Webseries Watched:
Spellfury (http://www.spellfury.com/)
It's visual garbage in all the wrong ways possible. If you wait till the fourth episode or so, you will crack up uncontrollably from laughter (that's if you're me and have that tendency.) I would highly recommend watching episode 5 then stopping, with no turning back.
It's like Ed Wood meets Jim Henson and the Clash of the Titans. The one redeeming character it has is an abominable snowman who may or may not be a parody of the old video game 'Ski Free.' We have the regular femme fatale character of a female elf and several male characters who portray a magician, a warrior, and a mad dictator who is dressed like the wicked Queen (as a crone) from Snow White.
So why on Earth is it worth mentioning? Because it has a rather healthy fanbase: it's first episode is over 200,000+ views. Why? Because it's following all the tropes necessary, and unfortunately, garbage has a place in the internet world. A treasure is obviously worth a great deal more in the online world, but we shouldn't underestimate garbage either. The cinematography is terrible, the lighting is so bad that it really makes it look below amateur. The costumes, however, rather intrigue me, as well as some special effects that look circa 70s-80s. If I'm being honest, this reminds me of family reunions... with children the same age as me (lets say around age 8) and the odd games we would make up in some fantasy type sense. The story in this webseries is essentially that -- poorly made fantasy by children who had access to a costume closet.
I have harped pretty heavily on the DON'Ts of this series, so here's a couple of things they are doing right: music, consistency, and again, the loyal fanbase due to... RPG gamer tropes. The music, I doubt is original, is at least thematic, and does help to create some sense of story building. It isn't enough to save the series, but at least tie things together and help the audience just by mere tone to understand what is happening considering much of the dialogue is too mumbled to really grasp. I say one of the strengths is consistency because from one episode to the next there are no major leaps in style, making it somewhat easy to keep my bearings, even in its Ed Wood likeness.
Also, a fanbase addicted to a particular type of genre -- is one wonderful thing to exploit.
AS A WRITER....
How have I progressed in the past month? I've been big on tightening things up and looking for the 'essential' polish needed to pull things back. I'm getting a sharp eye for what is sentimental to the writer and what is necessary and making those changes so as to be as economical and clean as possible. Also, I'm encouraging myself to be more visual and organized so that before even meeting the process of an outline or draft, the mind palette has already been soaked in the necessary story elements to create, and not be blank.
I've had to grade a number of freshmen papers in composition, and I think studying the very basics of what is composition alongside theorists spanning from the Greek to the now, is helping me as a writer as well as as a communicator of words, if not, as bizarre as it, a teacher. I'm learning more and more that not everything that is in your head must be said or is even relevant, and that sometimes even the most precious of ideas have to be cut because they just might not fit with the puzzle. I'm becoming more analytical as well as seeing the overall big picture in writing. I would say, compared to a few months ago, my mind is a lot more clear for me to write, and part of that may just be that I'm in a more concrete living situation with more money in my pocket. Granted, if there are any lessons to be found, it would be in poverty, even if I would hardly consider it true, authentic poverty, there is a huge difference when you can pay the bills and have groceries.
1. What sort of impact / effect do you believe this medium will have on society in general?
The webseries as a medium is in its infancy as a whole.
Hopefully, this medium will get to spread its legs a bit and have the chance to stay around awhile before new technology may intercede it. With television and film already setting the groundwork for sequential visual media, the webseries is its child (whether, prodigy, step-child, or bastard) and depending on how the webseries is raised and optimized, it could become a powerful tool. Unlike the other industries, the webseries is much more open to entrepreneurial and indie film artists due to it having less pressure for people to move to Los Angeles and other network communities; at this point it has the leverage of being above the censorship standards and conventional standards of television and film allowing for a much more experimental medium. However, experimentation should not be taken over narrative otherwise the webseries will struggle (and continue to struggle) to be recognized as a credible medium.
Eventually, some type of censorship may be employed, but I think it will be more to the creators to identify their audience and create visuals that compel them and keep them as an audience rather than set aside discretion. In fact, that brings question, who is our target audience? Are we going for educators and scientists alike? How can we broaden our target audience?
From 2000-2010 the advent of videos being streamed online rose to powerful heights both enabling artists and hurting pockets left and right. Newgrounds.com has brought the proclivity of animators and flash video game artists back into blood; and thereupon are a great number of animated webseries which have become the sole careers of the artists involved. Due to the large amount of animations that have been produced over the years, I would dare to say this medium is expanding and producing a plethora of outstanding as well as humorous amounts of art: from Xombie, Saladfingers, Blockhead, the Jerry series, and Brackenwood (to name a few). Yeah, sure some of these are ridiculous, Brackenwood however is one of the best flash animations I've ever seen that's completely of its own Australian universe and has some of the most beautifully slick animation to date. The kind of appeal here is so strong, that not only can it help amateurs to make art when in a hiring freeze, but setting up your own work and it gaining popularity online also looks fantastic on any resume and makes a person that much more desired for a company.
I believe animation is actually ahead to some degree in building up artists and helping them to get noticed; perchance that's because many of the people behind these animations are doing everything, including the music, voices, story, etc.
For a webseries to standout and have the same appeal as a film, it will take a ton of crew, an intelligent crew at that. It's easy to get attention for one fluke video, but to keep that consistency and actually create a meaningful story is no simple task. I've followed certain people online for a number of years due to things they consistently produce, not having enough quantity will push you to the wayside in this industry. It's about consistently putting out quantity that has quality: neither of these two terms should be neglected.
I seriously doubt that webserieses as a whole will take in more cash flow than either film or television in a given year, but perhaps it has the chance to glow and perhaps networks will start pushing for this style so as to survive in a world gone digital.
2. What sort of impact / effect do you believe our webseries will have on society?
We have a couple of huge advantages: 1.) We should have some of the best writing a webseries has seen up to date, which is on par with traditional narrative theories, making it slick as a story and compelling automatically. 2.) I don't know of any other academic institution that is working toward making a webseries, one that also has government science agencies supporting it and so forth.
Now with that being said, we will need as much prep work in the production and post-production teams that either equals or surpasses the creative merits of the writing group or else, we'll have a great story, but -- terrible visual development all around. I have no doubt our framework will be outstanding, but the questions continue onto the next departments, which takes a great amount of faith.
*And I highly recommend that whoever will be editing, should get the chance to do so continued on into the summer... when said student(s) will be much more free to sit at editbays for real industry type shifts instead of having to mix it with school, graduation, finals, and all the other variables. Being a student who has been in that process and seen others do so -- summer editing is important to both the MJF and EA departments as a whole (and should probably be mentioned more to students). ANYWAY, with that little commercial being said, I think where it will have the most influence is for the university being recognized as an actual player in film schools. It's innovative, as well as shows a high amount of collaboration within the community with outstanding students who have somehow, and in many cases, quite literally come from the woods. It will also be great for all the students involved if its does in turn become successful, at a bare minimum a point on a resume, an actual script and Bible in hand for portfolios, and the actual end product itself. That's pretty cool.
The sky's the limit, really. If we market this right, we should put ourselves into magazines, be in the competitions, and of course, the website itself -- which will need to be slick, alluring, and as graceful as can be. No one likes clumsy websites.
Perhaps this too can show that Missouri State students are capable of research that's even outside their supposed field, such as science and time travel, and that they can have educated opinions as well as creative ways of approaching critical problems -- as well as tying together the knot for literary themes and their philosophical implications with the flesh and blood of the mechanics of science. Simply put, that's a dream come true.
One last note, Tarboy is an animated flash that was entirely made by a college class, and is one of the more revered flash cartoons that has been made to date.
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