I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration.
NDIN : Audience Analysis
Why are you creating this story? Goals, rationale, purpose, premise? What do you want your audience to experience or understand?
This project is a series of three – minute 360 degree travel documentary demonstrate the beauty and lifestyle of specific cities. As the main purpose of this project is introducing and dedicating the beauty of Melbourne City in a various view angles, so the project has three different themes. Each of them includes 2-3 short 30-second- 360videos and published in three sections relevant to the themes in the website. This is a non-linear narrative way which give the users coming to the website the power to select their most interesting theme and videos to watch.
What is your story? In what way will it be original, surprising, human, passionate, truthful or relevant to your audience?
This project is A non-human protagonist series of 30-second-360videos demonstrates beautiful Melbourne city in three different themes including landscape, foods, and lifestyles relevant to a continuous 24 hours. It will bring audiences a brand new perspective to know the journey to the main attractions of the particular city from the sunrise (5 or 6 o’clock in the morning) to midnight. The project, a combination of 360images, Observational Type of Documentary without voice-over and fast-speed background music, will be hosted in a simple interactive website which viewers will have the power to choose which theme and which video they would like to watch.
Where will you publish your story? What platform/s and hardware are suited to your audience? E-books, blogs, videos, photos, podcasts, tweets, status updates, apps, games, forums, websites?
The platform for the visual graphic novel will be launched on VR 360 degree tools : 360 FLY (spherical camera) will be used to shoot the 360 videos. Drone and Quad copters which help to capture the better view from bird’s-eye view but this might be changed due to the council permission for the professionals, license and safety. YouTube and Facebook will be the publishing platforms due to their capacity in bringing out the 360 degree video and their target audience. Adobe After Effect, Premiere, Photoshop and Illustrators will be used to edit the videos.
Who is your audience? Who is your target viewer/user – i.e. the group you will target in promoting the work?
The project will be delivered to the target audience by publishing in travel agent groups in social media platforms that support 360videos such as Facebook, YouTube and in our website. As the main subject matter explores not only the travel agents but also the traveler users, this social media strategy will use the Facebook platform to gain organic reach and views, while also assisting to make ‘viral’ spreadable media without an actual marketing budget. Also, teasers with normal video experiences will be used in Vimeo, Instagram and so on.
When will you create the content and start to engage your audience? What is the production process and publishing schedule?
The content has been created I set my group member, we have got Anh who used to work as a marketing strategy and Zoey who can be a producer. The thing is that I want to keep the group as small as we can, everyone can do their own work professionally without any dramas.
EXPECTED TIMELINE
Week 2: Presentation
Week 3: continue working on Pre-Production stage
Week 4: Shooting Schedule for Landscape
Week 5: Shooting Schedule for Food
Week 6: Shooting Schedule for Entertainment and Lifestyle
Week 7: finalizing the rough cut
Week 8-9: Finalizing all videos and website
Week 10-11: Teasing
Week 12 : Final publishing.
How will your audience participate in the narrative? Will they be able to contribute to the narrative, alter the narrative, respond to the narrative?
Audiences can share posts to different social media platforms and leave comments below the posts by creating quality with 360 degree video, users interact with the video by tilting phones / drag mouse in desktop verse to watch 360 degree images so the audiences can get a new better level experience as they standing out there.
NDIN : Write a digital narrative outline
Following the interesting successful series of 30-second-360videos demonstrates beautiful Melbourne city in three different themes including landscape, foods, and lifestyles relevant to a continuous 24 hours, I have the interest in doing the second part of it with Sydney , which is called the Vivid Sydney. Similar to the Melbourne 24 hours series, the Vivid Sydney will be a combination of 360images, Observational Type of Documentary without voice-over but text in fast-speed background music, will be hosted in a interactive website which viewers will have the power to choose which theme and which video they would like to watch. However, as the upgrading version of the Melbourne one, the Vivid Sydney will be hosted in a professional interactive website created with Javascript and jQuery with AR interface, then the 360 degree videos pop up due to the choice of the viewers.
THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
Vivid Sydney is one of the most interesting and popular festivals in Australia which occurs in 23-day. Vivid Sydney features many of the world’s most important creative industry forums, a mesmerising free public exhibition of outdoor lighting sculptures and installations and a cutting-edge contemporary music program. Therefore, in my point of view, 360 degree-videos will be an excellent visual images with background music to describe it.
There is only one theme of Vivid festival the videos focus in – LIGHT. Light is one among three interesting events taking place in the festivals. Light is used to tell the story of each event by popping up in the building / towers or on the mist. So the premise of the series is introducing and illustrating the Light stories of ViVid Festivals in 360 degree.
There are 10 one-minute videos narrating 10 Light stories in the series – appear at the same time in the website interface. Then users have the ability to choose the story they desire to follow next by scanning on the AR image of it, and the 360 degree video will pop-out. This nonlinear narrative structure will help to welcome users to interact and select the content they want to watch.
10 expected stories will be carefully selected from the LIGHT 88 events of Vivid Festival based on its highlight and length, so the choice of content is various and fixable.
NDIN : Analyse a digital narrative
Choose Your Own Adventure is one of the most famous Interactive comedy series of Mike McAlister. Unlike other typical linear comedy genre, the viewers have the power to choose the way the story ends.
Story elements:
Events : A simple but interesting story of the man who meets his unstably emotional and vulnerable girlfriend which requires the viewer to choose between 2 options to make sure he can keep the relationship. The story structure is not so complicated but quite challenging the viewers to select the right options. Its non-linear narrative structure may bring the concentration from the users.
Actors: The Protagonist – The boyfriend who needs help from viewer ; The Key support roles – his vulnerable girlfriend and a random guy protagonist meet on the street.
Time: In the present time.
Place and props: The living room where the guy meets his girlfriend is the key place and some important props such as flowers he plans to give her leads to the event or his job offer letter at the turning points.
Narrative elements:
Ordering: The story is told in the order of time starting from the time the protagonist coming home until the end of their ( him and his girlfriend ‘s ) argument – chronological way ). There are also some flash forwards used in the story.
Pace: This story happens in real-time pace. The story is told continuously and immediately after options are chosen.
Focalisation: The narrator is not the one who controls the way the story happens but the viewers. The story happens continuously with the point of view – the choice of the users.
Narrator: It is clear that the protagonist is the narrator in this story as he leads the story with the particular events. However, as the viewers have the ability to choose the next events, they are the ones who tell the story too!
Text: This interactive comedy provides the viewers with options in text in order to let them have more time to decide and have clear understanding of choices they make.
Traditional narrative features:
Linearity: “Choose your own adventure: Talking to your girlfriend” is a non-linear story because it does not run from beginning to end in a straight line, there are multiple options at ends of each clip.
Series of conflicts: The conflict of the story is the argument from the point of view of the protagonist and his girlfriend. Unlike other linear story, the conflict has different solutions from the viewers’ choices, which leads the outcome of the video – the guy will be killed, be single or win the adventure.
Protagonist and antagonist: It is clear that the guy is the protagonist who the events conflicts mainly go around him and the story is his adventure of controlling over his relationship. His over-emotional girlfriend is the antagonist who is a threaten to his goal – maintaining the relationship.
Three-act structure:
Act1, the protagonist, gives an introduction of the story with his particular situation with his girlfriend to an audience, so they understand what is exactly happening in the story, and how they participate in this project.
Act2, during the video playing, we can know the ideas and positions can be changed quickly, and any “impropriety” actions of the protagonist can cause entirely different ends.
Act3, the narrator-guy has his own end based on the story’s event choice of the viewers during the whole story.
Hero’s journey: the story starts with an ordinary world where we can see a chubby guy in a white shirt and nerdy glasses on the way to visit his girlfriend with some beautiful flowers (just like the most of the guys in the world), then he has to deal with his girlfriend’s emotional issues. At the moment, an audience wants to know what is going to happen next, so he was giving himself the advice to different things to amuse the girl.
Digital narrative features:
Numerical coding: this is an interactive video which is embed with hyperlinks to other platforms at the end of each clip.
Modularity: This interesting digital project is the combination of several modules such as real visual images, background music, and interactive options in text.
Variability: take the video as an example, different clicks can lead to the story end with various results (won the game, be single and be dead).
Programmed elements: the interactive function/ choices.
Participatory aspects: by participating with interactive clicks in the video, audiences are able to choose their own story lines.
NDIN : Personal choice
For this task, I come up with the idea that new computer technologies that use virtual reality headsets to generate the realistic images, sounds and other sensations that replicate a real environment or create an ideal setting. Besides, as a computer graphic, I’m interested in this area then I tried hard to find out how to make it, and public online in 360 views and I got it done.
So, this is the video to show 360-degree editing method.
NDIN : Simulation
In this task, I choose option 1. A website shell for an online drama/documentary.
I use Mobirise to creating an example website.
This is the browser preview :
file:///Users/Apinun/Desktop/index.html
NDIN : Narrative flowchart
I’m a computer graphic designer, and in this project, I working on production and post-production area, what am I going to do on this post is to show the step from the beginning of create a 360 degree video until export and public it.
NDIN : Investigate digital tools
Hardware equipment: 360fly 4K Digital Camera + quad-copter + VR headset
Software in production: 360fly Director to export footage, Premiere and After Effects to editing the video, Spatial Media Metadata injector to transfer a normal video into 360 view.
Media tools: YouTube, Facebook
Hardware equipment:
360 Fly Camera: Capture the entire 360° space with a single shot, takes the complex process of capturing and creating spherical photos and videos down to a single button press. Using its Wi-Fi and mobile apps, you can control the camera, and edit and share photos and video. Addition of self-timer gets you better selfies or time to get out of the shot entirely.
Drone and Quadcopters: At a small size, quadcopters are cheaper and more durable than conventional helicopters due to their mechanical simplicity. Their smaller blades are also advantageous because they possess less kinetic energy, reducing their ability to cause damage. Just in case, this might be changed due to the council permission for the professionals, licence and safety.
VR Headset: VR headsets are widely used with computer games but they are also used in other applications, including simulators and trainers. Things have gotten simpler since then: outside a few special circumstances, we’re now almost always referring to things you see inside a VR headset like the Oculus Rift. Unfortunately, this definition implies that all headsets are roughly equivalent — that a $30 Google Cardboard will do the same thing as an $800 HTC Vive.
Software in production: As a graphic design that I’ve used Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, After Effects for more than six years, I believe that Those are the most powerful tool for media industry. one of the reasons that goes to its malfunction. It almost can achieve all I needs that I’m going to use on my social media networking, such as Illusion design, digital painting, animation, etc.
The concept of those programs is modification, it is very important to organized different aspects of images or clips. It can bring various of effects of your works.
However, there are still massive software can be used. More important thing is that those software make illusion much easier to pick up than traditional tools, that will make our work more attractive.
Social media site:
Facebook: it may be the most effective way to reach wide range of audience, and posts are easily to share. Moreover, the main target audience is travel agents all around the worlds to publish the series into their Facebook fan pages to bring the messages to both the travelers and the travel agents. or in other devices. The database of Facebook shows that users are very average, it means almost everyone on this planet are using Facebook now.
YouTube: It is a video site. all videos are uploaded online can be shared in other sites. With 360-degree video, users interact with the video by tilting phones and drag the mouse in desktop verse to watch 360-degree images
IMC Intercultural reflection
Planning our documentary film is essential because I want to make sure I have all the information needed before we start doing. When I’ve done the research and I have all the information about our topic I need, I can structure our info film in a way that captures the attention and interest of our audience.
This is why I tell the story with our interviews, voiceovers, and video clips. It’s an opportunity to explore our topic and to pick out the interesting information or the moments I would like to present to the audience. It’s also a chance to get to know the characters and understand why they’re involved in our info film.
In our small crew’s documentary, the main section will include interviews from the cast and crew of the film, video clips to go with the interviews, and facts and information about how the film was made and what inspired the story. The aim is all about to present information that the audience may not know.
When I make a documentary, I might want to make a list of all the information and items I want to include in the film and then create a list of character interviews. Then, put this list into an order that will keep our audience interested throughout the film. Imagining the way the audience feels and the questions they may ask helps I choose the information to include in the documentary. Use this list to create a shot list, which shows every shot to include in the film.
For this project, a brief has been already negotiated prior to the start of semester. While the brief is unlikely to answer all the issues that the project must solve, it is important to take it literally. It is unlikely that the client will wish to diverge from it. It is likely that your negotiation will only concern the details rather than the main concept. It is important to respect your client’s expertise. They understand their audience better than we do. They know what sort of media their community understands and uses.
Pre-production
We were having an internal discussion around who the video is actually for, how we can best present Longinos in the video as well as what the video should look like, and we thought the best thing to do would be to sent an email and give Lynnet Ngigi (our clients) a call as a group by Skype so we can pitch a few ideas to them.
At this point, I think about how we’re going to tell the story. From the research, I found the documentaries can be told in different ways, such as through the use of a voiceover or through what the characters and subjects say. A voiceover is a popular way to narrate such films, but letting the characters tell the story can feel more natural.
If we using a voiceover, write the script before filming. This helps to create a shot list and to structure the film. Our voiceover should always present information; it should never have an opinion. On the other hand, if you’re using your characters to tell the story, be sure to have a list of questions to ask them.
In the way to communication with our group member, I found that using Message Facebook is the great way to do because we can share image, file, doco, even more a short clip or voice to our team and also update what our work up to.
Depending on our project, I decided use our characters to tell the story, so we discussed a number of questions to ask them.
In addition to these conceptual considerations, the screenwriter must ask a number of practical questions as well:
· Why is this film being made?
· What does the producer/client/financier want to achieve through the film?
· Who is the targeted audience and what should their reaction to the film be?
· How much does the audience already know about the subject?
· What will be the film’s technical conditions of use (Black & White/Multi-colour?
RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH: I CAN’T SAY IT ENOUGH!
Every film, especially a documentary, has a ‘value’. This could be social, political, historical, philosophical, artistic or of some other kind. The amount of research a scriptwriter puts in is directly related to the ‘value’ of the film. In the rush to get started, many people often skim over the research process. Especially in films that involve subjects of a personal nature; for example: a person’s journey within his own family to explore social dynamics. A scriptwriter could be instructed to write a script on a live event that was shot some time ago, like a riot, or for a film on the thoughts and feelings of a celebrity already captured in detail on camera. He might ask himself, “How can I possibly add anything more to the subject information?” Even in films that seem straightforward and detailed information has already been given to the scriptwriter, there is always room for more research. There are simply no shortcuts that will provide the quality of a well-researched film.
As the scriptwriter, I must ask some important questions:
· What have I not yet been told about this subject?
· Is everything I have been told the truth? How much do I need to verify?
· What would I personally like to know about this subject?
· If I were a member of the audience, what would I want to learn about this subject?
· What can I find that is little known on this subject?
· If the shooting has not yet started, what information can I gather that would aid the filming process?
WRITE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Before I give interview question, take a look at this list of things to think about when writing the questions to ask in those interviews. Asking open‐ended questions can help I avoid one‐word answers. I may also want to ask two questions together to get the most out of the answer. It’s really useful for us when working from different cultures.
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Who? Whom will interview? My interviews can play an important part in my film, so choose my characters carefully. Choose people who are confident enough to talk on camera and have the knowledge to answer the questions clearly. I may wish to include information about the characters in my documentary, so think about the questions I could ask to get this information.
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What? Think about what I’ll ask the characters to get more information about the topic. I may wish to ask questions about their experiences and how they are involved in the topic to show their knowledge.
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When? If I am creating a documentary film about an event or a party, then the date and time are quite important. I may want to ask my characters questions about when they do something or how often they do it.
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Where? I may wish to include questions about the location or venue of the topic, if it’s needed. I could film my interview in a place that’s connected with the topic.
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Why? Using why in my questions is a great way to get more information out of a character or subject during the interview. Questions beginning with why are simple, but they’re more likely to give me longer and more emotional answers.
Just like painting, the prep work often takes much longer than the actual paint job. And in fact, it’s a mistake to rush into shooting without thinking everything through.
Post-production
A documentary is any non-fiction video or film that informs viewers about a real-life topic, person, event, or issue. Some documentary films provide us with educational information about things that aren’t well-known. Others tell detailed stories about important people and/or events. Still others try to persuade the audience to agree with a certain viewpoint. Whatever subject I choose, filming a documentary can be a serious undertaking.
In this project, the production part wasn’t our job. We engaged with the experience of working with other people from different cultures. We just received the footage from other that we’ve been dealing with by social media such as Google dive, email, Skype it seems made life mush more easily. So, skip into post-production process.
So here you are.
I’ve received all footage and now ready to sit myself down in front of my computer and start making magic. I need to organize it in an order that is interesting, coherent, and will keep the viewers’ attention. Make a detailed shot-by-shot outline to guide the editing process. Provide a coherent narrative for the audience to follow that proves your viewpoint. Decide which footage will go at the beginning, which will go in the middle, which will go at the end, and which won’t go in the film at all. Showcase the most interesting footage, while cutting anything that seems meandering, boring, or pointless.
Here’s my post-production check-list:
- Log tapes, examine & study footage
- Create a script – I’ve written up a whole page just on this topic
- Choose music: research music libraries, work with a composer or look into purchasing copyrighted materials like a pop song (David job)
- Edit your documentary – click here for a step by step editing guide
- Strategize on a distribution and marketing plan for my film
- Check all the legal stuff to make sure I won’t get
Edit the film.
We have all the pieces – now it’s time to put them all together!
Use a commercial editing program to assemble our footage into a coherent film on my computer. Remove everything that doesn’t logically fit into the theme of our film. Take my time during the editing process – allow myself plenty of time to get it just right. When I think I am done, sleep on it, then watch the entire film again and make any other edits I think are necessary.
- Make our film as lean as possible, but be the director to work with a reasonable and ethical editor. For instance, if, while filming, I encountered strong evidence that goesagainst our film’s viewpoint, it’s a little disingenuous to pretend it doesn’t exist. Instead, modify the message of our film or, better yet, find a new counter-argument!
Do a screening.
After I’ve edited the film, I’ll probably want to share it. After all, films were meant to be watched! So we’ve shows our rough cut in the class (Assessment 1: Work-in-progress) to my friends, and the tutor whose opinion I trust. Then we got many value feedback.
- Be prepared to get honest feedback. Ask our viewer(s) to review our movie. Tell them not to sugarcoat it -I want to know exactly what they liked and what they didn’t like. According to what they tell me, I may choose go back to editing and fix what needs to be fixed. This can potentially (but not necessarily) mean adding hight quality of our interview works.
- Get used to rejection and toughen up. After investing countless hours in my documentary, I expect audiences to react and respond. Don’t be disappointed if they aren’t “over the moon” about my project; we tend live in a media-consumptive world today and audiences have high expectations and low tolerance.
We’ve sent an email to Lynnet Ngigi to tell her that our team has just cut together a first draft of the video. we wanted to share the first draft of the video we have produced. So she can see the first draft and we were hoping she would be able to send us some feedback on the first draft. It would be great to get the feedback on this first draft to fix.
Keep editing
Editing a documentary is neither easy nor fast. Even when we start with an outline, that outline is likely to change as we get to know the footage, the subjects and events. A good place to start is to look at all the footage while suspending judgement. Look for and collect those magic moments of truth and beauty. Then I can begin to string them together and see what flows.
Research in structuring the documentary
Documentary structure is often determined by the film’s subject. There are a number of common structures used in documentaries:
- “Voice of God” narration tell the story
- Interview clips tell the story
- “Day In the Life” where the camera follows the subject
- The filmmaker appears on camera and guides the story as a first person guide, such as Michael Moore, Werner Herzog and many others
- Re-enactment of historical events using actors, photos and stock footage.
Some documentaries use a combination of these structures. It comes down to telling a complete story. Narration and titles can be used to weave the separate pieces and ideas together into a cohesive whole.
As a documentary editor, I’ll spend a lot of time on the desk in processing the output. I will essentially create a frame by frame story from a haystack of video shoots. I’ll spend hours and hours on the audio processing. And even after I’ve decided on the final piece, and maybe years after I’d have made the documentary, I might still dwell on the question where you selected the right shots and right sequences. Remember to shoot a lot. Keep the camera rolling as much as possible. I’ll realize how seemingly useless frames fit into the design beautifully later on.
Expository Mode of Documentary – Sound n Image
In my opinion, the expository mode of documentary is one of the most popular types of documentary. This mode involves straight introducing of an idea, argument or opinion through plot, characters and themes. This type of documentaries always includes an intention or standpoint. Sometimes, it does present both sides of the story but there will still be a clear argument or standpoint. Expository documentaries often have a narrator or presenter that guides the audience through the documentary, and have strong impact on viewers’ opinions and feelings. Some will even use the subjects, characters and factors such as hetorical questions, facts, opinions and persuasive techniques to guide the audience. they play an important and diplomatic role in persuading the viewers in the way they want them to understand. Along with other modes of documentary, the expository mode can sometimes be mixed with other modes of documentary to present a strong idea or point of view. It depends on the creative mixture among their properties and characteristics.
In fact, the Expository mode is strong enough itself in providing idea and leading viewers’ point of view based on good combination of speech and images, in which speech plays the main role of telling story while images bring out best demonstration. Bill Nichol, in his book Introduction to Documentary, stated that Expository documentaries relies mostly on spoken words. The narration speech is strong enough to make the viewers understand the ideas even without the images. However, illustrative pictures or footages will help to strengthen the story.
This is the expository documentary that I really like the most. “Super Size Me.” (Watch at Speed 1.25x for the original speed.)
EmotionsART 