Beta Project Summary

The beta demonstrated today is a basic test for the functionality of the project which I wish to complete. It shows the ability to switch between different video feeds and to do a composite of two or more of them at once. In my final project I hope to have more people and in more interesting locations. Being able to cycle through as seen in the beta is one option. Another thing that I hope to try out is to toggle in and out separate areas by clicking on them. My hope is that these areas will define themselves through flow of traffic in what I film. These paths will be matted out using the mask feature in flash, which was used in a simple fashion in the beta for the composite scene. Additionally I would like to have an option for there to be a layer that shows a line traced to indicate the path of each individual. I would like also to build in an option to show only that trailing path. This process will be done on five or more scenes and then packaged together on a website. Additionally I would like to have sound on the background of each. One method will be to make two recordings for each scene. One will be just room tone or ambient noise, the other will be the way the scene sounds when busy. As the amount of active people increases the it will gradually change from 100% of track A and 0% of track b to 0% of track a and 100% of B. Another option is to use the individuals actual noise from the video, if I can isolate that by using a shotgun microphone.

My goal in the finished product is to show how locations are effected by the presence of people. A place may look like an entirely different location when it is vacant as opposed to crowded. I hope that this project will explore why that is by being able to control that element. Also I hope that this project will demonstrate the opposite, the effect that locations have on people. I hope to explore that aspect through the traced paths. My hope is that the lines will reflect where crowded are pushed away from, what they are drawn to and what obstacles they avoid.

There will be some difficulties in doing this, though. The volume of video that needs to be shot is a bit large, and compositing it will take a while. The path tracing is a simple, but time consuming task, I assume most time will be spent on that. I hope that gaining permission to shoot in some of my locations, such as the mall and train station will not be difficult. The beta was shot with a iSight camera on an iMac, the acutall project will be done on a camcorder. This will hopefully solve the problem in the beta of the varied light levels, but if correction in After Effects is necessary, it will be done. As always I hope to find things in the finished product that I did not anticipate showing up in the beginning.