Narrative Flow Chart

Here is the flow chart for my interactive narrative project:

I am really happy with my Flash project although there are plenty of changes that can be done to improve it even more.

Evaluation

Adventure Holiday is aimed towards poeple of diferent ages (but probably no younger than around 8 because of the text) It is of a fiction genre designed to tell the user a story that they can have a degree of control to.

The story is set in New Zealand where a group of the people (the user included) decide to go on a road trip for the weekend and do some adventure trips including caving and hiking. For most of the text slides I chose a black background, this is because I thought It tied in better with the theme of the caves, the text over that became blue to create what I think is an effective style.

I have not added much sound to the project as of yet, I have however added some sound to the buttons, this helps guide the user through the story so that as well as the buttons changing appearance as they push them they can hear that they have pushed a button too. I did attempt to add some more ambitious sound effects such as different sounds coming through on different slides but I could not quite grasp the method of doing this. I will continue to try this until I get it right and upload it to Deviantart.com when I am happy with it.

I also have not uploaded the project onto Deviantart.com as of yet. This is because some of the pictures I have used came from Waitomo.co.nz which is the website giving all the information about the Waitomo Cave trips. I do plan to remove these pictures and replace them with my own pictures therefore eliminating any copyright issues.

Throughout the production of my Flash project I asked several of my fellow students to test it for me and give me any feedback. This happened several times and was very beneficial for me as several issues were raised, such as the text being hard to read on some slides, this meant that I could go away and adjust the problem areas and make the project even better - Thank you to all who gave me such feedback!

So far...

After today's lecture I realised I have failed to keep updating my blog on the progress in this Interactive Narrative project.

I am well into my 'Holiday Adventure' narrative project now, which follows the story of a person who goes on a weekend trip with their friends to the Waitomo Caves and hopes to go hiking the next day as they return back home.

The idea came when I found myself sat down thinking of a story or a reason why someone would want to 'interact' with my narrative. This story came from my own experiences that I had a few years ago during my travels, this also made me realise that I have a lot of stories that I could re-tell. In the narrative the user can make their own decision as to which 'path' to take as they encounter various choices throughout the story. The user is actually having to face the same obstacles that I encountered in this trip so I find will it very interesting when I see what choices they will make to overcome the obstacles.

This is the first time I have used Adobe Flash so I was a bit worried about not being able to handle the software but as I have been creating my Interactive Narrative I have been given great tips from other students and my lecturers which have been a great help. Also, the online tutorials through NOW have been really beneficial to watch as I am quite comfortable with the interface of Flash, making it much easier to figure out what goes where etc.

At the moment I just need to add the sound effects to my story, which I will find out how to do by watching the online tutorials. I am still not sure wether to upload my project yet or not because of copywrite reasons. I was already well into the project when I was told this may be an issue, therefore I plan to complete it as it is for now, submit it on disk to my lecurers on thursday and in the future I will change the pictures I used from the Waitomo website to other non-copywrited pictures and upload that in time.

Interactive Narrative

Seeing as I cant sleep I decided to have a look at the lecture and seminar notes that have been posted onto the NOW. I looked at all of the different example pieces mentioned in the lecture notes and looking at those pieces i'm now quite excited to be starting this new project, it is something that i've always been interested in trying. I hope I get a good enough idea (narrative/story) for me to work with.

We shall see.

The Meeting

Here...Finally...is the final edit of my one shot movie:


Camera Angle: Out of the other takes, I thought this angle was the best one to use as both characters can be seen clearly both in front of the computer and on the actual screen. The viewer is positioned behind he characters where they have a good view of the characters interacting with the web cams.



Camera Movement: There is no camera movement in this one shot movie, the story was played out in front of the camera in its still position.

Mise-en-Scene: The viewers are made aware that they in a computer room as there is more than one computer in the shot, if there was only one computer then it could be anywhere such as in a persons home. The web cams are in clear view and the reflective images on the monitors are very clear to show that the characters are interacting with the web cams. The smiles and funny faces performed by the acters let the viewer know that they are happy at that time and can easily see when the faces change to evil and scared letting the viewer see that the mood of the scene has changed.

Lighting: The lighting in this film had to be made so that the main focus was the monitors, the room is not over lit allowing a good view of the characters in front of the monitors but an even better view of the images on the screens.

Sound: The sound in the film is all non-diegetic, the characters do not hear this music it is for the viewer only. It starts with low tones which are quite ominous instantly letting the viewer know that this is bad or threatening. This then changes to a happy, upbeat tune which mirrors the feelings of the characters as they play. The shift back to the original music emphasises the evilness of the character being revealed on screen.