Facebook Cast and Crew Site - http://tinyurl.com/lines-webisode-Cast-Crew
Myspace Official Site - www.myspace.com/lines-webisode
Twitter Official Site- www.twitter.com/lineswebisode
Friday, 12 February 2010
Clear Marketing Links
Facebook Official Site- http://tinyurl.com/lines-webisode
Facebook Cast and Crew Site - http://tinyurl.com/lines-webisode-Cast-Crew
Twitter Official Site- www.twitter.com/lineswebisode
Facebook Cast and Crew Site - http://tinyurl.com/lines-webisode-Cast-Crew
Twitter Official Site- www.twitter.com/lineswebisode
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Group Reflection
I think as a group, most of us worked quite well. I think the group mostly worked quite well together, as we got all the necessary paperwork in on time and managed to meet every deadline we were set. I think the marketing group worked quite well, as the videos were available and easy to find when they were supposed to be, with clear links to the various websites you could watch it. It did appear, however, that many members of our group were posting links themselves instead of just leaving it to the marketing group, which is fine, as if more of us post it, more people are shown via friends lists and things.
Unfortunately, the website that was being made for our website was apparently made, then something went wrong and nobody bothered to fix it, so we had to use a website that Dave made on dreamweaver, a program that we don't have at school, so Dave was the only one that could edit the website. This was a big problem, as the website is now incredibly dull as we had to create all the content and e-mail it to Dave, who, at the best of times isn't really the most helpful person and when contacted seems somewhat hostile to anyone.
This was a bit of a problem, however we decided we would just leave Facebook as our main website, and keep that constantly updated, as we can do it anywhere. We changed director for each episode, so each one has a marginally different feel to it, but each are good for different things. Our organisation, i think was very good, with Tara and I working as Production Manager and Production Assistant respectively. We made sure all the paperwork was done, request forms, budgs, bookings etc. Kirk worked very well to make sure everyone had work to do and spent lots of time organising us to make sure we were all doing something constructive while we were working.
When it came down to actually shooting the episodes, we weren't quite as tight first time. With Kirk directing, as he hadn't planned the shot list or the storyboard, he didn't really know exactly what was happening when, and got a but confused with the storyboard. We managed to work around this, however, but we didn't get quite as much footage as we would have liked to edit. The second time, with Dave directing, we were filming with almost military efficiency, film, stop, next, film, stop etc. This meant that we got all the shots we needed, but didn't get much in the way of extra footage, for any last minute changes. We also did basically one shot for everything, so we didn't have much footage to play with. Whilst Matt was editing the footage together to create the episodes, we were slowly figuring out how we needed to play this game to ensure we got everything we needed in the time we had. When it came to Mike's turn to direct, 3 of us went to shoot one of the flashbacks, while the others went through a rehearsal of the script so they had an idea of what to do before we had to film. I think this worked, because we then got everything we needed in just about enough time.
I think this was bound to happen, first shoot, you make some mistakes but you learn from them so the next time you can improve. We also took the feedback we were given from the class and tried to work around that. I think as a group, most of us worked quite well together, one or two people really didn't pull their proverbial weight though, which i think was really unfair to the rest of us, who were working constantly to ensure we could film and stuff.
Unfortunately, the website that was being made for our website was apparently made, then something went wrong and nobody bothered to fix it, so we had to use a website that Dave made on dreamweaver, a program that we don't have at school, so Dave was the only one that could edit the website. This was a big problem, as the website is now incredibly dull as we had to create all the content and e-mail it to Dave, who, at the best of times isn't really the most helpful person and when contacted seems somewhat hostile to anyone.
This was a bit of a problem, however we decided we would just leave Facebook as our main website, and keep that constantly updated, as we can do it anywhere. We changed director for each episode, so each one has a marginally different feel to it, but each are good for different things. Our organisation, i think was very good, with Tara and I working as Production Manager and Production Assistant respectively. We made sure all the paperwork was done, request forms, budgs, bookings etc. Kirk worked very well to make sure everyone had work to do and spent lots of time organising us to make sure we were all doing something constructive while we were working.
When it came down to actually shooting the episodes, we weren't quite as tight first time. With Kirk directing, as he hadn't planned the shot list or the storyboard, he didn't really know exactly what was happening when, and got a but confused with the storyboard. We managed to work around this, however, but we didn't get quite as much footage as we would have liked to edit. The second time, with Dave directing, we were filming with almost military efficiency, film, stop, next, film, stop etc. This meant that we got all the shots we needed, but didn't get much in the way of extra footage, for any last minute changes. We also did basically one shot for everything, so we didn't have much footage to play with. Whilst Matt was editing the footage together to create the episodes, we were slowly figuring out how we needed to play this game to ensure we got everything we needed in the time we had. When it came to Mike's turn to direct, 3 of us went to shoot one of the flashbacks, while the others went through a rehearsal of the script so they had an idea of what to do before we had to film. I think this worked, because we then got everything we needed in just about enough time.
I think this was bound to happen, first shoot, you make some mistakes but you learn from them so the next time you can improve. We also took the feedback we were given from the class and tried to work around that. I think as a group, most of us worked quite well together, one or two people really didn't pull their proverbial weight though, which i think was really unfair to the rest of us, who were working constantly to ensure we could film and stuff.
Using the online audience
FINAL REFLECTION for the weekend: "Using your experiences on this project and relating your programmes to other webisodes you have researched, discuss how taking account of the online audience affects the process of showing creative work"
By taking into account the online audience, the process of showing work has changed dramatically. Before internet was a mainstream service, available to basically everyone, if you wanted to show something, you had to produce it and show it either on TV, or by giving someone a physical object, such as a video or DVD so they can watch it. If a show was on TV, you had to either record it or make sure you were home to watch it. Nowadays, however, you can watch a lot of mainstream TV via online catchup such as BBC iPlayer, or 4OD. With products like webisodes, however, the internet is even more useful that simply a means to display your product to a bigger audience. Especially if you create the episodes as we have, where you film one or two, release it and wait for the response.
The internet is useful simply due to the sheer convenience of it. Hundreds of thousands of people all over the world have access to the internet. This graph clearly shows the amount of people with access to internet from various parts of the world. Being able to tap into this incredible amount of people simply by uploading a video is mind-blowing. Though i very much doubt that the internet is ever going to replace traditional forms of showing work, such as TV or theatre, i think it will be a close call for a while. TV has faults, being that everything is only shown at a certain time instead of when you want to watch it, but that's what Sky+ is for. The internet, however, while you can watch almost whatever you want whenever you want, it has to be streamed from somewhere on the internet so you have to wait for it to load, buffer, download or whatever you are doing to play it. I have spoken to people who feel that TV will soon be a thing of the past in favour of online TV, because it's more convenient but i disagree. For our purposes, advertising our show on the interenet was the best thing we could have done, as we managed to target our audience easily as it was aimed at teenagers really, and teenagers basically live online nowadays.
If we had solely advertised our show through conventional methods, such as putting adverts in papers or on TV, not only would we have totally blown our budget instantly, but we would have attracted the wrong audience. My stereotype of somebo
dy who would read the paper, is a 'suit'. Does some dead-end job in an office somewhere, somewhat older than our target audience and wouldn't care about a 3 minute episode about some kids locked in detention. Adverts on TV, while they would potentially hit far FAR more people than our methods, again, even with a big budget, a traditional TV advert is about 30 seconds long. That's 1/3 of our show shown in the advert. These factors considered, the internet seemed the best option, because there is still a massive audience, and social groups mix and match with millions of people. If one of my friends joined the group we set up, it would then tell all their friends about it. Then they could check it out and if they liked the look of it they could join, and it would tell their friends about it, as the image shows.
Online video sites such as YouTube are very useful because you can upload videos, send people links to them, get them to watch them and wait for them to make comments on it. Occasionally this will be good and you can use your feedback to improve you show. If you get several comments saying 'I don't like this character because of this reason' you can decide to kill him off in a hilarious way, or change the character. Changing a charatcer already known to the audience, however can be risky as some people wouldn't want them to change, or it could get confusing. You can also ask people what they would like to see in future episodes of the show, so you can aim your show towards what people say they want, instead of what you th
ink they want. You can also find out various stats about your video such as the star rating (out of 5), where it has been viewed most, the age groups that are watching it and how people have come across it.
It does also mean that your audience base increases significantly, a video i made last year, an animation of the CSI: Miami opening credits, now has more than 1,700 views, as you can see, mainly in America and Canada, but it has been viewed all over the world. This in an incredible audience i would not be able to access without the use of the internet. This is because when i crated it, i posted a link of a worldwide forum, so people from all over the world got the link to it and could watch it whenever they want.
Mass forums like this are a great way of getting your products out there. When Dave actually got round to putting the first episode of our webisode on FacePunch, an online forum, our first episode is rolling into 800 hits, with plenty of feedback. This number dropped signifiantly with episodes 2 and 3, because he didn't bother posting them on time for whatever reasons. Hopefully they will get uploaded soon and our videos will get more hits.
While we still decided to put up posters advertising our show, i believe using the internet was a
better way to advertise, because it is just easier. The use of Social Networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace can easily increase your fanbase, because it is a good way to get constant updates and information about the series you are following. Red Vs Blue is a good example of this. It is an incredibly popular machinima webisode made from Halo models. As you can see, their FaceBook page has over 120,000 fans, and they announce whenever episodes are going to be released and how things are going. This type of information makes sure that anyone following you is constantly reminded about the show, and the more you say about it raises the hype for the next episode. You can send someone a link to a video, and all they have to do is click on it. If we had only advertised on posters, the first episode wouldn't have got many hits at all, because people can't be bothered to remember web addresses or anything unless they are incredibly interestd in what is on the site. As our posters didn't really say much about the episodes, i don't think they would have got much attention.
By taking into account the online audience, the process of showing work has changed dramatically. Before internet was a mainstream service, available to basically everyone, if you wanted to show something, you had to produce it and show it either on TV, or by giving someone a physical object, such as a video or DVD so they can watch it. If a show was on TV, you had to either record it or make sure you were home to watch it. Nowadays, however, you can watch a lot of mainstream TV via online catchup such as BBC iPlayer, or 4OD. With products like webisodes, however, the internet is even more useful that simply a means to display your product to a bigger audience. Especially if you create the episodes as we have, where you film one or two, release it and wait for the response.
The internet is useful simply due to the sheer convenience of it. Hundreds of thousands of people all over the world have access to the internet. This graph clearly shows the amount of people with access to internet from various parts of the world. Being able to tap into this incredible amount of people simply by uploading a video is mind-blowing. Though i very much doubt that the internet is ever going to replace traditional forms of showing work, such as TV or theatre, i think it will be a close call for a while. TV has faults, being that everything is only shown at a certain time instead of when you want to watch it, but that's what Sky+ is for. The internet, however, while you can watch almost whatever you want whenever you want, it has to be streamed from somewhere on the internet so you have to wait for it to load, buffer, download or whatever you are doing to play it. I have spoken to people who feel that TV will soon be a thing of the past in favour of online TV, because it's more convenient but i disagree. For our purposes, advertising our show on the interenet was the best thing we could have done, as we managed to target our audience easily as it was aimed at teenagers really, and teenagers basically live online nowadays.If we had solely advertised our show through conventional methods, such as putting adverts in papers or on TV, not only would we have totally blown our budget instantly, but we would have attracted the wrong audience. My stereotype of somebo
dy who would read the paper, is a 'suit'. Does some dead-end job in an office somewhere, somewhat older than our target audience and wouldn't care about a 3 minute episode about some kids locked in detention. Adverts on TV, while they would potentially hit far FAR more people than our methods, again, even with a big budget, a traditional TV advert is about 30 seconds long. That's 1/3 of our show shown in the advert. These factors considered, the internet seemed the best option, because there is still a massive audience, and social groups mix and match with millions of people. If one of my friends joined the group we set up, it would then tell all their friends about it. Then they could check it out and if they liked the look of it they could join, and it would tell their friends about it, as the image shows.Online video sites such as YouTube are very useful because you can upload videos, send people links to them, get them to watch them and wait for them to make comments on it. Occasionally this will be good and you can use your feedback to improve you show. If you get several comments saying 'I don't like this character because of this reason' you can decide to kill him off in a hilarious way, or change the character. Changing a charatcer already known to the audience, however can be risky as some people wouldn't want them to change, or it could get confusing. You can also ask people what they would like to see in future episodes of the show, so you can aim your show towards what people say they want, instead of what you th
ink they want. You can also find out various stats about your video such as the star rating (out of 5), where it has been viewed most, the age groups that are watching it and how people have come across it.It does also mean that your audience base increases significantly, a video i made last year, an animation of the CSI: Miami opening credits, now has more than 1,700 views, as you can see, mainly in America and Canada, but it has been viewed all over the world. This in an incredible audience i would not be able to access without the use of the internet. This is because when i crated it, i posted a link of a worldwide forum, so people from all over the world got the link to it and could watch it whenever they want.
Mass forums like this are a great way of getting your products out there. When Dave actually got round to putting the first episode of our webisode on FacePunch, an online forum, our first episode is rolling into 800 hits, with plenty of feedback. This number dropped signifiantly with episodes 2 and 3, because he didn't bother posting them on time for whatever reasons. Hopefully they will get uploaded soon and our videos will get more hits.
While we still decided to put up posters advertising our show, i believe using the internet was a
better way to advertise, because it is just easier. The use of Social Networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace can easily increase your fanbase, because it is a good way to get constant updates and information about the series you are following. Red Vs Blue is a good example of this. It is an incredibly popular machinima webisode made from Halo models. As you can see, their FaceBook page has over 120,000 fans, and they announce whenever episodes are going to be released and how things are going. This type of information makes sure that anyone following you is constantly reminded about the show, and the more you say about it raises the hype for the next episode. You can send someone a link to a video, and all they have to do is click on it. If we had only advertised on posters, the first episode wouldn't have got many hits at all, because people can't be bothered to remember web addresses or anything unless they are incredibly interestd in what is on the site. As our posters didn't really say much about the episodes, i don't think they would have got much attention.
Focus Group
Today we created a focus group of people to question about Lines. We got 3 people i don't know and Catherine, who played Megan in the show. These are the questions Tara and Mike came up with yesterday:
What do you think of the concept of Lines?
(show first episode)
Overall, what did you think of the first episode? What were the strengths and weaknesses?
Did episode 1 make you feel like you wanted to carry on watching future episodes?
(show second episode)
What do you think is different from the first episode?
What did you think of the second episode? What were the strengths and weaknesses?
(show third episode)
Do you like how the story has progressed over the series?
What did you think of the third episode? What were the strengths and weaknesses?
What would you like to see in future episodes? Would you want a change of characters/different locations etc.
overall questions
What ways did the characters appeal to you, what did you like about them and the social groups they represented?
Do you think Lines was marketed well?
Are there any other ways you think we could promote the series of Lines? (not including facebook, myspace, twitter etc)
Would you look forward to an episode four?
Thank you for taking the time to come to this Q & A session, we welcome any further feedback you may have.
The feedback given by the people was overall quite good. Two of them spoke much more and gave much more feedback than others, but generally they were positive about the show. The also said they would like it if we carried on with the show, so that could be a laugh.
The feedback given by the people was overall quite good. Two of them spoke much more and gave much more feedback than others, but generally they were positive about the show. The also said they would like it if we carried on with the show, so that could be a laugh.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Assorted Graphs and Data
This graph, I made shows the viewing figures for our 3 episodes. As episode 3 has only been out for 3 days, the data stops quite suddenly, unless people suddenly start watching a lot, i don't think the trend will change much though.Here is the first pie chart I made today, showing the percentages and statistics of our amount of views and where they came from.
Here is the second pie chart I made on Pages. Click to enlarge both the images above. You can see the percentages of views in terms of where they came from, so Facebook etc, and this helps us evaluate our target audience in a visual form as well as general statistics.
Detention Deficit
Yesterday, i was asked by the Detention Deficit group to be in their episode. I said i would, and i basically had to stand where one of the other characters was while Haydens character was tripping out thinking Loz's character was some dude called Chief. I dunno, it might look alright when it's finished with effects and stuff.
Episode 3 Progress
This is the 3rd episode of our web-series Lines. After 20 minutes, episode 3 had 30 views. After 30 minutes, it had 45 views and after 4 hours it had 85 views. The day after release, it has 115 views. Again, not as good as the first episode, not even as good as the second. This is bad, because it means less people are viewing each episode :( This might be because they just didn't like it, or they didn't feel the episodes were good enough to tell their friends about, so we didn't get as many views that way.
Monday, 1 February 2010
Monday Feb 1st
In today's lesson Tara and I worked on another poster advertising episode 3. The screenshots below show Tara and I working on the poster. They show us editing the pictures in photoshop that we took off the youtube video of episode 2 and the episode 3 trailer. They also show us adding the pictures to the pages template of the poster and changing the text in the poster. The image below is the final poster for episode 3:
We decided putting posters around college wasn't worth it, as the launch is tonight, and by the time we got around to putting posters up, most people would be gone home. 
Feedback from episode 2
In todays session we have received peer & teacher feedback on our 2nd episode of 'Lines'.
Peer feedback
- A couple of interesting shots
- Strange narrative, cannot understand it (7 People mentioned this)
- Cuts well
- Characters work well
- Sound levels are high & low (5 people mentioned this)
- Taster bit / preview works well (3 people mentioned this)
- Too much in one content in one episode (2 people mentioned this)
- Good angles used
- Jumps too much
- Pointless shots used
- Confusing genre (comedy or drama?)
- Acting is not very good, could be better
- Spy could of been done better, e.g appears in the room like is the skeleton
- Silent moments ned sorting out
- Need quicker cuts
- Continuity works well
- 'Jaws' sound / music cuts in too suddenly & drops out to early
Teacher feedback (Pete)
- Continuity with previous episode (costume, scripting) works well
- Elliot's character has been developed well
- Use of jaws music?
- Suddenly goes silent
- Much better editing than the 1st episode
- Add footage, where it goes black / silent?
- Like the taster for episode 3 at the end
Lines Episode 2 stats
This graph shows where our viewers are watching from, mainly the UK.
This graph shows the places our video was watched - mainly links from FaceBook etc.
This graph shows the amount of views we have had on episode 2 and also the date of which episode 2 was released - which was Friday 29th.
First Episode Views
Shown below are some visual graphs / images which shows more information on the views we have had on episode one of 'lines'. (Taken from episode one)
This graph shows how many views the first episode has had so far. Clearly it peaked quite early on, and then went slowly downhill.
This graph shows how many views all the videos have had. The first episode has way more views then anything else got.
This graph shows where people have viewed the video from, most of them are in the UK, but also the USA and several European countries.
This shows where people have seen the video. Most views came from external links, i assume this would be us putting links on Facebook and MySpace etc.
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