100 words
Thousands of languages are being lost every year due to more popular languages being learnt and used more frequently. Less spoken dialects and sub-dialects hold the keys to culture and history across the world. ‘What if we could bring dialects to life?’.
Native Walk is an immersive language learning experience in virtual reality where audiences can walk through different neighbourhoods across the world and hear the original dialects of the area. In this specific experience, the scene is based in Palermo where we will follow a comedic story-line while listening to the Palermitan dialect through its characters. The viewer will engage with the language while unraveling the story’s engaging narrative.
Group Feedback
For the first WIP of the final major project, we were asked to give feedback to our classmates on their work and at the same time receive pointers to work on our own projects. This session was very beneficial as I was able to see where other members of the class were at and be inspired by their processes. What I enjoyed seeing the most was that everyones ideas were different, so we will all eventually have very unique outcomes.
The comments below are some written advice I received during this WIP. Each comment was very useful and made me think about the next part of my project.
The first comment asked whether I would use 3D animations acting out different scenes in the final outcome. I answered the questions in the lesson where I mentioned I would like to keep the characters static so the language audio recordings would be the main focus rather than the business of the scene. This comment inspired me to look into using GIFS to bring static characters to life and to play with expressive faces and positioning characters in spaces.
The second comment mentioned whether the experience would have an escape-room layout (solving puzzles). The customer journey would guide the audience through ‘La Ladra Della Salsa) so the emphasis will be on the dialogue and story rather than a gamified approach.
The third comment mentioned how it could be an open world game and asked where it would be created. The experience will be created on either Mozilla Hubs or Spatial depending on its capabilities with adding audio and 3D elements. The open world aspect would be included as the audience can move where ever they like within the space but will be guided by the storyline. From this comment I was inspired to create a mock-up of a virtual space with audio clips on both platforms.
The fourth comment was inspiring as the class member was very inspired by the insight and possible outcome of the project as it connected with her experience with dialects growing up. This inspired me to continue preparing for the interviewing part of the project when I go to Italy and speak to the Sicilians in person.
The fifth comment mentioned not sticking to a corporate style when creating the characters, but rather look into other unique styles such as the example below of ‘The Long Long Holiday’.
Other comments from the lecturers and students included:
– ‘You only need to do one thing at a time’ don’t put too much pressure on yourself to do everything at once
– The script is strong and idea and is making your project immersive through storytelling and theatre
– Work with theatrical audio
After hearing these comments I was also inspired to look into surround sound and placing voices within a scene.
Later on in the week, I presented my pitch to my lecturers and classmates. The main feedback I received was positive and one lecturer mentioned to make the project more unreal (in surroundings) so it doesn’t become unrealistic. I considered this comment when I went onto the next stage of the major project.
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