AIYou’s Digital Lives Video

We had so much fun making this video! We decided most of the scenes of the video on the first weekend we became a group and we actually followed through with most of it. 

Jiaqi wrote the first day of filming from her office, I’ll write about the second half at my house. 

Since I have two cats, we chose the bf’s house to be at my place. We didn’t shot the ex2(me) and ex3(Yili)’s ‘open-door-and-find-amazon-package’ scene last time, since we couldn’t find anymore unique doors to use at Jiaqi’s office. We ended up using the front and back of my door separately for both me and Yili. Yes, I have a pikachu on my door. Oh and it’s also the door Jiaqi knocked on during the video. I’m so glad no neighbour filed complains against me. 

I was really concerned about the discreetness for my address in the video. I do live alone, I am paranoid about safety. I thought it was ok if people saw the interior, I mean I live with a large housing company, anyone who ever rented with them can tell which company. What I was really concerned about was the exact address. I taped up the stair case sign and the front plate of my door ( the tape didn’t fully cooperate with me in the video but it also didn’t sabotage to a point that actually showed the room number). I was also concerned if I showed the outside of my window, people will be able to deduct out the floor and place based on the angle, I mean I can do it, though I have been reading too much detective stories. Yili had a really hard time finding a camera angle for the cat because of that. We also tried many different ways of lighting at my hallway, with the camping lights and the reading light and the flash light, I even got my extension cord out trying to get it to the right angle. it never did find an angle, we didn’t used any of the lights except in the group photo. 

Written by Linda Di

Does media saturation alter our perception of fundamental principles guiding human behaviour for millennia until now?” (Bugeja)

What I find really interesting and also troubling from this piece is that after this video, all parties involved might find the situation bothersome. The owner—ex boyfriend has both financial and emotional burden, he will have to try and return the packages if they are still within time of return and has to deal with the social backlash of sending these to so many ex-gfs. Amazon, will have to deal with the return of these packages, which will cause their workers to have extra work time in things like getting it back on shelves or getting it re-packaged. The ex-girlfriends are obviously emotionally disturbed by this. Even the cat might get retaliation from her owner. By all means this is an extreme and specific case, but even a monkey can type out Shakespeare if you give it enough time and a type writer. There are a lot of households with cats and tablets, babies and cellphones or any combination similar to it. 

I felt really uncomfortable when amazon came up with this ‘one-click order’. I looked up online and found many people share the same opinion as me, not just buyers but also sellers on amazon. This ‘connivence’ actually caused more trouble than a regular online order. With real life examples of actual baby and tablet combinations, but at the same time, for the sake of debate I looked up people who are fore this one-click idea, amazon even tried to get a patent in the EU for it because it secured its customer loyalty. The debate on ethics and moral for the companies, the safety or connivence for the customer is a very complicated topic at this day and age with technology developing rapidly. I think topics like this should be debated more in our society to come up with moral and ethics that are widely approved and laws to prevent or recover from losses caused by new tech or new methods introduced to the general public.

Written by Linda Di

I would like to discuss the pros and cons of the choice of the camera angle that I realized through this video creation process.

In this day and age, videos have been a common language in the digital world. A person, an object, a scenery, or an event can be recorded with different camera angles. What we see in the camera is definitely just a very small part of the environment we are in. For photos and video clips shown in a video, they are taken from the camera angle of the creator’s choice. One of the pros of the camera angle is that it shows the creator’s emphasis. For example, a close-up shot with clear or blurred background obviously emphasize the main subject. While in our video creation process, since we were filming in a messy lounge, another reason to use a close-up shot is not to let the surrounding distract the viewers of our video.

The video creator may choose the camera angle that can best convey their messages, which is how they perceive the topic shown in the video. However, at the same time, this could be a disadvantage to the creator because other people may have totally different perception than the creator.

One more cons of the choice of camera angle is that the surrounding the creator may not want to show could be negligently captured in the video, which may expose the creator to some privacy issues. In our video creation process, we tried our best to hide sensitive information mainly related to the location.

Written by Yili Wang

During our first group meeting, we discussed the narrative that we wanted to show in the video. While we were discussing, I felt there was already a video playing in my mind. I typed out a storyboard immediately after the day we finished writing the proposal. The attached screenshot shows the last two scenes of the storyboard.

Basically, a storyboard is like a flow diagram that illustrates the construction of the video shot by shot. It includes the details for each shot in regard to the camera angle and motion, narrative in the shot, duration, description of emotion of the characters and so on. Surprisingly, I have included every component of a storyboard we needed in my first draft of the storyboard without knowing the precise definition of a storyboard. To be honest, watching a variety of videos in my spare time seems very helpful in this video creation process.

When editing the video, I realized that the storyboard is the guide to follow in order to show the whole story, but editing needs some creative thinking as well as trial and error. For example, the speed and the duration of each shot have a significant impact on keeping viewers’ attention. We recorded the shot of Jiaqi knocking at the door for about one minute. Even though we intended to show that she has been knocking at the door for a long time, it feels lengthy to include this original recording in the final cut. Another example is that the choice of music and transitions between shots further keep the viewers’ interest. I used arpeggio to direct the viewer into the truth behind the story, and the last few musical notes work perfectly with a ripple transition into the next shot.

Written by Yili Wang

When we first sat down and discussed the script, I shared a story that happened to me recently. One day I fell asleep when playing the cell phone. I moved my fingers unconsciously on the unlocked screen and accidentally sent a message to a friend saying I love her. She was shocked, and I had to spend lots of time explaining and apologizing to her. Linda has a similar experience — she once reordered something by accidentally clicked the Amazon’s one-click ordering. After sharing the stories, we all agree that digital lives sometimes can be so deceptive that people are fooled by them. Hence, we came up with the idea of discussing the authenticity of the digital. After some brainstorming, we finished the storyline. In the story, three women receive gifts from their shared ex-boyfriend. They are confused, and in the end, none of them are able to know the truth that the gift is just a mistake made by the guy’s cat because digital lives hide the real portrait of a person. And we become more conscious about this problem while filming. We found that the finger of the cat could really operate on a touch screen, which indicated that activities on social media are possible to be triggered by the user’s pets. What is more, when we set the screen to the amazon order history, we nearly hit the one-click ordering lots of time, which is evidence that people may be easy to make a reorder by mistake. While the touch screen and one-click ordering bring people convenience and efficacy, people are exposed to potential security and authenticity threats by technology. We are the creator of our digital lives, but are they the real image of us? We hope that our video could address this problem, and warn people that it is not reliable to know others only by their digital lives.

Written by Jiaqi Wang

The story of our video starts with three women browsing Instagram and unpacking the Amazon package sent by their shared ex-boyfriend. Therefore we need to set up three sceneries as their homes. It is impossible to really shoot at our homes because Yili and I live with our landlord, who does not allow us to bring strangers home. Finally, we decide to build three stages on campus. We need a large indoor place without people interrupting. Therefore we chose my workplace — the lounge of the CrySP lab in DC 3332 as our set. It is used for members of the CrySP lab to have informal conversations or meetings during the work; hence, we are free to use it after work hours.
It is a messy room, very similar to the office in The IT Crowd, but we managed to take three different scenes in it! We mimicked the home of the three characters by shooting various aspects of the lounge. There is a sofa, a desk and a table with chess on it. They are very like a corner at someone’s home if looking at them only. We find if we only shoot the sofa, then the audience may think the scene is in the living room; what is more, the scenery with the desk looks very much like a study; Also, chess is a common entertainment at home. Therefore we made good use of them. Linda sat on the sofa, Yili sat at the desk, and I was beside the table with chess. And we solved the lightening problem by using the LED lamps, which are the property of the CrySP lab.

Written by Jiaqi Wang