Uniqlock

International Japan-based clothing company Uniqlo has come up with a truly quirky, hip, creative and cool campaign and site with their Uniqlock concept. Click here to see it!

The website structure itself is innovative, but this is further accentuated if we are to remember what this is all for – to sell clothes. Uniqlo sells high-quality ‘basics’, like single-colour shirts, for example. But the site makes it seem so much more than that.

The user sees very little when they first enter the site: a perpetually running timer/clock (of the time in Tokyo, Japan), and a navigation tab in the left. What makes this site so cool is the fact that most elements and sections of the website is synchronized perfectly to the one second blips. The main page alternates between cuts from the clock to a large reel of full-screen videos of girls dancing. The cuts in between the timer and videos are synced precisely with the second blips, which are also synced with a hip music mix; all of this gives the site a playful, creative and cool impression.

This kind of hipness is taken further by bringing it back to what Uniqlo is all about – selling clothes. With a sparse and easy-to-navigate menu, the one that stands out for me is the one named ‘Cashmere Knits’ – because it’s the tab that has anything to do with clothing (implying that Uniqlo is going more for a brand culture/lifestyle than for a functional website that will sell its clothes). In this section there is a an array of photos in the top right that rotates every second like a clock. Every photo is then blown up to full screen for every second. The idea of dancing, music and time is brought out further because the photos are usually in sets of three or four, showing the same model doing a little dance in still captures.

I leave the site leaving quite convinced that that they’re making more of a statement about how hip they are, rather than try to sell clothes online with this website. Which is fine by me, because, like millions of other customers, I already know about Uniqlo and love their clothes already. =) And it’s interesting to see how they managed to work an entire website music track around a blip on every second. I even left the website on so I could work to it – you don’t get tired of hearing it. There’s something deadly hypnotic about it.

Project 2: Gold Farming and Beyond

I came across this article from the June ‘07 New York Times Magazine a couple weeks ago, and when this project was assigned I thought this would could be an interesting topic. Although the focus so far is specifically on gold farming, I wanted to find some things that expanded on this topic further.

First things first: the article is basically shedding light on an industry that has been existent for years now, growing in prominence, and a source of frequently polarized opinions. Wealthy (i.e. Western) video game players are now dishing out real money for virtual wealth in video games (most popularly World of Warcraft), and regardless of whether people love it or hate it, the real money being paid is fueling a ‘grey-market’ industry most commonly associated with half a million Chinese professional gamers/worker. They spend 12 hours a night, seven days a week filling ‘[virtual] gold farming’ quotas at real ‘gold farms’, where the computers and newest lucrative games are provided to these professional gamers. At the end of the work day they play some more, as enjoyment, to learn more tricks and shortcuts.

The article makes a point of how the line between work and play easily get blurred in this industry. To a degree the play becomes an income-generating career, but then what you do in the game is driven by what other players are willing to buy. The article points out how one player found 40-man raids in the most difficult dungeons truly exhilarating and fun, but his bosses eventually tell him to go back to very monotonous single-spot gold farming because the large raids got no customers. Not to mention the players that get fed up with gold farmers that aren’t really ‘playing’ … and they end up virtually killing these gold farmers, which can cost them their real-life jobs.

More attention is drawn to the blurred/non-existent line dividing work and play in video games when you factor in the GRIEFERS, players that go out of their way to make others’ online gaming experience miserable. Basically, it’s ‘willfully antisocial behaviour’. Griefing is obvious if the online game allows players to kill other players, like World of Warcraft, but it extends to even purely social games, like The Sims Online. Link here.

On that note, I went out and bought this month’s WIRED magazine. It had an article discussing the redefinition of reality and online games. Titled ‘Griefer Madness’, it outlines the paradox that “the Internet is serious business“. The article talks about how increasingly realistic simulation/fantasy games is equated with increasingly stronger emotional ties between the online character and the real-life player; when you factor in griefers that go out of their way to ruin the gaming experience for others, it puts into question what is real and what isn’t anymore. The negative emotions certainly are real, in any case.

Tie in the real money that’s being paid by Westerners for the gaming gold Chinese farmers are collecting, and I think the larger question at hand is basically asking what is real anymore!

When you pay to play games and others play games to get paid, when griefers (perhaps with some enlightenment) realize “the ability to inflict that huge amount of actual, real-life damage on someone is amazingly satisfying” by destroying the virtual creations of hundreds of hours spent by other players, when playing games is clearly an economy in itself, I think the world is asking where to draw the line between reality and fantasy.

Critique: Michael Dibblee’s “Typewriting Time”

“For a ten-second film, the content is quite rich for something so short. From the turning of the typewriter to the moving arms of the machine, from the strong composition in every cut to the subtle touches like the texture of the metal and paper, this film is strong in both the aspects of filmography as well as design. The film itself is well-paced, the lighting and contrast between light and dark is clear, and there is clear attention to detail (the sound of rolling the paper, the ‘ding’ at the end).

The rhythm of the typing sound is slightly off, giving a sense of randomness in an otherwise very mechanical and predictable sequence of events. It was a good choice to have isolated and focused on only the elements that mattered – it kept the film focused and on target. The predictability of the sequences can be more than made up for by the high-end production and overall strong execution.”

Comment is found here .

Project 1: Animal Cookies

Five hours later everything has fallen into place nicely. Some frames have been tweaked, and now the whole thing has been synched with some appopriate sounds. If everyone said they thought it was cute there was no point fighting what it was – so I ran with the playful, cute thing instead.

DESIGN STATEMENT

This project is a ten-second leader based on the idea of eating shortbread animal cookies. Using stop-motion animation, a playful spin is put on the concept – the animals act as if they had a mind of its own, scattering in all directions and avoiding the hand when it swoops in from out of the screen to capture one of the shortbread victims. Every second mark is queued by the ‘munching’ sound, suggesting that the animal cookie captured from the preceding second is being eaten. The short zooms in on the last two animals at the two second mark, and concludes with the very last animal (a fish) being partially eaten.

The ideas of good composition, interesting narrative and light-hearted humour were considered throughout the production, and this resulted in the animals forming numbers in a fluid manner, shifting from one number to the next naturally (relatively, accounting for the fact that this was a first attempt at stop-motion animation). The fluidity of the short is juxtaposed with the mechanical precision of the second-mark sound blips, only to bring more interest to the end when the one-second sound blip is delayed to emphasize the idea of the last animal cracker being eaten.

Also, the animal crackers tasted wonderful. It was fun snacking while working on a design project.

Credit goes to: hardPCM for the burp .wav; heigh-hoo for the ‘crunching’ sound; afterguard for the diner ambience sound.

Project 1: Test

So although it says test, it’s more like I decided to save the work at the midway point to see how it looks. Some parts look more fluid than others, but overall it looks okay. Too many people have described it as “cute”…anyway, time to add in my sounds!

The Digital Designer/Filmaker: Overcoming Motion Sickness

The article begins by restating what we already know: cheaper technology has allowed for the democratization of what was once an ‘elite ‘practice (filmaking); the Web has further accelerated the exposure of more DIY design and film; and that the Web has become the primary breeding ground for the cross-breeding of both practices. The author also mentions how the role of director and editor are slowly becoming interchangeable with the proliferation of digital film.

Real estate websites have online tours where users manually control pre-shot cameras through homes. Potential homeowners have an an enhanced impression of the home with this greater sense of realism. Innovative ideas have changed online advertising, since the most memorable Burger King launched their SUBSERVIENT CHICKEN in 2004. Having said that, there is little disagreement in the author’s statements.

That statement brings up one particular United Nations website. The informational webpage describes the different standards of living in different parts of the world, and the user can navigate from place to place through a world map. Clicking on any one location expands more and more in-depth information about how people live in a region, and in what kinds of homes, determined by the wealthiness of that family and the country. The website is brought to a whole new level by the integration of film: not only are their very well-designed informational graphics to illustrate the kinds of homes families live in, a short 15-second video is also attached to each home to further emphasize the drastically different environments others live in (for example, one video has a family of eight live in a shack with haystacks as beds and a brick fireplace). Without a doubt, film is rapidly finding a place in design, much like how graphic design had carved out a place in film decades ago (in movie intro sequences and credits, for example). The link…can’t find it anymore unfortunately.

Pika Pika

Pika Pika is an abstract art movement that began in Japan around 2005, but has gained a global following rapidly over the course of the past few years. Their work basically turns the slow-exposure rates of a camera lens into the medium of a new kind of digital artwork. It reminds me of when I accidentally set the camera to the wrong exposure level so that all the light captured in the camera end up as streaks of yellow and orange!

“PIKA PIKA is an abstract animation film made with flashlights.

A series of photographs using long exposures are edited together to make them appear as an animation.”

Simple as the idea may be, the final edited films this group produces are captivating and highly entertaining. Just as how my ten-second leader will be created through editing and compiling of multiple photographs, PIKA PIKA is a compilation of many photos to give the appearance of drawings that come to life. The compiled slow exposure photos show all sorts of people drawing simple objects and animals.

What is really most interesting is how this form of time-based media really creates something that otherwise would not be seen in the real world – the final artwork is only possible by placing the movement of light in a very specific framework. The fascinating appeal of the PIKA PIKA videos is largely due the fact that they captured a playful manipulation of light that cannot be seen without the camera lens.

PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE Live Action and Graphic Design

http://www.prologuefilms.com/

A group demands respect when their work precedes their name. The site itself is minimalistic, clean, and opts for a sleek interface. The straightforward interface is effectively juxtaposed against their advanced, professional and highly-polished digital work. With a whole slew of blockbuster movies’ opening credits authored by this group and an equally hi-tech website, viewers and clients are left with the impression that this group are wizards at motion design.

With the use of two colours and designs that imitate the preliminary sketches of storyboards, the site stays on target both in terms of unity of design, as well as in function of the site (as a portfolio site). The work is divided clearly into three types of media outlets (film reels, television, other media), navigation is clear and simple, and everything remains conveniently accessible in the side menu.

Looking beyond the no-frills website structure, their works really show how serious these guys are. With main title sequences done for big-name movies like Bridge to Terabithia, Curious George, Dawn of the Dead, Eurotrip (their intro sequence is my personal favourite), Spider-Man 2 and 3, and Superman Returns, it goes without saying that Prologue have been doing this sort of thing for a while, and doing it right.

Now if only I can be a creative wizard at time-based media and work for them…

PROJECT 1: Creative Brief 2

Creative Brief TWO

1. Title – Animals
2. Overview – Still captured animal crackers are brought to life as they happily march in the shape of the number that is respective to the time of the movie. As the counter goes down, some animal crackers are eaten while others run away in fear, until the last one is eaten up in two or three bites! At some point close to the end a shadow resembling some kind of monster will approach the remaining animals to bring up the anticipation even more.
3. Goals and Objectives – to put a quirky, humorous spin to the popular animal cracker snacks in a ‘faux horror’ style video, so that we can all appreciate our deliciously not-too-sweet snacks more after watching it.
4. Audience – people that can appreciate a parody of a horror film and have eaten or at least know of animal crackers.
5. Key Message – ideally it will be a film that will be so memorable that just the mere sight of a box of animal crackers will evoke the images of this short in the viewer’s mind. Essentially, to make the audience humorously consider how animal crackers would react if they were fully sentient beings with minds and feelings of their own.
6. Content Planning – All content can be captured with video, but it will probably be easier and more effective to composite photos and sound together into a motion piece. A box (or two, just in case) of animal crackers is really all that is needed.
7. Schedule – Week 1 (Jan 7) – Week 2:
   Complete creative brief and storyboards
   Buy a box of animal crackers
   Week 2 (Jan 14) – Week 3:
   Refine storyboards
   Borrow camera from labs (if necessary), capture content
   Begin editing
   Week 3 (Jan 21) – Week 4:
   Finalize editing
   Output to DVD
   Complete documentation
8. Bibliography – relevant sources used in work
9. Visual/Conceptual References

Storyboard can be accessed here.

*I also had an alternative concept of a man preparing to go on a DATE: he would groom himself before a mirror, get his bouquet of flowers, chocolates, spray cologne, comb his hair, etc. etc. and the video concludes when he meets his date. Although the concept itself is very enticing, it seems too hard to convey the idea within ten seconds, and it requires too many jumps in the film such that the viewer might not understand what is going on.

PROJECT 1: Creative Brief 1

Creative Brief ONE

1. Title – Lottery
2. Overview – A person begins scratching a PICK 10 LOTTO card. Each circle scratched will reveal the number respective of the time, i.e. scratch the circles to reveal 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 and then 1 at the respective time. By the 5-second mark a voice will say under their breath ‘no way!’ to express disbelief; after the two empty seconds a shot of the person’s eyes widening cuts to the person getting up and screaming with joy at winning the lottery.
3. Goals and Objectives – to bring the audience along for a short and increasingly suspenseful ride up to the point where comic relief will release the viewers’ attention.
4. Audience – an adult or more mature audience that will understand and relate to the kind of suspense you get when you get a chain of lottery numbers right in a row. They will get the most out of the ecstatic reaction of the protagonist in the end because these viewers, too, would want to be in that character’s shoes … and win a million dollars.
5. Key Message – by halfway at least, the audience should have gotten the gist of the video and know where it’s headed – the protagonist will reach the ‘end’ when he scratches out the ‘1′. Knowing that it is about a lottery, this video really shifts the emphasis towards the reaction of the protagonist after realizing he won; the audience will look forward to it. How will this person react when he wins a million dollars?
6. Content Planning – All content will be captured with video. I will most likely need to buy quite a few lottery cards, one of my theatre friends to be shot in the film, and a lot of editing (to splice the numbers that get revealed in the proper order, at the right time)
7. Schedule – Week 1 (Jan 7) – Week 2:
   Complete creative brief and storyboards
   confirm actor’s help
   Week 2 (Jan 14) – Week 3:
   Refine storyboards
   Borrow camera from labs, capture video content
   Begin editing
   Week 3 (Jan 21) – Week 4:
   Finalize editing
   Output to DVD
   Complete documentation
8. Bibliography – relevant sources used in work
9. Visual/Conceptual References – “Bingo”

Storyboard can be accessed here.