Just Outside The Zeitgeist – Page 2 – Jeremy Costa and his Media Blog

Assessment Task 5 – Individual Reflection

When the Web-series project was introduced, I faced it with a mixture of apprehension and excitement. The prospect of creating a comedy show for the internet is something I felt passionate about because over the last few years I have become a fan of a few series, Jake and Amir and High Maintenance being at the top of the list. These shows both have a distinct comedic voice and tone and I wanted to emulate that on the production side of the semester. What attracted to me to Tits Up was the combination of its office setting and the female centric voice as it overlapped with the simple comedy I have watched for years but also had a strong message to deliver.

Throughout the semester I learnt a lot about the collaborative process as unlike other group assignments I have undertaken throughout the last two years, it involved working with students outside of my course. I have never worked on a media project I have not had a hand in creating or writing and so it was a new experience for me to leave that process up to someone else. One of my positive contributions to my group was my usefulness during the shoots. Most of the production crew were first year media students so my knowledge of cameras and experience helped me to competently capture or direct an episode. While directing the pilot I made sure to fully be aware of everyone’s role on set. I assisted the director of photography as they set up their shot, I ensured the multiple microphones were rolling and guided the actors through every scene. But as we shot episodes two through to five, I was cast as Derek and so while I was acting, I was forced to make fewer contributions behind the camera.

The collaborative process is a challenging undertaking, especially as more people are added. Tits Up started out with seven members but was expanded to nine during week five and the added crew created a difficulty in scheduling and the collation of ideas. The obvious discovery from the process was that constant communication is the key to a more cohesive collaboration, which is something I have always been aware of but have never experienced its necessity. We created a Facebook group to ensure every time a member needed to inform everyone on a change in the script or shooting schedule, we would all be alerted immediately.

During the pre-production period, we were searching for a location on the RMIT campus and I found a suitable space in the study space on level two of building thirteen. While the space had cubicles that resembled an office, I did not take into account that we would have be taking up space in the middle of a room devoted to private study. While we were still able to find the time to shoot our series, we had to be mindful of those around us who were using the space to study, which led to a few shifts in our shooting schedule. Because we could use the school campus without needing any release forms, we needed to settle for the best location we could find and this also limited us to the types of shots we could capture. The tight space between the cubicle and the hallway wall and the layout of the desks made it difficult for us to shoot wide or establishing shots. While this narrowed the range of camera angles we could use, it did force me to use the camera in a different way. An example of this is during the pilot, I changed my original idea of capturing the scene through a still shot to a tracking shot similar to the West Wing. This gave the scene a more dynamic feel, injecting an energy that I felt the episode was originally lacking and I enjoyed moving outside my comfort zone and creating something I would not usually attempt.

Before this studio, my understanding of production was merely from a removed perspective as I love film and TV, so I have read and heard a number of accounts from behind the scenes. One of my favourites is Jake and Amir, a web-series that ran for over eight hundred, two-eight minute episodes and I also listen to the podcast they started after their show ended. The stories they have told from the set on their podcast reveal how Jake and Amir began and evolved into the staple it became for internet entertainment. What started out as a simple video created in their free time became a fully-fledged series, with reoccurring characters, running jokes, call-backs and character development and it lasted as long as it did because of their passion for the show. As I helped to create Tits Up, I realised passion is a key element in providing a driving force to help create something worth watching. As I mentioned above, I have never worked on a project I did not have a hand in creating and so while I devoted as much as I could to making a good looking web-series, I did not inject as much passion as I have for other projects because it was not mine and that is something I could have improved on.

Collaboration, especially in the media industry, is crucial in creating something to be proud of and worthwhile. Communication and trust are cornerstones of the process and this project opened my eyes to what it takes to be a helpful member of a team, and that knowledge is unparalleled when facing a future creating alongside others.

October 27, 2016 Assessment Tasks, Good Form No Comments

Week 7 – Pitching our projects with Good Form

This week was one of the biggest for our collaborations as the writing and production teams came together to pitch their web series to a panel of four experts. First up was Tits Up, the team creating a workplace comedy with a twist, focused on a rivalry between Helen and Scott, two coworkers vying for an important promotion. Next up was Shriekers, the horror/comedy following the exploits of a group of students trying to survive the night at their school as a horror script they wrote begins coming more than fiction. Third up to the plate to pitch was Jeff and Jane’s Quality Fun Times, the children’s show which is definitely not for children, who showcased their hilarious first script read. The fourth and final pitch came from the group behind Cleaned Out, the series which will follow the weird and wonderful exploits of an after hours university janitor.

Here is a look at the week’s proceedings.

September 9, 2016 Good Form No Comments

Good Form – Assessment Task 2

Cracked- After Hours – Why Sauron Is Secretly The Good Guy In ‘Lord of the Rings’, Describe and Analyse

The webseries is a product of the modern era, not just because it exists on the internet but because the web has expanded the entertainment industry to new forms that could never exist thirty years ago. Author Dan Williams states that “Websites like YouTube allow users from all over the world to upload and share their own creations” (2012, pg.11) and this has allowed for more creative series to be published online for anyone to see. Studying After Hours has shown me that online content is created for a more active audience, willing to seek out something that interests them. The show has a rather low production value and is based on a simple premise of four people having a conversation. The comedy and enjoyment stems from the engaging conversation and every episode upwards of 800,000 views.

“After 2005 the advent of streaming video spurred a broader swathe of producers to create original programming and networks across genres and forms, opening a space for Internet entrepreneurs to imagine themselves creating a more open, diffuse and niche driven form of television.” (Christian, 2012, pg. 343). Because of a lack of broadcast network restrictions, online content creators have a freedom to make shows that would not usually fit a broadcast schedule. The ongoing webseries After Hours has been produced for the website Cracked since July of 2010 on a semi-regular monthly basis. An episode of the show ranges in length from seven to fifteen minutes which highlights an aspect of the freedom online videos have over traditional television. The episode length is not dependent on a schedule, and so the creators can make it however long they wish.

In an interview with Stated Magazine, the creators, writers and stars of the series stated that “After Hours is our stab at making videos in the same spirit as the [Cracked] articles. We’ve always been known for our articles and that’s how most people discover the site.” Internet users have the ability to curtail their online experience to their personal interests and so they find content that interests them. Unlike broadcast programs, webseries’ have less financial pressure to succeed and so online companies allow for a more diverse range of content to develop over time. Cracked allowed After Hours to be released knowing that users of their website will be interested in the topics covered. The show discusses a diverse range of popular culture artefacts and yet it is successful because its audience discovered it by searching for something that suited their personal entertainment tastes.

The very nature of the ‘world wide web’ allows for communities to form with users from all over the globe, united by common interests. This research will help inform the rest of my semester as I undergo the process of producing a webseries as it highlights that even though the marketplace for online content is so dispersed, the creative freedom the form allows will invite an active audience to discover something that suits their entertainment needs, even with a simple concept and low production value as our webseries, Tits Up. Entertainment in the modern era is more for the individual user than ever before, and the webseries is the solution to creating diverse content in this ever growing platform.

Bibliography

Chappell, Scott (2012) ‘Profile: ‘After Hours’ Works the Late Shift on Cracked.com’ Sated Magazine. Found online at [http://www.statedmag.com/articles/profile-after-hours-works-the-late-shift-on-crackedcom.html]

Christian, Aymar Jean (2012) ‘The Web as Television Reimagined? Online Networks and the Pursuit of Legacy Media, Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 36(4), pp. 340 – 356

Williams, Dan (2012) ‘Utilising the Web’, Web TV Series: How to Make and Market them, pp.11-20

August 11, 2016 Good Form No Comments

Good Form – Assessment Task 1

We created two versions of the scene. My reflection will focus on the second one.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B32yH54QH6CEYkF6VUJ3M2w4WE0

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx2nOPt1WVq8Ym9McWVkZlduSDA

One moment I think works well is the ending as Matt and Oliver began to improvise a way of wrapping up the conversation by repeating “yeah” until they were face to face. This allowed me to ratchet up the pace of the cuts between shots to create a fast and slightly disorientating finale, heightening the humour as they repeat their appreciation for a cat playing Uptown Funk on a piano.

One moment I think did not work well was the cut-away to Matt saying “Whatever” from another room, playing with a touchscreen because the way the conversation flowed and was edited together did not give the moment enough time to breathe and for the audience to fully take a moment to understand that Matt was suddenly in another room and still responding to the conversation.

If I were to repeat the exercise, I would like to have more time to have the actors memorise their lines. This would help in a few ways, one being that they would not have to look down at their scripts while shooting. Another way this would help is that by familiarising themselves with the core of the script, they would have the ability to improvise and change up their delivery to create different comedic approaches to line delivery. I would also use more time to use a better camera and a tripod, to set up a shot-reverse-shot so we could do multiple takes to allow for a more diverse selection in the edit bay.

July 29, 2016 Assessment Tasks, Good Form 1 Comment

Good Form – Week 1

Week 1 of Good Form came and went and I am pretty excited to see what we can create throughout this semester. I was a little trepidations before the start of class at what this studio would look like. I have not had much experience with collaborating with students from another section of RMIT and talking to the Creative Writing students really help to clarify the future projects.

Creating the Project Brief for the major projects was interesting as it highlighted the different forms of comedy web series people are interested in making. The different examples people put forward were diverse but I want to focus on a more character driven comedy. My main reference point for web based comedy is Jake and Amir, I have watched and re-watched episodes and constantly go back and watch a solid chunk of episodes and I would love to create something along the lines of that.

Here is an example of the show the flips the formula and makes Jake the over-the-top weirdo and Amir the straight man. It is also one of my favourite episodes.

July 22, 2016 Good Form No Comments

The Story Lab – Project Brief 4B: Project Reflection

Creating The Barlow Enquiry was an experience I was very apprehensive to begin because of the size of the task that was presented to us. The very nature of an immersive and creative transmedia story is the complexity and death of the core narrative. These initials feelings quickly subsided as I was teamed up with Aidan, Bec and Holly who took my idea and helped to create a project we are all proud of.

At the project shopping market, Aidan and I talked about wanting the mystery to be the key to our project but we introduced the mystery through a personal journey for a character currently living. This is where our fictional character of Atticus Barlow stemmed from, a 20-something man who had just lost his grandfather and in an attempt to feel close to him again, begins investigating his family tree and discovers the mystery of The Right Hand Man serial killer from the year 1901.

Atticus was used as the emotional component of our transmedia story to provide a more compelling reason to become involved in the investigation. The story became more than a murder mystery, it now was a personal journey of family secrets and discovery. One of my roles for the project was to build up the character of Atticus through the use of social media and so I created accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and even before the story had begun, I used them to create a life for the character outside of the mystery. We decided to cut down on the social media and so we removed the Instagram account from the project and I used Twitter the same way any twenty year old would to cement Atticus’ personality for the audience. This was mildly successful as it made it seem as if the character existed in our real life yet only a small percentage of the audience saw the Twitter posts.

Our story became much larger than we originally anticipated through the creation of a secret society called ‘The Hands of the Many’ and having ten main characters from 1901. The most challenging aspect of our project was the creation of evidence for players to use to piece together the identity of our serial killer. To develop a convincing mystery, we had to make a lot of documents that formed a cohesive narrative while also littering clues across them all so the players were not spoon fed information. This was challenging and I think to fully realise each component, we should have spent more time in the early weeks of the project focusing on our story so we could map out exactly how much we needed and how the evidence would connect.

Our project followed our statement from week seven rather closely as throughout the project we remained dedicated to creating Atticus as a three-dimensional character. We wrote his blog updates from his perspective and used Twitter to build a life outside of the investigation.

We also created the anonymous character Elizabeth Oshiro who had been investigating the same case during the 1980’s for different reasons. She is the source behind the planned dead drop who wishes to remain anonymous so she uploads files to USBs and places them in Melbourne for the players to find to create our ARG component.

I enjoyed creating The Barlow Enquiry and working with my fantastic team and this project provided in-depth insight into the creation process of a transmedia story.

June 3, 2016 Assessment Tasks, The Story Lab No Comments

The Story Lab – Week 12

So, I made it. I have no idea why I am always surprised that I do or that I’m shocked that it went so quick, but here I am. I had a great time in The Story Lab this semester because it pushed me to learn about an aspect of the media landscape that I have known about but little about how it worked. I chose The Story Lab as my first preference for a studio because I love story and I am a huge fan on television and movies and how they exist in the world today. They are no longer confined to simply exist on one screen to be viewed when they are scheduled. The internet has created avenues for stories to expand exponentially and online options such as streaming and digital downloads allows audiences to create their own, curated viewing experience. I knew from Dan’s pitch that the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be discussed during the twelve weeks and being a big fan of the series (having watched every piece of main content in the expanded story) I used my experience with the franchise to get a glimpse at what the studio would involve. In the back of my mind, I knew planning would be key to a transmedia story, yet at the end of it all, having completed one myself, I now know just how critical it is. A part of the early semester that really stands out to me is the advertising campaign for The Dark Knight, with content ranging from online to real world components, videos to actual cake. I am not one for getting involved in ARG’s, preferring to spend my time watching the aforementioned television and movies yet now that The Story Lab has opened my eyes to what it involved in crafting such a intricate and immersive narrative artifact, I will definitely be on the look out for more.

Also, there are going to be Marvel films until our planet explodes, so I it is not like I can ever escape.

May 27, 2016 The Story Lab No Comments

The Story Lab – Week 10

As we continue to work on our transmedia story, it has become clear that in-depth planning is crucial to the success of the narrative. For our project, planning is key to make a truly engaging story as the entry point is through the clues and pieces of evidence uncovered by Atticus Barlow. To ensure everything fits together and the story makes sense, out group must meticulously plan every document and clue relevant to the case before we release it to an audience. This is made even more difficult by the fact that we cannot control how an audience will use and follow the narrative so we are attempting to create a story that lessens the possibility of a participant losing their way. This is a tricky maneuver to pull as we cannot spoon feed our audience of they will not be fully engaged and lose interested but if w make it too hard, the same thing may happen. That is why planning is so crucial as it creates a map of the narrative which can assist in any outcome to provide a backup in case something occurs outside of what is expected.

May 9, 2016 The Story Lab No Comments

The Story Lab – Week 9

Following the project pitch, our group used the feedback we received from the panel and applied it to our project. The feedback was very useful as it gave us perspective on how to properly approach creating a manageable transmedia story using the four weeks we have left and the four people in our group.

The first major point from the pitch was that we were advised to create multiple other fictional, modern characters or use ringers to stoke the flames of audience connection and curiosity. A second point was to focus on the bridge between 1901 and 2016. There is a 115 year time gap and many things could happen during this time. This could be another party who had previously researched The Right Hand Man during the interim which could lead to existing research for Atticus and the real world players to find.

Taking this , we have created another fictional character known as Elizabeth Oshiro who was investigating the same case in the 1980’s. A student who also happened to stumble upon the case and it enthralled her and so she devoted a portion of her life to finding out who The Right Hand Man was. She will be the catalyst to help Atticus and the payers uncover more information, an enigma who discovered knowledge that got her nowhere and no she is helping this investigation. She will also be the fictional creator of the dead drop, she will want to send out information to help uncover the mystery but will want her identity to remain a secret, thus a secret anonymous drop will be how she delivers it to the players.

May 4, 2016 The Story Lab No Comments

The Story Lab – Week 8: Project Pitch

Pitching The Barlow Enquiry to a panel was an exciting experience as it allowed us to receive information from people who have the knowledge and the experience of planning and executing a transmedia story. We explained the various aspects of our project, from the core characters such as Williams James Barlow and Attcius Barlow. We explained how we would use Atticus as a catalyst to engage an audience, showcasing our intended use of his blog and various social media platforms. We also highlighted the crux of our ARG and how we will involve a real world audience to help solve our mystery.

The feedback we received was helpful as the panel had a greater sense of scope and capabilities for this type of ARG. These are a few of the main points we received from the panel.

We were advised to create multiple other fictional, modern characters or use ringers to stoke the flames of audience connection and curiosity.
Focus on the bridge between 1901 and 2016. There is a 115 year time gap and many things could happen during this time. This could be another party who had previously researched The Right Hand Man during the interim which could lead to exsisting research for Atticus and the real world players to find.
Attention to detail is necessary for the real world discoverables
Do not talk down to the audience as we need to let them drive the narrative so they can feel fully engaged. If we are spoon feeding them information, they will not have the drive to investigate but if we provide a small amount of clues, there will be a lack of entry points.

April 27, 2016 Inspirations and Ideas No Comments

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