Koha

Our project is called the Season of Hokioi - this is the name of a powerful predator from Maori tradition, otherwise known as the Haasts eagle. We chose this name, as the main theme we recognised within our three chosen songs was socialised violence within men - we used nature, birds and feathers as metaphors for the actions and emotions of men, representing the violence enacted by men on each other and on the planet. However, we recognise that men are not inherently violent - men are socialised to be violent. We were particularly inspired by Warren’s use of the phrase ‘feather dream’ - feathers can be soft and gentle to the touch, however they can also be bold, bright and harsh - used to communicate a warning, attract mates, line cloaks and embellish weapons. 

Our colour story is evident across our animatic, website and posters. It starts out very soft - with burnt orange and off white shades transitioning into vibrant oranges and bruise-like purples, representing learned violence. We end with a cold deep blue - a representation of the inevitable fallout of this socialised violence - a hollow emptiness. 

We have targeted the advertisements for these plays to an audience that are within the age bracket of 16 to 25 - mid to late high schoolers and university students. We have decided to choose this audience as this is the generation inheriting the earth - these plays are informing and reminding this audience of these serious issues and are aiming to inspire further interest and change. We have decided to make our animatic an advertisement on Instagram - as this is the social media of choice for our age range. 

Updated Animatic!

A few pages from the finished website! 

We changed the colours - the background yellow and the orange of the top and bottom bars - to make them more vibrant, as we felt the website colour palette might be a little too soft and wouldn’t fit with the vibrant colours of our posters / animatic. This, as well as the addition of the bright landscape illustrations, links the website well with the animatic and posters! 

Today was our second interim critique - above is some of the work we presented, and here is a summation of the feedback we received and the consequent changes we plan to make. 

Website:

- The boxes across the scenery illustrations are distracting / detract from the imagery underneath - consider removing them.

- The Karla text works for the main body of the website, but for the top title text it looks a little too simple - refine the text, bring the ‘Hokioi’ font in for the titles perhaps. 

- The blocks of information, particularly on the ticket and about page are overwhelmingly long - ensure the text doesn’t stretch across the whole screen. Try breaking it up with rule perhaps. For the ticket page, include the text under the headings, such as Group Prices, as drop downs, so users don’t have to scroll through walls of text to find the ticket information they need. 

Animation:

- Try making the drips static - the animation works well being graphic, the drips stand out as the only fluid / moving part - they are out of place. If the drip is static, it will be easier to turn it into a tree, with a branch for the birds to sit on - fixing the problem I had transitioning between these two scenes. 

- Add more information onto the end card of the animation - describe in short what the animatic is advertising for, and include link to the website, and perhaps the bats logo. 

Poster:

- The title is too heavy, and is competing with the heavy birds at the bottom of the page - make it lighter. 

A few example pages from our website, mocked up on XD. The scenery images at the top of some pages are stand ins, until we have the real images to replace them with. We decided to make a mobile website, as it made sense to lead from our mobile Instagram advert to a mobile website - furthermore, our target audience sit within the age bracket of 16 - 25, and people of this age are more likely to be using a phone than a laptop the majority of the time. 

The website colour palette is on the softer side - the colours closer to the softer beginning of our colour story than the vibrant middle and end. I struggled when beginning the website, as I found it difficult to use these vibrant colours and make them all work together on one page, make it looks aesthetically pleasing and make the text readable. Using the soft parchment colour as a background allows the dark grey text to be easily readable - I felt if the text were black it would be too harsh. The vibrant orange of the top and bottom bars prevents the page from looking too bland, and the colour is dark enough that the white title Hokioi is readable. The salmon coloured feathers and colourful scenery illustrations adding some pops of colour / interest. Body text is of a good, legible size - perhaps a tad too large? In my last mobile website in Kaitiakitanga I know I made some elements of the website too small,  including body text - one reason I really wanted to make a mobile website was to improve upon my last efforts. 

6th Sept – 28th Sept

Hokioi

Adapted from the works of musician Warren Maxwell

www.seasonofhokioi.co.nz

Storyboard:

Within this assignment we have chosen to explore the theme of socialised violence in men - and are drawing parallels between violence enacted by men in society and on our earth. We are portraying this mainly through the medium of illustration, focusing on the key images of feathers and birds. 

Our animatic follows the colour story pictured at the top, from a milky soft sunrise to a deep blue sunset. It begins with a single feather. More begin to appear and fan out (referencing a war fan) and this creates a solid circle that then takes the form of a rising sun. The silhouettes of three birds cross this sun - however their shapes can be interpreted as three fighter planes. 

This rising sun begins to drip - we follow the drip down to where it twists and lies horizontally, becoming the branch of a tree. We pass by several birds seated on this branch, gradually growing in size / raising their wings until we come to the largest and most intimidating bird, with wings fully outstretched. (This sequence could represent the growth of man, and in turn his increasing power / capacity or hunger for violence). 

We zoom into the stomach of the bird, whereupon we encounter a landscape - we see the fighter pilot birds (recogniseably birds this time) flying across it, spreading flames? / disrupting the calm landscape as they fly by - representation of devastation to the environment / humanity by man / war. 

These trails then dissipate to reveal a solid blue sky - clouds part to reveal the rising moon. A single feather falls, revealing the title of the season as it goes - it settles on the bottom of the screen. 

Wireframe:

In keeping with out illustrative animatic, our website will follow suit - taking inspiration from the ‘An Interesting Day’ website pictured above. It consists of a homepage, an about page, a ticket booking page, and three pages which will contain a synopsis of each play. 

The title Hokioi will continuously be at the top left of the screen, and will serve as a home button - the navigation button likewise will always be in the top left, revealing a drop down menu. I imagined the homepage opening to reveal an illustration, bordered at the bottom by a shadow of trees or a landscape - this half of the page would have orange / red hues. Scrolling further down past this dividing shadow would reveal a darker, blue toned sky, with the rest of the home information - ending with another dividing shadow separating the social media / bats theater links at the bottom of the page. 

Feedback we recieved + potential changes:

- Potentially make the animatic watercolour

- Drip from the moon could become the roots of a tree - a growing tree, growing upward and then sprouting the branch that the birds sit on, instead of awkwardly turning the drip sideways. 

- Use the animatic as the first thing you see on the website instead of a flat illustration - more engaging. 

- Could place a feather illustration at the bottom of the page on the right hand side instead of text, to balance out the social media links and bats theater links. 

- The first bird on the branch could appear with its head turned to the side - as the wings raise more with each bird, the head turns gradually until the final bird stares straight at the viewer. Ensure we keep momentum / movement throughout the entire animatic, always having things moving, nothing static. 

Our three plays will be based on the songs Peaceful Man, Te Oranga and Nature of Man. The content of our plays will be gritty, angry and grief stricken - tales of blood, hardships and injustice. These plays will be drawing parallels between climate issues and socialised violence – violence enacted by men on each other and on the planet.

We are planning on targeting the advertisements for these plays to an audience that are within the age bracket of 16 to 25 – mid to late high schoolers and university students. We have decided to choose this audience as this is the generation inheriting the earth – these plays are informing and reminding this audience of these serious issues and are aiming to inspire further interest and change.

Our target demographic is 16 onwards as we are aware that if we aimed for a younger demographic, these teenagers are still in high school and are probably not working, and therefore might not be able to afford tickets. On the other hand, those nearing the end of high school / at university are most likely more independent – having jobs, possibly living on their own – more likely to have the freedom to go to see the show and afford tickets. A potential issue could be that university students often struggle with funds – they may not want to waste money that could go towards food or bills on a theatre production. We will think more about a solution to this problem.