For this assignment I had to portray the interaction design of an imaginary product geared towards health and wellness. With health in mind I decided to gear my prototype towards smokers. The video emphasizes one's dependency to smoking, while further displaying character growth alongside usage of the product.
Sketching
To be honest I had the hardest time sketching this prototype as it was hard to accurately capture how I wanted each scene to go. After contemplating for a while I decided to focus on just drawing out the focal points for each shot. This allowed me to keep track of what I needed to film and why. However, this is just a rough storyline of what I had actually shot, as I ended up adding additional scenes to fill up loose ends in the video.
Editing
After getting all my shots I started editing on Capcut. With only a week to get everything ready I used clips from an old music video I made alongside the footage I shot throughout the week. I wanted the clips to keep cutting on beat to the music, so I carefully cropped and placed each clip to flow along.
There were two specific songs I chose for this assignment: Cherished Memories, composed by Akihiro Manabe, and Blue Slides by ScHoolboy Q. As the name implies, the former song inspired this sense of melancholic longing in the beginning of the video. On the other hand, the latter song speaks on acknowledging the faults within oneself, but still being able to rise above it. These two tracks were the backbone for this video, acting as a template to guide the flow.
The Final Video
The video above ended being the final prototype. I ended up using both Capcut and Ableton to make it possible. The addition of Ableton was for a more indepth edit on the background music. In addition, Capcut's ease of use allowed me to cut the clips and throw on transitions and effects.
Analysis
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how this video turned out. I think I was able to present an eye-catching story alongside portraying a product. I've seen a plethora of "stop smoking" ads on tv and they all feel out of touch for me. I wanted to create one that a smoker could relate to.
If I had to do this project again I would focus my storyboarding solely on pivotal moments I would need instead of each shot. Furthermore, after showing my peers the video they noted that the beginning confused them, and that the story didn't take shape until the song switch. If I reiterated upon this video I would shorten the beginning and redo the effects so it feels more like a flashback and emphasizes the story in the second half.
All work created under the guidance of Professor Brock F. Craft