ShowNatalie Nicoll

Research into ‘show’I did a lot of research into the different ways that performers and producers of work and shows can ‘show’ their work to audiences. I also research this to find out why specific types of performances suit specific types of ‘showing’ methods. I found out information about the different types of show; live performance (music gigs, stand-up comedy, theatre, street performances.), broadcasted shows (TV, online)

Street performers; Street performances offer a wide range of things that can be done, as it is not confined to once select place and the performer can perform freely, to anyone, and street performing often appeals to performers who’s acts are ‘abnormal’ and would not be seen other than on the street, e.g. human statues.

Theatre and Live venues; Although are not as free as other forms of performing such as street performing, as they are usually confined to one stage. They are a good way to have a controlled performance such as the scenery and back-drop according to the show. Also depending on the size of the venue, theatres can hold quite large audiences.

Art exhibitions; Art exhibitions give the audience an opportunity to see the work on a very personal level as unlike other forms of show, the audience can view the art up-close and sometimes alone. There also aren’t many other ways to ‘show’ art other than online.

Research into ‘show’

TV; Other than live performances there are many of ways of ‘showing’ work, a popular way of show is TV. It is not as personal as live performances but it allows a lot wider and larger audiences than live performances. Although it is still not completely wider range as a lot of TV shows and channel are restricted to a country or national basis.

Internet; Internet is probably the most popular way of ‘showing’ work to audiences now-a-days as it is easy and has a wider range of audiences. Unlike live performances or TV the internet has little restrictions on global distribution, TV is mainly limited to a country or nation, and live performance is limited to a specific city or even venue. Although viewing things on the internet may not be on a such a personal level as types such as live performance but it does allow anyone from across the world to view it, and it does allow the audience to easily leave feedback through the use of comments.

Research into Webshows

I did research into a lot of different webshows, and learnt a lot from this research;

Showing online is also a good way of gaining popularity as it can be broadcasted to anyone, anywhere which is perfect for unheard of or new people/shows. Show like this are better suited for online broadcasting because unlike TV or live venue, there are no restriction to watch the show can be about or contain.

For online series it is also good that audiences can post feedback and comments which allow the makers of the show to keep in line with what the audience wants from the show.

Online webshows are also a better way to gain interest from specific target audiences, such as teenagers, teenagers are probably a lot more interested in watching things online than they are in watching a live performance or TV.

Keeping a blogDuring this project was very benefical keeping a blog, the mains reasons being that it is easy to keep it updated and post on it.

It is also an advantage having a blog for a project such as this as the project was about online ‘show’ and a blog is the best form of keeping record of things when all the work is being distributed online. It is easy to post pictures and video links on the blog; which is what most of the work from this project was, online content.

Jobs & teams

At the beginning of the project we began working as one big group but we discovered that it would probably work better if we were spilt into two separate groups, each group would produce a webshow.

In our groups we work on separate task but kept updated and communicated with others through group meetings.

In the group we each had a specific role which we would do all of our tasks, the jobs were; director, writer, editor, sound, camera & marketing.

My jobsI was part of the marketing team in our group which meant that my specific jobs in the making of our show were;

Mainly online marketing such as promoting the show to audiences using online social networking sites; facebook, twitter and myspace. I would post regular information about the shows progress and links so that the audience would know where to view the show.

I had the job of finding a song to be used as the opening title sequence music, I did this by posting messages on all the social networking sites asking for unsigned band, I found a good song and then was involved with email corrispondence to the band about getting permission to use the song.

I also kept the show’s Flickr account updated with images of the process of making the show, so that audiences could see how we make the show.

I also created the storyboards for the three episodes and an animatic to show the moment of the shots.

Planning

There was a lot of planning involved during the process of making our ‘show’. Each section of the group did different types of planning;

The contents of the show were planned by the director, camera person, sound and writer. They planned what would happen in each show, what the shots would be and what music and sound effects would be used.

The marketing was planned by the marketing team, including me, where we planned how to get audiences interested, this involved planning ways to advertise the ‘show’ e.g. social networking and website, merchandise ideas and posters.

The editors and director were involved in the planning of the distribution of the show, as they were the ones to upload the videos to video sharing sites and the website, but the marketing team also worked on this as we decided it would be good to distribute the video of social networking as it would probably bring in a wider audience.

I worked with Matt L, the editor to create the storyboards for planning of shooting the first episode.

Episode one

The first episode of our show ‘Lines’ began with the basic idea of teenagers that are in detention.

Once we had the basic idea of the fact that it was set in detention, we developed a group of characters that woul be the cast that are in detention.

We had a good variety of characters in the show, which would help draw the attention of the audience which is important as it is the first episode.

I think the first episode was good as it worked as a way of getting the attention of the audience, as it contained basic information about all the characters and basic storylines. As it is any ongoing series, the first episode ended in way that would keep the audience interested and want to watch more

The first episode was based around one character’s life outside of detention.

Response - episode one

Our group recieved quite a lot of feedback and response for the first episode of our show, we has some feedback from the other group in the class and also some feedback online.

The online response was very positive, the audience seem to enjoy the show and posted responses saying that they will definitely watch any future episodes. The only piece of negative feedback we received online was that some of the acting needed improving.

The response and feedback that we received from the rest of the class was quite positive, but had a lot more constructive criticism than the online feedback.

All of these responses were very useful as it helped us develop things and change things in the future episodes according to what the audiences wanted.

On the show’s Youtube channel, there is the opption for audiences to ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ videos - our first episode has currently got 12 likes & 2 dislikes.

Episode one was the only episode to have views from outside the UK.

Episode two & tHREE

Episode two and three gave the audience more information about the characters and featured new storylines, as episode did not give a lot of information about the characters - it was just to get the audiences attention.

We created storylines of different characters than just the character that was focus on in the first episode, this is how we gave the audience more information about the characters, by having the storyline based around their life outside of the detention.

With the second and third episodes I think that we fixed a lot of the things that the audience felt need to be changed, such as we made extra rehearsal time for the cast to improving the acting quality. We also changed technical features that the audience wanted to be different, like we changed the sound levels because the audience said that they went up and down to much.

Response - Episode one & two

Compared to the first episode we did not receive as much response and feedback from the audience on the second and third episodes.

The second episode, although it got 0 dislikes on the youtube video, it only got 4 likes, which is a lot less than the first episode. The third episode also has 0 dislikes and only 1 likes.

This shows that that as the show progresses less people are taking an interest in watching it, even though we continued to post links and information on the social networking sites.

I think were we to have continued making the show then our developed of plots and characters may have gained some of the audience interest back, because if we had more episode we would have had more chance to get want the audience wanted in the show.

27 users of the social networking site Facebook are still on the ‘event’ for episodes 2 & 3 of ‘Lines’

Reflection on learning

Throughout this project I have learnt a lot about what goes into making an online series and how it differs from other shows, there are many differences between shows that are based online and show that are on TV or in a theatre. A main difference is the was in which the shows are view all three of the these show types are viewed by audiences in different ways.

When creating marketing strategies and ideas, the where a lot of possibilities, throughout the project our main source of marketing was the internet, using social networking sites, such as facebook, myspace, twitter, flickr and youtube. This generates a lot more audience interest than conventional strategies such as posters, as poster can only be seen by a limited audience of only people that will be in the area of the poster.

I have learnt a lot about working in a team, when everybody has a specific role and I learnt from unsuccessfully working as a whole class group, why it is very important that team members communicate with each other.

I have also learnt how important audience feedback is, without the feedback from the audience we would not have known which parts of the show needed changing or improving and the audience do not want to watch a show they do not like, so audience feedback helps with keeping an audience.