CINEWORKS
Cineworks is a non-profit society filmmaking society that supports its members in their creative endeavors by supplying equipment/crew and bringing exposure to their films. Their short-term goal is to create a community rooted in member collaboration, while the long-term goal is to establish themselves as a production and education hub.
The Client
Transcend. A web application that connects filmmakers together.
02. Defining Our Initial Design Focus
Our design focus is to encouraging communication and interaction between members and enhancing their experience with Cineworks’ screenings, workshops, and events
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Defining community
The workshop gave us insights into what filmmakers and Cineworks members want from a "filmmaking community." Cineworks' filmmaking community is more heavily centered around production rather than exhibition. Members expressed they wanted to collaborate with fellow filmmakers and learn from experienced ones, contrary to our initial impression of the need for a social-based community. From these insights, we defined the following three pillars of the desired filmmaking community.
06. Analysing insights
Together
Collaborating
As a design team, we partner with Cineworks to help them achieve their goals. Over a period of 4 months, we visited its locations on a weekly basis and immersed ourselves into the organization to gain insights into Cineworks' staff, stakeholders, and members. Our primary research presented, in both the production and exhibition side, a potential focus point where we as a team could intervene.
Roles within Cineworks
Board of Directors
Oversees the direction of Cineworks' long-term vision and manages the relationships with key stakeholders.
Operations Staff
Manages the daily affairs of the organization including member communications, services, and community outreach.
Members
Members are given exclusive
access to workshops, film
screenings and discounted rates on the equipment rental program.
Early on in our research, we observed the following:
Scattered Locations
Cineworks' two separate production facilities limits opportunities for members to interact.
No Member Presence
Cineworks' primary location is mostly occupied by staff with little to no member presence.
Siloed Rooms
Cineworks' function-focused rooms do not encourage collaboration and interaction between members.
01. Ethnography Research & Staff interview
Primary Insights
Next step we interviewed Cineworks' staff, stakeholders and members to gain a complete understanding of their processes, experiences, behaviours, goals and vision. From these insights, we created personas in order to represent the different user types within Cineworks.
Understanding their goals & needs
03. Creating Personas
Aspiring
Filmmaker
Persona 3
Experienced Filmmaker
Persona 1
A Cineworks Stakeholder
Persona 2
What they do
Production
Support independent filmmakers by providing resources such as equipment, workshops, and studio spaces.
Exhibition
Bringing exposure to their members’ films
and inspiring the local community by
raising awareness of societal issues
through the medium of film
Lack of communication
Through our initial research, it was clear that Cineworks has an inefficient method of communication among members. The Equipment & Facilities Manager (EFM) is the intermediary that connects all the members. Therefore, there is little to no communication between members itselfs.
Insight #1
Insights into Member Perspective
Two distinct member groups with different experiences and perspectives.
Understanding Two Distinct Member Populations
After the film screening, we noticed the distinct difference between needing to cater towards both new and experienced members.
Difficulty in Expanding Network
Members rarely interact with each other outside of monthly events. As a result, members had difficulty building connections with unfamiliar event attendees, especially with experienced members.
Experiences
04. Journey Maps
To better understand the current pain points, we had to collect more insights into members' perceived experiences. By observing and talking with the members, we were able to extract a detailed journey map for both the production process and the exhibition event experiences.
05. Revised Design Focus
Our design focus is to encourage interpersonal interaction between Cineworks’ members to help cultivate a sense of community within the organization.
Connecting the dots
While performing an infinity board exercise, we were able to draw connections with issues that we identified earlier as symptoms of a larger problem: a lack of community. For this reason, we changed our design focus to tailor the root problem.
Our Breakthrough
THE CHALLENGE:
As a design team, we partner with Cineworks to help them looking for a design solution that could encourage interpersonal interaction between Cineworks’ member's to cultivate a sense of community within the organization.
THE OUTCOME:
Transcend is a web application created in collaboration with the independent filmmakers of Cineworks that connects filmmakers allowing them to collaborate, create and bring their scripts to life.
Calvin Cheng
Aleeze Asif
Curtis Ho
TEAM:
WORKED ON:
Ux & UI design;
interactions;
visual design;
strategy;
user research.
YEAR:
Sep 2018 -
Dec 2018
ROLE:
Ux & UI design, interactions & animations, visual design, branding and strategy, customer support, manual writing.
TEAM:
Robert Megens
Wendy Castelijns
Binod Nepali
YEAR:
Aug 2019 - Ongoing
ROLE:
Ux & UI design, interactions, visual design, strategy, user research
TEAM:
Calvin Cheng
Aleeze Asif
Curtis Ho
YEAR:
Sep 2018 -Dec 2018
Connection +
Connecting with other filmmakers
Collaboration +
Collaborating with other members on film projects
Creation +
Creating intriguing films from scripts
= Community
ROLE:
Ux & UI design, interactions & animations, visual design, branding and strategy, customer support, manual writing.
TEAM:
Robert Megens
Wendy Castelijns
Binod Nepali
YEAR:
Aug 2019 - Ongoing
ROLE:
Ux & UI design, interactions & animations, visual design, branding and strategy, customer support, manual writing.
TEAM:
Robert Megens
Wendy Castelijns
Binod Nepali
YEAR:
Aug 2019 - Ongoing
ROLE:
Ux & UI design, interactions & animations, visual design, branding and strategy, customer support, manual writing.
TEAM:
Robert Megens
Wendy Castelijns
Binod Nepali
YEAR:
Aug 2019 - Ongoing
Co-creation workshop
After discussing our initial solutions with the client, we noticed we had to define community better and brainstorm solutions together with all the user types in the organization.
During our co-creation workshop, we used a collaging activity to encourage the members to articulate their experiences and emotions using pictures and words, a graffiti wall to label opportunity areas that surfaced, and an H-form to start brainstorming solutions.
ROLE:
Ux & UI design, interactions & animations, visual design, branding and strategy, customer support, manual writing.
TEAM:
Robert Megens
Wendy Castelijns
Binod Nepali
YEAR:
Aug 2019 - Ongoing
CLANWORKS, a mingling application
Clanworks leverages members’ common interests
and passions to group them into clans at events and
screenings making it easier for them to interact,
socialize and potenially collaborate.
Design Solution #1
CINE-STORIES, sharing experiences & stories
With Cine-stories members can learn about their peers’ passions, projects, and stories in their time with Cineworks. They can share their own Cineworks story while collaborating with other members to become a part of theirs.
Design Solution #2
CINEMA-SHARE, the online film community
Participate in meaningful discussions with Cineworks’ passionate independent filmmaker community. Submit your film trailers to gain exposure, valuable feedback
from other experienced independent filmmakers and earn votes to be selected for future screenings at Cineworks.
Design Solution #3
06. Brainstorming & ideation
Initial Design Directions
Based on our ethnographic research, user interviews, and user journey mapping, the common trend regarding the pain points faced by all relevant entities is a lack of connection between Cineworks’ members. While brainstorming and ideating our initial design solutions, we focused on addressing these issues. For each solution, we created a storyboard to visualize the concept and discuss this within Ciniworks.
Working towards a solution
With that said we refined our previous design focus to cultivate a sense of community of independent filmmakers that is focused on connection, collaboration and creation while encouraging members to support each others' creative film production endeavors. This brought us to the final design solution:
TRANSCEND
- a digital web application where Cineworks members can connect to find other like-minded members and collaborate together on film projects.
Find projects that are looking for crew
On each project card, members can view who is leading the film production and discover which projects are still looking for collaborators.
Feature 2
Read more about the progess
When exploring ongoing projects, members can view projects in detail and familiarize themself with the crew, their current progress, and understand the vision. They can also find what type of collaborator they are looking for if the team is looking for a specific skillset.
Feature 3
Make your interest known
When a member is interested in joining a project, they are able to contact the existing crew and make their interest known.
Feature 4
Disover ongoing projects
In the projects tap, members are able to browse through ongoing projects by other Ciniworks members. Through that, they can find projects that pique their interest.
Feature 1
Upload your own project
Members who want to take their own script into production can upload their own project into the community platform. By that, they can find passionate filmmakers to join their crew.
Feature 5
Find your fit
Evaluate members who express their interest in your uploaded project and recruit crewmembers to bring your script to live.
Feature 6
Connect directly with members
Connect with filmmakers who understand your vision and talk to them directly through the community chat.
Feature 7
Keep the crew up to date
Coordinate with your crew by posting important announcements to keep your crew up to date.
Feature 8
Bring Exposure to Your Work
With Transcend you can explore and engage: get inspired and be the inspiration to your community!
Feature 9
