A Different Hoax...?

The tutorial had confirmed worries that we were being too brash with the idea, and there wasn't enough subtlety behind it. We decided that it might be more effective to move away from the idea of hoaxing an act of terrorism. The following our other possible hoax's that we considered:

* A Music Festival: This would be similar to Czech Dream in terms of the large campaign before the actual event. Several different articles would be released before hand, on the internet, in poster form, articles and also stickers. The date would remain a secret until a couple of days before hand. This idea is too similar to Czech Dream, although would be effect it has already been done and is not as innovate as we would like.

* A Serial Killer: This would include articles across the web, maybe cordoning off roads, fake police outfits etc.

* A Kidnapping: Try to create a fake kidnapping either a famous person, so that an official statement has to be made, or something similiar to the madeline disapperance, obviously not to suh a large scale, but a missing person campaign.

Czech Dream:

Amy had encouraged us in the tutorial to watch a film called 'Czech Dream', which is about the hoaxing of new super cheap hypermarket opening in the Czech Republic. This obviously has direct links with our project as it is making the public believe something that isn't real and utilizes the media as a tool to do so. The film follows a fictitious, and fraudulent, ad campaign around the opening of a new store called Czech Dream- the Hypermarket for a Better Life. When thousands of people turn up to the grand opening they soon realize that it is no more than a field with a huge shop facade!

The film was extremely interesting as it gave a useful insight into how to con the public. Obviously, the film deals with a different type of hoax, but we liked the gradual build up of the campaign and how effective it turned out to be. A lot of attention was given to every aspect of the campaign, and the organisers even managed to remain truthful throughout, using slogans such as 'Don't Come' and 'Don't Buy', although the public actually did go, the organisers had told them not to.

The film reiterated our previous idea of having a build up before the actual event, but again we could not see a way around this whilst we were hoaxing terrorism. The film highlighted the power of the media and how easily people can be manipulated by it.

Tutorial Two:

The main issue that was raised during the second tutorial was how we would present the footage to the public. The point was stressed that we should avoid the 'Beadle's about' idea, of simply showing the footage to the audience then coming out and saying that wasn't real and you've been caught on camera, which is something that we had become aware of, this simple approach does seem too obvious! However, the tutorial did give us a further nudge to start thinking of other ways that we could show the footage to the public. As previously mentioned we like the idea of doing a web campaign, but obviously due to the nature of the idea this wouldn't be possible. At this point we became stuck with how we would be able to pull the idea off but maintaining a level of subtlety.

It was now time to reconsider the idea, and maybe even move away from the idea of terrorism, and instead hoax something else, something that could be built up over time.

More than just a hoax:

Although at this stage we are mainly concentrating on what we want to hoax and how we will do it, we don't want to move away from the concept behind the idea, how the public will react to the hoax and if we really do believe everything that we see. Obviously, we need the hoax to be extremely realistic in order to be believable, we need to constantly be thinking about how we can present it to the public. After all this is what we want to illustrate with the idea!

Preparation for tutorial two:

Since the last tutorial, we have looked into what we actually need to be able to try to pull off our idea effectively. Obviously we need some sort of model of a landmark, and some sort of explosive. We are thinking along the lines of fireworks and a smoke machine to help create an effect. We need to create consent forms for the public when they are caught on our hidden camera, and we need to find out about how we can display the project in a shop window, and also where will be most effective in comparisoon to where the stunt is taking place. For example, we could not display in a shop near to where te stunt is filmed as it would clearly not be believable. We have basically discussed the implications and limitations of what and where we can film whilst making it believable, because if it is not believable then we will have technically failed our objective.

Gherkin Hoax

Following our search for suitable locations to hoax an act of terrorism around london and the feedback that we received in the tutorial we decided that Battersea power station wouldn't be suitable. Although it is a very iconic building and everybody would recognize it, it wouldn't be suitable in terms of filming, and the fact that it is derelict it could just be mistaken for a controlled destruction. We decided to look into other possible scenario's as well as just moving the location.

Other possibilites that we discussed where:

- hoaxing a beheading
- blowing up buildings (as above) maybe just in london, somewhere further a field, potentially more believable?
- flying planes into buildings, obviously extremely poignant after 9/11

We put together a quick mock up of what this could look like using the Gherkin tower as the public building. It flickers with slightly different photos because we used 4 different stills, obviously this is just a rough example but conveys the look that we would want to achieve in terms of a handheld appearance moving eratically around.



We decided we could feasibly create the hoax using the gherkin because we could use a camera from quite a distance and make it collapse behind other buildings also in the distance. Also, we decided to use the Gherkin plane crash as our preliminary experiment on paper. We will make a mock-up of the Metro paper with the attack and explosion on the front page with a grabbing headline. We will also make up a story for the back sports page too for realism.

Our response to the tutorial comments:

We generally thought that the comments that we received from the rest of the group in the tutorial was positive, although it quickly came apparent that we hadn't been clear enough in our explanation of what we were planning on doing and how we would actually be doing it. A lot of the comments that we had received asked how we would hoax a building being blown up and how this would fulfill the brief, how is it an example of convergent media etc?

As a result we decided that we needed to be much clearer in our plans, not just to satisfy the questions that we could face in tutorials etc, but to strengthen the idea, and to provide a firm base for us to build on.

How would we hoax a building being blown up? We had previously thought that we would use a small model of the chosen building and using slow filming we would be able to control the explosion, then put the model footage on to the 'real' recording replacing the building with the model. This is obviously very adventurous and would be technically very difficult, especially as we don't know anything about explosives. We consequently agreed that it would be easier to manipulate the footage frame by frame using photoshop and flash. This will be a huge task, as we will need to do 24 frames per second, so if we have a ten second long piece of footage, we will need to manipulate 240 frames to how we won't them. This is obviously a lot of work but we are confident that if we manage our time properly we can produce a high standard.

How does our idea fulfill the brief and how is this an example of convergent media? The project is going to be an example for convergent media throughout the production and in the final presentation of the piece. The production process will include the use of video, new media software, photography and print. Although we're not 100% sure of how we will present the piece in a crit situation we are sure that it will involve at least two mediums.

Tutorial Feedback

The tutorial was useful. All of the groups placed there posters on the walls and we commented on each others ideas. Here are the feedback comments that we received from the rest of the group after they looked at our poster:

"I think this will be a good experiment. it's sometimes quite shocking to realise how much people believe in from images despite knowing the capacity for manipulation or construction. Therefore, the result of this will be intriguing. Kind of like Die Hard 4.0 with the white house bombing?" Helen.

"This is very interesting, The idea of media manipulation is a continued debate and i think if it is pulled off successfully it will make more people aware of what they see and hear within the media" Danny

"Big project, Big idea- Risky too!... How?" Lara

"What... How??? I'm intrigued" Carl

"I like this concept, but have serious concerns of the feasibility depending on the method you intend to use" Adam Handerson

"I cant imagine how to accomplish this visually. But how do you release this to the public? How to convince people? Anonymous

"I think this is a really interesting idea in exploring our relationship to the media but i'm wondering how it will be presented in order for people to see and believe it or not?" Tom

"Sounds very interesting!! What medium will be used? a slight worry of wether or not the idea is too big? Good Luck" Anonymous

"These are serious issues, will this not be more detrimental than good. What is the point. Good visually maybe" Jessica Richardson

"How do you intend to portray the whole process? What mediums will be used? Good idea, depends how you plan to pull it off? Will you not get in trouble?" Hassan Ghazi

"This looks awesome, this idea is so cool, a big task. you guys are inspiring" Anonymous

"What mediums are you going to use?" Emma B

"HOW?" Sofia

"Imaginative idea, what converging mediums do you propose to use? Anonymous

"Why Battersea?" Anonymous

"What media will you use?" Sharan Balai

"You could try doing something other than blowing up a building, such as beheading someone dressed as a hostage perhaps? Also, it would be difficult in London as people would see the images, turn around and realise that it actually is not under attack. However, if you hoax the demolition of the parliament in Scotland, where people are not able to hear about so readily it could cause more of a stir." Peter Dukes

Battersea Power Station:

We wanted to use a building which was recognisable but also not as high profile as certain landmarks in London such as the London eye. We felt that something too public would be harder to make people believe had been attacked/targeted. Also Battersea Powerstation is derelect meaning we would find it easier to work with for filming purposes i.e. having less people getting in the way of shots, but also, if the final product did come as a massive shock, people would know that it is derelect therefore no-one would be in the vicinity and under threat.

Locations:

The idea that we arrived at was rather ambitious, but following the encouragement to push ourselves in the first lecture we decided to go for it! The next step was to decide to look into what buildings would be the most effective. We needed to consider how easy the different locations were to photograph, as we would be using a model we would need to be able to film the entire building. There was obviously a lot of other things to consider when deciding which one to focus on, location, ease of purchasing models, ease of film i.e. lighting, ability to see entire building in camera shot etc. The list seemed endless, the first step was to go into london and look into each of the possible locations.

- Houses of parliament



The Houses of Parliament would be a good 'target' because obviously they are one of the best known, if not the best known landmark in London so would be well documented. However, this is also the weak point. Because it is so well known, it will be very difficult to make anybody believe it has been hit. Also, it is in close proximity with the London Eye and Big Ben, so anybody in that area would clearly see that nothing has happened.

- Canary Wharf



Canary Warf is not in the centre of london so in a way would be easier to pretend to attack, yet on the other hand, it is so big that it can be seen from a long way away, meaning people who see our project will more or less instantly know that it is in fact not on fire after a plane attack.

- MI-5 building



The MI5 building is theoretically a good idea to hit because it is the central communications for our secret service and the people who would be heavily involved in investigations to a crash would be hit themselves. However, there are other landmarks in London which would probably appeal more to a terrorist i.e. Buckingham Palace.

- Buckingham Palace



Palace would be a good location because it is very difficult to see from a distance as it is not that tall, and the Queen is the biggest tourist attraction in London so it would cause a big ruckus. However, again, because it is so well known and constantly populated, it would be difficult to document without someone knowing instantly it was a fake.

- The Gherkin



This would be a better target for us to hit than Canary warf because it is less well known as a landmark, but at the same time is still a large, recognized building in London.

- Battersea Powerstation



Battersea would be quite hard to do because it is now derelect and the point of blowing it up in an attack wouldn't be that great as the harm it would caus ein comparison to another building which is inhabited would be minimal.

- London Eye



this would most probably be the hardest landmark to fake as it is still a newish and major attraction, and is so big it can be seen from almost everywhere in London.

Each of the above our obvious landmarks, and would be extremely effective.

Panic in an illusion:

It was apparent that although this would be difficult to pull off effectively, that it was not enough to simply pretend to blow up a building! We had again just arrived at an idea that we were just doing it to look good. We decided to consequently add a spin to the project still hoaxing the destruction of an important landmark, but instead concentrating on the public's reaction to the footage. If we could make the footage appear that it was happening live somewhere and film the public's reaction. Obviously, this would be looking into the ever growing question, do people just believe what ever the see on the screen/in the media?

Initial Ideas:

Between us we had several initial ideas floating around:

- The interactive waiting room- the user would enter a room that would appear to be a waiting room, i.e. chairs along the walls, coffee table in the middle. However, instead of people waiting on the chairs, placed above are video screens, which will show people's faces. The user will be able to have a conversation with others around the room, influencing what happens through the volume of their voice.

Problems: There would be no real reason for the user to change the level of their voice, consequently not effecting the piece, would just be an automated conversation, no interaction!

- An interactive piece, where the user has an object that they can touch within the gallery space, which would effect what happens around them. e.g. a mannequin influencing pornography. Obviously, this was just an aesthetic with no real idea.

- Making something beauty out of something ugly. Do you have to be an artist to produce art? can every trade be beautiful? The idea behind this to make undesirable jobs into something that is actually beautiful. i.e. a dustbin man's morning is actually fun, animations placed on top of video to create a happier environment.

Problems: There was no real reasoning behind this, no context. It would be purely because it would look cool, and we kept arriving at rotoscoping, which was something that we wanted to avoid. A dustbin man's job is undesirable, so how could we make it look like its something beautiful. Animations of flowers and leaves etc may make the piece appear like its a recycling advert, which has be recreated time and time again.

- Nightmares, the modern fairy-tale

- Secret filming- hiding a camera in an object in a public space, e.g. a television showing a violent montage of photographs, the camera would be recording the audiences reactions.

- Projection onto buildings, again would just look cool. No real idea.

- Comic Books- Instead of seeing images in each frame of the comic, there would be a video. This would be similiar to something that may be seen in a music video, which we wanted to avoid.

- Terrorism- demolishing a building, or making it appear so! this would obviously be something on a ridiculously large scale, similar to something in a hollywood blockbuster. This would obviously be greatly expensive, but we liked the idea a lot. We decided that through the use of models of buildings and through the use of video and flash (new media) we would be able to make this appear to be realistic. This was our favourite out of all of the ideas so far. We decided to pursue this further and see what we arrived at.

Gallery Visits: A search for inspiration

Having drawn a blank on our original ideas we decided to visit some of the galleries around London to see if they could trigger some inspiration.

Poster Presentation

In the opening lecture we were set the following task to kick start us into the project:

On Monday 21st January you must present a Poster pitching your idea for your Convergent Media Project. The presentation will be in A4.10 from 2.00pm – be on time!

You are expected to be working in groups of up to 4 people, not as a single individual. One joint Poster is required per project.

This must be one side of one sheet of A2 card, and must include both text and image (to provide some visualisation of your proposed project).

The poster will be displayed on the wall for comment so should be designed and finished appropriately. It will form part of the documentation for your project (which you will be assessed on)
The requirements for the poster are:

1. Your name and the names of the people you are working with
2. Initial working title
3. Summary of the proposed project in 25-50 words
4. Visualisation (what this might be is up to you - it could be your own work, or an appropriate image from your research)
5. Key references – conceptual / technical / practice

What is Convergent Media?

Although the lecture gave us a general idea of what convergent media is, we decided that in order to be successful throughout this module that we needed to agree on what we all thought convergent media meant. We decided that the term covers media that use several different mediums within the final product. Two or more mediums have to be used in the production process or in the display of the work in order to be considered convergent media.

Welcome to our Convergent Media Blog!

We have just had the first meeting of the convergent media module, which outlined what was expected of us within this module. We have created this blog to document and analyze our progress through the module.