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Week Three
In the third week of my Final Major Project, I was finishing off the final section, Production, of my Process Research Report and on top of this I went back to the start of my Process Report and included a much wider range of sources throughout, to ensure I can be hitting the distinction criteria for my final grade. I also started working on my Contextual Research Report, completing the Similiar Narratives and Real Life sections.
Action Plan Follow-Up
The first target I set myself last week to have completed by the end of the week was to gather a vast amount more of Primary Research except this time about all the stages of an FMP, not just Production alone. I attempted to get in contact with various people however, I have yet to still hear back from them regarding this. This is a target I want to carry over into the future weeks to come back and add to the report if it is still necessary. It is a shame no one got back to me, but I keep hope that they will in the future.
The last target I set myself was to head back to my previous Process Report and add more secondary sources whilst keeping consistent with them in the Contextual Report as well. I ran into some issues and found it hard to find books through Google Books but with some problem solving, I found an alternative to Google Books called Z-Libary which helped me find the necessary book with the information I was looking for. I am happy to say that I successfully went back and added a ton of Secondary Sources, improving on my chances to achieve a distinction.
Feelings
Before we started the Contextual Research Report, I wasn’t really looking forward to starting on it. This was due to the fact that last year, whilst writing my Contextual Research Report, I became very stressed throughout as I was very pushed with time to finish it. It initially gave me zero motivation to want to begin writing it. However, finally coming to terms with the realisation that I have improved a lot since last year gave me hope that the Report this year will be much more successful, and I’m confident to say that after the first week of writing it, this has very much been the case.
I was really satisfied and happy with the development of my film from this Contextual Report, I knew grief and showcasing that suicide is not the way to go was my chosen area of topics beforehand so I felt confident when looking into Similar Narratives about films that have the same themes, that I could create an emotionally powerful film. Also, I felt very proud with the improvements I made to the Process Report as I knew this was going to give me a higher chance at achieving a distinction, which in essence will help me get into the University of Portsmouth. By the end of the week, I felt rather drained. This was due to the fact that when I get into my work I am really bad at taking breaks, I like to get my work all done in one go which definitely does not benefit my wellbeing.
Evaluation
On a whole keeping consistent, the target I had from Week 1, went smoothly. I have managed my time well again and have assured myself that I have allocated enough time to be finished around early next week. This means there is less stress within myself which overall improves my mental wellbeing.
Similar Narratives
The Similar Narratives section was a detrimental section to building on the foundation for my Final Major Project. An area that specifically went well was learning a lot around the topic of Acceptance. I found from my Contextual Research Report that ‘acceptance may not be hard, but when it is a loss or a 'mixed blessing' they will do their best to resist the change.’
This was from the book Bereavement and I believe this was so useful to learn as it helps me ensure that my film is as realistic as possible as I’m presenting the audience with a serious message, and if that message is not presented seriously and realistically this could either offend or harm them.
Another area in which I believe went really sucessful was learning about the Magic Bullet theory. This theory became aparent that it was going to be useful with my film as he stated through his theory 'the originator of the message had the power to manipulate the intended audience's perception.’
I need to get the message across to the audience in the best way possible so learning about this theory within my Report, has helped me to start developing ways I could promote that message in my film, potentially showcasing the fact that life does get better after losing a loved one.
Something that could’ve seen improvement within the Similar Narratives was more visual inspiration. As I am specialising in Cinematography a key part of my Short Film is going to showcase my ability to create aesthetically pleasing visuals. However, because of the amount of detail I am putting into building the narrative I have analysed films much more for this, rather than the visual aspect. I need to ensure that I start building up inspiration for the look of my film, rather than just narratively.
Real Life
Moving onto the Real Life stage of my Contextual Research Report, this part really taught me the importance of Ethics, and ensuring that I don’t hurt people whilst they watch my film. It also was the main foundation of building that realism in my film so the people that could relate to topics felt at home with it, and in essence help get them through their suffering.
An area in particular that went well was learning more about how suicidal people felt, especially at their lowest points. This was detrimental to learn about as without this I would not understand how someone who suffers from suicidal thoughts feels, and this would make it hard for my audience to relate when it is not accurate.
I also found the Real Life to have gone well as it helped me develop basic character profiles. Learning about the groups with increased suicide risks taught me men are most vulnerable to suicide, from this I knew I had to find a male protagonist when it comes to casting so this helped me get a head start on the Planning stage.
I wouldn’t say anything as such went bad this week however there was definitely room for improvement on the Ethics section. Looking back at my First FMP, I had some examples from the Real Life section that were actually shown in cinema. So to improve on the Ethical stages from my Report, I want to try and find some examples of ethical implications throughout films and series that could give me a better understanding of how they deal with issues that come their way. This should give me the best possible chance of not running into any ethical implications throughout my Short Film.
Conclusion
On a whole this week has gone very well. I am happy that I am keeping my target from the Week 1 of consistency, and this has been noticeable detrimental to my workflow and keeping on track.
Some targets I would like to set from this week to improve on by the end of next week is firstly, adding more visuals to my work. Focusing on your specialism is a key part to the Second Year of Film and TV, and throughout the Similar Narratives, I hardly touched on the Cinematography aspect of films which after all, is what I enjoy the most. So by next week, I want to have gone back on all the films I’ve analysed, or even add more, and break down the Cinematography Style, picking out key things I like and will incorporate into my work for my Final Major Project.
Next, when it came to the Real Life section, more specifically Ethics, I would like to set myself a target for next of finding some examples in films where ethics have become an issue to gain some awareness around it in cinema, instead of just in general.
Lastly, and in my opinion, very importantly, I need to start taking breaks. Draining myself out is only going to be bad for me in the long run and it will start to affect my work in the upcoming stages as I will have close to no motivation to even begin. I would like this to start effectively immediately from the next piece of work I do or continue and carry this target out for the rest of the project.
Problem Solving
The first problem that became an issue was having absolutely zero motivation to begin writing my Contextual Report. I narrowed this down to two reasons one: Only having just finished my Process Report it was a lot of writing and I wanted a break. Lastly, it crossed my mind how awful I felt when writing my last Contextual Research Report in my first Final Major Project. The lack of motivation did stress me out as I really wanted to get this done well so I could progress my carrer and get into University, but something inside of me was not allowing me to grab that motivation and start working on.
So, at the start of the week I took the first day off to go on a walk around the country side. It was a fairly sunny day so the walk was really nice and gave me a lot of time to chill out and enjoy the countryside. Thankfully, when waking up on Tuesday I had come to terms with the fact this has gotta be done one way or another, so I gladly started writing it. To ensure this doesn’t happen again, I believe breaks are important. When working on the theory and even practical I don’t tend to take breaks, I prefer getting it all done in one block. But from this issue I have had, it is clear that if I don’t take breaks it affects my mental wellbeing massively. So, I need to ensure I start taking regular breaks from the workstation in the future.
The second problem that really stumped me was trying to find a specific book about Acceptance in Google Books. I wanted to learn more about this and I knew books were a great source of information so I set out searching keywords like ‘Acceptance’ and ‘Grief’ and I scrolled through a couple that came up but none really provided me with the information that I wanted and on top of that, most of the other books didn’t have the preview unavailable. So, to resolve this I searched up alternative websites to Google Books and found Z-Libary. This website was basically the same however when searching up the same keywords I came across the book Bereavement which took my liking and I ended up learning a lot about seeking Acceptance. To ensure this does not happen again, I should keep a backup website like Z-Libary or even a physical library to find books as these can be just as useful if not better.
FAILING TO FIND
GOOD BOOKS ON
GOOGLE BOOKS
FINDING BEREAVEMENT ON Z-LIBRARY
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