Repost: The Best TIme Of Day To Not To Take a Selfie

  A re-post of my info-graphic animation The Best Time of Day to Not Take A Selfie. Created earlier this year before I set ot work on Colo Colo.

Adaptation A: "Art Of" Document

Art of: The Best Time of Day to Not Take a Selfie

Adaptation A: Final Animation

The Best Time of Day to Not Take a Selfie from Mark Stamp on Vimeo.

Adaptation A: Character designs

  Provided are the planned characters for each of the scenes I have planned: Two general characters (1, 2), a surgeon (3), a policeman (4), a clerk (5), a teleportation technician (6), a bartender (7) and a squirrel (8). Each figure consists of multiple layers that can be used to as control systems for the various limbs and body parts. Nothing too complex, the policeman is probably the most complex with 7 controllable layers due to the peak of his cap.

Adaptation A: Backgrounds

  I worked this afternoon on environments for the infographic project. When I realised I might need an extra scenario to fill time I went back to my list and picked out one of the more popular alternative choices. The one I selected was the situation "while being arrested", which would have the person taking the selfie wrestled against the front of a police car while he struggles to take a selfie of himself while 2-3 police officers try to push him down.

  While these environments were made with Photoshop, I plan to design the characters using vector graphics as the characters' heights in respect to the screen will change, and that will be the best way to maximise animation quality.

Scenario 1: In a queue

Scenario 2: Visiting a doctor

Scenario 3: Meeting wild animals

Scenario 4: During a pub brawl

Scenario 5: During an arrest

Scenario 6: In a teleporter accident

  Some of these scenarios involved characters going around or standing behind objects in the environment. To solve this, the related situations (below) involve multi-layered locations. Fortunately even the most complex of the scenarios only needed one or two extra layers for the scene to work with the characters, who will be developed soon after this post.

Scenario 1: In a Queue

Scenario 2: Visiting a doctor

Scenario 4: During a pub fight

Scenario 6: In a teleporter accident

Adaption A: Reworking Storyboard and Script

  The script idea came from the feeling I needed to know what my story wasdoing in terms of length before committing to a storyboard. Partway though I had an idea however: I did not feel the current idea of action, shutter and then picture was a very good flow. So I went back and decided to characterise the main character seen as "Selfie Stan", or simply Stan, and the scenarios we woulds ee would be his misadventures.Above is the storyboard I managed ot get done before I realised the story I had probably wasn't working as well as I thought it would. So I went back to rewrite the script.

V3 Best Time of Day to Take a Selfie

  After publishing this on Scribd I had a thought that maybe the shutter-close transition still breaks the flow. Given the abstract nature of an infographic, perhaps what happens instead is Stan "falls" from scene to scene. For instance transition one to two has him pushed into the GP's office, when the doctor jabs him in his rear end he and leaps up into the forest scene. When the squirrel jumps on his face and he flais about, he runs into the bar scene but escapes the squirrel. When he is then pulled into the cloud of fighting and falls into the teleporter room.

Those will be tasks for Wednesday - to add those into the script and rework the storyboard.

Adaptation A: Script Proposal

Mark Stamp Script: When is the Best Time of Day to Take a Selfie 2

   Script idea for "when is the best time of day to take a selfie". There might be a little more time given the lack of dialogue but at present the animation contains a total of five scenarios, which might be a healthy quantity for this kind of project.

Adaptation A: Investigating Character Silhouettes

  Because my infographic is very mobile-centric I considered looking into a simple, but bold look to the characters. The contact sheet above is a look for an 'average' appearance within the animation, because of the variety of scenarios I might be able to play with the shapes, such as giving more muscular characters a more triangular torso. About halfway though the creation os this sheet I wondered about looking into the mascot for Android as an inspiration. It's a basic, humanoid build, relates very closely to phones but has a flexibility to it.

  I took one of the Android-related designs and looked into how I could play about with body shapes to convey characteristics about any included characters. I think the use of an Android-themed character works well with the intended message of the infographic. So my next task would be, along with working otu a storyboard, how to distinguish characters.

Adaptation A: Influence Map and Scenarios

  I considered going for fairly straightforward art-style. Mr Selfie. and Dumb Ways to Die struck me as a bold ,simple but evocative style. Regarding the development of the story itself I want ot thank everyone who provided feedback to the survey to see which worked, and it seems the most popular scenario by far was a guy trying to take a selfie during a bar fight.

The considered scenarios are therefore:

1. Running a marathon
2. During a prison rescue
3. Experincing a transporter malfunction
4. during a medical exam
5. In a queue
6. In front of a wild animal
7. During a bank robbery
8. During an arrest
9. When in a bar fight

That should be enough to cover a minute to a minute and a half, and depending on how the storyboard comes along a couple of these may be dropped. Alternatively there is using the principle of escalation:

1. In a queue
2. During a medical exam
3. Running a marathon
4. During an arrest
5. In front of a wild animal
6. During a bank robbery
7. When in a bar fight
8. During a prison rescue
9. Experiencing a transporter malfunction

Perhaps the principle of escalation would make more sense.

@everyone Adaptation A: Compiled list: When Not To Take A Selfie

I decided it would be worth it to compile the ideas I had in one place. The important thing now is to work out an ascending order of hilarity. Starting with something mildly amusing and ending with the most outlandish.

As what is funny is subjective, I'd like to ask for help in working out which of the situations I have considered most people find funny in order to get the most potential out of this. So any suggestions out of this list are welcome.

1. During a strong wind: (Loses phone to the wind)
2. Experiencing a transporter accident: (Teleports away, phone arm is left behind)
3. In the bath: (Enjoying oneself then phone slips out of hands)
4. Waiting for a bus: (Guy using his phone, bus passes by, guy doesn't get on, looks up as bus passes and runs)
5. Making dinner: (Stirring stuff in saucepan, drops phone)
6. In front of a wild animal (selfie taken as character is running and about to be mauled)
7. Swimming (Phone flies out of hand and lands in the water)
8. Having dinner (Character is posing happily, parents unimpressed)
9. When in a bar fight (selfie taken as character gets punched in the face)
10. Waiting for a bus (Character too busy posing to notice bus arrives and leaves, runs after bus)
11. Being abducted by aliens (Character holds up phone, but drops phone as he takes picture) 
12. crossing the road (car horn blares as taker distracted by a good angle)
13. Playing tennis (Tennis ball hits player in the face)
14. Running a marathon (character gets passed and trips up)
15. During a board meeting (speaker waits for taker to finish, gets annoyed, taps watch.)
16. In a queue (Taker doesn't notice the line moves and the people behind taker push him offscreen.)
17. At the beach (seagull pinches phone as taker is half-buried in sand.)
18. During a medical exam (doctor sticks finger up patient's rear end, picture is of sheer panic by taker.)
19. During an arrest (taker struggles as he tries to position his phone while the police wrestle him down.)
20. During rush hour at a restaurant (taker is stirring pot, jumped by order, drops phone in pot.) 
21. During a bank robbery (taker is on the floor, lifts phone, robbers spot him, fight with taker over phone, snaps.)
22. During a prison rescue (taker runs though corridor with partner, has idea, takes out phone, photograph includes numerous scary guards about to jump on him.)
23. Flying a light aircraft (taker at the pilot's seat, pulls out phone, struggles to get the right angle, light aircraft spirals into the distance and the ground.)

Adaptation A: More Infographic Scenario Ideas

I have considered some new ideas for scenarios of when not is the best time to take a selfie:

• During a board meeting (speaker waits for taker to finish, gets annoyed, taps watch.)
• In a queue (Taker doesn't notice the line moves and the people behind taker push him offscreen.)
• At the beach (seagull pinches phone as taker is half-buried in sand.)
• During a medical exam (doctor sticks finger up patient's rear end, picture is of sheer panic by taker.)
• During an arrest (taker struggles as he tries to position his phone while the police wrestle him down.)
• During rush hour at a resturaunt (taker is stirring pot, jumped by order, drops phone in pot.)
• During a bank robbery (taker is on the floor, lifts phone, robbers spot him, fight with taker over phone, snaps.)
• During a prison rescue (taker runs though corridor with partner, has idea, takes out phone, photograph includes numerous scary guards about to jump on him.)
•  Flying a light aircraft (taker at the pilot's seat, pulls out phone, struggles to get the right angle, light aircraft spirals into the distance and the ground.

Like before not all are useful, some are funny, some are not so funny, some are funnier than others. There's still going to be the challenge of escalating unlikelihood or hilarity. I had wondered about ending with the following message:

Be Smart With Selfies.

Adaptation A: More Infographic Ideas

I have considered narrowing down my Adaptation A topic to "The best time of day to take a selfie", which will be a satirical informative infographic on when might not be the best time to not take one.

Initial thoughts are that the information will be presented as a scenario where an attempt is ruined, and perhaps will cut via shutter-effect to the image taken. Inspired by Dumb Ways to Die I might take a simple yet colourful approach to presenting the scenarios. I am tempted to start the animation with something dramatic, such as the following:

In our modern age of internet picture references, what can be believed as your picture can be diluted. Humanity's answer to this growing concern has been:

The selfie.

So...what is the best time of day to take a selfie?

• In front of a wild animal (selfie taken as character is running and about to be mauled)
• swimming (Phone flies out of hand and lands in the water)
• having dinner (Character is posing happily, parents unimpressed)
• when in a bar fight (selfie taken as character gets punched in the face)
• waiting for a bus (Character too busy posing to notice bus arrives and leaves, runs after bus)
• being abducted by aliens (Character holds up phone, but drops phone as he takes picture)
• crossing the road (car horn blares)
• playing tennis (Tennis ball hits player in the face)
• running a marathon (character gets passed and trips up)

The information can be presented as an escalation, starting with something normal (like waiting for a bus) and reaching a climax of a rather outrageous scenario.

There might be opportunity for more but this is what I have considered as of writing

Adaptation A: Narrowing Down Possibilities

Today I spent a little time trying to work out what to do for the Adaptation A project. Going though my head as to what to do. I feel set on a comedic twist but what I have considered originally might do with some work.

Best time of the day to - Post on social media/take a selfie

• running from a bear: Selfie of character with angry bear in background
• Getting mugged: Character is texting on facebook when a mugger prods him several times
• During a bar fight: Poses for selfie during a fight
• During a windy day: Loses phone to the wind
• Getting abducted by aliens: Pulled up to spaceship up but drops phone as they are about to take a snap
• Experiencing a transporter accident: Teleports away, phone arm is left behind
• In the bath: Enjoying oneself then phone slips out of hands
• Waiting for a bus: Guy using his phone, bus passes by, guy doesn't get on, looks up as bus passes and runs
• Making dinner: Stirring stuff in saucepan, drops phone

Best time of the day to - Contact friends

• After drinks at 2 am: Character receives gibberish texts in the middle of the night
• When they are on a date: Girl receives text from friend, guy gets up and leaves
• At bathtime: Character in bubbly bath gets phone call, Can't do anything
• While swimming: Friend takes out phone while swimming, phone slips out of hand
• In the shower: Friend reaches out from shower to reach phone, can't get at it

I'm starting to think being funny this way isn't my thing.

Adaptaion A: Getting ideas Established

  Since the presentation on Friday to work out what to do for an infographic I have been struggling with the question I had picked right of the hat The question being "What is the best time of day to [blank].

  A conversation with Adam made me notice; whenever I was asked asked what sort of angle am I trying to go for for my cinematic, the subject of humour always came up.when they asked. I have had my fair share of dark, disturbing on this course. Maybe I turn that to my advantage, maybe I try and move away from that. One alternative we discussed is that the infographic is more of a question, with a humorous twist: I pick one of the topics, then list the inappropriate times to be doing the activity, such as reading a book while being a goalie or walking across the road. Fortunately what I do have is a long list of topics that I could do. So I might go down this route.

  One source of inspiration clicked: In 2012, Melbourne Metro Trains, the operators of Melbourne's subway system, created a public announcement campaign called "dumb ways to die", a rather cute if morbid song/animation featuring stupid ways to get killed, the underlying message being "Be cautious around trains"

  The campaign went completely viral, appearing on international charts and the above YouTube video currently having 19.5 million views. With the whole thing developing sequels, translations andspin-offs.

  Like a lot of people who watched the video or heard the song on the radio, I was hooked by the charming lyrics. I think it could be a good source of inspiration, not for the morbid humour itself but for the way it uses comedy to say "don't do this". The artstyle also has a minimal yet attractive aesthetic. Though I might go for something else. Something minimal possibly but maybe not be so abstract with characters.

More will come in the coming days.