Weekly Reflective Logs

Under this section I will present my weakly reflections to demonstrate development of my project.

Week 1

In this reflective log, I will explain what tasks I completed this week and any practical work I started or finished. I will show the strengths and weaknesses of my practical exercise and at the end of the log, summarise what I have learned and what I need to improve to ensure accuracy in my shots. This week was the beginning of my final major project.

I had 3 tasks to complete this week. This was to be placed in the context page on my final major project website. The first task was a “Who am I?” task. This included identifying my likes, dislikes, passions, fears, trusted people, what I want to change and quotes. This task is important due to the fact that it helped me understand who I am and what ideas I could potentially come up with for my final major project as it’s important to plan and create something I am interested in.

The next task was discussing and providing evidence of skills I want to improve and gain from this project. The evidence I used was previous projects such as video essays, short films and experimentation videos to show that I have gained skills and what I want to improve on. This task helps as a guideline as I can focus my short film on the skills I want to develop.

Finally, the last task I completed this week was creating three potential ideas for my final major project. One was a music video, that I would ask my uncle to help produce the music for, the next idea is a video essay on one of my favorite games Detroit: Become Human and how it has the potential to become a reality, and the final idea being a short film about 2 childhood friend detective partners with a plot twist.

After consulting with peers and lecturers, I got pros and cons for all of my ideas. The main bit of feedback I received was that the short film allows more chance to develop every skill yet the video essay idea is unique and has potential to be interesting for the viewer. They said the music video could be undoable if my uncle is unavailable to work on the audio for the music video so it has a lot of risk. This led me to choose the short film idea with the detectives as it gives me the opportunity to improve skills that I wouldn’t have been able to improve with the other ideas. It also the less risky out of the three.

Overall, this week has been successful as I completed all the work for week 1 and chose a suitable idea which I have multiple ideas for such having quite a dark theme to the film, due to it being a crime thriller. I am also hoping to have a focus effect on the final shot where it focuses on the ring then focuses to the person behind holding the gun to build up suspense and reveal the mystery quickly. 

Week 2

In this reflective log, I will explain what tasks I completed this week and any practical work that I started or finished. I will show the strengths and weaknesses of my practical exercise and at the end of the log, summarise what I have learned and what I need to improve to ensure accuracy in my shots. This week’s task was to complete our work from last week and complete any improvements that we needed to make and to create our research plan.  

The first area I needed to research was my topic. I figured I would need to delve further into my genre of choice – which is crime/thriller – and how to accurately achieve the feel of the genre: for example, having dark lighting within a thriller creates tension and makes the viewer more on edge. I will be looking at short films with a similar genre, video essay’s which suggest tips on how to achieve the feel of the genre, websites with tips and look at crime and thriller novels. Furthermore, I am going to research how to build up a good plot twist ending. I will be looking at short films with plot twist endings, websites with tips and crime and thriller novels.  

The next area I need to conduct research in is my target audience. First, I need to discover who exactly my target audience is. I will be researching the demographic for crime and thriller by looking at the people reviewing films and television shows within the genre and data which state the people who take interest in this genre. I will then be researching further into my target audience and interviewing people within the demographic their thoughts and opinions on how I can improve.  

I will also need to research skills and techniques I need to learn how to do before the filming day as it could take too much time. I will take pictures and videos for evidence of this. I will be experimenting with lighting to gather the feel of a Crime/Thriller within our location. This means playing with the lighting until I get the ideal setting for the scene. I will then be experimenting with the camera to get the focus effect I want. The effect is where it focuses on one object, and then focuses to one behind it within one shot. I will research how to do the technique then play with the camera settings until I successfully complete the technique.  

Finally, I will need to be researching stuff for my production plan. I will be researching available locations to use; this means visiting different areas which are local to me which could be potential areas that I could use, taking pictures of the locations for evidence and referral, and taking notes on each area on whether I need to contact the council, the amount of space within the location and what time has the least people around the area. I will then research the look I want my actors to follow such as formal or casual wear. I will then be gathering my actors and finding out their availability. 

Overall, this week has been successful as I completed all the work for Week 2 and completed my research plan which will be very useful when it comes to doing my research as it will speed up the process, essentially keeping me on top of the workload.  

Week 3

In this reflective log, I will explain what tasks I completed this week and any practical work that I started or finished. I will show the strengths and weaknesses of my practical exercise and at the end of the log, summarize what I have learned and what I need to improve to ensure accuracy in my shots. This week’s task was to complete any work from last week and then to begin on finishing our context page and planning our research.

The first task I completed was my research plan. This is very important for my short film as I am able to plan out my research questions so I know what to research effectively. I provided 6 questions to answer which are in the following:

How do I achieve the Crime/Thriller Genre?
How do I build up a good plot twist ending?
Who is my target audience?
What are my target audience’s thoughts?

How do I successfully do a rack focus?
How can I make my camera movement and shots more unique?

I will ask myself these questions and use a mix of primary and secondary research to find out my answers to these questions. This also covers all of the research I have to do and requires me to experiment with the camera myself, making me improve my skills and practice before the big filming day.

The second task I completed was my pitch. This was a PowerPoint document which provides a tag line, potential target audience, synopsis, treatment, characters, potential locations, how I will put it together, and my research plan. This document was shown to a lecturer where we discussed the overall plan and any missing pieces that could be added before the research and pre-production stage. I was given the good to go by my tutor and continued with my short film idea.

The third task I completed this week was my Proposal Document. This is a document that states my idea, the reasoning for my idea, my research plan, the skills I need for it, and my project timetable. This document helps with the overall development of my project as it states my fully complete idea and my plans for it. It also has a timetable which allows me to plan out the timeframe I have for each bit of work that I have to complete.

Overall, this week was very successful as I managed to complete these 3 tasks efficiently. They have added to the development of my project and helped me generate more ideas for the final major project, as well as prepared me for the next task, which is the research stage.

Week 4

In this reflective log, I will explain what tasks I completed this week and any practical work that I started or finished. I will show the strengths and weaknesses of my practical exercise and at the end of the log, summarise what I have learned and what I need to improve to ensure accuracy in my shots. This week’s task was to complete any work from last week and begin our research. This week I focused on two sections of my research.

For our research we had 4 sections to cover. These sections were topic research, target audience research, skills and techniques research, and planning research (otherwise known as pre-production). This week, I focused on completing my topic research and target audience research. For my topic research, I studied into how to achieve the Crime/Thriller genre, finding out that suspense is a huge part of it. I researched into how to build suspense and studied a particular director, Steven Spielberg. He is a master of building suspense, using rapid close-ups and short spells of music to alert the viewer, affecting their calm state by bringing a tense atmosphere to the screen. I then researched how to successfully achieve a plot twist. For this, I used a mix for secondary and primary research to answer this question. For my primary research, I watched the film, The Prestige, which is known for it’s multiple plot twist ending. I took inspiration from this film and started thinking into flashing back to previous scenes or new scenes with familiar settings to reveal secret information to the viewer, ultimately leading up to a plot twist.

I then completed my target audience research. To begin this, I looked into films of the same genre and their age rating. I looked into films such as Malignant and The Batman, stating why they have their age rating and what I think mine should be based on that. I then looked on the BBFC rating website which was very informational on age ratings. This helped me state what age rating my film should be due to their strict guidelines. Finally, I researched a book named The Marketing Edge for Filmmakers. This helped me find out my true target audience by identifying if I am going to receive a large number of media or if it’s going to be a small production. I ended my research by concluding that my target audience is people above the age of 15 who are interested in short films. Specifically of the crime/thriller genre. They might have enjoyed detective shows such as Sherlock or enjoy true crime documentaries. They will be located around Kent, specifically Canterbury due to the low budget. They will be mainly students of Canterbury College as my short film will be premiered at the end of year showcase within the college. Finally, I asked my target audience their thoughts on my idea, taking note of new ideas and criticism.

Overall, this week was also successful as I completed my first bit of research and finding important information that I can use to help plan my short film. I found how to plan my plot twist ending while also targeting it towards a certain audience. Without this week, I feel like I would lose structure in my pre-production planning.

Week 5

In this reflective log, I will explain what tasks I completed this week and any practical work that I started or finished. I will show the strengths and weaknesses of my practical exercise and at the end of the log, summarise what I have learned and what I need to improve to ensure accuracy in my shots. This week’s task was to complete any work from last week and finish our research. This week I focused on the next two sections of my research.

For the next part of my research, I looked into the skills and technique section. For skills and techniques, I wanted to improve my camera skills while learning a new camera technique to add originality to my short film. I first wanted to learn how to successfully complete a rack focus. For this, I experimented and researched using my own camera and YouTube. I used figures to represent the characters. It took me two attempts to successfully do a rack focus and I am glad I have learned this new technique as I don’t only need it for this project but I can add it in future projects too. I also researched another book called Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualising from Concept to Screen. This helped me understand how to successfully pan the camera while not losing the effect of a smooth flow which keeps the viewer immersed in the film.

To finish off this week, I started my pre-production work by researching potential locations and actors to use for my film. I worked out my actors quickly by using two people in my class as the two actors and another person to play a dead body on the floor. I also quickly worked out my locations as one of my main actors luckily has access to both of the locations, I imagined within my head so not only was it easily accessible, it was quick and efficient to sort with all my actors.

Overall, this week went well as I finished my main sections of research and I started my pre-production planning ready to start next week. I am very glad I started my pre-production at this stage as it makes it simple to document my recce location research due to the easy access of location.

Week 6

In this reflective log, I will explain what tasks I completed this week and any practical work that I started or finished. I will show the strengths and weaknesses of my practical exercise and at the end of the log, summarize what I have learned and what I need to improve to ensure accuracy in my shots. This week’s task was to complete any work from last week and begin my pre-production work.

This week was dedicated to completing all my pre-production documents. This included work such as storyboards, scripts, shooting scripts, production timetable, production budget, recce research, health and safety, call sheet, prop list and contingency plan. All of these documents help the production stage run smoothly due to the excessive planning. If this were not to be completed by the production stage, the likeliness of continuity issues, missing shots, lack of storyline and low-quality camera work is very high due to the lack of planning and information to the rest of the crew.

Overall, this week went well as I managed to complete all my pre-production documents, meaning I was ready to begin filming. Like previously mentioned, if these were not to be completed by the production stage, the likeliness of continuity issues, missing shots, lack of storyline and low-quality camera work is very high due to the lack of planning and information to the rest of the crew. It is good that this was completed before production as now I have an idea to give to the crew, allowing them to easily understand the project and what to do.

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Week 7

In this reflective log, I will explain what tasks I completed this week and any practical work that I started or finished. I will show the strengths and weaknesses of my practical exercise and at the end of the log, summarise what I have learned and what I need to improve to ensure accuracy in my shots. This week’s task was to complete any work from last week and to record the footage for my short film.

This week I focused on filming my short film. I made sure to bring all the pre-production documents I needed, such as my storyboard, script and shooting script to help make sure that everything is being filmed to a high standard. I believe that filming went well and I managed to film efficiently while capturing all the shots I needed but one, which can easily be replaced and fixed.

Overall, this week was successful as I finished filming to a high standard. I also made sure that everything that has a chance of going wrong has a fix to it such as a missing shot can be replaced by a graphic and low-quality audio can be replaced with edited camera audio. Next time, I will make sure to pay more attention to the actors to avoid continuity issues, as well as making sure to film every shot I need. I also think my audio recording skills could be improved before my next project to avoid the problem of having to edit camera audio in replace of bad quality microphone audio.

Week 8

In this reflective log, I will explain what tasks I completed this week and any practical work that I started or finished. I will show the strengths and weaknesses of my practical exercise and at the end of the log, summarise what I have learned and what I need to improve to ensure accuracy in my shots. This week’s task was to complete any work from last week and begin the post-production section.

This week I began editing. To begin with, I decided I wanted to perfect the first scene, graphics and extra sound effects, before moving onto the next scenes. I began with importing all of the footage and putting it into order of how I wanted it. I then used the camera audio for reference for the microphone audio and inserted onto the timeline. I fixed any unusable audio, which only happened to be 1 shot, and then continued on to add graphics, such as the film title, and sound effects, such as a text message tone and suspense riser.

To finish off the week, I made sure any documents before this point were completed and inserted onto my website before continuing on with any further work.

Overall, this week has been successful owing to the fact that I began editing my final major project and finished the first scene, allowing me to focus on the second and third scene next time as well as any finishing touches.

Week 9

In this reflective log, I will explain what tasks I completed this week and any practical work that I started or finished. I will show the strengths and weaknesses of my practical exercise and at the end of the log, summarize what I have learned and what I need to improve to ensure accuracy in my shots. This week’s task was to complete any work from last week and finish my practical skills page on my final major project website.

This week I finished my production diary and began my post-production diary due to not being in college to edit due to illness. For my production diary, I made sure to include screengrabs of footage that I filmed and any behind the scenes photos that were taken. I made sure to state what the development process of the production stage was and what challenges we faced and how we overcame them. For example, an issue we faced was that some lines weren’t said properly due to an actor’s dyslexia, so we adapted the script to make it easier for them to say. I made sure to backup all of my diary with images from the day in chronological order and evaluated the day and described what I can do better next time.

I also began my post-production diary by showing screengrabs of the editing process so far explaining what techniques I used and what I done to achieve the first scene. For example, I showed me editing camera audio to match the microphone audio due to technical difficulties making the microphone audio unusable.

Overall, this week went well despite the situation I was in. I managed to complete my production diary and started my post-production diary, ready to complete next week after I finish editing. Next time, I will make sure to take more behind the scene pictures and videos for my production diary.

Week 10

In this reflective log, I will explain what tasks I completed this week and any practical work that I started or finished. I will show the strengths and weaknesses of my practical exercise and at the end of the log, summarise what I have learned and what I need to improve to ensure accuracy in my shots. This week’s task was to complete any work from last week and finish my post-production diary, final edit and evaluation.

To begin this week, I finished editing and added any ideas and advice from my lecturers such as backing music and cutting unneeded scenes. I started the next two scenes similarly to the first scene by importing all the footage first then using the camera audio reference for the microphone audio. Unfortunately, there was a lot more issues with the audio than the previous scene however all of it was fixed quickly. It just means next time I do a project involving audio, to experiment a bit more with it first to gather the information I need to improve the microphone quality. I then added any extra sound effects such as a bush rumbling and footsteps as well as graphics and credits. I finalised my edit with backing music to bring more atmosphere to my short film.

After finishing and exporting my edit, I finished off my post-production diary making sure I take screengrabs of the development of my edit and timeline, explaining what techniques I used and how I fixed the issues that arose. Next time I will be more careful in the production process to make my post-production stage easier, quicker and less stressful.

Finally, I finished the last week of the final major project completing my evaluation assessment. I began by explaining what my short film was and the main plot of it. I then went on to state the strengths and weaknesses, explaining in great detail why I think it’s good or bad and how can I input these skills or improve these skills for my next project. I also stated what research I conducted and the ideas that were inspired from it. I compared my short film to The Prestige, the film I researched and analysed for my primary topic research. I feel like I could’ve done better to build up the plot twist and next time I will pay more attentive detail to the small features that will help the viewer understand the storyline and improve the overall quality of the short film. I then stated what skills I wanted to develop and what I gained from this experience and asked myself “Did I achieve everything that I set myself out to do?”. I concluded my evaluation by saying that I understood the issues I had with my project and I believe I could’ve done better to minimise them yet, this constructive criticism has motivated me ready for my next project. I still believe the overall camera quality is high quality and that the effort I put into the short film is shown.

Overall, this week was successful as I completed the final small pieces to my final major project. I think I edited my short film the best I could and created a descriptive and informative post-production diary. I also wrote an informative evaluation stating positives and negatives and targets I want to set myself for my next project.