The previous three drafts of the planning portfolio can be viewed in this Google Drive folder.
Showing posts with label Useful Resources. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Useful Resources. Show all posts
Tuesday, 17 September 2013
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 previous three drafts of the planning portfolio can be viewed in this Google Drive folder.
Tuesday, 27 August 2013
EYES Facebook Page
Quite early on in the development of EYES, I made of point of getting the project's social presence established; my thinking was to use the social platforms to work for the project. However, I underestimated how much time and forethought a successful ongoing social media marketing campaign would require. Therefore, the twitter account and more so the facebook page have fallen by the wayside.
However, now that the project is coming to a close I am actively changing that; my thinking now is that the social media platforms can work for the projects after it is completed, if I put a little bit of work into them every now and then. Over the past two years I have learnt a great deal about the Internet through my participation in it with my blogs and my overall online identity. Now, I feel that I am in a better position to effectively exploit the reach of the EYES social media profiles. My reasoning for making the entirety of the EYES project available online via this blog/portfolio is so that I can share it with other people and expand its audience.
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| If you're reading this then you should like the Facebook page! |
However, now that the project is coming to a close I am actively changing that; my thinking now is that the social media platforms can work for the projects after it is completed, if I put a little bit of work into them every now and then. Over the past two years I have learnt a great deal about the Internet through my participation in it with my blogs and my overall online identity. Now, I feel that I am in a better position to effectively exploit the reach of the EYES social media profiles. My reasoning for making the entirety of the EYES project available online via this blog/portfolio is so that I can share it with other people and expand its audience.
Monday, 26 August 2013
Useful Resources
While I was orchestrating the EYES project, the following resources were invulable in helping me achieve the project's success. I would highly recommend each of them!
Tuesday, 6 August 2013
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
Editing Rough Cut 4
I devoted today to editing EYES and producing a new rough cut. I made this storyboard using a new app, I think we will be seeing more of these storyboards!
Monday, 20 May 2013
Rise: A Reflection on Being Enterprising
What follows is essentially my final reflection or plea, if you like. I have put a great deal of work into this project and its holds a great deal of content. I will now allow it to speak for itself.
My attitude this year can best be summed up in the following image.
I would also like to take this opportunity to direct your attention to a resource that has had a huge impact on the project and changed the way in which I think about storytelling as a whole and my attitude towards making a living from that venture.
Synopsis:
The writer's guide was developed through the Australia Council's Story of the Future project to explore the craft and business of writing in the digital era. It includes case studies from Australia's rising generation of poets, novelists, screenwriters, games writers and producers who are embracing new media and contains audio and video content from seminars and workshops, as well as extensive references to resouces in Australia and beyond.
The Writer's Guide has been my bible while undertaking this module and formulating EYES.
Another resource that as had some impact on the project and my thinking in storytelling in general is Getting Started in Transmedia Storytelling. While the guide's strong emphasis on transmedia is not something that I have completely incorporated into my project (it was a strong component in the initial planning stages), you will see that it has still had an impact on my vision for the EYES web series.
By understanding the fundamental influences these guides have had on my thinking, you should be able to understand my intentions for the EYES project and my personal approach to the business aspects of the Creative Enterprise Project module.
My iPad ran out of memory while recording this, hence why it suddenly cuts off. However, I feel that it says enough and acts as a good introduction to what I have done artistically with EYES...
...as well as my intentions for doing so, from an enterprising point of view.
Collected in the notebook below are the online resources I've looked at in an effort to improve my professional image in relation to the module.
This seven month experience has been utterly exhausting, but undoubtedly rewarding!
I believe I have risen a great deal in the last seven months.
My attitude this year can best be summed up in the following image.
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| 'Deshi Basara' means Rise. |
I would also like to take this opportunity to direct your attention to a resource that has had a huge impact on the project and changed the way in which I think about storytelling as a whole and my attitude towards making a living from that venture.
Synopsis:
The writer's guide was developed through the Australia Council's Story of the Future project to explore the craft and business of writing in the digital era. It includes case studies from Australia's rising generation of poets, novelists, screenwriters, games writers and producers who are embracing new media and contains audio and video content from seminars and workshops, as well as extensive references to resouces in Australia and beyond.
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| The Writer's Guide |
The Writer's Guide has been my bible while undertaking this module and formulating EYES.
Another resource that as had some impact on the project and my thinking in storytelling in general is Getting Started in Transmedia Storytelling. While the guide's strong emphasis on transmedia is not something that I have completely incorporated into my project (it was a strong component in the initial planning stages), you will see that it has still had an impact on my vision for the EYES web series.
 |
| While my approach can be considered slightly messy, it is highly intricate and progressive. |
By understanding the fundamental influences these guides have had on my thinking, you should be able to understand my intentions for the EYES project and my personal approach to the business aspects of the Creative Enterprise Project module.
My iPad ran out of memory while recording this, hence why it suddenly cuts off. However, I feel that it says enough and acts as a good introduction to what I have done artistically with EYES...
...as well as my intentions for doing so, from an enterprising point of view.
Collected in the notebook below are the online resources I've looked at in an effort to improve my professional image in relation to the module.
This seven month experience has been utterly exhausting, but undoubtedly rewarding!
 |
| My enrollment in the CEP module has been out of a desire for self-improvement. |
I believe I have risen a great deal in the last seven months.
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.
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.
Sunday, 19 May 2013
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.
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.
Online Presence: The Other Online Profiles of EYES
Pretty much close to November time I started pushing EYES online to spread its presence to build up a preliminary following. The IPF Marketing Guide was really the influence behind this use of other online platforms and my initial plan was to use the other online platforms as precursors to the website. Ultimately, I think I was too premature and ambitious because the other online profiles have largely gone to rot. However, the EYES twitter account still gets the occasional seeing too, as does the Facebook page.
Below are links to the other online profiles for EYES.
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.
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'.
Below are images of the template's operations as a demonstration website.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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| 'This Way' enables video content to be the body of the website. |
 | ||||
| As shown above a video is the background of the website. |
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| It has a playlist function that gives the template a Blu-ray main menu feel. |
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| It has a popout menu, again adding to the Blu-ray menu feel. |
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| Other pages/sections of the website appear as modules over the main video. Again, like a Blu-ray main menu. |
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| 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.
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!
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Friday, 17 May 2013
Creative Futures Event & Knocking the iBook on the Head
As I've already commented in my previous post on the iBook, I had volunteered to be a part of the Creative Futures Showcase event. Unforetunately, the event has suffered from some poor organisation as it is the first year that it has been tried out and the first time the Uni has trialed the iBook software. The main problem I have suffered from is the fact that the Uni has only installed the iBook Author software in one of the computer rooms, a computer room that has timetabled classes. Therefore, I've had to work around people and, as such, I have not been able to devote any substantial time to the iBook.
However, the event organisers said I could still come and promote myself but without my iBook I didn't see much point. I also reasoned that I could use the time more productively. To this end, I completed the second rough cut of the pilot!
I managed to get into the Publishing Lab today to do some more work on the iBook. However, I was still not able to finish it, so I have printed off a paper copy of everything I have managed to do and this I will submit as part of my appendix.
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| My update in the Facebook group. |
However, the event organisers said I could still come and promote myself but without my iBook I didn't see much point. I also reasoned that I could use the time more productively. To this end, I completed the second rough cut of the pilot!
I managed to get into the Publishing Lab today to do some more work on the iBook. However, I was still not able to finish it, so I have printed off a paper copy of everything I have managed to do and this I will submit as part of my appendix.
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
EYES iBook
One of the things I volunteered to be a part of was the Creative Futures event the University is trying out this year. For the event I have to create an iBook demonstrating aspects of my project and I have to attend the event where I will promote myself to industry professionals.
However, I don't think I will have the book completed in time! It was always going to be a tall order with the production of the iBook only taking place in the last two weeks. The Uni has even acknoweldged that they miscalculated all that was involved. My biggest problem has been the fact they only installed the iBook Author software in one of the computer rooms; a computer room that has timetabled classes, so I've had to work around them. Thus far, I've managed three sessions in there: Friday 3rd May (Induction session), Wednesday 8th May and, today, Wednesday 15th May.
Yeah, I think I'm going to have to knock it on the head!
It's slightly disappointing because I was looking forward to the event, but it's not a complete waste, as I can still submit the iBook as part of my project Appendix. It would also have meant that I would have got out of doing a Viva, but my aversion to doing one was only because I wanted to finish the module quicker. However, now that the film department have given me an extension to cut down my dissertation I won't be finished until the 31st, after the scheduled Viva slots.
I'm glad that I've had this brief dabble with the concept of the iBook because it has opened my eyes to their potential and, certainly, it is something I would endorse the University to use more. Although, I would recommend that they be a little better organized next time.
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| Editing my iBook |
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| The cover of my iBook. I still need to add a subtitle and my name to it. |
Yeah, I think I'm going to have to knock it on the head!
It's slightly disappointing because I was looking forward to the event, but it's not a complete waste, as I can still submit the iBook as part of my project Appendix. It would also have meant that I would have got out of doing a Viva, but my aversion to doing one was only because I wanted to finish the module quicker. However, now that the film department have given me an extension to cut down my dissertation I won't be finished until the 31st, after the scheduled Viva slots.
I'm glad that I've had this brief dabble with the concept of the iBook because it has opened my eyes to their potential and, certainly, it is something I would endorse the University to use more. Although, I would recommend that they be a little better organized next time.
Friday, 10 May 2013
Saturday, 9 March 2013
Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics
I've been reading this book since starting the creative enterprise project module and its content has proven invaluable.
The Filmmaker's Handbook
As ever, this book is proving to be a huge help. I originally invested in this for Planning and Making a Film and it has been used continuously since then.
Friday, 1 March 2013
EYES Vlog Update 6: Technical Concerns
In
these vlogs I discuss some of the technical concerns I've had in regards
to filming, the test I've done to explore these problems and the
solutions I'm going to implement to illuminate them when we do actually
film the Pilot.
For best results put the video qualities up to 1080p.
EYES Vlog Update 6.1: Lighting Problems
EYES Vlog Update 6.2: Sound Problems
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