In the 5 minute presentation I was supposed to convey my ideas and message quickly and concisely. I completely failed in every aspect. My idea and message was somewhat jumbled resulting in me stumbling with my words. I was unprepared for the question that was posed to me: "What are you trying to say?"
With my idea, What am i trying to say? What message am i trying to express through my work to the person viewing/playing? It's an important question and one which I had not properly considered in order to give my work depth.
One comment I was given was that I had developed an aesthetic first, and therefore I was trying to attach meaning around this, rather than express something I want to say (an issue perhaps) and build something around it. It made sense to some extent, although you can equally have a style and build a message around it. After all, the aesthetic acts like a window on what you are trying express in some respects. I think because I focused on aesthetic and story first it somewhat confused me and in the process I lost what I was trying to say.
In retrospect, what I was talking about were my themes - rather than what I am actually trying to say. Themes are obviously important as well but my main message is what is most important and other themes and aspects can develop from this.
With all this having been said, I thought about my idea more and as a result some of my story has changed. But I kept asking myself, "what am I trying to say?" and to put it simply and concisely - We need to look after our planet. I thought about my idea and how the robots want life and have seen what we have done and simply, they are just a way of highlighting we need to stop destroying our planet, and start looking after it, appreciating the beauty we have. The robots don't have that beauty, and they want it - this what I am trying to say. Having reworked the story, I think this makes more sense now and hopefully it doesn't sound too typical or silly.
The story still needs work, but it goes as follows:
A male human is in a personal 1 man space craft on a course until a fault happens with his ship, his ship is rapidly loosing fuel and as a result he needs to land somewhere quickly and wait whilst a ship is sent out to pick him up. As he descends on a near planet, he only just makes it and ends up crashing his ship.
He wakes up fully healed, somewhere very industrial and steampunk with cogs and steam showing the inner workings of the area. A robot race resides on the planet and after the shock he soon realises they are very excited he his there.
The robot race have lived on the planet for a while devoid of life, they populate the size of a city, if not less. It is clear from their culture, design and environment that they have clearly been influenced by Humans, but how? How do they know of us? We have been sending signals into space for years, even broadcasts from television out into space in the hope that maybe something will receive it. This race of robots received a signal, broadcasting television stations and shows. However, because of the distance and time the broadcast is actually around 1950's era. The robots saw this and where amazed of our technological accomplishments and the life we had on our planet, it wasn't long before they began to create creatures and various things through the zeitgeist of the time. Films often show humans in peril overcoming monsters and various villains. The robots saw this and believed the humans to be amazing creatures that can overcome seemingly impossible feats - they where fascinated by it.
With a real human now on their planet, they where excited. Because they had a a big problem...
The robot race was somewhat split. One side wants to develop technology further through means of a new substance which in turn, will damage the atmosphere and planet - whilst the other side want to continue developing naturally and are more interested in creating life, to make the planet as luscious and beautiful as Earth. With a Human now in physical form, they hope to make peace with the other side, requesting the Human to help them with this mission. The result doesn't go according to plan, and the robot's looking to move forward with technology soon act hastily toward the human as he uncovers deeper seeded plans...
It still needs work, but I believe that It represents what I want to say better and more clearer. The aesthetics further push my message. The steampunk/50's industrial style often looks very haphazard - almost as if the object has been constructed from various bits and pieces. My robots would be designed in this way, reflecting a recycled look - which would relate to my message, that we need to look after our planet and not destroy it.
I am going to look at back at the film 9 and Machinarium to try and understand what is being said. What is the film trying to say to the viewer? Hopefully by uncovering the message I can focus more on this important area rather than the aesthetics which I was focusing on before.
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