Senior Thesis Proposal

            Our group brings together various interests within the realm of possibility for IMM. We have aspiring writers, film directors, editors, and web designers. When we brought all of our respective talents together, we came up with a project that would allow us to test our respective abilities and put our prowess on display. What we came up with was a light novel including video elements that would all be displayed on an interactive, web based setting.

            As in most light novels, there are often illustrations in a select few places throughout the text. In order to allow us to fully express our creative vision and utilize all of the skills that we bring to the table, instead of bland illustrations throughout the story, we will have professionally shot and edited film segments that includes composited effects. The writers are free to get as deep and ambitious as they wish with the story and are able to select the most epic or dramatic moments to cement in reality making the scope of the project much more manageable.

            The story will be presented on a custom built web page in order to bring interactivity to the project. The web page will be displayed as a crime scene; the most prevalent element of which will be a map of the story’s city setting with a matrix plotted over it. Below the matrix will be a clickable item, a memento from that segment of the story. The reader will click the item and that will bring up a text box. The reader will scroll through the first chapter until they reach the video piece of which there will be at least one for each segment of the story. After the video has played, the reader is free to end that segment of the story. Polaroid of a moment from that segment will be pinned to the first part of the matrix at which time a new item will appear in the room that will allow the reader to access the next segment.

            Outline and Production Schedule

·         Finish a chapter every 1.5-2 weeks. Writing must be finished before the beginning of next semester.

·         The plan is to have about 1 video per chapter. There will absolutely be no more than 10 chapters, if the story goes that far.

·         Selection of filmed shots and storyboarding will begin as soon as a chapter is finished. Plan to storyboard first three videos by the middle of November.

·         Filming of the first video will begin by the middle to the end of November. Must select actors around the end of October through the beginning of November.

·         Production of web based layout will begin by the middle of October. Hopefully have a solid design by the end of the semester.

·         Web based layout will be completed by early March.

·         Planning on finishing all filming by the end of February. Editing should be complete by the middle of April.

  Works Cited

DUBSTEP GUNS. Dir. Corridor Digital. Perf. Mike Diva. Youtube.com. Corridor Digital, 19 Aug. 2011. Web. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDlif8Km4S4>. A good example of composited effects with live action actors in combat.

FireBall In You Hand Tutorial Using After Effect.wmv. Dir. Hardeep Singh. Perf. Hardeep Signh. Youtube.com. N.p., 25 Feb. 2012. Web. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HZW2LeU4dA>. This tutorial taught us how to make a realistic looking fireball in After Effects.

Flower Warfare. Dir. Freddie Wong, Mr. Perf. Freddie Wong. Youtube.com. N.p., 27 July 2010. Web. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=031Dshcnso4>. Freddie Wong began as a an amateur on Youtube and has posted videos for a few years showcasing his talent with 3D effects and video compositing. Flower Warfare in particular, uses After Effects to create the blooming flower effect on the gun muzzles throughout the video. We will also be using After Effects to composite realistic looking effects into our video sequences.

Fujishima, Kosuke, San, and Yoshito Higuchi, San. Tales of Vesperia. Tokyo, Japan: Namco Bandai, 2008. Computer software. The Tales series has always combined immersive interactivity with deep and well thought out story telling elements. Tales of Vesperia in particular had such a rich story that it was made in two different story telling mediums. It started as a video game and was then made into a movie.

Hasekura, Isuna. Spice & Wolf. New York: Yen, 2010. Print. Another light novel series turned into an anime. This one, specifically, has been released in English, so it is easy for us to access the books. It also adds another layer for us to look at - translation, and how that is handled.

Kawahara, Reki, Sensei. Accel World. Tokyo, Japan: ASCII Media Works, 2009. Print. Another Light Novel turned anime that influences our writing and the transition between two mediums of storytelling.

Kawahara, Reki, Sensei. Sword Art Online. Tokyo, Japan: ASCII Media Works, 2009. Print. SAO is a light novel from the perspective of a 16 year old boy who, along with 10,000 other people gets trapped inside an MMO. They cannot escape and if their health points ever reach zero the game system will kill them. This story provided a wealth of inspiration to our writers. Both the perspective of the story and the over lying themes are very similar. In addition, this is a great example of extensive text turned video. While SAO started as a light novel it was later fully animated as an anime.

Martino, Mike D., Mr., and Bryan Konietzko, Mr. Avatar: The Last Airbender. Nickelodeon. Burbank, California, 21 Feb. 2005. Television. Avatar's use of psychokinetic elemental combat was a big influence for the action throughout our story. We also looked to their art direction, as far as the elemental manipulation goes, in order to influence our own art direction for the video portion.

Narita, Ryohgo. Durarara!! Tokyo, Japan: ASCII Media Works, 2004. Print. Durarara!! has a large following, and more than that, it's set in a very similar setting to our story. This allows us to get a feel for the description of a crime-ridden city. It was also translated from words to pictures to movies, same as many of our other resources.

Skyrim Badass. Dir. Freddie Wong, Mr. and Brandon Laatsch, Mr. Youtube.com. N.p., 26 Apr. 2012. Web. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SEuoEJkODE>. Well choreographed combat with effects.

Type-Moon. Fate/Stay Night. 30 Jan. 2004. Visual Novel. Japan. Fate/Stay Night was a great example of a long novel accompanied by visuals. Throughout the game, there is a background to the screen that is an illustration of the current location in the story, as well as an illustration of the character(s) that are talking to Shiro, the main character. This is a great example of the idea we were trying to recreate, essentially a visual novel. Fate/Stay Night was also adapted to a full length anime, as well as a whole movie. This series is a great case study for us to look at when moving from text to visuals to video.

Yamaguchi, Noboru. Zero No Tsukaima. Tōkyō: Media Fakutorī, 2006. Print. Yet another light novel turned anime. This is one of the older ones, and actually showed us something a bit different. The original illustrations and the anime style varies hugely between the two sources. Therefore, it gives us more perspective on the creative freedoms between the two different media.