Using Coding For Nostalgia.

After having had the group meeting with the tutors to discuss the aspects of how to link what we've been doing in context to our collaborative work, Jane highlighted the aspect of Nostalgia that our technique had produced- and after having looked further into this, I've decided that it has a lot of good concepts to explore on in order to present in connection to our work.

Nostalgia- 

'A sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past' 

For our collaborative task we have been evolving our idea of pixelated characters in a game type of setting to represent the importance of the baker's lives. In each of our 'levels' an incident will happen, costing the character (who is simply a pixelated dough ball and therefore anyone can relate to him) to lose a life. At the end of our animation we'd like a final thought provoking message that will highlight the whole theme of the game idea, and what it was supposed to present, the chosen message being: 

"You only have one life. Stop, Think, Go."

We feel as a team that this phrase perfectly sums up the purpose of us doing the game style and the fact that the lives of the bakers are in fact short and precious. In addition to this, we looked into and researched existing game styles and behaviours in order to ensure that the theme of retro 80's games was conveyed successfully.

In the production stages we have become more and more confident about the idea of the 80's pixelated arcade game style, as not only is it something every age range can generally relate to (due to the fact that the age range of the bakers when questioning the client is very wide) but it also brings in that theme of nostalgia.

Nostalgia is a key theme behind our design, and it very much links to the context that we've been learning in terms of Semiotics. We as 21st century students in 2015 are using our modern technology and softwares to try to replicate a past style of the 1980's. This therefore implicates the idea of coding and signs in the fact that we are purposely replicating such a style in order to take the audience on an emotional journey and to interact with the game aspect of the clip.

In further research of other methods of modern technology being used to create an emphasis of nostalgia, I have noted down some important matters that I feel could be explored further for the final presentation.

1. AkzoNobel using their technology to recreate and reconstruct a damaged Van Gogh painting "Field with Irises near Aries" the company also collaborate with the Van Gogh Art Museum to preserve and digitally restore his pieces by replicating his paint pigments and style using their modern technology. Sources: https://www.akzonobel.com/news_center/news/news_and_press_releases/2015/akzonobel_using_new_technology_to_recreate_old_masterpiece.aspx 
2. 3D printed 18th century Native Indian tools help develop further understanding on how they were used without damaging the instruments themselves.

Nostalgia in Music

Contemporary artist and DJ Calvin Harris produced a song 'Acceptable in the 80's' which was a song about the era of his birth, and it was cleverly produced to mimic the style of generic 1980's videos. In the video, there are various block colour bright screens with 1980's inspired outfits and big hair, the stuffed otter in the video is recurring throughout as well as separate job roles, a chef, a hairdresser and a Doctor. These roles all link back to the title 'Acceptable in the 80's' as the song itself is referring to the fact that using animal parts in the functionality of all those careers were accepted at that time.The video uses the elements of actual 80's era's music videos which includes:

• Bright block coloured backgrounds
• Big styled hair
• 1980's style clothes

References to the era's laws- the example being in Calvin Harris' music video, a stuffed toy otter is used as a prop to be tested on- linking back to the aspect that Animal Testing for cosmetics was still legal in the UK.I intend to play a short clip of this music video during the presentation we make to the rest of the courses and tutors, however to ensure that the video properly loads I shall have a downloaded version of the video on a USB stick as back up and some screenshots to help the viewers visualise what is happening. I think the screenshots will also show the colour palettes that are being explored throughout the video. Reading through dialogue of Calvin Harris being interviewed, he describes the video as 'bright and garish' (http://www.caughtinthecrossfire.com/music/interviews-2/calvin-harris-interview/) 

When looking at 1980's videos to compare the style components from genuine 80's style tracks the Harris' I found this quite similar coloured and brightened music video: 'Information Society- What's On Your Mind' As well as being colourful, the video also inherits the aspect of using negative space around the person in shot, sending the eye to the character as well as having the brightness of the colour behind them. 

Alike to Calvin Harris' video, the video uses a lot of props and the people featured within the video then use such props to dance with and join them in the shots. The overall colour scheme of such shots are oranges, yellows, blues and greens.