It is important that every member in the group played their roles. Once the group was formed, we established the roles and duties to everyone, and for me personally, I volunteered to play a role as the cinematographer. Having experience from working in a production house, it was important for me to contribute as much as I can as I’m weak in certain aspects in making film, especially pre-production.
When we first started planning for the film, building our main character was important. Once we established the characteristics of the main character, we then move on the build a story that revolved around his life. Going around the theme of depression and giving a second chance in life became our story as we created the story bit by bit.
To explain a little more about how we plan to use transmedia storytelling, we must first know the synopsis of the film. The main character of the film (Keith) is a guy who wakes up every day of his life, thinking about how depressing life is. He has a repetitive lifestyle, which is wake up, go to work, then come home and play video games. Although he’s trying to change he’s trying to change to a healthier lifestyle, Keith never really felt motivated enough to start the change. In his working place, he has a colleague named Ryan, who constantly tries to push his healthy lifestyle on to others especially Keith. Keith not only feels irritated by it, but he still constantly make fun of Ryan’s advice and ignores it.
As mentioned above, his life revolves around videogame and work, so as a falling off point of the film, we decided to make the working place that he is in as a Facebook page, to further extend the story and also to give more details about Keith’s everyday life at work. Besides giving audience’s a different view of Keith’s life, the Facebook group also serves as a satire for the life of the main character. By posting up “inspirational quotes” on the page, the Facebook group believes to inspire their workers, but if viewed on Keith’s lifestyle, it doesn’t seem to be very effective.
We picked Facebook as another transmedia platform simply because it’s easily accessible and used by many people. Followers of the film wouldn’t have to struggle as Facebook is an easily accessible platform and commonly used by people all over the internet.
From this project, I understood better the use of transmedia storytelling and how a wider story could be told from different platforms. Just like the dark knight campaign, the Facebook page doesn’t revolve around the main character, but an actual working place as a whole. By expanding the storytelling platform, we are allowed to enter a whole new world built upon the director’s vision. As a filmmaker, I find this very interesting and I’m definitely looking forward for this film to be completed.