Raquel and I have been very productive over the break, making lots of notes and doing research on the different elements of Trash Trivia. We prepared the below package for the LCCS kids to go through and collect assets from them.

STRATEGIES & PLANNING

WE finalized our ideas and decided to use unity to align with story.  also we did a pre- act to clear and the story characters and what everybody should do. milo as the leader of the kids team from LCSS in charging of the story coherency and other kids and making tiny elements like text for “protestors” etc. It was a productive day.

 

STORYLINE

1. Farmer John wakes up goes through a brief morning routine.
   1. It’s a little off-color. John swings his leg over the bed and lumbers to the sink. He brushes his teeth and wakes up.
   2. Foley: Running water.
2. Cut to chickens clucking, in cages, by the thousands, stretching back into a warehouse- John checks water and we see a chicken with a pink, irritated, underbelly. From the outside, the space is gray. The leaves are kind of greenish-gray, and there is a brown pond close to the warehouse.

——————————————————————————————————————————

1. From a close-up of a sign for Happy Acres farms, we see protestors picketing with signs like “PRACTICE SUSTAINABLE FARMING” and “STOP TORTURING ANIMALS”
   1. Protesters are waving signs up and down and marching around, chanting slogans like “ Factory farming is murder,” etc.
2. John is poring over documents which are revealed to be tax forms.
   1. He seems worried.

—————————————————————————————————————————-

1. In the same room, John calls a friend who suggests he give into the protests and try sustainable farming.
   1. 1. John: “It’s just, with these new protests, the numbers aren’t working out.”
      2. Friend: “On Facebook, I saw a story about this farm. It’s like the most sustainable one on the planet. They even rotate chickens out to help the soil. Besides, the protesters are kinda right. Your farm really messes up the river. Maybe you should take a look. But remember, if things go South, I’m here for you. ”
      3. John “All right. I’ll take a look. And thanks. Seriously.”
2. John Googles “Sustainable farming,” and a name comes up: Wilfred Stephens.
   1. Foley: Keyboards clacking.

——————————————————————————————————————————

1. He calls Stephens and asks to visit his farm.            
   1. 1. John: “Hello?”
      2. Stephens: “Hello. This is Wilfred Stephens.”
      3. John: “Hi Mr. Stephens. I’m a farmer, although I can’t claim mine is anywhere near as environmentally friendly as yours.”
      4. Stephens: “Thank you. It’s been a long fight to make my farm sustainable.”
      5. John: “The reason I’m calling, anyways, is that I’d like to visit your farm. With the new protests and awareness, I’m getting chewed out.”
      6. Stephens: “I absolutely understand. Does next Saturday work?”
      7. John: “Definitely. Hang up.”
2. John drives down and sees the grass getting greener as he leaves his farm. A river running next to the road starts brownish and ends up crystal clear and blue. He arrives at Stephens’s farm and
3. Tour time! Stephens leads John around and he sees the chickens, 10 to a small coop, strutting around, and the cows, large and docile, grazing on grass.
4. John speaks to the same friend, and describes his dilemma. He wants to make profits, but he’s not sure if he can continue having seen the better way.

——————————————————————————————————————————SoPHIA:

1. “1 year later”
2. We see the same “Happy Acres” sign, and pan down in the same way to a line of trucks waiting to get their food.
3. We see an ending sequence mirroring the opening one. John’s legs swing off of the bed and he brushes his teeth. Cheery music is playing in the background.
4. The chicken warehouse is gone. Instead, small coops of happy, healthy chickens take their place. John looks out on to his farm and the grass is vibrant. The trees are fuller, and there is a small pond, and everyone looks happier.

 

 

 

 

So for this week I decided to well, take a week off, it’s Spring Break. Discover a bit of what Manhattan has to offer, primarily in terms of museums, food, interesting attractions and Trader Joe’s. The beginning of the break was a notch hectic, though, as my mindset was still burning red after the mid-term streak and I had to reorganise in many ways. The break did me a lot of good, although I see what’s about to come, what seems like a step-up from the mid-terms working rigour actually.

Before the Spring Break technically took off, I received a phone call, as apparently I missed a conference call. I was quite behind with reading emails, so nothing really reached me on a normal basis throughout preceding week. But I caught up to speed and managed to produce a few notes about this and that.

Also, I somehow magically cannot find the cluster of notes that I have taken at LCCS. Sadly, as there were plenty of great ideas that the students came up with and myself included. In addition, I could not overcome some difficulties with getting the low-fi prototype to the extent I wanted it, I had a few workarounds in my mind but those would have taken quite some time and effort. I’ll still see if I can push through a late version but what it technically was, well, was a spin-off from the Hydrangeas. I really liked that concept and I just wanted to adapt this to Unity… Until I found out it was kinda actually the same idea. I’ll push an update, perhaps I can get conceptual build uploaded sometime before the next class takes place.

I had a few notes, though.

First, about the Garbage Garry. I just managed to see a (in my eyes) absolutely brilliant animation series Love, Death + Robots, a Netflix anthology produced by David Fincher and Tim Miller, and some of the best animation studios around the world. Once I saw the 9th episode ‘The Dump’, I was like – woa, hold on, that looks like Garbage Garry to me! (For reference for others if they’re interested to see how Garbage Garry’s world could look like)

Second: It seems that I will be in between teams, trying to stitch up technologically stuff for the Dome, primarily but could also be in between Unity and other technologies. Now, while my experience with Unity is ever-increasing, especially since I’m at Parsons, juggling between a variety of technologies might prove a notch tricky. In any case, all three projects are connected in some ways to underwater worlds, in such case the first reference link I established was, well, Subnautica. A quite rather interesting videogame, where most of the time you get to explore rather sci-fi but still dynamic, diverse and extremely rich underwater biomes, where vibrant colours and spectacular fluorescent lighting comes and goes. Rather to serve as inspiration but this is one rather good source of inspiration. From others, Blue Planet I & II look also great, also for reference (these two I never managed to finish, though).

I have proposed instead of a field-game, gamifying the environment, such as bins, as to connecting them to the Dome and visualising how not recycling pollutes the environment. This brings the ideas broached to rather shallower waters but it’s very palpable, one action will generate a reaction. In any case, merging the ideas or some features seem (to me) like the right way to go. There is a reference to this, as at University of Sydney there are a few people who came up with an idea of a gamified trash bin.

…aaaand I guess that is all for now?