Last Friday, I managed to overcome my fear of public speaking to pitch an idea for Practicum. To give those of you who aren’t in Ryerson’s Radio & Television Arts program, Practicum is an intensive 6-month collaborative project. Every student in our 140-person year has the opportunity to pitch an idea to a board of 4 advising professors and their fellow students.
My idea was a web series called
Thorns, about a Christian youth group. The web series is fast-paced, quirky, and irreverent, like other quintessential Canadian TV series and films. There are 7 members of the youth group, each with their own background stories and spunky, distinct personalities.
After the pitches were all said and done in a nerve-wracking 8-hour class, the professors went away to decide which would be produced. Luckily, mine was chosen, and I proceeded to assemble a kick-ass team.
The talented and multitasking Eva Ho will produce the web series — aka she will handle all the paperwork and organizational aspects while letting the rest of the crew focus on their individual creative endeavours.
The visionary Natalie Fung will spearhead
Thorns’ art direction while Ilana Arnold will use her excellent visual eye to scout out locations and decorate the many sets.
Jiyan Dogan will lend his skilled hand to cinematography while newcomer Denielle Jackson will provide on-location audio and post-production sound mixing.
The experienced Joan Digba will lend an educated hand with boom operation while Roxana Hancila will lend her skill during post sound mixing.
The aforementioned versatile and dedicated Joan Digba will do what she does best in the industry and edit the footage to produce a stunning pilot webisode.
The already established Marius Masalar of Mathazzar Studios will function as Music Supervisor, finding and attaining the rights to indie songs which fit the webisode. Dwight Alexander, imaginative and incredibly creative animator at Doodle Studios, will provide the title animation.
Last but most definitely not least, the social media-savvy Manija Arman and Ksenia Tea Remizova will comprise the
Thorns Marketing Team. They will maintain each fictional character’s Twitter feeds, keep the site up to date, engage online audiences, and work with art director Natalie Fung to create a memorable image and marketing campaign for the series.
All these talented Radio & Television Arts students will come together to produce
Thorns, and help make the web-series as professional and cinematic as possible. It’s a pleasure to have you all on board!
During the past week, we had our first team meeting and established specific roles and duties. Eva got right in on organizing locations for casting calls, Ilana began calling locations, Natalie worked with Manija and Ksenia to come up with specific marketing techniques, Jiyan researched cameras, and I handled the Project Proposal paperwork and organized all the actors’ auditions time slots. I lend a hand in creating a temporary site for Thorns at http://www.thorns.tv/ — well, he designed and I watched, trying to help.
Things are really starting to pick up, and I’m trying to make this web series into as professional a project as possible. As we’re all in 4th year, Practicum really is a vital Portfolio piece. The idea is to use our abilities and skills from the past 4 years and produce something we can be proud to show to professional media folks. At the end of the year, we will be able to exhibit these projects to the rest of our classmates, professors, and current industry leaders. A lot of students have been offered post-graduation positions thanks to these intensive projects.
Challenge accepted, Practicum. I can’t wait to get everything up and running for
Thorns!
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