Participatory sessions

5 interviewees tested our service prototype and gave us some hints of how to improve it not only on the level of usability but also the idea itself and what additional options may be added.

interviewee 1 (24-year-old student):

•  it is not really probable for a professional to ask a student for a help; an experienced actor may hope for something more professional that a student may provide;
•  if she has no experience most probably she will not find any professionals willing to cooperate with her so one of the main ideas of the service may not be fulfilled;
• it is not really probable that a CEO of a big international company will look for freelancers rather than advertising company that will do the whole work for him, it is possible if the company is rather small and has really small budget; Peeter would rather like to contact with some previous co-workers or get some real references than relying just on karma system because he is looking for more detailed information about a future emplyee;
• scenario does not say that she wants to get feedback on her works, you have to come back to ‘personas’ section to get this informatio;
• I think it might be helpful for students to find some projects to inhance their experience and they would probably try to create their portfolios very complex. Professionals, however, probably do not use that kind of web page often to look for other prfoessionals but to get help for free from students and they will not make their profiles very complex.

interviewee 2 (22-year-old Erasmus student):

• this portfolio may really help to get to the mainstream from the theatre or school but if most of the users would be just students and there will be very little professionals it would be pointless and not effective at all – no one will get to the mainstream or find a work;
• I would be afraid that if I have some good idea that i want to develop, then someone else may steal it from me, e.g. idea for a movie especially that the content of my account is visible for everyone not even registered in the service!
• what is the reason for  having ‘karma’ system if Peeter still contacts with people of ‘pretty bad’ karma, it seems to be not very effective sytems while evaluating someone’s work.
• I doubt if people would read her script just to give her feedback on it or if she is looking for a crew, scripts are too long and there has to be some other way to present it than just hope for people to read it

interviewee 3 (32-year-old actor):

• it may be probable for Tiit to use the platform, but then there is the question of what is there to gain for him on this platform and not on ohters (e.g. own youtube channel etc.) the main reason for him would be that there are producers, filmmakers, that could see him – established ones on the market. but if there are just youngsters, it is no good for him. or if the platform was somehow connected to other platforms abroad or contacts abroad – that couldmake it more interesting for tiit probably.

interviewee 4 (27-year old journalist):

• It is logical that a young person would use this platform and does her account there. I think she would gain from it;
• I do not believe that a 35 year old mother of 2 would use this platform. Probably she would use her previous contacts. Well she could find the portal googling and could sign up, but probably she would be too passive to get attention. She would gain if she saw someone there who she knew earlier and then fresh her contacts there;
• I myself believe that I would probably register if someone sends me an invitation. But I would not be active if there is nothing going on – the page should give you the impression that there is life (not like LinkedIn). You should see that it works in reality and people can exchange contacts and information, people are approached with offers etc. If I presented my own portfolio, then this is pretty much time consuming  – so I would not do it just in case but would like to be certain that it would be helpful in reality.

interviewee 5 (28-year old art manager):

• I do not know if a producer (maybe even a foreign one), would start putting his team together via Crewbook. I think it would be wiser for him to find a project manager or a company to do that;
• this one has more logic in it to my mind. I mean, I have seen these kinds of persons myself. But why would she want to use Crewbook is still a bit not understood for me here. Let her do her cook book in peace.
• there is a question if it is suitable for doing this kind of interface only for Estonian market – the creative sector is more or less closed one in Estonia and the people know each other anyway. If they need someone, they probably have at least one person to contact and can get to the person they need. I think that in Estonia it is very hard to break this kind of model and go online. But as these kinds of platforms are existing in the world, maybe there is some kind of need for them. I am not sure if the name for the platform is OK It feels like this thing is based on a certain sector (AV) but it would be beneficial to think what kind of other creative sectors should be included here as well.

Summary

• special attention should be paid to get professionals on board as they are the driving force of this service;
• there was a concern of the content safety if it is made public;
• reference system should be better developed than just Karma and posts from previous co-workers, some more detailed info and contact numbers should be also available;
• there was a concern about the actual cooperation between professionals and students, it should be benefiacial for both sides;
• there shouls be an option to invite people;
• the success of the web page will be measured by the public by the amount of project offers and real cooperation possibilites, the service should somehow stimulate their flow;
• there was a doubt if Estonian market is not too small for such kind of service as everyone knows everyone and that it definatelly should be made international to get more sense;
• the porftoflio creation should be as simple as possible for people to actually make it as it may take a lot fo time.

Cutting div’s out of paper

Developing and testing interface using paper prototyping. This is how the intro page might look like:

The interface is divided into three vertical functional modules. The top bar, apart from hosting the logo, links to user profile and messaging center also displays service messages (post added, new message received etc.). The collapsible module below is used t register, post, quick display and any other current “issues”. The bottom module is the actual newsfeed, portfolio or project timeline.

A new user enters required registration information and starts setting up his/her profile

Sketching never stops

Tiit scenario

TIIT, 29, freelance actor

Tiit is a fairly known actor in Estonia.  His problem is that after a couple of succesfull films where he played the role of the “bad guy” producers are contanting him only for similar roles. He believes he could be great in other roles as well and he would like to get rid off the bad guy cliche. On day he is surfing in Facebook when he sees an Estonian ad promoting a new website catered to film and creative industries professionals. He decides to click the link to see what is it about. He finds out The Crewbook to be a platform where film and creative professionals, freelancers and students can upload their portfolios, CVs, and videos to promote themselves and to apply to “vacancies” posted by other users. He feels The Crewbook to be the space he was thinking about.

He creates an account and starts making his profile. Once he has finished with it he is quite happy even though he could have more videos showing his skills as a comedian.

Surfing the site he discovers that many students are there to promote themseves and at the same time to find other peers with whom he could do their school projects. They often have already a crew ( other students ), but they miss professional actors.

Tiit looks at the comedy section and decides to contct one student, of which he likes the previous work. The student is looking for an actor with Tiit’s characteristics for a 10-minutes shot. After a couple of hours Tiit receives a message from student. Tiit decides to have a coffee together  at the University cafeteria to see if they can work together.

 

Questions:

• Do you find the scenario representing a plausible situation?
• Do you think Tiit situation could represent a real need actors have and The Crewbook to be a possible answer?
• What could be other possible ways and reasons why actors would use The Crewbook?

Silvia scenario

Silvia, 21, Student

Most of Silvia’s friends on BFM already have accounts on TheCrewBook and they take part in various events announced there. She also wants to take part in different projects to evaluate her portfolio and to be visible on the market. She is interested in the summer internship possibilities with professionals so she tries various ways to contact them.

She got an invitation for TheCrewBook from her friend that is already there and she enters the page from her laptop. She browses the page to look how other profiles look like and how she should construct her account in order to be nice and catchy. Silvia opens her profile and connects it with Facebook account to be quickly notified about possible cooperation offers.

She uploads her works there using different  formats: video, pictures and text willing to show her versatility.
She browses for some professionals to follow using search tool and invites them to follow her profile account as well.
She hopes it will increase her chances to find an internship and she uses her  social network to look for some possibilities of participation in students’ group projects to get some more experience.

 

Questions:

• Did this scenario wake up any thoughts?
• What other possibilities of this service do you see for Silvia?
• Do you imagine yourself using this tool?

 

 

Barbara scenario

Barbara, 35, mother of 2.

Barbara goes on line and starts thinking where she could presents her work. Create her own webpage? Facebook? She needs some place to create her profile that is already meant for professionals or freelancers on the local market. Searching in Google she finds a link to The Crewbook.

She wants to communicate with others on the market and this site seems to be the right one.  She checks it out and finds it useful. She creates her profile and uploads her work. Once she has finished with her profile she start surfing at other people profiles and finds out that many producers are already part of it. She soon finds some contacts of producers and  decides to contact them trough the in-bulit message tool.

She feels she could finally get her script to some real professionals.

Questions:

• Is this situation realistic?
• What do you think – would Barbara gain from The Crewbook? What is there to gain for her?
• How would you change the scenario or develop it further?

Peeter’s scenario

Peeter, 45, CEO

Peter is a CEO of a logistics company serving the Nordic region. The company has plans to extend their operation in the Baltic region and they need to prepare advertising materials for the local market. Since the prices of advertising agencies in the home market are little bit too high for Peter, he decides to look for freelancers in the Baltics.

He plans to adapt a website, which currently is in Swedish and make it more convenient for clients; he also plants to make several advertising clips featuring his services and graphic materials to present to potential business partners. Therefore he thinks of finding a web-designer and/or programmer to work on the webpage, graphic designer to deal with the prints and an independent producer / film director to shoot clips.

Peter wants to check the free-lance market first and then turn to established companies to get a comparison of prices. He googles for “freelance film-makers in Estonia” and ends up on TheCrewBook website. He uses categories to browse for relevant people in the catalog and adds profiles to “selected” list. The profiles contain the timeline of user’s commits to their areas , portfolios and CVs.

While studying the selected list Peter uncovers that one of the people whom he had pre-selected has pretty bad “karma” (he had failed to provide his service in time) and several others are friends with one transmedia producer. Peter decides to get in touch with him and ask for the quote. He uses an online form to publish the call for quotes, entering a brief description of what his project evolves and writes an e-mail to the selected producer. Later that day he receives couple of comments and proposals on his post.

Questions:

• How realistic is such outcome?
• What would be the special UX and design features, that would catch Peter’s attention and make him spend time of CrewBook?
• What issues might social networking features of the web service would be appreciated by business clients? What do you think will be the privacy and security demands of this target segment?

 

Similar platfroms

Several similar platforms do exist, but they work on a global scale.

PLATOON

www.platoon.org

Platoon Cultural Development (based in Berlin and Seoul) is a network of creative people around the globe. The network is composed of PLATOON members who come together to form an extensive offline and online platform. It is here that creatives from different areas from all around the globe share insights and ideas, present themselves and their projects to a community of likeminded, and form interactive squads for working on assignments together. In order to join, you have to come in person to the headquarters in either Berlin or Seoul.

 PLATOON lets you participate and interact with other members on the online and offline network, expanding your base of potential projects and general know-how beyond the usual channels. currently there are over 5,800 recruits operating in over 25 countries. Not limited to location or artistic areas, the network can get you in contact with likeminded forces, let you share your own developments or just keep you informed about interesting things going on in the subculture world.

Being a great platform  with a large number of collaborating members, Platoon still lacks social networking and direct interactions of users. In order to place a project proposal, a user has to contact the administrators and negotiate the submission of a call. TheCrewBook is supposed to provide users with the ability to post the calls on their profile pages, as social network posts. Secondly, TheCrewBook is aimed at local (Baltic and Nordic region) activists to start with.

Currently Platoon network has 3 representative based in Estonia, one of whom is engaged in TheCrewBook development.

Wreck A Film

www.wreckamovie.com

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