AMR- Case Studies

We have decided to look at 3 different case studies within our research these include:

Pottermore

This is a website about the seven book Harry Potter series. It’s a partnership between the author J.K Rowling and Sony to develop a site in which it allows fans to engage in an intereactive online experience that complemented the books.

Twitterature

A few years ago great works of literature were appearing on twitter in a slightly different way than we had ever read them before. Books were being shortened into 140 character tweets, with the hash tag Twitterature or Twitlit.  Not just known books were appearing, members of twitter were creating their own stories and poems. This shows the different possibilities on multiple platforms when it comes to creative collaborations.

Star wars uncut
This was a 2010 fan film remake of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It was a shot for shot recreation of the films made from 473 fifteen-second segments that were created and submitted by fans of Star Wars. At first George Lucas, the creator of star wars, did not like it, he felt that they were taking his story away from him but agreed eventually because he found that because of this project the fan base grew. This type of project shows how far fans and audiences are willing to get involve; this is also an example of crowed sourcing.

Digital Artifcact

Today my group and I finished our digital artefact. unfortunately i did not think our final product was perfect. After gathering all our images we really struggled with the software and couldnt work out some basic things. We muddled through stuff slowly but by the end it was abit rushed to hand it in. I hope next time i come across doing a project like this i have more time to learn the software and really put my heart and energy into it.

focus group

Today we did our focus group it consisted of 3 males and 3 females who had a go at 3 different ideas:

Books

These were two different books they were presented in a box with “mini novels” within them. Short parts of the story that no matter what order you would read them it would still makes sense. The audience is engaged to create their own story each time the book is read and they have to choose the order of the smaller books.

The feedback we received from the books were that the focus group thought they were interesting but wouldn’t want to have a go with them as they looked confusing and they wouldn’t know where to start. They also thought they weren’t worth the price as they were: (can anyone remember the prices of the books?) The focus group also felt they didn’t really understand the concept behind them and how they would actually work and they couldn’t think of a time where they would sit down and take the time to read them.

Story Games

Consequences

With our focus group we played a simple game of consequences where in a group they all have a piece of paper they write a location, then pass it on to the next person they then write and action then the next person writes a characters name then the next writes some dialogue then the next writes another characters name. Folding the paper over as they go so the next person cant see what the previous person has wrote.

 

First and Last

with this game we found 6 first and last lines from different books and we then asked group members to chose one of each a create a middle part. By creating the ‘plot’ in a sense for the starts and ends they had turned from audience participants to the authors. 

The general feedback we had from this was that people enjoyed it and found the final story’s funny and enjoyable to read back. They seemed to enjoy playing story games instead of going headfirst into a full storytelling experience.

Online

We had two different websites, Bear 71 and Take this Lollipop. We asked our participants to look through these websites while we observed and asked them questions. The websites involved user participation in already created stories. In bear 71 you navigate your way through a story and you chose the content you wish to look at. Take this Lollipop, is a interactive horror short film, and Facebook app which uses Facebook to bring viewers themselves into the film, through using their pictures and messages from their own Facebook profiles. 

We then went on to give our focus group a questionnaire asking them about their activities. we also spoke to them during the activities and wrote down any other information.

Conclusion of Feedback and research.

-       Permision is crucial! Feedback from the questionnaire we did shows this.

-       a lot of people don’t actually get involved because they aren’t sure whats out there.

-       Audiences feel the rights rest with the author therefore they themselves don’t want to ‘tread on the authors toes’

-       Don’t want to get involved with favorite shows as they prefer to see them unfold without knowing what is going to happen next.

TV studio production

The other day we shot our music feature for a tv show, we chose the song joe crazy rose by TJ and Murphy. I really enjoyed having a go on the camera as i was presenter before. i enjoyed doing all different shots and being creative with the camera.

AMR- Articles and Online Research

So far we have been researching as much as we can about storytelling we have looked at many articles and  online research
these are some links to articles ive found

http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/533075/

http://www.theliteraryplatform.com/2013/01/around-the-campfire-closing-the-gap-between-storyteller-and-audience/

http://www.alterpode.net/matei/research/publications/rokeach_storytelling_CR.pdf

http://ripeat.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Kidd.pdf

http://ezinearticles.com/?Storytelling-Audience-Participation-Adds-Pizzazz&id=107112

http://www.participations.org/Volume%209/Issue%202/24%20Garcia-Aviles.pdf


im slowly going through these and gathering information.

AMR-Storytelling

When researching storytelling it was almost impossible to find any certain dates as its pretty much impossible in B.C times to date oral storytelling. I found a few main events that have a large impact on the storytelling world. 

Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images, and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, and to instill moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters, and narrative point of view. Although the methods have changed, the desire to tell and hear stories has remained unchanged, and still greatly impacts the way we look at life.

15000 and 13000 B.C
the earliest form of storytelling that has been discovered is from the Lascaux Caves in the Pyrenees Mountains in southern France.  Discovered in 1940 by a group of French children, a series of cave paintings that date back to sometime between 15000 and 13,000 B.C. depicted a variety of animals and one image of a human being. 

700 B.C. 
The first printed story, the epic of Gilgamesh, was created and began to spread from Mesopotamia to other parts of Europe and Asia.  The story was carved on stone pillars for all to see, which spread the story around very quickly.

200s B.C.
Aesop’s fables were written down, and continue to teach lessons today in many areas of life. 

The Bible
The Bibles Old Testament spoke of men and women, of tales and lessons learned that occurred many, many years before they were written.  A majority of the books relied on solid resources for their writings.  What were these resources?  Stories.  People witnessed events, heard the stories and kept them alive through word of mouth.  They told their friends, families and communities about the events, and a chain was formed, one link, one storyteller, at a time.

Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets weren’t meant to be published, but his status became legendary once they were.  He was known as a great storyteller to many of his close friends, but soon became immortalized in the pieces that he produced.  

AMR-Research into the DFF

For this module i chose to do the question set by Ian Wearing from the digital fiction factory, i thought it would be a good idea to research this company.
What i found:


The DFF is a creative partnership between the BBC, channel 4, Creative England and Conker Media

Conker Media is a wholly owned subsidiary of lime pictures and part of the All3Media Group. The BAFTA , Rose d'Or, Emmy-nominated and RTS and double-BANFF winning Conker Media team have played a leading role in the development of multi-layered story telling in the uk; the achievments of which have been recognised internationally.

Based within the BBC at Media City in Salford, the Digital Fiction Factory team work with new and established writing/directing and digital talent, to bring a multi-layered approach to storytelling: creating stories which play across one or more platforms.These platforms include TV, online, mobile/tablet and live events.

The Well by Melvin Burgess is a great example of this multi-layered approach, created for the BBC. The multi-award winning children’s drama and companion game, played across TV and online: two layers that could be enjoyed independently or together, as a whole.

The Digital Fiction Factory’s own creative network of over 240 companies from across the North of England, provide the digital production engine for the Digital Fiction Factory, with the expertise to develop and deliver content and applications for connected TV, online, mobile/tablet and live events.

With the Digital Fiction Factory, the creative network have been exploring future format applications with a focus on our partners’ four-screen strategies.

The Motion Graphic Novel by Gospelware is a great example of this, which takes existing TV assets to create a wholly new and interactive experience for the mobile/tablet.

“The content that it makes will not only be for existing platforms [but] will firmly keep one eye on the future. As new platforms emerge, The Digital Fiction Factory will ensure that the content it makes is available wherever people are and whenever they want it.”
Peter Salmon, Director, BBC North

The Digtial Fiction Factory are all about audience participation and allowing them to become involved in their media products and this is happening more and more throughout media today.