Plot Development

Plot Development


Whilst producing my graphic novel, I will need to brainstorm and produce several key ideas that I’ll be able to use in order to make a unique graphic novel which will make perfect sense to my audience which are in this case, readers. There are a few key elements I’ll need to take into consideration. Under plot development, I will explain each element in detail to show my knowledge and understanding of each term.

Exposition is simply defined as the part of the story timeline where the settings (location) and characters are introduced. This is most commonly introduced at the beginning of the story however, it can happen further in the story. Exposition is a great code/convention as it helps the audience gain an understanding of the plot from the beginning, it also introduces the main characters in order for the audience to differentiate between the main characters and supporting acts. Within my story, the characters are introduced on a mainland bridge which is located in Japan.


Conflict is well known as the trouble or strain that happens to occur in three stages, it works closely with climax by creating suspense to the story. In my opinion, I’d say it's compulsory to have this element in your story and this is simply because it draws in the audience’s depending on the strength that the conflict holds in your story. The reason conflict is an important element is because it usually helps in creating a relationship with the audience and characters because of the terrible situation that may have taken place within the story. In my story, a nuclear bomb caused a human made earthquake which broke bridges causing cars to crash dramatically, this was my conflict in the story.



Rising of Action is a part of the story where the tension that was caused during the conflict is increased greatly, the situation is tense and things are almost getting out of control. The events that happen during rising of action generally lead to the climax. Rising of Action is important because stories need an increased tension after conflict to give a better understanding of why they're in trouble and also to describe how serious the conflict is, it's all based on exaggeration which puts the audience in their feelings. In my story, the family the story is based on is yanked out of their cars by "Nacho" which is the Japanese equivalent to CIA which is known by Central Intelligence Agency.



Climax is defined as many problems or one problem that can produce a high point in the story. In many stories you can see that the story is near to ending however, not in all stories. The climax is the highest point of all troubles, things are usually not able to get any worse. The reason climaxes are major keys are because you need a midpoint between things getting hectic and things getting better and this is precisely in the middle of both, this has been built-up from the beginning of the story where the conflict was taking place. In my story, the family are brought to a laboratory when they thought they were being saved by the police they were not quite being saved.



Resolution is commonly explained as the part of the story where the conflict has been solved and it often indicates what will happen in the ending however, in most cases the stories result with a happy ending after all the negativity that may have been happening through-out the whole story. The reason Resolution is an important element is because it usually shows the audience why all the negativity makes sense at the ending, by the resolution you should've understood the concept of the story. In my story, a Resolution wasn't including as I finished my comic on a cliff-hanger where the family break out of the human experiment tubes. My audiences will have to see the next comic in order to gather more knowledge of what happens further down the story.

 

Character Development

• Genre

My comic story is based on a heroic family of four, who survived in a severe car crash. Luckily, they were able to stay alive with plenty of help by the government. Although, the story is based on a whole family, it is directed at three main characters which are; Marine-o (pronounced as məˈriːnˈəʊ) who also plays the father in this comic (Sylo), Reign - Real name known as Janet (Daugther) and Obsidian Mermaid (Mother).

• Back Story

The parents of a family of four were given the opportunity to travel to Hiroshima, with the accepted decision of the father. The father who went by the name of Sylo was a professional engineer who was asked by the Japanese government to work on an extraction site for a few months, with the plans of extracting raw materials from the ground. However, during this time Japan were going through problems with other countries, United States in particular. Further down the line, the family moved to Japan and were happy with their lives until, one day they were driving along the dual carriage way and they saw a massive explosion from miles away, the family never thought much of the explosion until, they saw it coming towards them at unbelievable speeds. Cars flipped, windows smashed and airbags exploded. Amongst all the people who were dead at the scene, only a few survived including this specific family. Once they had enough energy, they all exited the car in complete fear.(The family consisted of only two children, son and daughter) The daughter was known as a shy person, she hardly spoke at family gatherings or took part in much activities however, when the car was upside down after the disaster she was the first person on the road to exit their car, the next 5-10 minutes following the father came out of the car shivering of fear. It was confirmed that it was a nuclear bomb that took place, scientists told us that when the nuclear bomb took place there were particles in the air which were proven poisonous, the daughter and father were the first to exit the car and they strongly believe that they inhaled the particles mentioned by the scientists. After being fully diagnosed, the scientists found out that the fathers bones grew stronger underwater and he was able to breathe underwater for up to 6 hours before returning to the surface, the government had plans of taking the daughter for experiments as she had a highly valuable power which included weather change to a degree, she was able to change the weather wherever she was, dependent on how she's feeling at the time.




Sylo (Father)


Character Tropes - This is the element of story that conveys great detail about a character however, they come in two parts.The father who went by the name of Sylo had a good height and a fit weight, he was able to adapt to swimming underwater for great lengths of time so his physical description is fairly understandable later in the story.



Role - This is defined as the part in which a character in a story plays, there are various roles that can be played in stories. For example; Mother, Father, Sister, Cousin, Friend, etc.
Sylo was a hero which also played the key roles as the father of the main family. Sylo isn't a natural born hero and it's only because of the codes and conventions, things that happened during the conflict made the father become a hero.




Motivation - Sylo has several reasons why he does what he does, going into deeper detail of what is mentioned in the backstory. Sylo nearly drowned in the sea after being grabbed by the current, this took place whilst his parents were relaxing on their sunbeds on shore. He helped himself by pushing himself towards a yacht he saw from a distance until, he was spotted by civilians and rescued.


Attitude - Sylo has an nonchalent attitude, he doesn't really care too much and he's very sure that all problems have been solved, the reason for this is that when he recognises the powers he has after the nuclear bomb he becomes more calm however, before he was very strict and less laid back. The bomb held a major effect on him.


Janet/Reign (Daughter) -
Character Tropes - Janet is the daughter, which is later on in the story known as Reign. She was a weakling from young and her brother taunted her regularly throughout their childhood but, never once did she fight back as she was abnormally skinny and she had back problems in her early teenage years, Janet couldn't stand on the spot for too long as she would start to bend as she was the tallest in her family from young. It appears that her body structure helps her further in the story for intense and severe weather conditions.


Role - As explained in the 'Role of Sylo', there are various types of roles that can be played in a story. However, Janet's role is important because although she is known as Sylo's daughter, you'd simply think the father always comes to save the day however, it's the completely in a reversed cycle. In this story, Janet plays the role of a hero and a victim, but it some-how all comes together.


Motivation - Janet has never had enough motivation and this has always been her major downfall however, when she's snatched by the government it seemed as if her heart grew and multiplied in size. Although she was in a car crash she still had 20/20 vision once she was out of the car, she saw her mother being manhandled by armed force whilst Janet herself was being thrown into the back of a top tech van. Ever since, Janet has been different from when she was younger and she has definitely grown a backbone.





Attitude - Janet has always been the strong but, quiet one. She has never been taunted to the point where she would have to use her strength until this incident. Janet has a very positive attitude along with positive energies however, when she turns into Reign it's completely a whole different story. She is so powerful to the point where it is extremely difficult for her to obtain and control herself so it becomes a gigantic disaster.

Pro Log (Memory)

MEMORY

This is a PowerPoint Presentation based on my memory project by Kai Olusanya.



PLAN



I thought of many things I could base on this particular project, Memory. I came up with some smart ideas and some pointless. Throughout the last few years, music videos have played a huge part within my hobbies so, i thought it would be a great idea to base my project on one of the biggest shows in Bristol. I planned on asking a friend, a famous rapper who goes by the name of 'Stormzy' to follow him around for the day filming his show vibes. The reason I thought this would be a unique idea because I would be able to create a series if I done this with a lot of artists who are well-developed and known within the music industry. Therefore, I went ahead with my thoughts and planned on creating something which would be low cost however, highly effective. I planned to rent out a super 16 camera from an old school friend I had grown up with, this will be the first time filming with one of these ancient cameras. I wanted to start by filming everything that was happening backstage however, I knew I had to be selective with clips I would use during the edit.

PRODUCTION LOG

I made plans with my friend Jamal to borrow his Arriflex 16mm Movie Camera, he usually charges people during rental however, he gave me the camera to use free of charge. I chose to rent his camera for quite a long period of time, the dates were from January 23rd - February 2nd. I spent most of my time actually  getting the film produced and rescaled back down to 1080p after filming in 2K, this is what costed a lot of money as it was my first time being involved with such a camera. I arranged to follow Stormzy on tour to Bristol on January 26th and it was a long time period, we were working for almost 24 hours. When I was able to get the footage after 7 days, I started to edit it however, I came across many barricades on the road of success and I had to use the trial and error scheme to get through it. Later, I managed to produce a short video that goes by the name of 'BTS'.





SUMMARY
Finally, I was able to publish a video based on the main topic 'memory'. There are people who are highly interested in the well-known artist 'Stormzy', he has a great fanbase built up of fans who listen to all genres of music he is an all rounder and definitely has success in his name. For this major reason, I was able to create a video which is based on a 'Day in the life of Stormzy', what makes this such a thrill is that he has never had such a personal behind the scenes where someone is literally following him throughout the whole day. With every production scheme, the producer always has a specific aim or a near enough precise image in their mind of where they'd like to take their next step or want their product to go.

3D PRINTING Research

3D PRINTING

•     Analyse the article - What is being said? What are the effects?
•     Who is the target audience? How are they affected by the article/ text or image?     
• Consider the constraints around the topic. What are the ethical issues affecting the audience? Are there any laws that have to be protected? Are there any codes of practice? (e.g. gaming laws/ terms and conditions, laws on what you can 3D print, Facebook terms and conditions)

How will 3D printing impact the future? (POSITIVE)

3D printing is a process, which involves the creation of three-dimensional solid objects from a digital file. It all starts by making the virtual design of your object that you would like to create through specific 3D Modelling computer programs that are based on CAD (Computer Aided Design). Several IT companies such as; Microsoft and Google have enabled their hardware systems to perform 3D scanning. It is known that in the near future smartphones will have integrated scanners. I want to speak about the effects caused by 3D Printing that will create a positive impact on the future and these are the cost reduction on products as 3D printing has become less expensive in three major world countries, in the future most of the population should have 3D printers in their homes which will reduce personal costs. When 3D printers are more familiar to people there

will be more jobs needed in the world as not everyone is able to operate the printer themselves. With regards to medical support and health, people will no longer need or have to depend on organ donors and rejection will not be a problem since the organs will be built using their own DNA. Manufacturing speed will increase dramatically due to the machines fast processing speed; it can make items from scratch in such a shortened period of time plus items manufactured are only limited by your imagination, products can be unlimitedly customized. As spoken about previously on health and medical support, Human Prosthetics can be made from silicone on a 3D printer, which may be highly expensive as of its rarity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVU4FLrsPXs
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jul/04/3d-printed-organs-step-closer

Video Production (Memory)

Task 1

Look at three different video artists -

Critically evaluate:

• Who are they?
• What work have they done?
• How have they used the space?
• Analyse their work and identify what message they are communicating? how have you interpreted their work vs how it is meant to be interpreted?
• Who is the target audience? how do you know?
  
  
  SOLUTION
  
  Three contemporary video artists I have chosen for this task are:
  Bill Viola, Eija-Liisa Ahtila and Peggy Ahwesh. The reason I have chose these three to critically evaluate in particular is because I have heard of them in the past for their unique productions.
  
  Bill Viola is a contemporary video artist that was born in Queens, New York in the year 1951. Viola's artistic expression varies depending on sound, electronic and image technology in Modern day media. Viola has done a lot of work but is most known for his extreme use of slow motion, this is what stood out for him and it was simplicity at its finest. Bill worked on several video installations such as; Ocean without a Shore, The Quintet Series (which was put together by four separate videos), Reverse Television which was based on a 15 minute collection of people watching cameras as though they were televisions, this caused much more effect than the public thought it could ever have caused. In the 'Reverse Television' video installation, Bill was able to set up a video camera in the same position as a television in several different houses, this is how Bill used the space by getting a different person to sit in a chair in different living rooms whilst they done nothing but watch the camera record themselves, he done this and created a 15 minute montage of all the different people in different houses/rooms watching the camera as if they were televisions. I have analysed the work of the video artist Bill Viola and what i've come across is that he likes capturing human body and facial expressions, for example; in the Observance video project it contains footage of people with a wide age variety showing the their reactions to the September 11, 2001 (9/11)Terrorrist attacks, one by one and walking away in such disgust (walking to the back of the line), where as in real life people would just walk away. When i first viewed his work I interpreted it as him always being in point of view of the subject. Lastly, i'd like to speak about the target audience that Bill Viola attracts, which is a good question because what came to mind whilst analysing his work was the specific groups of people who feel inspired and attracted to/by his work and these groups are; the general public, artists (people who aspiring to be just like him and/or better) and foreign visiting people.
  
  Eija-Liisa Ahtila is a video artist and also a photographer, she was born in Hämeenlinna, Finland in 1959. Her first concept works were motivated by art philosophy, by a evaluation of art institutions. Athena has done a number of films that are well-known by the public, she created films such as; Where is where?, Love Is a Treasure, The Annunciation and many more. Most of her works were majorly focused on women going through disturbing/distressing experiences, most of the works display numbers of screens and position points of the story, at the same time. Athena films a number of shots around the subject, this may include the local surroundings she may be around or whatever may be in the subjects atmosphere. This creates a repetitive effect which is surely simple however, effective. She also uses the effect it in order to capture more in her shots. For example in the video installation that goes by the name of 'If 6 was 9', they are sitting at a table in a particular scene where, instead of the picture being three different 16mm shots, they have used it to capture the whole table and everyone sitting around it or however, it's made to look like that. I've managed to analyse Eija-Liisa's work and I am really inspired by it because it creates such an impact with the perfect timing subtitles that make you feel much more interacted with the video, this is such a major key. Not only do the subtitles make the video more interactive but, as said at the beginning, most of her work shows women that are going through distressing experiences it is made to overwhelm and flood the viewers senses, depending on the viewers intelligence it can cause confusion on the ability to understand the narrative thread and this is done in order to produce a strong impact. When I first started my research on Eija-Liisa Ahtila, i was confused because there was so much going on but, later, when I actually begun to understand what she was interpreting I started to understand most of her other video arts as she follows her own unique pattern of creating video installations. Lastly, including her target audience - I think her target audience is based on the female gender from teenagers to the elderly, the reason I thought this at an instance was because as stated through out my solution I explained what she interprets through out her video installations and it's based on female agonising experiences. However, this doesn't mean males were not interested (diversity).

  
  

  Peggy Ahwesh is an American filmmaker, born in 1954, Pennsylvania, United States. Peggy is well known as a video artist and was educated at Antioch College during the 70's.
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

MED SLIDES

Research how producers think about their audiences.

Contracts

Types Of Contracts

Contractual Brief -

This is one of the main types of contracts that are a very easy to understand and comprehensible, and for this reason they are a well used type of contract. The brief itself is a legal document between a client and an employee of a specific business/firm. For example, it could be a phone contract agreement, where you are read the main terms and conditions you need to know and you are asked for your main details in order to proceed with your contract (which could be your full name, full address, DOB, etc).

Negotiated Brief -

This is a brief that is highly relevant to this date and age, the meaning is derived from the term Negotiation which is defined as a discussion with a main aim of coming to an agreement. In this specific topic we are speaking of Negotiated Brief, this is where the company may have an issue with things going a certain way with a client so they both work together in order to arrive on the same path by working around the problems they may have, this is the exact opposite to aimlessly arguing. For example, if a Director of Photography (DOP) staff member working at ITV is told to take place of a camera operator which is away on holiday, although, this may be easy for him to do but, also far out of his position he may have to come to a negotiation on the pay he may be receiving whilst being DOP and operating the camera.

Formal Brief -

This brief is used a lot around the world of business, the reason for this is that whilst working in groups the key to achieving goals is organisation and this specified brief is based on the important details which are usually in form of key points or steps that the group must use in order to reach their end target/goal. In my perspective, the reason it is aimed at groups is because it is commonly known that working in the business world you can be placed with people you may like/dislike but, this is down to your group working skills whether you're able to proceed without arguments, it's uncommonly given to individuals as they are usually able to organise themselves much easier. A formal brief isn't always a legalised document. Formal brief is a list of instructions in form of paragraphs, that you have to bare in mind. For example, a team is told to produce a football match based on 1970's compared to 2015. They are then given a formal brief to guide by in case they are accidently mislead.

Informal Brief -

This is a type of brief that is also used quite frequently, it is a brief which usually held through an eye to eye (face to face) meeting. However, all of the aspects that are mentioned within the meeting must then be relevant to all the clients involved in the brief. There are many advantages and disadvantages of an Informal Brief as there are with many things in life, an advantage of an Informal Brief is that they can be created in such a short amount of time as it's real-time communication. However, a major disadvantage of an Informal brief is that it is strongly known as unprofessional and people may not be able to understand in such a short amount of time.

Commission Brief -

This is a brief that is familiarly used in this date and age it is simply defined as a large firm based in media employing not just a worker to help them do something specifically but, to employ another entire media firm working independently to produce a particular product for them. When this happens, sometimes royalties are shared and by royalties I mean credit for producing the video although, sometimes they're not shared. The clients are not always aware of this and for this reason exactly is why the clients always go to the larger company because they are unaware of who is really producing the product. Therefore, the brief is only negotiated between both of the media firms. The advantage of this brief is that the large company don't have to work hard to produce however, they get less in quantity as they have to pay out to the company who did make it and that is a major disadvantages.

Architect Video Project

Pre-production for Transport Project

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Entertainment Video Project

Fashion Video Project [Pro Log]

Transport Video Production

The Last King Of Scotland

Questions

1. As the sequence begins, what sounds do we hear before the music begins?

2. As the music begins we only see Nicholas' face, not what he sees. How is the music used to indicate that all is not well?

3. How does the music change as he picks up the photograph? What mood or emotion is suggested?

4. As he notices the envelope, how does the music indicate that it is unlikely to contain good news?

5. How does the music change as he opens the envelope and discovers his new Ugandan passport? What does the music tell us about Nicholas' feelings?

6. The image changes to blurred headlamps. A new style of music is heard. Try to describe this music and how it changes as he gets to the door.

Solutions

1. As the sequence begins with the peacocks walking around on the grass, minding their own business we are still able to hear the diegetic sound (this is easily explained as the sound that audience and the actors/actresses can both hear) of a man playing an instrument in a room from the last scene which then turns non-diegetic (this is when we are able to hear a sound that is not heard by the actors).

2. In this specific clip of Nicholas walking into a house, the film crew have taken a close up shot in order to catch full detail of his facial expressions whilst the music also plays a massive role in drawing in the audience by playing a non-diegetic sound which is used to exaggerate the moment. This is key because the sound which is played is aimed to start low and finish high this also creates a massive build up for the audience.

3. As Nicholas picks up the photograph from the floor which was nicely framed the music (non-diegetic sounds) starts to differ and by this, what's simply meant is that the music becomes slightly more subtle as it looks like he was brought back in time by the photograph for a split second. This suggests that they were directed to display a sound that is thought to be a depressing mood, the reason I say this is because two things are going through his mind, he wasn't originally looking for this photograph but he's come across it. Secondly, it has made him think back to the good old days.

4. As soon as Nicholas sets his eyes upon the envelope the music starts to build up again but, this time the only difference is that it's more vigorous which emerges a mood to the audience which automatically puts you under pressure, once you feel this way from the sound of a specific clip, this tells you that whatever he will find will not be good news. However, that's just the feel of the sound, other than that it is possible that what he finds could be positive news.

5. The music changes as Nicholas opens the envelope and discovers his new Ugandan Passport quite uniquely, the reason for this is that they are trying to bring out the best of his emotions. There is a sort of slam noise as opens the passport and realises that it's his new Ugandan passport then he falls back into the chair with shock and surprise together, this helps majorly in bringing out the best of his feelings.

6. This is a very well used style of sound which is used in a lot of films that have been produced in the 21st Century. Personally, this sound reminds me of chanting however, there aren't people chanting it's in form of beeping sounds which get louder and louder as time goes by. However, as he gets to the house door the sound starts to decrease and that's when a newer sound is introduce which is more gentle compared to the build up sounds.

Sound Key Terms