Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

This thesis includes three separate documents: a) a comprehensive document detailing the methods and analysis of the creative factors tied to series success, b) an hour long pilot script based on this data, and c) an industry-standard pitch deck for a TV show created with data insights. In a larger sense, the aim of this study is to take the first steps in remedying information asymmetry between streaming services and content creators. If streaming services were more transparent with their data and communicated to their creators what has been proven to work in the past, showrunners and staff writers could have a new tool to increase the competitiveness of their series and aid in show renewal each year.

For my project, I delve into the relationships of Victor and the Monster as well as the relationships Victor shares with other characters that were underdeveloped within the original novel by Mary Shelley in the novel Franeknstein. I examine their relationships in two components. The first through my own interpretation of Victor and the Monster’s relationship within a creative writing piece that extends the novel as if Victor had lived rather than died in the arctic in order to explore the possibilities of a more complex set of relationships between Victor and the Monster than simply creator-creation. My writing focuses on the development of their relationship once all they have left is each other. The second part of my project focuses on an analytical component. I analyze and cite the reasoning for my creative take on Victor and the Monster as well as their relationship within the novel and Mary Shelley’s intentions.

The depiction of female action heroes in modern blockbuster films has become more accurate throughout the years; however, the representation of women is still not as progressive as feminist scholars, actors, and viewers would like. This thesis explores two recent blockbuster films, Wonder Woman (2017) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), and how each film deals with the representation of women. While one could look to many cultural forms to explore such issues, films, “the most accessible representations of the past, present, and future of our society,” are particularly fertile ground for exploring gendered representations and stereotyping (Haskell, 1974). For much of Hollywood history, action films have used female protagonists as either passive, venerated symbols of perfect femininity, or objects of fascination and sexual pleasure for their male viewers. Or, if the female hero does have a degree of agency that allows her to push the plot forward, she is subject to moral scrutiny and frequently masculinized. In fact, the representation of women often falls into binary categories: the angelic damsel in distress, or the morally reprehensible, often masculinized, female villain. While the history of women’s representation in film more generally and action films more specifically is a long and complicated one that is beyond the scope of this project, recent action productions have exhibited notable shifts, both in terms of female characters’ box-office and narrative strength. However, both Wonder Woman and Mad Max: Fury Road, present viewers with examples of female representation that break through many of the misogynistic tropes that have dominated the genre for far too long. The key distinction between how both films destroy gendered stereotypes lies in the degrees to which the films allow their central female protagonists, and more minor female characters, to dominate the narrative and inhabit the composition of the screen. Wonder Woman tells the story of one powerful woman, whereas Fury Road utilizes a multitude of women in its story to defy gender stereotypes. While both films can be interpreted as empowering for female viewers, Wonder Woman gives its audience an easily digestible example of female agency; this is due to Wonder Woman allowing its famous comic book hero to comment and reject traditional women’s clothing, but also insists Diana be limited to hypersexualized battle armour and implicates that women cannot have love, power, and family. On the other hand, Fury Road presents viewers with a more radicalized gynocentric world in which, after considerable struggle and not without compromise, female characters not only have power, but wrest it away from the men who have abusively held onto control in the past. These two films also paved new ground for women in Hollywood production terms: giving women more power at the box-office and destroying the old-aged notion that female-centric films do not sell and make money at the same rate as male-centered ones do. Both Wonder Woman and Mad Max: Fury Road, in their own ways, depict that there is space for female action heroes to be more progressive and feminist in future blockbuster action films.

Filmmakers seek to create story pieces that are visually beautiful and engage the full attention of their audience. They typically abide by a 3-step process moving through pre-production, production, and post-production. Within each step, there are a series of tasks that need to be accomplished in order to reach the completed film. A successful film requires careful planning and strategy in pre-production, timely and decisive execution in production, and minimal unforeseen retouching in post-production.<br/><br/>Even though filmmakers have continued to follow the same formula throughout the decades, the filmmaking process has remained largely inefficient. It is extremely common for pre-production planning to be undercut, for production filming to run far too long, and for post-production VFX and editing to send the project over budget. These instances can cause major issues as the project is being finalized. In many scenarios portions of the project need to be reshot, the box office revenue isn’t enough to make up for extensive VFX retouching, or the project may never even come to fruition. <br/><br/>The reason for this recurring theme of films being over budget and out of time is quite simply that technology has made filmmakers lazy. “Fix it in post” is a disgustingly common phrase used in the film industry. It describes the utter abuse of computer retouching in the post-production phase of filmmaking. Despite working in an industry that seeks to entertain the human eye, filmmakers have become blind to all of the small mistakes that could cost them hundreds of hours and millions of dollars in the long run.

Through this creative project, I analyzed how COVID-19 has affected the theatre industry. I created a mini-documentary following ASU’s production of Runaways, which was performed without an audience. The final product was a combination of pre-filmed and self-taped scenes. I documented how students were still able to learn and cultivate their skills during a time where most things are virtual. In addition, I analyzed how the shift to filmed theatre has changed the definition of live theatre, including increased accessibility. I also explored the importance of theatre through analyzing the themes of musical theatre performances such as Rent and Runaways. During a time where people cannot gather, artists are still finding a way to create and tell stories.

Can You Hear Me is a short documentary which seeks to give voice to the experiences of trans and nonbinary students in ASU classrooms. What I present in this project are the direct spoken accounts of the feelings, thoughts and frustrations of transgender and nonbinary students as they navigate university classrooms at Arizona State University. Can You Hear Me serves as a representational platform for trans and nonbinary students to communicate their experiences to other students, staff and faculty in the hopes that it might help make classroom spaces more inclusive.

This project explores how modern mobile technology can be used to provide support for domestic violence victims. The goal of the project is to create a proof-of-concept iOS mobile application that maintains a discreet safety front and provides domestic violence victims with resources and safety planning. The design and implementation are disguised as a hair salon app to maintain a low profile on the user’s phone. The HairHelp app features quick exit navigation, a secure database to store a user’s private and personal documents in case of emergency, and a checklist of safety planning measures. The steps taken in this project serve as the foundation for a larger project in the long term.

HackerHero is an educational game designed to teach children, especially those from marginalized backgrounds, computation thinking skills needed for STEAM fields. It also teaches children about social injustice. This project was focused on creating an audio visualization for an AI character within the HackerHero game. The audio visualization consisted of a static silhouette of a face and a wave-like form to represent the mouth. Audio content analysis was performed on audio sampled from the character’s voice lines. Pitch and amplitude derived from the analysis was used to animate the character’s visual features such as it’s brightness, color, and mouth movement. The mouth’s movement and color was manipulated with the audio’s pitch. The lights of Wave were controlled by the amplitude of the audio. Design considerations were made to accommodate those with visual disabilities such as color blindness and epilepsy. Overall the final audio visualization satisfied the project sponsor and built upon existing audio visualization work. User feedback will be a necessity for improving the audio visualization in the future.