CHILDREN'S MEDIA FINAL PRESENTATION

sword & stone

1. Treatment

sword & stone is an RPG video game adapted from TH White’s The Sword and the Stone. My proposed platform is iOS/Android. The game has adventures that are completed for experience points, and once enough experience points have been accumulated, Wart is able to pull the sword out of the stone to become King Arthur. Adventures don’t obviously lead from one to the next, so there is an open-world/exploration aspect to the game similar to the Zelda games. The design is classic pixel video game style, giving detail to environments and nature and specific detail to important interactable objects. References to this design can be seen in early Pocahontas video games and Zelda games.

(GIF retrieved from google image search)

You begin by customizing your avatar, Wart. Wart, though traditionally a young European boy in the book, can be male/female and a variety of colors. Once you have customized Wart, a text box appears providing information about Wart. Then the adventure begins.

PART 1:

You begin with cousin Kay and Cully the hawk outside. You can touch both Kay and Cully to learn their names and info about them, similar to the text box for Wart. Icons on the screen allow you to see your current XP, a map of Camelot, and completed adventures. Kay urges you to take Cully out into the forest, in order to advance you must navigate towards the forest.

Once in the forest, Cully emotes frustration, but Kay urges you to release the hawk, causing her to fly away. Kay, angry and scared, leaves the forest but you stay to find Cully. This becomes your first Adventure. To gain XP, you must find and retrieve Cully. No specific instruction is given, encouraging the player to explore the forest. As you explore the forest, you find hawk feathers to indicate Cully’s position and berries that can be used to lure her back to you. Once you find Cully, she flies back to your arm and reveals an opening in the forest where Merlyn’s hut is. You may now choose to approach the hut or return to the castle or explore. Approaching the hut advances the narrative, but is not the only way to obtain XP points.

PART 2

Approaching the hut introduces you to Merlyn, and unlocks more of the forest and a variety of objects and books that contain information helpful for future adventures. Try to remember the objects in Merlyn’s hut or take screenshots, because they might be helpful later.

Part 2 features primarily learning and gaining XP from Merlyn. The main adventures from the book are being transfigured (fish, ant, owl, badger, and squirrel), but the game has potential for more adventures because it is not confined to a page or time limit. A big component of this game is learning about Medieval culture, because it’s TH White’s extensive knowledge of Medieval culture that makes The Sword and the Stone so special. Adventures will include jousting and falconry and chivalry. The encounter with the knight in the forest is another big adventure. All these things rack up XP points and allow you to do more and more.

Example of possible Wart avatar.

PART 3

The beginning of the final part of the narrative is marked by the preparations for the knighting of Kay. People from court and come and bring the news of the passing of the king, leaving no heir. They mention that a sword has been stuck inside an anvil at the castle, and whosoever can pull the sword from the stone shall be king. This information unlocks the final piece of the map: the castle garden. If you think you have enough XP, you can attempt to go pull it, but at this point it is unlikely.

You get a huge XP boost by attending Kay’s tournament. You can compete in some of the games but a moment comes when Kay’s sword is gone and he asks you to get him a new one. If you accept his request, you will quickly find that the only sword now available in the game is the sword and the stone.

The castle garden’s design is more detailed, straying slightly from the pixel scheme to give it more importance. In order to enter, you must have a key earlier obtained from the adventure with the Questing Beast in the woods. Pulling the sword from the stone involves taking a test to see if you have what it takes to be the King of Camelot. The test questions feature content learned from playing the game, mainly the lessons learned from Merlyn.

-The best thing for sadness is to learn something new.

-Be kind to all living things.

-Work hard like an ant, be wise like an owl, tactful like a squirrel.

-Education is more important than sport and might and more valuable than glory.

-Always put yourself in another’s shoes; be empathetic.

When the test is passed and enough XP has been gained, you are able to obtain the sword and become King Arthur.

NEW MEDIA FINAL PRESENTATION

OVERVIEW

Zion is interested in the disconnect between the spiritual significance of Utah land resulting from Mormon mythos and heritage and the physical health of the land. I want to explore how sustainability has been shaped by theology and how it might also be ignored because of it. This documentary takes its shape in the form of an online interactive documentary, encouraging users to explore Utah county starting on a journey from Utah lake, through Utah valley, ending metaphorically closer to heaven with an excursion up Mount Timpanogas. Using video footage, photographs, research, interviews, primary source documents, history, and scripture, the goal is to sculpt a map that could show legislators, citizens, and members of the LDS faith where we could do better to preserve both the physical and spiritual health of our "Zion."

TEASER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwL2-LRiGX0&feature=youtu.be

Spirituality // The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

Critique // The Iron Giant

At the heart of The Iron Giant is an exhibition of how children perceive the world differently from adults. A common theme in children’s media, what compounds this idea in this particular case is the unique setting of Cold War 1950s America. Although the film was released in the 90s, in which animation was fringing upon the Disney Renaissance animation style and the new CGI animation styles, The Iron Giant actually recalls the animation style of the time period in which the film takes place. They even poke fun at the media of the time by parodying a PSA for emergency protocol during a nuclear attack using stereotypical black and white fifties animation. Media which was created by adults trying to control the chaos that was happening around them, assuming they could survive nuclear fallout by hiding under desks. The villain of the film, a government adult, even suggests this method when it is clear that a missile threatens his own life. Hogarth, however, understands the futility in this and gathers with his mother and friend as they calmly accept their impending destruction. Man, the fifties must have been a fun time to be alive.

What is really important here, in talking about critique in children’s media, is how Hogarth perceives the dilemma with the Giant versus how the adults perceive it. There is the classic “adults don’t believe the stories” can’t-hear-the-Polar-Express thing going on, whereas Hogarth accepts the story of a giant metal monster pretty quickly. More to the point, is the importance of the relationship between Hogarth and the Giant. Hogarth describes the Giant as a child, and takes on the responsibility of teaching the Giant morality. In doing so, he tells the giant that he is unsafe because when adults see something big and metal like him, they just shoot at it. This exchange exemplifies the child’s view, and critique of, the very real adult problem of the Cold War. All the adults in this film who seek to destroy the Giant, wish to destroy it because they themselves did not make it, have no control over it, and therefore it is a threat that must be taken out. The film becomes a critique on the tainted, complex, adult outlook, and embraces the idea the morality is basic and does not have to be complicated. Ultimately, the Giant is able to choose, to be the villain the adults want him to be or to be Superman.

This film is a cocktail of nostalgia, morality, and critique. It reminded me a lot of the more recent film Wreck It Ralph, which is indicative of a new type of children's media which is interested in breaking down traditional ideas of good and bad, villain and hero. The Iron Giant is a critique against the anxieties over AI and technology that stemmed from the Cold War, which was incredibly relevant in the 90s with films such as Terminator, The Matrix, etc. Similarly, Wreck It Ralph critiques the anxieties that have resulted out of the hero/villain dichotomy in video games, in which villains such as Bowser are inherently bad with little reason. These films are important for children as they try and navigate the impending adult world and form a sense of morality and their own way of seeing things.

Community Curation Creation

Here is the link to my blog which contains my project for this assignment, in which I reached out through social media and asked my friends to send me pictures of their palms which I then "read." Artist's statement is also included on the website.

Critique // Speed Racer

Whoa what a trip. I was shocked, but then not surprised at all, to see the Wachowski's names at the end of the film. They love their green screen. (I kept imagining the actors acting out these quick shots on a green screen-- it must have been so awkward.) Throughout the whole movie I noticed myself identifying various forms of critique within the film but by the end all I could remember were three main thematic critiques.

1. Speed Racer is Avant-Garde
Avant-garde, meaning that it breaks pre-existing conventions in its medium. Speed Racer breaks all the rules, including rules on editing, camera movement, casting, production design, and run time. I think this movie might not have done so well because of how out there it is. People have chalked it up to cheap visual spectacle, but I couldn't help but think there was more to it than that. After all, these are the directors who made The Matrix, which has a vast and complicated universe attached to it. In a lot of ways, the avant-garde nature of this film is a critique on conventional children's media. We are creating movies for children, but sticking to the same rules we do for adults. This film is a lot more trusting of its audience, sacrificing liner and spatial soundness for high velocity visuals and a meta-theme about breaking conventions and being independent.


2. Breaking Conventions and Being Independent
A lot of children's films model fables, with a clear takeaway. This film doesn't stray to far from this, but it does present things as perhaps a bit more complicated. The independent motor company sticks to a set of moral values and triumphs over the 1%. It's a Capitalistic underdog story. However, the underdog doesn't just get to win because he is the underdog. The underdog is also convention-breaking. It was obvious in the beginning that Speed Racer did not "behave" in school. His childhood behavior and the strange cuts and world presented at the beginning of the film made me wonder if this was meant to all take place in the mind of a child on the autism spectrum. Regardless, Speed is able to succeed without fitting into a traditional societal mold. (Though I wish there was deeper characterization for him other than "nice dumb kid who makes good choices and races well.") the form breaks conventions, the characters break conventions, and...

3. This Film Invites Critique of Itself
This film got a lot of negative critique, and I understand why. Such a film that strays from what we are used to seeing on screens is difficult to negotiate sometimes with our expectations, but what really puts the audience over the top is its self-awareness. The youngest brother and ape characters were so weirdly obvious and such weird side characters that it felt ironic to me. The villian's long and often intelligible speeches seemed to be making fun of long villainous speeches in children's films that over explain. There were moments I was questioning gender roles within the film, but I couldn't help but wonder if that's what the filmmakers intended. Inquiry. Curiosity. Critique.