Essence

❓The problem at hand.

How might we help lower the barrier of entrance for aspiring actors to join and thrive in the entertainment industry?

💭 Our inspiration?

Just as others are inspired to pursue careers as engineers, doctors, or lawyers, my aspirations were shaped by watching actors perform. From a young age, witnessing their presence on Disney Channel and Netflix ignited my passion and desire to become an actor.

Due to societal pressures and the slim chances of "making it big," I was encouraged to pursue career paths deemed more sustainable and stable. Ultimately, I steered away from my Disney Channel dream.

However, there are still some out there who have not given up. There are ones out there who are like me, who are sitting in front of their TV, admiring the art of performing.

📌 Diving deeper into our problem scope

Through our research, we found an overwhelming statistic that pointed to the fact that unemployment rates in actors hover around 90%, and that as low as 2% of actors are able to make a living out of acting.

Using that, we were able to narrow down our niche and target our platform for beginners who aspire to perform center stage one day. We looked into established resources like Khan Academy, LeetCode, and Coursera as inspiration to provide purposeful and industry standard lesson plans. We believe just like any school subject like math or science, acting is a skill that can be learned and honed onto.

🎬 What does Essence do?

Essence is a platform that trains aspiring actors from practicing to performing. Users are presented with real life scenes to watch and practice by mimicking. They are able to record themselves scripting the scene and get an instant score and personalized feedback to improve their skills. Users can compare side by side how the actor figure performed versus their take of the same scene. They are able to review all their takes and view their progress through their acting journey!

🛠️ How we built it

Our team started by brainstorming the core features we wanted Essence to have, focusing on user engagement and practical learning tools. We then designed the user interface and user experience in Figma, ensuring a sleek and intuitive design. On the backend, we set up the server, database, and APIs needed to support our platform's functionalities. For the frontend, we developed the client-side interface, focusing on creating a responsive and user-friendly environment. Finally, we integrated the frontend and backend, ensuring seamless interaction between components.

🚦Challenges we ran into

It was challenging to agree on which features were essential for our initial launch. We encountered several technical issues, especially related to real-time feedback and performance comparisons. Once many components were implemented, it became difficult to make changes to the overall architecture without disrupting existing features.

🖍️ Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the intuitive and visually appealing user interface we created, and achieving a fully functional platform that effectively helps users improve their acting skills.

🎤 What we learned

Our team gained experience with new technologies and design principles. We enhanced our version control skills, making collaboration more efficient. We learned how to work better as a team, leveraging each other’s strengths and improving our communication.

→ What's next for Essence

As Essence provides easy to use resources for actors who are just starting out, we want to increase the amount of features to help actors of all levels. Think generative prompts to practice expressing niche emotions and involving the mentorship of admirable actors. Overall, we strive to provide an ever growing and supportive community for actors of all levels to come together!