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.

Thursday 14th Film Shoot

Today we shot the first episode of our micro-series and uploaded it to the laptops.

Things didn't exactly go according to plan. Starting with the fact that even though we had booked a room, then double checked to make sure that we were allowed to use it. We were kicked out of our first room as it was being used for a class. Before then moving into another one. I arrived later than the director and a couple of others, but apparently they were moved repeatedly from more than one room. Even when we finally were allocated a room, people kept coming in and being noisy. When we asked the teacher why people were in there and that we had booked the room she didn't seem keen on listening.

Aside from the fact we were also rapidly running out of time (one of the many problems of having to film in a school/college environment), when we were filming there were many disputes about what to film. This was a mistake as in all fairness we (and more often than not, me) should have shut up and listened to what it was the director wanted us to to.

I feel that the filming went okay, but I would liked to have had more time to get the shots and location right. We had the perfect room at first, but due to bad communication (be it that we weren't at fault) and the fact we HAD to film something, we were forced into a room that didn't really fit the role and as a result our micro-series suffered. However, we did work very hard in the time and space that we had, and despite constant interruptions managed to to the best with what we had.

Project release forms:

For the project I had to print off model release forms. I did this for the Production Manager to ease her workload. We then went about getting people to sign off on the forms.

The result and most of the forms are shown below:

Shot List

For filming, my group had to write a list of the different shots we were going to use in the show. Hayden was elected to write the shot list as our cameraman was otherwise busy. Hayden has a good eye for cinematography however so I was happy to let him write it. The finished show list looked like this:

1) Very slow zoom out from Pier's eyes
2) Very slow zoom in to clock
3) Very slow zoom out from Keith rambling in Pier's ears
4) Keith and Pier, over the shoulder, Sonny in back ground
5) SAME SHOT
6) Sonny, over the shoulder shot at Keith and Pier
7) Sonny, right medium close shot
8) Keith, centre (First person point of view) shot
9) Keith, left side pencil case enters and camera shake
10) Keith, centre shot
11) Side shot, Keith with Pier
12) Side shot, Pier
13) Centre shot, Sonny
14) Centre shot of Keith

Wedensday 13th Show Project Meeting

Today I think our group followed the lesson plan brilliantly and I was very productive. I started by helping Hayden with editing ideas for the teaser trailer. I suggested that when the chair hits the door that it should then cut to black and in a 'Lost' show style. Also that the letters should move in a similar manner to the Lost logo as a sort of ironic humour, logo shown below:

I then went with my group and recorded the sound effects that were needed for the trailer. I gave input on what should be said in the argument going on in the trailer and the trailer includes my own voice starting and finishing it.

I updated the Twitter and Facebook using an idea I had in the lesson that was to have each new post written in the style of, and signed by one of the characters in the show.

I sorted out with the others what my character (either Pier or Keith) would be wearing in the show, and organised what everybody needed to have with them.

Near the end of the lesson the finished trailer was shown to me and although I liked it I thought that it could be improved, so I stayed on the computers for a little while after the lesson making my own version. It's essentially very similar to Hayden's and I've used most of his ideas but changed some features. I am planning to show it to the others to see their response.

Below is my version of the Detention Deficit teaser trailer.

Wednesday 13th Lesson Plan

Help Hayden edit the teaser trailer. - Give input.

Record sound effects for the teaser with James, Hayden and Loz.

Update Twitter/Facebook.

Sort out costumes/props for filming tomorrow.

Tuesday 12th Show Project Meeting

Today our group decided they wanted to get our websites organised. Our group is using the production company name I came up with (AnarchyFlow). Due to this, the animated logo for it was on my computer. I got the high quality version of this and then stopped it at an appropriate moment so that I could grab a screenshot of the name. The result was our new production logo which I then gave to Philippa to use on all of our risk assessments.

Later on I went out in our group to film a teaser trailer. It involved a shot slowly zooming in on a door, the audience can gradually hear distant shouting and arguing getting louder and louder until a chair flies past/hits the small window in the door. I decided on this to give the audience a feel for our show. I did the camera work for the trailer, and had to find a way to zoom in very slowly on the door. The zoom lever zoomed to quickly, and when I filmed it with the scroll the zooming was too jolty. So eventually I decided that it would be better to just film it without zooming and adding one later on, in AfterEffects.

I feel that I am working well, but could be working harder to improve the outcome of my group. I need to work a lot on the group work outside of lessons, as well as completing my own individual tasks, such as this.

Website list:

Click on an image to be taken to the respective website.

Blogger:

Twitter:

Facebook:

YouTube:

Vimeo:

Daily Motion:

4chan:

Tumblr:

FlickR:

Note: Facebook will be linked to all.

Emails:

Hotmail and Google Mail

Monday 11th Show Project Meeting

Today our group met up and put the last finishing touches to the script. Before going in to a quiet room and filming auditions (just with the members of our group). This was quite fun and allowed me to get to grips with acting again for the first time in almost two years. I found hopping between being the different characters challenging but I successfully managed to audition for all the characters (except for Valorie).

I found that we managed to get a lot of good test footage from the lesson and I will be uploading it soon.

So far on the project I have created a blog, come up with the name of our show (Detention Deficit) and come up with the idea for the character used in the other groups show 'Seth' who is a boy stalked by a secret agent who gets him into trouble. When the groups split our group dropped this character, which I was slightly saddened by, but reluctantly agreed. The fact the other group held on to the idea was also rather disheartening as I felt that I had pitched the idea to the class and now our 'rivals' have used my character/idea and not us. However I am auditioning for his part on wednesday.

Audition Videos

Hayden test footage from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

Matt test footage from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

James Test footage from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

Test footage Alexander from Detention Deficit on Vimeo.

Friday 8th Show Project Meeting

Today the teachers decided to divide the class up into two half's, and that these two different groups would make different micro-series'. It came as quite a shock when I discovered this and at first I wasn't really happy. I felt that even though things hadn't gone perfectly, being chairman had allowed me to really look at where my skills of leadership lacked, were good, and could be improved on. However the split did speed things up.

Firstly we went about the task of reassigning roles. Generally people kept the roles that they had before, but brought on new ones. I am still chairman, although less strictly, I have to organise the budget (that has now been dropped from £100 to £50), look after our online marketing schemes such as Twitter, Facebook etc, act and work the camera.

In the lesson we had a big class meeting about the new situation, then broke off into our two groups. My group consists of myself, Matt H, James, Philippa, Hayden and Joe. Despite having the smaller group by two people I'm hoping we can still produce a sufficient amount of work to do well in the project.

During the lesson I created a blog to channel the news about our show with, I also got to grips with the Twitter website and used Facebook to try and get a number of followers.

Script For Episode One

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

Detention Deficit – Pilot episode script

Starts with pier looking bored leaning on his desk. He looks at the clock, the hand keeps on moving slower and slower. Even goes backwards. Sound of the clock out rules everything else. This is pier zoning out on the clock. Sounds comes back and you can hear Keith mumbling. This turns into Keith talking really quickly. Keith is talking to pier.

Keith: (talking really quickly, hard to make out what he’s saying)

Pier: (sighs)

Pier looks at sonny. Sonny understands what’s on Piers mind.

Sonny: he loco

Pier: (laughs)

Keith knows that he was being made fun of but he continues talking

Sonny: (interrupts Keith) you know what. Uh, Keith. (Pause) you need to talk more. I’m starting to forget you’re here.

Keith: (mocking what sonny has just said to him) “you know what”. You’re really, fucking rude. You need some manners. I’m talking about life. The world. Emotions. Feelings. All that shit. Stuff that brings people closer together. And you’re taking that away.

After keith has told sonny how he feels, sonny throws a pencil case at his face.

Sonny: you talk too much. (aggressive tone)

Keith looks really wound up. His eye starts twitching

Pier: you’ve set him off now. They’ll be no stopping him. You’ve unleashed the ultimate evil. Pandora’s Box. Has been opened.

Sonny: what are you saying? (Looks frustrated and slightly nervous) he does it all the fucking time. He drinks more coffee than the teachers.

Pier: I have a plan to escape, unharmed by the beast

Sonny: Keith

Pier: that one yea. Anyway, the plan is. we tie shoelaces together, until it’s long enough to use as a rope. And then we simply climb down out the window. I call it, ‘operation window lace’.

Sonny: wow pier, not too bad. Apart from the fact that we’re on the ground floor already. (Slaps pier round the back of the head) and what’s wrong with just walking through the door.

Just after sonny finished talking, a pencil case hits him in the face, Keith threw it at him

Sonny: crap!

Keith runs around making a mess of the room, running and moving really quickly. He’s gone insane.

Pier: same old shit. Different day

Fades out, then fades in with “15minutes later”

Keith is lying on the floor after a caffeine come down. The room is a dip.

Sonny: (walking over to keith to see how he is) he’s got to get off this, its turning him into a monster.

Sonny picks up a monster can next to Keith

Valerie walks over as well.

Valerie: look at the room, he’s trashed it. He’s a devil.

Valerie picks up a can of red devil from near keith

Sonny: he needs to kick this shit in.

Sonny picks up a big bottle of kick

Sonny: why are you talking to me (frustrated aggressive tone)

Valerie: don’t know. Everyone in this room is a freak anyway.

Pier walks past

Pier: aye aye aye

Sonny: well. Don’t talk to me

Valerie: (looks at camera) who’s that?

Sonny: I said don’t talk to me.

Valerie: who’s sitting under the table?

Vince: (long pause) hey

Vince get’s out from under the table. Gets out awkwardly, rustling tin foil and gear

Valerie: who are you?

Sonny: that’s Vince. Alright Vince? I haven’t seen you around for ages. You been under the table all this time? (sniggers)

Vince: yes (calm voice)

Sonny: bloody hell mate, I was only joking. What the fuck you playing at. Hiding under the table. Toddlers do that. You’re not a toddler.

Vince: I’ve been here, to prevent intrusion of my mind

Valerie: (looks surprised) okay

They all go to sit down

Sonny: (looks at time, only half an hour has passed) what. This is bullshit

Valerie: speaking of bullshit. What’s this I hear about you throwing a fridge at Damien?

Pier: I heard about that too (continues drawing his plans)

Sonny: there’s nothing much more to say. I threw a fridge at Damien. He annoyed me. Thought it was pretty funny.

Flashback scene where you find out it was a frijj milkshake

Valerie: what a load of shit. Why do you make up stuff as ridiculous as that. You’re an idiot sonny. A first degree idiot.

Sonny: shut up. It’s true.

Valerie: yeah, whatever.

Fades out, fades in

Valerie goes to sit next to Vince. Vince is drawing something in his book.

Valerie: hey vince. What you doing.

Vince: just some drawing. It’s a good way to pass time. And let my creativity spill out.

Valerie: (looking at his work) what is it?

Vince: (putting a lot of detail into picture. Looking concentrated) out of all the ones I’ve seen. This. Is my favourite crop circle.

Valerie: oh

Vince: it’s just so textured and the shape is so alien. It’s just amazing

Valerie: yea, amazing (sounds sarcastic)

Shows the page with a simple circle on the paper. Valerie goes to sit near sonny. Sonny is talking to pier

Sonny: you’ve been doing detention for ages now. Do you feel any different? Have you changed?

Valerie: are you rehabilitated?

Sonny: shut up, what does that mean anyway

Pier: rehabilitated? Well now, let me see. You know, I don’t have any idea what that means.
Sonny: it means have you..

Pier: I know what you think it means sonny. To me it’s just a made up word. A politicians word, so young fella’s like…

Sonny: stop quoting stuff pier. Dammit (frustrated)

They all go quiet for a moment

Sonny: could time possibly go any slower

Vince: the more you concentrate on the time, the slower it will go

Sonny: did you have to tell me that. Shit

Pier: aye aye aye. I can’t think of a better plan than window lace

Valerie: im bored. When can I go

Sonny: you can’t go until the teacher has dismissed us.

Vince: sometimes, he forgets.

Pier: no need to worry everyone. I’ve almost got a plan.

Sonny: I’m going to lose my mind in a minute

Vince: it will feel more like 3 minutes because you’re staring at the clock like that.

Valerie: could this get any worse

Keith wakes up with his twitchy eye

Sonny: oh shit

Roles of a Chairman:

- Keeping people organised

- Liaising with all of the groups of people and keeping them happy/collaborating

- Organising votes on regular occasions about important topics

- Seeing to people's individual needs on regular occasions

- Keeping everyone working at an acceptable pace and level

- Giving input to all areas of work

Wednesday 6th Show Project Meeting

Today was one of the more challenging days. I find the hardest thing to do as a chairman is to keep everyone happy by finding a compromise. Since no one is really willing to compromise their ideas. On a par with yesterday however I believe that today went remarkably well. We split off into two groups. My co-chairman Tim went away with the online and marketing teams whilst I went away with the script writing and casting team. Organising the slightly smaller group made a world of different to the productivity. Everyone in the room collaborated well, and listened when I said it was someone's turn to be heard. Unfortunately, things are never perfect as when we had a whole class discussion and it seemed things had been resolved and people were happy, after about ten minutes people were running through to me stating how other people didn't like the character ideas - not exactly helpful when you have already finished writing three pages of script. I suppose ideally I would like people to feel that they can openly discuss their feelings and complaints about the product in front of the class, but sadly I think that some people are more reserved and don't mention that they have an issue with what we are doing until after the meeting has adjourned, which creates problems.

The most difficult thing about being a chairman today were class feuds. People find it very difficult to hear another persons side of an argument at times, so I found myself voting against my own show title (Detention Deficit) so that the eleven people that wanted to have it would simply listen to the people who wanted 'The Regulars' side of the story. This didn't really work all too well however, and despite my best efforts, people just aren't keen to listen.

Voting on all things other than the title (and ignoring some misinformed disputes about people not liking certain characters) was relatively easy, there were no real problems. My role today tested me and often required me to take sides I wasn't even sure I wanted to take. However every time I face a problem I feel like I learn something from it that I can apply to my attitude next lesson. On a whole I think the lesson went very well, it may not seem that way when reading this because I tend to focus my writing on the bad and what needs improving but really there was very little conflict in the lesson and everyone was able to get their own ideas in much more effectively than yesterday.

Title - Detention Deficit

The Regulars

(We eventually decided to use Detention Deficit)

Age Group - 15-19/21 *Motion Passed*

Web 2.0 Use - Facebook/Myspace/Bebo use *Motion Passed*

Title Sequence - Needs to establish detention setting. *Motion Passed*

Characters - Keith, Valorie, Pier etc. *Motion Passed*

Website promotional ideas:

Rumours

Quotes

Music

Video Clips

Merchandise?

Flash Games

Adverts

Tuesday 5th January Show Project Meeting

Today our class met for the second time concerning our Show project. We began by using diplomacy to work out the chairman of the project. The class voted for nominees. Once we had done this the entire class then voted for which nominee they wanted to be chairman. Every time the nominee with the least votes would be eliminated. Eventually it was down to just me and Tim, after careful discussion we decided that Tim and I would both cooperate and be joint chairman. For the first lesson everything went well, I was able to organise the class to do activities that later defined the nature of our micro series of 'webisodes'. In this lesson everyone seemed to work well and I was able to go around the class and make sure that everyone was happy with what we were choosing. We eventually came to a conclusion using voting to get the class to agree on the core of the program. Due to the restrictions of it having to be filmed in college it was necessary to not have a story-line that was too elaborate. One of the suggestions of 'Zombie Invasion', although being a popular concept with the class was decided against as our budget and location restrictions made it near impossible to have any success.

Eventually through voting it was narrowed it down to a story-line of a comedic detention room with the same characters in detention every time, and a school boy who is constantly harassed by an idiotic secret agent. That class eventually decided on the detention theme, but I went and spoke with the people who voted against it and asked them to voice their concern. They made it clear that they though the secret agent story-line would be funnier and that they wouldn't be happy with our decision if we wrote it off completely. After brief deliberation I decided that I should incorporate the idea of the secret agent concept into the detention room, so the boy became one of the characters. I asked the class to go into groups of three and to each come up with three characters. After the class completed this we voted on the best six and wrote them down. These were: A boy who is constantly harassed by a secret agent, a caffeine-addicted paranoid sociopath, a cliché character inspired by the film The Great Escape, A punk girl who disagrees with everyone and a boy who never talks and resembles Chief from the film 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'.

It was in the second lesson when things started to go badly. People became far more talkative and less willing to listen. I found it much harder to get order from everyone talking and people were often not heard. In this lesson we tried to organise roles for everyone. I told Tim to write down a list of all the job titles on the board so that we could use diplomacy to decide who would do what roles. Unfortunately, I spent far too much time discussing with the class the characters attributes, and who we should and shouldn't use in the show that it didn't leave enough time to allocate roles for everyone. Unfortunately this lead to us rushing the process and it wasn't done as carefully as it should have been. As we began to run out of time I began to loose a hold over the class and it all went out of hand. I think that if this project is going to succeed I will have to ignore the fact that I am dealing with my friends and will have to concentrate on keeping them orderly, meaning I will have to become more harsh and strict to prevent a repeat of todays lesson. With so little time to complete this project this is essential.

These were the roles allocated by the end of the day:

Creative Director/Director - Dave and Kirk
Editor - Loz and Matt L
Camera - Tara, me and Matt L
Sound - Philippa and Sam
Titles/Credits - Matt H and Hayden
Casting Director - Mike
Treasurer - Dave
Writers - James, Hayden, Matt, me and Alie
Publicity/Marketing - Tara and Alie
Internet - Ash

How Do Practitioners Exhibit and Distribute Their Work in Different Media/Art Forms?

Media has been the largest and most expensive industry in the western world for many years. Along with this there are many different forms and ways of distributing and creating its products. There are countless methods of releasing finished work to the public such as:

Television

Television is probably one of the most revolutionary inventions of the modern(ish) age, alongside cars, phones etc. It's evolution has been followed by millions of people and is possibly the most popular distributor of media products to date. Is is however being quickly over-taken by the internet as a source of distribution and public consumption.

The production of shows on television usually follow certain guidelines. The shows are written before-hand by a writing team. Many show appears to the audience to be live, when actually it isn't. Taking game shows for example, they are performed as if live, often to an audience when re-runs of game shows are often what is playing. Chat shows like Jonathan Ross also have this same appearance. Many fictional shows give the audience a feeling that it is actually happening. They have to be at their television by (for example) 7 o'clock or they will miss the newest episode of their favourite show. This is however, a dying concept. With Sky introducing the ability to record live TV and entire series' of shows automatically using 'series link' and the internet allowing us to download whatever episodes of whatever show we want whenever we want, the whole concept of putting on a show is changing.

Cinema

Cinema and theatre are in many ways one in the same. They are both an experience of show that means if you miss the starting time, you'll miss the beginning of the production. They differ however as with theatre is different every time. The fact that theatre is actually a live performance means that in can never be exactly the same twice. Where as with Cinema the digital video will not change.

Art Galleries

Galleries are a different form of show. They are in one place (sometimes at one time) and people come from all over the wold to visit them. They are generally for a specific audience, which could also be said for cinema and theatre. Which also have such characteristics as people visiting them. However Art Galleries generally contain still images. And whilst people make their ways to cinemas and theatre to view one thing, people tend to go to galleries to get a view of several different, smaller things.

Posters

Posters are one of the many forms of media that cannot be avoided. They are everywhere and a lot of us are effected by them without even realising it. They are everywhere, at the train station, on a billboard near your house, at the cinema. They are that which is ignored by almost everyone, and read when bored.

The way to get a poster noticed is a difficult task that takes knowledge of presentation. Humour is often an important aspect in the design of posters. Or creating something that looks more visually interesting than anything that surrounds it. Posters are 99% of the time a means of promotion of another product. Like the picture shown above.

Graffiti

Graffiti, though often illegal is a very popular form of media. It can be used to 'tag' someone, where someone tags an alias of theirs on an area to show others (mostly other taggers) that they have been there. Other graffiti can be used to convey a message, like the image above.

The definition of media texts can also range from high budget Hollywood films to reclusive artists. But generally it is always necessary to pay for a method to publicly distribute your product to a wide audience. However, more recently up-and-coming directors and actors have been able to get their work public even if there was no budget by using means of the internet. Only in the last few years has the internet been such a popular source of distributing 'virals' and products made by no-budget or low-budget film and video makers. It allows people to almost instantaneously distribute their work to millions, possibly billions of people to view it as they wish. The difference this had made to the creative industry is that now, anyone, everyone can be a creative practitioner. This in itself is changing the definition of a creative practitioner.

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Seventeen years ago, when I was born if someone wanted to make a song and publish it, somebody had to hire a studio and musicians, record a song, press it onto a disk and then manufacture thousands upon thousands of disks where they would be exported into shops and hope that it would be sold. The difference technology has made to this is that more recently, anyone can open up a program like 'GarageBand', record a song and export it to YouTube, instantly receiving millions of potential listeners absolutely free. This means the creative industry is now anyone with access to the internet, and some talent. However, this makes it more difficult to get successful due to the sheer size and quantity of videos on the internet. Therefore, whatever you make has to be good/original enough to get noticed.

Subsequently, the best way to get noticed (quickly) is to do something new. This is achieved very rarely by any practitioners. However, every now and then work is distributed in such a way that it is very impressive and completely original. Jamie Hewlett is just such a practitioner. Hewlett was one of the first people on the planet to do an entirely animated 3D live performance for his band the 'Gorillaz'. It revolutionised the future of animated gigs and put his name in many newspapers. He used clever lighting effects to create 3D figures of the bands cartoon members. Hewlett has been very lucky (or just very creative) when it comes to getting attention through distributing something 'new'. His comic Tank Girl (how he became famous) was controversial and was said to 'turn other comic conventions on their heads.' as well as his band Gorillaz being one of the first entirely animated bands in existence.

Here is the front cover of his Tank Girl comic:

Marketing is vital when producing a media product, the marketing in itself is a media product, and has to be distributed to ensure the product it is relating to gets distributed as well. Billboards, posters and screened advertisements were, until recently, the most popular way of getting a product known to the public. Now it is far easier, rather than buying a position on a billboard anyone can simply upload information about their product to the internet. Television shows have even started to show the most popular internet virals, so the makers of them have been paid for uploading these videos (which cost them nothing).

On the subject of things that are free to the public, one of the new techniques being used by film makers and production companies such as Fox are free time-windowed screenings. For James Cameron's new film Avatar Fox decided they would help distribute it by having screenings at over one hundred Imax cinemas. These screenings would be only 16 minutes long, but they would be free. This is a remarkably innovative method of distributing as it showed the public what to expect from the film itself and keeping their attention whilst giving a bit of it away. Avatar is also advertised by the sheer amount of time James Cameron has spent on it, it is also the first feature film he has brought out since the movie Titanic, one of the most popular films in history. This entices audiences to go and watch his new 'masterpiece' and is a clever method of getting publicity.

Just by looking at stills anyone can see the sheer time and effort that has gone into creating Avatar. Something that impressive never goes unnoticed.

The band the 'Arctic Monkeys' rocked the musical world when they brought out a song called 'Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor'. They were one of the first band who gave their record away for free. Instead of publishing their song and paying money to get it out to the world they simply placed it on the internet and it made it to number one. This completely bypassed the production companies and proved the point that you don't need to use 'barriers to entry' anymore. People can completely bypass all of the normal distribution channels. More recently as proof of this the UK charts rate their chart lists in accordance to number of downloads when this was previously measured using the quantity of purchased disks.

Other media branches delve into areas and promote themselves by combining different media forms. An example of this is the new and very popular TV show Glee. It uses a combination of live action footage and music to bring itself into the horizon of a wide audience. It sells itself not only as a TV show, but as a band as well. The original idea of this enabled it to appeal to a great number of people, this method of distribution was well thought out.

Comedians have a very different method of having their work exhibited. They very rarely start out having their own stage and an enormous crowd of people laughing at their every gag. Most start off doing small shows in small venues, often such as pubs. They then might move on to appearing in/presenting small television programs such as comedy quiz shows that feature comedians. After an audience sees them and how they perform they may very well be offered a larger audience and a larger stage, and be invited onto more popular quiz shows/comedy sitcoms etc. The chain goes on. However, the introduction of the internet and such sites as YouTube means that these people can make their own cheap comedy sitcoms and get word of themselves out for free. A delegate may come across this and straight out offer them a job.

From:

To:

This has been the reason for the increasingly destroyed media industries, it first happened with printed text. Sites like Wikipedia and news websites have almost completely removed the need for newspapers, magazines etc. Then the same thing happened to the music industry. It has crippled the art industry, rather than going to an art exhibition people can now just type in an artists name into Google Images and it will instantly present them with most if not all of the artists paintings. Now it is slowly happening to the film and the video game industry. It is interesting to speculate what industries will be next to go. The possibilities are stretching, what if someone uses YouTube to win an Oscar?

It is clear that the use of the internet is slowly dictating how media texts are being created. It is possible that in a few years micro-series like the one we will be making will be the main source on entertainment and income.