Mosaic narrative a poetics of cinematic new media narrative

This thesis proposes the Poetics of Mosaic Narrative as a tool for theorising the creation and telling of cinematic stories in a digital environment. As such the Poetics of Mosaic Narrative is designed to assist creators of new media narrative to design dramatically compelling screen based stories by drawing from established theories of cinema and emerging theories of new media. In doing so it validates the crucial element of cinematic storytelling in the digital medium, which due to its fragmentary, variable and re-combinatory nature, affords the opportunity for audience interaction. The Poetics of Mosaic Narrative re-asserts the dramatic and cinematic nature of narrative in new media by drawing upon the dramatic theory of Aristotle’s Poetics, the cinematic theories of the 1920s Russian Film Theorists and contemporary Neo-Formalists, the narrative theories of the 1960s French Structuralists, and the scriptwriting theories of contemporary cinema. In particular it focuses on the theory and practice of the prominent new media theorist, Lev Manovich, as a means of investigating and creating a practical poetics. The key element of the Poetics of Mosaic Narrative is the expansion of the previously forgotten and undeveloped Russian Formalist concept of cinematurgy which is vital to the successful development of new media storytelling theory and practice. This concept, as originally proposed but not elaborated by Kazansky, encompasses the notion of the creation of cinematic new media narrative as a mosaic – integrally driven by the narrative systems of plot, as well as the cinematic systems of visual style created by the techniques of cinema- montage, cinematography and mise-en-scene

General general game AI

Arguably the grand goal of artificial intelligence research is to produce machines with general intelligence: the capacity to solve multiple problems, not just one. Artificial intelligence (AI) has investigated the general intelligence capacity of machines within the domain of games more than any other domain given the ideal properties of games for that purpose: controlled yet interesting and computationally hard problems. This line of research, however, has so far focused solely on one specific way of which intelligence can be applied to games: playing them. In this paper, we build on the general game-playing paradigm and expand it to cater for all core AI tasks within a game design process. That includes general player experience and behavior modeling, general non-player character behavior, general AI-assisted tools, general level generation and complete game generation. The new scope for general general game AI beyond game-playing broadens the applicability and capacity of AI algorithms and our understanding of intelligence as tested in a creative domain that interweaves problem solving, art, and engineering.peer-reviewe

Exploring the impact of 360° movie cuts in users' attention

Virtual Reality (VR) has grown since the first devices for personal use became available on the market. However, the production of cinematographic content in this new medium is still in an early exploratory phase. The main reason is that cinematographic language in VR is still under development, and we still need to learn how to tell stories effectively. A key element in traditional film editing is the use of different cutting techniques, in order to transition seamlessly from one sequence to another. A fundamental aspect of these techniques is the placement and control over the camera. However, VR content creators do not have full control of the camera. Instead, users in VR can freely explore the 360° of the scene around them, which potentially leads to very different experiences. While this is desirable in certain applications such as VR games, it may hinder the experience in narrative VR. In this work, we perform a systematic analysis of users'' viewing behavior across cut boundaries while watching professionally edited, narrative 360° videos. We extend previous metrics for quantifying user behavior in order to support more complex and realistic footage, and we introduce two new metrics that allow us to measure users'' exploration in a variety of different complex scenarios. From this analysis, (i) we confirm that previous insights derived for simple content hold for professionally edited content, and (ii) we derive new insights that could potentially influence VR content creation, informing creators about the impact of different cuts in the audience's behavior

VFX – A New Frontier: The Impact of Innovative Technology on Visual Effects

Although Visual Effects (VFX) are an increasingly important element of the media content demanded by audiences, of media production (filmmaking and storytelling) and of the media industries, VFX remains a relatively under-research area within academic media or film studies. Innovations in technology are instrumental to the continuous developments in VFX technology, enabling the evolution of storytelling techniques and expanding the boundaries of VFX content and the VFX industries. In particular, a new wave of cutting-edge technologies have contributed to a period of extensive technical and organisational changes in the VFX industry. The implementation of these technologies is occurring during a period of growth in demand for VFX content, ever hight standards of quality (in particular the realism of VFX effects) and resulting demand for VFX workers. Supplying this demand for both greater quantity and quality of VFX content has increased the pressure for VFX production to be as efficient as possible. This has brought pressure on production budgets (to produce more and better content from the same or even diminishing resources) and production timeframes (“turnaround times”). One result of all these changes is that VFX workers now confront a multitude of new challenges. This study investigates the new technology which is driving or enabling these changes and in particular focuses on the impact of implementing these technologies on VFX production (the VFX workflow). The study collects evidence to show how these new technologies, combined with the broader changes in the industry, are impacting VFX production and labour. The thesis approaches this research task by use economic and sociological theories of technology, innovation, and production/labour to provide a conceptual framework to use in understanding how these changes are impacting the products produced by the industry and the work experience of VFX professionals. The next step is to fill in the gaps in knowledge resulting from the relatively under-researched nature of VFX production withing academic media and film studies. The thesis provides a detailed account of the emergence and growth of “the VFX industry”, including historical and current product and process innovations. Rather than defining the object of study in relation to content genres or types of business, the study defines the industry in terms of workers using a common set of tools. This section of the thesis explores the economic and cultural causes of changes in the industry and maps out the qualitative changes in the creativity, job satisfaction and job security/precarity of VFX labour. The collection of primary data through interviews with industry professionals provides the unique contribution of this study, setting out how VFX work is changing in different content genres, types of business and production roles, at different hierarchical levels. This study contributes to the field by addressing the need for academic and empirical research in this neglected area of study. The thesis contributes original knowledge on the impact of current technological innovations by providing research based on primary data collected from interviews with the VFX workers impacted by the implementation of the technologies. Potential policy and practical applications of this research include assisting industry professionals in deconstructing the marketing “hype” around these cutting-edge technologies and outlining uncertainties and implications of these technologies, helping them in the complex decision making of evaluating and implementing current innovative technology

Narrative design of sadness in Heavy Rain

Aware of all the problems videogames have faced trying to elicit sadness from its players, we decided to analyse the videogame Heavy Rain in virtue of its capabilities to induce sadness in the players. The game was studied under two different perspectives: the character’s non-verbal expressivity and the audiovisual artistic properties of the game. We have found that for the narrative design of sad interactive sequences, the game followed a three-stepped model made of: attachment, rupture, and passivity

Image and Video Processing: An Ingenious Tool of Story Telling

Right from the existence of Homo sapiens (Humans), storytelling has existed. Primarily in an oral tradition, humans used storytelling as a method of preserving stories, history and cultural traditions of their ancestors. Verbal communication is one of the fundamental form of communication, whether or not humans once communicated with primitive grunts. As humans are social creatures, they use different mediums to communicate which also proves as an evidence of socialism of humans. Consequently, storytelling evolved from stone scripts to the digital and now it is further transforming to the immersive medium format. Different cultures documented their stories, history and also digitised it to preserve it. Aesthetics and content of the storytelling is creatively enhanced with the help of various processes. Image processing; the set of techniques used to modify a digital image in order to improve it (in terms of quality), or to reduce its size or to get information out of it. Digital image processing is a new sector of knowledge that has quickly developed due to the emergence of new information technologies. It simply relies on the information linked with mathematics, signal processing, electronic systems and the development in microprocessor computation capacities. In its early stages digital image processing and its scope of application is quite spread, due to which it has quickly become apparent that a methodology should be created and the domains of application separated out. This research gives spotlight on the analysis of multidimensional role of image and video processing in altering the complete way of contemporary storytelling. It deals with various aspects of audio-visual production process related to video and images. The main purpose of the study was to discuss the techniques and the thought process with respect to the technological aspect in digital storytelling

Narrative techno-enhancement: the impact of the digital visual effects (DVFx) in creative narrative performance

Globalization of technology primarily in the field of film, media and communication studies has also impacted the creativity in visual presentation and storytelling. The occurrence of technological changes that involve creative work will undoubtedly lead to a new assessment of creativity. Hence, technology and creativity are likely to represent a new creative possibility and measurement in the field of film production. Digital Visual Effects (DVFx) provides new kind of creativity based on technology to the creative visual presentation and creative narrative enhancement. We have learned that story and narratives are the priorities that need to be secure in a movie; however, the spectacular element produced by using DVFx show the progress and development of technology used in the film production process, especially to the creative narrative. Hence the question that needs to address is; how these elements of technology integrated with the story and narrative filmmaking? Generally, this article will focus on the role and impact of DVFx as narrative techno-enhancement in the storytelling, and narrative presentation compared the technical visual presentation aspect. Precisely, this article analyses the impact on DVFx among professionals in Malaysia, India, and Australia’s film industries to enhance creative narrative performance. Narrative interstate relies on our understanding of the use of technology to create and convey stories. Presentation of stories also means communicating and transferring the meaning to the audiences. In addition to functioning as narrative techno-enhancement, DVFx opens the exploration of value in creative storytelling such as digital narrative and digital interactive storytelling for the audience in the 21st century

Transmedia storytelling and transcendental experience: using media archaeology in creative practice to explore narrative and space within the virtual screen

"Transmedia Storytelling and Transcendental Experience: Using Media Archaeology in Creative Practice to Explore Narrative and Space within the Virtual Screen" is a PhD by Published Work comprised of four video-based transmedia projects. As a collective body of work, they are orientated around conceptual approaches to multi-platform production that aim for an intended transcendental experience, an approach that centralises the spectator. The study develops work undertaken by the author as an undergraduate in Psychology and Philosophy, later focusing at Masters level on subliminal imaging within digital media. The approach to production developed in this thesis is drawn from phenomenological understandings of audience experience in relation to content across iterations of the virtual screen, informed by psychology theories such as Gestalt and Jungian theories. These transmedia productions engage with creative opportunities and issues around the proliferation and fragmentation of video content and audiences, across multi-platform media, as well as the distinct challenges involved in authoring online and offline iterations of the virtual screen. The contribution to knowledge consists in the development of alternative production-based methodologies for transmedia authoring through extending the use of existing technological applications. My production-based methodology is based on the modelling of an intended transcendental experience which is catalysed through novel and/or experimental combinations of already available media tools. This production methodology creates new knowledge by extending the function of phenomenological psychology mechanisms established within still and moving image production. This extension materialises through the application of concepts such as "figure and ground" from Gestalt psychology and the language of Jungian archetypes, which are used as a guiding principle to re-structuring transmedia authorship with the intention to generate a transcendental experience. This model of production applies a media archaeological approach to the implementation of technological tools, implementing the "new" into the "old" and the "old" into the "new" in making choices regarding format and positioning of the virtual screen. The works submitted in support of the thesis have been produced by implementing this conceptual approach. These transmedia projects explore configurations of platforms positioned at an intersection of digital arts practice and more mainstream narrative video, spanning documentary and fiction. Overall, they demonstrate diversity in the implementation of the conceptual approach of intended transcendental experience across a range of online and offline applications that include gallery installation, interactive web-based storytelling, cinema style presentation and printed outputs. The submission comprises of four transmedia productions J9 (2010), Telenesia (2011), The Interactive Forest (2014) and A Polish Journey (2015), these are examined within their production and theoretical contexts before being analysed as implementations of an 'intended transcendental experience'

Machinima Filmmaking: The Integration of Immersive Technology for Collaborative Machinima Filmmaking

This Digital Media MS project proposes to create a flexible, intuitive, and low-entry barrier virtual cinematography tool that will enable participants engaged in human computer interaction (HCI) activities to quickly stage, choreograph, rehearse, and capture performances in real-time. Heretofore, Machinima developers have used limited forms of expressive input devices to puppeteer characters and record in-game live performances, using a gamepad, keyboard, mouse, and joystick to produce content. This has stagnated Machinima development because machinimators have not embraced the current evolution of input devices to create, capture, and edit content, thereby omitting game engine programming possibilities that could exploit new 3D compositing techniques and alternatives to strengthen interactivity, collaboration, and efficiency in cinematic pipelines. Our system, leveraging consumer-affordable hardware and software, advances the development of Machinima production by providing a foundation for alternative cinematic practices, to create a seamless form of human computer interaction and to positively convince more people toward Machinima filmmaking. We propose to produce an Unreal Engine 4 system plugin which integrates virtual reality and eye tracking, via the Oculus Rift DK2 and Tobii EyeX, respectively. The plugin will enable two people, in the roles of Director and Performer, to navigate and interact within a virtual 3D space to productively affect collaborative Machinima filmmaking.M.S., Digital Media -- Drexel University, 201