Planning (9/1/2014)

* At the start of this new module our lecturer decided to clear up a few things.

• This module is worth just as many points as the rest. So don't worry about the 'major' in the title, think of it more as 'personal'. Major is meant to mean demonstrating the skills you have accumulated over the course in general. 
• Working as a team and using assets from others is A-ok. However, both parties must always state what work is theirs and explain why you have collaborated. 
• The negotiation aspect is more about discussing what further things we can include in our overall project.

Grading:

• 'Statement of Intent' is 30% that can easily be reduced to 0% if you do not stick with your chosen idea. This is so as to reflect a real work environment in which you would be fired for doing something completely different. 
• 60% will be the actual creation. 
• Evaluation is 10%. 

* Our work for this module will be presented alongside the 3rd years during the summer show. Therefore, we must make sure we are putting something good together. We will be expected to present our ideas to the group in around two weeks time.

With this in mind the lecturer asked each one of us what we fancied doing whilst everyone was present to give advice. Since I was thinking of working on a radio drama, I received the following comments...

• Something to do with voice acting is fine. However, don't name it a 'radio drama' as that would suggest it needs to be broadcasted, thus countering my possible statement of intent. Therefore, always remember to use the right wording.
• Could make it interactive in order to make it more game like.
• Could be the audio that would be used for a cut scene, thus I could also draw some images in order to create a storyboard to go with it.
• Perhaps record audio that the player would pick up as collectables in video games. 
• Could be a narrative about games e.g. someone's experience with them.
• Radio broadcast as heard in the likes of 'Fallout', thus being something fun the player would listen to.
• Make sure to think carefully about the equipment and logistics, as some equipment would be unavailable on certain days. 
  

* After the above my friend Ed said that he was interested in my idea as he is fond of doing audio. Thus we chatted with one another and made a list of ideas and genres we would both be interested in doing, after all, if we are going to work together then it should be a project we will enjoy doing equally. 

Such ideas included... 

• Apocalyptic genre: Both being huge fans of the survival genre, we thought of maybe doing something like Fallout. However, this genre would possibly limit our sounds as most life would be non-existent (as the name of the genre suggests). Thus sounds would be limited to dust, footsteps etc.   
• Sci-fi genre: Admittedly this is the genre I wanted to do before I teamed up with Ed. Franchises we are both keen on include Star Wars, Farscape, Aliens, Red Dwarf and War Hammer 40,000.  Possibilities in general for this genre are also expanded thanks to the numerous planets, races and tech available to make sounds for. After talking about it more we both felt that, although we love comedy we would both prefer to do something more serious. However, this doesn’t mean that we cannot include fun dialogue/banter between the characters if we chose this genre. 

 

* Thinking about the advise given, we then discussed what we would be interested in making as you can see below.

• I am very interested in doing audio for a cut scene as then we could include story board images. After all, real animation companies do this in order to tell the story visually before getting a team to work on it.
• We considered making a opening cut scene in which Ed thought we could always do two takes for the same scene so as to show player choice. For example, one for the player chosen to be good and the other for when they choose to be evil.
• Ed also thought we could produce a trailer for a game which would allow us to show multiple aspects of the game and its universe. Therefore, we watched the trailer for ‘Destiny’ that we both really enjoy. However, from doing so we realised it relied heavily on visual sources, therefore if we didn’t include story boards it would be just noise to the audience. Watching the trailer we were also both keen on including talking in the scene between multiple characters with perhaps an ominous voice monologue.
• I then showed Ed the opening cutscene to ‘Star Wars: Jedi Knight II, Jedi Outcast’ which I felt was a good example of a slow paced opening that has plenty of characters talking about their mission with numerous folio sounds in the background for ambiance, thus being something more readily accomplished.  

* After thinking of all the above we both decided that we definitely did want to include story boards so as to add a visual element to the overall piece. As for the actual piece however, we both decided at the end of the session to go away and come up with some ideas for the story over the weekend in order to pick one to further develop. 

We also decided then to confirm what roles we wanted to do in the project which are...

• Me: Voice acting, scripting and characterisation.
• Ed: Support voice acting, audio and folio. 

* Ed also talked to the lecturer at the end of the session to see if making a cut scene with a story board would be fine to which . He said it would be.