We decided that it's a good idea to have the book Perfume by Patrick Süskind and its movie adaption Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Tom Tykwer. reinforce our ideas for the game. We need some kind of link between the actual game and the book though.
The concept pitch went quite well, and we agree with Maggie about the needed link between the book and the game as well to blur the realities. She suggested perhaps a copycat killer who reads the book and repeats crimes in a similar fashion, or perhaps a character from the book comes to life. We prefer the copycat killer, but we'll need to look around for more options to find the best solution. This is good because we're still in the developmental stage for setting up a more solid idea of what we'll be doing.
We're thinking that if we're going to use the copycat killer, maybe the invitation in to the game could be a direct link to it. I'm thinking a mysterious journal, that's seemingly empty. The only line on the first page is "Let there be light." And the rest of the journal is written in invisible ink, where a candle or heat source such as a microwave is needed to reveal the writing. This is the murderer's journal notes. It's an idea that we could consider. If we do this we could use lemon juice to make the invisible ink. Any other acidic substances can be used to make invisible ink as well, but lemon is apparently the most effective. (McNally, 2010)The lemon would give off an invigorating smell which is likely to make the player feel refreshed and pumped about playing the game. It's also the most simple option because with heat the lemon juice would turn black/brown. (RuthJ, 2011) Of course there would be safety concerns, so the safest option would be a simple candle so that you can sit the candle on a stable surface. This way there's less of a chance for anything to get burned.
Since I'm the only in the group who has read the book, I think it would be good to show the rest of the group the movie adaption because it follows the same plot only with very few alterations, and it would take too long to finish reading the book as well. So I'll bring that in on Tuesday and we could all watch it and let ideas grow and solidify our foundation blocks.
Here is a trailer of the movie: (memoubuenrostro, 2008)
And here's one of my favourite tracks from the movie. Beautiful! Will probably buy the album for the soundtrack. (BrusNekoSolo, 2011)
__________________________________________________________________
References:
BrusNekoSolo. (2011). BSO El Perfume - 17. Perfume - Distilled. [Youtube Video] Retrieved September 30, 2011 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OuOSozbMNk
McNally, C. (2010). Why Does Lemon Juice Make Invisible Ink? Retrieved September 30, 2011 from http://www.ehow.com/facts_7313493_lemon-juice-make-invisible-ink_.html
memoubuenrostro. (2008). PERFUME - The Story of a Murder Trailer 2 HD. [YouTube Video] Retrieved September 30, 2011 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES_rfgjeTuE
RuthJ. (2011). How to Make Invisible Ink Using Lemon Juice. Retrieved September 30, 2011 from http://www.ehow.com/how_2304278_make-invisible-ink-using-lemon.html
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Un-reality: More concept-making
Brainstorming was done today to branch out from our main idea of exploring the scent and how it relates to the world we live in. At this time I was worried that we would pin down on one thing too quickly without consideration for other ideas but at the same time I was also worried about not progressing far enough to get a solid concept at a suitable time for optimum productivity. These fears were banished as it appears we are on track with developing our ideas. Since the lecturer said that today should be considering more options rather than sticking to one thing.
I think for my group from this viewpoint of what we're supposed to be doing is right on time. Not too late, not too early. We do have a foundation of what we're like to find out more about, which is scent and how it affects people. So this makes it easier for us to branch out from this main idea.
Some ideas we have so far is to confuse the senses by contrasting them to smell. For example, something absolutely disgusting like a dead rat infested with maggots smelling like fresh apples covered in morning dew. Or perhaps a durian, which smells like cat feces but tastes delightful.
Another is about pleasure and vanity. This one is more about the senses in general rather than just the sense of smell. Here the idea is to appeal to all the senses at different stages to make the person feel extremely good. Then right at the end you reveal the cost of their pleasure and vanity: for example, starving slave children making chocolate for you which they have never tasted, and never will, in their life.
One idea that Edrian came up with is doing a murder mystery in relation to scent. The "how" in this idea isn't figured out yet, but at this stage we don't need to know that at present. We can sort that out at a later date further down the road of development. This is the most popular idea among the group thus far, so it is highly likely that it will be further developed.
The previous day we did a bit of individual research. Jason found this really interesting research paper about the relationship between scent and humans and what their effect is on the person. The most interesting thing presented in the paper is that just by placing a pleasant aroma in a casino caused a 45% increase in gambling. I thought it was interesting how strongly scent can affect out decisions. For example, in one part the paper talks about how some unlabelled shampoos were tested for being the most effective. With the scent in tact, the worst shampoo with the best scent scored the highest ranking and the best one with a scent that wasn't as good as the others was ranked last. After removing the scents however, the one that smelled the best before came last and the one that smelled worst before came out on top as the most effective shampoo. (Fox, 2011)
I read about an approach to perfume-making in my part of researching as well. It's where the scent is made to "evoke an atmosphere"; an approach in perfume making begun by the Guerlain perfume house which revolutionised the perfume world. (Lyttelton, 2007) I think this is an approach to creating the scents that we could use, though it depends very much on our plot.
However, it is definite that we can't make scents with a full set of top, middle, and base notes as it takes hours for the entirety of the perfume to unfold all its layers. Basically the top notes are the introduction of a perfume. The first scents you catch, which then move aside to reveal the meat of the story (the middle notes) and finishing with a finale of base notes. So it would be better to opt for a linear perfume, which stays the same scent throughout its lifespan as we don't have that many hours for a complex scent to unfold. Maybe we could have the different stages of the story be made from different notes from the top, middle, and base range so that the narrative in a way mimics the structure of a perfume?
Also, I think it may be a good idea to base our game on Patrick Süskind's novel, Perfume, and its movie adaption Perfume: The Story of a Murderer directed by Tom Tykwer. It could be a place to draw in major inspirations to inform our work. It's a very intriguing book as well as a gorgeously executed film with an enchanting soundtrack to match.
___________________________________________________________________
References
Fox, K. (2011). The Smell Report: An overview of fact and findings. Retrieved September 29, 2011 from http://www.sirc.org/publik/smell.pdf
Lyttelton, C. (2007). The Scent Trail. London, Great Britain: Transworld Publishers.
I think for my group from this viewpoint of what we're supposed to be doing is right on time. Not too late, not too early. We do have a foundation of what we're like to find out more about, which is scent and how it affects people. So this makes it easier for us to branch out from this main idea.
Some ideas we have so far is to confuse the senses by contrasting them to smell. For example, something absolutely disgusting like a dead rat infested with maggots smelling like fresh apples covered in morning dew. Or perhaps a durian, which smells like cat feces but tastes delightful.
Another is about pleasure and vanity. This one is more about the senses in general rather than just the sense of smell. Here the idea is to appeal to all the senses at different stages to make the person feel extremely good. Then right at the end you reveal the cost of their pleasure and vanity: for example, starving slave children making chocolate for you which they have never tasted, and never will, in their life.
One idea that Edrian came up with is doing a murder mystery in relation to scent. The "how" in this idea isn't figured out yet, but at this stage we don't need to know that at present. We can sort that out at a later date further down the road of development. This is the most popular idea among the group thus far, so it is highly likely that it will be further developed.
The previous day we did a bit of individual research. Jason found this really interesting research paper about the relationship between scent and humans and what their effect is on the person. The most interesting thing presented in the paper is that just by placing a pleasant aroma in a casino caused a 45% increase in gambling. I thought it was interesting how strongly scent can affect out decisions. For example, in one part the paper talks about how some unlabelled shampoos were tested for being the most effective. With the scent in tact, the worst shampoo with the best scent scored the highest ranking and the best one with a scent that wasn't as good as the others was ranked last. After removing the scents however, the one that smelled the best before came last and the one that smelled worst before came out on top as the most effective shampoo. (Fox, 2011)
I read about an approach to perfume-making in my part of researching as well. It's where the scent is made to "evoke an atmosphere"; an approach in perfume making begun by the Guerlain perfume house which revolutionised the perfume world. (Lyttelton, 2007) I think this is an approach to creating the scents that we could use, though it depends very much on our plot.
However, it is definite that we can't make scents with a full set of top, middle, and base notes as it takes hours for the entirety of the perfume to unfold all its layers. Basically the top notes are the introduction of a perfume. The first scents you catch, which then move aside to reveal the meat of the story (the middle notes) and finishing with a finale of base notes. So it would be better to opt for a linear perfume, which stays the same scent throughout its lifespan as we don't have that many hours for a complex scent to unfold. Maybe we could have the different stages of the story be made from different notes from the top, middle, and base range so that the narrative in a way mimics the structure of a perfume?
Also, I think it may be a good idea to base our game on Patrick Süskind's novel, Perfume, and its movie adaption Perfume: The Story of a Murderer directed by Tom Tykwer. It could be a place to draw in major inspirations to inform our work. It's a very intriguing book as well as a gorgeously executed film with an enchanting soundtrack to match.
___________________________________________________________________
References
Fox, K. (2011). The Smell Report: An overview of fact and findings. Retrieved September 29, 2011 from http://www.sirc.org/publik/smell.pdf
Lyttelton, C. (2007). The Scent Trail. London, Great Britain: Transworld Publishers.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Un-reality: First day
Today's the first day of the new project. The brief is really open and you can pretty much tailor it to your tastes. The idea is to create an alternate reality; blurring the line between worlds I think is another way to put it.
There was a brief mention about putting groups together for fresh combinations of people today. Luckily for me I hadn't planned out who I wanted to work with in advance like I usually do, so I really did get a group together where I haven't worked with any of them before. As mentioned in various previous blog posts I pick my groups based on my perception of what colour they are in terms of how people work in groups. The main ones are yellow, blue, and orange. Putting together a group is based on balancing these colours. Somehow we randomly got a good balance. Two yellows, two blues, and one orange. Fine combination for getting work done.
With this new group the atmosphere is light and fun. We got a bit brain dead at the end with concept making, but I'm happy with what we've got so far and we seem to be working together quite nicely.
At the moment we're really interested in working with and exploring the realm of smell. It's one of our senses that we don't really pay conscious attention to even though it affects us strongly on a subliminal level. So now we know what we want to do for this particular project we just need to figure out how we want to express/expose this aspect of reality we've chosen. This will be sorted out tomorrow when we make our concept more solid by pinpointing what we want to do with this reality of scent. At the moment we're not worrying about how we're going to make the actual thing yet though, I think that should be worked through next Tuesday or Wednesday.
Things that interest me about scent is its ability to stir up memories and make a person think of something without them knowing the real cause for it is the scent. (Dowder, 2011)
An example of this is how scent is used in marketing. By using how scent works with memory in the brain, marketers are able to manipulate it to produce a strong sense of product association. Basically, when people smell, the scent goes straight to the emotional and memory center of the brain. So the smell is connected strongly to the emotions it causes and according to their memories that have been associated with a particular scent. (Scent Marketing Institute, 2011)
_________________________________________________________________
References
Dowder, S. (2011). Does what you smell determine what you buy? Retrieved September 28, 2011 from http://money.howstuffworks.com/scent-marketing.htm
Scent Marketing Institute. (2011). Scent Marketing Institute | smi. Retrieved September 28, 2011, from http://www.scentmarketing.org/
There was a brief mention about putting groups together for fresh combinations of people today. Luckily for me I hadn't planned out who I wanted to work with in advance like I usually do, so I really did get a group together where I haven't worked with any of them before. As mentioned in various previous blog posts I pick my groups based on my perception of what colour they are in terms of how people work in groups. The main ones are yellow, blue, and orange. Putting together a group is based on balancing these colours. Somehow we randomly got a good balance. Two yellows, two blues, and one orange. Fine combination for getting work done.
With this new group the atmosphere is light and fun. We got a bit brain dead at the end with concept making, but I'm happy with what we've got so far and we seem to be working together quite nicely.
At the moment we're really interested in working with and exploring the realm of smell. It's one of our senses that we don't really pay conscious attention to even though it affects us strongly on a subliminal level. So now we know what we want to do for this particular project we just need to figure out how we want to express/expose this aspect of reality we've chosen. This will be sorted out tomorrow when we make our concept more solid by pinpointing what we want to do with this reality of scent. At the moment we're not worrying about how we're going to make the actual thing yet though, I think that should be worked through next Tuesday or Wednesday.
Things that interest me about scent is its ability to stir up memories and make a person think of something without them knowing the real cause for it is the scent. (Dowder, 2011)
An example of this is how scent is used in marketing. By using how scent works with memory in the brain, marketers are able to manipulate it to produce a strong sense of product association. Basically, when people smell, the scent goes straight to the emotional and memory center of the brain. So the smell is connected strongly to the emotions it causes and according to their memories that have been associated with a particular scent. (Scent Marketing Institute, 2011)
_________________________________________________________________
References
Dowder, S. (2011). Does what you smell determine what you buy? Retrieved September 28, 2011 from http://money.howstuffworks.com/scent-marketing.htm
Scent Marketing Institute. (2011). Scent Marketing Institute | smi. Retrieved September 28, 2011, from http://www.scentmarketing.org/
Friday, September 16, 2011
CD
For the CD I went for a really minimalist look. I made a really simple stencil of this logo that I plan to use personally. It's basically an equilateral triangle, that's also the alchemical symbol for fire. I value the strength that it represents. So this on the CD is just a simple symbol to say that this is mine and this is my work.
This will be the last blog for this project since I've finished everything for it.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Add Ribbon
Final touches were added today. With the halves joined together the only thing left to do is to hide that crack between the two halves. Since the theme is sustainability, it would be a good idea to have a dig around the house to look for any usable material.
Luckily for me in my house there's a actually a huge stash of arts and crafts material accumulated over the years. In one bag there's a whole lot of ribbon that I bought ages ago that I never ended up using. There's exactly enough for my boxes too. So I used that to hide the cracks. The ribbons were glued on as well, this hardens the ribbon making it strong and keeps it in place.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Stick them together
Results were favourable after drying. Sides became exceptionally strong and the glue drying clear gave it a really nice, shiny finish. They also closed up a lot better than before due to the glue holding the sides in place. Even if they move out of place a little you just need to put your hands on opposite sides and push in very slightly all around the circle. Then the sides would hold in place and the box would lock effectively. Before strengthening, sometimes the box would pop up and not lock properly, with the glue painted on this problem has been solved.
I sliced off the area then joined the halves together with double-sided tape. That worked out surprisingly well, I was so pleased with that. Before I was thinking of just gluing them together, but since the halved don't perfectly match together it may prove difficult. Then I found some tape at home, which helped out very much and worked very effectively in what I wanted it to do.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Strengthen Sides
Strengthening of the sides was done today. First, I paint the glue over the sides first.
Then I let the half sit on a surface and paint the glue over the area that won't be sliced off giving it that extra bit of strength.
So far so good. Now I have to wait for this to dry and see how it turns out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)