Final Proposal

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 and aspirations to light, we were able to conceive of a project that would allow each of us to both explore and display and respective interests and consolidate them into one interactive storytelling experience. Objectively, our plan is to tell a story of novella length in order to enthrall and deeply affect our readers. Live video will then be implemented in order to increase immersion within the story. The video will be implemented through augmented reality. Using the Aurasma application, users will be able to scan their smart phones or tablets, provided they have the app, over select pages that bear specific icons. Once scanned, a video will appear on the screen of the device providing live video that supplements the content of that particular page or chapter of the book.

            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 will include 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 in a printed book that will be design to resemble an old and ominous grimoire, following with the style of the story.  The video will be implemented through augmented reality. Using the Aurasma application, users will be able to scan their smart phones or tablets, provided they have the app, over select pages that bear specific icons. Once scanned, a video will appear on the screen of the device providing live video that supplements the content of that particular page or chapter of the book.

Outline and Production Schedule

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

·         There will be 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.

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

Production Methods

·         The story will be written in Mircosoft Word and shared between the writers as a persistent document on Google Drive

·         Videos will be edited in After Effects

·         Video effects will come from aspects of After Effects, Autodesk Maya, and Autodesk Maya Smoke

·         Augmented Reality will be provided via the Aurasma application.

First semester progress report

            Filming and editing of the first video are complete with a second, non-canonical, video shot as a means to display various effects for a proof of concept. An emblem has been made and tested to confirm that Aurasma can recognize it and bring up the video on a tablet. A tablet has been acquired to show off a proof of concept. There are about two and a half chapters of the story written with plans for completion of all writing during winter break, before the beginning of January.   

  

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.

Similar Projects

Tales of Vesperia: First Strike. Video game turned movie.

Fate/Stay. Text Adventure turned animated series.

Sword Art Online. Light Novel turned animated series.

All of these projects feature some form of storytelling media, interactive or otherwise, that has been supplemented by a second form of storytelling media.