Video Game Reflection

Technical: I used an entirely new program to me, Adobe Flash which was something I had never even touched on before. I had to change the components of the game, like the bird and the pipes of flappy bird, as well as experiment with the background and the texts of my game. I had to figure out everything in this program and nothing made sense to me at the beginning, so it made the project a lot harder.

Idea or Concept: My idea had to do with unequal wealth distribution, mostly in first-world countries, mostly dealing with the concept that the rich keep getting richer, while the poor keep getting poorer. I wanted to show that although there is enough money and food for everyone in Canada to live comfortably, the rich only want to invest and use their money in places that will allow them to get richer, rather than give to the poor. My idea stayed basically the same during the game, except I had to come up with different backgrounds and some of the text ideas changed.

Influences: I didn't have any influences for this game at all, it was purely imagination for me.

Composition: I tried to use colors that went well together, and I tried hard to make the text stand out, while still using only minimal colors to make it look more professional. I tried my best to make everything look similar and pleasing to the eye.

Motivation: I literally had no desire to do anything most of the time, considering I had no clue what I was doing. This made it very hard for me to enjoy, plan how, and want to do this project. But in the end, it was pretty cool to finish this project and see the end product as a full video game that I had made myself. Otherwise, it was very hard to make myself want to do this project at all and I found myself complaining every day.

Critical Assessment: I feel like the game itself turned out pretty cool and it portrays the message I wanted to send quite well. I also really like the look of the home screen, I like the way it works together and how it turned out. I was surprised at first that we made the game using an already made template, because I expected to make one from scratch, but I'm glad we didn't. I was also surprised at how hard it was to format everything, I thought that it would be easier to get rid of backgrounds and things like that. If there is one thing I want to do better, it's pick a more video game font, but that was the last of my concerns as the deadline came up. I also wish I could have put the rich man at the end of the game.

Click here for game <----- this isn't working for me????

Video Game Brainstorming

Theme: People vs. Material Worth
Idea: Match clothes/appearance to a type of vehicle

Theme: Unhealthy diets
Idea: A burger as the flappy bird going through healthy foods like carrots and celery, if you win then the burger goes into a person's mouth.

Theme: Unequal wealth distribution
Idea: Money going through poor people reaching up for it, but if you win then it goes into a man in a business suit

I want to pick my unequal wealth distribution idea, because I think that this is a really big problem in our society. The rich are getting richer, while the poor are getting poorer. And although the poor work very hard to get their money, a lot of the time it ends up straight in the rich man's hand.

I will change:

1) The instruction screen background : Money bills covering the background
2) The game background: poverty scenes, sandy ground, unless you make it to the end which turns into a bunch of gold coins stacked beside the rich man
3) The bird: a money bag
4) The pipes: poor people reaching for the money
5) Fonts/ Game messages :
- Instructions: You are the government, give the money to someone who will help you out later
6) The lose screen: Oh no! You've given money to the poor, what's in that for you?

Facebook Profile Brainstorm

Ideas:
Racing: A picture of me in my car, as the camera screen and the background is a camera taking a picture of me
Cats : Me reaching up while a cat paws at me

Final:

Toy Hack Reflection

1) My toy represents the many masks and costumes we put on as people to cover up our true selves and fit in. Here, the dog has put on a rabbit costume, with whiskers, duck feet and patches and a pig patch, yet his true self is showing through by the rip in his stomach, his tail and his face. Like us, we sometimes try to patch together different personalities and ideals that aren't our own so we can fit in with others. But when we do that, we start to look ridiculous and we begin to fall apart, like the dog is pretending to be like other animals, but has to keep himself together with messy patches. Instead, we should be working on just being ourselves and taking off our costumes, which would look much better.

3 things to do better:
First, I would have liked to have the batteries for the voice box, especially if it was a dog barking, because it would have represented my theme even more because although you're not sure what this animal is, it's true form still shows through. I would have also liked to do a better sewing job on the head, but it was my first job and I wasn't used to it yet. Finally, I think I should have mixed more styles of toys instead of just stuffed animals

3 things I like:
I like the way it's still cute and attractive to kids even though it's a hybrid of many animals and a lot of others look really creepy. Plus, I like the way the duck feet turned out looking like they could really have been a part of the bunny's body originally, my sewing job wasn't too bad. Finally, I like the way it all kind of fits together in the end, and I think the message could be guessed without me explaining it

3 things to do with more time:
I would have had more animal parts to add, like a horn or different paws. Next, although this would have taken some sewing skills, it would have been cool to make the costume removable so as to teach a lesson to kids that you can take off your costume and you look a lot better just as yourself anyways. Also, I would have liked to find a way to make my project interactive

Art Movie Reflection

Leandra Urbanek

Title: Beware

Medium: Technology

Date: April 10th 2015

Technical: In this project, I used Adobe Premiere Pro, which was new to me. Although I have used video editing programs before, this one was much more complex, with many more options. I learned how to use this program to put videos together, put effects on them, insert new sounds and music, and how to make it all go together nicely.

Idea or Concept: For my idea, I really stuck with the same thing as my original idea, making the man open the locker and then having disaster strike after, like the temperature going up, the baby going down the stairs, and just any scene of chaos I could get from the clips. I added bits of extra pieces like eye close ups, and static at the end, and I took out the building exploding at the end. Otherwise, everything from my original plan was almost exactly as I planned it in my head in the beginning.

Influences: I did watch some of “The Tree of Life” movie to give me some ideas on how an art movie actually works. I also had the horror movie ‘Sinister’ in mind and the way it uses videos taken by someone of murders being discovered, which was what gave me the idea of using a video camera in the first place.

Composition: I tried to make everything look like they came from the same movie and time, using all black and white and also some noise and grain. I also changed the movement between the videos, sometimes making a smooth transition, while other times it was a choppy one. This helped give it the effect I was looking for at that moment, like nervousness for the choppy parts and a bit more calm in the smooth parts.

Motivation: If I’m being 100% honest, I had to work up a lot of motivation to do this project because art movies are most definitely not my thing. I didn’t really get the idea of watching one, let alone making my own, so I never really got the knack of it. It was kind of cool to see my work go from an idea in my head to a real video, but it really was not a project I enjoyed.

Critical Assessment: I feel like the part with the camera in between each shot turned out looking pretty good, and it really adds to the rest of the video. I also like the music I found, I thought it fit nicely with the video and it gave it a sinister feeling and invokes a sense of anticipation to what will happen next. For me, I was surprised at how easily everything did come together in a whole video, and how, using the endless effects and options, anyone could make a really nice video using this program. If I had more time and knowledge, I think I would have made the ending with the static go a little smoother, and I would have worked on the effects more in detail.

Art Movie

My Art Movie

My favorite part of Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is the way the man looks behind him many times, it would be a good place to insert the idea of something other than another person following him.

My favorite part of Metropolis is the men being thrown out of the exploding building, I think it would be a good clip to work with.

My favorite part of Potemkin is the lady screaming when she has broken glasses and a bloody face.

For my movie, I really want to do something along the lines of horror. I was thinking that it would start with the man in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid when he suspiciously opens the locker in Union Station. Then after he does that, I want to show a scene of people walking. Then, I'll put in some clips like candles in the dark and clouds over the moon, along with thunder sounds to indicate something has happened. Then, the man looking over his newspaper, followed by the chaos scene on the steps from Potemkin and the bloody person screaming. Next, there will be several quick scenes of the man looking behind him in a row. Then, lots of scenes of things going wrong, like the temperature meter going up, the baby going down the stairs, the lady lying on the street, the person in Metropolis freaking out, with shots of a camera in between. I want to end with the building in Metropolis exploding, then black/represent the video stops working.


Certain parts will have a camera recording overlay like this