Project Name: LAST MOMENTS
Project Description: The project is an assignment for the Communications Lab class where we had to write a script, draw the comics and then present the theme of the entire comic on a website. “Last moments” is about the fleeting nature of life. It shows how a person can never know when their last interaction with someone could be. This is why we wanted to explore how suddenly and abruptly life can end. The aim of this project was to create a sense of appreciation in readers for the delicateness of human life. The storyline was particularly chosen as this one as wanted to tell about the life of the protagonist through his presence in the lives of others. We decided to achieve this by minimizing the focus from him by not showing his face in any of the comics.
Our story is told through the protagonist’s interaction with three people: his childhood best friend, his boss and his wife. In the first panel, we show a discussion between the protagonist – Bob - and his childhood best friend. They have scheduled to meet after ages but the protagonist has to leave soon as he receives a call from his boss. They end their meeting on a hopeful note, hoping to meet again “soon”, but as the protagonist dies the same day, that moment never arrives. This panel portray the fleetingness of life and how the best friend could have never imagined this would be the last time he is meeting the protagonist. The focus is reduced from the protagonist by showing the friend’s face but blurring Bob’s face.
In the second panel, Bob is called into his Boss’s office, where he receives the unfortunate news of him being fired. This panel was included to make the audience question if Bob would have been fired that day merely because the company was facing losses if the boss knew Bob would die the same day. Bob’s face is not shown and only the back of his head is which again reduces the focus from the protagonist.
In the third panel, Bob informs his wife about losing his job. She starts yelling at him and slams the telephone. We strived for the same purpose in this panel as in our previous panel to make the audience question how the behaviour and the reaction of the wife may have been influenced if she was aware that this was the last time she was talking to her husband. Bob is not shown in this panel and only the wife’s reactions are shown to again signify that the story is being told from the side characters’ perspectives.
The last page of our comic is just a black page where the beating of the heart gradually dies out which indicates that at the end of the book, Bob has passed away.
Process: Since the comic is dark themed, I decided to go for a similar experience on our website. The background image for the landing page is of a dark gloomy alleyway which indicates silence which is a metaphor for death when the heart stops beating. Underneath the title, as we scroll down with the mouse, a glowing silhouette of a man crosses the street which again is a metaphor of how quickly life can end. The navigation bar is of a closed book which open upon clicking it and shows three bookmarks underneath which reference to each section of the website. A book was used as the navigation panel as website basically tells us a story of an individual, which is also narrate inside a book through comics in section two of the website. Underneath the landing page, I decided to include a separator video which adds suspense and realism by asking real life questions that we are not likely to think about. The theme is indicated through this section which is of a bluish-greyish nature instead of black and white which shows that life is not simply black and white. Blue and grey represents the range of emotions that the characters in his Bob’s life undergo upon hearing the news of his death. Blue also represents hope and shows that life eventually does return to normal which is shown by the relatively busier background of the "About" section. In the comic book section, I used a hard cover book instead of usual soft cover to depict its significance as it narrates the story of an individual’s treasured life. There is a blinking lamp right behind the book which not only spotlights the book but also portray the fleetingness of life and how it could end in a blink. Each comic can be clicked on which produces the ambience sound of that place. This interactivity helps the user to immerse themselves into a comic and gives the website a more realistic feel than a simple physical book. Underneath the comic book, there is a “About” and “Team” section which gives the user a bit more detail about what the website is about and the team behind it.
Reflection/Evaluation: I believe that the end product did turn out to nicely complement our initial idea and storyline. However, there were some major changes in my design as compared to what I had designed in my wireframe. I noticed that my initial layout did not really bring about the theme of my website so I changed the colours from red and gold to blue and grey. I learned that sometimes there is a discrepancy between what we imagine/plan and how the execution of that idea turns out to be. Through this process, I am now convinced that leaning is a continuous process that is perfected through trial and error. Furthermore, I also learned how to navigate through the challenges of implementing a JavaScript library. Although I made use of a JavaScript Library to implement the book idea to present the comic strip, I had to edit the entire code to fit my requirement. While editing the code, I learned to navigate my way through external libraries and consistently doing so also allowed to me fully comprehend and absorb the details and functionality of this library code. Lastly, working in a team, I have learnt a lot of patience as well. When you have set a timeline for yourself to work accordingly you have to learn to be flexible in the case that the deliverables by the teammates are not on time. Improvising is another thing that I learnt because if there is lack of time and there is unfinished work left, we have to be very efficient and proactive to ensure that the deadline is met while the quality of the task in hand is not compromised. Overall, I feel the goals were met and an overall theme was created which brought about the comics and storyline effectively.