In class this week we learnt about narrative adaption. We were put into breakout rooms to find a some examples of transmedia projects that we can use as inspiration for our project 3 group assignment.

I found an article that talked about a transmedia project for the 2012 film The Amazing Spider-Man where Sony hired artists to spray "the mark of Spider-Man" across multiple cities in the USA. I think the idea of spreading some kind of story related message is a great idea for a project to get noticed by the general public and is something to consider for our project.

After some class discussion on other transmedia ideas, Kirstie showed everyone a video showcasing the The Hero's Journey writing technique being used in different movies.

Afterwards we went back into breakout rooms for our groups to work on project 3. Unfortunately two of our group members were busy on a film shoot and couldn't attend class. We have been unsuccessful in scheduling a meeting time out of class with all of our group members due to extremely busy schedules, so we are starting to fall behind however we are looking to find a time to make a Discord call on the weekend to catch-up.

Weekly Reflection

What?

The meaning of adaptation in my own words:

Media that has been transformed or converted from a different form of media, e.g. a book turned into a movie.

So what?

An example of recent media text that follows the hero's journey and why it appeals to audiences:

One of my favourite movie trilogies is the Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel trilogy where the main character, Shirou Emiya, follows the hero's journey. Shirou leads an ordinary life until he accidentally comes across two heros from past history engaged in a duel. He is killed but brought back to life by a mage who explains that a war for the Holy Grail is taking place and now he has been roped into it (call to action, supernatural aid & mentor). He has no choice but to participate and ends up summoning his own hero from the past (helper). He ends up in a few battles and finds out many people he knows from school are also mages participating in the Holy Grail War.

One of the other mages, Sakura who is also a close friend of Shirou and a romantic interest, is being abused by her family and is being turned into a magical weapon to suck the life from everyone in the city in order to give the head of the family eternal life (challenges & temptations). Another mage fighting in the war, a young girl called Illya, happens to be the biological child of Shirou's adopted father. Initially they fight but once Shirou finds out their relation to each other they team up to find a way to stop Sakura from becoming a magical weapon.

There's finally a point where Shirou realises the only viable way to stop Sakura from transforming is to kill her which creates extreme inner turmoil for himself. A belief he has held his whole life is that he will do the right thing to help everyone no matter what. His issue now is if he saves Sakura, everyone else will die, breaking his personal beliefs but keeping his love interest. If he chooses to save everyone in the city, he has to kill Sakura. After coming to the point where he has a chance to kill Sakura in her sleep, he finds he is unable to lose her and decides to save her and break his beliefs (revelation). However there is still a possibility to save both everyone and Sakura at the same time: win the Holy Grail War. This seems almost impossible because of his inexperience and the fact he is weak compared to everyone else but he decides to do it anyway.

Sakura's transformation is accelerated and she decides to try and win the war herself in order to use the Grail's power to contain her magical energy to neutralise the weapon she turning into. After a major battle which killed Illya's hero, leaving her out of the war, and also left Shirou injured, one of the other heroes in the war sees what path Shirou has headed down and decides to sacrifice themselves in order to help him. This hero happens to be a version of Shirou from the future and gives him some of his future abilities (transformation). With his new strength and abilities Shirou finds out that now himself, Sakura and one other mage, a priest, are the last active participants in the Holy Grail War. He must defeat Sakura without killing her which he manages to do (atonement). He then takes on the priest and after a big battle manages to win, and with the help of Illya he activates the Holy Grail which sacrifices himself in order to save everyone else, including Sakura.

Many years after the Holy Grail War, Sakura finds a way to use her abilities as a mage to infuse Shirou's spirit into a magical humanoid doll, effectively bringing him back from the dead (return). Now finally back together, they are able to lead a normal, happy life.

This story is an adaptation of an old visual novel and the Fate series itself is a big transmedia franchise with video games, books, TV shows, movies, web comics, conventions and more. It is also connected to other franchises by the same author Nasu, with fans calling it the "Nasuverse." Over the last decade the series has become incredibly popular, and I think this is due to the vast amount of content being pushed out by the series. In 2019 Fate/Grand Order was the most Tweeted video game, beating out other games like Fortnite.

There are so many characters in the franchise that I think anyone is able to watch the series and find a character they like and become attached to in some way. With so much Fate content coming out there is no time for fans to become bored or disinterested.

Now what?

How do existing texts inform the work I'm currently creating and how do I acknowledge inspirations and intertextuality within my own creations?

If I watch a movie or TV show I really like, I watch it the first time to just enjoy it and a second time to study it. I look for the different techniques that the creators use to present information to the audience. I'm also a fan of visual effects breakdowns that show what kind of process the artists used to achieve certain effects. By studying these things I've picked up many different tricks and techniques that I use in my own work and when people ask how I learnt them, I point them towards where I first saw them.