Show Project Presentation

Show project presentation

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Facebook Blog & Marketing

Here is the URL to our Facebook group of Detention Deficit. I have linked it to Twitter so all posts I make on this site will be shown on the Twitter profile as well.

Detention Deficit Facebook Page

Detention Deficit Twitter Page

I also have some of the test footage up, here is our Vimeo account. This shows our teaser trailer and this footage:

Detention Deficit Vimeo

Final Reflection

"Using your experiences on this project and relating your programmes to other webisodes you have researched, discuss how taking account of the online audience affects the process of showing creative work"

For our project I was asked to manufacture an internet micro-series. The choice to broadcast a show/film etc online rather than on television, exhibitions or other forms of media screening affects the production and creative process quite largely. Websites like YouTube and Vimeo have expanded the methods in which these shows can be broadcast. Videos now no longer have to conform to time constraints, or censored subject matter (as they would have to for television). Deadlines can be created and changed, however the production teams see fit. Uploading and distributing your product is completely free, making anyone with a video camera essentially a 'director'. 'Web 2.0' has completely changed the conventions of how people see media products. The limitations in place before were vast, now there is a way to screen whatever you wish to almost (and probably soon to be) the entire world.

Some media productions have grasped this concept and have used it to become popular, when without it they would never had succeeded. These include the shows I looked at around the beginning of the project such as; 'Chad Vader', 'We Need Girlfriends', 'The Guild' and others. All of these shows have taken this distribution power and used it to become more popular than many television shows. This shows the start of the internet taking over what and how we watch things. When these internet shows become more popular than all television media, television itself will become unnecessary and be made redundant.

Advertising (that was once expensive and time consuming) is now becoming free. Social networking sites are now promoting advertising as with Facebook you can now create groups -such as the ones I made for Detention Deficit - advertising products completely free. This is a useful tool when producing an internet show as when you upload something to YouTube, due to the sheer quantity of videos on the internet it is quite unlikely that ours would have got noticed without appropriate Facebook (and Blogger, Twitter) advertising. I used my friends to start the popularity of our show, this is a very new and interesting point when thinking about internet videos. It is often people close to the creators that are the first to see it, and spread the word, as they are the ones who will listen to us about our product. When they watch it, if they think it is good they will spread the news and that is often how internet virals get popular. Before the internet, only the best looking, highest budget shows would get a shot at being broadcast on television, and only the top ones of these would get advertising, using the internet has made things easy for those with less money.

One of the best examples of this Facebook marketing is the internet show (now) sponsored by Microsoft: The Guild. They have used this social network marketing scheme to advertise their show to viewers and possible new watchers. These social and sharing sites are now becoming more and more interlinked with each other. For my project I was able to link Detention Deficit's Facebook page with its Twitter page so that anything I posted on the prior, came up on the latter and vice versa.

This is a Facebook fan-page for The Guild, much like the one our group used when promoting Detention Deficit:

The below image is a prime example of integrating websites together and cross platforming. As you can see, there are adverts showing seasons of the show for sale on DVD. However, it also shows how they are now advertising the seasons for sale at the 'iTunes Store'. This is another example of internet domination, because the iTunes store is an online shop where you can download files directly to your computer rather than having to do go out and buy them.

Our group had a budget of £50 at the start of the project, without these various internet related free advertising methods I would never have been able to spread the word to people enough so that they actually watched our episodes. For example, advertising in newspapers or on television would have been far too expensive so these sites were the perfect way to present our product for free. Coming back to my point on the internet making things international if I had applied for an advertisement in a newspaper or on television, the public who would view it would all be local. By using internet methods I was able to broadcast information about our show to anywhere in the world that had an internet connections. As a result of this there were people viewing our show from Chile, Poland and the US as well as the bulk being from the UK.

Another advantage of internet marketing and viewing is it's much easier to view and analyze statistics. Where, when and who view our videos is instantly recorded and available for us to see. From the two images below I can clearly see that the most interest in our show is directed at episode two, followed closely by episode three. Considering the next two most popular videos are the third teaser trailer and the preview for the third episode this shows that episode one was not so popular, suggesting that my videos got better (and more popular) the more I produced. This goes alongside the clever program on YouTube that tracks what people watch after they watch a particular video. This creates a 'related video' section and allows all of the videos to be interlinked.

These websites are not only a good way of obtaining statistics, but also user feedback. Each one has a comments section in which viewers can add their own feedback as to what they thought of our show. This is one of the most revolutionary things about the internet. Where as TV shows may have phone lines in which people may leave their feedback, this would generally only attract a certain type of audience (and generally good comments). The internet makes this easier and as the commenter/feedback leaver feels completely detached from what they're writing (i.e. they aren't talking on the end of a phone, and the world can't hear their voice) they feel free to leave far more honest opinions. Also, the increased ease at which they can leave comments means there is a much wider variety of people stating their opinion.

I had restrictions on what I was allowed to put into my finished product. For example, I was told that I had to remove all swearing and offensive material from the show due to some of our audience's ages being too young, but the internet has such a wide variety of communities that whatever I had put up would have found an audience. This removes the boundaries I would have to have followed if I were putting our product on television.

The ability to show work online and produce whatever you want will unlock unlimited possibilities for the media industry. It is already possible to see this happening, with some socially unacceptable/shocking websites that are now common knowledge. The internet is revolutionising the way we see media.

Fan Locations

Here is an image showing the numbers of fans in different locations taken from the Facebook logging system for our fan page:

It is interesting to see that Detention Deficit has fans not only in the UK, but in Chile, Poland and the US. Of course, our largest fan base is in the UK, as it is a UK product.

This suggests that by word of mouth our show has spread to other countries. Our most popular cities are Cambridge, Milton Keynes and London. I found Milton Keynes to be a strange town for us to have so many subscribers. It isn't exactly close, and doesn't have nearly as many people as London (where there are bound to be some subscribers).

Executive Producer Interview Transcript

Are you happy with the three episodes of the micro-series we have made for you?

I am happy with the improved quality throughout the three episodes, however I am very dissapointed by your lack of ability to keep to deadlines. This would have caused a number of serious issues were this a commercial brief. The episodes were too long as well. The third episode was the right length.

After interviewing members of the audeince, they said that they liked the second episodes length which was 4:30. they said that episode three was too short. What are your thoughts on that?

I'm glad that the audience responded well to the length but i still believe that it could have been shorter. On television there's a specific slot for a series. If the slot was 30 minutes, the episode couldn't have been any longer. I suppose online it's different because you don't have the specific time gaps.

Do you like the idea of the series, the fact that it's in a detention room?

I think the concept is very strong and I have been very excited by the idea from the beginning. I feel the first episode did not do justice to the concept but the last episode has a much stronger appeal.

What didn't you like about the series?

The bad language and needless aggression in the first episode. I liked the fact that you changed the offensive language into more inventive expressions of rage for the other episodes.

What did you like about the series?

The title sequence is very good, both in terms of genre conventions and technical ability. The whip cutting was very effective. I enjoyed the more surreal elements of the third episode as well.

What did you think of the characters, and the acting?

I thought Matt Hornby's performance and character consistently amusing. The other acting improved over time.

We missed deadlines and the lengths of the episodes you werent happy with either, but what could we have done better?

Communication should have been stronger and you should have looked out for each other more to ensure everything was completed to the deadline as well as to a high enough standard.

If we made a fourth episode, what would you like us to include, and how would you like us to go about it?

Continue in the slightly surreal, mighty-boosh like direction you have begun to take on in the third episode.

Interview Questions with Executive Producer

We are also going to interview our Executive Producer (the teacher) to see how they have responded to our project.

Are you happy with the three episodes of the micro-series we have made for you?

Do you like the idea of the series and the fact that it is in a detention room?

What did you not like about the series?

What did you like about the series?

What did you think of the characters, and the acting?

We missed deadlines and the lengths of the episodes you werent happy with either, but what could we have done better?

If we made a fourth episode, what would you like us to include, and how would you like us to go about it?

Thursday 4th Interviews

Today I filmed a focus group (Two males, two females) of people who had just watched the first three episodes of our web series. James sat down and interviewed them for around fifteen minutes and they were able to give feedback. I spent the lesson filming this and editing the footage, that I will finish tomorrow. It was useful to see at three of them had no involvement with the project so therefore had completely un-bias views and opinions. The other person in the group was someone from the rival production company, so it's possible that they have given their views from a harsher perspective. Here is a transcript I wrote of the interview:

INTERVIEWER: What are you initial thoughts and feelings of the micro-series?

It was comedy, and it was one of those things that you could watch again because its not bad bad, but its kind of bad good. Like, it knows it's bad, but it makes it good. Like with the editing and stuff.

They developed, the characters, as it went on. I thought the second episode was better than the first, and the 3rd one. There was a lot more comedy and action to it.

I think the girl should have been in it more because she was just there and she didn't really do anything.

I think the first one focused more on the development of the characters. Just introducing them separately. Then the second one had a story base, and then the third one is just kind of random. It was just trippy and 'getting high' for no apparant reason until the end.

INTERVIEWER: What do you think of the characters and their interactions?

Josh's character (Chris): It might have been the shot type, but it just felt like he had been pasted in there.

INTERVIEWER: The idea was that the characters in each episode didn't really notice he was there because he was kind of in the back of the room.

I really liked Keith's character. But I didn't really like the girls character, but thats because she didn't really do much. But my favourite character is keith, and I liked Sonny, and Pier. They're probably joint second.

You had a good range of characters, and they weren't the same or anything which was good.

And they were really different which was good.

INTERVIEWER: Do you prefer the first, second or third episode and why?

The second one, because it didn't have all the hassle of the first one and the third one was just a bit confusing.

INTERVIEWER: Do you think it worked though?

I think the effect was to confuse the audience which worked, but it was just a bit weird and random. In terms of story-line.

INTERVIEWER: So did you prefer the second one?

I did prefer the second one but I got what was happening in the third one.

I prefered the second one. I though the first episode was too long and the thrid one was too short.

INTERVIEWER: Was the episode structure for the second and third episodes better than the first?

It flowed better than the first one.

INTERVIEWER: What do you think of the fan page on Facebook?

I havent seen a lot of it so far but from what I've seen i think it's good. I like the idea of posting things from the characters perspectives.

Yes, it gives you more of an insight into the characters.

I like the fan page, it's quite simple, but effective. It does keep it interesting, like you said about the characters posting things. It keeps the background story going for the web-series.

INTERVIEWER: The target audience was people our age. 16-21. Do you think Facebook is a good place for a fan page?

Yeah, definitely.

INTERVIEWER: Do you all have facebook?

(All four) Yes

INTERVIEWER: What do you think could be improved for the next episode if we made one?

Development of the second episode.

I think you should cut out the swearing because it's just like a beep a minute. I know it was just in the first one but it was just like beep after beep after beep.

I'd quite like the same setting as the second one, but with a different story-line and different characters.

Maybe have one or two main characters, and then rotate the other characters around. So you get to see the old characters, like the audience favourites, but then you get to see their new reactions with the new characters.

INTERVIEWER: What are the good and bad points of the episodes? Let's start with the first one...

It was too long, and too much swearing. The good points were that it managed to establish a good base for the episodes to start on, and it wasn't too tiresome that you couldn't watch it again.

I think the first one introduced the characters well. There was too much swearing though, it was just beep, beep, beep.

I think you focus the humour too much on Keith going crazy at the beginning. Apart from the Frijj bit which was really funny. Good word play, but I found that there were the two funny bits, you need to stretch the comedy out. I found myself waiting the whole episode for the Frijj joke. There should be more.

INTERVIEWER: What about the second one?

I really liked the second one. It was funny and it had a good story.

I liked it too, and throughout all three of the episodes, the characters managed to stay the same which was good. Sometimes in television series the characters change. They're nice one time and then they're really horrible the next but your characters didn't change.

The only bad point was when you looked at the camera and when the teacher was at the door. But every time I see that it makes me laugh anyway.

INTERVIEWER: What about the third one then?

It was too short, I got the idea you were trying to create an element of confusion but it kind of gave it away a bit with the title so maybe something a little bit more criptic could have worked better.

I didn't like the teachers acting. She was smiling too much about the fact that theres been a gas leak.

INTERVIEWER: Who is your favourite character?

I'd have to say Sonny, your character. it just made me laugh the way he kept hitting people. It was just one of those things I, personally, found hilarious.

Little things please little minds...[Laughs]

I just really liked your reactions.

I liked Keith.

I liked the one who kept trying to escape, Pier.

INTERVIEWER: Did you think the acting was good?

I think the acting was good for all the characters.

INTERVIEWER: What did you think of vince as a character?

It felt as if he was just stuck on there to fill screen time because he kind of just sat there and said something every now and then.

I think he's one of those characters that doesn't really do or say much but hes a part of it. And makes the whole thing whole.

INTERVIEWER: What makes the micro-series watchable?

Humour, slapstick humour. Nonsense really. Silly stuff.

The comedic stuff. The way it was random, but good random.

It was just really funny.

Script for Episode Three

Here is the script for the first episode of Detention Deficit, written by James Walker:

Detention Deficit - Episode Three 'Gas Leak' Script

Pier and Sonny walk in, arguing

Pier: Why are you always getting at me? You're always around me. Where is the pen? Vince! (Pause) You're always, like, getting at me. I just cant stand it, the one time...

Sonny: (Interrupts) Well, think of a desent plan then and i'll stop getting at you.

Pier: I just cant think of a plan, like, what the hell? (Looks at Keith, sitting across table)

Sonny: You're such a vegetarian.

Shot of Keith looking really 'out of it'. Sonny and Pier stare at him, unable to figure out whats up with him. Vince goes to see if he's okay.

Vince: What seems to be the matter Keith?

Keith: I have eaten a rare Amazonian coffee bean. (Talks in voice reminiscent of computer voice such as Microsoft Sam. Sticks head up while talking and then continues looking around the room)

Vince: Aah, I see where you're going.

Shot of Vince is from Keith's perspective. Everything is colourful, wavy and 'morphing'.

Sonny: What are you two talking about?

Pier: Yeah, what are you two talking about?

Vince and Keith are talking in gibberish and Sonny and Pier can't make out what they are saying.

Sonny: Am I missing something here?

Pier and Sonny look confused at eachother and then continue looking at Vince and Keith. Damien walks through the door

Damien: Alright guys?

Keith: Aah, Cheif! (Rubs face paint on his face to look like a red indian. The face paint magically appears with no explanation of why it is there) Get this spirit out of me!

The next shot is of Damien but he looks like cheif from 'One Flew Over the Kookoo's Nest'

Fade Out

The next scene is where everyone is forming around Keith. Keith is lying on the table in the middle of the class chanting something. Damien transorms into cheif again. Pier is sitting on a table with sonny lying on him.

Pier: Sonny, do you remember the other day, when, when we were locked in the classroom and I tried to get out the door, and you...

Sonny interrupts, friendly, laughing

Sonny: I smashed your head, I smashed your head!

Pier, laughing too

Pier: You smashed my head!

Sonny and Pier laugh hysterically

Next scene everyone is dancing round Keith like a ritual is being performed. All of the characters have changed their appearance. Clothes torn, swapped clothes etc.

After a while a teacher walks in the door looking worried

Teacher: Oh my God, are you alright!? I can't believe you're still alive.

Everyone stops dancing and everyone looks normal again though their appearance is the same. They look a mess.

Teacher: There's been a massive gas leak...

Pier and Keith collapse due to the gas they've been breathing in.

Fade Out

End Credits

Lesson Plan Thursday 4th February

Today I am going to be conducting interviews to a small audience that will watch all three episodes of our micro-series. It is important that by the end of the day I have a transcript of the interview. Therefore, I can't make it too long as the time constraints would make it impossible to get it finished. I have also opted to film and edit the footage and hope to have it finished by the end of tomorrows lesson.

Here are the questions the interviewer will be asking:

1: What are your initial thoughts and feelings on the micro-series?
2: What do you think of the characters and their interactions?
3: Do you prefer the first, second or third episode, and why?

4: Was changing the episode structure for the second and third episodes a good idea?

5: Was it better than the first episode?

6: Do you think the episode lengths are suitable for a micro-series?
7: What do you think of the fan page?

8: Was Facebook a suitable place for it to be situated?

9: If we made one, what do you think could be improved for the next episode?
10: What are the good and bad points of each episode?
11: Who is your favourite character?
12: What makes this micro-series watchable?

Fan Update Wednesday February 3rd 2010

Last Week's Toll: 112 Fans

Today's Toll: 205 Fans

Product Accessibility

In class I found out that if you type in the name of my webisode (Detention Deficit) into Google, it will come up brilliantly with our main advertising pages. This was a great success. Here is an image of what comes up:

The order they come up in is perfect. The first one is our Facebook fan-page. It is also the source of all of our information and input about the show. It is the first place I would like people to go when they hear about us. It also directs the audience to the episodes. This can be problematic when they watch the episodes through Facebook as it doesn't let the view count go up on the Vimeo videos, but it is a quick way to show the audience what Detention Deficit has to offer.

The second link is our Vimeo account. Perfect for someone just discovering our show. Our first and original material is on the Vimeo so it will give them a great introduction into our web series. It's also the location for all of the extra footage such as interviews, gag reels etc.

Although YouTube would have been a better third link, I was still happy to see that the third link was to our Twitter page. Although not vital, it does help to have people looking at it who have a preference to Twitter over Facebook. Both of these two sites are linked up however, so whatever I post on one, will go on the other.

The next thing I can try and do is to get the YouTube and Blogger accounts showing up under these links.

The Target Audience

My original concept for the target audience was 15-21 year olds. Appealing to an audience that is within my age range means I can appeal to their lifestyle as we share a similar one. The humour of my show was subsequently directly aimed at this age of people. My show has turned out to appeal more to a male audience than a female one. This could be to do with the humour but is most likely to be because 80% of my lead cast is male. Males (at least from my studies) are also more likely to be the ones browsing YouTube for lengthy periods of time. This would make them more likely to come across our show by chance.

Detention Deficit's fan-base is on Facebook mostly. This again reinforces my idea for the target age, as the target age (of 15-21 year olds) make up the majority of the people that populate Facebook.

Target audience character profile:

18 years old

Likes media, and is interested in Media Studies

Often spends time browsing the internet

Enjoys a wide variety of music, however often listens to rock and pop

Attends college, gets the bus

Often uses YouTube as a distraction when working

Bad Time Scheduling

The end result for our deadlines was not good. It looked like this:

EPISODE 1: episode late but all model release forms signed before airing
EPISODE 2: deadline met but model release forms not signed
EPISODE 3: episode unfinished and model release forms not signed

I believe one of the reasons for this is that, as I had to film in college grounds it was very difficult to find an appropriate room to film in. Even when I followed the college procedure and booked a room properly my group and I still got kicked out. This happened several times, this greatly reduced our chances of getting the filming and editing done for the deadline. It was very irritating how even when I followed the proper procedure and tried to book a room due to bad communication from the college I wasn't able to film.

When I had almost finished filming I unfortunately often had to leave one person behind to finish editing and uploading the footage after college. This was again problematic as that person wasn't always aware of the features required when uploading and editing the videos. For example, one episode (episode three) was uploaded on time, but there was no intro or title sequence and the effects weren't finished. This is down to bad communication on the part of our group. My group and I haven't been able to clearly liaise with each other so that all of the problems were met. I should have arranged more efficiently how I would contribute to the finishing touches and getting them finished in time for the deadline.

Episodes Two and Three

Detention Deficit, Episode Two - Trapped

Detention Deficit, Episode Three - Gas Leak

Trailers for Detention Deficit

Detention Deficit Teaser Trailer from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

This was the first teaser trailer I made. It is also the least imaginative. It was filmed in one location and there are no cuts. However, at this point Detention Deficit didn't have a cast so I wasn't able to have any characters in it.

Detention Deficit Teaser 2 from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

This is the second teaser trailer. This is the slapstick one out of all of them. I used good cutting along with continuity and humour to make this enjoyable to watch and enticing to an audience.

This trailer was more for those who have been following our episodes (and preferably those who have been following the opposing group; Lines' videos as well) and know the theme songs for both. Like episode two it follows the same quick cutting technique. As you can see I had by now started to use YouTube more, hence why the video is now hosted by it.

I actually had nothing to do with the making of this teaser trailer, however I can see that Matt and Hayden were focusing on the intrigue side of attracting attention when making this video for episode 3.

Tuesday 2nd February Show Project Meeting

Today I wrote up all of the feedback I was given by the class the day before. I used a system where if a comment occurred more than once, I would put a 'x2', 'x3' next to it. This allowed me to clearly see what I was doing right, and wrong based on the classes opinions. I put the notes into two sections, Negative and Positive. This post can be seen below.

Episode Two Class Feedback

Here is the class feedback our group got of episode two of Detention Deficit:

Negative:

- Background sound needed at the start x3

- Dull

- Tries too hard to be funny, just makes it worse x2

- Keith totally unbelievable x2

- Not much story-line

- Continuity not good - Different rooms etc. x2

- Acting still poor x2

- Ignored advice for different actors

- Ending dull

- Mindless violence - Not needed x3

- Sound is fuzzy x3

- Episode is still too long

- Character Chris is unexplained x2

- Shot cut mid-sentence

- Hayden's character [Keith] is laughing in a shot - Out of character

- Shots of Hayden don't flow x2

- Hayden's character is 'just annoying'

- Close up of James doesn't work x5

- Nearly all of the shots are mid-shots, needs more variation

- The Trapped title is too short

- Over confident acting

- Last shot doesn't work as well as intended

- Didn't explain scene change

- Foot breaking not believable

- Amy could act better

- Sounds are a bit off at times x2

- Looked at the camera

- Teacher at the end is strange x2

- Spelling of character's names is inconsistent

- Character interactions are good

- Too long considering the 90 second rule x2

- Alexander/James scene too long

- "For who?" line too over reacted

- Foot break SFX was off

- Audio doesn't 'fit in'

- Script not quite tight enough, should be 'laugh every two seconds'

- Just kids being stupid

Positive:

- Title sequence good

- Chris is a good new character x2

- Matt's character [Vince] is awesome

- Improved episode length to last episode

- Better setting to last episode x2

- Alexander's character [Pier] is a lot better this time

- Cuts are good

- Good story-line

- Teacher seen at the door at the end, works well, adds to the comedy

- Better script to last episode x2

- Better camera work and cinematography x3

- No swearing makes it much better

- Fast and slow cuts

- More lines and interaction

- Better than episode one by far

- Acting is great x2

- Abusive terms are witty

- Colours on the wall are good

- Matt's acting is very good

- Editing was good with better fades and transitions

- False punch is good

Graph Analysis and Channel Views

Click image to enlarge.

The top graph here shows the total interactions between the audience and our blog since January 10th. The blue line shows all interactions between people and my blog, yellow shows qualitative feedback left by people (Comments), green shows the posts made on the wall of the fan page and purple shows the time and how many people 'liked' (a Facebook application that allows people to show appreciation for a certain post) different posts.

The bottom graph shows the increase in Fans who have subscribed to our fan page since January 9th (with the blue line). The yellow line at the bottom shows people who have unsubscribed from our page. Only one person has unsubscribed so far, and considering it was a member of the opposition production company I'm not at all worried about people getting bored.

Episode Two Consumer Feedback

Click on the image to enlarge.

This picture shows some of the comments left on our Facebook page relating to our second episode. Already this shows more interest than in the first episode as the feedback to that was far more limited and people weren't nearly as willing or bothered to comment and leave their opinions about our show. The new episode was posted with a link through YouTube this time, so every view should count towards our overall toll.

Episode Two YouTube Use

Our group only uploaded our first episode on Vimeo. The upload team thought it would be more effective as the quality of videos on Vimeo is often better. However, I decided that everything else should go on YouTube for these reasons:

It is very difficult (if not impossible) to record accurate audience feedback when looking at Vimeo. For a start, when the video is watched via Facebook, it does not add to the view count on the stats on Vimeo, meaning that the number of views that can be seen on the page, is actually much less than the real number of times people have watched the episode. The same can not be said for YouTube.

YouTube has far more users. This means that uploading a video will instantly make it available for a much larger number of people to view it, getting us more views and feedback.

Monday 1st February Filming

Today our class hard to work very hard. I had between 9:00am and 7:00pm to get the whole third episode filmed, edited, and uploaded. I filmed at Colleridge school, and I was happy to see that the crew knew, understood and had made appropriate preparations for their role. Then I started shooting at around 11:00am and was finished and ready to upload by 12:20pm. No problems, a couple of disputes about what to shoot, but this was only because of the severe time shortage. I can confidently say that my group has all become much better at collaborating with each other, and as a team since my group started the project. I have to commend Loz as his camera work and handling today was brilliant. He made it look professional whilst holding a boom pole and mic at the same time. Best camerawork for the group so far. I really appreciate the improvement it made to the look and feel of the video.

Since this was our last assessed video my group all decided to make it very strange, to try and gather a new audience as well as giving some variety to the videos our group produce. As a result the video is very strange and completely different to any of the ones I have done before. Filming was fun, as I learnt my lines before hand (as did everyone else, since there was no time to waste) meaning we were able to keep filming for much longer without stopping to re-set up a shot.

Looking back and seeing the difficulties I had when I started, and then seeing how far I've come. Things that troubled me when we shot our first episode are simply second nature to me. All of our roles within the project were clearly defined by today, and I came off a lot better because of it.

When my group had finished we took the camera between us to Long Road and started uploading the footage. My group and I all gathered around the upload screen and gave our opinions on what to do with the footage to the editors. When the footage had uploaded, I left the editors to work on the footage. I went straight to our fan pages and started making posts about the filming.

When college ended I wanted to stay and help Hayden finish editing the footage but unfortunately I had to go. I rang him much later on to see how things were and was amazed to find he was still at college, working on the project.

Friday 29th Editing

Today I edited the teaser trailer Hayden and I had filmed the day before. I unfortunately found out the the sound hadn't recorded properly and I had to dub the trailer with a voiceover. Other than this all went fine, but I still need to get the rights to use the other groups theme song in my trailer so I can upload it.

Thursday 28th Film Shoot

Todays film shoot went fantastically. We were able to find a classroom (after yet again, a ridiculous amount of hassle, involving about six different classrooms), and get a whole episode filmed with minimal trouble. I think that my group worked better as a team in this lesson than we ever have done before. As a result of this improved collaboration the show was able to look, sound and feel better than before.

I was much more comfortable this time around and I believe that as a group we were all much more comfortable working together as actors as well so this allowed me to loosen up more than episode one and really bring out better sides to my acting. I also got a chance to use the boom mic properly since the last time the group tried to use it, I got (along with my group) kicked out of the room and weren't able to film, then the next time we filmed the boom mic wasn't available.

It wasn't just the filming that went perfectly though. We had appointed Loz as the new editor, and nobody else was allowed to interfere with him while he was editing or to add 'creative input' so the second the group got back to the classroom I uploaded the footage and left him to .

Meanwhile Hayden and I tried to sort out making a third teaser trailer. Due to strict executive decisions we had to get a very large amount of work done in a very short space of time. Before I could film, my group had to get a storyboard, a shot list, write up a HD camera request, re-write a (very long) risk assessment, film, and get it all uploaded. Our group had about 45 minutes to do this. Even though I managed to get all of my jobs done, our first concept (and storyboard) was shot down for being offensive because it referred to a student doing the obvious misconception of the other groups' title (Lines).

However, we quickly managed to redo the storyboard to make it suitable and were allowed to film. We did this quickly and efficiently and managed to get back to the classroom to upload.

Here are some images of our whole group filming episode two:

Word Art & Summary of My Blog

HD Camera Request

Here is an image of a request for an HD camera that I wrote for Philippa before we filmed. Having done a countless number of these herself I felt I should take on a bit of responsibility for the production work and write one myself. In the lesson on Wednesday (28th) Nick elected me producer. So it is also now my job to make sure all of the paperwork has been handed in on time.

Thursday 28th Lesson Plan

Today we are filming the second episode of our web series. I'm interested to see how the writing team have changed the script in style and comedy, and hoping that this script is better than the last. Hayden and I are now cinematographers, I hope this will improve things so that we can now get a better looking, more professional series. With the new addition of the boom mic I have high expectations.

Wednesday 27th Rehearsing

Today our group reviewed the lines for the episode we will be filming tomorrow. It was good to work with everyone properly and professionally and allowed me to experiment with different ways of saying my character's lines. It also allowed me to learn them better whilst working with my group so our next shoot should be more professional. It's just a shame that all of our cast couldn't be there to rehearse.

Lesson Plan Wednesday 27th

Today we are going to rehearse our lines for filming tomorrow.

Script for Episode Two

Here is the script for the first episode of Detention Deficit, written by James Walker:

Detention Deficit - Episode Two ‘Trapped’ Script

Starts off with everyone sitting down at their desks, Sonny starts talking to Keith

Sonny: keith. we’ve been sitting here for 15 minutes now. why haven’t you annoyed me yet?

Keith: (looks frustrated with sonny) I'm pacing myself

Sonny: so, you’re going to annoy me in a little while instead

Keith: no. you ignoranus

Sonny: (laughs)

Vince and valerie start talking over sonny laughing

Vince: what did you call him?

Valerie: ignoranus, what the hell have you been smoking in your crack pipe.

Sonny: crack (continues laughing)

Pier: guys, i’ve nailed it. i have nailed it (bangs book on desk)

Keith: sorry, but am i going completely mad? (raises voice)

Valerie: going?

Sonny: you’ve been a patient at the fucking luni-bin for a while mate

Keith: can i just explain how im pacing my. fucking self

Sonny: well, it happens

Pier: what

Sonny: he’s annoying me again

Keith: fuck you guys

Pause for a while

Vince: enlighten me keith

Keith: i’ve left my redbull outside the door. so i’m only allowed some every 30 minutes. it should help me sleep. hence, why i’m pacing myself.

Everyone stares at him

Vince: you didn’t enlighten me

Chris: really. (everyone stares) how’s it working out for you. that’s a good idea. good little system. pacing yourself. i do the same for when i play guitar. i don’t want to overwork myself, you know.

Everyone continues staring, silence

Sonny: Who. The. Fuck. Are you? (Shocked face)

Chris: I’m Chris, pleased to meet you.

Valerie: why are you in detention then, did you kiss the teachers arse too much

Pier: you do seem the type that would stay out, if i’m honest

Chris: i chewed gum in class.

Vince: i’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe

Pause

Sonny: wrong moment vince

Vince: sorry

Pier: (speaking to chris) is that all

Chris: yeh, nothing really bad. why you in detention then?

Pier: if i told you, i’d have to kill you

Fade out

Keith and chris are sitting together

Keith: thanks for thinking my idea was good by the way. these guys don’t appreciate me.

Chris: that’s alright. actually. it’s half past now. you want me to go get your red bull from outside?

Keith: (excited voice, slightly nagging) oh yes please. that’d be great. (laughs) if i didn’t have that. i’d probably los the plot. have an axiety attack or something.

Chris: that’s okay, i’ll go get it

Chris goes to open door, but it doesn’t open

Chris: uh, guys. the door isn’t opening

Keith: What!? (loud, going out of control)

Keith starts having an axiety attack, shaking his shoulders. sonny walks up to him and punches him in the face. he falls onto his chair.

Sonny: i am not going through that shit again

Valerie: the less of that the better

Sonny: Don’t talk to me.

Valerie: Screw you sonny!

Chris: What the hell is wrong with you?

Sonny: trust me, you’ll thank me later

Vince: he is a crazy, moonstruck hound junkie. he needs to be controlled

Pier: (Talks to Chris) Did you say the doors locked?

Chris: Why else would hound junkie have gone fucking mental

Sonny: you’re learning

Pier: so, i’m trapped here? (looks worried)

Chris: yes. we all are

Sonny: that’s alright, pier will think of a plan

Pier: (awkward laugh) yeh. sure. i’ll think of something

Valerie: what. is your mind blank?

Vince: what about your amazing idea earlier

Pier: i’ll think of another one. that plan isn’t well suited for this type of escape

Sonny: type of escape...(interrupts)

Pier: stay the fuck out of this sonny. i’ll think of a plan. just give me a minute to gather my thoughts.

Fade out.

Fades in - 20 minutes later

Chris: it’s been ages. a teacher hasn’t even come and checked up on us.

Sonny: they don’t. teachers. they’re quite happy to just leave us here to rot. we’re trash to them. we’re the ones who fuck the system. and when your in here, your trash too.

Chris: i’m not trash, i’m a good student.

Valerie: no your not. you’re a fucking criminal.

Vince: i don’t see what’s so special about rugby balls anyway. wilson this and wilson that. basket balls are better. i could have a good conversation with a basket ball

Everyone looks over at Vince

Chris: what are you talking about?

Vince: when we’ve been driven to madness. i wanna know who my best friend will be

Chris: and you chose a basket ball?

Vince: Yeah.

Sonny: suppose they got a nice tan. just don’t impregnate it, might have loadsa golf balls rolling about.

Vince: you don’t understand. you’re not ready for the truth

Chris: i need to get out of here, any plan yet?

Pier: i can’t think. i’m lost. i’m lost.( hangs his head in shame, crying)

Sonny: every single fucking day, you think of a plan to escape. every. single, fucking day. are you telling me that the one day we need to a plan, you can’t think of one?

Pier: i’m sorry (wails) i’m lost

Sonny: you can do it, think

Pier: i can’t

Sonny: yes you can. ( stands up and grabs piers head) use your head!

Rams Pier's head into the door

Valerie: great. now what?

Chris: we’re trapped

Sonny: fuck sake, stand back, i’ll get the door open

Sonny kicks the door really hard, nothing happens

Chris: we’re screwed.

Pier: (wakes back up) uh, what happened

Sonny: call a doctor

Pier: sonny, i’m fine, just got a fucking bad headache.

Chris: not surprised ( murmurs)

Sonny: not for you dipshit

Valerie/chris: who

Sonny: for me. i think i’ve just broken my leg

End Credits

Detention Deficit Second Teaser Trailer

Detention Deficit Teaser 2 from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

Class Feedback of Episode One

Positive:

Good Opening Sequence x 2
Good establishing shots x 2
Good sound track
Milk shake shot good
Confident Characters
Well acted in places x 3
Good range of shots

Negative:

Tried way to hard to be funny
Girl isn't good actor
James way too extreme
Sound level not the same
Out side shot - flashback - needs to be clearer
Shots when characters look into camera don't work
Music cuts too quick
Way too long x 2
Too much swearing x 3
Not bleeped properly x 3
Alex's character changes too much
Shots look studenty
Should close up on cans
Too angry
Flashback too repetitive
Nobody does detention in a computer room
Characters kinda dull
Credits too fast
Door scene does not make sense x 2
Pier isn't French enough
Too much fade out
Music too loud made them jump x 2
Unrealistic Characters

Monday 25th Show Project Meeting

Today we were told that we had more time than we previously thought to complete our episodes. This was a great relief to our group as we simply couldn't see how we were going to get the second episode finished in time for the current deadline. The condition of this was that we had to produce another teaser trailer for the episode. We instantly went about making this trailer and worked better, faster and more effectively than we ever have before. In the space of about two hours we produced something that I think has the wit and charisma of our whole first episode.

I have also now made us a YouTube account so that we don't always publish on Vimeo. YouTube is a far more popular site and it also means that anything we publish on our Facebook/Twitter pages will count towards our view toll (which didn't happen with Vimeo).

Episode One Censored

Detention Deficit: Episode ONE from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

Friday 22nd Finalising

Today we finished the first episode of our miniseries and put it up on Vimeo, along with updating our Facebook and Twitter advertising as such. In the lesson I edited the footage to a finished state and then Hayden placed effects over it to make it less rough and more aesthetically pleasing.

Unfortunately due to previous arrangements I had to leave before Hayden had completely finished and never got a chance to double check the censored version of the video. I had already edited the title sequence so that it covered up the swearwords on the books. However I was saddened to see that Hayden had accidentally missed a couple of curses when editing and hadn't bleeped them.

During the editing of the episode Hayden and I wanted to add bad techno music at the point where Hayden's character (Keith) starts to rant at James's character (Sonny) towards the camera. We thought that this would emphasise his hyperactivity and aggression towards Sonny. We got the idea for this from the TV show 'Spaced' where the character Tires does the same thing. However, even though I thought that it would make the episode a lot more effective James didn't like it, since he was the director we couldn't use this method. However I still feel it would have added much better value to the episode.

Project Summary

When we started the project we were all allocated different roles. It was a whole class project, and everybody had their own individual role to play. Generally each person had one job. I was chairman, along-side Tim. We were chosen as these roles by a whole class voting nomination. This voting system played a big part in the first couple of lessons. We chaired the class using order, we all came up with ideas and gave input and tried hard to make sure everyone has their say. Unfortunately some people are not willing to voice their concerns in front of the whole class as much as others. Due to this some people were inevitably left with their wishes not met.

After only two days of having class meetings like this the teachers decided to split the whole class up in to two groups (or 'production companies') each of these group was set the task of creating their own mini-series and using the other group as motivational competition. At first I was very skeptical about this as I found that we were working together well beforehand, and felt that even though things weren't going perfectly I was learning from all things that went wrong and was able to adapt due to knowing my mistakes. I also felt a bit cheated out of my chairman position, I felt that I had been elected by the class, therefore I had a job to do and when they took that away I felt I hadn't yet given it all I could offer.

However, I quickly came around to the idea of this 'two group' project. I found that it enforced the necessity to work everyone to their hardest, almost doubling the workload for each person. What happened in the whole class project where everyone had only one or maybe two roles, became each person having at least two, and often more. This was worsened by the fact that our group was actually the smaller of the two groups, and the other group had two people more than us.

We quickly set about working together efficiently, making a 'Blogger' website to post information and work about our show. Hayden went about customising and editing this to suit the atmosphere of the show. Subsequently we made Twitter, Facebook and Vimeo accounts as a increasing marketing campaign. The whole group worked on these but they were mainly designed by Hayden and myself. By this point in the project we had scrapped the 'chairman' leadership and had opted for an equality approach.

James wrote the script almost single-handedly whilst Matt H designed the title sequence and we voted Phillippa as Production Manager, which induced a lot of paperwork on her part that I did my best to help her out with when not too busy with other jobs.

Eventually we were given a deadline and we organised ourselves a filming shoot. We shot the first episode, our teamwork was very good when filming, despite some disputes about trivial things we worked perfectly as a team. The only let down was when we were interrupted by a teacher and sent out of the room, despite having checked and rechecked our booking of that room. It wasn't our fault but it was a good learning experience that it is very difficult to rely on information acquired from third parties (in this case, Reception).

After filming we set to editing, I edited most of the footage whilst Hayden added effects such as beeps to the video to censor it and adding sounds and zooms to it. The most successful bit of our final cut of the video was actually the title sequence. It looks brilliant visually and the sound goes just brilliantly with it. So I take my hat off to Matt H and Philippa who designed, edited and got rights to the music for it.

As for the finished result I like it, but I still think that it feels far too 'studenty'. We need to tighten up the notches for the next episode, however this is growing ever more difficult as we are constantly being pressed for time, and being forced to squeeze out another episode rather than giving each one the time care (I think) it deserves.

Next is to log audience feedback...

Thursday 21st Editing

Today I have been editing the footage of the first episode of our show. It is coming along quite nicely, Hayden wasn't here for most of the day, so I got a chance to edit alone, it was quite refreshing to be able to edit alone, I edited the scene that introduces the character Vince, and the 'flashback scene'. I also printed out the last three Model Release Forms that I designed for Philippa the Production Manager.

Tomorrow I will have to finish editing the episode, I will have to work very quickly, but I am pretty sure I can finish it in time to release the pilot (at 7pm).

Detention Deficit Logo

Designed by Matthew Hornby

Wednesday 20th Editing

Today we spent the majority of the lesson editing footage, however before we did this each of our groups went into different rooms and wrote down the problems each was having with their group. We were told to discuss these between us, and come up with solutions to prevent them from continuing to be problems. Our group had the problems:

• We don't listen to each other enough.
• We don't trust each other enough.
• We need to have better group organisation.

And I decided we should:

• Stop dumping all the writing work on Philippa.

We came up with several ideas to overcome these problems, we decided that not listening, and having bad organisation were linked to each other, so we all made the choice to put in that extra effort when pitching ideas for everyone to listen to each other.

Trust is something that will have to be earned to be given, but as our group has been producing good work from every single member so far we didn't see this as being a large issue.

Finally, unless I am overcome with editing, like I often was today, I think it would be a good help for our team if I carried on assisting Philippa with the forms every now and then, to ease her workload as she does have many to write/fill out.

As for the editing, I am pleased to an extent as to where it is going. The things I am not too pleased about are how it is still looking very (for lack of a better word) 'studenty'. The quality just isn't cutting the high expectations I had, but I'm hoping with more clever editing we can make it look great. Editing is also a very time consuming process, for some, more than others. I am editing with Hayden, but I think sometimes we disagree a bit on the fact I would like to just get a basic edit finished, then go back and clean it up afterwards, where as he likes to touch things up as he goes along. A minor problem really as working together, things seem to be going just fine.

Finally, today we were also informed that we would have to change our series so that it is suitable for an 11+ audience. This caused immense frustration among our group, but I think was a tactic to imitate the demands of a real media company, suddenly changing their ideas.

Ways of going about this:

• Re-shoot footage.
• Dub footage.
• Replace inappropriate words with beeps/silences.
• Cut footage differently to remove scenes with swearing.

We will have to decide among our group tomorrow (probably with a vote) which one of these options we will be choosing.

Wednesday 20th Lesson Plan

Film sound effects for Final Cut editing.

Edit with Hayden to either finish, or get a good proportion of the editing done for episode one.

Update Facebook/Twitter.

Tuesday 19th Film Shoot & Meeting

Today we shot the leftover scenes that we needed to complete for our first episode. This included the scenes we didn't have time to complete last time, and the shots for the title sequence. We worked much faster today than before. Where as last time we were all working with our own ideas and complications, today we worked more as a 'unit'. We knew what we had to do before we did it, everyone had already stated their ideas and they had either been used or discarded, we had finished a shot-list and a quick story-board.

We had to shoot a scene where one of our actors had to role backwards off a bench. This could be quite dangerous so we took every precaution we could to make it as safe as possible for him. I acted as camera-man and cinematographer for our work today since our cameraman Joe was away today.

When back at the classroom I also heavily updated our Facebook and Twitter accounts. We were told that it is very important that in the time running up to the launch of our show that we constantly update and keep people interested. I added all of the test footage to the Facebook page and it's starting to look very full.

I am looking forward to editing tomorrow.

Filming Photos

James directing:

Joe operating the camera:

Me off camera talking to Joe:

Keith's caffeine crash:

Monday 18th Editing

Today Hayden and I started to edit the footage shot on thursday, whilst Loz, James and Matt H. continued to edit and cut our test footage. Editing was Hayden was good, we both put in an equal contribution to the work and worked our best to make it look good. By the end we had about thirty seconds done (good considering we didn't have the whole three hours to edit).

When editing we quite often came across problems, such as issues with making the timing comedic, etc. We solved these by working as a pair, when I couldn't work out how to fix something, Hayden could, and vice-versa. I enjoyed working with Hayden, he was never too controlling or possessive over use of the computer and openly allowed me to give my creative input.

The film is turning out to look really good, better than I thought it might. I had worries that it would look tacky, but the cinematography so far seems very good and makes the whole show come together. I'm looking forward to when I can edit some more.

Evaluation of Progress So Far

I think my blogging evidence so far has been very good. Every day the class has done work for the Show project I have written a blog entry about it, reminiscent of the style of a diary. I have been critical and complementary, but most of all, honest. As for the classwork, I have kept up to date with all tasks set.

The marketing of our product has gone very well so far. We have created pages for our product on a number of leading/popular websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Vimeo. As well as this we have been linking all of them together so that they interlink and combine together.

We even produced a small teaser trailer for our micro-series that I think was very effective and a good marketing idea. It consisted of the camera slowly zooming in on a door, quiet arguing slowly grows to loud shouting until the trailer climaxes and a chair hits the window before on the video fades to black and shows the name Detention Deficit.

As for the scripting and planning we organised ourselves into specific roles, where everyone gave input into every area. For example; James predominantly wrote the script, however we all gave input towards elements of the script. We have planned very well towards the shooting and I think when we actually did the filming, we were fully prepared. All I can hope is that we can step this up a notch for next time.

The shooting was rushed, due to us being kicked out of several rooms that we had booked and/or were told we could 'definitely use'. My only criticism of myself in this particular area of work was that I should have just listened to the director more and ignored what my own ideas about the show were until a time when we had time to debate them, and decide on a vote. This is also a good point that should be mentioned about planning, and something that could be improved for filming next time.

As for being 'on schedule' we are actually ahead of schedule at the moment. I am delighted at how effectively our group is working and how quickly we are doing so. I see our show being finished far ahead of schedule, giving us time to work on other aspects of the show.

Friday 15th Show Project Meeting

Today our group organised all of the paper work that we needed to verify what we had done. We printed out copies of the script and other things such as making sure all the model release forms had been completed. Now we have done this, our target for finishing our first episode is wednesday, ready for premiering it on thursday.

We worked well as a group today. The communication between us was good and we managed to get all of our lesson targets finished with everyone putting in a good amount of work.

My Character: Pier

In the show I play the character Pier. Pier is living his life with the aspiration of it being as dramatic and exciting as in films. Due to this he always comes out with ridiculous escape plans to be free of detention that can all simply be undermined by walking out of the door. He looks at himself as being like the characters from the films such as the great escape and frequently tries to get away with quoting the film the Shawshank Redemption.

The Great Escape:

The Shawshank Redemption:

His clothing resembles those used in the Great Escape. Leather jacket, long scarf etc. He is proud of what he does and has a love towards the subject physics, which he often uses in his schemes.