Jamie Laughlin and Naomi Bajina (Brighton uni) act out Pizza and Sex for a first test. I am really happy with this film, I love how cocky Jamie is, his grin, the way he chews gum and is totally self obsessed, and I love how Mia umm's and comes up with multiple excuses to leave the conversation. 

I unfortnatly shot this on a 7mpxl camera so need to re-shoot it on a HD camera. I'm also going to have to use a microphone to get better sound quality.

 I also want to add more Facebook references, though not entirely obvious ones.
In the case of this film, when Jamie says "Yeah I bet it was" I want another character to come over, High-5 him and say "LIKE".
I also want Mia to have more excuses such as "My Dad needs the computer" and "I already have a boyfriend" as many as possible.

I am however very pleased with this test and really need to get more on the go.

A spoof trailer for a sequel to The Social Network. My Favourite part is where they like things.

NICE PRODUCTIONS

A social network prodigy discovers what the world looks like without Facebook brought to you by Nice Piece Productions.

www.nicepieceproductions.com

So the feedback for the short talking tests was very positive. Surprisingly positive in fact. The problem with this short test was that it was a short test, and the script was very limited and simple, as were the actors (I don't mean they were simple) but it wasn't completely thought through.
What I plan to do this week is to try and write a number or short scripts and use more people. Each film will then explore a different theme surrounding Facebook and how we communicate. Then each theme can be explored without confusion and mess.
So I have some themes to look at and ways to explore each one. 
The first theme will be that "fun" repetitive side.
I want to look at arguments, love, adding friends, unfriending people, frape, noise, responses and others. But for this week, I want to look at friending and flirting.

People I spoke to seemed to prefer I keep it light like a bit of a piss-take, which is what it is, however I may explore some darker themes such as what happens to your FB profile when you die? Perhaps you become trapped in it?!

The first couple of tests have been interesting, but quite a lot harder than I thought. Making them in After Effects is a long and difficult process. But it looks really good. I need to build a sort of front so the screens are the same size and edit each piece as a scene and stick it together after.

In my second test everything went wrong, but that's not a bad thing. I found that the actors all said the wrong things and spoke over eachother or either straight away or after an awkward pause. This reflected FB in a better way I felt, a jumble of mess and noise, everyone saying things but not really saying anything worth listening to.
This piece needs to be a lot faster in pace, maybe a minute at the most, and very quickly go from a call/response piece to a mad mess of sounds.

I wish this piece had not taken so long to out together, it's boring and slow, even when they characters start to talk over eachother. I might do another few tests with it but I don't think I will carry on down this route with my project.

Comp 1 1
Here I played around with just simple Facebook phrases 'I Like This'. Although I don't think the piece is very good (it's just a test after all) after watching it on a loop for about 5 minutes, I did find that I liked it. So it has become a simple act of persuasion, which makes me like it a bit more.

If it was going to work it would have to be more people and instead of cutting and pasting I would have to time everyone's speech and have it all on one film roll instead of cutting it up.

So an advancement from this idea would be to use Crazy Talk a program for animator's experimenting in lip sync. I would use it for 'real lip-sync from text and audio' abilities and for it's 'real time face puppeteering' functions.

The idea being that I could take existing Fb profile photos of my friends or classmates, and using Crazy talk animate them to make them tell secrets or lies about themselves (in a nice way) but still exploring the idea that 'frape' is a form of identity theft.
The idea also explores the emphasize we put on the profile picture, and the way people strive to capture 'The perfect profile photo'. I would have the piece displayed in the style of a classic art gallery, with the films projected very large, on the wall, perhaps in a frame, so that the viewer has to look upon them as if they're a classic piece of artwork, referring to how we judge people on this one photo.

So I'm going to do a video test of an idea I've had involving the habits and language of Facebook and the online world.
This is to see how it would look if we actually acted like we do online in the "real" world. I say "real" because as I've discussed, Facebook is just as real in a sense.

The idea is to have one person say their status - giving a boring update of their life and having the others comment like they would or by saying "I like this". I also want to explore phrases and language such as LOL (Laugh out loud).

The third image is an example of a "frape" which would also be included in the film.

So if Facebook is this extension of us and is treated as The real World by so many people. How about a film/piece where people can dive into other peoples lives and totally mess them up.

I could look at in what ways they could do this and the cause/effect ripple is causes. From simple things like "Ben is gay" or "Ben just shit himself" to extremes like in the article below.

As a film with characters it could be quite simple. 4 people, all hack eachother and don't see the repercussions until they arrive home? But as something interactive, I might try a few things, such as leaving Cara's FB open around uni and maybe at a couple of `internet cafes/people's homes and see what happens? See who is willing to get involved and what they write.

FACEBOOK RAPE. or FRAPE. 
"the access of a Facebook account by a third party, unknown to the account's owner, which alters and adds humiliating or otherwise derogatory words to the account's profile for the purpose of a prank. The act usually takes place between friends after one leaves their Facebook account logged in." - Urban Dictionary

A horrible but perfect example. Thanks Ebaumsworld.
This also shows how Facebook "friends" are not real friends. The above example shows a horrible and extreme "Frape" but the reaction from this guys friends, who should know him well enough to see this isn't really him, instantly start to attack him.

"Frape is at best defamation of character and at worst a form of identity theft as Facebook has in a very real way become an extension of the self."

CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE


I read this on a blog and it's spot on. If Facebook is the latest extension of the self, then FRAPE can damage lives. Obviously it would be idiotic to compare the act to rape, and that's what makes the term so offensive. 
But people take Facebook so seriously, changing your FB status is a big deal, if you haven't put 'in a relationship' then to some people you aren't, no matter how long you've been with someone. What you say on there matters, whether we like it or not, people will use FB against you one way or another. 

You have to take it seriously, you have to treat it like real life, because it is.

I went back to FB mostly for photos of things and for the Events, because I'm such an organised person i found it handy to use to find out what i was meant to be at. However this can be done without Facebook if we pay attention i think.

My friend did better than me and has been off facebook for over a year.

2 of the points she made really stood out:

• I found that the vast majority of things on Facebook were simply not interesting to me, and it was frustrating sifting through so much irrelevant content to read the few posts I was interested in; especially as, for me personally, there wasn’t a core group of a few people who posted good content, but quite a mix.
• I became quite uncomfortable with how many people I was artificially connected to- people who interest me are people I stay in contact with outside of Facebook.

So we really are just sitting, staring and surfing, trying to find something amongst all the status updates and photos of peoples babies etc...
Also the idea of "friends" and adding people you meet once and never see again, yet because of Facebook you remain friends.
I got drunk a few weeks ago and added a London art student named Charles Mason. No idea who he is but he accepted, he even accepted that we are 'Close Friends' which means our status updates are received personally. We've never met or even spoken, so it's weird that he accepted me.So I really like this idea that we're just surfing... aimlessly... through all the junk we put on there...

So my research so far seems to focus' primarily on Facebook. I think this is where my interests mostly lie, in identity and online social networking. 
I started having a think about how people USE Facebook, their habits and trends. What they actually do and how people can waste so many hours on it.

Off the top of my head I came up with the following points of interest to look at:

 "Liking" things. It's like a way of acknowledging something someone has said, confirming you've read it, without replying to it. Almost like you're too busy to say anything in response but not too busy to go on FB, read and like it. A way of communicating, of showing interest, without having to get involved. It's very odd.

Status Updates: On MySpace we had things called bulletins. Personally I loved Myspace for the bulletin function, you could basically do a short blog post with a title which people could CHOOSE if they read. 
With status updates, I have no choice in whether I find out that  Rose is excited about a birthday party for someone I don't know, or whether Ali has had a nap. It's the same with twitter, we need to constantly remind the world we are still there, we have to remind ourselves we're still there. And I'm equally as guilty, I'm sure none of my friends really care if I found £25 quid this morning, but I've told them anyway.

I'm also fascinated by the constant checking up on it. Like an addiction, it has to be checked every 5 minutes. What am I looking for? Do I want someone to post something to me? Do I want to talk to someone in particular? No? Why do I keep going back and scanning the pages for something... what is it I'm looking for? Do I even know?

I left FB in 2010 for about 4 months and it was great. Only 1 of my 500 or so "friends" noticed and sent me a very angry text asking why they'd been deleted. 
I went back to it because it became so hard to contact people. Some people only seem to talk through FB or in person. Their "events" pages are the most useful thing and remain one of the reasons I like the site. It helps me organise myself and know when I'm invited to things, and now I'm back to how I was, a constant user. I even check it on my mobile phone.