Website Upgrade!

Working Title: 10 Seconds
Project Leader: Ben Roberts
My Role: Producer/Directer & Multimedia

If you saw my pitch or read my PowerPoint on the site, you’ll know that my plan for the website was just for it to be a scaled-down version of the mediascape for people who aren’t able to use mediascapes. Well, last night I had a brainwave and it stopped me from sleeping for ages. The website has changed completely, which will require more work, but it will be pretty cool if I can do it!

It will be done in Flash and HTML, and will preceed the mediascape experience, making sure that everyone who uses the mediascape has experience of the film first. It will start off as a large picture of a desk, top down. On the desk is a police evidence bag, a keyboard, an iPAQ, and some other random bits and pieces like pencils etc. There is the background sound of a busy office. The camera, which has been taken out of the evidence bag, is face down so displaying the back. Three of the buttons are slowly glowing just to let the user know that they can be pressed. The buttons are < o >, the outer two which change clip and the middle one which plays a clip. The user can then explore the contents of the camera. What they see are the clips and photos from the film. It means they can watch the film non-linearly and explore areas of interest. They can also click on the computer keyboard which changes their view to a computer monitor which is showing YouTube, and the video blog that Shayne records at the end of the film.

After either a set time or on an event such as the last clip being watched, the user will see a message come up on the on-screen iPAQ saying “Incoming Call, Click Here to receive.” When the user click it they hear the voice of the police officer from the film, and perhaps a very stuttery image of him. He has a conversation with the player, but we never hear the player’s voice to keep the player’s character as their own (A woman player hearing a man’s voice would have their fantasy broken). It would go something like this:

“Good afternoon there detective, I hear you’ve taken out the evidence from the Whiteman case. I don’t know why you bothered, the camera’s empty.”

“What? You’ve been looking at the videos? Don’t be an idiot, I’ve seen it myself, it’s empty.”

“Yeh yeh, we’ll save this for later, I’ve got a job for you. I want you to go to St Andrews Park where this whole thing started. I need you to try and find any evidence that we haven’t uncovered yet. This guy swears he’s telling the truth but quite frankly we haven’t found anything that supports what he’s saying.”

“What? The camera? Stop going on about that, its empty! Anyway, I’m sending you to the park. This is the last time we’re going looking, it’s all a farce if you ask me, but I have my orders. I want you to take this iPAQ with you so I can be in communication with you at all times. You’ll be wearing headphones, and I will be following you with our satellites. I want to be there every step of the way, and I’ll beam you over any important stuff we have once you’re there.”

“Oh hang on, this iPAQ seems to be having problems with the GPS, I can’t seem to find it. Ah well, have someone take it down to be repaired before you go, yeh? You’ll have to use your own one for now, you do have one don’t you?”

The user is then presented with a YES/NO choice. If they say NO then the officer sends you a link about them, telling you where you can buy them etc. He also says about how luckily another agent has one and that the details of their investigation are available on the computer on your desk. At this point, the user gets the original “scaled-down mediascape” website I discussed. However, if they have an iPAQ and are able to use mediascapes, then the following will happen:

“Right, excellent, well you’ll need our software so I’m sending it over now, and I’ll also send you a link to a map which can direct you to the location. I’ll IM it to you, check the computer on your desk. I’ll be back in touch once you’ve got your iPAQ all set up. And stop deluding yourself about the camera, you’ll ruin our credibility.”

The officer then hangs up and the user is free to explore the desk again. They may be curious about the officer saying that the camera was empty, and try and watch a clip again. However, when they look, all the camera does is flash up with “Memory Card Empty”. Very strange… The user then checks the computer screen and above the YouTube window is now an Instant Messenger window with 2 links on it from the officer. One downloads the mediascape file onto the user’s computer, and the other links to yahoo maps or google maps with St Andrews Park located. This gives the user everything they need to start the mediascape!

Throughout the mediascape itself, the officer will always be onscreen talking to the user and guiding them around the scene, giving useful information and not so useful information. That is until strange things start happening…

I’m very excited about this new idea. I think it will bridge the gap between the film and the interactive mediascape narrative very well, and also help the mediascape work as a standalone piece since the user can look at all the clips on the camera on the website. There will also be a link where they can instantly rewatch the whole film or download the mediascape without doing everything on the site, just to give people the choice.

Making sense of it all

Working Title: 10 Seconds
Project Leader: Ben Roberts
My Role: Producer/Directer & Multimedia

I’ve been thinking about some aspects of my story/script and how they don’t seem to make sense. If the twist is that really Shayne’s girlfriend is hit by the car and killed, surely the police would tell him this fact and he would be acting far more upset in the interview and would be grieving. And surely the friends at the party would have heard about it. Also, why would Shayne be being interviewed so formally? Another question is what happened to the driver of the car? So I’ve come up with some adjustments which make more sense.

• The girlfriend, Carli, is still hit by the car
• However, she is not killed, merely knocked unconscious, so initially Shayne could still have believed she had be killed in order to form the delusions.
• The driver involved drives away in a panic, turning the situation from an accident into a hit and run.
• The party still takes place, but the friends are aware Carli is doing ok in hospital and don’t mention her which would spoil the mood. She appears there in the video because Shayne believes she is there, but nobody really interacts specifically with her. She doesn’t appear in the photos on facebook which viewers can look up.
• The police are interviewing Shayne due to his suspicious behaviour of being present at the accident, but fleeing the scene much like the driver.

Despite these events not being present in the film itself, they clear up some discrepancies in the back story, which is important for the project as a whole 360 degree commission.

Presentations

Working Title: 10 Seconds
Project Leader: Ben Roberts
My Role: Producer/Directer & Multimedia

Click here to see my PowerPoint Presentation

Today I pitched my idea to everyone, and it seemed to go okay I think. I didn’t have time for a few points such as who my current crew were or what positions I needed filling, but I think I used the time efficiently to get across what my piece was about and the style of it all. I felt it was quite promising that the questions were not the usual “how long is it going to be?” and “what inspired you?” but more specific ones like “how are you going to tackle the camera work?. I got the impression that this meant my idea was described well and people could get more into the nitty gritty since they felt an instant connection/familiarity with the project despite not kowing anything about it beforehand.

I did actually get a good suggestions out of it, which was to use a proper camera person, and have an actor stand beside or behind them to get the best of both worlds, which was something I hadn’t considered. The idea of dubbing dialogue in afterwards was something I’m not prepared to do since it would stint the spontanious and realistic nature of the character interaction, so this new idea was a very useful one.

New Job!

Working Title: TV Love
Project Leader: Daniel Markland
My Role: Director of Photography & Editor

Today, before the pitches, Dan Markland mentioned in conversation that he was looking for an editor for his project. As DoP, and being very enthusiastic about his project, I told him that I would really like to be the editor as well. Editing, especially creatively, is something I very much enjoy doing, and so doing that job on Dan’s excellent project is a great opportunity for me. Since I am DoP as well I can really work on the style of the piece, and having already made some post-processing suggestions earlier Dan was happy to give me the position. Since we are now both editing each others projects, it gives us more opportunity to work together and make sure that what we are doing really is the best it can be.

I also talked to Dan Quinn after my pitch and he has agreed to be my location sound recordist, which is excellent since it is something he specialises in and something that I have talked to him about in the past to get his advice on. I am looking forward to working with him.

Slowly but surely…

Working Title: 10 Seconds
Project Leader: Ben Roberts
My Role: Producer/Directer & Multimedia

Tom, Dan and I worked more on the script today and the first draft is pretty much done, save for a couple of scenes at the end. I will probably write the first drafts of these on my own in order to hurry things along a little. I also spoke to Dan more about the whole “interactive music” thing in my mediascape piece today and he seems pretty enthusiastic about it! During the next couple of days I will mostly be really tightening up what exactly the multimedia piece is going to be, since our pitch is on Thursday and I need to condense the whole idea into an easy explanation. I understand it. Dan understands it. Tom kind of understands it. But none of us can simply explain it to other people, which needs to be sorted.

Anyway, whilst writing the script today we happened upon some new potential problems, and some ways of combating them:

Problem:
What if there is not a good sunset during the period I have actors available? I initally planned to have the characters walking past the camera in the same shot.

Solution:
I changed the script so that it is adjustable on the day of shooting and doesn’t completely necessitate a nice sunset.

Problem:
Not enough empathy is built up between the audience and the main character’s girlfriend.

Solution:
We have come up with a backstory involving the couple moving to London, which she is not totally comfortable with, but expresses her willingness to do it for his benefit.

The lead characters also now have names:

Main character: Shayne Whiteman
His girlfriend: Carli Chase

It actually took a long time to finalise the names, because I think they are subliminally a quite important part of the piece. They have to be normal enough names to be memorable, but at the same time not be so common that they are used too often to make the character’s unique. I also think that the sound of the names have connotations which I can’t really explain. “Carli” sounds young, fun and friendly, while the unusual “i” spelling of it suggests a quirkyness and need to stand out. “Chase” as a surname is short and rolls off the tongue easily. The CC initials and near-alliteration make it memorable while not too obviously contrived. The name as a whole also does not resemble anyone in the public eye who could bring their own connotations into the equation.

The single syllable of Shayne’s name means references to him in the film are shorter and more punchy. It also has an unusual spelling, which could suggest similar personality traits to Carli. “Whiteman” brings more ‘bulk’ to the name, bringing it up to 3 syllables which is the perfect number again to roll nicely off the tongue. Any longer and the name becomes less memorable and also more confusing when referenced in speech.

iPaq Workshop Sparks New Ideas!

Working Title: 10 Seconds
Project Leader: Ben Roberts
My Role: Producer/Directer & Multimedia

The following is a conversation I had with Dan Markland:

Ben: i’ve changed my idea for multimedia
Ben: wondered if i could run it by you
Ben: see what you think
Dan: forgive my typing, the computer is different
Dan: go forth bretherin
Ben: cool
Ben: well we had that iPaq workshop, and the things have so much potential
Ben: my idea didnt do them justice
Dan: ok
Ben: you know what they do basically?
Dan: i’ve never heard of iPaq
Ben: ok well
Ben: its like a sat nav
Dan: oh right
Ben: but you can create multimedia experiences on them
Ben: so when ur in a certain place it triggers off events
Dan: ohh yeah, i was talking to sion about it last week
Ben: accurate to 5 meters
Ben: ok so my old idea was you walk around the park where the films set and just get shown evidence, witness reports etc
Ben: yaawn
Ben: new idea:
Ben: you’re sent by the police to this park to investigate
Ben: see what you can find
Ben: you walk around it
Dan: lol ok
Ben: then it looks like ur ipaq is going a bit wrong
Dan: continue
Ben: the screen flickers
Ben: then the girls face appears
Ben: and u get a creepy laughing sound
Ben: this would be in a timer
Ben: then nothing
Dan: nice
Ben: then certain places you walk trigger other things
Ben: like other sounds of screams or something
Dan: groovy
Ben: little video clips of the film’s occurences from different perspectives
Ben: all the while there’s like a sound of a creaking swing coming from the playground
Ben: but theres no one on the swing
Ben: as you get closer it gets louder
Dan: nice
Ben: then as soon as you enter the park it stops
Ben: silence
Ben: then u hear footsteps run from left to right
Ben: and you hear the gate open and close behind you
Ben: then there’s some kind of creepy music, subtle and not totally musical, but ambiant noises kinda thing
Ben: wraaarrereee
Ben: etc
Ben: :P
Dan: right like deep tones
Ben: yeh
Dan: donnie darko esque
Ben: yeh
Ben: then
Dan: tuneful but by no means musicl
Ben: correctimundo!
Ben: this music doesnt stop, the user starts to wonder whats going on
Ben: have the upset some kind of spirit here by investigating?
Ben: it sure seems that way
Dan: lol ok
Ben: some kind of visual disturbences again on the ipaq
Ben: each time the user finds more eyewitness reports or something the music builds interactively
Ben: same kind of things when they see the car accident location, flashes of police photo
Ben: then they hear another witness talking but half way through it just turns to a really high-pitch screech then silence and a little girls laugh
Ben: something like that
Ben: some disturbences with time
Ben: supernatural
Ben: wooooOOooo
Dan: hehe cool
Ben: user is transported back to the time it all happened at the end and sees the re-edit
Ben: something like that
Dan: right
Dan: i like
Ben: so in a similar vain but more involved
Dan: especially the girl messing with the screen etc
Ben: more atmosphere, and more part of the story, rather than just externalising it completely
Dan: so what do I need to do Mr Ben?
Ben: say whether its better or worse than the last idea for a start :P
Dan: hmm
Dan: i couldn’t really say
Dan: i mean i did like the other idea
Dan: but I also like this one, especially with the whole interaction thing
Ben: its not that different from the other one in so far as the same information is given, just in a narratively different way
Dan: the only thing I ponder at all is what if people from not in bristol want to play?
Dan: other than that I luuurv
Ben: then they will get the boring website version :P
Dan: ahhhh right so you’re doing both?
Dan: whoa, ur a busy bee
Ben: well the website one will get less attention
Ben: hehe
Ben: but yeh
Ben: and the other thing is could you design interactive music?
Ben: :P
Dan: lol plus you can use a lot of the same material
Ben: yeh exactly
Dan: I could, I thought you’d never ask
Ben: needs a lot of loopable clips which can blend seamlessly into any of the others at any time
Dan: I suppose I could just record a soundtrack, but send you the layers seperately.
and so you can set each part off depending on where the user is etc
Dan: yeah I figure the whole one tone deep bass thing will serve as a good thing to connect it all
Ben: yeh
Ben: can’t really have a beat cos when they fade it wouldnt generally be in sync
Dan: and if the layers are subtle then there shouldn’t be any disturbance between them if you see what i mean
Dan: oh of course, no tempo at all
Dan: that would just go crazy on the ipaq
Ben: and i dunno how it could work, but maybe some crecendo parts which can be overlayed any of the others on key events to evoke drama
Dan: yeah definately
Dan: i mean if the layers are seperate, then making some more dramatic ones is fine, because you trigger them for a certain time, but then they quickly die down, and you still have the underlying theme
Dan: …i’m not being very clear
Ben: no no i get what you mean :)
Dan: what i’m saying is…. yes it can be done
Dan: i will need to plan carefully etc
Dan: but that’s what it’s all about i suppose
Dan: proffessionalism and all
Ben: it’ll be like an interactive movie score, and it’ll be amazing, and you’ll get jobs galore from being a part of it
Dan: lol well let’s hope so
Dan: but yeah i’m game
Ben: i’m gonna say at the beginning “recommend you investigate after sunset cos thats nearest the time the events happened”
Ben: that will also make sure the park is mroe empty and therefor more creepy to the user
Dan: damn straight
Dan: also, leave a disclaimer, ”if you get the shit kicked out of you by chavs whilst partaking in the game we accept no responsibility”
Ben: how the ipaq works is you draw zones and things happen when you enter or exit a zone. You can also place speakers which adjust in volume when you get nearer, so if the park is quiet we can really create a really atmospheric location
Dan: Benjmin, i apologise humbly, but Let it be known I enjoy this idea greatly, I will be leaving you numerous facebook messages in the morrow. But i must now flee
Dan: seriously though, great idea
Ben: woo :D

Scriptification

Working Title: 10 Seconds
Project Leader: Ben Roberts
My Role: Producer/Director & Multimedia

After Tom’s meeting today, Tom, Dan and I got together for a meeting about my project. I showed them the step-by-step guide and asked then what they thought. I asked what worked, what didn’t, what wasn’t clear, and what they would add. I also showed it to Simon, who knew nothing about my project, as a test to see if it was clear to other people who weren’t involved from the start.

• Simon didn’t quite understand it, and was a bit confused. He got the basics but was confused at the end. This was probably mainly because parts of it are explained in the multimedia piece, which was not included in this step-by-step that focussed on the film.
• Dan agreed about it being confusing, but that it was confusing in a cool way like the Matrix. It makes you work a bit to be able to get your head around it. Along with the multimedia piece this is definitely the reaction I was hoping to achieve.
• Tom really liked the part with the girl deleting the footage at the end and how it kind of created an underlying different story spanned across the film and multimedia piece.
• Dan suggested more clips involving the main character (now called Dave) and his girlfriend to show interaction and love, so that his panic later on in the film is definitely warranted. I thought maybe some romantic photos by the sunset, some “cuddly” talk, having fun, etc.
• Tom and Dan, when asked about the necessity of the police parts of the script, both said that it was good to introduce it to the audience in a more conventional way than the rest of the film. I also asked what they though about having a running narration using the police interview in the black areas between the clips. We decided that maybe one or two maximum could work to help the audience understand, but that they probably weren’t necessary most of the time. If fact, I believe that they would break the tension by relaxing the audience for the black areas, rather than cause panic because they don’t know what’s happening. I will have to decide later and see what works.

We then got to work on writing the script. I really liked the 3 of us there for it, as we could bounce ideas off each other and Tom could put the best ones down. We could then look at bits and revise the ideas after seeing if they worked in the context of the rest of the script. We got to about clip 9 or 10, and will continue next time we meet, probably tomorrow. I could write some on my own tonight but I feel I have ideas set too rigidly in my head, and really want other people around to tell me what’s hot or not.

Meeting de la Tom

Working Title: Sightings on Horsell
Project Leader: Tom Kiely
My Role: Script Supervisor & Effects Director

Today was Tom’s second production meeting, which looks as though it is going to become a weekly thing. I didn’t feel it was as useful as last week, as many of the things being discussed then were still in progress. However, it was good that everyone could deliver progress reports and voice any concerns that they had. Simon voiced some concerns about the animation workload which seemed fair enough, but Tom reassured him and explained certain things in a different way so that everything was understood better. I am slightly more clear now about the flashback scenes too.

At some point, Tom, Baz and I are going to go to Clevedon Court and Tyntesfield, but we will have to arrange that once Tom has found out opening hours and whether filming is allowed first. I don’t want to waste the time and money doing a recce only to find out later that we’re not allowed to film there anyway. Budgeting was also talked about. I suggested that instead of giving me and Simon our money in advance, we should find what we need, price it up, and approach Tom about it then. He could then either give us the right amount or we could give him the receipt and he could pay us back. This would mean he, as the producer, always knows what the money is being spent on and can keep track of things better.

Step-by-Step Posted

Working Title: 10 Seconds
Project Leader: Ben Roberts
My Role: Producer/Director & Multimedia

I’ve just finished writing up a step-by-step list of what happens in my film ready for tomorrow’s first meeting/script-writing session. We’ll hopefully use it to bounce ideas around for the script, and even change bits as it evolves with the input of Dan, Tom and I. I’ve put it up along with the proposal so that they can familiarise themselves with where the idea is so far.

Did I say director? I meant editor!

Working Title: Sightings on Horsell
Project Leader: Tom Kiely
My Role: Script Supervisor & Effects Director

I just received a bonus job from Tom which I wasn’t expecting, and am really looking forward to doing. As well as directing the effects sequences for his film, Tom has asked me to edit them too. I really enjoy editing, especially when I get to be creative, so this job has come as a big bonus to me! Things which I think will be involved at this stage include Chroma Keying, Compositing, and General Look & Feel.

Tom mentioned shooting the outside night scenes on a green screen to enable a more impressive night sky, but overlaying the stars rather than compositing the entire scene would create much more natural lighting and a better feel in my opinion. I will have to work closely with him to make sure the footage he provides from this shoot is suitable for the effect he wants in post, and also to make sure there is continuity with the other parts in regards to the style of editing.