Concept Video Critical Evaluation
The initial idea of the video was to primarily communicate how the project works, and secondarily give some background to the project. Logically, it made sense to explain the problem first before trying to communicate the solution. Visuals would not have quite illustrated properly the problem of how people of one culture are ignorant to people of other cultures.
One idea I had was to show an Englishman meeting a Japanese-man, but with the greeting being very awkward. The Englishman would reach his hand out for a handshake, but the Japanese-man would have started performing a Japanese bow. They would then quickly swapped actions to reflect the greeting of the other person’s culture. However, this could have been very clichéd if not done properly. Also casting would have been a major problem as I do not know any Japanese people who aren’t of a stereotypical student age.
As these visuals were not going to work, this meant that I had to have either narration or titles in order for the user to properly comprehend the problem.
I chose to make the video as easy to understand as possible and so used narration so that the user didn’t have to read. This was overlayed onto images of David Cameron visiting Japan in 2012. The reasoning behind this was to make the first ‘problem’ part of the video congruent with the second ‘solution’ part: the culture used to demonstrate the project was Japanese.
The visuals and narration then brought the actual project into the foreground of the video. Caitlin, my pretend user, walked into the room and was prompted with a push notification being sent to her mobile phone. She then went into the Reculture app, was informed that the culture of the day was Japanese, and then found out what the Japanese gesture to turn the TV on was. She then performs this gesture and the TV turns on. She then realises that the programme which is on the TV is not what she wants and then delves back into the app to figure out what the gesture to change the channel is. She then performs this gesture. She repeats this process to increase the volume and then sits down with a beaming smile upon her face.
When critically reflecting upon this, I have learnt a few things:
Lighting
My brother helped me film the video and when we both arrived, it was daylight outside. We started filming and all was well. An hour and a half quickly passed and before we knew it, the sun had set. Once I got home, I reviewed the footage and the mistake I’d made was obvious: the white balance and general colouring of the various different takes were drastically different. We started filming during daylight, when there was a natural bluey-white light pouring in from the window. Caitlin is well illuminated and there is relatively little noise on the video image. However, toward the end of the shoot, there was only the filament light on in the living room which provided a dim, yellowy light. This meant that my brother had to increase the ISO, which also increased the noise on the video image. This is noticeable from shot to shot in the final video, and even after colour correction, it is obvious that the light had changed.
Everything Matters
The first time we performed the gestures, the content on the TV was not good. I wasn’t going to say anything as I didn’t want to take up any more of their time than we had to. In the end, it was the mother of the family who questioned the content on the TV. We did it again and selected more appropriate channels. This is what can be seen in the final video. There are still issues with the content, but I chose to go with it anyway.
