Theater Professional ‘Shadowing’ Experience: In Development

The Shadowing Experience came out of the need to have Miami students meet and observe theatre professionals during the course of their work.

The challenge was the fact that there were 1200 students per semester, and only about 30 professionals in the southwest Ohio region that were willing to be shadowed for a day. The result is a logistical problem that could frustrate the professionals and provide scheduling headaches for faculty and students.

When discussing this problem with a faculty member, I came up with the idea of a videotape shadowing experience. This could be achieved by placing ‘fly-on-the-wall’ cameras throughout the physical space that the professional works, at various critical times throughout the professionals work-flow. For instance, in a play, the directors role spans the entire life of the play. Casting, design meetings, rehearsals, etc. By recording and editing each of the key moments, you could compress the time it takes to show the director’s work process into a five minute video piece.

The result could be an online interaction that resembles reality TV, a cross between Cops, Big Brother and Survivor. And by incorporating the video with Flash, assessment questions could be turned on at random intervals to ensure student participation.

I’ve been asked by one of the faculty to develop a “mock-up” of how a shadowing would look and feel, so the department chair could review and decide if the activity would be appropriate. Since I am not in the theater,  but my job process follows a similar work-flow, I decided to shadow myself as the example.

Theatre Etiquette: In Development

I was asked to pull together a quick training module designed to remind students that their conduct in a theatre performance should be different than how they would act at a movie, or a concert or a sporting event.

The original plan was to develop a training in the paperworks style like we produced for the eScholar training. The outcome will be slightly different.

The students are introduced to a bad behavior (which is designed to get more annoying as the scene progresses). At some point the user will be asked to eliminate the cause of the behavior or ignore it.

THE PROCESS:
Adam Baumgartner (Digital Media) wanted to try a new animation process by scanning the storyboard frames, touch them up using Photoshop, and animate them using Adobe Premiere. The resulting video file (an FLV) will be streamed into a Flash file that allows users to interact with the scene and eliminate or ignore the bad behavior. Ignoring the annoyance only plays the movie (and bad behavior) in an infinite loop.

See the first pass here.

Virtual Audience Using Adobe AIR

A pre-recorded audience listens AND responds to your performance

The Virtual Audience allows the user to practice performing in front of a living, breathing audience, virtually.

After installing the free Adobe AIR runtime environment, you can install and use the Virtual Audience for free.

The initial faculty request was to create a DVD with loopable video that would allow a music student to practice in front of an audience that did the distracting things that audiences do, cough, sneeze, whisper, etc.  In theory this would allow the student to be desensitized to audience distractions. We satisfied the faculty’s initial request by making a DVD. But, I asked to go a step further,  and make a more interactive version by using Flash’s ability to sense user’s movement and sound using a web cameras lens (as the audience’s eyes) and mic (as their ears).

HOW IT WORKS:
When Flash senses movement from the camera, it tells the audience when the student has “taken the stage” and Flash prompts the audience to act accordingly: welcome clap.  We shot fourteen segments of distractions. Audience members coughing, sleeping, answering cell calls, etc. During the performance, random clips of video load that represent audience behavior. Or, distractions. When Flash hears that the music has stopped for a few seconds, it tells the audience to clap in response to a performance ending. And, like a real audience, you don’t know how they will react. Sometimes the performer receives a polite clap, sometimes a more enthusiastic applause, sometimes a full standing ovation.

We are using Adobe AIR as the deployment method for a few of reasons:

• Though streaming the video from Flash Media Server is an option, for quality and processing consistency, this needs to be a desktop application
• we wanted to avoid creating two different versions
• Air has a seamless update framework. This allows us to easily push updates to the user without them have to do much more than allow the update to occur

We actually tested the VA in various settings (from HUGE screens, to life size projectors to video goggles). It had a chilling (but good) effect when I “took the stage”.

During the development, we realized that the VA could be used by other areas of the university that “perform” in front of an audience. Namely speech communication and theater. Both programs require students to think on their toes and concentrate on performing a piece that they may be very familiar with performing in a quiet setting, with no distractions.

Future versions will be available using Flash Media Server and will feature video shot in HD format. The HD format will provide finer quality video when the audiences is projected on to large format screens or viewed on larger monitors.

After installing the free Adobe runtime environment, you can install and use the Virtual Audience for free.

Miami eScholar Training

Last summer I was asked to develop a more interactive version of an existing tutorial. The Miami eScholar project is a training that will be shown to all first and second year students. It is was designed to promote academic integrity, while at the same time, introducing students to writing and research resources they have at their disposal.

Although the training introduces sound practices for writing and research, the content itself was dry and static. The client asked me to create a more interactive, fun and intriguing tutorial. The client mentioned that the first two passes didn’t go over well with student focus groups.

To combat the static nature of the content, and reduce the time it took to get through the training, I decided to go with an interactive ‘paperworks’ style training video I’d seen on YouTube recently (thank you commoncraft.com for the inspiration). The animated video provides information and is occasionally paused by a Flash based activity requiring the student to interact. At the end of each section is a multiple choice test (this one isn’t boring) embedded in the video. Flash is awesome!

We’ve had a few changes along the way. We know we’ll have to make more changes. But, we’ve come up with a first pass that seems like it might work well.  But let me know what you think. For best player results, install the latest Adobe Flash Player.

See the eScholar video

Improptu Widget

The Impromptu Widget allows Intro to Speech students the chance to practice giving an unprepared speech.

Students in Miami’s “Public Expression and Critical Inquiry” course needed a way to rehearse the steps necessary for giving an unprepared speech. As an exercise in class, the students are given a choice between a quote, or a current event. They have three minutes to prepare an argument that supports their point of view. Then, they have to present that point of view for five minutes.

To help the students perfect this technique, I was asked to build a program that would pick a random topic from a list of either quotes or current events. We decided to up the ante and actually record the video/audio of the practices to let the student watch their own progress over time. The videos are private (not even faculty see the practice videos) and the student can make as many as they need to perfect their technique.

Students enter their credentials, then are prompted between using a quote or a random current event pulled from one of several approved RSS feeds. Once they choose, they are given the random topic and have three minutes to plan the speech. At the end of three minutes, student’s web cams or microphones record their impromptu speech for a total of five minutes or until they stop the recording.

We chose to build application in Flex and use Flash Media Server to actually record the speeches. Since the Impromptu Widget could be used at other times in the course and in other departments at Miami (Foreign Languages, Theatre, Video/Television Production), Flex and FMS seemed to be the appropriate environment.

Audio Mixer Simulator

Jay Rozema, the faculty member from the Theatre department (see the Stage Lighting activity) approached me about creating a soundboard simulator that would help his students visualize the tracking of audio inside the workings of a soundboard. Like the Stage Lighting activity, he required that it be a simulator, rather than an activity. And, he also asked if I could deliver scenarios to help the student further their mastery. It works like this.

As the students enter the activity, they select a scenario, which delivers a story: “You’re running sound for X band this evening; they have drums, guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals. It’s a small bar so you won’t need to mic the drums or bass. In addition, the vocalist has asked for a set of on-stage monitors so he can hear his performance.”  Students are to set up the soundboard the way the scenario asks. When finished, they save the scenario and load another. When all scenarios are complete the student submits his/her work to the faculty who can review each scenario’s settings and leave feedback for the students to revise and resubmit.

This activity was created using Adobe Flash (with heavy AS3 classes). An XML back end defines the scenarios, so they can easily be changed or added to without needing to recompile the original flash FLA file. All of the components of the soundboard are coded as individual AS3 Class files so they may be used in conjunction with other soundboard related activities that may come in the future.

See the public version of the Interactive Soundboard activity.

Special Project… Miami University’s Bicentennial via Google Earth

Every once in a while, a non-academic project rolls around that I get involved with. This is one of them.

The university architects asked me to build an interactive campus history in Flash. As I was getting ready to start the project, Google Earth announced the release of the time line control- which allows users to see time-based information- if it is available. I decided it would be a good time to start experimenting with the technology.

Since the back end of the Google Earth file runs on a database and streams as requested, the university can make different versions of the files to support different departments. Admissions can create a custom version to send to students who are interested in certain majors or aspects of college life. Campus Life can create custom versions to walk new students through their first day on campus. Architecture and Planning can create special versions for their visualization presentations. The list could go on.

As of this writing I have already made plans to use the back end in two learning activities (coming soon).

So after almost eight months, it’s finally live, but still a work in progress.

As the file loads in Google Earth, the user is treated to 162 three dimensional buildings that represent Miami University’s campus. One of the more interesting features of this virtual world is the ability to go backwards in time. Miami’s campus began formation in 1824. So, users can roll the time slider back to any year in Miami’s history and see how the campus appeared in that moment in time. We worked with the university architects as well as the archivists to preserve the details as much as we could.

Check it out…

Download and install the latest version Google Earth software (available at earth.google.com – version 4+ required) and enjoy a “flight” around the campus using this technology. For further information on installing Google Earth, see below.

Download and open the Miami University file with Google™ Earth.
You can control the various layers of information about the campus in the “Places” menu on the left side of the software.

Once Google Earth Miami has loaded, use the timeline control to change which point in time of Miami’s Oxford Campus you’d like to view and enable “street view” in layers pane to see street level photography.

Virtual Audience Update

It’s been a busy day, we shot the ‘audience’ video for the Virtual Audience (see initial post) about a half hour after I finished delivering a keynote speech for the Ohio Learning Network.

After Michele’s initial request, I started thinking about what the possibilities of using Flash and Flash Video could do versus deploying the video on DVD. In doing research for the COM135 Impromptu Widget, I read that Flash can sense movement in front of a web cam by comparing the data from two individual video frames. If there is a difference, there must be movement- or at the very least, changes in light levels. Likewise, Flash can sense changes in incoming audio from a Web cam’s mic. This meant that a web cam could be the eyes and ears of Flash – which could be programmed with some logic, to act like an audience, i.e., see the musician enter, hear him/her play, and tell the audience how to respond when the music stops.

I spent a week or two watching performances and paying particular attention to how audiences act. It usually goes something like this: They wait for the performer to enter the stage. They talk amongst themselves while waiting. When the performer comes on stage, they clap for about eight seconds (unless it’s the Stones or the Beatles or someone like that) then settle into their seats and watch. This is usually where the distractions happen. During music recitals, it’s common for at least one person to clap before the performance has concluded. Anyway, at the conclusion of the performance, everyone claps. A polite audience claps just to be nice. Sometimes a portion of the audience will offer a standing ovation. And sometimes, the whole audience stands.

So, if these audience scenes were shot individually, logic could be programmed into a Flash movie to listen to parts of a performance (which always go in the same order) through the web cam, and load the appropriate video for each audience response. And during the performance, where the distractions take place, a random distraction could load in and play for a random amount of time. All this randomness would prevent a student ‘watching’ the recorded audience for memorizing the pattern of distractions- thus fine tuning the desensitizing nature of the video. In theory that is.

To shoot the Virtual Audience video, Michele managed to coral 125 students into an empty recital hall. I convinced them to sit still for about thirty-five minutes. Long enough to get our distractions and basic video foundations.

Here’s a list of the scenes we shot:

• talking amongst themselves waiting for the performer
• welcome clapping- to welcome the performer to the stage
• sitting and being polite/still (this was difficult- no thanks to Starbucks or Red Bull)
• gratuitous clapping
• half ovation clapping
• full ovation clapping

Then there are the distraction shots. I picked random students out of the audience to perform on cue. There were twelve in all:

• sneezing
• coughing
• yawning
• falling asleep
• laughing/giggling
• crossing legs
• cell phone ringing
• entering late
• leaving early
• whispering to neighbor
• clapping early

Stay tuned. There’s more to come as we edit the video scenes and program the logic for the Flash Movie.

On the Road with ‘Lolita’

Created as an out-of-class companion to in-class discussion, On The Road with ‘Lolita’ takes students on a virtual field trip through some of the places visited in the famous Nabokov novel.

The activity is based in Google Earth to examine the lead character’s geographic journey. Accompanying each destination are photos and videos of the locations, as well as the site’s entry in the novel, analysis of the author’s reasoning, and opportunities for students to explore their own thoughts about why each location was chosen by the author and discussed in the book.

Virtual Audience

The idea of the virtual audience was brought to me by Michele Gingras, Clarinet faculty at Miami University. Michele has published a few articles in trade journals and magazines about stage fright from the point of view of the musician.

The original idea was to help musicians get used to the distracting things audiences can do (coughing, cell phones, rattling candy wrappers, etc.) during a performance that might keep a musician from focusing on their playing. Through Michele’s observations, students can easily focus on breathing, posture, fingering and the notes when they are in the security of their own comfort bubble (their room or a practice area). The problem begins during a performance. As the musician plays, inevitably an audience member will cause a distraction. That distraction has potential to throw the students focus off of the music and brings awareness back to things that may be insignificant to the actual playing (hair, clothing were examples) which could lead to mistakes.

The original medium was to be DVD. The students could play a loopable DVD with audience footage while they practiced. The audience would do distracting things, and the video would loop until turned off.

Stay tuned for an update as production begins.