Between Strings - Webseries

A jazz combo loses its bass player. As a last resort, auditions are held. Between Edgar and André, who will get the coveted spot?

"Between Strings" is a miniseries produced as part of the Master's Degree in Audiovisual Communication for New Media, at the University of Aveiro , in partnership with RTP.

Available for free on YouTube, accompanied by interviews with musicians and collaborators on the series shared on our social networks, Between Strings is a cross-media project in which we will explore, in a fictional way, the lives of two musicians who are at a crossroads in their personal lives and a jazz combo that will open a spot for one of them. Meanwhile, we want to hear the voices of the musicians in real life and give them a spotlight through interviews and interactions on social media.

Divided into three 8-12 minute episodes, we first follow Edgar Lima, a musician born into the jazz world, stuck in his daily routine of working in a grocery store and then playing gigs at night. With a brother abroad constantly pressuring him to follow in his footsteps and Edgar having no interest in listening to him, he sticks to this day-to-day routine until it proves impossible. In the second episode, we will follow André Barros, a regular at classical music competitions, with an extensive resume of awards and diplomas, who is looking for inspiration to find himself a new direction in his artistic career. Finally, we will go back and see what led Between Strings to open auditions for a new bassist, so close to their next concerts. Between Edgar and André, one of them will see their life changed.

About the author

We are 4 students of the Master's Degree in Audiovisual Communication for New Media, at the University of Aveiro - Alex Godinho, Catarina Teixeira, Daniela Santos and Érica Rita - all with varied backgrounds in this field. With a small team, it is necessary to have the tasks well divided and carried out with total focus.

A Equipa por detrás. (Da direita para a esquerda: Alex Godinho - Editor, Catarina Teixeira - Diretora de Fotografia, Daniela Santos - Diretora de Casting, Érica Rita - Diretora de Som)

This concept emerged in mid-November as a project proposal for the second half of the year, and since then the expansion of the original idea to what it is now allows us to already show a small teaser of the first episode, knowing that the evolution and potential of this series is exponential!

Budget and due dates

While a pilot episode has already been produced - which provided the images for the teaser - there are still 2 more episodes to be produced, in addition to improving the first one, and the extra content that accompanies the series.

As a student production, all actors and collaborators participate for free, while the crew takes care of the transportation and food expenses. For this episode, we spent around €80 on fuel and tolls, due to filming in Porto and Aveiro on 4 separate days, as well as another €20 on food.

The filming equipment is provided by the faculty, but due to the existence of other master's, undergraduate projects and classes, there are times when it is necessary to use our own equipment (lights, SD cards, etc.) and consumables, such as batteries, to operate certain equipment. In this regard, we budgeted each episode at a minimum of €110 (possibly higher), and, with the payment of PPL commissions (€50) and fulfillment of the rewards from this same crowdfunding (+-€140), we decided to set the minimum fundraising amount at €550, in order to be able to at least cover the weight of the individual expenses of each member.

Divisão do orçamento.

Any amount above this will continue to cover any unforeseen expenses (e.g. extra days of filming) as well as allowing greater focus on this project in its post-production and promotion, without worrying about the financial burden on the team!

In these weeks of April we planned the final steps of pre-production for the 2nd and 3rd episode, so that we can follow through with their filming in order to finish by end of May. The release of the content will happen in June, on our various social networks (Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube and our own website). The crowdfund will run until the mid-June with the rewards being delivered starting July (depending on the production time).

Calendarização do projeto.

Images