Critical Perspectives - Dissertation OGR - 20/2/17

Critical Perspectives -Dissertation Ogr by Pip on Scribd

Adaptation A: Infographic - Creative Ways to Cook an Egg

This is the point I have got to with my infographic, I definitely overestimated my memory/knowledge of After Effects from my limited usage of it last year, and as a result some things ended up taking a lot longer than I thought they would. However I'm really pleased with the tone/style I have going so far and plan to continue working on it to complete it just for myself as I'm really quite enjoying producing this now. I do have some sound exportation issues though (works in Premiere, but wont export with it properly?) and I'm not entirely sure whats going on there, which is frustrating. Hopefully I can figure this out soon. 

Creative Ways to Cook An Egg (ver.1) from Pip Harris on Vimeo.

Adaptation: Part A - Storyboarding, element planning.

I've been unsuccessful with a voice actor so I've decided to change my infographic up a bit, and use text instead, this also means it will be less "wordy" and more simple. Its still going to be presented as if it were an interactive "help guide", but one that isn't remotely educational, and more just for comedy effect. 

With this tone change, the title has been added to slightly, and is now "Creative Ways to Cook an Egg (and become totally cool) (trust me) and shows mini step by step tutorials on 3 different (totally ludicrous) ways of cooking an egg. I was initially just going to have an egg as the main focal point of the infographic, but I have now decided to include a character which will carry out he "tutorials" on cooking an egg. I have made this character a "human bean" (literal B bean shaped) to be comical and also age, gender and race neutral, so it appeals to any audience. This design also keeps with the simplistic design I am going for in the infographic. The character will have a minor rig in after effects to be able to bend/walk/move its arms. 

Sources Im drawing a lot of inspiration from for this infographic are "pointless"/ "random" based forms of humour, such as the popular asdfmovies, webcomic cyanide and happiness, and the humour found in Behemoth games, most relevantly Battle Block Theatre (as previously mentioned) and Pit People. My target audience (young teen) is still the same however, as this type of humour is widely popular with that age group. 

Here I'm trying out different fonts to use for my infographic. I want it to be straight for ward and easily readable, but also fun and not too serious, to go with the jokey-ness of the infographic. I was leaning towards either the 2nd, 5th or last font, and after feedback from family I went with the 5th, but scaled up.

The 3 scenarios I've picked for the tutorial have also changed slightly, instead of "summoning Satan" instead its now "Use the heat from a dragons belly". I'm also toying with adding a 4th option if I have time/swapping the extinction blast one for shooting it into the sun. 

I was having some difficulties really wrapping my head around exactly what would happen in my infographic, and the text I would need and when so spent a little time coming out with some very rough plans to help me visualise it all a little better, and to have a guide to work from. Definitely not "proper" presentable work but still part of my process. 

Adaptation: Part A - Further Planning

Plan for my infographic so far:

Open to a "main" screen, with voice over explaining how to not be "boring". "Be cool impress your friends with totally RAD uh "creative" (to keep the mums happy), ways of cooking an egg". Then a long list of safety precautions. OR voice over says something and then (*...) appears lower left of screen, as in Battle Block Theater Steam Trailer.

Then you're taken to a screen where there are different icons you can click, when hovering over the icons the voice over says what they are, if you take too long to decide and click an option it starts complaining, talking to someone else that "they're taking too long" "just pick one" "whats up with this guy" etc. There will be multiple options on screen:

• Sacrifice it to the volcano gods
• Dragonfire (first you gotta tame the dragon)
• Summon lucifer and have him rain down hellfire
• Build a rocket and shoot it into the sun
• Become a fire mage 
• Timetravel to prehistoric times and use the blast that caused dino extinction

However I will only be animating and including 3 in the infographic short, as otherwise it will be far too long, and I think these will be the most entertaining ones I can create. 

• Sacrifice it to the volcano gods
• Summon lucifer and have him rain down hellfire
• Timetravel to prehistoric times and use the blast that caused dino extinction

As for more stylistic influences, I was introduced to the YouTube channel Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell and really like the bold but simplistic style of animation, its the sort of style I was hoping to aim for after looking at the graphic style of BBC Bitesize, so think it will be a good stylistic inspiration source.

I've also been trying to look into getting a voice actor, but haven't really got very far with it yet, I can't quite find a voice actor that fits with what I'm looking for, plus, without emailing each one directly, I'm not sure on pricing for a lot of the people I'm looking over, which of course is a factor. If anyone can offer me some help with this that would be great. 

Adaptation: Part B - Looking into copyright issues

After discussing my idea for the project with Alan, the only major bump that has come up is the question of copyright in using the music I have selected as a base for my adaptation animation. 

I've been doing some research into this and trying to find some clarification on this issue, but so far haven't actually found a definitive answer. I was unable to find a specific email address to message about the use of the music, and I'm unsure who exactly holds the copyright for the song, as there is little no on information that I can find on this on the Aurora vevo youtube channel, or Aurora's site. I did look into which record labels she is signed with, which are Decca, Glassnote and Petroleum. However none of these also give much clarification on their sites, and just link out to either Auroras site or Facebook page. I have however sent messages to both the AuroraVevo YouTube channel and the Aurora Facebook page, explaining my situation, what I would like to use the song for, and asking for some clarification on the issue. I will also be contacting the record labels through their websites later today, and hope I can get a positive response.

I also looked through the copyright help page provided by YouTube, but once again it didnt really answer my issue.