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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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*
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.
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
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.
to ?
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.
Today our class had the first session on our show unit projects. We were showed a series of internet viral 'micro-series' and asked to take down notes of the characteristics of these short episodes. The notes I made are shown below. The programmes we were shown were called 'Living with the Infidels', ' We Need Girlfriends', 'The Guild', 'Chad Vader' and others. Almost all of the mico-series' contained logos and/or title sequences introducing the characters, most prominently on Living with the Infidels and The Guild. Both of these have elaborate title sequences involving knowledge of animation, cutting to music and camera work. These are very important when making a micro-series, the professional look helps keep the audience interested up until the story-line gets underway.
Other types of micro-series videos include that of 'Pure Pwnage', also shown in class. This relies upon the basis that it is intentionally looking amatuerly filmed. It is based around the video diary of a professional gamer and his friend. The script contains the main character mentioning to the camera man about the positioning of the camera etc. This adds to the overall feel of unprofessionalism they have ben striving to achieve in the program.
Here is an episode of the series Chad Vader:
This series gives many examples of the techniques used in micro-series. For example, the entire thing is set in one location, that of the supermarket. There are not too many characters and they are always based around interacting with the main character, they are never seen interacting with eachother without his presence.
The video series is also comedic, as are most micro-series that have a large form of success. As the trends in these series' go, they follow a better construction when they are comedy pieces. This is helped along by the fact that comedy doesn't always have to make sense, and can often be strange and erratic in its time frames, where as any program that follows a serious story-line almost always has to follow an immaculate structure so the audience can keep up.
The separate scenes are often divided by small snippets of simple music. I have noticed that this is a commonly used technique in these small internet viral sketch shows. The show also jumps into the story-line very quickly, another aspect common of these shows.
The humour in the show is assuming the audience has a relatively basic understanding of the original Star Wars trilogy. Without this the series would be far less amusing to anyone watching it. A lot of these internet viral series' use a form of 'nerdy' humour, that only really appeals to people from a background of internet gaming. Two examples of shows that do this (despite being very different from each other) are The Guild and Pure Pwnage.
Here are episodes from both of these series:
These two shows revolve around this gaming culture and require the viewer to have some (if not a lot) of prior knowledge about it. The Guild is quite professionally filmed, using good saturated colours to create a feeling of immersion. Where as Pure Pwnage is far lower budget and makes up for it by trying intentionally to give the whole thing a feel of a 'video diary'.
Another very popular internet series that does this is the series 'Arby and the Chief'. A very popular machinima (video game/machine incorporated cinema) director decided that he would put live action footage into a comedic show about the very cool character in the game being an irritating action figure in real life.
This takes music from other more famous shows such as Curb Your Enthusiasm to create an establishing atmosphere and uses a simple introductory sequence, much like Chad Vader.
to 
?
