FILM - Project development.

Working out the structure of the piece.
2 screen areas:
The lower showing the bench film, which is the core narrative, filming the activity of planting seeds. The radio is on the bench, and clicking the radio dial would (turn on) change the audio, which would have its own clip of film linked to it, which would then play (and replace) one of the window films in the screen area above. On the bench there would be objects with hotspots, which would link to small still images of associated images and sounds (some could be filmclips) which when chosen (bench film would freeze) would reveal themselves briefly.
The upper screen area would be the 3 panes of glass in the greenhouse, which would show 3 views out: a cherry tree in blossom, the sky, a part of the garden. These panes would have a milky look, to give the feel of looking through glass, and when the audio changes they would dissolve into the film that links with the audio, (the bench film would freeze for the duration) and then dissolve back to panes of glass as it ends.

The Narrative (what is being done) stays the same, but the soundtrack and the view (images of associated thoughts) would change.

Aim for 10 minutes duration.
3 Window films: 2 minutes each on a loop.
1 Bench film:5 minutes duration uninterupted.
10? Objects on bench with hotspots:varied, not more than 20 seconds duration for films, 10 seconds for stills.
10 ? Audio sounds and linked films: 20 seconds duration.

It is a really complicated task, to give the film interaction that will seem unique and give the viewer the feeling of personal selection and choice. It feels like trying to construct one of these, a Jovilabe, a mechanical model of the solar system in motion which showed the interplay of the Earth, Sun, and Jupiter, from our continually shfting vantage point:










Edward Tufte describes this problem in terms of Information Design:
"...how to reduce the magnificent four-dimensional reality of time and three-space into little marks on paper flatlands. Perhaps one day high-resolution computer visualizations, which combine slightly abstracted representations along with a dynamic and animated flatland, will lighten the laborious complexity of encodings - and yet still capture asome worthwhile part of the subtlety of the human itinerary.'
(Edward R. Tufte, Ch.6, "Narratives of space and Time" from "Envisoning Information", Graphics Press, Third printing, with revisions, 1992)