PHASE 1 MARVEL-A-THON TBR

What better time to get back into blogging again than uni breaking up for the summer and an imminent move to the other side of the world? 

There was no way I was gonna pass up an opportunity to post about my two faves, the MCU and books, and Jamieson, the fantastic blogger behind jamishelves, provided me with the perfect opportunity to do just that. Click here to read all about the Marvel-A-Thon book challenge she created.

Now, I am a pretty slow reader and there's no way I'm gonna complete this challenge properly, but I'll be damned if I don't give it a shot. So, without further ado, here is my TBR for "Phase 1" of the readathon. 

Iron Man - Read the first book in a series

I have a whole load of options for this, including some I'm still yet to finish (looking at you guys, A Darker Shade of Magic and The Darkest Minds.) But, assuming I get these two finished before June, I'll be going with Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. Everyone in my YA book club has read this book and I've been meaning to get round to it for ages! I'm also intrigued by the desert setting - I don't think I've ever read a YA with this backdrop before.

Hulk - Read a book with a green cover

My selection of books is pretty limited at the moment as I'm currently in London studying, while most of my books are back at home in the north of England. However, I do have a copy of a single book with me that fits this criteria: Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson. It seems a bit long but also like an easy read so hopefully this won't be too difficult to get through! 

Iron Man 2 - Read a book that's unpopular

I'm a firm believer in not wasting times on books that aren't very good because "life's too short", but then again I was a huge fan of the I Am Number Four series (until like book 4 lol), and they got some pretty shoddy reviews from influential bloggers. So, who knows, maybe I'll find my next fave through this challenge, although if I'm gonna give up one from this phase it will definitely be this one. I am tossing up a couple of options, but am leaning towards Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke. Reviews state that the writing style saves this book, but honestly I've never been that bothered by "poetic" or "purple" prose; for example, I did not enjoy Shatter Me. However, a love triangle with 2 girls instead of 2 boys changes things up a little... but I'm not a fan of pitting girls against girls so we'll see! 

Thor - Read a book that contains myth or mythology

I never read further than the first Percy Jackson book so I'm going to give the series another go and reread it!

Captain America - Read a book set or written in WWII

I recently read Orphan Monster Spy and really, really did not like it - and as such I don't know if I'll be in the mood for another WWII book so soon after. This may be my second skip - but if I'm in the mood, I'll read The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy which I started all the way back in September of 2016 and never finished, despite it being pretty short! 

The Avengers - Read a book with multiple perspectives

My mind immediately went to Prodigy by Marie Lu, but since it's been a hot sec since I read Legend and I'll probably need to re-read it before continuing the series, I think I'll have to go with something else. So, staying faithful to Lu, I'll read The Young Elites instead.

So yep, that's me for phase 1. Phase 2 coming soon! 

Space in "Save London"

Much of the feedback from our original pitch involved the suggestion that we should move away from science-fiction elements and instead focus on “reality”. As such, for the game element of the project, we decided to create a virtual space that was a recognizable area in London (the project was, after all, meant for those people that live in London) for the user to walk around and experience – in the end we settled on Regent’s Park, and established this setting by filming the iconic panoramic view of London from Primrose Hill. Aside from the game element, we also filmed general shots of present day London to anchor the viewer in the current time before moving on to the game and the “future” of London’s great park.

Interactive cinema “gives the viewer the option to influence the storyline to some degree” (Tanak, 2015). However, we chose to allow the user to not only influence the storyline, but also the visual space around them. In selecting certain personal responses to environment-related questions during the game, the virtual reality space would shift and morph into something different. This was done using the appearance of visual graphics depicting negative images such as glitches, drought and fire, and by causing the audial space to become distressing – a shift away from the nature sounds and heartbeats the user could originally hear. This makes for quite an uncomfortable experience, and the performative aspect to the game links the space directly to the user, and challenges their perception of the way they live in the space (i.e. London).

We were also aware that the shifting of a familiar and comfortable space, such as the beautiful and unassuming Regent’s Park, to a negative visual and audial experience can be very confrontational and emotional for the viewer. This is best demonstrated by Ørsted’s (2017) experimental film about climate change and the way it will change what we believe to be “home” (i.e. the house in which we live), associating negative feelings with what was once a peaceful and cosy place by linking it to the larger ecosystem – our planet. As such, we knew that morphing the place Londoners call “home” (in this case, a general area rather than a specific house) into something unrecognizable and terrifying would elicit an emotional response that connected the viewers to the wider problem at hand. We hoped to prevent the distancing that certain traditional climate change films incur – for example, it is harder for us to relate to the melting of the Arctic icebergs when compared to the destruction of the place in which we ourselves live. Therefore we hope to have demonstrated the desire to exploit the use of space in order to elicit a specific, personal, and emotional response in the user.

We used this shifting of space to help the user take notice of their individual agency and potential to change the path of climate change. As such we believe we used space in a meaningful and challenging way, by causing the user to be self-reflective and self-critical with a heavy dose of self-awareness (due to the performative aspect of the project), which is not super common in game-style interactive media – for example, Tanak further explains that for a person to be “immersed” in a game, one must become less aware of their environment and their self-awareness must decline. However in our case, we hope to have challenged this notion by instead demonstrating how self-awareness can be of paramount importance in order to fully appreciate the aims of the project. However we would also hope that the user would be fully immersed in our virtual reality environment – which would therefore be in conflict with an increased amount of self-awareness. It may be difficult to turn off, in our minds, the awareness of the space we physically inhabit and not our own self-reflective thoughts. I am comfortable saying that I believe the nature of our film means one can be immersed while being self reflective; however, if not, it is an interesting gap to be bridged in the future.

Bibliography

Tanak, N. 2015. ‘Interactive Cinema. A mini guide for understanding and producing a 360-degree interactive movie.’ MediaLAB Amsterdam.

Filmography

Ørsted 2017. Love your home [Video File], retrieved from http://loveyourhome.orsted.com/#en

Personal and Creative Journey

The creative and personal journey I have taken in making the trailer has ultimately been nothing short of fulfilling. There were many bumps and hurdles along the way however this has strengthened my resolve and has made me more prepared to face potential future challenges head-on.

I teamed up with Irene Natal, as we both had similar interests in climate change and the environment. We knew early on that we hoped to make an interactive, experimental project about this topic, and its implications in London, which involved virtual reality (VR). Our project gradually morphed into a VR walk around London, in which questions are asked to the participant and depending on the answers given, the visual and audial landscape shifts negatively or positively. The participant would realise what impact the accumulation of individual negative actions can have on the environment, and would be encouraged to participate in our online campaign “Save London”, either by donating, campaigning, or joining in our events such as tree-planting. We took inspiration from the idea of “transmedia” (telling a story across multiple media platforms) for the latter part of the project, as linking the project across media landscapes anchors it in reality (Laurichesse, 2017).

With regards to pitching the project, we decided to make a mini-trailer as we thought the feedback we would get from this could be invaluable when we came to make the full-length trailer. We hoped to demonstrate atmosphere we would aim to achieve and see how this came across to others. Much of the feedback was incredibly insightful, for example someone pointed out that having science-fiction elements such as aliens in the trailer didn’t work as it detracted from reality. We did not have the correct vibe, imagery or music to create a successful science-fiction experimental trailer, such as that done by Sabrina Pena Young (2016). Therefore we removed this aspect from the final trailer.

For the final trailer, we hoped to shoot a 360-degree walk through a London park using GoPros. Unfortunately we weren’t able to acquire GoPros and instead were given Canon XF100s. The situation was worsened as we were unable to use Unity to replicate the VR experience, and could not film on certain locations we had hoped to due to closures. We had to find a new way and method in which to get our message and the game dynamics across – so we took inspiration from “Virtual Hike” videos on YouTube such as the one done by Tall Sky (2016). We replicated, to an extent, the sound of nature and shallow breathing while on the walk. However we included the sound of heartbeats to emphasize the fact the game focused on the individual and their actions, and what they alone could do to improve the environment.

We also took inspiration from Ørsted (2016), a global green energy company that also made an interactive film about climate change. The film demonstrates how terrifying nature can be when juxtaposed with the comfort of “home” and as such elicits an emotional response from the viewer. This further encouraged us to emphasize the fact the film takes place in London, which is home for many.

All these factors provide the participant with a way to view how their individual choices affect the world’s ecosystem. We acknowledged that saving our planet takes individual actions, which speaks to the idea of agency (the ability for one to act and “see the results of their decisions and choices” (Murray, 1997)). Exploring agency is highly suited to interactive pieces, and as such complimented a lot of what we hoped to achieve. As such, the nature of the film (interactive) and the message itself compliment each other well – this was highly satisfying to produce.

Disaster struck when it came to editing the piece, and I unfortunately had a bit of a creative crisis. A lot of the hurdles I thought I had overcome only seemed to multiply and get worse with each new problem, and I became upset with the way the original project was morphing into something completely different than I’d envisaged. However with the help of my teammate, I managed to succeed in the end.

This project has been quite the process, and I have developed both personal and creative experiences. Thanks to the project, I have stopped buying shampoo and soaps in bottles and instead get everything in solid form. Creatively, I have had experience in Adobe Suite and with cameras, as well as invaluable experience working in a creative team.

Bibliography

Laurichesse, H.  2017. ‘Anne Besson, Nathalie Prince, Laurent Bazin, dirs, Mondes fictionnels, mondes numériques, mondes possibles. Adolescence et culture médiatique.’ Questions de communication, 31(484-486).

Murray, J. 1997. ‘Hamlet on the Holodeck’. p. 126. The Free Press.

Filmography

Ørsted 2017. Love your home [Video File], retrieved from http://loveyourhome.orsted.com/#en

Pena Young, S. 2016. MNEO Experimental Sci-Fi Film [Video File], retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3uLhDZCEqU

Tall Sky. 2016. Virtual Hike: 2+ Hrs Around a Mountain Lake, Forest, Lava Beds [Video File], retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhQzl6L78qg