The last couple of weeks have been quite hectic but it’s almost at an end with the final week left to finish the project. We are now currently at the editing phase where we go through all the sound and footage we have gathered these past weeks and select the best ones for the film. In the Thursday class we spent some time reviewing the rough cut of several scenes and made choices on what to keep, what to take out and what to add. Having the whole group there was really helpful as it gave a chance to talk face to face about our ideas and discuss them further with each other. Since most of my work has been in the pre-production and production phase I still have been able to help out by giving notes and going through specific sequences with the editor when he had trouble remembering the order. We are planning to meet up again next week at an editing suite so we can review the footage for a final time before we export it. If we do happen to make a change it would be much more time effective to make it before it is exported since rendering is very time consuming.

This was a tough week for the group as we all worked hard to finish shooting the all the required footage for the film. Originally we had planned to film the previous week, but scheduling issues prevented us to do so. This did set us back a few days but we anticipated to have these sorts of setbacks, which is why we are still on target to have it comfortably finished by the 7th of June. Right now we are in the editing process so soon we should have a rough cut done by next week so we can see if we need to do any re-shoots with the little time we have left. We have also had the liberty to take photos with the actor playing the protagonist so that we can make a poster for the film. The poster will most likely be displayed on the 11th of June as part of our showcase of the project. The Facebook page will continue to be updated though out this time so by the time the film is released with the link to the page there will be a lot of content for the audience to read.

At the start of the week I had no idea what to write about in my blog post that was until I started watching the seventh episode of Higurashi: When They Cry. The silly title aside the first six episodes of this show were relatively interesting. You had a young protagonist that recently moved into this peaceful, rural village and it seemed innocent enough until he uncovered a string of murders and disappearances. These tragedies starched back four years and all of them occurred on the evening of the Watanagashi Festival. One thing leads to the other and he finds himself the target of several attacks until on episode six when he dies. Needless to say I was surprised that the main character was killed off this early so I was curious as to how the story will progress from that point on. What was truly surprising was that the story just reset. I thought it was going to be retold from the perspective of another charters but as I continued watching some the events didn’t add up. This story was not the same story as the one I have seen before and that confused and intrigued me. The arc ended in a gruesome death and the episode after that the same thing happened again. The only consistencies I had found are that they all take place in the village and that they are all set after the Watanagashi Festival. I decided to do some research about the show and then it all made sense. The show is based on a choose- you-own-adventure game by the same title. Each arc represented a play though of the game with different choices resting in different endings. I have not yet finished the season and there is a second season so hopefully at the end it will all come together and make sense.

Upon closer analysis of Reinra Gambarato’s reading there was a section that had me reflecting on the role of the audience in a transmedia project. The Giovagnoli extract where American filmmaker Lance Weiler claims that the audience is dead and that they should be considered as collaborators of the media project caused me to rethink about the sheer variety of transmedia projects that exist. That statement may be true for deeply immersive projects that rely heavily on the interaction and the engagement of its participants, it is no way true for other types of projects. This over generalization of what transmedia projects are is why this claim only applies for a certain type, as there are others that give consumers a much less active role in their narrative. My project for instance is essentially a short film with a footing in social media in the film’s universe. Now this sounds vastly different than say Dr. Troy Innocent’s one as his one was much more focused on participation and didn’t have a explicit narrative but they are still both transmedia narratives so it is an oversight by Weiler to not consider that variety of transmedia projects that are out there, one being completely different from the last.

The reading by Reinra Gambarato was quite interesting as the section where an ideal transmedia story will unfold across multiple platforms, with each text being distinctive as well as being able to combine into one big pervasive story. When you look at a transmedia project it is apparent that different parts of the narrative are broken off into separate sections but they are still related and affected by one another. Cohesion is difficult to achieve especially if there are a multitude of mediums that share the same universe. This would require checking back and forth between these platforms to ensure that the stories they are telling matches up with the overall narrative of the project. The use of cross referencing is a good strategy to link back to the overarching narrative as it may reference events or characters in different parts of universe to show a level of awareness between these platforms.