The Complete Vlogs

These vlogs chronicle the year-long evolution and process of creating the EYES project. You can either view the vlogs as a playlist or as separate videos. 

EYES Vlog Update 24 - Postproduction

EYES Vlog Update 20: Marks and Feedback

Mock-up: A Trailer to Sell the Idea

The EYES mock-up trailer was a component I was very keen to implement into the project, as I felt it would help to strenghten the overal presentation of EYES being a web series proposal package.



The purpose of a mock-up trailer is akin to Kickstarter campaign video - to get funding!

Black Dynamite is a comedy homage to the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s, the film was released in 2009. Below is the original mock-up trailer followed by the trailer made from the finished film.

 

 


Prototype is a film currently in production thanks to the funding its mock-up trailer managed to secure. 



Below is the initial vision I had for the EYES trailer material:

EYES Season 1 Trailer - This will be produced and exhibited online and two versions will be produced: a standalone one (2 mins), that would feature footage from the Pilot, and one to fit on the end of the Pilot (30 secs). I'm keen to do this because it would allow me to hint at what happens in the rest of the first season and would demonstrate that EYES has a story that can continue beyond the Pilot. Producing a mock-up trailer is also a very current concept and demonstrates an understanding of advertising and a completely different style of editing. My plan is to write a trailer script based upon the treatments of the other season 1 episodes and then film this footage alongside the Pilot. Likewise, the two edits of the trailer will be edited during the same period of the Pilot.

Overall, the development of the trailer really just suffered from lack of time and my inability to invest any real attention into it, as I said in the vlog it became apparent to me that it would require an equal amount of time as the Pilot.

The Trailer was something I was very keen to do.

I had many Ideas for the trailer, its contents would have been comprised of snipet-scenes of significant turning points in the first season. However, this plethora of material was part of the problem - I just didn't have the time to sit down to work my way through these ideas and structure them into a form that was aesthetically pleasing. You can read all that exists of the script here.

The trailer would have opened with something like this.

More time would also have been required to insure that everything that was in the trailer synced up with what was in the Pilot episode. This is was even more problematic when you consider that I was rewriting the Pilot at the same time. Therefore, on top of the Fencing documentary and my dissertation, I think I made the right choice in disbanding the trailer.

However, after we completed production, Daniel (EYES' sound designer) put the following video together to showcase some sound design he had done and to demonstrate a possible idea for a teaser trailer.

While a trailer created from the Pilot's footage did interest me, it was something I felt I wouldn't have time to do and I have been proved right. Ultimately, a trailer was an embellishment too far and something that will have to be tried another time.

Video-centric: The EYES Website (that nearly was)

Initially the EYES web series concept proposal was going to be hosted on an original website that would demonstrate the EYES web series franchise presence on the internet and how it would engage with my intended target audience.

 

As I knew building an original website would take up a considerable amount of my time, I started work on it back in November. Following a meeting with the University's Publishing Lab, I invested in a domain name eyeswebseries.com (and got another one free eyeswebseries.co.uk) and a web hosting package through 1&1, it was a special offer package that gave me 6 months free if I signed up for a year.

My original 'Video-centric' plan sketch for the website.

However, due to my other work commitments and devoting the whole of the Christmas break to researching my dissertation, I was not able to devote any substantial time to the website before Christmas. Therefore, the actual building of my website did not begin until the end of January. In addition to hosting through 1&1, I started to build my website on Wordpress.org using a wordpress theme I had purchased on themeforest.net.

The way that I kept describing  my vision for the website was 'video-centric' and, as such, the design of the website would need to place the pilot episode and other video content at its center, as the episodes of the web series is its primary content. While searching for website templates to use, one in particular caught my eye. 'This way' is a theme that epitomises the term 'video-centric'. 

I was always prepared to invest some money into the website.

Below are images of the template's operations as a demonstration website. 

 

'This Way' enables video content to be the body of the website.

As shown above a video is the background of the website.

It has a playlist function that gives the template a Blu-ray main menu feel. 

It has a popout menu, again adding to the Blu-ray menu feel.

Other pages/sections of the website appear as modules over the main video.
Again, like a Blu-ray main menu.

The template's are customisable.

I saw the EYES concept working very well within the 'This Way' theme! The whole aesthetic of the 'This Way' template and its alignment with my video-centric stance was something I really liked. 

A Blu-ray menu with the film playing in the background.

The Blu-ray menu feel of its presentation ensures that the content is always playing and always present; this has an awful lot in common with my vision for the narrative of EYES as being cognitive and something that is continuously very active and always moving. Also, It would have nicely fulfilled the marking criteria for my website:

Website: show good awareness of target audience through the site design; website design should reflect the content of the project, so that the two things work together to tell a story.

Below are slideshows of the some of the Posters and Visual Design Elements I prepared for the project and which would have been incorporated into the website. These images together with the images of the 'This Way' theme should give some idea of what the eventual website would have looked like. 

Additionally, I have some items stored in my EYES Website notebook.





Ultimately, the reason why I was not able to complete the website was due to problems installing the 'This Way' theme into wordpress. I spent a great deal of time trying to solve this problem on my own; when that didn't work, I contacted the chap who made the 'This Way' theme via his forum. He was able to provide me with instructions for how to fix the problem, but it would have required a great deal of re-coding and time that I didn't have. Therefore, I believe I took the right decision in abandoning the website. It was an instance where an element wasn't working in the current paradigm - therefore, I discontinued it. 

However, I did briefly toy with trying to build a simpler website from a free wordpress theme, to fill in for the 'This Way' website. 

This is closer to my original sketch for the website.

Again, though, I abandoned this concept because I was having trouble changing the mechanics of what is essentially a basic blog template into something that is closer to being video-centric. While I was able to engineer this particular theme to look something like my original website sketch, I was not able to make the operations of the website work the way I wanted them to function. Again, this would have required a great deal of coding!


While the loss of the EYES website is disappointing, ultimately, it has worked out rather well. Firstly, I haven't yet completed a final cut of the Pilot and I'm not going to showcase a rough cut on a fully polished website! Secondly, I can use my web hosting package to build a website for myself! This is actually something that I've been wanting to do for a while and something I had put in my initial submission of the EYES Planning Portfolio: 


Professional Profile - This is not something I have to necessarily get marked on but it would be a nice side result of my project. At the moment, I have various online profiles scattered about all over the place and I've always wanted to make an About.Me style hub page that I could integrate all of my other profiles into. Basically, an online CV/professional identity page that would go beyond and be more personal than a LinkedIn profile. Providing I pull it off, EYES and the CEP module would act as a nice testimonial to all the skills I am going to flaunt on this page.


Therefore, the website has a longevity that will persist beyond my participation in this module and, surely, that is the point of the module!

EYES Vlog Update 14: The Trailer

Survey Monkey: EYES Pilot - Rough Cut 2 Questionnaire

Using Survey Monkey, I created an online questionnaire for the second rough cut of the Pilot episode. I didn't do this for the first rough cut as it was missing the first scene, a scene that is curicial in order to understanding the whole thing. Therefore, I waited until I had a thorough representation of what the final product would look like, as now represented in the second rough cut, before I started testing its effectiveness with its target audience. While I'm not able to complete a final cut for the submission, the results of this questionnaire will enable me to identify any problems in the edit and to implement refinements for the when I do complete a final cut, for my proffesional portfolio. 

Below are the 10 mostly multiple choice questions that make up the questionnaire.

Questions 1 & 2

Questions 3 & 4

Questions 5 & 6

 

Questions 7 & 8

Question 9

Question 10

EYES Vlog Update 3: Pilot Script

Here I discuss the status of the pilot script.

Location Recce and Test Footage: Upper Weir - 12/02/2013

The other day I captured some test footage and photographs of the weir at night to assess what lighting issues I would have to deal with when are doing our filming. However, It was a hard situation to assess because the Bath Rugby Ground had their stadium lighting on. To this end, I captured some more test footage and photographs from the following night when the Bath Rugby Ground didn't have its lighting on. 

 

EYES Vlog Update 2: Website

Here I briefly detail the status of the EYES website.

Failure is my Friend

In the seminar we had today, Mimi told us we were all going to fail. However, we should not fear this, but embrace it. It is fortune that I know my project will largely be a failure as I only really care about producing a piece of filmmaking However, I will endeavour to fail as gracefully and intelligently as I possibly can. 

This is one of those cases where it is okay to fail, as long as I demonstrate how what I have learnt from that failure.