Transitions - Critical Reflections

I found writing the script very different from what I am used to, in my previous productions the scripts tended to be simple and down to earth, regarding modern day items such as phones, cars and such. With this project, I was working with concepts such as Artificial Intelligence, Genetic Engineering, Robotic Mech, Spaceships and much more.


This change in style was quite a change and I struggled at first to keep things sounding plausible and yet still at the edge of fantasy. My biggest struggle was working through writer's block, In this project, I did set myself a schedule, at first it was one page per day, then two per day and so on. I would sit down to try and write and be unable to think of anything to put on the page.


Because of this I started to run out of time and I think that reflected in my work, I also would decide to change small parts of the story throughout the script writing process which would require me to change large parts of the script.


Researching the creator didn't yield many results, aside from basic facts there wasn't much about his art style, in the few interviews he had done his answers were very short.


In my next project, I will try to plan the story out better, perhaps making bullet points for each scene to look at whenever I get stuck and creating a better timeline so I can keep track of what I need to write and when it happens.


I also think I need to work on some creative exercises, perhaps setting myself a goal of creating a short story idea once a day, even if its bad this should help me be able to generate ideas. I will also try creating different characters and given them different voices and speech patterns as I feel like my characters sounded quite similar in the way they speak.

All in all I know I can do better, but I'm happy with what I produced it was a nice change from writing drama scripts and so on but I would like to be able to create my own universe for the script rather than trying to adapt one to my script.

Transitions - Writer - Tsutomu Nihei

• Tsutomu Nihei was born in 1971
• Japanese manga artist. 
• cyberpunk influenced artwork. 
• Creator of Blame, Knights of Sidonia and Biomega
• Studied Architecture and incorporates that into his work, designing large structures for futuristic cites/ships etc.
• Likes to explore transhumanism.
• Likes to write about post-apocolyptic dystopian societies

Tsutomu Nihei initially started work as an office worker, then a construction worker, he then moved on to writing his Manga books, in his work he tends to explore things like, huge structures, Post Apocalyptic worlds and Transgender/non-human pairings.

I like his progressive thinking regarding things like transgender and non-binary genders, I also appreciate how he works with large-scale structures and creatures, such as the Gauna and Sidonia in Knights of Sidonia.

The concepts I would like to take from his works are working with large scale ships/structures and his views regarding gender and sexuality. 

Transitions - Characters/Scenes

SCENES

Transitions - Change of Idea

Today I spoke to Simon about my script idea, in my idea I wanted to do the following.



•For my script I would like to rewrite the first episode of the show
•Change how Nagate gets his garde, he steals it when he hears the gauna are approaching
•Been brought up to hate gauna with an almost radicalized passion
•Towards the end of his grandfathers life he got obsessed with teaching nagate about piloting and self-defence to the point of beating Nagate if he did it wrong
•Nagate will be socially inept, cannot handle large crowds

Simon discussed the possibility of me writing my own episode for the show, I warmed to the idea and decided to change my plan of re-writing an episode and instead write a completely new episode. 

For my idea for the new episode, I wanted to do something which is tied in with the inhabitants of Sidonia turning to Genetic Engineering to solve problems like food shortages and replication. My idea is that instead of first turning to those ideas, what if they initially tried to create half human/half machines instead. 

These were my main ideas

1)The story would consist of an old experiment waking up and wreaking havoc in Sidonia, Nagate the main protagonist would try to reason with the creature as he relates to growing up in solitude.

2)The story would be about a failed experiment which killed its creators, unable to kill the rampaging creature they locked it away in a room to starve. A hundred years later the creature finally escapes, however he is peaceful to Nagate and wishes to help fight against the Gauna

3) This idea mainly follows a failed experiment who has been training in a Pilot Simulation pod for a hundred years, he finds a way to transfer his consciousness to a Garde Chassis and becomes the first unmanned Garde which is successful against the Gauna.

I decided to mix between my second and third idea and have something befall the experiment, perhaps he was not accepted by the people and they attacked him or the main antagonist in the show Ochiai wanted the experiment killed before it could reveal any of its creators secrets, the experiment would then transfer its personality into a garde unit and would help Nagate and his fellow pilots on their missions.

Transitions - Pitch

Today I did my pitch in front of the class


My pitch did not go as well as I would have hoped, I should have practised a bit more and prepared better, I had decided to change my idea from a Anime show about VR to an Anime show about space/aliens and mech robots. In the future, I will try and keep to the same idea to prevent myself from getting mixed up in the pitch and I will also prepare point cards so I dont have to keep looking back to see what is on the screen , this does not look very professional.

Studio Production - Evaluation

My role as Graphics Operator and Creator came with many challenges which I felt like I overcame to the best of my ability however there are many things I feel I need to improve on.  From Scheduliing to file structure.

What Went Well?

- Graphics went smoothly on shoot day

- Graphics were made quickly

- I made changes based on feedback from Producers/Directors

Graphics went smoothly on shoot day
On the day of the shoot the graphics went smoothly, we didnt have a software crash and all the lower thirds and prices went up on the screen without an issue. This was a relief as previously we had been having issues with loading up new graphics would crash the computer.

Graphics were made quickly
I Found that I was able to make the graphics at a quick pace, changes and the creation of graphics went a lot quicker at the end of the project as we had agreed on a style. I also found a tool which allowed me to drastically reduce the time it would take for me to animate the graphics.

I made changes based on feedback from Producers/Directors
I thought I was able to make changes quickly based on the feedback I would recieve from Directors/Producers, The most productive times I had were when I was able to sit down with a Producer and make changes based on their live input rather than sending images back and forth and trying to interpret what they meant through a message.

What Didnt go Well?

- Graphics Couldnt be animated

- Wasnt happy with final graphics

- Lost graphics

- had to go through many changes

- Render times

- Typos

- Style bible wasnt constantly updated

- Time management

Graphics Couldnt be Animated

Something that was a bit dissapointing was the software and hardware we had for the graphics were unable to render the graphics in sufficient quality to be animated during the show, once played they would be stutter and could make the programme crash, because of this the animations I had previoulsy had on the graphics were unable to be used and a still graphics would have to be used instead. This may have been an issue with the format I rendered the graphics in however when I researched the Motion 4 Programme several sources stated to use Apple Pro Res 422.

Wasnt happy with final graphics

I Personally didnt like the final graphics very much, the title felt a bit too simple to me, however this could be down to my personal tastes rather than what suited the show.

Lost graphics

At one point I had to re-render several graphics because I couldnt find them anywhere on my computer, I think this was due to me rapidly creating and rendering the graphics. This want a big issue as I had the original file and the only thing it cost was time to render. However this still was an issue.

Had to go through many changes

Going into the project I underestimated how often I would have to change the final graphics, things I thought were set in stone suddenly needed to be changed. I was able to make changes quickly however on the day of the shoot I suddenly had to completly change the credits, in my rush to render the graphics before Transmission I missed some errors within the credits and thus we had to use an older version.

Render times

Render Times became a problem as I had to render some graphics that needed to be changed on the day of the shoot, I managed to get most of them done in time however I was unable to get the credits rendered in time.

Typos

There were several Typos in the credits, some of the names I was given were incorrect and had to be changed when noticed, I should have gone through every name to confirm it was correct myself, or at least put the credits up to be shown to the whole crew before Transmission that way changes could have been made.

Style bible wasnt constantly updated

I found that updating the style bible became a hassle as the graphics were constantly changing, I didnt keep it as updated as I should have as it was easy to forget about as I was creating almost all the graphics.

Time management

This is something I struggle with for most of my projects, I would try to set myself to do lists with mini deadlines but they would get forgotten or I would spend more of my time on one task compared to another. I didnt miss out on any deadlines in that regard but I did find it an issue a few times.

What could I do to improve?

- Offered different alternatives

- File structure

- Keep a track of changes

- Get desired changes written down

- Confirm before rendering graphics

- Update the document after every change, or at least regualy.

- Schedule a sit down with producers to confirm graphics at least weekly

Offered different alternatives

In regards to not liking the final title graphic I should have offered my opinion in a stronger fashion and provided several alternatives, if the produced wanted to stick with it I would have also seen if there were any improvements I could make and provide examples as such.

File structure

I did initially create a file structure as follows :

-Stings

-Lower Thirds

-Credits

-Social Media

-AE files

-AE Back-ups

-Source Files

-Other

However towards the end of the project the files begun to get messy and filed away in the wrong place, In the future I will try to slow myself down and keep myself structured, maybe creating a buffer folder rather than sending the rendered files where they belong to be cleaned up at the end of each day.

Keep a track of changes

There were many changes made to the graphics over times and I went through dozens of permiations before I got the final product, to help mark my changes and progress I should have kept notes of the changes I made and why, that way I could look back in the future and know not to make the same mistake.

Get desired changes written down

there were times when I would be asked to make several changes but I would forget to write one of them, I did write down the changes a few times but not everytime, in the future I will make sure to keep an accurate record.

Confirm before rendering graphics

A few times I would render the graphics only to have to go back and change them, If I will be rendering a large amount of graphics I will first run them by the producer to save the hassle of having to re-render large files.

Update the document after every change, or at least regualy.

In terms of the Style Bible, should update it after every change, even if that change is only in place for a day, I will also go through it once a week to make sure its completly updated.

Schedule a sit down with producers to confirm graphics at least weekly

The most productive times I had were when i could sit down with a producer and get feedback straight away. In the future I will try to arrange frequent sit down sessions where I can go through all the current graphics and see whether it meets with their approval then rather than on the day of the shoot.

Studio Based Entertainment - Take me Out

Take me out is a dating show aired on ITV and hosted by Paddy McGuinness. It was initially made for Channel 4 but ITV picked up the series.

The show's objective is for a single man to get a date with a one of a panel of thirty single women.  Each women stands at a pedestal with a single button which can turn of the light above them thus indicating they would not like a date, if there are more than two women left at the end of the third round the man can press the buttons until there are only two left. Once there are only two he can then ask one question and choose between the two.

• Produced by Thames (Talkback Thames)
• Sponsored by Match.Com
• Filmed at Maidstone Studios after the first series which was filmed at Granada Studios in Manchester 
• Average run time 60 Minutes 90 including ads
• Has been running for 10 Seasons
• 4 Men per filming session however one may be cut if there is a time shortage
• average 3 million viewers per episode
• Initially reviewed negatively by critics however after a few seasons critics began to change their mind.

The show is split into 5 rounds

Part 1

Contestent comes down in the "Love Lift". He introduces himself to the girls. Paddy asks the girls if they do or dont want to turn of their lights. After that the contestant will pick a girl from those who are still lit and write them down on a piece of paper to be revealed at the end of the show.

Part 2

This part features a pre-recorded video presented by the contestant. It typically includes interviews with his friends and family. It describes things like hobbies, work and personality.During the VT any of the girls may turn off their light.

Part 3

This part the contestant will perform a skill for the ladies, such as singing/Playing in instrument/or displaying a proficiency in a skill.If they do not have something suitable they may have a member of their friends or family tell a secret. Again at any point a girl can turn off their light.

Part 4

This part requires the contestant to turn off all except two of the lights.

Part 5

This part requires the contestant to choose between the two girls, to do this they are allowed to ask one question, then they turn off the light of the one they do not want to date.

Paddy then asks the girl if they would like to know who the contestant chose for their "Love at First Sight" After they are brought together they leave the set via Stairs opposite the lift.

If there is only one girl lit after round for the contestant can choose between her or a "Mystery Girl" who has remained unseen.

For Arch Roomies it would be difficult to take aspects of the show as they are very different from each other, however there are aspects of the title sequence which I like such as the silhouetted forms. I feel like this would be good to incorporate into the design of the show, it matches with the theme of hidden identities quite well.

For Steal The Style, The lighting for Take me out is extensive and reminds me of places like vegas or night clubs. however I believe that aspects of it would work well for Steal the Style, such as a spotlight on the models or flashing lights as they walk down the catwalk. I also like the banter between the host and the contestants and think thats something that should be replicated.

There is also the design of the show in terms of graphics which reflects quite well how the show looks on the screen, the darker shades of purples and the digitised look reflects the modern aspects of the show.