16th March 2020 // 9:00am - Devising my Pitch

 

For today's lesson, I created my pitch for my Final Major project. To create this I wrote a script about the different ideas, topics and themes I will incorporate into my project. I added to my pitch a video of me narrating the script using images and scenes to give more visual context to my pitch.

​

The video and script concluded of me describing the depth of subject matter (being addiction) and the varied sources I will use to gather research from. It was important for me highlight this as I wanted to give reasoning for what issues I will raise awareness to in my project. I also listed the inspirations I have drawn from in terms of technically creating my film. My reasoning for this was to give examples of how I will build upon my inspirations and use them as a foundation to work off. In my pitch I discussed the target audience I want my film to reach as its important for me to know the age range in which my film will be suitable for. I lastly researched film festivals I want to attend as they will help give me an idea of how to successfully execute my film and will help educate me on how to become a filmmaker.

 

Next lesson, I will be devising my proposal to breakdown more of my initial ideas and describe in detail the skills I will need to complete my final project. Once I have stated my ideas I will propose the concept of my project in terms of my research and development. Then the evaluation process of my proposal will have me reflect upon how I will document the stages of my project. To conclude, I will complete next lesson by devising a timetable from the beginning of my project til it's final deadline, this will allow me to be organised and prepared for the future lessons to come and will keep me motivated with my targets.

​

17th March 2020 // 9:00am - Proposal 

​

For today's lesson, I wrote my proposal concept to reflect upon the research I need to do in order to successfully create the short film for my final project. This included discussing the different types of resources I will gather my research from and listing how they will help support the development of my ideas.

 

I discussed two novels I will reread for my research and how they will help me develop a more intimate understanding of my chosen topic (addiction) within my chosen theme of mental health. My reasoning for this is to show that I will be using a different resource of research (novel) and give evidence to my understanding of portraying an addict within my film. I also described two films I will watch for my research as they too will help me develop a better understanding of how I can portray addition through my narrative, particularly  when discussing the development of the characters I will create. My reasoning for this is to expand upon my research on narratives and storytelling in film and also shows my inspirations and shows how I improve the structure that my short film will have, researching others. I wrote into my proposal concept the ways in which I want to develop may skills within filmmaking using this project. For example, I discussed how I want to attend Sundance Film Festival in the UK. My reasoning for discussing this was to show my passion for pursuing a career in the film industry as I want to meet with professional and learn from their success, as well as use the information I will obtain from visiting these festivals and apply them into my film for this project. 

 

Next lesson, I will be completing my proposal by describing how I will reflect upon my project once I have finished it (the evaluation). This is important to add to my proposal as it shows my clear thinking and will be good to reflect upon once I have finalised my project as I would have already planned my approach to my evaluation. I will also need to devise an action plan and timetable for my project next lesson. This is necessary to my research and proposal as it will give evidence to my pre production process and will act as a guide for me to use daily in order to meet my deadlines and reach my optimum working standard.  

​

18th - 19th March 2020 // 9:00am -  Evaluation process

 

For these lessons, I wrote about my evaluation process, in my proposal. The evaluation process is a key part of promoting my film as I will be able to publish it across different platforms and hope to give myself a wider audience consumption, using social media.

​

I particularly discussed how I will be using Youtube as a platform to promote my film, but also I will be promoting it on my Instagram as I have a small following of editors who are mostly 15 years old or above  and they overall will be the ideal audience that I want my film to be targeted at. This is because my film will be covering sensitive topics that I believe are suitable for my viewers as they will be less sensitive to it, in comparison to those who are younger. However, I stated in my proposal that I will add a disclaimer before the film, in order to warn and prevent those who are vulnerable or could be triggered by the subject matter of addiction. 

​

In the next lessons, I will be discussing my narrative ideas and conclude with my chosen idea for my film. This is important as I need to show the development of how my film’s storyline progresses and how I came to my final idea. 

 

19th - 20th March 2020 // 9:00am -  Narrative ideas 

​

For these lessons, I wrote about my narrative ideas and chose my final one. I discussed my varied ideas and described what I liked about the ideas and how some were not suitable. 

​

For example, my first idea was to have a narrative that focused upon a young couple that suffocated one another and were addicted to each other's personalities, as love can be addictive. However, I was not able to use this idea as I am limited on actors and only have my sister and father to work with, due to their being a global lockdown. In this case of an idea, these two people would not be suitable to act as a couple. Therefore, that idea was not suitable or able to be created. I also discussed how, once I had chosen my main theme, being addiction, I then had to gather all the varied types of addiction I could show and represent. I eventually chose to have my idea be about substance abuse and you witness a young female battle her addiction while her relationship with her father worsens. This was the best idea because it will be able to be created and will allow me to create a narrative that revolves around one setting, being my house. I chose this idea because it gave me the most inspiration out of all three as I knew it would be possible to make, with the circumstances that I am in. I needed to document my narrative ideas in order to reflect upon my initial progression with my theme and subject matter of choice.

​

In the next lessons,, I will write about my developed idea, which will cover my target audience, opportunities, scope, constraints, resources, success and envision. This is a very important part of my pre production as it will allow me to reflect and form a foundation to build my film’s narrative off, before I start my research. I will also be devising a schedule for my planning in order for me to successfully hit deadlines.

 

21st - 22 March 2020 // 10:00am - Developed idea and Schedule

​

For these lessons, I wrote about my idea and the varied stages that will occur when creating my film. For instance, one of the stages that I discussed was my envisionment for my film, I described how I envision my film to hopefully give a true insight into addiction and to allow those who suffer or know someone who is suffering from addiction, hopefully make them feel less alone.  I also formed a schedule for myself, in order for me to reach deadlines.

​

I also stated the target audience for my film, for example, I spoke about how I want to aim my film at audiences who are 15 years old or above as I stated how the maturity of my audience will be key as I believe this age demographic will be able to deal with the subject matter shown. I also described my constraints and how my situation of being in lockdown, prevents me from accessing equipment I would usually borrow from my college. Due to this issue I will be filming on my iPhone. The next stage I discussed was the assumptions I have for my film, this is important as I need to reflect upon how my film will impact others, for example, I stated that I assume my film will shed a light on the social issues around addiction and assume that my audience will learn that addiction has no face and can affect everyone. The next point I made was what success I believe my film can bring me.  I wrote in this part about how it may give me an opportunity to collaborate with other filmmakers, actors etc. if people who enjoyed my film are inspired and want to collaborate with me. I also spoke about the opportunities and scope of my project, this covered me stating what ideas I feel I will keep in my film, and what I might exclude, depending on it’s purpose to my narrative. I also stated how the opportunity of me filming on my own iPhone will allow me to expand upon my pre production skills, as I will need to block through scenes more than I have before.

​

Lastly, I spoke about my resources and how I will be using my own home to film in and will be filming on my phone. I thought it was important to devise my developed idea as it shows how I am thinking about my project and gives me a more concentrated focus on what I want my film to achieve. Once I finished writing my developed idea, I moved onto creating a schedule that was devised by the week, date, activity and resources I will use. I found creating a schedule was useful, however I believe mine is quite unrealistic in time and will change over time.

In the next few lessons, I will be researching filmmakers, writers and cinematographer inspirations as this will help me draw ideas and filmmaking techniques I may use for my film.
 

23 - 24th March 2020 // 10:00am - Inspirations 

​

For these few lessons, I researched filmmakers, writers and cinematographer's that inspire me. I mainly focused on films or interviews that they had conducted and wrote notes that I felt would be useful and apply to my film style. 

​

For instance, I wrote about a director and writer called Noah Baumbach, after I watched an in depth lesson from him and I had already previously seen a  film he wrote and directed called Marriage Story. I spoke about how his use of tracking and blocking in that film inspired me and how I too want to create a similar style of filmmaking, using his technique, as my film will have a sense of realism that Baumbach’s films do too. I also stated how after watching his lesson, it inspired me to create an illusion of happiness and joy in the beginning of my film and then to reveal the darkness beneath, as Baumbach spoke about this technique of writing and how it applied to many films he favours. I then wrote about my inspiration of a writer called Charlie Kaufman and stated how I watched his unique and in depth lesson and learned how he created humanity in his writing and I wanted to capture that similar tone of empathy, that is seen in his writing. I also stated how in one of the films he wrote, called Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind created pace very well. I then researched a little into Paul Schrader who is a writer and director. I watched one of his lessons and saw his writing process and the stages he goes through. Then lastly I researched the two cinematographers called Alfonso Cuarón and Claire Mathon. I researched both because I loved how they both portray emotion and frame their shots, I learned that in Cuarón's film Roma, he frame shots by focusing on the lighting and I learned that in Mathon's film, she framed shots to fit the century portrait style that the film was based in, in order to capture the illusion that every shot was as if it had been painted. I found both their techniques very inspiring and unique and stated how they have inspired me both by their styles and decisions of using their resources, such and period and light. 

​

Overall, researching these film creators and writers, I learned how varied filmmaking is and that everyone has their own technique that applies to them. It was important for me to document my research about them as they are all huge inspirations for me as an aspiring  filmmaker and I needed to discuss how their originality and skills will and do inspire ideas for my project. 

​

In the next lessons, I will be researching and practising colour grading ,researching scriptwriting, music and  foley sounds. As these are elements of filmmaking that will help me improve my post production skills and teach me more about filmmaking.
 

25th - 29th March 2020 // 9:00am - Research into Colour Grading, Scriptwriting, Sound and Storyboards.

​

For these few lessons, I researched colour grading, how to colour grade and the psychology of colour. I found that watching Youtube tutorials was a good source that helped show me how to colour grade using the program After Effects. Researching the psychology of colour helped me understand what colours and emotions link to convey a certain atmosphere. I also found creating my own step by step by guide after practising my colour grading, was also very useful as it will help me when I am in post production editing my own film.  Also I tried two different ways of colour grading, using two different tutorials, I did this in order for me to know what way would work best for me, instead of restricting myself to one technique. I also tried to create a similar colour grade to a film called A Ghost Story, as the coloring of that film has a similar tone that I want to capture in mine and is a huge inspiration for my colour grade of choice.

​

 Once I finished researching colour grading, I moved onto my script writing and sound research. My script writing research consisted of me reading an article about how to dissect your script and flesh it out, using varied stages. Which was quite helpful, although it covered points I already knew, but did cover some useful techniques on how to capture emotion using shot types. The next part of research I did for my script writing was watching a video on ‘how to write a short film’. This was probably the most useful part of my research so far as it covered a technique called the story circle. This story circle acts like a outlined diagram to follow when writing a narrative. It covered eight main stages and helped me establish an outlined narrative for my film. The video also gave an example of a short film that used this successfully, called Stutterer. After watching this video, I wrote about the eight stages I depict for my film’s storyline and learned that the story circle was a great source to use in my research as it helped me solidify a plot for my film.

​

Next, I then researched storyboarding techniques. To do this I watched a short video on how to storyboard and also read an article about storyboarding too. Both these sources were fairly useful, however they covered a lot of information I already knew. The issue with the article was that it’s points were very vague and were not specific to shot types. However, it did help me learn more about the meaning you can convey when deciding on shot angles and frames. The video was least useful as it covered basic points that I already knew, such as shot types, labelling etc. However, it did teach me that ratio is important as your storyboard should fit your ratio and also covered how to show panning and tracking, using arrows, in a storyboard. 

​

Lastly, I researched sound in film. I found this to be a very interesting part of my research as I learned more about the history of film and how the same music has been recycled and re adapted into films over the years. I also learned the psychology of sound and how you can create an emotion or enhance an emotion, using sound effects or music. I watched videos  for this part of my research, as these were in essay styles but used images and audio to convey more information. I also created my own original score, using GarageBand as a practice to see whether I feel confident in writing my own one for my film. Once I learned more about music, I researched foley sounds and how they are created, I found this to be very useful and then I practised creating them myself. I did this because it will help me develop my skills when in post production and will allow me to experiment with making foley sounds for my film too. 

In the next lessons, I will be researching camera techniques and learning how to shoot film on an iPhone. I wanted to research this in order for me to achieve the most professional visuals I can, using my phone.

​

In the following lessons to come, I shall be writing about my research into addiction and the varied sources I used to help expand my knowledge on the subject matter, and how I can better represent the topic in my film.

​

30th - 2st March 2020 // 9:00am - Camera technique research and Short films

​

Over the course of these three days, I researched camera techniques. I found this to be very useful as the source I used was a video, which discussed different apps I could use on my phone that would help me control the white balance and focus, this was most helpful as the video stated there were free apps that were able to create the illusion that the film was shot on a camera, not an iPhone. I also spoke about how the video gave me informative facts about how I can change the ratio and quality on the filming apps, in order for post production to have the best quality footage possible. I lastly found an image that showed and stated the different angles, shot types and movement I could create in a shot. I found this to be useful as it will allow me to be more creative and thoughtful, when devising my frames once I start storyboarding.

​

I also researched some short films, this was a useful part of my research as they helped me understand the structure of short films and the different styles and approaches filmmakers take. 

​

The first short film I watched was called Addicted Michael Scarnati and covered the story of a father and his son, the father was a 'functioning alcoholic' and he becomes skeptical that his son is using drugs too, then by the end of the film, he realises his son has been using heroin and finds him once he has overdosed. I thought this film was slightly helpful towards my project as it showed me how addiction can be represented through a short film style. However, in my research I spoke about how I found this film itself to be poor as I thought it lacked connection and didn't show the struggle addicts face. 

​

After watching a short film on addiction, I wanted to watch some short films that were not specified on genre as I lacked in knowledge of that type of filmmaking in general and wanted to broaden my research. I found three very different short films, the first one is called Entre Deux by Myriam Doumenq  and covers the story of a young female dancer who is struggling  to be accepted by her parents, as her main aspiration is to become a teacher and they pressure her into dance. By the end of the film, it is revealed she has accepted into her colleges of choice and can go and study teaching. I found this film to be very well made and helped me think about structure, as alike my film, it will follow the perspective of a young adult struggling with the pressure of life and family. In my research, I wrote about how it inspired and taught me lots about how I can show character development and how I can portray relationships, given a short period of time.

​

The next short film I watched was called The Neighbours' Window by Marshall Curry and covered the story of a middle aged couple that repeatedly observe their youthful neighbours, as they long to be young and free from responsibility. By the end of the film, the two females from both relationships communicate after the neighbours partner dies of cancer, and it is revealed they too observed the middle aged couple and were jealous of their loving children. I found this film to be quite moving and in my research I wrote about how well made and crafted the film visually looked, it's structure was also very clever and gave a climatic ending. I liked how the film had a message and how it truly capsulated the humanity of people and their emotion, without needing too much dialogue. Overall I found this film to be the most inspiring because of it's textured storyline and strong, relatable characters.

​

The last short film I watched was called Fall by Jonathan Glaze, it different from the others as it had no dialogue and wasn't character driven, but more focused on the meaning of what it represented, being violence and mobs. The film follows the story of a mob and you witness them as they turn on one of their members and try to attempt to lynch them. The atmosphere in the film is filled with anxiety and the long shot types used successfully create a lot of tension. Overall, I spoke in my research how intrigued I was by the film's inspirations and after reading an article about the director's influences, it helped give me more understanding and show me his unique way of devising short films. I found this short to be the most interesting and stylised, although it did not inspire so much, it showed me a unique way of representing an issue in society, through the lens of short films.

​

In the next lessons, I will be starting my research into addiction and understanding the emotional, personal and scientific facts behind it. This research will also include films, books, interviews and articles that I have read and seen, which have helped me understand more about addiction and how I can represent it with justice, in my film.

​

2st - 15th April 2020 // 9:00am - Addiction research e.g films, memoirs etc.

​

Over the course of fourteen days, I researched two memoirs, that cover the same story of addiction, but through two different perspectives, one being Tweak by Nic Sheff and the other being Beautiful boy by David Sheff. Tweak is the perspective of a man called Nic, who suffered from crystal meth addiction and Beautiful boy is in the perspective of Nic's father, David, and how he struggled and helped his son through his addiction and the highs and lows they faced. I had previously read these books, but I re read them as part of my research because they focused on the same subject matter I will be representing in my film and I thought their two perspectives will help me progress in representing addiction and how I should do so. Also learning from people who have dealt with it first hand gave me a clearer sight into the issues and trauma addiction brings, upon both the addict and their loved ones. 

​

I also watched a adaptation of the two books, that in 2019 was released as a film, called Beautiful boy. This film was very moving for me and I found it to be very well made, acted, which allowed for it to portray the humanity in the real story and represent the struggle in the most truthful way. I found Beautiful boy to be a very helpful source of my research, as it showed me a successful way of how addiciont can be represented. The relationship between a father and son also inspired me too. I wrote in my research how the film inspired ideas for my own short and how the representation of two perspectives enhanced this.

​

I also watched three more films, one was called 'The Souvenir' by Joanna Hogg, which focused upon the directors biographical experience and covered addiction through the lens of a toxic relationship. I wrote in my research how this film was unique and showed the subject matter through a middle class setting, which can be quite rare as most films show the more stereotyped 'lower class' view. I found the decision for this setting inspiring and helped me under the deception and deceitfulness addiction can have upon the addict and those around them. 

​

The next two films I watched were both brutality hard to watch and showed how addiction can spiral people's lives. Both films were based on books, the films have the same title as the books. The first film I watched, out of the two is called Heaven Knows What by the Safdie Brothers  Which focuses upon a young woman's perspective on struggling with heroin addiction shows how her toxic relationship between her partner destroy lives and lead one of them to death. I found this film useful to my research as it showed the physical impacts of addiction and I wrote in my research about how it inspired me to represent this aspect of the disease and also educated me more on how addicts can be addicted to more than one thing, and in the protagonist's case, it was love and heroin. 

​

The other film is called Requiem for a Dream, by Darren Aronofsky this film was the most unique out of all the films I studied and it covered multiple characters storylines and had four protagonists. It was very successful in showing the physical and mental dependancies addiction has upon addicts and as I spoke about in my research, the director's clever shot types and style helped give the film authenticity as he enhanced the environments and setting, by experimenting with the camera angles and movement. The film also covers multiple addictions at once e.g heroin, prescription pills, weight etc. I also spoke in my research about how the film was useful towards my research as it inspired me too because of its new take on representing and portraying varied types of addiction. 

​

I also read another memoir called Never Enough by Judith Grisel, I was recommenced to read this as part of my research and it ended up being very insightful. The memoir was very written from a scientific point of view and covered the factual information on the risks of becoming an addict, the varied experiments and theories that have been carried out by scientists that have helped lead them to a closer reasoning as to what addiction exists and how those who suffer from it are given reason as to why. However, the memoir also included memories Grisel herself faced and she touched upon her own experience with addiction and how it lead her to study neuroscience. 

​

I found Never Enough to be a useful part of my research and wrote that it gave me a fresh perspective upon addiction and to help me dissect the factual points, mental health discussion and statistics that the book raised, I had a paragraph for each chapter stating points that I found most useful and how they helped advance my understanding of addiction and that it is a disease, not a choice. 

​

In the next lessons, I will be documenting the start of my film's pre production, stating the title, cast and synopsis of my film and I will also be completing my first draft of my script, that way I can put my narrative ideas out and show my progression from my vague storyline, to my re drafted script and then eventually blocking. 

​

16th - 20th April 2020 // 10:00am - Pre production e.g Narrative, Script.

​

Over the course of four days, I completed writing my initial storyline and created the first draft of my script. To gather my ideas for my plot, I reflected across my research, gathering my ideas and inspirations and collectively designed the foundation of my film. Although I aware this'll change overtime, it creates a base for me to work off and start wiring my script from. 

​

My storyline focuses on a young female who is struggling with opioid addiction and feels isolated as her father grows more neglectful, due to his busy schedule with work. Overtime, her addiction becomes progresses worse, the more her tolerance builds up and her dad finds her drugs, confronts her and the film concludes of them having a open conversation about their wrong doings and how they will both improve for one another and themselves. At first, when writing this I thought it could be improved and wanted to start writing my script to see if it would give me anymore ideas, when thinking of the film in a visual form e.g shots' action etc. 

​

Once I began to write my script, as I mentioned in my research, that I wanted advice on how I could improve it, and asked my dad, who writes scripts as a hobby, what he thought I could improve upon. His feedback was helpful as it gave me a new perspective upon how I can change my script as he recommended for me to adjust some dialogue and improve my action. This helped the subtle details of my script, however, I was still lacking on the overall improvements and planned to redraft my script. 

​

In the next lessons, I will be redrafting my script and receiving feedback from my supervisor to improve it too.

​

21st - 30th April 2020 // 11:00am - Redrafting script and receiving feedback

​

Over the course of nine days, I redrafted my script for the second time, to improve upon my dialogue, action, etc. I revisited my research on scriptwriters and looked at a few scripts of there films and saw the different styles of writing they used. This was useful, as I stated in my research, I still needed to receive feedback as I felt I needed more guidance as to how I can improve my film as a whole. I emailed my supervisor and they gave me useful feedback and told me that they felt I could reimagine scene four of my script as it lacked in artistic ideas and there needed to be more representation of how addiction effects an addict mentally and physically. After I reflected upon how I could improve my script, using my feedback and research, I devised scene four to be an argument scene to show tension and reflect how the protagonist suffers through agitation as her addiction effects her mentally and puts a strain on her relationship with her father. 

​

Once I finished editing my third drafted script, by changing some minor details in dialogue, action and reimagining scene four, I then re read through it and adjusted any parts of my script I felt needed editing and started to devise my storyboard.

​

In the next lessons, I shall be creating my storyboard to put my script into visual shots and and start on blocking my film hit my actors and crew.

​

1st - 15th May 2020 // 10:00am - Storyboarding, Shot list, Blocking.

​

Over the next fifteen days, I devised my first storyboard, this helped me put my visual ideas for my script into shots. I believe this storyboard could have been improved, however it was only used to help guide me when shooting my blocking, which will help me see what my film will look like, once it's come to life, on screen. 

​

After I completed my storyboard, using my script and previous research on camerawomen work, to help me envision how I want my film to look, I then began running lines through with my actor and myself, and also showed my cinematographer an my storyboard to show her the shot types, movement and framing of the camera. In my research, I stated my meaning for the shots used in the scenes and sectioned my storyboard into three shots a peg to be organised and clear with my reasoning and ideas.

​

After I finished my storyboard, I devised a shot list that covered my shot type, movement, int/ext, time of day and description of each shot I wanted to capture. This was useful as I could draw from it in blocking and have my cinematographer use it as a guide to follow.

​

Once we began blocking, it became quite a stressful process and I am filming with my family, and had to be patient with explaining myself, helping them understand my ideas and vision and preparing dialogue. Each day we ran through the scenes chronologically, however, I forgot to film 'night shoots' which meant my whole film was shot in the daytime, although in the storyline and script, some scenes are suppose to be set at night. I feel if I followed my original plan and shot them at night the film would have turned out better, in terms of continuity, although this was only blocking. After we finished blocking all the scenes, I would upload them onto my MacBook and would put them into a folder that specified their scene, to help me be organised when editing.

​

In the next few lessons, I will be editing my blocking scenes and receiving feedback from my supervisor to help me see a new perspective in order for me too improve it and get their general advise as they will be assessing my project.

​

16th - 28st May 2020 - Editing blocking, Costume design, Legal forms and receiving feedback.

​

Over the next few weeks, I edited my blocking, received feedback from my supervisor, devised my costume deigns and completed my legal forms. Editing my blocking did not use lots of my time, as I only cut the scenes, sued minimal amount of foley sounds and transitions as it was not my final piece and I wanted to mainly focus on seeing how the film would turn out from a visual perceptive of the storyline, to know how I can improve it for when I am in production.

​

After I completed editing my blocking, I emailed it to my supervisor and was given feedback from him, as I have shown in my research, he thought my film's storyline could be changed slightly and maybe readjust the first few scenes, in order for the audience to connect with the characters and their struggle. 

​

At first I was worrisome and self-doubtful that my film was lacking in a lot of places and was executed poorly, however, once I had a call with my supervisor I felt reassured that the actual shot types and dialogue doesn't need to be readjusted that much, but more so the plot and representation of the characters and the subject matter. 

​

To improve my film, using my feedback, I gave myself a few days to think about ideas, discuss them with my family, rewatch my blocking video, watch films that might inspire me and eventually started to reimagine parts of my film and decided that I will re write my script, but include scenes that were useful and effective from the original script. 

​

Before I began redrafting my script, I had to cover the costume designs for my film and legal forms. These are two very important parts of my pre production as the costume design will contribute to my character development and the legal forms are necessary for my documents. To create my costume designs, I use images from online and in my research wrote about how the colours play apart I the characters emotion and the design of clothes represents their age or occupation. 

​

To complete my legal forms, I had to write out a legal and ethical form, copyright form, risks and hazard sheet and location recce. As I stated in my research, each one is important as it covers the right and regulations needed to be taken, in order to have production go through. As I am filming at home, this will not be an issue. 

​

In my next lessons, I will be rewriting my script and updating this reflection blog. 

​

29th - 31st May 2020 - Reimagining my narrative and Rewriting my script 

​

Over the next few days, I received feedback from my supervisor about my blocking. They stated that the film needs more scenes that reflect the protagonist's struggle as there is a lack of connection they felt for the characters. To improve upon my film, I re assessed my script and began to sketch out new scene ideas, reordered some scenes and decided on giving my film a new non linear structure. 

​

I found that choosing to give my film a non linear structure allowed me to experiment and have more freedom with the order of my film and how I introduce certain themes. After reflecting upon ways I could approach this structure, I thought of having the protagonist being in a counselling session was a good way to create a foundation and narration for the storyline. As I imagined having the sessions be split up between flashbacks and have it act as a guide for the audience to follow. 

​

Once I was set on my new approach to redrafting my narrative, I began to start writing my script. I wanted to give myself time to write my script and to not rush into anything, like I did previously with my other scripts. I found being patient with my ideas and writing worked best as it allowed me to process my film and understand what I want my scenes to achieve. 

​

In my next lessons I will be asking for feedback on my script and add any improvements that need to be made. 

 

1st - 5th June 2020 - Feedback on script and creating production schedules 

​

Over the next five days I readjusted my script using my feedback and completed time schedules to help me plan my production process by ordering my days of shooting.

 

After receiving feedback on my newly redrafted script, my supervisor stated that they felt the changes to my storyline improved it, although they thought some dialogue and wording could be more natural and my spelling needed to be checked over. However, they gave me a thumbs up to start on my production process. 

 

To begin my production process, I created a 10 day shooting schedule that covered the scenes I was shooting, the hours I estimated it would take to complete the shots, whether there was costume changes and if the shoot was in the day or night. I made this schedule to ensure that I hit all of my deadlines and I found creating this to be most useful as it allowed me to be organised and less stressed when working towards my filming. Once I finished creating these schedules, for both myself, my sister and father (being my crew members), I prepped my costumes and created a new storyboard to fit my new script and was then ready to begin production. 

​

In the next few weeks, I will be starting my production process and then lead onto post production.

​

7th - 17th June 2020 - Production process

​

Over the next ten days, I was in the production process of my film. I faced many challenges, one being my lack of equipment. To shoot my film, I used an iPhone 7, I found this to be very hard as it captured sound and lighting poorly. However, it was easy to hand hold and if kept in stable hands, captured smoothed panned shots. To increase the stability of shots, my father and I created two tripod using a clip that attached to a bed frame and using a wire around the base of a lamp. Overall, I found these challenges were educational as they allowed me to be resourceful and creative with my thinking.

​

I organised my filming to be in a 'chronological order' in terms of the flashbacks, as I felt it would help me prepare myself to get into the mindset of my character and allow me to follow and experience the narrative through the perspective of which my audience will see. Although, I did shoot the counselling sessions at the end, which allowed me to conclude my shooting by reflecting upon the flashbacks I previously shot days prior. 

​

After each day of filming, I roughly edited each scene, I chose to do this because I knew it would speed up my time in production and would give me space to update my blog and finish my evaluation, all in time for my deadlines. 

​

To conclude, I have now finished the production process of my film and will be starting my post production process in the next lessons and finishing my project as a whole.

​

18th - 24th June 2020 - Post production, updating blog, evaluation. 

​

Over the next six days, I finally completed my final major project. During the course of my last week working on this project, I finished the post production of my film, updated this reflection journal and completed my evaluation. 

​

Once I started on my post production process, I edited two drafts of my film. I first began exporting each scene from After Effects into my Media Encoder and then put all my scenes into one composition. I found this tone a very illogical and time draining process, it has taught me that next time I will edit my film in one composition, with all my footage on Premiere Pro. This is because Premiere Pro does not need to render through scenes, like After Effects and is a much quicker way of cutting and colouring footage. I also added colouring when editing each of my scenes. After I completed my first draft of my film, I then watched it back and made notes on how I could improve certain scenes, cuts, colourings etc. I then added the improvements to my blog, the majority of changes I made were adjusting my colouring to my flashback scenes and cutting scenes that I felt were too long or unnecessarily extended. 

​

After I edited the final draft of my film, I uploaded it to Youtube and my blog then sent it to my supervisor to notify them that I had completed my project on time. On my blog I wrote about the experimental shot styles, and gave evidence of how my post production process went. I then added to this reflection blog by updating my production and post production during these past few weeks. 

​

To conclude, after I completed all of these tasks, I then began my evaluation covering the scope of my project, the challenges I faced, what I learned from working on this film and how I will use these elements to progress in my later projects. Overall, I found reflecting upon my project to be overwhelming as I had to recall many events and processes I went through over a long period of time, however I do believe it has helped me grow and explore new ways of how I enjoy working and seeing new techniques and skills I have progressed in and learned.