Client project 2

Summary of the brief

The project brief was to create a ghost experience based on Winchester which would be exhibited at the University of Winchester Digital Media Department’s End of Year Showcase on 9th May 2024. As this brief was given to the group by our lecturer, we were given full creative responsibility. After we were given our brief, we began to discuss what type of experience we wanted to create. We decided to create a ghost tour of well-known locations in Winchester which were believed to be haunted through the use of an Augmented Reality (AR) app which would allow participants to see the ‘entities’ that they would learn about as they navigate each location. Now we have a definitive brief, we first chose two locations each that we wanted to be included in the app. I chose the Theatre Royal Winchester and The Eclipse Inn.

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Research

Once all of the locations were chosen, the first research task was to research why the locations were believed to be haunted. First, I researched The Eclipse Inn where I found an article on the establishment’s website about a woman named Lady Alice Lisle who stayed at the Inn on her last night before she was beheaded on 2nd September 1685. She provided Christian shelter to two refugees from the Battle of Sedgemoor which ended the Monmouth Rebellion. Unknown to her, one of the men was a wanted fugitive, a traitor – and the punishment for sheltering traitors was death (The Eclipse Inn, 2019). Since her death, staff and customers at The Eclipse Inn have reported seeing her staring in dark and unlit areas. 

 

The next location to research was the Theatre Royal Winchester. Throughout the research, I found out there had been reports of sightings of a man in Victorian clothing who is believed to be one of the original owners of the theatre named John Simpkin. John Simpkins and his brother James bought the building (previously known as The Market Hotel) in 1912 and reopened as a theatre in 1914. When the building was being renovated, James Simpkins had the initials JS placed above the proscenium. John would have preferred it to say ‘J&JS’ which would have stood for both of them; however, before the changes could have been made, John died so it is believed that John returns to the theatre to see if the initials had been changed. Staff and visitors have seen a figure walk from where his office was placed, walk up to stall 4, continue walking towards the centre of the upper circle and face towards the stage where he would look for the initials. He would then walk to the opposite side of the upper circle and disappear into the left stage wall. Another ‘entity’ that has been reported at the theatre is of a dancing girl who would be seen dancing in the right corner of the stage and then walk into the right wings without being seen again. During WW1, there was a dancer performing while her boyfriend (who also worked at the theatre as a spotlight operator) was called to fight. One night while the girl was dancing, it was reported that she saw her boyfriend standing in the wings which led her to faint. The next day, the boy’s family received a telegram informing them that the boy had died on the same day that the girl reported seeing her boyfriend at the theatre. Some people believe that her ghost is trying to find her way back to her boyfriend (The Theatre Royal Winchester, 2021).

 

After the secondary research had been conducted, I conducted primary research on the two locations by visiting both establishments to find out more about the locations and their history with the paranormal and to take photos of the locations that can be used in the production of our app/experience. When visiting The Eclipse Inn, I spoke to one of the staff who allowed us access to the private events room above the main pub which was the room that Lady Alice Lisle stayed in before her execution. Although we were not given more information about Lady Alice Lisle or the sightings of her in the building, we were able to take photos of the room as well as a 3D scan of the layout. To be able to visit the Theatre Royal, I was required to contact the marketing manager of the theatre who arranged for two staff members to give us a private tour around the building while the establishment was closed. We were shown the exact route that the ghost of John Simpkns walks when he has been sighted. As well as this, we were also provided with a newspaper article and a chapter from a book about Winchester about paranormal investigators who have stayed at the theatre overnight to witness these sightings for themselves. 

 

Production

What went well

Throughout the project, there were many positive aspects in the production stage. My role in the project as one of the designers in the team was to create a working prototype of the app, design a flyer which would be used to advertise the experience and to design a wireframe for the website where customers can book a place on the tour/experience, learn about the locations involved, find out about the business and to find important information before they go on the tour. A positive to this project was the experience USP (Unique Selling Point). The USP for the project is that our experience is the only ghost tour in Winchester that incorporated AR into the experience. 

 

The first positive was designing the app prototype. When designing the app, I first used Adobe XD which is a wireframe software for prototyping digital media such as websites and apps. This software allowed me to use workable buttons which would be used to navigate the app. On the location selection screen, I was given a video which included two location icons on an animated background. To be able to make these icons into functional buttons, I placed a circle over each icon and set the opacity of the circles to 0% and then set the function to ‘when tapped, change screen’. Towards the end of the project, I found an online software called Hololink which allowed me to redesign the app to include the AR function into the prototype. Hololink allowed me to use image tracing to link 3D models to a certain image in a ‘scene’ which would demonstrate to visitors at the showcase how the AR function would work. The 3D models that I used in the app were animated models found on Sketchfab.com and consisted of models portraying horror styled ghosts/apparitions to represent the ‘spirits’ connected to the locations and a man in a suit to represent the ghost of John Simpkins. In order to show the models moving around the scene, I was able to add ‘keypoints’ around the scene where the models would move between to give a further layer of horror into the experience. It was important to choose models that were either walking or floating to make the experience more realistic.  

 

A positive when I was designing the wireframe for the website was that by the time it had come to designing the website, all of the assets that I needed to incorporate into the design had been made by another designer in the group which meant that I was able to complete the wireframe without needing to leave sections until the assets were created. Another positive when designing the wireframe is that there is an existing ghost tour around Winchester. This meant that I was able to use their website as a guide to make sure that I included all of the information necessary when designing a ghost tour website. 

 

The last piece of material that I had to create for the project was the flyer. To create the flyer, I used Adobe Illustrator which allowed me to add multiple ‘artboards’. This made it easier to keep the designs for both sides of the flyer in one file. A positive that I had when creating the flyer was that I was able to get feedback on my design from my peers who have also made flyers for their projects as well as people who are a part of our target audience. By getting feedback from the target audience, I was able to make changes to my design to better suit their needs in a flyer for an experience of this type. 

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What challenges did I face and how did I overcome them

One challenge that I faced when creating the app UI on Adobe XD was that I was not able to use a camera feature in the prototype. I overcame this challenge by recording a video of a room and adding the video into the tracking screen. Another challenge that I faced when designing the initial wireframe of the app was that I was not able to create a custom notification while the app was being displayed. As a team, we wanted a notification to come up on your screen during the experience which would display a message such as “I am watching you”. The solution to this challenge was to add a static notification bar to the top of the screen in the style of an Apple IOS notification bar to show what would be shown if you were to receive a notification. 

 

A challenge that I faced when designing the website wireframe was that I was unable to make a working prototype due to the limitations of Illustrator. I was unable to overcome this challenge due to time constraints but if I did have a later deadline, I would use Wix.com or a similar website builder to create a functioning website. By using a website builder, I would be able to add multiple pages including a booking page, a payment page and a location page where customers can find a detailed description about each location. Adding a location page would also allow me to add more locations to the experience without extending the homepage. 

 

During the designing of the flyer, the challenge that I faced was that the map I had been given would not fit onto the flyer without revealing the background. My solution to this challenge was to add a rectangle behind the map image and, using the eyedropper tool, change the colour of the rectangle to match the background colour of the map.

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Time Management

In terms of time management for this project, I split my time into each task. For this project, the time requirement was 16 weeks. The first task was research so I decided to give myself 2 weeks to complete the research. As I needed to contact the marketing manager to gain access to the Theatre Royal, the overall research took a total of 3 weeks to complete. When it came to the other tasks, it was more challenging to map out a schedule as I required assets from other members of the team in order to start the tasks. One task in particular that I had the least time to complete was the flyer. This was due to waiting for the map asset to be sent to me. Once the map had been sent to me, I had two weeks to design the flyer until it was to be presented at the showcase. At the end of the project, I was able to complete all of my tasks to the best of my ability with the assets that I was given.

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References

The Eclipse Inn (2019) Lady Alice Lisle, The eclipse inn - winchester, Hampshire. Available at: https://www.the-eclipse-winchester.co.uk/the-eclipse.html?categoryId=216 (Accessed: 15 May 2024). 

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Ghosts of theatre royal winchester (2021) Theatre Royal Winchester. Available at: https://www.theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk/news/ghosts-theatre-royal-winchester (Accessed: 15 May 2024). 

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Bibliography

Winchester Ghost Tours (no date) Supernatural Tours. Available at: https://supernaturaltoursandevents.com/tours/winchester-ghost-tours (Accessed: 16 May 2024).

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"Ghost Lady" (https://skfb.ly/oMBqJ) by Donte_Loves_Art is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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"Kuntilanak_Indonesian ghost" (https://skfb.ly/o9qJv) by udi_kreasindo3D is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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"fantasma animado" (https://skfb.ly/6WZxv) by vicente betoret ferrero is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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"G-Man (Rigged + Animated)" (https://skfb.ly/oLD86) by hvp0926 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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