http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OwDyWfjb48&feature=BFa&list=SL&lf=sh_e_top
In regards to the Mortal Kombat webseries, I find it fascinating on many levels but also it is unfortunately doldrum. What it has going for it are known actors, a cinematic style of filmmaking, and an already well known universe. These factors are what has allowed it to have a dedicated and large audience. Mortal Kombat also has the unique edge in that many video games centered around the classic street fighting style have come to the screen, and most have honestly been fairly poor in production quality; therefore, I don't know if the fans are in need of a breathtaking narrative or even well developed characters, since that's really not that typical of the genre anyway.
Overall, it's part of the recognition of favorable characters and a playful attitude (not to mention short ten minute videos) that's keeping a nearly 5 million viewer audience from episode to episode.
With that being said, there's a few things that are slipshod. I hope as part of a collaborative group of writers for a webseries, we will be watchful of as many of these things as possible. Many of the sequences have no emotional quality and are quite boring with action sequences that have no real punch to them since there is no drawing in of the audience. On the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon's director's commentary, the director suggests that the only real fight in the entire film (about fighting) is at the end when the two female protagonists battle. Literally, at this point the blades of the swords have met the point of the narrative, the intensity, and our overall curiosity. It's that dynamic that makes a world of difference. Just having characters fight each other does nothing for an audience -- until there is some sort of meaning to which we can relate. I absolutely hate long, drawn out action sequences that to me are just a hopeful wish of the writers, directors, and editors that maybe if they run the variables long enough, confuse the audience, and drift away from the plot that somehow when we come back to what matters that all the nonsense in the action somehow added up to the sequence of events we previously watched. I think it's sloppy writing and editing; it sadly happens all the time.
My other drawback with the series is that in the first two episodes there was such heavy shadowing in the camerawork that I was unable to see some of the possibly finer details in the picture. I don't know if this was due to color tinting or in-camera effects, but it's too dark and I have no patience for poor color quality. Bad saturation and shaky-hand cams are serious threats to keeping an audience happy. If you're going to move the camera, it needs to be clean and for the sake of the narrative, not to just be cool and show that you can move a camera in a crazy assorted way. The camera is telling the story just like every other piece, obviously. Not to mention, the third episode of the series left me confused. I wasn't sure I was watching the right thing and almost gave up since it was so divergent from the first two episodes from camera style to the actors. I ended up enjoying the episode slightly for the playfulness it had, but I'm not sure how many really appreciated all the intricate layers of meta language it had to offer, then again it shows that the makers of this series are totally taking advantage of the medium and showing off how the form of a webseries can be manipulated since a conventional style all the way through the series is not required. Here in this third episode is where the series is proving that webseries(es) can be its own distinct medium with its own rules that diverge from television and film.
As for my own writing:
1. What do you believe you can bring to the collaborative writing process that will occur in the development of this series? I've been studying writing and film for so long on the student side that I hope I can help in a number of ways. As for a class setting, I tend to keep my focus a little tighter while people speak in whirlwinds about ideas, and then I can retarget the idea so we remember what exactly needs to be done. It's easy to get sidetracked into a wormhole, even though I firmly believe tangents are often the adventures writers need to bring gold to the table. I think I can help others to bring out their ideas and feel as though they are a part of the group, give back good feedback, and also help others to respect each others suggestions. I tend to try and think as far away from cliches as possible to bring back something that's both clever and cool because one of my secret fears is that we won't fly high enough and end up in cheezy-town, which would be terrible and not something I would want to find my name scribbled into. I think the more we can turn tropes upside-down the better, but not everyone quite knows what the tropes are, or how to help round them into butterflies. There's a billion tropes, so all of us will be learning what needs to be shaken out of its two-dimensional frame.
2. What do you expect to take away from the experience?
I am excited to work with others in this unique setting and to build connections with newcomers as well as build stronger connections with those I've known for years. Part of the film experience on any level has some degree of networking, and it's a pretty sweet deal when you can make real friends out of it and not just film crew acquaintances who were there that one time on that one project who did that one thing that no one is ever going to see.
I expect that my understanding of how a writer's room works will be much more informed than previously, while I also learn both the pros and cons of that setting. I'm hoping it will teach me several valuable lessons from developing a stronger sense of writing as well as learning valuable skills on helping foster a healthy sense of community.
3. How do you anticipate the collaborative process helping your individual creativity?
In any group setting having multiple people helps one to develop a stronger sense of perspective. I think seeing how others process their ideas could open me up to some new brainstorming ideas, types of characters I've never considered, or even use it to help catalyst and research ideas with a slight more ease and cohesive sense than maybe a more introverted setting would have to offer. With all the competing ideas occurring in one person's head, in a collaborative idea setting the competing ideas seem to be what's spoken and that leaves less of a headache on my part.
4. How did the collaborative process hinder your creativity?
I would say I'm a fairly organic, creative person and if this project were placed merely into my own hands in a hypothetical sense, it would have a different spin on it in a number of ways -- not necessarily for the better or worse, but just different since it would have a number of different variables in its inherent process building.
There's beauty in knowing that the process of how I would work as an individual and with a group is entirely (and should be) different as well as the end product would be different. I definitely process my ideas for a story in a completely different way which is first I make a single character or event and I give that character an identity then a setting. I try to think of something that has an impulse of intrigue. After I have that, I start to ask what's wrong with the storyworld and develop it from there, and even though everything might not be perfectly mapped out, it's usually enough to start asking the pre-writing questions and see what I'm missing and with a firmly established storyworld, I know the angles of where I can pull which tends to be effortless. And with that in mind, themes come pretty naturally. I think I see most of these concepts as connected so it's odd to me to break them down so much. I have noticed I tend to think visually first on solo projects before ever scratching the surface, while in group projects I think first of what may be missing, a quirky idea, or just something to strike a stimulus so we eventually arrive at something we can all agree is worthwhile. It starts with a few group conversations here and there to start building a frame we can play with -- and then I start thinking visually. Both have their pros and cons, for one thing writing in a vacuum can get lonely, but it also allows you to play with ideas in a way that might be more personally edifying or freeing at times. I like the collaborative setting because it forces me to stick to a schedule and I have people who are accountable. Solo I can take a break and explore the emotions of an idea which helps me to rewrite and also process and understand what I'm going through. I don't think I go as deep cognitive wise in a group setting, there may be ways of doing that but I think other aspects of group dynamics replace that style and that's okay as long as something awesome comes out of it.
