When researching for this project it reminded me of art exhibition I went to a few months ago in FACT called the Art of Pop. The Art of Pop had more than 100 video clips telling the story of music videos running constantly on numerous screens and projections through the gallery.
The use of different screens throughout the gallery worked really well and gave the audience an chance to see certain videos in different ways, how the appear along side other styles ect.
While looking into second screen I tested out QR codes. QR codes are a pixilated image (example shown below) that when scanned on a smart phone or tablet links to a website, video or image. I find QR codes interesting and I think they do serve a purpose but I think the audience is minimal. I think it's a case of a good idea but has a limited reach.
QR Code linking to our website
I much prefer a different type of second screen a piece of software called Layar. Layar works on a similar basis to QR codes but feels a lot more user friendly and I think it's a lot more interesting for the consumer.
Instead of scanning a a barcode you scan an image and then that image can link you to anything from a video to a website. This allows the producer to be a lot more creative.
I first came across Layar around a year ago when I began creating video's for a magazine called LowDown in Liverpool. Layar was built into the magazine so that when you scanned an image in the mag the person would come to life and talk to you about each article.
I've recently started working with a company called Wray Brothers. Wray Brothers sell cleaning and clothing products all around the country and through my idea of bringing Layar to there catalog every issue from 2015 will contain a video to match each item of clothing.
I think Layar is something that could and should become a far more popular use of technology, I really like the way in which it is used in the video below. Taking popular scenes from films and brining them to life when you at the location of the film.
For this part of the project I experimented with the software Isadora. This software allows the producer to manipulate realtime and prerecorded media. One of the positives I found about the software was how the producer could import different media files and then allow Isadora to randomise the different files and create a unique end product. I liked the fact it gave the producer the ability to be the consumer to an extent.
I wasn't very impressed with the layout of the software, the features and look felt dated, also the effects felt rather dated too. It's gave me inspiration for in the future to create sections of films or music videos with a sort 80's style effect in parts.
In the video above I like the way the technique is used, I think the way the video would be improved to do experiment the use of colour more, I think the dot's work perfectly and this style could look really interesting if the shapes were sharper, and changed more in size. This technique could then be used really effectively in a Pop Art video piece. I'd like to explore this style for a music video of some sort.
In conclusion I think this software could work well but to create something that's contemporary and substantial it would need to integrated into other pieces of software such as after affects or final cut.
Although I've only just discovered how YouTube Annotations can be creative I've used them professionally for over a year now.
As you can see in the video above this is the end screen to all our sessions at CCTV. It provides a chance for us to let our viewers continue to watch more videos, we can add similar videos of people's interests, link to play lists, link to Facebook, twitter, our website and allow people to subscribe to our channel.
The still above shows the analytics from youtube of views and estimated minutes watched we've gained from annotations. Over 22 months we've gained an extra 534 views and an estimated 1,509 minutes. It's not a lot in comparison to the amount of views we've gained over all in that time but it's worth the extra time to put them in.
