage

Here is some raw footage of my movie. 

The first scene was shot at a house party which in the movie is to appear as the Hunter Lounge

This second scene is shot at the bus stop on Kelburn Parade, here the character of Neil turns up in a pirate costume when he was expected to be dressed in a suit.

This third scene was shot in the Mount Street Cemetery in Kelburn. In this scene the four boys are running away from some people who wish them harm.

Flexible Map

My idea for a movie had the user, a pirate named Neil, showing off a pirate map which is my navigation interface. To put this into practice I had to come up with a material that was the right size for a pirate map and also flexible.

I headed over to Briscoes to search for materials, I had in mind a silicone baking tray. These trays are flexible so that any baking can come off easily and they can withstand the heat!

Silicone Map, A5

Scrunched Up

Folded Up Ready To Be Placed Inside Of A Pocket

Movie Script

We see the back of Darren's head as he walks along, he approaches his friends who are fighting.
Darren : Woah,woah guys cut it out.
Jonothan : Yeah, st stop it
Neil : Get off me
Lance : Hahaha,
Darren : Neil forget him, Jonothan come here, listen up. We're going to Hunter tomorrow night.
Lance : Where's Hunter?
Darren : Near the Uni somewhere, anyway the chicks will be banging, the costumes will be smooth like mafia or something, so wear something badass, We'll get our drink on and stake our claim. Tomorrow night we make something of ourselves.

The next evening Darren, Jonothan and Lance wait at the bus stop for Neil who missed the bus.
Lance : Where the hell is he?
Jonothan : He just missed the bus, he'll probably be picking out his clothes with his mum, you know he's useless with fashionable clothes.
Lance : Oh yeah Jono, Mr hot fashion
Jonothan : Because I can wash and iron a shirt?
Darreen : Oi, Shutup, Relax, We've got all night, people will only just be starting to turn up.
Jonothan : Hey, the bus.

Neil steps off of the bus dressed as a pirate
Neil : Hey fellas!
Lance : What the hell are you wearing?
Jonothan : Why are you dressed as a pirate?                        Darren: Laughter, Hahahaha
Neil : Pirates are badass, you said dress badass.
Lance: If you're twelve
Jonothan : Its a criminal themed party, we are going as mafia, the fab four,
Neil : You didn't say that, you said dress badass
Lance : That's not badass.
Neil : Yes it is
Lance : No it's not, you look like a toddler.
Neil : Yes it is, pirates drink harder, party harder, and kill people more ruthlessly than mafia.
Jonothan : Guys shut up,where do we go?
Lance: Hunter is around here, somewhere...
Neil : I can use my pirate map to find it!
Jonothan : Your kidding right? and I bet X marks the spot too.
Neil : Thats right. See, its digital, and completely flexible. Touch screen too, I just type in Hun..T..E..R... and...
Darren : Look those people are going too, lets follow them.
Lance : Put that thing away
Darren : You look like a dick.

 The four characters walk into the party.

Each character does their own thing at party.
Darren talks to ladies and gets numbers.

Jonothan is awkward but gets into chugging beer, fast!

Neil talks confidently but people are uneasy about him, he drinks rum like a sophisticato

Lance trys picking up girls and gets rejected.
Here I am, what were your other two wishes?
I seem to have lost my phone number, can I have yours?
Baby, if sexy was a crime you'd be guilty as charged.
Do I know you? because you look like my next girlfriend.

Lance is slapped. Fade in and out of black
Neil : You should've seen it Jono just downed them one after another, it was unbelievable, just like water.
Lance : Wha, what happened?
Darren : You got bitch slapped.
Lance : Where's Jono?
Jonothan throws up over balcony onto people below.
Darren : Oh crap, guys, Lance, help me with Jono, lets get out of here.
Jonothan : Wha? Huh?
Lance : Neil, Come on

The four of them are chased into the cemetery

Darren : Come on, this way. Get down.
Neil : What are we doing?
Jonothan : Wha?
Lance : Shut up Jonothan, those guys over there are after us because he threw up all over their heads. We've got to get out of here or they will kill us.
Darren : Nice spot for it.
Neil : We can use my pirate map
Lance : Oh man...
Neil : No look, I can find our location... Kelburn Graveyard and then... find different ways out. This path is where we came from so those guys will be there, but we can go down here there are steps that lead to the road.
Lance : Can you see them?
Darren : Nope, lets go quick.

The four meet up on the street.
Lance : So back to the party then,
Darren : No Way, not with Jonothan like this, and those guys will be back there too.
Lance : Go home then?
Darren : Yep I guess so, Neil, which way to the nearest bus going home.
Neil : Busstop fast find. And... it's the same one as earlier, just  go up and around if you want to avoid those guys.

We see the map as the boys run to the bus stop
Darren : Hey quick, the bus is coming, Neil?
Neil : They're coming!
Lance : He's right, quick come on
They rush onto the bus and the doors close just in time. They sit down and relax.

A La Fin.

Interim Movie Storyboards.

 This is an illustrated storyboard of my movie.

The first shot is the guy at the bottom, we see the back of his head with headphones on.
next we see two of his friends fighting.
We see a close up on each of our four main characters faces.
a new scene, three of our characters wait for the last.
Beil comes off the bus dressed as a pirate.

The final scene is of the four characters on the bus after a full on night out.
in the background we see the cemetary that they ran out of,
we see the people running after the,
and we see a flashback of these people as Jonothan throws up on them.


This is the main plot line, intersperesed throughout this is Neil using the map navigation deveice. I aim to make this a large part of th movie's content.

Rough script

To Do:
I will need to find people who can act in the film and are comfortable to.

I need  to find a suitable material, potentially rubber.



Characters.

I need to have a  cool guy, who smokes and drinks. This character is responsible for leading the group into new, potentially dangerous situations.
I need a nerd who loves pirates and loves technology. This character is responsible for showing off the map.
I need a meek kind of guy who is usually very likable. At the party he gets really drunk and becomes a physical burden upon the group.
I need a small cocky guy who wants to be like (thinks that he is) the cool guy. He is keen for sex, he thinks that he is tough and he is desperate to fit in and therefore drinks alcohol in order to fit in.

1. Opening Scene,  The cool character is seen walking, we see the back of his head with headphones on and we hear some non-diegetic music (This could potentially be The Bunnyman by Mantra), when he takes the headphones off the music becomes diegetic.

2. The cool guy walks over to his friends as he takes off his headphones, he shoves two of them who are fighting (you will only see his arms at this point not his face). He begins to tell them of the plan

3. The event is a mafia costume party. The camera will show a closeup of each of the characters faces as the cool character tells them of the party, there is dialogue about what sort of costumes should be worn and then the cool guy says something about how awesome the night will be.

4. montage of each member getting on the bus, nerd is dressed as a pirate, all others dressed in suits. When they get off the bus they try to find out where to go, the nerd asks if his pirate map is needed, he pulls it out but before he can use it he is told that they don't need it because they know where to go.

5. At the party the cool guy is chatting with everyone, drinking, and generally being the life of the party, the nerd is explaining his outfit to people who make fun  of him, the meek guy is getting very intoxicated, and the cocky guy is trying to chat up girls who continually decline him and make fun of him.

6. The cool guy comes up with an idea to get back at the girls who have made fun of his friends, they fill up water bombs and cover them with cream before dropping them on the girls from above. The girls boyfriends come and get angry before chasing our four main characters into the cemetery.

7. In the cemetery our four characters hide, the meek guy is drunk to the extent of completely wasted, the nerd pulls out digital pirate map and although having trouble, as a result of being scared and intoxicated, manages to find a back entrance out of the cemetery and to the bus stop.

8. the four guys wait for the next bus which takes a minute of nervous waiting time to get there, cool, nerd and cocky say how awesome the night was, just as the angry boyfriends come around the corner the bus turns up and they get on and drive away.

Video Presentation

For my video representation of my navigation interface instead of doing a point of view how to video or an advertising infomercial I want to create a comedy movie.

The movie will involve some characters who are trying to get from one place to another in a hurry, the characters use the digital pirate map to navigate and show off its main features in the process.

One scene will be of one character showing off the map and asking if it is needed to navigate to the location of a party event, here we will see the digital pirate map and show off its physical features before another character tells him that we don't need it.

Another scene will be of the main characters trying to get somewhere quickly without being noticed by other characters, here the map will be used and we will be shown its main digital features.

This style of movie does not focus mainly on the digital pirate map but instead focuses on the comedy story line of the main characters; the presence of the digital pirate map and the banter of the characters about it should create enough interest in it and show off enough of its main features that the audience watching the film can recognize the map and know that this is a concept for a future technology.

Pirate's and Adjectives

Today we were told that we should suggest five adjectives that our navigation interface portrays, my five words were:

Simplistic

Quick

Compact

Malleable

Themed

We were then told that these five words should be shown in our product through the video that we are going to produce. So, I will need to show that my navigation interface is simplistic, that it can be used quickly, that it can be folded, compacted and put into the users pocket, and potentially I will need to show that it has a pirate theme.

This may involve getting together actors and including one who could be a pirate.

The angle that I wish to aim for in my video is like a scene from a Comedy film like 'Superbad' that somehow integrates the use of my Interactive map. This would be a satisfying way to create my movie clip as I am currently also studying film and we do not get a chance to actually film anything in the first year course I can use the principals of film that I have learnt to help me to film in an interesting and communicative way.

Image from : http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Superbad-Wallpaper-superbad-156450_1024_768.jpg

Navigation Interface

The project is to create a Navigation Interface to navigate Victoria University's Kelburn campus. This can either be based around an I-pod/Android application, or around a futuristic concept or technology.

Today's studio involved discussion about research and concepts. We need to create at least three concepts before Friday.

I am more inclined towards the futuristic technology, as well as remembering and incorporating some of the navigation technologies of our past and present, i.e. maps and speech.
One current idea is:

          A malleable material that is either folded or rolled up that when unfolded turns into an interactive map. This map will show where you are if you are at the Kelburn Campus. If you tell it where you would like to go it will form a direct route on it made from dashed lines and a red X which will mark the spot where your destination is. As you follow the route the red lines will disappear. If you venture away from the destination more red lines will appear.

Digital Pirate Map

 Futuristic Invention: Digital Pirate Map.

Below is the link to the swf. file of the Digital Pirate Map's navigation interface. please see instructions in the below blog post.



http://megaswf.com/s/2485874



My futuristic invention is a sheet of  paper (similar in structure to photographic negatives) this paper can be rolled or folded out and then interacted with by the user with their fingers on the paper exactly like a touch screen.

Interactive Map Paper

Interactive Map Paper (Codename: Pirate)

My navigation device is a like a futuristic pirate map where you are marked by an icon of a person and where X marks the spot where your destination. 

Information is gathered via GPS. 

There are quick find buttons on the bottom toolbar that will locate the nearest locations of places such as toilets, cafés and your next lecture. 

The rubbish bin icon at the top will take you back to the first screen at any point and the arrows will go back and forwards through screens you have already navigated. 

The main function is to navigate from your current point to a destination to do this click ‘locate me’ and GPS will track you down.

Using your fingers on the touch screen you can zoom by placing them on the screen and sliding them away from each other.

To find your destination you need to click the ‘destination’ button. This brings up a qwerty keyboard so you can type in your location. Then click ‘find’.

The dashed lines show where to walk. Red lines are on your current level. Blue lines are on levels of buildings that are higher or lower, the colours automatically update as you go to other levels. At any time you can scale a building’s levels by putting two fingers on the screen and sliding them up or down dependant on which floor you wish to view.

Once at your destination the X will flash and then disappear.

My navigation interface enables the user to know their direction as the top of the screen always points north, but the person icon turns depending on which direction the top is pointing.

I wanted to make a futuristic tool that wasn’t merely an application, because when a tool is its own substance a person will respect it and look after it better.

First Screen

X Marks the spot of a number of places that match the destinations description, eg. toitlet

GPS locates the user

QWERTY keyboard pops up when the my destination button is pressed.

red dashes show the pathway on your current floor, blue dashes show the pathway on higher or lower floors.

Flash Code for Buttons

The flash tutorial that Craig showed us gave us a code that enables symbols to turn into buttons:

stop();

btnDirect.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, buttonClickHandler);

function buttonClickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void

{

 trace("Button clicked!");

  MovieClip(root).gotoAndStop(MovieClip(root).currentFrame+1);

}

,

 I am definitely going to need to know how to do this as I require my interface to navigate through different screens, or I might need to show certain animations such as  zooming in on an area if map, this I can only do if I know how to create and use buttons.
So far I have not been able to create a successful button but I have been asking around like crazy for help. My fingers are crossed that somebody will know what to do, until then I will work on setting up my interface screens.

Starting Flash

The following pictures are all symbols that will be used as buttons for my Navigation Interface. They are all hand drawn and then digitally edited so that any blank space is clear, this is effective when they are placed on the buttons though not so effective on a dark background like this blog post.