Media yanR

URL GOOGLE MAPS http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=111213758830809272135.0004864f3ddf70560879e&z=11

For my Network Media Production Project B I chose to create a Geo Narrative. The reason that I did not decide to create a datavisulization was because when I started the assignment I was still a bit unsure on what a datavisulization was. So I thought it was better to go with something that seemed like I could do a good job of. I looked over the option and decided that the best was to write a fictional story, which I based off four friends. It took me a long time to think of an idea for the story and write down a draft. From there I fine tuned the story and needed to figure out how many location markers I would use, how many images and videos I would need to take and how to organise it all. The thing that I liked most about this assignment was the process of telling the story through Google maps. If you read a novel or magazine story it can be quite interesting or quite boring depending on how well the story is written. However by writing a story using Google maps and adding images and videos to locations as well as text it can create a lot of interest. It creates an interactive environment, which makes reading a story more fun and gives you’re a greater understanding of what is happening and where it is happening.
This is the reason that Google maps is a good example of network media. There are so many different ways in which you can link in different forms of media to the story. As mentioned above you can use text, link in websites, images and videos. When reading the story you can see an image and then click on a link to go onto some further reading. This is really good because it creates many opportunities to get information out of the story instead of just reading a bunch of text. For this reason I found Google maps to be a very handy tool in creating an interesting networked media production.
Some troubles that I ran across whilst doing this assignment was the process of taking the photos and making the videos. Due to the fact that it was a story about four different people, it made it hard to get all my actors in one spot at one time. This was because everyone had their own commitments. If I could do this assignment again I would not choose a class member to be an actor because we both had lots of work to do for our own assignments and was hard to accommodate both persons schedules. I also had trouble getting the images and video to load onto the locations. I found that when uploading onto flickr the image did not come out at a sufficient size when linked onto Google maps. However a classmate pointed me in the direction of Google Picasa which I uploaded my photos to and had no problems.
One thing I tried to do was make the story as realistic as possible. Therefore I created a story which could happen everyday and tried to keep the visuals simple and to the point. I toyed with editing the images in Photoshop but due to lack of skills was not able to do much. However by keeping the photos simple it worked well with the overall story. I also decided to keep Marvin's day a mystery to create more interest with the reader. I thought that by keeping what he did secret the reader would sit there wondering what he was getting himself into. Until finally the video at the end doesn't explain any thing, but leaves you with more to wonder about. I also thought this would provide some good humor to the story to also help add interest.
Seeing as this was my first time doing a project like this I learnt some good lessons when it comes to taking photos and video. It’s always a good idea to try and get them all taken on the same day. Otherwise a lot of variable factors come into play such as costume changes, different weather etc. It is also a good idea to try and get the images taken as soon as possible. There were a few occasions when I put my photos on computer and realised something wrong with them and needed a retake. The sooner the photos are taken the more time you have to organise a retake if they are wrong. I also learnt that it is very handy to borrow photos off other people. For one of the locations I found a really nice photo on flickr from another member of the class. So i asked them if I could use the picture for my geo narrative. Although I did not ask a random stranger for the photo I think that people are generally willing to share their stuff around as long as due credit is given to them. Copyright is a big issue so i tried to stay away from using other peoples images for this project. But if I was to do it again I would probably have a bigger look around and get in contact with more people about using their works.
Another problem I found in making my video was having sound in the background for some shots and not in others. The video turned out to be a bit of a throw together because I did not have time to get the actors all together again to retake it. However I left it in my assignment because I thought that even if it was poor quality it still added a needed element, which would have been missed if I left it out.
Overall I do not think that this was a very difficult assignment but it was time consuming. Not a lot of technical knowledge was needed in order to create a good piece of work. Rather just creative ideas and making sure that you spent time putting all the different forms of media together. I really enjoyed doing this assignment and was happy with how it all turned out in the end.

Labels: Assignments , Geo Narrative , Google maps , Network Media Production , Rationale