Today we met as a group to discuss what direction we wanted to take our project in, luckily we all agreed relatively quickly that exploring the world of cosplay was a unique and interesting concept that offered many realistic channels to pursue for VT’s and demonstrations. However, during our seminar with our lecturer a
few cracks in this appeared in that if we were supposedly making a series, could cosplay really have enough content to be a weekly episode. So we began to explore the concept of covering all things geek with aims at keeping it centred around fandoms. I began to research into the possibilities for our show:
– Video Gaming: Largely accepted in modern day society on a variety of platforms: playstation, xbox, pc, mobile phones and so on. Because of this there is no end of options for interviewees, even opening up the possibility of interviews in the streets. In addition, the game industry is forever growing and there is new news related to it all the time meaning our story can be relevant to the present day. Luckily, there is the UK’s biggest gaming festival taking place in Coventry itself named Insomnia 54. http://insomniagamingfestival.com
– Conventions: Here is a list of numerous conventions taking place across the UK http://teamneko.co.uk/list-of-uk-conventions-events-and-expos/. Conventions offer the unique opportunity of a number of like minded people collected in one area all more than willing to share their opinions and stories. The challenge is not to get swept up by all that is going on around you and to make sure your questions are focused and precise to get across the information that is needed in the answers of the interviewee. Fortunately, there is a convention called MCM Comic Con taking place later this month in Birmingham.
– Cosplay: The act of dressing up as your favourite character from films, tv or comics has been around for years, finally being named Cosplay in the 80’s. This ties in closely to the above mentioned conventions where a lot of people dress up for the occasion. It would be interesting to explore the reasons behind cosplay and the steps taken to make their costumes for example a live make-up demonstration could be shot or a parade of costumed characters could happen on the show. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay
– Pen and Paper Role-play: Sometimes referred to as Tabletop role-playing, this was made popular by the invention of Dungeons and Dragons, Pen and Paper Role-play is where a group of people create characters and roll dice whilst progressing through some form of narrative. I have a small group of friends who I do this with on a regular basis and there is also a society based at the university that holds such games. It could be interesting to look at why people enjoy this style of game and what they get out of this. To shine some light on an area that society mostly judges and looks down on.
– LARP: Live Action Role Playing is what this stands for and this is the next step up from Tabletop roleplaying where by people head out and physically reenact a fantasy or sci fi based role-play. This also incorporates elements of cosplay as you dress up and act as your characters. Finding LARP players could be a little harder, however there are a number of organised events and internet resources that could aid in this. http://www.larpevents.co.uk For this to work I think it would have to be a pre-recorded VT with maybe a guest in to talk a bit about LARP.
– Fantasy Genred Music: This one might be a bit of a long stretch but certain bands tend to define their music alongside a specific geek genre such as fantasy, sci fi, horror or in this instance steampunk. I can think of three possible sources of information for steampunk music; the band Abney Park (widely considered the top dogs of this genre), Professor Elemental and Mr B the Gentlemen Rhymer. All three of these acts are successful but from experience are not afraid to mingle with their audiences making the possibility of an interview high. Whats more Abney Park are coming to London later this year https://www.songkick.com/artists/99754-abney-park and Mr B and the Professor are both performing in Sudbury https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/mr-b-the-gentleman-rhymer
I think also began thinking about the set and what it should be made up of as this was a major concern of our group. I think what will really sell this set will be the small details as opposed to the overall look. Some bright colours coupled with dotted geeky memorabilia like posters, game consolers, films, board games etc. Here is a small example of what I think a good set would look like for this project.
The Journey Begins 