Individual Contributions

INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Ashley Wood - n9574468

Our team worked extremely well together. We met several times a week to discuss the story, consistency across platforms, and our progress. We had an open line of communication through Facebook to quickly discuss anything necessary. We used each of our strengths to create a project that we can all be proud of. As a musician, I was drawn to the character of Emily Jones, an aspiring musician from America who meets William in the Edge in 2016. Steph created an amazing story that I was eager to continue to develop, utilizing my own knowledge and skills in the music industry by starring as Emily in this project.

Because of my American accent, Emily’s character needed to adjust. We shaped her as an American studying abroad in Brisbane for the semester. As Emily, I appeared briefly in the video which helped to link together the podcast and journal, enticing the audience to learn more about these two characters through their perspectives.

While our team decided on the general story together, I wrote the specifics of the podcast in order to make Emily sound as casual and natural as possible while also adding some music knowledge that would add to the character. I also wrote both songs featured in the podcast, singing one song live and utilizing a previous recording I had of another. In deepening the character of Emily, I made several choices in the video and podcast. Emily wore jeans and a T-shirt from her university in America because she is studying abroad in Brisbane. She was casual not only because this was her personality, but also because she has been busy recording, and did not have time to worry about dressing nicely. This contrasted greatly with the proper William whom she meets unexpectedly. She also made many pop culture references in her podcast, to show her interest in this and create a sense of place in the 2016, again contrasting with William who would not understand these references.

In addition to my role as Emily, I created the digital journal in Adobe InDesign. We edited the journal entries as a team, and then I designed the flipbook based on the team’s vision for this platform. I also created the website to host our transmedia project through Wix.com, based on the vision and ideas of our team.

Chia Le Wu - n8940711

I am honoured to be a member in Transmedia group, since I absorbed many creative knowledge, practical skills from my partners in team work (e.g. design skill: Ashley, photography skill: Dorothy, video creation skill: Steph; and I was a small fry to supply some idea). During team discussion, everyone has positive attitude, and good team spirit, so we could effectively accomplish team goals. For these reason, I was delighted to work with my teammates, and also would like to thank everyone for assistance, especially Ashley.

I admired Steph fantasy ideas of time travel, so I read “TIME TRAVEL (by Elizabeth Groaz,)”, and “the story of time (by Kristen Lippincott)” to understand the information. The story of “On the Edge of 1926” was narrated by three platforms, including video, podcast and digital journal. Dorothy and I were responsible for finishing content of journal, and we often upload our drafts on Facebook to discuss with other teammate.

Before writing the journal, we were unclear the different between dairy and journal. Therefore, I researched some case studies, and compiled notes to discuss this issues with others. Finally, we decided to make journal because journal can express more emotion through pictures, drawings, and words. Also, journal is not necessary to record every day, it is completely for our requirements. Moreover, I suggested to use “French script “of theme fonts to conform old fashion style.

It was extremely interesting to surmise William’s perspective and feeling when he has experience in time travel. Also his personality was obvious altered because of meeting to optimistic Emily.

There are four parts content in the digital journal, and I also wrote some draft of entry one, two, and four. However, I prefer the idea of jacaranda from Dorothy work, so I think it would be better to combine my some content into her work. For example, I added some dark psychological thinking to emphasize William negative emotional, such as helplessness, escapism, and death. In contrast, gentle melody description point out the heroine’s (Emily) positive characteristic in entry two of journal. In last part of journal, I wrote an emotional poem to prove William and Emily having impressive relationship. Interestingly, the date was on 9 November 2003 which means although William get old, he still remembers his sun rise – Emily. The ending might make audiences feeling sentimental, warm and they would like to review previous journal, and other platforms.

Dorothy Wang - n9342770

Our transmedia project consists of three platforms, video, podcast and digital journal. For the video parts, according to Steph’s concept and script draft, to design William’s character and try to understand his mind and psychology that would be used in video capture and journal creation. From William’s perspective to shoot scenes with GoPro when William was going around at The Edge, thanks for Steph’s arts direction and Mandy’s assistance in this process. My main work is on William’s journal, including, the content of the journal and the pictures collection. The digital journal contains four parts, entry one to three are created by me, thanks Ashley for helping revise the drafts and make them into proper English.

Entry one is the background of William, and it will be linked up with the video to explain why he would travel to 2016 from 1926. Entry two is after the video, the day William travelled to 2016 and when he went back to 1926 he wrote down his experience of the day. Details of William’s time travel experience and his emotional journey would be shown in this part.

Entry two is the most important part of the journal, it is able to help the video complete the storytelling. For a responsibility to tell audiences more information by introducing Emily’s background and indicating Emily often records her music at The Edge. This is a connection to the podcast, showing the facilities at The Edge helps Emily to make podcasts. In addition, I took dozens of photos of The Edge and State Library of Queensland, due to William is set who comes from 1926 with a vintage camera, therefore, I used Photoshop and Pixlr to make these photos into a vintage style, like they were photographed in 1926. Finally, we chose some of the pictures including one capture of Emily to put them in entry two. At the end of the story, these would be proofs to help Emily identify it is the notebook of William when William’s grandson took it to find her at The Edge.

Entry three is about the life of William when he came back to 1926, the time is set as two weeks after his father passed away. This part describes his thoughts and memories about the fantastical experience.

Stephanie Dower - n7191545

While my original concept was chosen for this piece of assessment, it was a collaborative effort in deciding which platforms would prove most effective in telling the story and how to scale the project with the time allotted for the project. Each platform was assigned to a member of the group, with me personally given control of the Teaser Video and the recording and editing of the Audio Podcasts. While those were my primary responsibilities, as a group we collaboratively wrote the podcast content and assisted in editing the journal entries.

The Teaser Video acts as an introduction to On The Edge of 1926 and reveals William’s initial reaction to arriving in 2016. To give the audience the illusion of viewing the story through William’s eyes, a GoPro camera was used which features a slight fisheye, wide lens, often used for point-of- view shots in screen content. The video portrays William finding himself at The Edge after walking through a door, causing the colours to transform from vintage black and white to full colour. William is then shown to be looking wildly around the space as he moves forward. A flashing visual effect is used to portray William’s disconcert with what he is experiencing. As William moves down a hallway, music builds in the background, leading him to an open door of a recording studio, in which sits a young woman playing an acoustic guitar. The woman ceases playing upon seeing William. Looking directly at him, she says two lines of dialogue; “Nice style you got going on there”, indicating William’s appearance is unconventional and then, “Are you lost?”, revealing William appears unsure and confused as to his surroundings. The video concludes by fading to black followed by the project title appearing on screen. Once edited, the video was uploaded to Youtube and embedded to the home page of the On The Edge of 1926 website.

The podcasts, each around 8 minutes in length, are narrated by Emily who shares the story of meeting William in Episode 5 and then the follow up story of meeting Luke, who is revealed as William’s grandson in Episode 8. These were edited to form coherent narratives and uploaded to “Emily’s Music” Soundcloud account, then embedded on the website for On The Edge of 1926.