Thursday, February 26, 2009
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
- 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
http://www.atomictoy.org/
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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.
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:"
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:"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)