EYES Series Bible

This is a document that provides an overview for the EYES web series concept proposal. It details the story-world rules, story lines, characters, the target audience, the format, thematic focus and artistic/film formulaic style.

EYES Planning Portfolio

As part of the Creative Enterprise Project module, I was required to produce a document that would detail your vision, research and planning for your project. This is my planning portfolio document which is a synthesis of a the Planning Portfolio document I produced before Christmas and the updated one I completed just before the final submission in May. In addition to the Appendix Materials, this document is an expression of the administrative elements of the project.

The previous three drafts of the planning portfolio can be viewed in this Google Drive folder.

The End User: Target Audience Considerations

As I've noticed that the Creative Enterprise Project module has a strong emphasis on target audience, I felt that it would be good for me to present what I feel is the target audience for EYES and the research/reasoning that helped me deduce this.

As I said in the vlog, I term my target audience as being in the 'mostly young adult' demographic (mid teen - pushing through the 30s). 

To understand the type of content I am trying to create for that target audience, see Rough Cut 2 - Reflective Commentary.

Below are the research and resources I spoke about in the vlog. These were invaluable in helping understand what a target audience is, how to identity one and how to create content designed for a target audience. 

ReelSEO - The online marketing guide. This is quite literally a toolbox for young creatives like myself.

IPF Marketing Guide: How to Build an Audience for Your Web Series - a step-by-step guide for doing just that. However, the time window of the module would not allow me to follow the guide through and through, but the guide has made for good referencing in times of need. 

Here are links to the two television shows I mention in the vlog: Twin Peaks and Being Human.

The End User: Rough Cut 2 Feedback

The second rough cut and its Survey Monkey questionnaire I sent to 30 people in Facebook network. I was very selective towards the people I sent it to and I made sure that those people fell into the primary target audience for EYES: the mostly young adult demographic (mid teenager - pushing into the 30s). I made a point of sending the items to Facebook friends with different backgrounds and to friends who did not know me that well. This I felt would generate fair and vaired responses from my intended target audience. 

Ultimately, I have only received 14 replies, but the results of those replies are very positive and back up my original intentions for the web series. Below are the results of the completed questionnaires. 

Question 1

70% - what I intended.

Question 2

This is promising - there is a strong likelihood of viewers returning to watch more.

Question 3 

It is interesting to note that same response was recieved for Lianne. But, again, this is promising! The viewer has enough investment in the character to return to the show to see how that character is getting on. As with Boris, audience connection would increase with Lianne as more episodes were screened and the character developed further.

Question 4

The viewers have a good feel for the complexities of the show. This shows that the subtextual layering is having an impact.

Question 5

People seem to be split on this one, but that is okay - the viewer is not supposed to get it the first time around.

Question 6

Spot on!

Question 7

Spot on!

Question 8

While 1 minute is slightly worrying, it is nothing that a bit of trimming can't cure and not the end of the world! It's also interesting to note the peak around 15 seconds -  in the Pilot this is where a shift of realm takes place, where the subtext winks at the viewer.

Question 9

It's good to see that people are drawing multiple interpretations from the Pilot. Most of the these were intentionally imbedded in the Pilot, but I wanted the subjext matter to encourage new meanings. Validation of an intelligent web series concept!

Question 10

For a rough cut, I couldn't ask for better results!

Following on from what I have said elsewhere, these result are validation that I have been moving in the right direction with EYES and my vision of it being an entertaining and unigue web series. To understand just how promising these results are please view the rough cut 2 reflective commentary, as I explain my intention for the show and the type of responses I wanted from the audience.

The Springpad Notebooks

Springpad is something that I have been using a for about two years now, as I read a lot of online articles I find it to be a very good tool for storing the articles I would like to reference later on. Therefore, I have used it to store resources on all of my University work and I have been using it to keep track of all the resources and research I have done for the EYES project and the Creative Enterprise Project module. To this end, I consider the Springpad notebooks to form a part of my project's appendix and they should be reviewed as such!


The notebooks and their items can be viewed in the following embedded windows. Alternatively, you can view my Springpad homepage.











Below I have also embedded the notebooks for my two other final year modules: Documentary Making and Film Dissertation, as the research I did for these has had a very direct impact on the work I have done as part of the Creative Enterprise Module, and vice versa.

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.

EYES Vlog Update 16: Target Audience

EYES Pilot - Rough Cut 2

I have been working on completing a new rough cut of the Pilot and here it is - ROUGH CUT 2!

This is definitely closer to what I have inside my head. Although, there are still ideas I haven't yet implemented.

The current state of the picture and sound are indicative in terms of layout and style, they are by no means representative of the final quality.

Compared to the first rough cut, this edit has more content in it and yet it's a minute shorter! If that isn't progress, then I don't know what is. Editors are like Timelords - they can make TARDISes (that look like Rubik cubes - big hint there) and they can manipulate time and space. 


 
I also created a feedback questionnaire for it, that can be accessed here.

A part of the questionnaire I created using Survey Monkey.

EYES Pliot - Rough Cut 1

Today, I finally completed a rough cut of the Pilot Episode.

Here's the info I posted on it, when I posted it into the Facebook group.

Fencing Documentary

Concurrent to working on EYES, I have also been co-creating a documentary about fencing. This project fulfills the criteria for my final year documentary module. The project itself is comprised of a 6 minute documentary, a 40 second trailer and a 30,000 word wiki recording and reflecting on the process of making the documentary. The six month process of making this documentary has been very rewarding and the experience gained has been hugely beneficial to EYES; for instance, the technical problems we encountered with the documentary's shoot enabled me to eliminate them from occurring with the EYES, see Vlog 6. My overall skillset has greatly improved as a result of undertaking this documentary project.

Another significant learning outcome came from the artistic form of the documentary and how this would appeal to our target audience. As such, the style of the documentary as being very flash and informative came from a desire to make the documentary appeal to a wide target audience. As the main narrative aim of the documentary is moving beyond the elite stereotype and exposing the truth of fencing being a sport for anyone, we wanted to make the documentary appeal to a broad spectrum of viewers. 

Below, I have embedded the documentary and the trailer. Also included are the reflective commentaries I made for the documentary and the trailer.

In its first week on YouTube, the documentary received over 1000 views!

Documentary + Reflective Commentary

The 'Fencing' documentary provides an examination of fencing as a sport and a hobby as it exists in the modern idiom. Combating assumptions about elitism and identifying challenges to both professionals & amateurs. Culminating in a thoroughly entertaining, charming and interesting experience that will leave the viewer with a respect and admiration for a sport that truly deserves it.

Trailer + Reflective Commentary