Week 13: Interactive Television

This week I thought I would talk about interactive television and how far it has come. Although it is not a net based interaction I still thought it was interesting and worthwhile to talk about in my blog.



Sports on pay television has become much more interactive in the last couple of years. Instead of just watching sport you now have the opportunity to interact with it, whilst still being at home in the lounge room. Fox Sports Australia allows you to do this. You can choose from a number of different camera angles to watch the action, such as sideline, stands or close up. It also gives the viewer the choice of audio, as you choose to listen to commentary, crowd or referee and players. There are menu's to scroll through where you can look at replays, player stats and team stats also.

This allows the user to interact with television in a way that has never been possible until now. Another example on television is with certain ads. These ads will play through and then at the end a red button will pop up. If you click the red button on the remote, you can get things such as free samples sent to you that relate directly to the ad.

News channels on television have also become alot more interactive. Instead of just being able to watch one screen, you can now watch many at one time. For example, on Sky News Australia, if you click on the red button currently, a new screen opens up with eight different screens. These are 'main news', 'election news', 'business news', 'weather news', 'headlines', 'top stories', 'sport' and 'sky uk'. The user has the option to watch all at once or choose one to watch on its own.

Another example of interactivity on television is on the games channels. By paying a monthly fee, you can play arcade games on your television. You can now also have e-mail on cable television and also have the choice to vote for certain shows to be aired.

These examples show how much more interactive television has become. To the point now where you don't just sit and watch. There is still a lot of potential however to expand this even further I believe. This also shows that it is not only net based/computer based technology that is becoming more interactive, but also television. I think this a very good thing as interactivity allows for more creativity.

By Michael Angus (S2587197)

Week 12: Ghost Whisperer Interactive Story

When I was on YouTube this week, I found an interactive story involving the show Ghost Whisperer. I am not a fan of the show but thought that it was interesting enough to talk about this week in my blog.



The people with Ghost Whisperer were asking for fan submissions on YouTube to create a scary story. The start of the story begins with the actors and actresses from the show starting it off, then they were calling for videos from fans that gave one line to add to the story. After a couple of months of submissions, they put together a scary story that involves contributions from many fans and the end result is some what interesting.

The first part can be viewed here as an example: http://youtube.com/watch?v=h3vpXKkRyms

This idea allows fans of the show to interact more with it and makes them feel more apart of it. This would be another example of media meshing, which I talked about earlier in my blog. It is well cut together and is an interesting and fairly new form of net based interactivity. This sort of thing seems to get fans more involved as they have the chance to be heard and contribute to the story.

This type of stunt also brings in more recognition and advertising for Ghost Whisperer, as it is being exposed on the biggest video site on the internet. So really, it is a win-win situation for both the show and the fans.

There are also other interactive YouTube videos out there, such as this one:

http://br.youtube.com/user/IPmovie
This particular one is an interactive sci-fi movie where users have sent in what should happen in each scene and the winners have got their scene made and joint into the story. Again, a fun way to get people to interact with videos.

A more stupid and amateur interactive video would be like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X77j8LLPg_M
A man asks you if you want him to eat chilli powder or not and you have to skip to a certain time in the video depending on what choice you make. This may be a very bad example, but I decided to link to it just to show how easily it can be done and as long as you have a video camera it is possible.

Of course their is the Lonely Girl 15 videos as well, which I also mentioned earlier on in my blog. These types of videos and YouTube itself has allowed videos to become more interactive and they allow viewers to get more involved than ever before.

By Michael Angus (S2587197)

Week 11: Final Project Idea

This week I am writing about my idea for my final project that is due on Friday of Week 15.

'Sleeping Mind'

You are lying almost perfectly still in a bed in a hospital room. Your eyes are shut and the only movement is that of your heart pumping and your lungs breathing in and out.  You have been in a coma for ten long years. Enter your own head to find out what really is going on inside you and how you ended up this way. Explore the many 'rooms' of your mind. Some are peaceful, some are evil and others are just plain bizarre. Can you make yourself wake up? Or will you make things worse? Will you discover how you ended up in this coma? Or will you never regain your memory of what happened 10 years ago. Why are these things going on inside your head? Information and different outcomes are entirely up to you. You will have to piece the puzzle together, one by one, if you make it...

The project will be made in Flash and then put into a website. Here is the brief layout for the project:



Home Page
A room with a door is visible. The title will be present and you advance by clicking on the door to begin the project.

Hospital Room
You are seen lying in a hospital bed in a coma. Click on your head to advance.

Ear
Your ear drum is visible. Click inside it to enter your mind.

Mind Entrance
The gateway to your mind. Many things are happening. Which door will you choose?

A. Memory Entrance
You enter the memory entrance.

B. Engine Entrance
You enter the engine entrance.

C. Coma Entrance
You enter the coma entrance.b

A1. Memory Room 1
You enter memory room 1.

A2. Memory Room 2
You enter memory room 2.

B1. Engine Room 1
You enter engine room 1.

B2. Engine Room 2
You enter engine room 2.

C1. Coma Room 1
You enter coma room 1.

C2. Coma Room 2
You enter coma room 2.

A1A. Event 1 Room
You enter event 1 room.

A1B. Event 2 Room
You enter event 2 room.

A2A. Event 3 Room
You enter event 3 room.

A2B. Event 4 Room
You enter event 4 room.

B1A. Event 5 Room
You enter event 5 room.

B1B. Event 6 Room
You enter event 6 room.

B2A. Event 7 Room
You enter event 7 room.

B2B. Event 8 Room
You enter event 8 room.

C1A. Event 9 Room
You enter event 9 room.

C1B. Event 10 Room
You enter event 10 room.

C2A. Event 11 Room
You enter event 11 room.

C2B. Event 12 Room
You enter event 12 room.

By Michael Angus (S2587197)

Week 10: Interactive Movie Website 2

This week I am again looking at another interactive movie website. This time I am looking at the site for the Blair Witch Project, which is another horror movie that was released in 1999.



Blair Witch Project
URL: http://www.blairwitch.com/

When visiting the site, it first comes up with basic white text on a black background. The text describes the outline of the story and then you have different areas of the site to explore. There is 'Mythology', 'The Filmmakers', 'The Aftermath', 'The Legacy' and 'Chat'. When clicking on Mythology, you are presented with a timeline of the events in the history of the blair witch, which starts in February, 1785 and ends on October 16, 1997. It is a interesting read and gives a background of the story before the movie even begins. The page is very basic and just contains text, but the content is good on the page.

When you click on The Filmmakers, it is a gallery of the three characters who made the documentary and went missing. You can move backwards and forwards through the images using the simple arrow buttons. Each image contains a very brief caption written in white text. Again very simple and basic in design but the content is what makes it appealing.

When you click on The Aftermath, you have the options of 'Evidence', 'Search', 'Interviews' and 'News'. Evidence and Search are simply more images. Interviews are QuickTime movies where you can see family members and police officers talking about the incident. News also contains QuickTime movies, showing the broadcasts of the filmmakers when they were reported missing. The page is similar in layout to the Filmmakers page. Basic yet effective.

The Legacy page contains a journal you can read of one of the missing students and audio footage and video footage that was recovered. The Chat page is where you can chat with other fans. The website makes the whole thing feel very authentic and real, just like the movie did, so it does a good job with that. The sites basic look and feel I think actually brings more authenticity to it as the students went missing in 1994, and the site has that look of a site from back around then. It has no moving animations like the Saw website but it is interactive by allowing you to click on many different pieces of information. I think it is very well done.

By Michael Angus (S2587197)