Presentation of our completed proposal

Completed branched narrative flowchart

Detailed character backgrounds

Log line, treatment and theme

Log Line:

A plane bound for Budapest has crashed in a remote wooded area. An injured man from the wreck regains consciousness to the sound of screams, making it apparent to him and the other survivors that their problems have only just begun; there’s a killer in the woods amongst them.

Treatment (backstory):

An aeroplane full of passengers departed from St Petersburg bound for Budapest. The plane mysteriously crashes, splitting into three sections across remote, uncharted woodland. Most of the passengers have sustained injuries and some are dead, however the lives lost are still unknown.  Having gone through such a devastating experience the remaining survivors are left isolated and vulnerable with no idea where they are, or how to seek help. Among those that survived are Mason (a middle age, introverted male), Summer (a young optimistic nurse), Pierce (a soft-hearted, humane, single father) and his shy teenage daughter, Natalie.

Due to the plane splitting into three parts the survivors have been spread across the desolate woodland, instinctively, those that remain are trying to find each other.  Meanwhile, a passenger is found dead in a suspect manner, creating trepidation amongst the survivors. Despite their already perilous situation, the survivors now face a greater threat. Sunset is fast approaching and their bewildering surroundings intensify their fears.  With no authority figures to guide them, and nowhere to hide, the choices each person makes will dictate who survives.   

Theme: Wood You Survive? Is an adventure drama with aspects of a thriller narrative. 

Setting: We chose the woods as our setting because we felt it was theme appropriate as the woods isolation provides the right tone and feel for a drama with thriller elements. The enigma of the unknown within the woods adds to the dramatic tension of the situation as it plays on the wilderness and draws the audience (player) to create an idea within their head about what could be waiting for the charter in the woods; whether that is other survivors, opposition or wild animals. 

Continued ideas and planning

Having successfully completed the majority of our planning our focus as a group has now been towards refining the small details of our work. For example, upon reviewing the original flowchart slight amendments have been made. We decided that each alternative ending should represent a different theme: safety and relief, self-inflicted isolation, strength and survival, and lastly doomed inevitable defeat. We felt like this would add an increased sense of importance and significance to the choices the views made and show a lesson. We also altered the beginning sequence in order to add a plot twist, which allowed the opportunity to incorporate foreshadowing expositions. Furthermore we refined the backstories of each character, adding a considerable amount of death; by doing so we affirmed our understanding of the characters as well as aiding the actors get into the mind-sets of their character. We felt that creating greater depth would enable us to portray the characters more effectively whilst authenticating the film more.

Upon identifying these improvements, we have come to realise the importance of self-criticism. In hindsight, choosing an indoor setting with a similar isolated appearance may have been more beneficial. This would negate potential issues during filming such as the weather, or accessibility. Despite this, we are still satisfied with our choice of a wooden area as it conveniently accommodates our creative plotline and theme.

 

Continued ideas planning sessions

Since our initial brainstorms we have now fully decided on our plot and have created characters and the interactive choices they are presented with. Each member of the group now has a designated role in the production based on their strengths are skills. Rosie has created the character backstories; Conor and Lauren have created the storyboards and Andrea has created the flowcharts and treatment. Once these are completed initially we will review them as a group to analyse and amend any changes. We also picked our on set production roles, which are as follows: Andrea, Director. Rosie, Audio. Conor, Camera. Lauren, first AD.

Research Commission: Task Two- Secondary Research

After looking into my specific area of interest,  I then began to explore the product area of promotional videos, my chosen product for this task. I first looked into the meaning of promotional videos and cross-referenced from a number of different websites to gain an across the board definition. From this, I then looked into the logistics of promotional videos and decided on the styling and genre that I would want mine to be. I also did research into similar promotional videos, for example, I looked at university and college websites to gain an idea of the type of styling and formatting of their videos. From this, I then looked into any companies that specifically made videos for schools, colleges and universities and came across Affixxius Academic. I studied their portfolio and looked into their aims, and goals as a company, as well as watching some of their promotional videos. This helped incredibly as they had created a wide range of different videos, using different styling techniques in relation to their customer needs.
Since all my research is now collated into a portfolio, I am now able to analyse the results of my research and draw a conclusion on the findings to see whether my proposal is plausible or not.

Bibliography:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-promotional-video.htm

http://www.reelmarketer.com/2011/01/how-to-make-a-video/

http://www.ox.ac.uk/research/research_impact/impactsvideos.html

http://www.affixxiuseducation.co.uk/portfolio/loretto-school

http://www.carshalton.ac.uk

Originating our ideas for our branched narrative interactive fiction game

As a group we have been tasked to create a branch narrative computer game in the form of an interactive fictional story. Our combined skillsets include storytelling; design, filming, scriptwriting and 3D modelling will aid our assignment and allow us to create a game that fits the brief.

Initially, we considered a post-apocalyptic horror genre, using zombies as our hook, however we collectively decided that the portrayal of a dystopian theme would be far beyond the reach of our student resources and capabilities, as well as the difficult nature of realistically and believably creating zombies. It could be done, however we felt it would look immature, therefore decided to put our efforts into something that would look more professional and seamless; anything too distant from our desired ideal would compromise the integrity of our overall production, therefore after breaking down our options we decided to base our story in a secluded wooded area which passengers on a charted plane had crashed in. As a group, we chose this as we felt it would instantly convey our theme of action adventure and offset the feeling of isolation and vulnerability, which we felt would engage the audience better as they could empathise with the characters; drawing from our previous experience in storytelling analysis, it is evident that the audience are captivated by the presence of danger, therefore making this an ideal genre to select. The most successful stories in film and the media emotionally compel the audience; due to this we feel that as our story is based on life or death situations, we are optimising our ability to emotionally immerse the viewer.

NESCOT And The Community Survey

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Research Commission: Task Two- Annotated Research Portfolio, Primary Research

Following the creation of my academic research proposal I then wrote a summary about NESCOT from my findings on the official NESCOT website. I cross-referenced these facts from other sites including Wikipedia, The Independent and The Telegraph.
In addition to this, I also followed up from the interview with Paul Wilson by writing a summary of the notes taken. From this I did extended research into some of the points covered in the interview. For example, NESCOT's Sports Tutor Dan Raffo participated in running a marathon in Sierra Leone, however, from the interview I did not assertain the amount of money raised, I therefore researched this on the 'Just Giving' internet charity platform.
As part of my primary research, I considered the 'community' aspect and then began to research the College's influence and involvement. I accessed online newspapers, such as The Guardian, as well as charity sites, such as The Blue Cross to gain information about the work NESCOT has done. I also looked into the official NESCOT website regarding the facilities available to the general public. From this, it then sparked the idea 'what does the local community actually know about NESCOT?'. I then created a questionnaire to gain an understanding of what the local community know about the college, and whether they know about any of the facilities available to them as non-students (The next blog post includes the questionnaire). I will distribute this by hand on Epsom high street as well as broadcasting the online survey to my social social media sites.

Bibliography:

http://www.justgiving.com/Daniel-Raffo

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/universities-and-colleges/9983875/North-East-Surrey-College-of-Technology-NESCOT-guide.html 

http://www.independent.co.uk/student/into-university/az-uni-colleges/nescot-north-east-surrey-college-of-technology-458990.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_East_Surrey_College_Of_Technology

http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/education/educationnews/4194331.Nescot_college_in___100m_refurbishment/

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/nescot-leads-saudi-arabia-women-only-4868378

http://www.bluecross.org.uk/478-120440/nescot-college-to-help-blue-cross-find-families-for-homeless-cats-.html

(All accessed on 1/10/2013)

Research Commission: Task Two- Academic Research Proposal

After being given and reading through the research commission, I initially looked at the NESCOT website to gain inspiration about the possible area I could look into and create a suitable product about. From this, I saw the college had a previous history that was heavily involved in music and was used as a popular venue in previous years. I also looked towards the charitable events that the college has participated in. After an interview with Paul Wilson, Head of External Relations at NESCOT, it came to light that the Colleges goal for this product, and the 60th celebrations in general, was to show the College in a positive light towards the local community. This swayed my decision into choosing NESCOT's links to charities, as well as their impact and involvement in the local community. From this I drew up an academic research proposal, whereby I stated my initial findings from the website, my research objectives as well as my proposal summary for the project.


Bibliography:
http://www.nescot.ac.uk (Accessed on 30/09/13)

A crash landing indeed- After Earth

Years after a catastrophic event on earth, father and son duo- Will and Jaden Smith are forced to land on a now foreign and inhospitable planet earth, thus being forced to embark on a perilous journey to return home safely. 

Straight off, the premise of the film sounds dull and over-done; time after time we've seen father-son bonding over tragedy/ coming of age films, which to a degree is acceptable, although predictable, however when you have an 'actor', and I use this word very loosely, like Jaden Smith it is almost unbearable. Much like Kristen Stewart, he is full of vacant expressions and his tone and projection is undesirable due to his stilted accent and exaggerated pauses. He completely ruins any strength the narrative has by his inexperience and lack of emotion- lets face it, he's never going to be his father, and the irony is that the film is about a son trying to follow the legacy of his father. Even Will Smiths natural charisma  cannot bring this film back from its crash landing- literally.  

Despite the fact Will Smith donated $122,500 to the film as well as co-producing it alongside his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, this film is obviously a platform for Jaden, but sadly and shamefully fails to launch him.  As Kevin Carr puts it, its "no better than Rebecca Black's 'Friday' video- a bought and paid for vanity piece for a spoiled teenager."

The films only redeeming quality is its average visuals of an overgrown, decrepit earth; it encapsulates a clear vision of what earth would look like with the loss of all civilisation. As well as the solid CGI creatures, its somewhat refreshing to see an action film that is not teeming with extravagant visual effects and fast cuts - apart from that the film is cinema oatmeal- bland, predictable and mushy. 

Rosie's Review Rating: 4/10