Friday 31 May 2013

Transmedia Project

1. Project Reflection

I have chosen to make a film about a deaf girl called Emily Hawn, who receives a nasty text from one of her so called friends. After receiving the text the girl becomes so upset she drops her phone and passes out from the stress. When Emily awakes she is in an altered state of mind, confused, angry and upset. Due to these emotions welling up inside her out of rage, she decides to kill the girl who sent the text message. 


 Emily cuts her neck and after doing so, stares at the knife in front of her in disbelief. She can’t believe what she has just done, therefore she runs through the house in a distressing state. Emily runs out on to the street and runs past a guy. She attempts to communicate to him in sign language however he has no idea what she is saying. This scene appears at the beginning of the film without the use of subtitles, the same scene is repeated at the end of the film although with subtitles. This allows the audience to understand Emily was the person who killed Kayla; although when Emily looks at the bloody knife in her hand, she cannot understand what has happened. She didn’t believe she killed Kayla, therefore she runs out on the street trying to ask the guy, she bumps into to “call the police, there’s a dead body.”  I decided to use this idea because I like watching suspenseful movies where you have no idea what is happening. Although, using clues you can understand what might have happened. I want the audience to feel as if they are living the life of Emily and experiencing what it is like for someone who doesn’t truly understand the world around them. It also shows when it can become hard to communicate with the world; drastic decisions can be made out of confusion. I wanted people to see something different to include a sign language part in the film, to have the mystery held at the start but then somewhat resolved in the end.  The ending is left for interpretation by the viewers to create their own ending.

Firstly, I created some storyboards, to ensure I already knew how I wanted each shot to appear. However, due to some slight changes about the story during filming I withdrew some shots and exchanged them for others. Some slight challenges were made as Hayley who I had already filmed, did not have enough time to be involved in the rest of the film, therefore I found Casey to replace her by presenting the rest of the film from her point of view. I realised we would not be able to use Casey’s face in the shots as the audience would become confused by two different actors playing a deaf girl. This allows the audience to feel interactive while watching the film, as they feel as if they are experiencing the revenge of a deaf girl. When filming I used various angles so when it came to editing I would have various shots to choose from. This would give me the flexibility of producing the film to a high quality.

The tools used for this project included a tripod and HD video camera. I chose to use a video camera rather than a mobile phone as I wanted to include all elements in the frame from a good distance. Using the video camera I could zoom up close and I believe this would have been more challenging if filmed on a mobile phone. When editing I used a fifteen day trial Arc Soft Showbiz. I found this program quite surprisingly easy to use and efficient. I trimmed every video interval and adjusted some shots to make them appear on the screen for an extended amount of time. I accomplished this by dragging an arrow to the right; therefore the shot would appear on the screen longer than the video actually runs for. I used effects on the program to put the video in grey scale, the reason for making it in black and white gave the film more meaning as most silent films in history are displayed in black and white. The use of text to describe what the character is trying to say is also evident in silent films. The idea of making the film appear as a silent movie also allows the audience to relate with the main character, as they can identify what it would be like to be deaf.




I learnt how to work with Showbiz, and exploring its different tools. The film was basically made on trial and error, by playing with different tools and seeing if they could be applied to my film. The tools I used in this program included cutting by trimming the scene and excluding material I didn't want to use in my film. I increased the brightness; therefore the audience were able to see the murder scene. I used blue arrows shown below, as I could move them to parts in the film I wanted to include. I locked the start of the trim and end of the trim, then applied it to the overall film.


When adding the audio to the film I had some trouble, with the actual video content started conflicting with the music I wished to add to the film. I also trimmed the bar representing the music, to parts in the film I wanted it to play in relation to. Whereas, the song called The Deed was added and trimmed to fit into the film at places I wished for the song to play. At the end of the track I was able to drag the music to position it alongside a scene I decided represented that type of music. At one time the music stops altogether the reason for this being, I wanted the audience to realise something is not right in the situation. The slight inclusion of the abnormal placement of a quick sound of a piano key, also showed how distorted the situation and Emily’s state of mind was.


I also learnt how to upload videos onto YouTube, which was a lot easier than I expected.
Somehow I ended up getting rid of the videos sound and including the music. I really like the music I have chosen for the film, as the song Abandoned accurately represents Emily’s situation in the beginning as she is alone and needs someone’s help. This music makes the audience feel sympathy for her situation even though they do not understand what trouble she is experiencing. The emotion portrayed on her face and the music alongside it, expresses how she is feeling at the time. In contrast is the same for the song The Deed, as this represents Emily’s inhibitions as she is on a mission to seek revenge for the offensive text message.

I learnt how to use mockingbird to represent the videos and text of a puzzle I would present on a website. I learnt how to add text and move the videos around and position them neatly.



Overall, I am happy with how the film has turned out as it reflects my original intentions.

2. Storyboards




In this scene, the deaf girl called Emily is attempting to communicate to Brett who she has bumped into down the street. Although, Brett has no idea how to communicate with sign language, so he just looks at her with a confused expression. Emily is upset and worried as she needs his help. She doesn't know what to do, she tries to let him know what is going on.


In this scene, Emily has the knife in her left hand as shown by the knife just inside the frame. In complete darkness, Emily is about to kill Kayla S. due to her sending Emily an offensive text message. 

3&4: Interactive Flowchart











Link to the original film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIvNJopP5xU

The flowchart shows how the narrative of the film can be rearranged by consumers. The Flowchart therefore is not linear and can be rearranged depending on the players intentions.The flowchart shown above is an interactive game that would be used on a website. This game would work like a puzzle, players would need to watch each video from a scene in the film and put the videos into the order they believe makes sense. They can rearrange the puzzle and change the order of the film. This allows players to interactively create their own film and compare their film to the original. A link at the bottom of the website would be present in order for consumers to identify the original intentions of the film and decide which one they prefer.

 5. Additional Transmedia Aspects:

Other transmedia aspects I would like to create include a game about the story; therefore the audience can choose an ending they are content with. As this film does not really have a true ending, the audience might be annoyed and wish there was a better ending. This would satisfy their expectations. I would like to make a website where videos of broken up scenes could be rearranged by the user. Therefore, they are able to create the film they want to see. It could also act like a game as they could try to figure out the order of the film, and then after watching the film they can see how accurately their film matched the original. I would also like to make a similar film perhaps edited a bit better and create the film into a choose your own adventure story. What would be great is making a choose your own adventure game available to play on a DVD player.

Another, transmedia aspect I would like to create is one on a website whereby clicking on different links sends you to different parts of the story. The audience have to assume or create their own story, in regards to the videos they watch on the website.






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