Batch TESTING in PS

Using the batch action in Photoshop, I was able to record the effects and apply the effects to a set of test images within a click of a button! This is going to save a lot of time, particularly compared to in PS opening individual images and applying the effects that way and also applying the effects in FCP which would add a lot of rendering time!

Here are the BATCH TEST IMAGES:

Treated Images with Effects

Here are examples of images within the motion comic, complete with effects:


The filters used to treat these images are:

• Sharpen
• Fresco
• Poster edges

Character Profile and Analysis

This is an entry analyzing my decisions in;

- Location and Set
- Costume and Appearance
- Developing my project from the initial pilot to the final project

Location and Set

After finishing my pilot, I felt that I was too restricted to using found images [and the added work of chroma key and green screening]. I decided that I would rather have a plethora of images that I took myself and had control over which would enable my project to incorporate different shots within the motion comic as I was running the risk of the motion comic becoming aesthetically boring using the same shot [as in the pilot]. I'm extremely pleased with the photo-shoot shot at a office complex in Cardiff as it created a sense of verisimilitude that would have been quite difficult to create myself.

Costume and Appearance

A lot has changed since the Pilot as I have already mentioned in previous blog posts. Here I will talk about my decisions regarding costume and appearance of the protagonist within the motion comic. Within the Pilot, I felt the costume for the protagonist didn't really suite that of a spin doctor as the costume was quite casual. I decided to do research into a variety of roles within the Media to get a feel for the appropriate clothing:

Media Moguls

Top 10 media moguls of 2011

To look at examples of media moguls dress, I looked at the above link... Below are the images from the website...

Steve Jobs (Apple)

Simon Cowell (SyCO)

Rupert Murdoch (News Corporation)

Sir Martin Sorrell (WPP)

Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)

Mark Thompson (BBC)

Larry Page (Google)

Jeremy Hunt (UK Government)

James Murdoch (News Corporation)

Evan Williams (Twitter)

TV Dramas- In the Thick of It [Malcolm Tucker]

Great influence [dress sense rather than attitude].

As you can see, it's either a turtle neck or suit [work dress]. For my motion comic, I've decided to mix it up with using smart casual dress as I didn't want the protagonist to dress too formal in a full suit as it wasn't fitting to the protagonist's role for him to do so. So from the waist down, it's jeans and shoes, waist up, shirt, tie and jacket for shots in the office. At home, extremely casual with tee , trainers and jeans.

I decided to go with the colour light purple as it is a neutral colour and isn't as aggressive as a deep red or deep blue shirt. It was quite interesting researching into the colours of shirts as subconsciously we semiotically read a person by the colour they are wearing. Here's a few examples of the connotations of the colour purple:

http://www.kmb-designs.com/colors/purple.html

http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

Production Schedule... The end is in sight!

Here's my production schedule that goes up to the hand-in date for my project (+ this blog). So basically, I'm completely organized and can crack on with what I need to do and when, plus giving myself plenty of time for any technical glitches!

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
W/C 9th April	Audio edit (VO, homepage sound etc)
W/C 16th April	FCP construction of chapters. Editing and Effects
W/C 23rd April	Convert .mov to .fla and embed in website. Last run through check, peer review and burn to disc
3rd May- HAND IN	And rest…

Conspiracy... NOT

Reading the headlines last week and I came across this article in The Guardian:

How the US uses sexual humiliation as a political tool to control the masses

An example of controlling the masses through fear. In this all too real example, the fear is embedded within sexual humiliation. Evoke enough fear... you get the public to behave as you want and effectively control the masses...

TESTING OF OUTPUTS- IMAGE TEST ONLY!

Here's a test looking at the difference in quality in exporting in FCP and Flash. I've treated the files with transition effects and image effects (Line Art only). These tests are WITHOUT sound.


MOV FILE

FLASH FILE

Conclusions

• Line art effect is working well. The images could benefit from colour 
• I'm going to work with FCP to create individual .mov files for each of the chapters. Looking at tutorials for Action Script 2.0 and 3.0, it seems it would be a lot of hassle to animate in flash for more or less the same quality. 
• I will however, transfer the finished .mov files into flash files for the website for the playback components.
• Bring on the rendering!

Script

As any media creative, things can constantly change... So I've completely done a revamp of the narrative, here's the script below:

SCRIPT- Despotism: The Blind Road to Media Control

Chapter 1: In The Beginning

[Opening image- Private Property]

Car is heard, ambient noise

Smith: This must be the place. Not as bad as I was expecting. Don’t see why everyone working for Medicorp has to live in the same place though... [Drifts off]

Smith: I’ve been in this job for 18 months now, started off as a hard nut but now I’m not so sure. I mean it’s hard to miss something you haven’t experienced, but if you have experienced the ‘before’, then this is pretty tough going, having to relocate, be away from family and friends. You know the usual. I always wanted to become a spin doctor, probably the cocky arrogance residing in me since my days at University. I started my training with political government but I was soon commandeered by Medicorp.  I mean, my job as a spin-doctor was safe, it was an already established tradition of government propaganda; spin. It’s what makes the governmental world go round (no pun intended). 

Smith: I’d better get a move on and have a look around, see if I can find someone. This place looks dead. [Smith walks away out of shot].

Chapter 2: Economical Consent [Office Location- end with shot looking out of window]

[Opening image-Exterior Building Shot]

Smith: Controlling the public mind, getting under their skin, learning how they operate, what they want to hear is public relations to a tee. Covert control, highly effective, just my speciality in fact. What have we got here?... Nice headline. Bit late for that now though!

[Phone rings]

Smith: Yep

Smith: Sure

Smith: Okay

Smith: I’ll be watching it

Smith: I'll give you a call later. Keep your phone on.

Chapter 3: Media Control and I

[Opening image- Office]

Smith: ‘He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself; and if you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into you’. –Nietzsche. Good quote that and so very true...

Smith: Manipulating public opinion that was what I was brought in to do. It seems quite stupid now getting a conscience. I didn’t get into this role for the moral good, it just paid extremely well. Yeah well it’s a bit late now isn’t it?! When I started out working for Medicorp was fun, we used to put on bets, see what we could get the public to do... I was a very rich man that year... It beggars belief how screwed up society is, they’d believe anything and react more or less the same; social pressure I can tell you has made my job a little easier. I mean, thinking back to only a few years ago when Government was still political not media, course you remember the PM Cameron.  Announced a potential petrol strike you know nothing set in stone but the whole country went ape shit panic buying, petrol stations running out, massive queues, the lot. True scaremongering tactics that, a great way to get the generally subdued into the palm of your hands where you want them. I remember when I was brought in not long after for my spin doctor training, that was the pinnacle success story-pure genius. Not long after that fiasco, politicians started going to the dogs and by dogs I mean the major media moguls. Wanting to learn even better tactics for getting the public to hang on to their every word. The politicians soon realized that the media moguls could teach them a thing or two. A big scandal emerged, something to do with corrupt politicians. The media went all hush-hush about it- which looking back is quite ironic.  Anyway, long story short the PM had to stand down, elections were had, the usual business but in a weird turn of events, political influence was not on the government’s side. Media moguls were running for power, I didn’t think it was possible but I’m sure some deal was made when the Media Moguls went in. So then Medicorp become in power, abolished political government and made it their own, Putin would’ve been proud! Changed the whole government structure. At first, the public thought was for the better… They were only told on a need to know basis so didn’t really know the extent to what was going on. Power was in the selective few at the top of Medicorp and that’s how it all started...

Smith: The public need to be leaded, they need a leader that tells them what they should think, act, behave and do. Without it, many people are lost, chaos would begin. One where the government haven’t orchestrated that chaos (there is a significant difference). We like the public to be in the palm of our hands, being able to manipulate them like puppets with invisible strings. We want them to do something, then we’ll bring in a law, if we don’t want them to do something, then we make it illegal. We called it ‘intelligent ways to encourage, support and enable people to make better choices for themselves’. Simple. Medicorp have made the public more reliant on the Media than ever before, society 'feeds' off the Media to survive, to know what’s going on in the world around them. In doing so, every citizen surrenders their personal information and privacy; without them even knowing their doing it. If only they knew...

Chapter 4: Alone

[Opening image- Inside of home]

Smith:  feel like a sitting duck in this place, the more isolated I become, the more cynical I feel. Everything I read, or watch I see in a different light. The more I think about it, the more I think political government was as corrupt as ours, but not as effective. I mean, just look at the unbalanced relationship between media and the public before all this.  I will always remember the one thing from my very first briefing with Medicorp. ‘We will remake the world. Create the future through fear’. As you and I both know, fear is the most powerful weapon of all. If only the public saw this coming, being led down the blind road of media control. Then maybe just maybe they’d realise how heavily reliant they are on the media to understand the world, and how manipulated and inculcated they are by the media saturated world around them. Still this monologue inside my head is making me go crazy, no one can hear me, no one is listening, no one is there but me.