CONTEXT
SWOT Analysis
Strengths: I think my strengths are definitely a lot of my practical ability, being able to put all of my footage into Premiere Pro, and colour correct with sound mixing to give the viewer a certain emotion to feel. I am good at time keeping these projects, I manage to get most of the Sections completed on time to a good standard, especially the planning and final outcomes. I would also say, I am very determined. I like to get going with my Projects, I will sit there for long periods of time coming up with numerous ideas, to perfect my film and Idea Generation in specific, to the best of my ability.
I am also really good with Problem Solving, especially on the days of filming and post production, when I had an idea in my mind and I couldn’t recreate this as well as I wanted. I find ways around this and come up with new methods to do something similar.
Weaknesses: I think one of my biggest weaknesses is definitely being a Perfectionist with everything. I feel like being a Perfectionist with the Final Production is understandable, but I seem to try to perfect everything, whether this is our written case studies, or even the experimentation work we do. I spend too much time on this which leads me to really rushing other parts of the Project.
Another weakness I have is definitely my patience. I tend to get very impatient especially when filming. I can get mad quite easily which could also impact my Practical Outcomes, as sometimes I just forget what I’m doing and give up.
Opportunities: Opportunities that I have that definitely help me to succeed on this course would be having reliable friends to help me with acting and other crew positions. Such as acting, boom operating and set design. Another thing that helps me out is purchasing a Camera, and stabiliser to give me the best Practical Results. The cameras at the college don't feature any Stabilisation, so using these alone would give me awful practical shots. Something else, would be the experience I already have using the Post Production Software we have, this experience allows me to experiment more with my films as I have quite a fast workflow already.
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Threats: A threat I have and mostly do is not keeping logs of what I am doing, what this is doing is stopping me from realising what I need to do to improve further on my future projects on this course.
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Idea Generation
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I would like to carry out and make a Short Film (5 Minutes Long). I feel like I could create this out of all of them to the best of my ability, it really shows off my Practical and Post-Production skills the most, out of all of the options.
Some ideas I have so far, would be a Horror Film. This is my favourite genre of them all as I feel I can really excel with my Sound Design with this genre.
One idea I have so far, is set in a House, where a couple move into a new house. As they are unpacking stuff strange things begin to happen such as moving objects, random noises and doors opening by themselves. However, one day when they are having dinner the lights suddenly go off. They head down to the basement, where the strange noises are coming from, and find an old hidden diary in the corner. This hidden diary leads to showing off secrets about the house. The more they found out, the weirder things began to happen in the house. Just as the ghost is about to kick in and attack, they wake up from a dream, but the diary is still there in front of them.
Another idea I have is something to do with raising awareness about what someone suffers in this world, I was thinking along the lines of a blind person, someone comes into their life that actually cares about them, but it’s only a temporary stay and ends up parting ways with them. Just bringing awareness to people that blind need caring about just as much as you and I, and deserve to be able to experience the same lifestyle as everyone.
Research Sources
Here I am providing a list of Potential Sources that I could use that will be helpful and important for the work of my Final Major Project. It will be necessary that I use a wide range of sources for my Research.
Books
I am going to use this book to help me create Suspense within a Horror Film.
This book is gonna help me portray certain emotions with the use of music, in whatever particular genre I decide on.
I am going to use this book to help me mix and record my chosen choice of film.
This book is going to ensure I have the right lighting for the right cinematography. I see this becoming very helpful within a Horror.
Videos
I am going to use this YouTube video to help me Colour Grade a Horror Film, to give the best experience for the viewer.
I am going to watch this YouTube video to give me an understanding of how the professionals work behind the set of a Short Film, potentially giving me some new ideas.
I am going to use this YouTube video to ensure I get the best quality settings out of my camera, improving my professionalism.
I am going to use this video to help communicate with my actors, to successfully provide them with the correct information to help them get into the designated character properly.
Websites
I am going to use this Website to help me develop a Horror Narrative.
I am going to use this Website to help me find the perfect Film Location, if I manage to find a budget!
I am going to use this Website to help me ensure I have the Correct Lens for a Certain Shot.
I am going to use this Website to help me write Scripts in a professional manor, making it more efficient when I give them to the actors.
Website Analysis
I really like the Minimalistic Feel to this website. Black on White is something I really like, and can potentially see me taking inspiration from this for my own Final Major Project Website!
Big Bold Font in the middle is something else I like as it really stands out. I think I will go down the route of doing this but instead of having Final Major Project, I'll have my Film Title!
Pre-Mortem
Over the next 14 weeks I could be faced with many challenges on the way, things could go wrong or not as I have planned so, I’m making this document to ensure I have planned out ways around the things I believe could go wrong, and to Problem Solve different strategies around each different issue.
Audio Recording
A problem I may have when filming my FMP Short Film is to do with the audio. I would argue audio is one of the most important elements when it comes to a film production, it entices the viewer to want to continue watching the film, even with a good storyline and good cinematography if the film has bad audio, the film will not be a success. An issue I may face when recording Audio is it playing very distorted, especially when talking above a certain level, I have experimented so much with the provided Microphones and Recorders that the college have to offer and I am still yet to figure out how to record audio properly, as this is something that we haven’t covered in much detail yet. However, I am still testing out new ways to try and fix this and have a few different methods in mind currently - one being: To change the XLR cables or any other dodgy equipment I could eliminate. The last resort into making my audio sound good for the FMP, for voice overs in particular, will be to sit down with the Actors after cutting up all the clips, ordering them properly in Premiere, and voicing over all the lines. This method will be a lot more difficult to make it sound realistic as I have to keep in mind things like Room Tone and stuff, will be different Voicing Over in my Bedroom, compared to the house I shot my film in.
Actors
Another issue I could face with my FMP Production is Acting. I tend to be able to find reliable people to act in my films however, in some cases, especially with all of my usual actors studying at a different College / Sixth Form and these have different timings with my lessons and allocated time to film. Also in regards to acting, the film I’m planning on creating displays a lot of emotion within it - meaning the actors I have on hand may not be able to display this emotion in an effective way however, I’m sure it will be just fine for this College Project.
Weather Issues
Something I could face when it comes to Production time is bad weather. This may be a big issue if I decide to include a lot of Outside scenes, and it’s raining throughout the 4 weeks. So, to ensure I have the best chances of missing the bad rain and having a successful outside production, I will be keeping good track of the Weather forecast when it comes closer to production, so I can plan out the best days to film outside, to ensure I don’t collide with the bad weather. I could also include bad weather within my planning if this fits the storyline at all too.
Equipment Availability
A crucial part of my Project will revolve around having good equipment. Something I like to strive for is having stable shots however, I know the College only has one Rhino Slider so this may be hard to acquire if all the groups are filming their FMP, and using the equipment at the same time. So to ensure I can use the necessary equipment for my project, I will be taking it out as soon as I know I’m able to film, or keeping ready to take it out when someone else brings it back.
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Injuring Myself
This may be a bit of a far-fetched one, but I still believe this could definitely be a scenario that has the potential to happen, considering I go to the gym quite often. Injuring myself could occur from this and this would effect heavily on my act to operate a Camera and a Gimbal. This could lead to my FMP going absolutely dreadful and having to film something so basic on a Tripod, which isn’t something I want to do. So, when I get closer to Production week I will cut down the gym a little bit, not fully, but a bit to decrease my likelihood of getting injured,
Process Research Report
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To create a successful project there are many different stages you need to go through, these need to be done and done well to ensure your chances of a successful outcome. I am creating this report to give you a better understanding of how the process works behind creating a Short Film providing you to take this for your own project.
Research
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What do you do at this stage?
Research tends to be the first stage when starting a Project. You look into the information that could help you shape an initial idea for the film, this could then be followed up with other research such as the sort of Cinematography style you should follow, The Colour Grade that matches your style and genre. Another big thing you tend to do when researching is Case Studies. ‘A case study is a research approach that is used to generate an in-depth, multi-faceted understanding of a complex issue in its real-life context.'
How do you do it well?
To successfully do Research for a chosen Project, You need to make sure what you’re researching is actually going to be relevant to creating your Final Piece, It would be a waste of time to Research a load of information that you’ll never think to read back on. However, this doesn’t mean limiting your Information. It's always best to Research more than you need for example: Don’t just research one sort of Cinematography Style for one genre only. You could change your mind later down the line about which Genre you're picking, and come to realise you know nothing about any other ones, and don’t have time to do further research. Another thing you will need to do, to ensure your Research is to the best of your ability would be to look into having Primary and Secondary Data. ‘There are advantages to using both primary or secondary research. Secondary research gives you a foundation to build on, while the primary research fills in the gap by identifying specific needs.
There are benefits of both Primary and Secondary, and they definitely have their advantages. Advantages of Primary Research being:
Accuracy – because you’re gathering the information first-hand, what you gather will be more accurate and timely.
More Control – 'primary research gives you more control about how to collect the data and how you will use it later to nurture the response you want.'
However, whilst there are useful Advantages, there are also downsides to using Primary Research. These Disadvantages include:
Time - Time, as a disadvantage of primary research, refers not just to the time involved in gathering (and analysing) the data, but also to the need for a clear and focused research, plan, development of survey instruments, such as questionnaires or interviews, or experimental conditions. All of these take time and resources that may not be viable within the scope of a study or research project.
‘Accessibility - Even if all the other disadvantages have been overcome, primary data can still be challenging due to issues of access to the right population or sample.’
Another key thing to ensure your Research is done really well is to find a vast amount of sources to back up certain points. This means instead of finding out all of your information from just Websites, pick a variety and find content from Websites, Books, and even YouTube videos as well. Where information from places such as Websites is easy and time efficient, not to mention the fact that it can be very specific, and catered perfectly to your needs, It’s not very reliable. On the other hand, sources like Books tend to be a lot more authentic.
‘In general, objective information with a listed author and/or presented by a reliable publisher is far more credible than anonymous information published by a commercial or an anonymous source.’
Using a wide variety of Sources should always be used in particularly The Case Studies. This makes your Case Studies seem more genuine and presents your knowledge of understanding Primary and Secondary Research Well. It also helps to back up your points more specifically, if they’re coming from a credible source such as a Book or a website that's been published by an author.
How do you use it?
The Researching foremost has to be done well to have a successful production, as this is the stage that leads on to all the others. You use your Research for your Experimentation, but this wouldn’t be possible if it's not done correctly and if you haven’t experimented you won’t be able to spend as much time perfecting your Final Outcome, which could lead to a worsened outcome overall.
When I was researching Colour Grading in the past I found out that: 'For instance, there seems to be a character of warmth associated with all of the colours in the yellow, orange, red, magenta category.'
'In some films, the warmer tones support the bonding of family, the warmth of the home. Romantic comedies often use warmer tones, which provide a softer, more romantic response in the viewer.'
This Research can be used a lot in the Post Production side of your Project. Knowing you’ve created a Romantic Film for example, The Research you can do (like I did above) will show you that these types of films contain Warmer Tones to support the bonding of Family. Note that for any scenes you have where the bonding of family takes place. You can also use your further Research to show the colours associated with “Warm Tones”. All of this saves a lot of time when putting your footage into your Dedicated Editor and starting to Edit.
However, Researching isn’t just used in your Final Outcomes specifically, I feel the Research you use tends to always have an impact but it may not affect it directly. Your Research should also be used within your experiments, this is a good way to test out your research beforehand, to save time when creating your Final Outcome.
Experimentation
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What do you do at this stage?
In the experimentation stage, we take parts of work we have looked in detail about from our Research stage, and we adapt this and try it out on our own. For example, on my First Project our Research was to be driven by a certain Director to create a piece, based on his work. I found out from my research that Wes Anderson always follows the Planimetric Style, from this I looked into it a bit and tried it out for myself. The sole purpose of the experimentation sections we do is to get us prepared for the Final Project. All this experimenting saves us a lot of time when it comes to the Production days too, as you have a rough idea of what will work and what won’t.
How do you do it well?
To experiment well you have to make sure you’ve done really thorough enough research. Research is the basis of what you're going to experiment with, if the research isn’t persistent enough your Experimentation will end up being very limited and poor. Another thing I would say is key, to ensure your Experimentation is done well is to experiment a lot. By this, I mean if you're researching Stabilisation and you find out that Gimbals work best to get the smoothest shots in most scenarios. You test out Gimbals in the College Studio and it comes out perfect and you conclude your Experimentation with them there. I feel this is where I went wrong in my First Term Projects as well. Planning is a key part of Experimentation, I understand you won't have your whole project planned out with a Storyboard, meaning you don’t know which Locations would be appropriate for what Experimentation. But nevertheless, think about doing more with your Experimentation, because more is better when your changing your mind about different ideas and I’d even recommend experimenting as soon as you get a new idea come to mind, it could either be the best thing you’ve thought of, or not work at all that’s what I like about experimenting. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work, you're saving time trying it now.
How do you use it?
The more you experiment, the less time you're gonna spend on working on setting up your Final Production, because you know what will and won’t work. Your Experimentation will also hugely be used in your planning as the whole reason for doing experimentation is to see what and won’t work in your films. In your Planning, it can be vastly applicable in your Storyboards as let’s say you want to show a fast tracking shot of someone in a car, but you need to experiment with figuring out how to achieve this. You experiment with different college equipment and come to a conclusion you can’t get the shot you want, so you scrap that idea. Experimentation, in my opinion, is the most useful section out of them all, you can save yourself so much time when it comes to Production day and ensure you feel confident going into Filming the Cinematography and other aspects of your Final Project.
Planning
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What do you do at this stage?
The Planning stage is a vital stage to begin the Production of your Project. This section consists of many different documents and pieces of information we put together to create our Outcome. Documents such as: General Ideas, Logline and Synopsis', Scripts, Storyboards, Location and Casting Outlines and a Risk Assessment and this at minimum. 'These typical production problems reflect a lack of planning, and planning is the most important element for successful productions. Whether you are shooting video or film or producing an interactive multimedia project, planning is the key.'
I would also recommend doing things like Shot Lists. You should start by taking your Concept that you’ve been planning throughout the Whole Project, this started from the Initial Concept progressing towards your Final Ideas now. Planning should always be completed to a good standard to ensure you're prepared and feel confident going into the Production stage.
How do you do it well?
To ensure you’re doing your planning well really comes down to a simple question, are you able to make your Project Outcome successful and to a high standard with the Planning you’ve provided? Planning can be one of the most detailed areas in your Project but it is definitely one of the most if not the most important.
When beginning your Planning, assuming you have a rough concept of what you wanted to do already, I would start off by writing a brief script or even a logline. Scripts are always a good way to start building your story, and can lead onto creating other planning documents such as Storyboards. I would also say it gives you an idea of what your characters act like, and maybe this could give you some ideas of actors to scout already.
Why are scripts important?
‘Scripts are important because they establish what’s going to happen, how it will occur, and in what order. It helps everyone get on the same page so that speakers and trainers know when and how to present the material, while instructional designers and supporting team members can update other assets to ensure animations, videos, graphics or other supporting elements occur as expected.’
Just remember, if you’ve created a successful script you should be able to give it to anyone that plays a part in your Film whether this is the actors or the production crew, and they should be able to successfully navigate themself through the story and where they should be. Sometimes you gotta put yourself in their position and think if I was the actor, would I know what I do at this point in the Film?
However, If writing a script seems overwhelming when first Planning out your project, I would start with a Logline instead.
In short, a Logline is one or two sentences long, that briefly describes the summary of the film, whilst hooking the reader into it. Loglines are good for many reasons one being:
'A properly written logline not only helps you capture the essence of your story, it guides you through the writing process. It helps you make tough decisions during development, and ultimately keeps you on track.'
Additionally after writing a short logline, you're more likely to come across inspiration as one idea leads to this and then that and in a matter of a no time you have a well formed idea.
Progressing on I would say next you're able to write a Sypnosis. Synopsis is a larger roughly one page document (for large films) that contains information about your film such as: the Storyline, Major plot points, and the key characters.
Storyboards
After doing so, I think the next stage would be to draw out and annotate a Storyboard. A storyboard is a visual image drawn out in many different parts to showcase your story. People come to the conclusion straight away, that you have to be a professional artist to start drawing Storyboards but that’s not the case at all, Storyboards can literally be based off of stick figures it’s not the drawing that matters it's how you annotate the drawing to prepare yourself to use it when picking up a camera, looking at your Storyboard, and hitting record.
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'A great storyboard is beyond just what the camera angle is and what happens. What can you hear? What’s the lighting like? It needs to have all of the details that you would need in a full film.'
The quote said from The Media Insider above is so true, you're not even just thinking about the Film itself, you also take into consideration the Production part with Storyboards. To storyboard well too, you need to know the location you’re filming in. This is why a Location Outline becomes very important. You can’t storyboard without knowing your surroundings, you're pretty much just guessing the shots will work.​
“The time we spend in pre-production will directly affect the percentage of time we have to spend in the other more expensive phases of production.”
Was a quote said by Steve Cartwright which is so true, and needs to be thought about carefully. Time is everything when it comes to planning, It may seem like a lot of time but it goes fast. You need to really think about the Planning that you're doing, if it’s actually going to be relevant and help you or not.
How can you use it?
Storyboarding definitely can be used alongside many different other stages not to mention the Production itself. Whilst storyboarding, you definitely will be using it within your Experimentation. You’ll realise there’s a lot of stuff that could be trial and error which will need to be sorted beforehand. This could be from stuff such as the Location Outline too, Location Outlines need to be tested beforehand to make sure you can get the correct shots in the right places. You can't go drawing a whole scene and realise you don’t have a whole open-plan kitchen and lounge to film it through. Because doing so, you’ll come to the Filming day and realise how useless your storyboards are, and spend so much time planning out new ones whilst wasting time.
In short, we use Planning to prepare us for the Production days and save time throughout.
The legal documents we have to complete are used to save us from potentially being sued and to alert the people involved in the film of the risks that could happen. It is something that is very necessary in the industry.
Production
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What do you do at this stage?
The production stage is where you take all your planning documents and put them into action. This section is where you finally get to start filming, editing and releasing your Final Outcome. I would say this stage can be the most busiest, time consuming and stressful. I start off by heading to the location making sure I’ve ticked off the Equipment List that I planned out from the previous section, to ensure that I don’t come unprepared.
When I am there, I tend to take my Macbook as well just to test footage out because then and again cameras can be unreliable, and corrupt your footage. I gather my crew at the Location, go over the schedule for the day and get filming. Once filming is complete, I check over all the footage first to see if I’m missing anything. This is particularly useful so I wouldn’t have to call the actors over again or even go to the location again, myself. After checking, assuming everything was okay, I headed back home. Furthermore, on the Production stage when I get back I open up Adobe Premiere Pro and begin editing the footage.
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How do you do this well?
There are a lot of things to ensure your Production section goes well, I would always start off by checking you’re prepared. This is where your Planning and Experimentation all comes in handy, knowing you’ve done sustained work for both of them you should be confident to get going and filming. As you’ll be filming for hour on ends with your actors, most likely working for free, you’ll need to keep their enjoyment levels up and make them feel cheerful whilst trying to play a character that conveys a certain emotion.
“You have to put some money aside for treats for your cast
and crew. In fact, the lower the budget, the more important it is to treat and acknowledge people. Everyone is putting in more than 100 percent and working long hours. Please don’t take that for granted.”
From that quote in the Indie Film Producing book, you really have to think about it, especially that last sentence. 'Please don’t take that for granted.' Like if you have had the chance to find people who are willing to act in your films for free, they deserve to be acknowledged and treated well for that.
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'The most important part of Video Editing is arguably the workflow.'
This is something I couldn’t agree with more not even just, particularly about editing but the whole production process in general. You have to be smart about your workflow what I mean is, for example when your filming a scene in a certain location, and let's say you need multiple different scenes, from different parts in the film. You be smart, take your other costumes with you, and film what you need at that location at one time, this saves wasting time traveling and even solely money on fuel and stuff as well.
Another thing I like to do to ensure my Production goes well, is to always check off the scenes i’ve finished filming, wether this is checking off your storyboard, script or even synopsis is up to you. Remember a lot of the time there is no right way, it’s what works best for you.
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How do you use it?
You really want to use your Production time sufficiently, it may seem like you have a lot of time to do it all but when your thinking about all the stuff you have to cover, it goes quicker than you think. You really just use your Production to reflect on how it went, giving your true honest thoughts on what you thought went well, what could’ve gone better and what didn’t work at all. Reflection is a key part to this because without self and peer reflection you would never improve.
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How do you use it?
You really want to use your Production time sufficiently, it may seem like you have a lot of time to do it all but when your thinking about all the stuff you have to cover, it goes quicker than you think. You really just use your Production to reflect on how it went, giving your true honest thoughts on what you thought went well, what could’ve gone better and what didn’t work at all. Reflection is a key part to this because without self and peer reflection you would never improve.