BSA 325 W13: Ask the Public
The idea behind "Ask the Public" was that we'd go out into the general public and on the streets of Invercargill ask people what they thought about Neon Shrimp and if they were excited for the upcoming film. The aim of course was to show that people had no idea who we were or what we were about, funny in the way that our egos blinded what is real, but also a good way of informing people of what Neon Shrimp is and telling them about M.U.M premiering on the 21st of June.
This was part of some early Brainstorming that me and Matthew did when I initially got put onto the social media and BTS side of things and it's one that was exciting for the reason that it was out of our comfort zone. Unlike the previous writing skit we did this would not be staged and would be with strangers - we'd be putting out own reputations on the line for the greater good of Neon Shrimp.
It's a lot like the Upstage and Office interviews we did but taking it out onto the streets meant we had to face judgement from people we weren't familiar with. To them the way we acted was the way we genuinely were, and that was quite the scary proposition.
1) Formulating Questions
We knew that we wanted to have the questions showcase a couple of important things, mostly that no one knew what Neon Shrimp is...yet! This meant that we had to structure them in a way where we assumed people already knew about us and from their responses we could act baffled and surprised that they didn't.
Me and Matthew met a couple of times to specifically beat out some questions to ask and we also thought about what the worst traits are for a person to have that results in awkward and cringe situations. One directly tied to ego was assuming something about yourself that is obviously not true to everyone else, basically being presumptuous and living in our own little worlds where we're the most important things around.
During discussions we realised that representing Neon Shrimp negatively could be harmful to our reputation as a company, so we decided to let it slip a bit that it was all an act and pull back the more extreme ideas of unpleasantly that we had. We would play within acceptable boundaries to pull off what remained unlikable personalities.
Similar exemplars of our idea would be Between Two Ferns, Eric Andre, Ali G or Nathan Fielder, though we didn't really look at their content until after filming and editing ours:
They're unawareness of self and innocent pressuring of their interviewees are things we definitely ended up having present in ours.
We decided on the following questions to Ask the Public:
- What do you think about Neon Shrimp and their new upcoming film?
This question is the basis of then video, we assume that they know more than they actually do already and puts them at an instant disadvantage. It's the type of question that will always provide an interesting answer because the person answering can't actually address what's being asked. We're expecting something of them that they can't give us.
- What excites you about the Story of M.U.M?
We kinda had to cut this one as it reveals the title, as well as just being an unneeded extension of the previous question, we only really ended up making the most of this when someone was already lying about being aware of Neon Shrimp's existence as a way of escalating the situation.
We thought going into specifics would be funny as it makes it clear how oblivious we are to people living lives separate from our own, but a lot of this would have been a waste of time as we can't reveal anything about the film before it's officially made public. We were considering bragging about the award winning director and stuff as well, mentioning their other works too, but felt it was again a retread if the first question. Different content, but same basic joke.
- Would you consider liking our page on Facebook? --> Would you do it now?
This is a little bit of unacceptable social etiquette, asking them if they would consider something and when they say yes or that they'd think about it, which most people would because its an empty promise, and then asking it of them right then and there. It's playing on a regularly encountered human trait, the kind of dishonesty we all display, as well as giving our characters more negative traits in expecting things from people and shameless self-promotion.
- Do you believe in Aliens?
2) Filming
We naturally took on over-the-top Youtube influencer type personalities that worked quite well to inform our egotistical and ignorant characters.
The best thing about people's answers were that they didn't always admit that they had no idea what we were talking about, there were a couple of individuals who just went with it and lied about knowing. This was not only obvious but also funny because we would just keep pushing them for further details on something that they were making up as they went along. It's the same dynamic as forgetting a new person's name but being to afraid to ask it so you just roll with it and pretend.
We actually liked getting rejected, more people said no to interviews than yes, and this meant that we had some good rejection footage as well which we ended up using in the edit. As the day progressed we became less shy and more confident, it was a really good experience. They always say rejection is good for you and from this I can say that they (whoever they are) are right, it builds a tolerance that gives you more confidence to ask again the next time.
Asking the entire cafeteria was a lot of fun, the no's just escalated to a point where I was asking an entire room, and of course no one was gonna jump at that opportunity - it's only after that I realised volunteering for an interview in front of a whole room is about a thousand times scarier - and subsequently thousand times less likely - than doing so when approached individually.
Me and Matthew switched between on camera and behind it, I was a bit more over the top but Matthew definitely channeled the cringe better. Best interview we got was the three girls - straight off the bat its a weird situation (1v3) and the way the interview evolved was just perfect (the highlight being asking one of them to like us on facebook).
The opening bit was a long take idea by Kiarne who was present on set for the first hour or so, he thought it would be a great idea for the video to open with a sped up camera movement to us coming out of the elevator, and a great idea it was.
3) Editing
We edited the video over the course of a couple of 2-3 hour long sessions, below an image showing us communicating pick up and meet for editing:
Efficient communication with a good dose of unsettling stalking
Originally the edit we had in mind, even before filming, was of people just saying they have no idea what Neon Shrimp is, but we actually got less direct and less strong no's than we expected.
A lot was cut in the edit, with us really narrowing down the question to really only two.
The best thing about editing is always forming a narrative and with a project like this - where there is no clear narrative throughline - you kinda have to make one up. We did this by breaking the edit down into bits, the first is us asking people who have no idea, it goes on to people who pretend to know, then we get rejected for a while (culminating in the cafeteria scene) after this we go on ahead to ask everyone to like us on Facebook.
The biggest challenge as per usual was getting this thing down to a reasonable length. We were out asking the public for about 2 or 3 hours and while a lot of this was rejections there was also sway too much footage for what we actually needed. We had to kill some darlings, but in the end we were happy with the final product because it was pretty similar to our original vision.
Above: Scheduling around Netball, I reflect on an edit that Matt sent me after I had to leave a session to go to work. We always stay in touch and keep the current project present in out minds.
Most exciting discovery in the edit was the Wave Warp tool, which turned the kinda roughly put together ending into a master piece. Somehow the sound cut out on the boom during the final shots, and this meant that all we had was the on board mic (really not awesome).
So in the edit we thought we might inject it with some deep fried meme and distort the image, maybe make it look like a VHS - essentially just find a way to change the aesthetic for the end so that the shift in audio quality doesn't feel out of place. This also meant the ending was a high point of funny, not being as limp or anticlimactic anymore.
But we instantly found something a thousand times better, something I can't believe we never knew about: The Wave Warp effect.
It was honestly hilarious to us and the faces change in the best possible ways. It really made the ending for us.
4) Censorship
Jacqui requested a few bits and pieces be removed as she is prone to do, she has a better sense for what could be construed as mean spirited or what can represent the company in a poor light, the quality control that we receive from Jacqui affects our vision overall but makes sure it's palatable for general audiences.
We didn't have to cut too much here but most tragic losses were:
The Baby Interview
Wave Warp Ending
Above: Me and Matty B finalizing the edit between classes after the criticism
- evidence: me mildly salty 'bout cut content
5) Reflection
We are content with the final product, seeing it go through each stage means that in our mind's it's not all it could have been, but comparing it to our original idea shows us we achieved what we set out to.
I find that the ideas that spawn videos are usually pretty simple and don't need to be perfect, it's only once we get into crafting them that more and more is added and the project becomes ambitious. We see the potential in every frame and want to implement it, by the end of the process we are dissatisfied where we would have been perfectly happy had we only had the idea and were then handed the edit.
Communication wise I think the BTS so far works wonderfully, me and Matthew work together all then time anyway and our meetings with Jacqui are clear and pleasant. It's nice that she likes what we're putting out and her reaction to this after not being a great fan of the Upstage stuff made us feel very much appreciated again. The places she requested edits were few and made sense, even if they were more darlings we had to kill. Our opinion stands that the original edit was better, but for social media this one works just fine.
Other people in class also reacted really well, I think playing the humble card and making fun of our small stature in the community was a good idea that resonates with the team as much as it will for our audience. Being able to take a joke is an important part in being liked, especially for a company or conglomerate. The twitter accounts of the more risk-taking franchises are popular for a reason - people like seeing other people, not a faceless organisation. With this BTS stuff we've taken the piss a bit of ourselves and wish to continue along the same line.
Wendy's being savage, I don't even like they're food but you gotta respect their sass.
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