Kiri the IMP

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To check out my current projects and random musings, please go to http://blog.kiridesign.co.uk/ 

Thank you! :)

Evan Grant

For the third professional studies lecture we had a guest speaker called Evan Grant, who founded a company called Seeper. Based in East London, Seeper are an internationally renowned arts and technology collective which specialize in digital installations and performances for both commercial and non-commercial projects. Seeper have worked for a range of high profile clients such as Nike, Ford, Sony Playstation, Victoria & Albert museum, British Film Institute and Glastonbury festival. It was extremely awe inspiring to see how successful a graduate from my course has become from a company that he founded during his first year, as this is a path I would prefer to go down in the future rather than working freelance.

The work that Evan showed us was completely different to everything that we have been taught on the course so far, as none of his work was screen based. This is particularly relevant as in the upcoming 3-week mini-brief for Production 2 we are experimenting with concepts that do not involve user interfaces. I found this lecture eye opening into the many different pathways I could take for my final major project, rather than screen based technologies that I had been previously considering such as a mobile app. Since the lecture, I have begun to seriously consider what area of digital media I would like to specialize in, I have always been creative and have a passion for strong, impacting design and as a result I am considering working in the field of projection mapping, motion tracking or possibility a combination of the two. From the talk I learnt that due to the large amounts of competition from other digital designers, if you are creating a media artifact such as a mobile application you have to ensure that it is a unique idea that kicks off such as Angry Birds, otherwise it might struggle to stand out from the thousands of existing products in the market. Creating apps is another area that I am interested in developing my skills, so in order to successfully promote myself to employers I could experiment with an app-controlled projection mapping installation in which I could develop skills in both areas that I am interested in.

Seeper have an ethos to “create and capture the essence of experience” (Grant, 2012) rather than purely commercial purposes, focusing more on the artistic side of digital media, allowing them to undertake research and experiment with ideas. Evan briefly mentioned future projects, one of which is doing research with autistic children and cymatics (study of visible sound and vibration) can aid with their acquisition of language, which I found fascinating and have since undertaken further research into. Seeing how interactive technologies can be combined with other ideas, such as cymatics to help benefit others shows how digital media is more than just an entertainment industry and a way to procure information. Prior to this course, I debated studying psychology, as I want to help others and it is another area I am interested in, so finding a way to combine my passion for digital media and psychology as a possible future career is something I am very interested in.

Richard Wallis

In the final lecture for professional studies, Richard Wallis came into to give us a talk about the importance of the client. Richard Wallis is the senior producer for the TwoFour Group, working with many leading global brands so as a result has a lot of experience with the client process. The main aim of this lecture was to understand the significance of the client, as I have very little experience of dealing with clients I found listening to Wallis’ experience extremely useful. He covered three main topics; the client in a changing media landscape, identifying and winning the client and lastly, keeping the client.

Wallis spoke about the development of technology and how it affects the client. New technologies such as the Apple Newton were set to “change the world” (Wallis, 2012) only for them to not catch on as intended. He said to avoid technological determinism and to try to understand trends so you can try and see where technology is going and to try to second-guess them. I learnt that having an understanding of technology is crucial, especially with the rate of how quickly this industry develops as I can then use this knowledge to think what the technology can do for the audience and in turn, help the client reach their target audience.

Wallis discussed how in todays changing media landscape media agencies have to converge with other sectors in order to stand out to clients, a concept that was mentioned in the talk by Evan Grant. More and more media agencies now also produce work in many practices such as installations, experimental art and games rather than focusing on one area of interactive media such as web design. In my own professional development, I can take this idea and ensure that I broaden my skillset in order to stand out against the vast competition of other interactive media designers to potential clients and employers.

Later in the lecture, Wallis spoke about pitches. I have only done pitches for university projects, many of which I were part of a group where we each took turns to explain different slides and showed any work that we had done. In professional situations with a live client, there are two different kids of pitch: where you pitch an idea of your own or where you respond to formal tenders. Wallis gave an insight into the key elements that make a good pitch which I have taken onboard for reference in future projects, both in my studies and the professional world.

Lastly, Wallis went on to discuss the principal causes of mistrust and breakdown within the producer – client relationship and how these causes can easily be avoided. The most common reasons for this breakdown in trust are: missed deadlines, spiraling costs, failed expectations and product disappointment and poor communication, which can easily be solved through managing the client with an account manager and project manager. In my studies I have often worked in groups to produce a media artifact and in each of these groups there has always been a nominated product manager to ensure that the project matches the brief and is running smoothly as we have never had a live client to deal with.

Wallis went on to mention production methods such as the waterfall method that have been mentioned previously in a lecture for Production 2 and the first professional studies lecture by Jo Lush. He went on to briefly mention other methods such as the PRINCE2 process model, SCRUM process and the Agile Software Development and the pros and cons of each of them. Hearing how these methods could potentially result in causing a breakdown in the relationship between the producer and the client demonstrated the importance of having a good level of communication with the client in my own production work. I learnt that although iterative methods such as the SCRUM process keep the client more in the loop than the waterfall method, many clients do not want to accept responsibility if it does not end up how the envisioned as they were more involved in the process. 

Kris Erickson and Bartolomeo Meletti

For the second guest lecture, Kris Erickson discussed issues relating to copyright for interactive media. This lecture was extremely interesting and beneficial to me as a media practitioner because copyright is an issue that I had not previously considered in much depth, for example I had never realized that copyright did not require any form of formal registration. Erickson discussed matters relating to quasi-intellectual property and core-intellectual property such as patents, copyright, trademarks and industrial design, briefly mentioning the differences between each of these. Learning about the legal side of copyright has been essential to my own career development, as I now understand how my own production work can be protected as well as what is considered as copyright infringement on other peoples work. As a media practitioner, knowing the law when it comes to copyright and my own production work is extremely valuable and can prevent unintended copyright breaches that may result in a lawsuit. For example, I was unaware of literal and non-literal copying. This is where the idea of a media artifact such as Angry Birds can be used by any other app developer as long as they do not have direct access to the source code i.e. have a developer from Rovio Mobile on the development team for the new game and ensure that the new app is not identical e.g. using different animals to pigs and birds. 

During the collaborative project in my first year, I got experience of considering copyright for interactive media as our project revolved around an existing companies branding, which in my case was the soft drink company Sunkist. We had to be extremely careful in regards to sharing our work and ensure that it only got uploaded the university servers as otherwise our work could be seen by the public and possibly jeopardize Sunkist’s reputation, leaving us liable to be sued as Sunkist own the intellectual property rights over its branding. It was interesting applying what Erickson was saying to previous projects as a way of gaining an understanding of copyright law using real life examples.

Erickson went into to discuss issues regarding copyright with other countries, for example geo-blocking and the private copying exception. Many EU countries charge a levy on technologies such as MP3 players, printers and PC’s in exchange for the right to share content for free e.g. in France there is a levy on MP3 players but allows those who have paid this levy the right to make private copies of songs. In my own professional development these legal issues will have be considered during all stages of production when working with copyrighted material as it may not be licensed globally.

In the latter half of the lecture, Bartolomeo Meletti took over and discussed the public domain and issues relating to it. I was aware of works belonging to the public domain once 70 years have passed since the authors death, however I was not aware of some of the issues surrounding the public domain such as orphan works and territorial copyright law. In my own production work I could incorporate works from the public domain, for instance Beatrix Potter enters the public domain in 2014 meaning that I could create mobile applications around the tales of Peter Rabbit. Through gaining an understanding of the problems regarding using works from the public domain I can ensure that I do not unintentionally breach any copyright laws in my own work as a media practitioner. 

Jo Lush

Jo Lush is a graduate from BA (Hons) Interactive Media Production who has worked for a range of companies and is now a project manager at a design agency. She gave a talk on the digital design process; this covered all the different roles involved in the creation of a project, the methodology used and described how digital products are created within an agency. As I am keen to join or found an agency, opposed to working as a freelance web developer I found this lecture thought-provoking as it gave me an insight into how many people are involved in the completion of a project from start to finish. I found this lecture useful when applied to my own career development as it’s prompted me to think about what specific pathway within the interactive media industry that I would like to work for. In my studies (with the exception of group projects) I have been responsible for the whole project, meaning that I take on multiple roles such as project manager and information architect as well as being responsible for all creative and production work. From the lecture, I learnt that in an agency there is normally a different person (or in some cases a whole team) responsible for different roles, with one project manager ensuring that the project is a success from start to finish. In my professional career development, I need to consider what my strengths and weaknesses are and apply for job titles based on the results of this. By being able to concentrate on an area of expertise, rather than the whole project, I will be able to perfect my skills and consistently produce high quality media artefacts. In previous project such as the online channel and the collaborative project, I worked with a group of people that each had skills in different areas. As a group, we allocated job roles to each individual during pre-production based on what skills they have to ensure that the project ran smoothly from start to finish and were to the highest standard of work possible e.g. although we had four students from Television Production in our group, two of them had better video editing skills than filming, so they took on the position of editor to ensure a professional final product.

Jo discussed the waterfall method of production, a methodology that I had briefly learnt about in a Production 2 lecture a couple of weeks previously. I found it beneficial to see how this methodology can be used in the industry using real examples. Seeing the development process in a professional agency stressed the importance of pre-production and good planning. Lush used an analogy of building a house for creating an interactive media artifact; you can not draw plans until you know what you want the final product to be (discussing the brief with the client) however you can not create it until you have these plans (start producing mock-ups), next you can not decorate the interior until all the foundations have been built (can’t do the production work until all the planning has been done) and then you can not move in until it has been signed off by the house inspector (client). There are five main stages that Lush spoke about; these were discovery, software development & project specification, build, evaluation and maintenance. Following Lush’s lecture, I am certain that I want a career in either software development & project specification or the build stage as I feel, based on experience from past group projects, these are the two main areas where my strengths lie.

Final Storyboard

Flash | One Day Project | Storyboard

For the next project, we have been set a brief to create a 1-2 minute Flash animation

As part of this project a one day project has been set, in which we will individually create a stylesheet for our project.

I have decided to go with a comic book influenced style with my animation with a twist. Rather than going with bright colours, my animation is going to be pastel shades with a cut out effect on all the elements which can be seen in a mock up below:

Characters:

As the animation is going to be set in space, the characters are going to be aliens.  

Jiggles: The first alien you see and Steves best friend

Steve:

Steves cat:

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