Like most of my projects, everything really started to come together near the end. To be honest, none of these projects really excited me. I feel like with different parameters maybe I would’ve been inspired enough to really dive into them but I just never got there. It always felt like I was just doing work for school rather than work to represent me. I guess that’s ok though as not all work is going to be fun. That being said, I must confess that the second half of the projects was much more fun than the first. Well, the second half of the 360 filmmaking and virtual world building that is. The augmented reality project didn’t take me long enough to where I would consider it 2 parts. Actually I quite enjoyed the Augmented reality project. I Never knew it was so easy to create a real time filter like that. Of course everyone has played with snapchat so it makes you feel like the filters are overly accessible but never before did I know that there was a program specifically designed around making them. I also thought lenslist was cool. A website completely centered around filters, with an emphasis on advertisement. I like this because it promotes the business side of filters, something where it serves a purpose bigger than making someone look different. Exploring the sea of song promo filters and movie promo filters even made my brain start to turn as I wondered how I would choose to advertise something. I personally feel like in this day and age, the best advertisements are the ones that you don’t realize are advertisements. Or even if you do, the filter serves more purpose than that. For example, maybe it’s a hulk filter to promote the new avengers movie. If you created it well enough, people might start using it and sending it to their friends simply because they look funny as hulk. They might not even realize they are promoting a new movie. I took a different path in the end but it did open up my mind to the possibility that someday I could get paid just to brainstorm cool interactive filter ideas.
The 360 filmmaking was probably my least favorite assignment. Not that I didn’t enjoy parts of it, I just didn’t like the parameters of the assignment. Being forced to film entirely on campus put a bad taste in my mouth from the beginning as the LCC campus is so incredibly dull. I strongly believe that each project we create in school should be good enough to add to a portfolio. This was no where close to the standards in which I would want it to represent my ability. And yes, a large part of that is on me for not going above and beyond with staging each environment and maybe even adding a moving shot to the mix. In my defense, had this project given me more creative freedom, I believe I would’ve had more options and more chances to get sucked into an idea. I also feel with less boundaries we could’ve really capitalized on the team aspect of it. Otherwise the teamwork felt forced and unnecessary. We all have our own different skills that we can bring to the table but I think the biggest thing we each bring is our different perspectives. One idea I would’ve liked to explore is maybe having an interactive video where you can explore each persons different lifestyle. For example, maybe each of us film a couple different shots in each of our flats, then the viewer could decide which perspective they want to see the day from. I feel like this idea would really capitalize on the teamwork aspect.
I think out of the 3 projects, I most enjoyed the virtual world building. I enjoyed it because I learned a skill that is not only cool, but will also be important to know moving forward. That skill being the ability to download google map imagery as a 3D model and import it into a project. Another thing I liked about this project was the creative freedom. The assignments rules were to create an environment that represents your hometown and must include text. At first I didn’t like this, but Pierre made some good clarifications that really helped me brainstorm. He said it doesn’t have to literally be your hometown, you can treat it as more of a “what represents you” type of thing. I really liked this as I feel my hometown isn’t very interesting. He also gave us the ability to download any 3D models we needed. I decided to learn how to download portions of google earth that represent important parts of my life. This made adding the text interesting because I had to verbally explain why a specific location on the earth was so important to me that I included it. I liked this project because it really made me think about my life and what shaped me into the person I am today.