Sunday, March 8, 2009

Fixed Audio

Give this one a try and tell me if its understandable.

Otto (listener) + Claude (narrative)

Saturday, March 7, 2009

audio files

the file name convention is "lclaude_notto" as in "lister claude + narrative otto"

CLAUDE (listener)
narratives:
otto
wendy
george


GEORGE (listener)
narratives:
otto
wendy
claude


WENDY (listener)
narratives:
otto
george
claude


OTTO (listener)
narratives:
wendy
george
claude

Sunday, March 1, 2009

George"s girlfriend


INTERFACE WORKS!!!!

Hey guys,

got a working flash interface working. so far it works with separate FLV video files, so the actual flash interface its self won't be too large of a load.

check out the prototype:
here

it only works if you select C1 for the listener and C2 for the narrator. since we don't have any videos yet, I went ahead and substituted our work with the trailer for the new miyazaki movie. because I love miyazaki.

Script and storyboard

Here's the first draft of the script. I stuck to the breakdowns that we developed earlier with the exception of Otto. It didn't seem to make much sense to have each character find him putting the underpants in the different places, because then they wouldn't be surprised to find the underpants in weird places. The only only other confusion I had was the timeline of events. Do you guys think the chronogoly events needs clarification?

Each segment consists of 3 panels and one reaction from the listening character. I attached a .jpg below of a rough storyboard for the first combination. With the exception of Otto, each character's story remains the same but the Listener's reactions change. It was a little difficult to think of ways to visualize how the Listener characters would interpret the stories.

Anyway here is the script, let me know what you guys think could be improved or if you disagree with anything.

- Brendan


Brendan Duffey
2/28/09

UNDERPANTS

STORYBOARD


LISTENER: OTTO


OTTO::WENDY

PANEL ONE

Wendy rushes into her professor’s office looking very frazzled.

WENDY: Hello Professor Thompson. Sorry for running so late, I have my paper right here.

PANEL TWO

Wendy places her bag onto Professor Thompson’s desk. It’s made of warm mahogany wood. There lots of plaques and photos on the walls of his office. Wendy unzips her bag and when she pulls out her notebook, loads of dirty men’s underwear spills across the desk. Professor Thompson looks horrified.

PANEL THREE

Otto’s interpretation:

Now we see inside Otto’s head, he has an angry expression on his face. He sees Claude stuffing Wendy’s bag full of his dirty underpants with a love struck expression on his face.


OTTO:GEORGE

PANEL ONE

It’s early morning and George wakes up with a pair of lacy red ladies panties on the pillow next to his head.

PANEL TWO

George jumps out of his bed and looks down at his feet. Wendy’s underwear is scattered all over the bedroom.

PANEL THREE

Otto’s interpretation:

George’s girlfriend stands in the middle of George’s bedroom looking very pissed. She holds a pair of panties. George stares sheepishly at his feet.

GEORGE GIRL FRIEND: Is this supposed to make me jealous?


OTTO::CLAUDE

PANEL ONE

A police officer knocks on the driver’s side window.

POLICE MAN: License and registration sir.

PANEL TWO

When Claude opens his glove compartment, tons of men’s and women’s underwear bursts out.

PANEL THREE

Otto’s interpretation:

Otto looks horrified as he imagines Claude hoarding underwear in his cavernous bedroom. The lighting is dark and dramatic, very chiaroscuro. On the wall behind Claude is a list of names and pictures of people, like he’s a serial killer collecting a list of potential targets.


LISTENER: WENDY


WENDY::OTTO

PANEL ONE

Wendy wakes up when she hears Otto sleepwalking around their bedroom.

PANEL TWO

The next morning, she finds Otto naked in the bathtub.

PANEL THREE

Wendy’s interpretation:

Wendy looks amused as she images her sleepwalking boyfriend putting underpants into her backpack.


WENDY:GEORGE

PANEL ONE

It’s early morning and George wakes up with a pair of lacy red ladies panties on the pillow next to his head.

PANEL TWO

George’s girlfriend stands in the doorway to George’s bedroom looking very pissed. She holds up a second pair of panties

GEORGE GIRL FRIEND: Do these look familiar?

PANEL THREE

Wendy’s interpretation:

Wendy looks disgusted as she imagines George holding her underwear with a smug look on his face. George’s girlfriend stands in the doorway looking pissed.


WENDY::CLAUDE

PANEL ONE

A police officer knocks on the driver’s side window.

POLICE MAN: License and registration sir.

PANEL TWO

When Claude opens his glove compartment tons of men’s and women’s underwear bursts out.

PANEL THREE

Wendy’s interpretation:

Wendy looks disgusted as she imagines Claude hoarding women’s underwear in his cavernous bedroom. The lighting is dark and dramatic, very chiaroscuro. On the wall behind Claude is a list of names and pictures of women, as if he’s a serial killer collecting a list of potential targets.

Wendy also imagines an assortment of other deviant accoutrements in Claude’s room. Blow up dolls, women’s lingerie, etc.


LISTENER: GEORGE


GEORGE::OTTO

PANEL ONE

George catches Otto sleepwalking outside his bedroom.

PANEL TWO

The next morning, he finds Otto naked in the bathtub.

PANEL THREE

George’s interpretation:

George looks pissed off as he images Otto putting the underwear onto his bed in the middle of the night


GEORGE::WENDY

PANEL ONE

Wendy rushes into her professor’s office looking very frazzled.

WENDY: Hello Professor Thompson. Sorry I am running so late, I have my paper right here.

PANEL TWO

Wendy places her bag onto Professor Thompson’s desk. It’s made of warm mahogany wood. There lots of plaques and photos on the walls of his office. Wendy unzips her bag and when she pulls out her notebook, loads of dirty men’s underwear spills across the desk. Professor Thompson looks horrified.

PANEL THREE

George’s interpretation:

George looks surprised as he imagines seeing Wendy and Claude together in the same bedroom staring lovingly into each other’s eyes.


GEORGE::CLAUDE

PANEL ONE

A police officer knocks on the driver’s side window.

POLICE MAN: License and registration sir.

PANEL TWO

When Claude opens his glove compartment tons of men’s and women’s underwear bursts out.

PANEL THREE

Georges’ interpretation:

George looks horrified as he imagines Claude sitting in his cavernous bedroom sharpening a very large butcher knife with a crazed look on his face. The room is covered in underwear and on the wall behind Claude are photos of the rest of the housemates.



LISTENER: CLAUDE


CLAUDE::OTTO

PANEL ONE

Claude sees Otto sleepwalking outside near his car.

PANEL TWO

The next morning, he finds Otto naked in the bathtub.

PANEL THREE

Claude’s interpretation:

Claude looks broken hearted as he imagines Otto putting the underwear into his glove box. He’s crushed that it wasn’t really Wendy.


CLAUDE::WENDY

PANEL ONE

Wendy rushes into her professor’s office looking very frazzled.

WENDY: Hello Professor Thompson. Sorry I am running so late, I have my paper right here.

PANEL TWO

Wendy places her bag onto Professor Thompson’s desk. It’s made of warm mahogany wood. There lots of plaques and photos on the walls of his office. Wendy unzips her bag and when she pulls out her notebook, loads of dirty men’s underwear spills across the desk. Professor Thompson looks horrified.

PANEL THREE

Claudes’s interpretation:

Wendy is sitting on her bed holding Claude’s underwear to her chest. There is a pile of underwear at her feet. She stares wistfully into the distance.


CLAUDE::GEORGE

PANEL ONE

It’s early morning and George wakes up with a pair of lacy red ladies panties on the pillow next to his head.

PANEL TWO

George’s girlfriend stands in the doorway to George’s bedroom looking very pissed. She holds up a second pair of panties

GEORGE GIRL FRIEND: Do these look familiar?

PANEL THREE

Claude’s interpretation:

Claude looks jealous as he imagines George stroking the underwear under candlelight.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Story Synopsis and Concept Art

Otto Ostermeyer has long dreamed of the day that he could work as a professional underwear designer. Ever since he cracked open a fresh pair of underoos at the age of five, he has known what he has wanted to do with his life.

Otto shares a two story duplex with his girlfriend Wendy and his two best friends Claude and George. After many years of struggle, Otto finally lands a job interview for a lead underwear design position. Unfortunately in the week leading up to the interview, Otto is stricken with profound anxiety and takes to sleepwalking. Each night, while sleepwalking through his apartment he begins depositing his roommate’s underpants in strange and embarrassing locations. The wayward underpants will force each of them to re-evaluate their opinions of one another and test their friendships.

Otto

Wendy

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Tim's Idea

PREMISE:
The 4x4 grid is a house, the top floor has two grids - the DAUGHTER and the RENTER (somebody renting a room in their house) - the first floor has the MOTHER in the office and the FATHER in the kitchen.


RELATIONSHIPS:
- renter > mother = in love
- renter > father = competiton
- renter > daughter = mildly annoyed indifference

- daughter > renter = in love
- daughter > mother = jealous
- daughter > father = opposite sides

- father > renter = competition / hatred
- father > mother = protective love
- father > daughter = protective disapproval

(mother is super busy, so her POV is from behind LAPTOP)
- mother > father = distracted love
- mother > daughter = confused, ignorant of
- mother > renter = amused, innocently flattered


INCITING INCIDENT
- The renter cooks dinner to impress mother
- the father feels neglected
- the daughter hopes its to impress her
- the mother is indifferent

- everyone hangs in the balance of the mother's opinion of the tenet's meal
- father: can't be bested by the renter who is after his wife, cooking is HIS job
- the daughter: doesn't want the mother to fuel the tenet's interest, SHE wants him
- the renter is desperate for her attention, he wants this dinner to reflect his love for her...

CONCLUSION:
- She says "its okay.... [father] you cook next week." Father = happy, daughter = satisfied, renter = devastated

Brendan - Story Idea

I decided to flesh out the "underpants idea" that I posted earlier. Some of the details I haven't quite worked out regarding characters, setting, etc., but I have a rough idea for the plot of the story.

There are four characters sharing an apartment in the city. I was thinking that it would be 3 guys and one girl. One of the guys is dating the girl and the two others are kind of resentful of her.

Anyways, the guy dating the girl is scheduled for an important job interview in a week. It's his dream job and he's really anxious about doing well so he starts sleepwalking at night and doing odd things with his underpants.

Each character would recount a different incident when they found his underpants in an odd place. In the first account, the underpants end up in a cooking pot in the dishwasher. The first roommate inadvertently ends up boiling the underpants with his pasta.

The second character finds the underpants on the towel rack in the bathroom and inadvertently dries his face with them.

The third character, the girlfriend finds all of her boyfriends underwear in her back pack when she gets to class.

Lastly, the story from the culprit explains how over the past three days he's been waking up naked in the bathtub. He's so confused and anxious about his upcoming job interview he's been sleepwalking.

I think the subtext would be that the boyfriend might actually be subconsciously getting back at his buddies for giving him such a hard time about the girlfriend.

I realize its all a bit silly but I think it would be better to chose characters who all have known each other for a while, that way their feelings toward each other would be much more nuanced.

Anyways, let me know what you guys think.

- Brendan

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Monday, February 16, 2009

some schematic graphics

Narrative Structure/System


Interaction Schematic
* a bit of the same information, reorganized to demonstrate the interactive process

Interface Mocks

Linked below are several options for the layout and function of the interface. At this point, these are not representative of the final look and feel of the project.

In the first two options, my thinking was that the user could click and drag the desired character to either the listener window or the storyteller window. Then a different animation would play depending on the combination that is selected.

In the second two options, the user would select the option of either "listener" or "storyteller" for two of the characters.

In the first three examples I intended for the animation to play within the grid. However, in the final example I wanted to illustrate how the interface might look with a video player instead.

Lastly, attached is an illustration that describes the different outcomes that are possible with this system. Depending on which characters are selected, a slightly different animation will play.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

Flow Chart

Brendan - Ideas

I did some brainstorming last night and thought of an approach that we might be able to take. One of the challenges I think that we might face is trying to combine several different genres into one narrative. Ideally, I think that the four different characters that we feature should be connected somehow.

One idea that I hit upon was that there are 4 different witnesses to a certain event, maybe its a car accident or a murder or even something trivial. Maybe it's four different roommates and one is responsible for running his soiled underpants through the dishwasher. We can always hash out the details of the story at some point.

Anyways my thought was that each different mini-narrative gives the POV of one of the characters in the grid. And by watching each perspective of the "event" the user gets the full experience of the narrative.

Furthermore, I thought it may be possible to work in the "genre" aspect of the project if each character's view point is representative of a different genre. For example, in the Calvin and Hobbes strip, Calvin often sees himself as one of his myriad alter egos doing battle with his mother or babysitter or teacher. I think we could employ a similar tactic for this approach.

I think it would be interesting if there is a mystery or riddle involved with the narrative, that could engage the user. The other idea that I had was maybe each character is being interviewed as a witness to a crime, and each section of the grid plays back a different POV of the crime.
See the quick sketch below:













I'm wondering, moving forward if we should first consider the structure of the project, and how we deliver the narrative or the narrative itself. Is it the presentation that's most important or is it what we're presenting? In any case, I think that this idea of the 'grid' should support the content that we're delivering That's what I've thought of at the moment. Let me know what you guys think.

- Brendan

tim - new idea

* take the 2x2 grid with the characters and the click interactivity....
- add an instructional / educational element
- use each click to lead to a narrative that informs on the genre/plot-type expressed
- maybe provide a classic example of genre/plot-type

Thursday, February 12, 2009

This blog site features a new drawing each day. Every six days features the same theme, and is presented in a grid structure

http://www.atomictoy.org/365dudes

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Example of an interactive movie

http://fmvworld.com/links.html

proposal



A grid based display of characters, which correspond with and express a genre/story line/dramatic situation/plot-type.

The user/viewer interacts with the grid by clicking one of the characters to watch a simple, micro-narrative illustrating a visual expression of that particular genre.

example. one of the characters is a personification of "fish out of water"

the user clicks that character (whose appearance is designed to suggest elements of said story line)

a short micro-narrative is presented, which expresses this story line in an efficient, yet comprehensive manner

PPT example 1

http://www.zimmertwins.com/

an interactive animation program where the user selects from a series of clips and produces a unique sequence of events.

Friday, February 6, 2009

first post

Hey Guys!
This is the BIT BLOG - BIT standing for Brendan Inbum and Tim.

I figure we can document our progress here and post sources, work, assignments, and whatever else you think is relevant to our project.

Post here or not, whichever you like - I find it really useful to blog stuff. Plus we can show it in class and pull from it when we need to collect our sources/documentation.

when you post, make sure to tag (label) all the topics in your post. like if it's a source, write 'source' in the bottom where it says "labels for this post:"