This week in class, everyone had to present their ideas on what they wanted to do further research on for their final project. I did plenty of research prior to the presentation before deciding on what I want to really commit on researching for the rest of the semester.

In the beginning, I wanted to do some studies on frame rates because I find it very interesting and there isn’t much explanation out there that really explains the theory behind why certain frame rates provoke certain emotions in a film. It’s very common that we shoot at 24 fps (frames per second) because that’s how the human eyes see things, but I was advised not to take on this topic as it may be too complex and we wouldn’t have the equipments to explore this subject.

In order to stay on track, I decided to take on the second film technique that really catches my interest, the manipulation of time and space in films. Recently I’ve been doing my own research on films, and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” by Charlie Kaufman really caught my attention. It was because the sudden change of emotions in the beginning of the film and after the credits that hooked me and got me invested in the film. The question of “what the hell is going on?” kept ringing in my head, making me hooked on to the film. And that was the idea right there, how do you hook your audiences to your story, while simultaneously telling 2 separated stories in a different timeline.

What really tickled my curiosity was the way of a non-linear storytelling that I find really intriguing as I rarely take the chance to do new form of storytelling in the fear that my film might suck. I am happy and looking forward to testing this new film technique, and hopefully it might teach me a new way of no-linear storytelling.

After a tiring week of shooting and editing, the final short film is finally done! The short film consist of element which connects the story with a Facebook page, giving an insight of Keith’s life. The Facebook page works as an transmedia component that ties the story of Keith’s life together. Furthermore, the page also shows other people working in the office that was featured in the short film. Speaking of the film, the character was based on a video game that was played by a teammate, Jamie. We build a character based on that video game, which was then the birth of Keith.

Over the 3 weeks of planning, filming and editing, I am very impressed with the product that was produced by me and my team. This comes to show that with teamwork, we can overcome many obstacles. Although it was a tiring and energy draining few weeks and days of sleepless nights, to see the film come together gives us the sense of completion. Everything went wrong to us, until the very end, even during the day of submission. Audio failure, continuity, color balance etc, but it was all well worth the effort.

Overall, I had a great semester learning from a awesome lecturer, teammates and classmates!

After spending a crazy amount of time in planning and shooting, it’s finally time to move it to post production. Post production is where we put all the pieces of the film together and create the full film. Post production plays an important role in term of pacing the film together, putting a clip too long may bore the audience, too short may seem too rushed and unprofessional. This is also the stage where we encounter problem such as continuity, ambience overpowering the audio, incorrect color temperature and so on. At this stage of the film, patience is necessary and could take up to weeks fixing the film.

Bryan Loh hard at work.

As you can see, some of us stayed back in RMIT until 12AM in the morning, putting the film together. it was definitely a difficult process but we managed to pull through the night. After finishing the first draft, it was then viewed by other group members and giving feedbacks on how it could be improved. Due to the actor’s sudden change in performance, we decided to cut down a significant part of the film out in order to keep it entertaining.

Overall, every group member had to pull their strings in order to get this film together. Whether it was editing or giving a simple feedback, we worked together and manage to create a short film.

Shooting in a different country has definitely been an eye opening experience. Not only did I get the chance to work with different kinds of people, but also hear the stories of each individual actors that can work at the same time, pursue their dreams to be actors. It amazes me on how well received this people are from society, unlike the country I came from where people would look down on you upon  pursuing an acting career.

while on set, communication among the team is very important as it keeps us coordinated with one another on what scene is next and how we are going to shoot it. Due to the lack of man power, we had to utilize all our potential resources, which includes manpower. Jamie was in charge of  recording the audio while at the same time checking the master shot for continuity. Jono on the other hand was in charge of making sure the actors are well fed and up to their acting standards, while me and Bryan had the duty as the cinematographer which involved framing the shot and making sure that the shots worked together well in post production.

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” Ansel Adams

Same could be said for cinematography, the shot is only as perfect as how you decide to shoot it. Overall, the first day of shooting went well and I am impressed by the progress we made as a team.

In the planning stage for our short film “TOMORROW”, it was proved important for us to meet in class weekly as all of us have a different schedule. During this stage, my role as a cinematographer was to visualize the the looks of the story and how the film would play out. Besides that, working in a team of 4, it was important that all of us were on the same page and direction of the film. We spent about 3-2 weeks planning on the dates of the shoot, and tried to cover all aspect of the films as much as possible. Below is the attachment for the planning of the film.

Schedule for the film:

ShootSchedule.doc

Working with a new group of people from the class that I’ve only just met for barely a semester proved to be quite an interesting challenge. Interesting for the fact that each of us had our own perspective of transmedia storytelling, and a challenge because I have yet to sharpen my communication skills. Even though communicating with the group proved to be a problem for me, I tried my best to communicate with them and contribute in to making a better film. All in all, I’m really enjoying working with my team, it really gives me a new perspective with working with other people.

While preparing for the pitching, I could honestly say that the experience was pretty nerve wrecking as it move out of my comfort zone. It made me nervous for several reason because first of all, I was pitching an idea that wasn’t fully developed, and towards and audience that I’ve only spent 2 months getting to know. As a cinematographer, I believe that your work shows your talent, and precisely why I’m not really comfortable pitching to others, especially a large crowd.

In the process of getting ready for the pitch, my teammates were really supportive in helping to prepare my role in the pitch. Although it was my role was just to pitch the idea about how the framing and angles of the film will be shot, it proved to be a challenge just to speak in front of a new audience.

While preparing the storyboard, our teammates would usually just meet in class to discuss about the idea of the film. Due to the difference in everyone’s busy schedule, the only time that we could compromise upon was the class time, so attending classes proved to be vital in the development of the story to the film.

We started off by developing our main character, Keith then later made a story that revolved around his life. His character has been based off a video game that one of my team member, Jamie played. We wanted to emphasize on the theme of depression and overcoming depression as it proved to be an interesting topic that caught all of our attentions.

Overall, it was a very fun and new kind of experience for me. Now that I know how pitching for a new crowd feels like, I can be better prepared for the next one.

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.

Alter reality gaming is an interactive networked narrative that uses a real world platform to give a transmedia storytelling experience to participants by delivering a story through their participations. The purpose of this is to bring a story created by a game/film to a real life experience for participants to anticipate.

An example would the recent rise in Esports, Dota 2. The International is a international Dota 2 competition hosted by Valve themselves. In the attempt of making the event a success, Valve came up with a strategy to get casual players involved in this competition by getting them to participate by “game predictions”. At $10.00, a player can purchase a compendium online, also known as E-book to show their support of the team and country. Every victory that they predict through the compendium, the players will be rewarded with an in game item, which could be sold at a high price depending on rarity. For every E-book purchased, $2.50 goes to the prize pool of the competition, and just last year the prize pool came to a staggering $10.7 million.

Besides using the compendium as getting active gamers involved, they hosted the event at Seattle. In the event, a “secret shop” was set up for players to purchase merchandise. These merchandise carry with them a code which can be further used to receive items from the game. By taking these steps, Valve is “rewarding” players for supporting the game. Besides that, the Dota2 tournament designed it’s structure according to the game’s map. the middle lane is where all the actions happened, and there is precisely where the competitors compete for the prize pool.

In this report I’ve picked up a few new things about transmedia storytelling and the crazy amount of work that was put in to the Dark Knight campaign in order to make it a success.

To build a story that involved 10 million people across the world and doesn’t revolve around the main character definitely took my interest in this report. As mentioned in class, the people who participated in the campaign help built the story to the release of the film. The I Believe In Harvey Dent campaign that rallied the streets all over the world demonstrates the support of Harvey Dent even in the film, making the whole Dark Knight campaign feel like a prologue to the story that the film intended to be.

It was also quite interesting how 42 Entertainment (The viral campaign organizers) spent 15 months prior to the movie in order to get 10 million people worldwide to participate.

Overall, the report thought me the importance of utilizing multiple platforms in order to expand the way a certain story is told. The Dark Knight campaign demonstrated that when the use of multiple media is used correctly, an amazing story and experience can be told to an audience. It is no wonder why the Dark Knight became the top grossing film of 2008 despite the competition it had ( Marvel movies, etc).

Rules:

Be reachable at all times.

No idea is beyond compromised.

If any issues arise, contact group members immediately.

Perform the best of ability for the best of the group.

Keep yourself accountable.