Thursday 17 January 2008
Manifesto!!
The key objective or ‘mission statement’ of our project is to show how one can loose themselves in the virtual world in the pursuit of perfection.
This developed from our ongoing ‘blonde blogs’ which gave us an insight into how accessible, extreme, and possibly unsafe the internet can be. We found that just by being ‘blonde’ we are subject able to a very appearance driven side of the WWW that can be very consuming.
With this objective in mind, we thought of the best possible ways in which this could be shown. We decided after research, that the virtual game ‘Secondlife’ was a very popular example of how some modern day people are leading ‘unreal’ lives as a completely different person or the person they wish they were.
An eye opener of this fact was a programme on Channel 4 regarding a middle aged man who lived his life as his ‘Secondlife’ character ‘Chris’. As a result of this obsessive playing, his marriage and social life failed. The worrying reality was that he actually wanted to be ‘Chris’ and had no regrets. This led him to spiral out of control and over time was emotionally and physically affected by his life as ‘Chris’.
As ‘Chris’ he would date, shop, buy houses, travel and even have sexual intercourse with other virtual characters. This developed into spending 17 hours a day on ‘Secondlife’ living as the virtual character and getting satisfaction in doing so.
Another purpose in developing this idea was the research into adverts on the internet. We were shocked with the quantity of image improving advertisements; for instance, MYA, a breast enlargement company often has moving pop ups, which has quotes such as: 'It's the best thing i ever did, ever,' and 'Make Yourself Amasing.' on the popular social networking site, Facebook, which is accessible to anyone, aged 14-100, not the best image to be showing a 14 year old girl with low confidence. Although we were concerned about how accessible these were, we were also amused by them and decided to take a more comical approach in our piece.
The virtual world advertises that anything is possible. Appearance is changeable, age can be a lie, the weather can be what you want it to be. We focused on using this comical advertising in our piece to give the audience an insight into what they too can be apart off. The advert became a way of the audience seeing one girl's tale and how they could become just like her, by taking on this idea, of advertising across the internet we could create an ironic advert, with a giant warning for the obsession the internet brings.
Due to this obsessive and overwhelming research, we were fascinated with how a game could result in such obsession. We decided to join second life as our own ‘Light blonde’ and ‘Dark blonde’ personas and create a story of how one girl’s innocent game can turn into an obsessive pursuit for perfection….
The characters were key in symbolising are two contrasting views of for and against the internet.
AmyG Thor is our innocent, ‘just like you’ character. We created AmyG as a brunette, ‘normal’ young lady. The image was not aiming to be untrue but to actually be very real. The thought process of this was that we are aiming to relate with the audience who may be innocently joining the game unaware that the appearance of their character has such an impact on their gaming experience.
We are then introduced Elle Bernst, who is the virtual representation of the ‘ideal’ beauty.
Elle has large breasts, small waist, and blonde long hair. She is also a veteran of ‘secondlife’ and takes great pleasure in leading AmyG through her beginning stages of her transformation. We wanted the audience to question if this representation is actually true of her player or not.
Our key aim was too show how AmyG’s transformation from an innocent ‘true to life character,’ evolves into a false representation of what she wishes to look like, her own idea of perfection that comes in the form of Elle. The purpose was to then show this transformation become more extreme. Elle encourages AmyG to show how simple it can be to become more beautiful and teaches her what to do.
We then see AmyG with new blonde hair and then the extreme of huge breasts, her image of perfection.
To explore the real and unreal we wanted to show the audience how realistic the game can be and how AmyG becomes more and more consumed by the ‘Secondlife’ world. The graphic worlds within 'secondlife' helped us in our story. They allow our character to visit London, New York, and Paris. This consequently fuses together the fantasy of a game, with the reality of real life. This gives the user a sense of living their chosen persona and removes the awareness of ‘playing’ a game, which is regularly felt in other games.
For AmyG Thor and her player, ‘Secondlife’ feels and becomes very real and reinforce our ‘mission’ of showing how one can loose themselves in virtually.
The last scene was the end of the transformation. We wanted the audience to see AmyG gain her physical ideal and loose her previous self. We felt that making AmyG want to change more about herself such as her breast size, reinforced our aim of being consumed by the persona. She couldn’t stop wanting to improve herself. The irony is that, with the help of Elle we wanted AmyG to go to the extreme and once she becomes her idea of perfection we wanted to show how it then reflects in her actions.
Elle wants to go dancing, however, AmyG pole-dances. She transforms into an overtly sexual persona which is in complete contrast to her players true self at the beginning.
We wanted Elle to symbolise perfection for both AmyG, but also the audience. We wanted her role in the piece to fairly disturbing and damaging to the character of AmyG who symbolises ‘the innocent player’.
To reinforce this objective, the final scene was key to achieve our ‘mission’ We wanted Ell….to observe AmyG, much like a master watching their apprentice. AmyG, while pole dancing then comments on how ‘she’s never felt so good’. We wanted this statement to emphasize the complete transformation into what she believes she want to be, a blonde, big breasted pole dancer. The player in our story is seen to have lost themselves to the persona of AmyG Thor. We wanted to make the point that escapism is fine, but how far is too far in the pursuit of perfection in the virtual world, instead of trying to live your life in the real world. Nobodys perfect, and thats the way it should be.
This developed from our ongoing ‘blonde blogs’ which gave us an insight into how accessible, extreme, and possibly unsafe the internet can be. We found that just by being ‘blonde’ we are subject able to a very appearance driven side of the WWW that can be very consuming.
With this objective in mind, we thought of the best possible ways in which this could be shown. We decided after research, that the virtual game ‘Secondlife’ was a very popular example of how some modern day people are leading ‘unreal’ lives as a completely different person or the person they wish they were.
An eye opener of this fact was a programme on Channel 4 regarding a middle aged man who lived his life as his ‘Secondlife’ character ‘Chris’. As a result of this obsessive playing, his marriage and social life failed. The worrying reality was that he actually wanted to be ‘Chris’ and had no regrets. This led him to spiral out of control and over time was emotionally and physically affected by his life as ‘Chris’.
As ‘Chris’ he would date, shop, buy houses, travel and even have sexual intercourse with other virtual characters. This developed into spending 17 hours a day on ‘Secondlife’ living as the virtual character and getting satisfaction in doing so.
Another purpose in developing this idea was the research into adverts on the internet. We were shocked with the quantity of image improving advertisements; for instance, MYA, a breast enlargement company often has moving pop ups, which has quotes such as: 'It's the best thing i ever did, ever,' and 'Make Yourself Amasing.' on the popular social networking site, Facebook, which is accessible to anyone, aged 14-100, not the best image to be showing a 14 year old girl with low confidence. Although we were concerned about how accessible these were, we were also amused by them and decided to take a more comical approach in our piece.
The virtual world advertises that anything is possible. Appearance is changeable, age can be a lie, the weather can be what you want it to be. We focused on using this comical advertising in our piece to give the audience an insight into what they too can be apart off. The advert became a way of the audience seeing one girl's tale and how they could become just like her, by taking on this idea, of advertising across the internet we could create an ironic advert, with a giant warning for the obsession the internet brings.
Due to this obsessive and overwhelming research, we were fascinated with how a game could result in such obsession. We decided to join second life as our own ‘Light blonde’ and ‘Dark blonde’ personas and create a story of how one girl’s innocent game can turn into an obsessive pursuit for perfection….
The characters were key in symbolising are two contrasting views of for and against the internet.
AmyG Thor is our innocent, ‘just like you’ character. We created AmyG as a brunette, ‘normal’ young lady. The image was not aiming to be untrue but to actually be very real. The thought process of this was that we are aiming to relate with the audience who may be innocently joining the game unaware that the appearance of their character has such an impact on their gaming experience.
We are then introduced Elle Bernst, who is the virtual representation of the ‘ideal’ beauty.
Elle has large breasts, small waist, and blonde long hair. She is also a veteran of ‘secondlife’ and takes great pleasure in leading AmyG through her beginning stages of her transformation. We wanted the audience to question if this representation is actually true of her player or not.
Our key aim was too show how AmyG’s transformation from an innocent ‘true to life character,’ evolves into a false representation of what she wishes to look like, her own idea of perfection that comes in the form of Elle. The purpose was to then show this transformation become more extreme. Elle encourages AmyG to show how simple it can be to become more beautiful and teaches her what to do.
We then see AmyG with new blonde hair and then the extreme of huge breasts, her image of perfection.
To explore the real and unreal we wanted to show the audience how realistic the game can be and how AmyG becomes more and more consumed by the ‘Secondlife’ world. The graphic worlds within 'secondlife' helped us in our story. They allow our character to visit London, New York, and Paris. This consequently fuses together the fantasy of a game, with the reality of real life. This gives the user a sense of living their chosen persona and removes the awareness of ‘playing’ a game, which is regularly felt in other games.
For AmyG Thor and her player, ‘Secondlife’ feels and becomes very real and reinforce our ‘mission’ of showing how one can loose themselves in virtually.
The last scene was the end of the transformation. We wanted the audience to see AmyG gain her physical ideal and loose her previous self. We felt that making AmyG want to change more about herself such as her breast size, reinforced our aim of being consumed by the persona. She couldn’t stop wanting to improve herself. The irony is that, with the help of Elle we wanted AmyG to go to the extreme and once she becomes her idea of perfection we wanted to show how it then reflects in her actions.
Elle wants to go dancing, however, AmyG pole-dances. She transforms into an overtly sexual persona which is in complete contrast to her players true self at the beginning.
We wanted Elle to symbolise perfection for both AmyG, but also the audience. We wanted her role in the piece to fairly disturbing and damaging to the character of AmyG who symbolises ‘the innocent player’.
To reinforce this objective, the final scene was key to achieve our ‘mission’ We wanted Ell….to observe AmyG, much like a master watching their apprentice. AmyG, while pole dancing then comments on how ‘she’s never felt so good’. We wanted this statement to emphasize the complete transformation into what she believes she want to be, a blonde, big breasted pole dancer. The player in our story is seen to have lost themselves to the persona of AmyG Thor. We wanted to make the point that escapism is fine, but how far is too far in the pursuit of perfection in the virtual world, instead of trying to live your life in the real world. Nobodys perfect, and thats the way it should be.
Friday 11 January 2008
Film allll finished!!!!
The film is all finished and i will be posting it up here the day after we show our project on wednesday aswell as our manifesto which explains everything we have done and why we did it!!! Hope you have enjoyed our Blonde journey!!!
Tuesday 8 January 2008
New idea...
I was on Facebook the other day and saw an advertisement for MYA, the cosmetic surgery company that specialises with Breast Enlargement, it said, Make Yourself Amasing. I thought this was really awful advertisment. Anyone from any age is on facebook, and it cannot be good that young girls are seeing these advertisements and thinking that by making their breasts larger through cosmetic surgery that they will look amasing. They look amasing as they are and i thought it was awful. Its the same with any cosmetic surgery but i couldnt believe the advertising on facebook, such and accesible place to have it. I then thought about how many weight loss adverts there are on the internet, and also how many Pro- Anorexia websites there are, as i know from experience that these places are accessible by anyone and can help to start young girls off having problems with their weight. I thought about making the film for our project into a sort of advert with a warning about this perfect virtul world. I firstly thought about making it big and cheesy, like; Sick of roots coming through all the time? Sick of being English and not American? etc. This way we could mock the constant stream of advertising which forces people into un necessary problems. Also that this advertising might be the thing that does push people into this virtual world, as there they can attain perfection much easier than in the real world.
Sunday 6 January 2008
The internet as a tool to change your life.
Mostly our piece is a part of how you can be anyone when you are on the web. Either with an avatar or with your own lies, you can be whoever you want. A teacher can be a model, a dad can be a child. This is a great problem aswell as a great relief. There was an program on BBC One the other night about how myspace and facebook are being used by pedophiles to gain access to young children which they would not be able to access previously. The police posed as a 14year old girl online in order to attract these people who aim to harm children through the web. this is severely worrying, in a world that has no limits, eg, the web, how can we keep ourselves protected.
There was also a man on the radio the other day talking about how safe you actually were online, with giving out numbers or email addresses and subtly giving out your location.
In my research into my project, i joined up with both Second Life and IMVU and instantly gained attraction from men alot older than me who commented that my avatar was 'cute' and that i was a 'nice age' having alot of 'style.' An avatar isnt real, a computerised person cannot be real. Unless this computer generated person is an extension of the person who created it themselves. If i felt uncomfortable, then how must young children feel? I only continued talkin to this man for reasons of my project, and am thinking i want to make my project more about the risks of the internet, the risks of what men look for on the internet, be it real, or not....... MAYBE...bit late to be changing my mind...lol
There was also a man on the radio the other day talking about how safe you actually were online, with giving out numbers or email addresses and subtly giving out your location.
In my research into my project, i joined up with both Second Life and IMVU and instantly gained attraction from men alot older than me who commented that my avatar was 'cute' and that i was a 'nice age' having alot of 'style.' An avatar isnt real, a computerised person cannot be real. Unless this computer generated person is an extension of the person who created it themselves. If i felt uncomfortable, then how must young children feel? I only continued talkin to this man for reasons of my project, and am thinking i want to make my project more about the risks of the internet, the risks of what men look for on the internet, be it real, or not....... MAYBE...bit late to be changing my mind...lol
Thursday 3 January 2008
Filming....
We started filming parts of the video on imvu and second life a while ago. Basically, i downloaded a program off the internet, called HyperCam and this hypercam is used to record whichever screen you direct it too. I could record directly off of the screen, and so have managed to record conversations off of IMVU and second life. I could also film myself typing on notepad to help show up what the avatars are saying. Also having Amy on one computer and me on the other, i could record us talking together on my screen. Then i could film me talking to other people who didnt know what the project was about, giving me an opportunity to interact with people who had no idea of my age, or what i looked like. In second life, the first contact i had with someone was them asking me to marry them, because i looked cute. This mirrors when i first joined Second life and the first person that spoke to me, said, take off your clothes. I said back to him, its not a real person. I find it quite funny to be honest, yet at the same time quite disturbing, that someone asked for that thing from another person online, in seems like a bit of an obsession or fetish. I also thought about making a film, of us being in control of the computer, for instance, pictures of me and amy on a webcam on the computer and then shots to us playing on the computer itself, so merging worlds, from the real world, to the virtual environment that we slid into.
Saturday 29 December 2007
Project Progressing
Weve thought alot about our project moving forwards, showing the differences between blondes and brunettes.we thought about having the imvu characters which we are creating as complete opposites of ourselves, maybe making them so that they are a reflection of what we want to try and do in our lives but are too afraid maybe, or dont know what we would end up looking like. For instance, i would really love to dye my hair red or brunnette, but i am worried that i might look odd. Also there are things that we could change about our appearances that once again we wouldn't imagine going to have surgery on. Online, with our imvu avatars, or characters, we can show that you can be anyone you want, you can even change parts of your body, make yourself younger, etc, and so in this way we could reinforce the idea that you can lie about whatever you want online.
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