Catherine McCurry

This project was a giant mood swing. I found myself totally abandoned by my group (except for Stepan, who worked on the content delivery side – video player and timed html message), doing absolutely every part of it (writing, voicing, editing, timing, implementing my timing instructions in Stepan’s code), frustrated and furious, and ultimately triumphant. This group exercise makes me never want to work in a group again. Ever.

In the end, Stepan and I made something that actually worked very smoothly. And as the only group who didn’t make a project where viewers suggest images to be greenscreened in behind ad lib-ing performers, it really stood out. Two performers, holding mobile devices, received timed lines and instructions, that guided them through interactions with each other, characters on the screen, and effects in the video and sound design.

The technical setup was actually very simple – the only thing we needed to do was to simultaneously tell three websites that it was time zero, and to keep time in sync from there.

We presented an episode of Star Trek in which you get to be your favorite characters. We did this for practical reasons – mainly because with only 5 minutes, we wanted everybody to immediately know where we were, and what the rules of the world were. This presented the idea in the light of fan fiction, and I think it could take off there. Somebody during the discussion said the phrase “Karaoke TV” and I thought to myself, “Oh, totally. That’s what I made.” This could be really popular in bars as an activity for the night (trivia, karaoke, karaoke Star Wars….). Television or media franchises with huge fan communities would probably take to it easily and with relish.

My original idea was a little different. I wanted to develop a new television format that was not a news cast, sitcom, drama, or reality program. I wanted to make a participatory television event that would tell a story in a new way. You get your friends together on Wednesday night to enact this serial story with each other, not knowing what you will be saying or where the plot will go. I’m not sure this would have wings on broadcast television because it would not be complete without a live component, and would require groups to enjoy it fully. It would be easy to implement, however, as it does not taking information from the audience in. Perhaps as a web based series, you could specify how many people you had who wanted to participate, and the video content could be altered to complement that.

I’d like to move forward with this project, but I’m still a little bruised about the process of making it. I initially thought that I would like to carry it into the final, and perhaps some elements will end up in that broadcast. I feel a certain amount of (emotional) ownership over the idea, however, and I’m not ready to give it to another group of people. To be fair, Matt, Stepan and I were all at the brainstorming session where we came up with the idea. After that, Matt showed up and gave me moral support while I was turning my content outline into a script for an hour. I did not see Liza or hear from her a single time between the day the assignment was given, and the day it was due.I know I’ll have to get over it and learn to trust group mates again (maybe I need to go to group work counseling).

I would like to develop a little more content, and try to present Karaoke TV at the Winter Show. If Stepan and Matt were committed to working on it, I hope they would join me in that venture.

Last week, Kate, Fernanda, the Matts and I produced a slightly botched bit of overambitious interactive television. High Brow/Low Brow, the game show/talk show where serious topics are discussed in a not so serious way.

The most successful parts of the show were the writing and performance, which carried the show through technical difficulties. The live video switcher was also successful, however, it’s success was only barely legible as we were unable to stream it or show it live on a larger monitor, as we had intended. We had 4 cameras with mapped out camera angles for our live set. We also had an opening sequence, theme song, and graphics that we displayed in the studio on a screen.

The vision was to stream the final video signal live to the classroom, and to stream live audio signal as well. We didn’t foresee that the webcams we were using would not be able to read the words were projecting in the studio. That was a concern, and the main reason we decided to have the class come into our studio with us.

We had designed slides, as well as audio and video material that was to be projected in the studio. I set up a google voice account which texts were sent to with word suggestions and votes. We were going to sequence it in Isadora, which we really should have done. With Isadora, it’s easy to send an edited sequence of media, while viewing and working on your desktop. I, the operator, was intending to copy and paste user suggestions into a photoshop slide, then swap it into our Isadora project before projecting it. We ended up using Keynote, which does not allow you to use your computer at the same time as displaying slides. We also used a computer on which the photoshop file was not created. It turned, that I couldn’t edit the photoshop slide I’d made and had no way of displaying the audience suggestions.

We decided to use google voice instead of setting up textmarks the way we did in class because the plan was for an operator to curate the list, and we had other technical things we were aiming for. If we had done it that way, and had it output the same way our slide was set up, the user interaction would have been smoother, however, we were concerned that the two contestants have separate, similarly matched lists. Our show could be totally successful by the end of the semester.

I used to watch Monday Night Football every Monday as a child. I had a black and white TV in my room that only got one channel, it was ABC, and that was what was on. And I really enjoyed it. I was in with the boys the next day in class, and in with my uncle if he wanted to watch the game when he came to visit.

Last weekend, I watched the Giants vs. Redskins game with a bunch of drinking friends. Most of whom were from Maryland/D.C. area and had a vested interest in the outcome. The NFL already has a pretty great interactive element – I mean Fantasy Football. I don’t play, but I watched The League and can definitely see myself playing, if football were a bigger part of my social life.

So, any interaction to be added to the existing framework of live NFL broadcasts should build on social experiences that are already working:

team loyalties

fantasy football participation/players as characters, game pieces

drinking with friends/watching as party

getting roudy

I love that fantasy football is a game that plays on top of the game, but it’s a full season commitment. I wonder if you could collapse that idea to a single game.

I imagine a breathalyzer device that communicates with the TV/computer. Friends get together for a party to watch their preferred match, sign in and choose avatars (players in the game). Possibly an individual player, or a mini team comprised of players in the game. The party game would be scored by the computer program and would be based on how the players in the game did (fantasy football scoring?), but also on the gamer’s breathalyzer scores which would be taken every 10 minutes or so. So the gamer is actually a participant in the game and can help their failing team, while dulling the pain of their failures, by getting shwasted.