khallaayounmmpw2016

Summary

I originally did not intend on making this video but i had gathered as many clips of old food commercials because they just seemed to spark an interest in me. I started of by wanting to make a video about anxiety and war, since i had gathered a good amount of war and violent video game footage. Although after trying for an entire class to come up with something using those clips i realized i could not.

This is where i started editing all the clips to make the good bits of the clip my main focus. After constantly editing footage of different cereal commercials over and over each other until i had come up with a story that can fit the commercial. I realized since all the clips involve small boys eating cereal i might edit the parts with all of them. Thus i had created the breakfast commercial piece.

To conclude, i improvised my way through this assignment and ended with a product that i am happy with especially since it is the first time i edit something into a commercial.

 

Clouds over Sidra is an immersive film for me to watch, the fact that the film is presented on an Oculus goggle for the viewer tells you how badly the person who made the film wants you to hear Sidra’s story. The way that the film was shot and presented to me, reminded me a lot of when I used to live in the Emirates. The movie opens up with a little girl narrating her room which the viewer is sitting in. A reason as to why this movie got my attention from just that scene was because in the Emirates, South Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, Afghani, etc.) are treated really badly yet they are the ones that are always forced to do labour work and live in bad conditions. The first scene shows you how badly structured Sidra’s room which reminded me right away about the situation in the Emirates. The other scenes that were presented to me definitely showed me that Arabic culture is somewhat very to other Arabs cultures. Not all Arabs around the world share the same culture, but in the film it somehow manages to show you that it’s practically the same as any other culture.

The whole point of the film is to show the viewer that the refugees are just like all of us living on free lands such as the USA and Canada but do not enjoy it because they were forced to leave their own free land to stay alive. The scene showing us the children at school learning really shows you how much these kids really care about their future since there isn’t much to do in the camp. She then proceeds to show you that the children are not allowed in the gym so instead they wrestle which is such a typical thing for Arab children to do when they are bored. The computer gaming lounge scene was the one that really spoke to me, back in the emirates all I ever did with my free time was spend it at internet cafes playing on-line games while my friends sit next to me doing the same, but in the film they make it look like it is all that the teenagers enjoy to do, even their reactions in the film while they’re playing their games shows you how much they will never let go of their culture.

A lot more can be said about the film but the main thing is that the film really opens a lot of people’s eyes to the whole Syrian refugee issue that is occurring. It also shows you the culture that the Syrians are trying to keep since they have lost their land to war, culture is something they will not lose. Even in the film, Sidra says that no one is happy being in the camps or anywhere else rather than their homes in Syria where they felt free to do what they always do.

http://mahdikhallaayoun.wix.com/ballisticbob

 

Wix Assignment Proposal

Ballistic Bob

Mahdi Khal-laayoun

The Story World:

Ballistic Bob is a virtual reality site that takes you through the stages of war that the fictional character Bob had to go through. The user may also be able to see what Bob’s lifestyle is like after the war. You may also assume that Bob’s life during and after the war is not the same as average people may assume, for it is a completely different story of Ballistic Bob’s life.

The fictional character that leads the story of the site is Ballistic Bob, an old war veteran who had gone through rougher moments and issues than other soldiers during the war. His title in the war was a demolition man, setting bombs and defusing them.

The site focuses on showing you the bad side of Bob, which is during his war days when he would kill for the sake of war. The site will also focus on showing what the lifestyle Bob was given to after the war and how he manages to go through it.

The entire idea is to make an understanding of what it is like to send an insane/mad man into a war zone and then bringing him back to society. The focus of why he had been insane in the past, before the war and to why things do not look too pleasing after the war due to those issues. In the heart of the site lies a bibliography on the character for those that are interested.

The site will show you picture and notes written by Bob during his war days. Some video clips may be included to help give a better insight of the situations he was in. In the post war days many of his daily life habits that are lived by Bob will show you as to what his life had led, such as his apartment room which he had left the same way possible but somehow cannot manage to remember many of the things he used to own and people he used to know which as well the user can interact with to get a better understanding of the character.

To some this site may be a huge interest because the war bit of the site shows what it is like to kill without a cause and do as told. The peaceful side is bob trying to find a life he can be accepted in even after seeing and killing people. A huge story to unravel and makes sense of in a way for every user can understand it in any way they want to since most of the plot lines will share a similar interest with each other to link them all together.

The Architecture:

Ballistic Bob is an on line Web Platform which allows the user to interact with certain objects and characters to unravel a story of a character named Bob. The user may be able to put the story together in any way they would like to because its mostly focused on unravelling why Bob feels what he feels during each period (war and peace).

For the war section of the site, the user may be able to encounter random object on the screen such as a note book or a rifle or even a closet. Many objects will be able to interact with the user by telling the user what the purpose of the interaction is in a little text box, also informing the user on why the object plays a role in Bob’s story. There could be about two characters in the war side of the story. Both characters can help the user with getting hints on Bob’s past.

In the war section of the site, the sound being used will be of war noises but in a low volume but still able to be heard. The object being clicked can sometimes trigger a sound effect to let the user know he opened something, somewhat of a heads up.

The peace section of the site will focus on showing you what things look like form Bob’s prospective living his average everyday life, which the user can interact with such as going out front to meet the mail man and have a conversation to which different optioned dialogues can be picked by the user to create a conversation. Though the conversations will not lead to anywhere but instead show the user what type of speeches Bob thinks of whilst talking to a person.

In the peace section the user may also be able to interact with objects such as Bob’s childhood guitar to see if he can still remember to play some riffs. Or the music rack to which holds all of Bob’s music CDs that he listened to as a child. There is a Fridge to which Bob can see what food he has, but the user will not be able to interact with any foods. Some of the other objects can be his old battle uniform which is hanging in a closet, and when a user interacts with is a little text box can inform the user if he would like to go to the war side in case the user enters the peaceful side first rather than the war side.

The sounds used in the peace side would be soft jazz music as if it were a person just trying to chill around in his apartment room and kill time which is also pleasing for a user to hear while trying to figure out the interactive objects.

The interactive objects such as the closet, the uniform, the notebook, rifle and characters will be pictures which are drawn by me or pictured then edited in Photoshop by me. As for the sound, I will be using effects from on line and none copyrighted music or background sound.

Graphic Diagram:

 

 

Mood Board:

The typical style of design that ill be using for this assignment, mostly cartoon draw objects and characters. The back ground will be real picture rather than cartoon.

http://mahdikhallaayoun.wix.com/trashtalk