These are the conclusions made from Artefact 3:
1. When designing a multimedia piece with the intention of treating anxiety, the content of the piece, rather than the style, plays a bigger role in relaxing the viewer.
2. When both the style and content's effects are calming, the effectiveness is increased slightly.
3. It will be essential to find out what content matter would have the maximum degree of potential to calm the viewer.
4. There is no apparent age or gender significance.
Sunday, 14 March 2010
Saturday, 13 March 2010
Artefact 3 - Report
Introduction
The results provided by Artefacts 1 and 2 implied that an audiovisual piece has the potential to induce a relaxed state in the viewer and imagery, as opposed to sound, has a greater ability to do so. Therefore the question posed by Artefact 3 is whether the content or the style a clip is presented in has the strongest impact.
Method
Similarly to the previous artefacts, participants watched a clip and rated the level of relaxation they experienced on a scale of one to ten; ten representing the highest state of calm. One clip contained a calming edit of Nottingham city centre, while another contained nature content, but was not edited in a calming way. Using dissolves and slow motion in comparison to cuts, respectively, the clips separated the calming effects of content and style so as not to be influenced by the other. These results were then compared with the findings of the clip in Artefact 2 that uses both content and style to relax the viewer. Three groups were formed and each watched a different piece before completing the survey.
Results
The preliminary notion was that content of a clip would have a more potent effect than the style it was edited in. This theory was confirmed by the results. The average rating for the content-based piece was 6.3, while the average rating for the style-based clip was 5.3. Although this is not a vast difference, the content piece had a 10% higher ability to calm the viewer, which is significant. Furthermore, when the content and style were both geared towards relaxing the viewer, with an average rating of 6.9, it proved slightly more effective in relaxing the participants.
Conclusion
It is evident that when designing a format for a therapeutic audiovisual clip, more emphasis should be placed on the content.
The results provided by Artefacts 1 and 2 implied that an audiovisual piece has the potential to induce a relaxed state in the viewer and imagery, as opposed to sound, has a greater ability to do so. Therefore the question posed by Artefact 3 is whether the content or the style a clip is presented in has the strongest impact.
Method
Similarly to the previous artefacts, participants watched a clip and rated the level of relaxation they experienced on a scale of one to ten; ten representing the highest state of calm. One clip contained a calming edit of Nottingham city centre, while another contained nature content, but was not edited in a calming way. Using dissolves and slow motion in comparison to cuts, respectively, the clips separated the calming effects of content and style so as not to be influenced by the other. These results were then compared with the findings of the clip in Artefact 2 that uses both content and style to relax the viewer. Three groups were formed and each watched a different piece before completing the survey.
Results
The preliminary notion was that content of a clip would have a more potent effect than the style it was edited in. This theory was confirmed by the results. The average rating for the content-based piece was 6.3, while the average rating for the style-based clip was 5.3. Although this is not a vast difference, the content piece had a 10% higher ability to calm the viewer, which is significant. Furthermore, when the content and style were both geared towards relaxing the viewer, with an average rating of 6.9, it proved slightly more effective in relaxing the participants.
Conclusion
It is evident that when designing a format for a therapeutic audiovisual clip, more emphasis should be placed on the content.
Monday, 1 March 2010
Artefact 3 - Edits
Today I edited both pieces that will be used to test whether content or style contributes more to inducing a relaxed state in the viewer.
For the first edit, I used the original nature scene footage from Artefact 1 and removed the dissolves and much of the movement that was present. These kind of transitions and camera movements have a calming quality to them, thus by removing them and using cuts to transition from shot to shot, the relaxing effect can be attributed solely to the content, as opposed to the content and style reinforcing the tranquil feeling.
Similarly, I used the original footage of Nottingham city centre for the second clip. By slowing down the speed of the people and cars and using more dissolves, this clip tests the style's capability to create a calm state of mind. The slow movement combined with the fades make the busy city life look almost dreamlike, and definitely has a calming effect to it.
I feel as though the content would have a greater effect on relaxing the viewer. I believe this is because the content will make the viewer think more about what they are seeing and will have a greater link to emotions.
For the first edit, I used the original nature scene footage from Artefact 1 and removed the dissolves and much of the movement that was present. These kind of transitions and camera movements have a calming quality to them, thus by removing them and using cuts to transition from shot to shot, the relaxing effect can be attributed solely to the content, as opposed to the content and style reinforcing the tranquil feeling.
Similarly, I used the original footage of Nottingham city centre for the second clip. By slowing down the speed of the people and cars and using more dissolves, this clip tests the style's capability to create a calm state of mind. The slow movement combined with the fades make the busy city life look almost dreamlike, and definitely has a calming effect to it.
I feel as though the content would have a greater effect on relaxing the viewer. I believe this is because the content will make the viewer think more about what they are seeing and will have a greater link to emotions.
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