Storytelling in Sword Art Online

My tastes in entertainment have changed a lot in the past year. There was a time in my life (a rough, rough time) when my preference in television was sitcoms like Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. My interests have definitely broadened since then, and I’ve recently begun to take an interest in Anime. 

Since I began watching anime last semester, the most recent one I binged on has been my clear favorite. That show is Sword Art Online, a 25 episode show based off of a novel series written by Reki Kawahara. Sword Art Online is the story of two MMORPG players named Kirito and Asuna. Set in the year 2022, the show takes place in a virtual reality world in which players put on “nerve gear” that literally puts them into the game. The creator of this MMO ends up trapping the players in the game, and they have to play it to completion in order to escape back into the real world. Kirito and Asuna are two of the game’s strongest and best players, and they fight through the 100 levels to challenge the creator of the game, who is the final boss and the ticket back into the real world. In the two and a half or so years that they spend stuck in the game, Kirito and Asuna fall in love, and decide to fight to the end so that they can be together in the real world. When they finally do complete the game however, one of the creators of the nerve gear keeps Asuna trapped in the state of virtual reality and brings her into a new game that he has created. Kirito then must play this new game to defeat the deranged creator of Alfheim Online. It is an exciting, fast-moving story that kept me enthralled the entire time.

I watched this entire series in two days (roughly 30 hours). Having grown up a fan of Harry Potter, Runescape, Eragon, and other fantasy-fiction books/games, Sword Art Online was right up my alley. I couldn’t get enough of it, and I think that is due to quality of storytelling. Now I’ve never seen myself as much of a writer, whether it be for television/movies, short stories, or anything else. This is because my storytelling skills are lacking; I can have an interest idea, but I really suck at expressing it in an entertaining way. I liked this series so much because the story was so relatable to my childhood interests. It had the right balance of action, character development, and general humor/entertainment to keep me hungry for more the entire way through. I know that as I try out my talents in writing this summer (which I think will be fun, hopefully it doesn’t turn out a mess),I will look to Sword Art Online as a guide for developing the plot and characters in an interesting way.

ABC's "Scandal"

After reading a previous blog post about ABC's political thriller "Scandal," I decided to check out the series for myself -- now I can't seem to get enough! I absolutely fell in love with this drama.

The show stars Kerry Washington as the famous Olivia Pope, who leaves her position in the White House after a secret affair with the President.  She starts her own crisis management firm, where Olivia and her associates work hard to protect the reputation of various public/influential figures.  Olivia's love and passion for the President seems very real, and it's clear he's her kryptonite. Olivia Pope is most famous for her sharp instincts; she's almost always able to find the truth by following her gut reaction.

Each of her employees come from somewhat broken backgrounds: Abby Whelan (Darby Stanchfield), an investigator for Olivia Pope, was hired after Olivia worked her case for domestic violence.  Abby's husband brutally beat her, and Olivia was able to get her the best divorce attorney in town.  Another character, Huck, was found homeless on the streets by Olivia.

What I love most about the show is Olivia's independence.  While she still does fall weak to her remaining strong feelings for the President, she does her best to overcome them (so far!).  She's a bit harsh at times, yet all of her employees are willing to bend over backwards for her.  This speaks volumes about Olivia, proving her a trustworthy, but strong character. However, at the same time, she's not completely solid.  Her feelings for the President do sometimes cloud her judgment as she tries to do the best thing for both her and the President.

That being said, while I am fascinated with the storyline, the acting isn't necessarily the high point of the show.  Kerry Washington almost seems like she's trying too hard to seem confident and intimidating.  In addition, some of the stories/cases seem stretched ... but that's why it's a fictional show, I suppose.  The decent acting doesn't kill the show by any means, and the many twists and turns keep me tuned in.

Arby's Project Update

So we literally just finished filming one of our scenes for the project and it went great. We filmed the scene in which (Jake) the main character played by Erich Westfield is being bullied in school on his birthday. The scene consists of a posse of 5 bullies who all make fun of him about his love for Arby's and the fact that his mom was killed in a drunk driving accident by his father. Kyle Vorbach (DP) did an excellent job filming the scene. He used a lot of great close ups and wide angle shots. He did the entire scene without a tripod in order to add to the atmosphere of the bullying. He wanted it to feel as if you were in a group of people spectating this in a school. We ended up filming in a hallway of the CHS building, where it looked most like a high school. We filmed for about 2 hours and are getting ready to plan our next shooting date, which will probably be early next week.

Group Update

Today my group and I filmed on location at my friend's house. It was really nice working off campus because it allowed us to bring a real life element to our story rather than being subjected to campus housing. It was really interesting seeing the characters in our script come to life and I give my group members a lot of credit for casting such good actors. If I could have changed one thing I wished we would have slated our video and audio now it looks like we'll have to deal with that issue in post-production. Today we completed about 70% of all shooting and we intend to finish the rest tomorrow. So far, so good.

Purple Cobra's Project

Yesterday we had our first day of shooting for our project.  We got together our actors and equipment and headed over to the most disgusting apartment I've ever been to.  I think our shoot went really well.  Craig Mike and I worked very well to get all of the shots we needed in order to tell our story.  Of course the scenes in the apartment are not where the meat of the story lies, but it is still an important way to open and close our film.  Obviously you will run into problems every time you go on a shoot, especially in a location as messy as this one.  We were able to overcome difficult lighting, audio and blocking challenges to create a solid final product for the interior scenes.  After shooting my ICTV show all semester in a Studio, it was a real reminder to what shooting on location in the filed is like and how difficult it is to have a very small space to work with.  It also was a nice reminder of how difficult it is lighting wise, where in the studio all of my lights are over head and interchangeable.   The actors took direction well and were extremely solid on their lines.  I was impressed with the amount we were able to get done in the little time crunch and limited crew.  We were very polite and respectful to the people in the apartment.  It will forever be the most disgusting place I've shot a film at. (I hope.)

Welp, it's all over..

Tomorrow, we get to show our fellow students what we've worked on and what we've learned.  Ending the semester is always a bittersweet thing.  You spend a lot of time working on things, put a lot of heart into them, but end up being so happy for it to be over once it is all over. Anyways, I'm really excited to show everyone the hard work all of our group put into our project.  Of course, nothing always goes as planned and we have had a ton of setbacks, from birds and trains on set, to not one, but two macbooks failing but I've always felt that the most important thing you can learn when you're working on something that is important to you, is learning from your failures and working through the hard things that are inevitable to get in your way.  I think our group did just that.  We made the cards we were dealt with work.  Of course, there are things that we could have avoided or do better at certain times, but I believe that we really did work hard to achieve what we achieved and for that, I'm extremely proud of our group.  With that being said, good luck to all of the other groups with their showings tomorrow, its going to be a great day and I'm excited for everyone to see all of our work!  Thanks for a great semester everyone, and of course, the main man himself, our teacher, Arturo.  Thanks again!

Dial M for Murder

This week, I watched my first Alfred Hitchcock film, Dial M for Murder.  It's basically about a guy who finds out that his wife is cheating on him and comes up with an extremely elaborate plan to kill her as way of revenge.  I don't want to ruin the movie but the story is absolutely brilliant.  There are so many plot twists and elaborate schemes that you constantly find yourself thinking one thing is going to happen and then something else happens.  I constantly had to remind my self that this film was well over twice as old as I am, yet it was done so, so well.  Hitchcock was way ahead of his time in his storytelling.  From a video shooting/editing/aesthetic aspect, it was pretty bare bones in my opinion.  Everything was what it was supposed to be, and nothing more.  There were plenty of shots that we consider cheesy now, but they were almost necessary back then.  I absolutely was hooked watching this film.  I definitely plan on watching more of his films from now on.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Tyler

Writing from Experience: True Fiction

This past year I have been working on many scripts and screenplays and I have begun to notice that by far my best works have been those based off of true events or personal experiences.  When I look at my life as a whole I think to myself, what a bland and average story I have.  I have never been shipwrecked, I've never had any superpowers, I've never even been in a gun fight or in a Jackie Chan style brawl.  However, in my opinion, I have found that you can tell the best stories from the details only you have.  My life has had ups-and-downs, as everyone has had, but the ups-and-downs I've had are unique to me.  My experience is my own and no one else's…that is unless I share it with them.

I recently become a finalist for a film award after submitting a script about a man struggling with addiction.  The story of a man coping with a drug addiction and the effects it has on his family is not a "new" story or ground-breaking idea, however it is the first hand detail through my own perspective and my own re-telling that gives the story its strength.

I feel if I gave the outline of one of my films to anyone they would see nothing special about the idea, but if you give them a script and they see a real conversation that was had, they hear your character's voice, accent, and inflection as you heard it.  They can see the details of a room you stood in.  They can share your experience.  To write a "fiction film" is not always necessarily about making a work of fiction; through my experience to write the best "fiction" films is to take a nonfiction story (or the guise of nonfiction) and present it to the audience so they may share in a personal story they could have never experienced over wise.

Apple

I recently watched a brand new documentary on Steve Jobs.  It was recently done and talked about his life from the starting of Apple, to buying Pixar, to once again becoming the CEO of Apple, until his death.  Admittedly, I am an Apple fanboy.  I own an iPhone, a Macbook, an iPad, and countless Apple applications like Logic, Final Cut Pro, and many others.

Normally, we think of Steve Jobs as just the CEO of Apple, a guy who helped with the iPhone and was ultimately, a computer geek.  What this documentary highlights and why I am writing this is that Steve Jobs revolutionized almost every aspect of the media today.  He was involved with the creation of Final Cut Pro and studio, he was instrumental in starting iTunes, helped launch logic, and also helped create the software that makes all of these tools and assets that we use as communications and Television Radio majors possible.

With just the mention of the word Final Cut (the old version at least), most people think right away about a NLE that was revolutionary, streamlined the editing process, and kept costs down in the process.  It's interesting to think that a man that we all consider a visionary, impacted all of us so closely.  I for one began editing on Final Cut Pro in high school.  Because of Final Cut, I found my love for making films, telling stories, and finding my own way to be creative.  Had it not been for Steve Jobs or even iMovie, my high school may never had the money or resources to have a video production class and I never would have gotten to the point I am at today.

Another thing that Steve did was with audio.  ITunes is gigantic; and unstoppable force in the music industry along with iPods.  People forget that when iTunes was created, there was nothing even remotely close to it on the market nor was there anything reasonably as advanced as the iPod was when it was released shortly after.  Music is one of my biggest passions along with video and when I was thinking about, Steve has literally contributed to almost all of my happiness in my life in some way.  While his programs are not instrumental to my life all of the time now that I have found my passion, I still use them today and without Final Cut or Garage Band and Logic, I may have never realized how creative of a person I really am because there was nothing even remotely affordable on the market or easy-to-use for music and video.

While people are quick to judge "apple fanboys", I think it is important to step back and think about all of the ways Apple has impacted our lives.  Steve Jobs and his company have made so many things possible for all of us that may never have been possible before.  Because of their innovation, so many more innovators were created and made able to realize their true potential.  For this, not for the iPhones I use or the computer I own, do I hold Steve Jobs so highly.  Through his products, he inspired me and many others around me to create, to learn from ourselves, to be our own visionaries, and for this, we are all indebted to Steve Jobs.


May he rest in peace.

As People, Are We Good or Bad?

This question has been playing in my mind a lot over the past year.  Everyday, I see bad things on the news, people doing bad things to each other, doing bad things to the earth, the earth doing bad things to people, and overall society as a whole being mean spirited.  It leaves me wondering at times, are there really any "good" people on this earth; and what do we really consider good?  Usually it's our own messed up version of good.  Diluted by our own experiences and angles as well as our upbringings.  And then sometimes, there are people who are genuinely nice spirited, but do something horrible like sell, make, or do drugs, have cheated on there partner, have stolen things, or even hurt other people.  I'm sure at this point your wondering, how does this even remotely relate to filmmaking. 

One of the things that got me thinking about this subject was the show Breaking Bad.  Not a single character on the show is clean.  Walter is (in the beginning) a nice guy, a teacher, but has the unfortunate luck of getting cancer and because of this decides to make meth so he can make money to give to his family.  Then you have Hank who is a police officer and again, a generally nice guy.  Yet Hank makes poor decisions that go against what society and the law deem acceptable even though most people fully back him for what he does.  Then you have Jessie who does drugs, sells drugs, is a womanizer, steals, has killed people, yet has a personality that you can't help but love.  I could go through every single character and do the same thing.  They all share the same bond, the all have good and bad in them.

Being a realist, I find it hard to side with people being good or bad, one or the other.  I hate when you see a T.V. show and you can tell who the "bad guy" is and you can tell who the "good guy" is.  I hate this thinking because it is not real.  Good and bad in my opinion is a sense of perspective.  What I might consider good maybe horribly bad to someone but what I might consider bad, someone might treat that as a normal everyday thing.  While I do say this I do thing that people are good, and are born with the ability to do good, but the problem is society.  Society comes along and tells us what is good and what is bad.  It gives us this rigid framework that were suppose to fit our own beliefs into and deal with what society says is and isn't okay.

I don't bring this up to yell at the world over the internet, or to tell you you're all bad or good people.  I mainly bring this up because we start shooting our projects in the next few weeks and will start developing characters and stories.  I think it is always good to keep in mind this theme for when you shoot.  Shows like Breaking Bad that create characters that are so much more than one dimensional succeed.  They succeed because subconsciously, we all can relate to theses characters and there struggles to be good in a bad world.  To understand that sometimes what the world considers good, is not good, and sometimes what the world considers not good, can be good.  

Hopefully we all can create these types of characters so our stories can be told realistically and with purpose.  So our audiences can truly feel for our characters as if they are real people.  None of us are pure, none of us are wholly good.  We're all trying to grasp that fact and find other people that can prove that point.  We all have good, we all have bad.  Everyone wants to find something that they can relate to and our stories can provide that missing link.

The Hunger Games (Movie)

The other day, I watched the move, The Hunger Games, with my friends.  I had read all the books and frankly, was in love with them.  I'd seen the movie before, but decided that this time, I would watch it from an analytical film perspective rather than judging it on how much different it was then the book because frankly, no movie can capture an entire book or book series perfectly as we've seen many times (Harry Potter, Twilight, ect.).

I loved the DIY approach that Gary Ross took when shooting the movie by having most of the movie shot "hand held" which most feature length blockbuster movies never do.  I noticed very quickly that whenever the scene was taking place in a high tense situation or an impoverished area, everything was shot hand held and the editing was extremely fast jump cuts and very bare bones from an editing perspective.  This puts the audience in a certain mood I could tell from watching it.  It became even more noticeable during the few scenes that were in the rich capitol where every shot was either a tripod, steady cam, or jib type shot with extremely smooth cutting from an editing stand point.  Everything was very refined and more typical of most blockbusters to show the wealth of the area they were in.

They way this movie was shot was very different in my opinion from most blockbuster type large budget movies and from that aspect, I thought the movie excelled.  They did a great job of capturing the "indie feel" that the book had been written in.  There also isn't a ton of music in the movie which I think is very important because most of the "districts" didn't have any organized music so it wouldn't make sense with the story.  The only songs were folk type songs which was cool because they were sung by the actors and no instrumentals.  It was very affective in that sense as well.

Overall, it was a well done movie in my personal opinion from a film perspective.  I enjoyed the indie look because that is personally the style that I am drawn to.

Tyler Chadwick

Goals for the class and what not

Since a lot of others have been posting about their summer and expectations for the class and what not, I figured why not? I'll do it too. Like everybody else in the class I have an interest in movies and obviously I have an interest in making them and being apart of that process. Unlike quite a few of you guys, my summer wasn't spent on a movie set or as part of an internship somewhere. I just worked at a grocery store all summer so I'm definitely ready to get back into making some cool stuff again. Now for my goals in the class it's pretty straight forward. Really all I want to do is improve on what I've already learned. Intro to Field taught me some basics but I'd really like to dive in and see what I can really do. I've done a few projects but I would definitely like to do many more.

How To Do It

Welcome everyone!. The following project structure is intended to provide you with a methodology to be both specific and help you track the progress and meet your milestones. Since individual projects vary widely some points might not apply. However, you can use it as a roadmap to define/clarify your deliverables and go back to it frequently and methodically.

It has four distinct phases:

DISCOVERY

This phase helps you understand the big picture and the opportunity to achieve the main goals of your project; to take an idea from conception to completion in the most effective manner.

Brainstorming, sketch models, scenarios, analysis and feasibility assessments.

Define the requirements, scope, timeline, budget (your time and resources) and benchmarks for the project.

Requirements of Analysis:

• Prioritize and validate requirements based on quality(1) and strategic factors
• Determine success criteria and metrics
• Define a preliminary list of production requirements.

Synthesis:

• Produce a final script with the discovery result.
• Develop a high-level implementation plan. (storyboard)
• Present a timeline and a budget estimate.

DESIGN

During this phase, create the look and feel of the solution (style). Develop the story requirements, the creative components, the technical design and infrastructure that supports the project.

Creative Design:

• Storyline and character creation
• Script
• Storyboard
• Art Direction
• Audio Design
• Production Design

Technical Design:

• Equipment requirements
• Set/backgrounds/location/plates
• Lighting diagrams
• Special efx design
• Models, costumes and makeup

PRE-PRODUCTION

Develop and integrate all the creative, technical and information components.

Creative Production:

• Location Scouting
• Casting
• Rehearsals
• Graphics, 3D video/audio production needs
• Technical integration

Technical Production:

• Set design
• Lighting
• Cinematography
• Sound
• System testing
• Problem resolution
  

DEPLOYMENT

Demonstrate the solution after all final specifications and testing results.

Live environment:

• Projection
• Audience Test performance and feedback
• Implement promotion/communication strategies

Showtime!

That's all folks!

1-Quality: the true nature of things, the peculiar and essential character

All Illustrations custom made by Rich Powell