WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
LO3 - Evaluation
What to answer, what, why, how and the effect it has
Week 1
What have you been asked to do?
Why have you chosen this target audience?
This week was spent on idea generation
We have been asked for this unit 9 and 10 Be creative to choose
between three different types of production, these were
animation, short film and music video, with the option of being in
a pair in order to produce these professional productions. I chose
to pair with Ben due to our past productions which have gone
excellently and furthermore have manage to meet a professional
standard. This unit I and Ben had to choose two different
productions and furthermore choose a desired target audience to
create our production’s for these target audiences were 5-12 year
olds and 25-40 year olds. We chose 25-40 year olds as this meant
we could create a more mature production that had a big
meaning to it. This decision was decided upon by both me and
Ben thoughtfully as to what would be the best approach for us.
We next had to choose two productions out of the three in order
to create these side by side. I and Ben chose to create a short film
and a music video. This is because I have done animation in the
past and whilst this is very fun, it is also quite stressful and requires a
lot of patience as well as time, which would be really difficult to
maintain when creating two productions next to each other. We
had the option to work in pairs and I chose to work with Ben
again, this is because we get along really well professionally and
socially furthermore I can trust him to get all the work done on
time and overall just pull his weight within the group. This will be
beneficial for the both of us due to us having to make two
professional standard productions for the same deadline which
will in theory mean that this will be easier to pull off due to there
being two of us to research, plan and film these productions.
This module we had the choice to choose between making two
productions aimed at 5-12 year olds or 25-40 year olds. We chose
to make our productions aimed at 25-40 year olds. This is because
we personally believed that this would be much more beneficial
for me and Ben when it comes to getting primary research from
surveys and furthermore getting focus groups. This is because if we
had chosen 5-12 year olds this would mean that we would have
network in order to find children whose parents are comfortable
with us interviewing them as well as posting this on YouTube this
would be risky and furthermore I believe there are laws that
surround using minors in content when under a certain age which
we would have to carefully abide by. This is why we chose to aim
both our productions at 25-40 year olds because it’s a much
easier target audience group to deal with when filming surveys
furthermore this also means when filming surveys that our
language does not have to be as unique and simplified. A
disadvantage of choosing this target audience is that it’s a void
when figuring out around you if people fall into the age group
whereas 5-12 year olds are much easier to tell that they are within
this age group. Overall we chose this target audience of 25-40
year olds because we personally believe we have contacts or
contacts that know people within this age group compared to 5-
12 year olds.
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
What two productions have you decided to
make? How do they allow you to improve
your skills?
How did the focus groups help you to select
your idea?
Are you on track for the week?
What work needs to be completed for you to
catch up?
Week 2
What did you find out about your target
audience through your secondary research?
When we went through the brief at the beginning of the module
with our teacher. We were given three different options of
production to choose from, these were stop-motion, music video
and a short film which all had their own advantages and
disadvantages as to why they could have been chosen. We had
to choose 2 out of 3 of these productions to make side by side for
a specific deadline which is the Thursday 28th November 2019 at
4pm/16:00. I and Ben chose to make a short film and a music
video. We chose to make a music video due to our last one we
made in Unit 6 which was Nikki by Logic, this production was not
as much as a success as originally hoped for, so me and Ben are
determined to improve upon are past mistakes in order to reach a
distinction grade. This will also allow me to improve my visual
editing skills which are essential when creating a music video due
to these shots often being fast or slow dependant on the chosen
song. We have chosen the song It’s My Life by Bon Jon Jovi due to
this suiting are target audience’s era of music furthermore this is
step out of our comfort zone for me and Ben who have mainly
used rap in past production. This is a good thing and definitely
needs to be done in order for us to improve our knowledge of
editing music videos.
I and Ben filmed three focus groups, in these I asked our
participants what they liked about our idea and what we could
improve. I communicated to them to be as honest as possible as
this helped us figure out if our project concept was good or not.
This was successful as we learned that we could do things such as
include a father in the short film instead of mother as this would
allow us to go against the stereotype, every idea we took into
consideration to ensure that we were showing that we were
acknowledging their idea as well as being thankful for the fact
that they took time out their lives to film these focus groups with us.
I am currently on track for this week as I have ensured that all work
has been completed out of college during my free time as this will
allow me to be on track for the rest of the module and
furthermore not cause me to get stressed over something that I
should completed during class also the work we carry out in the
earlier weeks has a massive effect on the production itself as
allows me to build our understanding of our production and what
we need to do in order for this to be conventional to the genre of
chosen production and furthermore how we can make this suit
our target audience with all our knowledge that we have gained
from primary and secondary research.
I currently just need to ensure that I stay on top of my weekly blogs
as I often forget about these and end up having to do these six
weeks in when I should be only focusing on filming. I will ensure
that these are carried out in full detail during my frees on
Monday’s and Tuesdays as this will allow me to stay on top of my
work and if these are not completed to the best of my ability then
I will ensure that this is done at home after or college or on the
weekends.
This week was spent researching target audiences
I learned from my secondary research all about my target
audience (25 years old). This research was all Harvard referenced
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
How will this help you in adapting your idea to
meet the chosen audience?
How useful was interviewing people from your
chosen target audience?
Was it difficult to get a large response to your
survey? How could you improve the amount
of respondents for your FMP?
correctly to ensure I don’t commit plagiarism which would cause
me to be disqualified and fail, this was all done quickly and
efficiently using Neil’s toolbox as well as me doing some of this
myself. I learned from my secondary research about my
audience’s personal traits for example ethnicity, education,
sexuality, common occupations and income. I also learned about
their personal interests, so what they do in their spare time
examples of this include sports, reading, going for dinner/brunch
and yoga. I also learned from these traits about the millennials
attitudes towards life and furthermore their opinions on UK politics
and religion, I also learned about how they behave as an age
group. This information is very beneficial and will allow me when
planning our productions to design are characters personalities
around these facts. This will allow our target audience to relate
more to our productions as they will see themselves within these
characters.
This beneficial secondary will allow I and Ben to develop our story
and characters much furthermore during the planning stage. An
example of this is when developing our characters as to how they
look and act. We now have a greater confidence of our
character required behaviour they need to have for this
production to relate to our target audience (25-40 years old)
I and Ben decided to contact all people that we knew within the
age bracket 25-40 due to this being our target audience. We did
this by looking through our contact list on our phones and social
media in order to see if we knew anyone who fitted the
requirement. This was unfortunately un-successful due to us being
far off this age bracket therefore we knew no one within this
bracket. I checked with my cousins as well as asking friends if their
brothers or sisters were within this age group, this was also
unsuccessful due to them being a couple years off the minimum
e.g. 23, this was very stressful, we did not let this affect our work
though as this would make us fall behind and therefore effect
future work. We solved this issue by asking family and furthermore
friends if they knew anyone within this age bracket. This was
successful and we managed to gain three focus groups from this.
This taught me the importance of networking with individuals and
how this can benefit your work. When carrying out these focus
groups it allowed me to figure out whether I and Ben’s two ideas
for a music video and short film were good enough and would be
effective for our target audience who we were interviewing
professionally. I gained a great understanding from these focus
groups as too how we could develop our ideas further to main
them more effective for example one interviewee said for the
short film to use a father instead of a mother as this is a rarer
occurrence and may have a greater effect on our target
audience.
I found getting a large amount of survey responses really difficult
because we needed our participants to do so much before
answering the survey. This involved them watching three short film
which I then changed to watch 2 minutes of each short film to
which then answer my 2 minute survey. This means that
participants that I don’t even know have to take 8-10 minutes out
of their time in order to answer this survey as well as this being
aimed at the target audience 25-40 year olds which may have
families as well as working so therefore they won’t have time to
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
What have you found to be the key things
that you should be targeting your audience
with? What makes this audience different to
the one you never chose?
Are you on track for the week?
What work needs to be completed in your
own time?
answer this as they may be tired and see this as more work. This
meant I had to reply on people to answer my survey out of the
kindness of their heart which most likely wouldn’t happen. I posted
this survey on multiple pages for mums on Facebook such as
Reading Mums as well as Sonning Common Gossip, I also posted
this on a mum’s net tread. This was reposted a fair few times we
me asking politely for more results. The required amount was 30-50,
I only gained 12 results. This meant I did not have a as high variety
of results as needed or wanted. This would have been very
beneficial to have as it would have allow me to have a greater
idea of what our target audience personally believed worked in
these examples and furthermore what we needed to do for our
production to be successful. Despite not getting the results
needed I do completely understand why participants may not
have answered our survey as everyone has their own life and
things going on. I will make sure that I get a high variety of results
for my final major project by trying to reduce how much our target
audience needs to answer by as much as possible to ensure I get
results. I will also make sure to post this on as many beneficial
social media threads and sites as possible as this will allow me to
spread the survey further.
I have found from doing a large amount old target audience
research that the difference between I and Ben’s target audience
(25-40 years old) and the target audience we decided against (5-
12 years old) is that our target audience desires more serious real
life subjects compare to 5-12 years old. The reason I believe this is
because older audiences care about what their seeing whereas
younger audiences do not as such. Another reason why I believe
these audiences are so different is because our target audience
wants to see something that they can relate too, an issue or
subject that relates to them. In our case for our short film we have
chosen a subject that particularly speaks to our target audience.
We have chosen to aim our production at parents who are within
this age bracket and play on the fears of what would you do if
you knew your child was in danger. Along with these issues being
due to object that everyone possesses and uses on a daily basis
which is the dangers of mobile phones and particularly social
media. This completely differentiates from the younger target
audience (5-12) as the subject in this would be to do with
something much lighter like cars or animals and would have to be
more comedic and simple. I believe this target audience is more
complex in the way of narrative telling as we have to be more
detailed in what we show.
I am currently on track for this week, the only task I currently need
to undertake is the focus groups, this has been an issue gain these
beneficial groups because although I have contacts that have
now found these people within our target audiences boundaries.
The 5 – 7 people I asked politely if they knew anyone within these
boundaries and if so could they gain contact so I could network
with them. 3/7 of these people knew someone and were in
complete confident that they were within this age group. I and
Ben currently have three people lined up and ready to interview
on Saturday 21st September, two of these are scheduled at 13:00
and 13:10 as they should only take 5 minutes each.
I currently just need to upload my focus groups with Becky Hobson
and James Hobson as well as Ben’s one with Michelle Cooley this
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
Week 3
What genres have you chosen and why?
What have you learnt from your secondary
research this week?
will be done in my own time this weekend as we have all our focus
groups planned for Saturday 21st September 2019. The questions
have been planned before hand to ensure that we are not
wasting these individuals time. This will be uploaded prior to
returning to college on Monday 23rd September 2019 to ensure I
don’t fall behind on the nest section of work. I also need to
complete in detail my weekly blog 2 which will be done in my
spare time to make sure I don’t fall behind on these as that would
cause other weekly blogs to suffer and furthermore I may forget
what I’ve done each week.
This week was spent researching codes and conventions
I have chosen to analyse both a rock narrative styled music video
and a psychological based short film. The reason we have chosen
to do a short film which is psychological thriller is because this
genre plays on people’s fears. A psychological thriller is like a
horror but a horror is more un-realistic fears such as monsters,
ghosts and demons where as our genre is more realistic fears that
might occur to someone in modern day, these situations are often
made much more extreme than they actually are. The overall
reason that I have chosen this genre is play on parents emotions
by putting fictional children in danger through the use of social
media. This will be intensified through the use of music and sounds
which will only be used when appropriate. The reason we chose
to make a rock music video is because the song we decided to
use is Bon Jovi’s it’s my Life. The reason we chose this song is
because it’s a very well-known song by millennials and
furthermore was one of the biggest songs around this time (May
23rd 2000). This means that our target audience will pay more
attention to this music video as they know the song and they may
feel like they can relate to the music video’s narrative.
I have learned from my secondary codes and conventions
research about linear and non-linear narrative styles which is
known as Todorov’s narrative theory about how a story is told for
example a linear narrative would have an Equilibrium where life’s
all normal then there would be the disruption of the equilibrium
which would be what erupts the normal life. Then the recognition
of the disruption is where there character realises what’s
happened and plans the change, then the repair of the damage
where the character plans to fix the damage and finally the new
equilibrium the result of the fix and how it’s gone. These linear
productions are traditional and just have a beginning, middle and
end whereas non-linear narratives are told out of order and often
can be begin with the end at the beginning and example of this is
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
How will this influence what you include in
your productions?
What are the key conventions for your chosen
genres? What MUST you include for it to be
that genre?
Christopher Nolan’s Memento which we watched an analysis of to
understand why this has been done, how it effects an audience
and how this has been done. This has allowed me to understand
narrative styles strongly and implement this into both our
productions. I also learned about Vladimir props theory where he
claims every character has a defined role e.g. hero, villain and
princess. This allowed me to understand characters and their
defining roles they have in movies and TV shows. This allowed I
and Ben to strategically implement this theory into our own short
film for example our Villain is the bully, our princess is the son and
our hero is the mother.
These codes and conventions which I have researched in a high
amount of detail and furthermore now have a full understanding
of as well as being incredibly confident about them now. I and
Ben have thoughtfully gone through our productions to decide
upon the best style of narrative for our short film and music video.
We have decided that for our short film (Social Killer) that a
traditional narrative style will be used for our psychological thriller
known as linear narrative this means our production will be the
stereotypical beginning, middle and end. We have chosen for our
rock music video a less traditional method of storytelling which is a
non-linear style. This means our production will be out of order in
terms of how this narrative is told. This is because our rock music
video will begin with the end and then tell the story to lead up to
this moment. This has been decided upon because this will
challenge I and Ben’s story telling ability, this is because we have
only ever told linear narratives, therefore this will be something
different to try and especially on our weakness area of
productions (music video’s).
I have learned from my secondary research about the key
conventions of my chosen genres for both our short film and our
music video. These genres are psychological thriller and a rock
music video. I learned from researching a psychological thrillers
conventions that our male character needs to be portrayed as
both the antagonist (villain) and the protagonist (hero) of the film.
This will work really well in our production as the son is portrayed as
an independent and introverted individual who is going to defend
himself against the bully this moment he will be portrayed as a
hero (protagonist) whereas when he is in the argument with his
mum who takes his phone he will be portrayed as the villain as he
will be being confrontational with his mum for a reason which
overall isn’t worth it. I must also include for it to be conventional to
the genre the main character is often portrayed as independent
and emotionless. This will be shown through body language and
the lack of people that surround the individual as he is constantly
on his phone. Another key convention of a psychological thriller is
that males are often represented as powerful through low angle
shots to make them look bigger and overpowering to viewers. This
is intimidating to both the viewer and the characters in the scene.
This portrays a power in-balance between characters. This will
mainly be done in our short film during the argument scene
between the mum and son as we will see this scene begin with
the mum in power until the son gets angry of which this will
completely change so the power is now in the son’s hand. The
character who is in power will have low shot whereas the
character with no power will have a higher shot. This will which
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
Are you on track for the week?
What work needs to be completed in your
own time?
Week 4
What have you learnt from you primary
research this week?
What developments do you need to make to
your production for it to meet these codes
and conventions requirements?
then suit the female psychological thriller conventions of the
female often being presented as vulnerable.
I am currently on track for this week as I have made sure that all
work carried out during this target audience lo has been carried
out quickly and effectively so I don’t fall behind on work as this
would have an extreme effect on future work as well as both our
productions.
I currently need to complete in my own time my weekly blog 3 as
this will allow me to reflect back upon this week’s work and
analyse what went well and what went wrong. This will be done in
a strong amount of detail to make sure that I have a full
understanding of what I have done this week as well as my genres
codes and conventions.
This week was spent researching codes and conventions
I have learned from our codes and conventions research about
the codes and conventions of both a short film and a music video.
I began this lo by analysing 3 videos on camera angles, mise-en-
scene and sound. This allowed to me to see some of the most
iconic movie scenes that contained these elements as well as a
narrator conveying why it was so successful. This was very
beneficial as it allowed me to gain a greater understanding of
how these aspects should sound and look. I have been analysing
these two different types of productions for the following aspects,
camera work, mise-en-scene, sound and performance. I analysed
all together 4 different productions in a mass amount of detail for
these aspects. This was very successful as I learned about the
different types of sound which are non-diegetic which the
characters can’t hear and diegetic sound which the characters
can hear. This will allow me when planning and making a sound
list to decide what diegetic and non-diegetic sounds I need within
my production, these will be put into different tables to make this
easier to understand when editing.
I learned from my codes and conventions research that in order
for me to meet these requirements. I need to ensure that both
productions have suitable costumes that convey a characters
wealth, personality and age. This clothing will allow our target
audience to gain an overall understanding of who they are as
well as what their job is. This clothing needs to suit the era that
both productions are set in for example the Bon Jovi – It’s my life
music video will need older era clothing due to the song being
released decades before present day. This will be done by
researching what clothing individuals wore during this time as well
as what the age group wore and who were into this genre of
music (rock) as this will ensure that we reach our target audience.
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
How did processing the results of your
research help you to understand it
thoroughly?
Are you on track for the week?
What work needs to be completed in your
own time?
Week 5
What did you learn from your planning?
How will this be useful as your production
process continues?
This week I was researching the codes and conventions of a
psychological thriller and a rock music video. This allowed me to
understand in a greater amount of detail what we needed to
have within our productions for this to be conventional to our
chosen genres. I found when processing the results of our research
that I learned a lot in detail about the different aspects of a
production such as filming techniques/ how a camera should be
set up dependant on genre, sound/Foley sound, lighting,
editing/colour correction, narrative structure, locations and the
different roles characters fall under in films. This allowed me and
Ben to start planning where our productions would fall in these
different aspects of a production. This also allowed us to
understand what we would need to do in order for this to have
the greatest effect on our target audience (25-40 year olds).
I currently am on track for this codes and conventions work, I do
need to finish my realistic locations with annotations for my music
video and short film. I also need to finish my weekly blogs 2, 3 and
4 as I have completed certain questions that I have a full
understanding of where as other questions have not been
completed, due to not having a full understanding of what needs
to be answered. I will ensure to do this quickly and effectively in
order to not fall behind on these weekly blogs as I may forget key
things that went well or wrong and this will affect my grade.
I currently need to complete the following work in my own time in
order to catch up as well as reflect on what’s happened so far in
our project. These tasks are the realistic locations for our short film
and music video in the codes and conventions lo, as well as the
weekly blogs 2,3 and 4 which have all been partially but not
completely answered. I will ensure to do this in my own time in
order to catch up because this reduces the amount of tasks that I
need to do and furthermore stress.
This week was spent planning your productions
I have learnt from our planning this week how much it can adapt
your project idea this is through documents such as storyboards,
shooting script and production schedule. I personally believe that
the planning process is so great for adapting your project
because it allows you plan ahead and think about what needs to
go into your production such as props, actors and equipment
needed to create this short film. This was done through the use of
the props list, crew list and equipment which are very effective
and beneficial. This is because it allows you to have every element
of your production written down as well as proof backing aspects
such as actor dates with emailed clarification to say their
availability has been confirmed for the planned dates which are
(Monday 14th October, Wednesday 16th October and Friday 18th
October).
I personally believe our planning will be essential for our short film
(Social Killer) as it will allow us to have a better understanding of
our narrative and how we want this to play out in our final
product. An example of this is the storyboard which will allow us
when filming to keep looking back at this document in order to
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
What issues did you encounter whilst planning
and how did you overcome them?
How much work did you complete outside of
the lessons?
Are you ready to film next week and if not,
what do you need to complete to be ready?
understand what type of shot we need to film next and its overall
purpose for our production. This has given us a better idea of our
narrative as it has allowed I and Ben to now visually understand
how we want our production to look and furthermore what shots
and angles would benefit our short film best. Another document
which will allow us to have a better understanding of our narrative
is our shooting script, this sort of script was chosen due to our
production containing no dialogue therefore a normal script
would not be that beneficial to us. The shooting script contains our
characters body language and emotion that we desire them to
have during a scene. This will allow us when filming to politely,
professionally and effectively communicate this to our actors as
this will allow them to have a better understanding of their
purpose within a scene and furthermore this will give them greater
confidence of being in the film as they will know what to do and
why.
When creating our pre-production documents we came across
several obstacles such as gaining reliable and professional actors
who suit our character descriptions as well as our target audience
requirements as this would allow us to have better relation to
them. We also needed these individuals to be available for a fair
amount of time, an issue with this was due to them being between
the ages of 25-40, everyone we contacted is working and they
could not take time out as it would have a significant effect on
their work lives. We overcame this issue by preparing a plan to
work around these work times in order for us to gain our beneficial
footage. We did this by communicating politely to actors who
desired to take part but were too busy too. We talked to them
about the possibility of filming after their work and our college as
this would allow us to gain a high amount of footage with our
original desired actors (Sue and Alex Ratcliffe). A disadvantage of
filming later in the day is that any day time footage would need to
be planned before hand as it gets darker much quicker now
meaning we only have limited time to do this. This would also
meaning that
I have currently completed my crew list, equipment list and also
worked on my bibliography outside of college. I have ensured
that all pieces of equipment needed for our production have had
photos taken of them to make our work look more professional
and detailed as not only do these have descriptions written about
them, they also have an exact photo of the product in order for us
to have a full understanding of what equipment is needed for
filming. This will allow us to be less stressed on the day of filming as
we have a full understanding of what is needed each day. I
personally believe working outside of college is very beneficial for I
and Ben’s work and furthermore our mental health as we are
finishing work during our free time which will ensure that we don’t
fall behind as well as this allowing us to go in the next day and
begin work which is present to that day. This allows us to be less
stressed which means we can carrying focusing on moving
forward with the short film (Social Killer) as oppose to worrying
about previous work.
I and Ben currently need to complete our sound list together on
Monday 14th October 2019 in order for us to be ready for filming
on this same day which will be done after college. I also need to
update our production schedule as this will allow us to have a
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
Are your storyboards up to standard?
Week 6
How did you find the filming process?
Did you encounter any problems during
filming? How did you overcome them?
greater knowledge of what is going to take place in the weeks
after filming. This will be done quickly and effectively to ensure
that we do not fall behind and also so we are as confident as
possible about our short film (Social Killer).
Our storyboards for our short film (Social Killer) have been
completed to a professional standard which communicate our
productions narrative and how we want to show this on screen to
our target audience (25-40 year olds). These storyboards were
carried out by Ben Ratcliffe who drew this in great detail to show
what camera shots and angles are going to portray each scene
and furthermore who is within this scene and how this affects our
choice of camera shots. These story boards display our characters
wearing costumes that have been planned out carefully for
filming. These also display what props are in each scene as well as
showing how the character will interact with these items within our
production.
This week was spent filming
I found the filming process to be fairly easy as we had planned this
carefully and accurately before filming in order to for to carry out
filming quickly, effectively and professionally. This would allow us to
communicate to our actors in detail whilst maintaining
professionalism as we would have a strong knowledge of our
production that we can convey to our crew as this would allow
them to gain the best understanding of our production as
possible. An example of communication between I and Ben and
our actors (Alex and Sue Ratcliffe) was when filming our short film
which is a psychological thriller called Social Killer. I and Ben
began when meeting them to communicate our productions
idea in more detail compared to the email as this is much easier
to do in person. We communicated our productions idea, their
role and how their character would impact our productions
narrative. This was done before the filming process began as it
would allow our actors to understanding what emotion was
needed to go when filming and how we want them to portray
their character. This was successful to an extent as often our actors
seemed uncomfortable and low on confidence when filming
began. We fixed this issue by being calm and confident towards
them and their acting abilities. We made sure that we were
always positive about our production and their abilities towards
them. This allowed us to gain footage quicker as our actors had
self believe in themselves as well as our production.
When filming our short film (Social Killer) we encountered several
problems on set that could potentially have had a severe
negative affect on our production. An example of an issue that
arose when filming is when I thought I had lost my SD card. I
thought I had forgotten this, even though I was absolutely positive
that I had packed this. This was found minutes later when it was
just in one of the many pockets on my camera bag. We dealt with
this in a positive and professional way as we were at a location
with actors, I found this and we were then ready to begin making
process. This would have been really bad if this was forgotten as it
would have caused us to only have one camera and therefore
less footage as an end result. I will ensure that this is in my camera
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
After reviewing footage, what do you feel
you need to reshoot?
What new techniques from your previous units
have you tried to use?
Are the locations you filmed at suitable to
your production?
before filming because in all honestly it that’s where It should
unless I need to get footage of this. Another issue we had when
filming was that our actors did not have a full understanding of the
narrative and role within this film. This should have been politely
communicated to actors prior to filming when we were gaining
actor confirmations of being in our production. I’m assuming this
was not done as I was not the individual who was gaining these
confirmations as I was not the one with the actors contact details.
I have learned from this that I really need to communicate more
when planning as well as filming, as I do this every time as I am
normally the director but I believed me and Ben should try
different roles out to see what our strengths and weaknesses are
within this media industry. The reason this was an issue is due to the
actors not understanding why there doing something therefore
they ask questions which is completely understandable and
furthermore we were always considerate and polite when they
had questions as we want to treat them how we desire to be
treated. This often caused scenes to be rushed and therefore not
thoughtfully done as we only had 4 hours on Monday 14 th October
and 2 hours 30 minutes on Friday due to actor availability as well
as our crew.
Once we had completed filming and began editing the following
week we learned what footage was needed when reshooting.
We learned when reviewing footage that we had an issue when
the main character returns home from school during the night, he
which then has and argument with his mum, he leaves the house
and this now day which would communicate to viewers that a
day had passed when in fact this had not. We fixed this issue by
reshooting the scene when the child returns home from school.
This was done during the day this time in order to create continuity
between scenes. This was successful and the scene looks
remarkably better and seems like it has more sense to it. This
allowed us to make the narrative seem more structured towards
our target audience. This also allowed our production to look
more professional as it shows a structure within the story. Overall
this was a great move that I and Ben communicated between
each other as this allowed us to create a more professional short
film as well as this showing both ours communication, problem
solving skills.
I have used a variety of camera techniques that I learnt and used
in previous units. An example of this is in unit 3 when I created a 3
minute short film called Anxiety. This followed a character who
suffered when anxiety, I used numerous transition shots in this
production to smoothly transition the character from one placed
to another. I and Ben used this in our production to transition the
main character (played by Alex Ratcliffe) to different rooms in the
house. This would often be a low shot of the character walking to
show movement. This would then transition to a mid-shot of them
walking through the door to the room to show they entered a new
location. This is known as an action shot and is great for
transitioning between locations within a production when focusing
on a specific character. This can be shown through a character
opening a door or walking by focusing on the specific body part
that is in motion.
The locations that we filmed our short film at suited our
productions narrative (Social Killer) as well as the productions
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
Are you keeping up with your production
schedule?
What footage still needs capturing?
Week 7
How did you find the filming process?
genre (psychological thriller). The reason why I personally believe
that this location suited our production was for several reasons.
We used Ben’s house which was a great location to convey our
productions narrative this is because our story followed a mother
who desires to spend time with her son who is addicted to social
media. This location is great as it is often associated with families
therefore this perfect for telling viewers our characters roles in the
short film. Another reason this location suits our production genre is
because we have adjusted the set appearance in order for it to
communicate our production and only this production.
We have currently been punctual and up to date with our work as
this will prevent us from falling behind schedule and possibly
missing the final deadline (Thursday 28 th November 2019). I and
Ben have kept up with this production schedule by making sure
that every objective that has been noted down for each day on
our schedule has been carried out on its planned date. This is a
very successful method of doing things because it allows us to stay
on track with our production and ensure that all aspects of the
production have been carried out correctly from pre-production
to the actual production itself. This work is often split between me
and Ben especially the pre-production work. We have managed
to successfully keep up with our filming week (14th – 20th October).
I and Ben currently need to re-shoot the scene after the mother
takes the phone of the child. This is because the continuity
between shots here is not the greatest and we see the day
transition from night to day within a couple of minutes. This is
because these scenes were filmed on separate days. This meant
the exposure here was different and this was incredibly
noticeable. We will ensure to improve upon our continuity for next
unit by ensuring that all scenes are recorded in order to prevent
confusion in scenes as to what’s needed in terms of props and
setting. This will allow us to create a greater narrative which makes
stronger sense to viewers which will overall make our short film
(Social Killer) more effective to our target audience. This re-shoot
will be done quickly and effectively to ensure that we can get the
main edit done and move onwards to our next production which
is a music video of Bon Jovi It’s my life. This re-shoot will be done
on Tuesday 7th November after college to ensure that our final edit
is completed and out the way for our next production.
This week was spent filming
This week we were filming Bon Jovi’s it’s my life in Maidenhead. I
did not go to this filming as I and Ben were pushed for time for the
filming and both edits. I and Ben communicated effectively to
each other that we personally believed that it would be more
sensible if I stayed at college to finish the Social Killer edit and
focus on this. This is because we did not have much time to film as
well as edit Bon Jovi it’s My Life. I personally believed that it would
be a better idea to focus on the film and put as much effort into
this one to ensure that it was to a professional standard in case the
music video did not turn out that well. In the future to prevent this I
and Ben need to be quicker with gaining actors as this is why we
were pushed for time. I will make sure to do this in my final major
project by making sure this is done in the earlier stages of pre-
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE

After reviewing footage, are you happy with
what you have captured?
Have the techniques you planned on using
turned out well?
production in order for us to have much more time for the actual
production side of the project. I believe this realistic and sensible
approach which will see much greater results.
When Ben returned from filming on Thursday 29th November from
filming which was deadline day I and him reviewed our footage
carefully to make sure this was to a standard that would be
suitable to edit to make a professional standard product. We
reviewed this footage and most of it was great. Ben
communicated to me that the later scenes when the friends meet
again were rushed due to it getting darker therefore the footage
would not be as clear. These shots were often long and due to the
lack of footage for this scene this is all we had to work with. The
reason filming was carried out so late was because the actors
understandable kept cancelling due to work. I believe for future
productions I need to make sure we have reliable and trustworthy
actors who are fully committed to our production, I know this is not
their fault and I have a full understanding that their lives take
priority although next time I will communicate to actors politely if
they are 100% if they can film for the set dates. I will also make sure
to have back up actors for our production in order for the filming
process to flow much smoother.
When editing both productions I planned on using colour
correction to give our short film and music video a tone as well as
to communicate an atmosphere. For example I wanted to use a
cooler colour effect on our short film (Social Killer) to
communicate our productions genre (psychological thriller). This
was also planned to use the tungsten effect on our cameras in the
white balance setting. This was partially successful as whilst this
was displayed in some scenes others it wasn’t. This was due to
both I and Bens camera being different. Next production I plan to
either use one camera or too make sure that I and Bens camera
settings are matched as this had a large effect on how well the
editing process flowed.

Week 8 This week was spent editing Social Killer short film

How are you finding

the editing process As seen below is a screenshot of the editing process of Social Killer. This screenshot shows
this week? me trimming clips which have been imported onto this Premier Pro CC timeline. I trimmed
these clips by using the razor tool as seen to the left hand side of timeline. I trimmed these
clips to a sensible length to ensure that these all clips flow well and tell our narrative
effectively. I used our professional storyboards here as this allowed me to figure out what
order the clips needed to go in. This was successful and worked well as it allowed me to
plan ahead and edit this short film in good time.
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE

As shown below is a screen shot of our title card for our psychological thriller (Social Killer). I
do not know if this title card will be final or if it will be changed due to the position of the
words (Social Killer). I personally believe this could look better by positioning this in the top
left of the screen as oppose to the bottom left. I personally believe this shot needs to be
colour corrected in a tone that relates closer to our productions genre (psychological
thriller). This would be a cool blue as this is the tone traditional used in this genres. In order
for this to be successful I need to use the lumatria scopes as well as the colour corrector to
dim the oranges and bring out the blues more. This shot works well as it tells us something
about the character as we see the football trophy on the right of the screen whilst we see
the medals hanging of the bed frame on the left. We also see in the centre of the shot an
Iphone box which communicates our productions narrative.
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE

This screen shot below show the final timeline of footage. Some clips may be cut down
once I have watched this through in order to find out if there’s any clips that need to be
deleted as they may not suit the production or furthermore may just need to be trimmed as
there too long.

Have you
encountered any I encountered several problems when editing our psychological thriller short film called
problems whilst Social Killer. When editing Social Killer I had an issue with colour correction which would
allow my production to have its own tone to it, this would also create an atmosphere for
editing? How did
viewers as this would convey a mood to my target audience (25-40 year olds). An issue I
you overcome encountered was due to the fact that I and Ben have different camera models as I have
them? the Canon 200d whilst Ben has another model meaning that I was editing two correcting
two completely different types of footage. My camera had white balance so I was using a
tungsten effect whilst Ben’s camera did not have white balance on this. This meant when
editing this footage Couldn’t get the colour correction to match, I have a strong feeling
that our exposure settings were set differently. This taught me that when working with others
that we should make sure before filming begins that both our cameras are on the same
settings or furthermore as close as they can be when matching settings. I will do this by
communicating with the group or person to make sure we have similar settings selected.
This will allow the editing process to flow much smoother as we will be able to just add an
adjustment layer across the entire timeline to colour all footage at once.

Are there any new When editing Social Killer I had to remove all sound from the original footage and recreate
techniques you are this using Foley sounds. Once these were created and imported to Premier Pro CC I had to
put these in the required areas to match visuals with audio. An example of this is at 37
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE

trying to use during seconds to 43 seconds where I had to match the typing effect with the child’s (played by
this editing process? Alex R) finger to Iphone movement. This was difficult as I had to concentrate carefully to
ensure I was matching movement with the sound correctly. These sounds very short and this
required me to have to use the slider shown below the timeline, I made this go as zoomed
ass possible in order to get the sound matched to the visuals correctly. I managed to do
this successfully through concentrating as best I could and being accurate as to where
these clips are placed.

Are you on track I am currently on track with both these edits despite us being pushed for time due to me
with all of your work? and Ben’s having several personal issues that unfortunately occurred. I have currently been
trying to finish both our short film (Social Killer) and music video (Bon Jovi It’s my life) to a
professional standard in order to meet the deadline of 16:00 on Thursday 29th November
2019. Although this is a rush I do personally believe this can be done, I will solve this by
working carefully, creatively and quickly to ensure I meet this final deadline.
What work needs to I currently just need to complete my weekly blogs 7-8 in order to stay up to date with work.
be completed This will all be done before final deadline to ensure that I meet the final deadline (Thursday
outside of lessons? 29th November 2019 16:00) in order for my work to be ready for marking. I also need to
upload our psychological thriller Social Killer to YouTube in order for this to be ready to put
on my website and published ready for marking. The reason this was not done at college
was due being incredibly tight for time I could not do this. I was having troubles with
uploading this to YouTube as it would not process. I repeatedly tried to re-upload this with
no success. This was fixed when I got home as I uploaded this as fast as I could in order to
still meet the deadline. This was successful at home so it might have just been the computer
I was using.
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
Week 9
How did you finding the editing process?
Have you encountered any problems whilst
editing? How did you overcome them?
Are you happy with the outcome of your
productions? Why?
This week was spent editing Bon Jovi’s It’s my life music video
I have found the editing process for the rock music video we
made of Bon Jovi It’s my life went really well. This was my
specialism and my main focus as Ben would transfer me the
footage whilst he was out filming. This was very rushed though as
we only had a week to finish both edits. In the future I personally
believe I need to be more efficient with my editing as this process
requires a lot of time, patience, concentration and creativity to
ensure that final edit is to a professional standard. I had to do this
edit alongside the Social Killer edit meaning this process was
rushed but I am actually quite proud of the end result. In the future
I believe me and Ben need to be more efficient with gaining
actors as this is what affected the filming and editing process the
most. I will do this through communicating frequently and politely
with actors to ensure that they are happy and confident about
doing our production.
When editing Bon Jovi’s it’s my life the only frequent problem that
we encountered was due to the lack of footage the end of the
production stands out negatively compared to the beginning and
middle. This was a non-linear story line meaning it began at the
end and throughout we would reach this same scene to learn
why they are actually here. The issue was some clips were larger
and ranged between 10-15 seconds with no solution due to the
close deadline and lack of footage with varied shots. In the future
I need to make sure that we have a larger variety of camera
shots/ angles as this does affect how interesting the production is
for viewers.
I personally believe that our productions were good in terms of
sound, editing and narrative but I do not believe that they were
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
How did your productions meet your target
audience?
What aspects of your productions could have
been better targeted to your audience?
How effectively have you matched the
codes and conventions you researched
earlier in the unit?
that good when it came to camera work and lighting. I also
believe that these have had a good effect on our target
audience but I feel this would have been greater if we had taken
more care when filming. This is the same for both productions. I
believe overall that the short film was better compared to the
music video but I think this is due to more time being spent on the
edit therefore it was bound to have a better result. I believe that
both productions had a narrative which met our target audiences
needs as well as us using our chosen narrative structures correctly
to display this.
I personally believe that our productions have met our target
audiences in terms of subject, actors and execution of the idea. I
personally believe that our narrative met the target audience’s
(25-40 years old) needs as this was about a single mother who
wants to spend time with her child who is addicted to social
media. The viewers would have felt a lot of emotional appeal for
the mother as they may have been in this same position of
wanting to spend time with their child but they are too caught up
in their own lives. I think the main aspect which stood out to
viewers from our short film is the narrative as the audiences
especially parents may have felt for the child or mother. An
example of this is when the child is walking alone at night without
his phone. This communicates danger and shoes that the mother
is powerless as she does not know where he is or what he is doing
this is shown at 4 minutes 10 seconds as shown below.
I believe that or our short film we could have had a larger range
of close-ups to catch the characters emotions, this would of
created more emotional appeal between our target audience
(25-40 year olds ) because this would have created more tension
and overall a better atmosphere.
I personally believe our short film has met the codes and
conventions of a psychological thriller correctly as we have used
the character roles in this film correctly with the mother as the
hero, child as the princess due to being in trouble and the robber
being the villain. We have also used a real life issue and
enhanced this to provoke fear to our viewers in order for them to
understand why we are spreading awareness of this issue. I
personally believe that our music video if planned out better
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
How do you feel your work compares to
existing professional productions?
Are there any areas where your production
falls short? How would you improve it next
time?
could of met the codes and conventions of a rock music video
much better but I think due to lack of footage and overall the
shoot being rushed this was not as effective.
I personally believe that our short film and music video has some
similarities to productions I had previously researched. I believe
that we have used narrative structure just as well as there is as our
story flowed well. I believe the editing and sound went well and
often compared to other productions. I believe the camera work
sometimes did but not as such.
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
What have you learnt about yourself to take
into the Final Major Project? What do you
personally need to improve on?
Are you on track with all of your work?
I personally believe that some shots within the production were
too long and this could not have been fixed due to the lack of
footage for this scene. The reason for this was due to the last p[art
of the production being rushed as Ben was filming and it then
began to get dark which would affect the quality of footage and
furthermore the continuity in between scenes. I believe in the
future to fix this we should have lighting booked out and on us just
in case of situations such as this. An example of this is shown below
at 3 minutes 30 seconds this clip is overall 14 seconds long and
doesn’t have that much depth to it as this is literally several
individuals playing football together with the camera moving to
an active shot of each person. I believe in the future we need to
plan in more detail as well as confidence when we are going to
film with actors and ensure that they can go through with the
commitment as people are often busy with their own stuff which is
completely understandable. I believe that in the future we need
to gain a higher quantity of footage which is also good quality
and to a professional standard to ensure that we do not come
across this issue in editing again. This will be done through pre-
production and organisation with actors.
I personally believe that for my final major project I need to be
more confident in my work as I believe this is what caused me to
be less motivated than usual. I feel I need to be more positive with
my work and this can be done by working harder as once I stop
working I often find it difficult to begin working again. I personally
believe that for our final major project I most definitely need to
improve upon my filming skills. These shots were often quite shakey
as well as being lit incorrectly therefore camera noise was very
frequent. I will improve upon my filming skills next time by learning
about my camera more and the settings which this has on it. This
could perhaps being done by looking at online videos or
furthermore by reading the cameras manual. This should be very
effective as this manual contains everything about the camera so
this should give me a much greater insight into what all my
cameras buttons/settings can do.
I am currently on track for both units 9 and 10 as I have
completed all main work. I have done this by sticking to my
production schedule to ensure that I stay on track and achieve
everything that is planned per week. I currently just need to catch
up with weekly blogs as I need to complete 7 - 9 as well as 10 after
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
What work needs to be completed outside of
lessons?
Week 10
How did you choose to pitch your idea?
What made your pitch stand out and be
different? Why would it convince someone to
invest?
How did the pitch go?
me and Bens pitch is presented next week to our target audience
(25-40 year olds).
I currently just need to complete weekly blogs 7 - 9 as well as
weekly blog 10 once I and Ben successfully present our pitch to
our target audience (25-40 years old). This work will be completed
quickly and effectively before the final deadline and if not the
final re-submission but this will be done in good time to ensure that
I pass both these units. I also learned from my feedback that I
need to analyse my focus groups to show that my ideas have
developed from my primary research that required the public who
fell between our chosen age bracket. This will be done quickly,
effectively, professionally and in high amount of detail to ensure
that this shows that I have recognised individual’s positive and
negative criticisms of me and Ben’s productions and that I have
shown that I desire to improve these products based on other
peoples beneficial feedback/opinions.
This week you pitched
I and Ben chose our pitch idea based of what worked for us
during our Final Major Project (FMP), obviously we didn’t duplicate
this, and we had the same base design but then customised this
to suit our production and target audience (25-40 year olds). This
gave our pitch its own design/uniqueness which would grip our
viewers and hopefully convince them that our productions are
worth watching. I and Ben decided to be as professional about
this pitch as possible by including as much essential information in
as small words as possible as we need to keep our target
audiences attention throughout.
I and Ben planned on making our pitch so it would stand out to
our target audience in order for it to be considered an effective
pitch. We needed our pitch to be considered unique to viewers,
for them to see something they haven’t seen before. We aimed to
do this through our energy when presenting the pitch as well as
our pitch itself. We acted as confident as possible in our work as
well as ourselves as this allows our target audience to have more
confidence in us as they can see that we are adamant on our
productions abilities. This was successful and I personally believe
that we gained a great response from our audience. I and Ben
when presenting our pitch made sure to convey how passionate
we are about our productions as possible and furthermore honest
as to what issues arose, how this impacted us and what we’re
going to in the future to prevent these mishaps from occurring
again. This was successful as the reaction we gained was great
and seemed quite positive, with only two questions asked towards
us which communicated that we had covered everything that
surrounded our productions that our audience would want to
know.
I personally believe that I and Bens pitch went really well. I believe
this because went really well because I and Ben were prepared
for this pitch for both our productions Social Killer and Bon Jovi It’s
my life. We prepared for this by ensuring that all presentation slides
that were needed were on our PowerPoint. We knew what
 WEEKLY BLOGS – BE CREATIVE
Is there anything you would do differently in
your next pitch?
information we needed due to the THC Vibe website which
allowed us to understand what information was essential for this
pitch in order to sell our product. This included such information as
what platforms these productions would be shown on. An
example of this is for our music video we chose the video
streaming platform YouTube and our short film we chose Channel
4.
I personally believe that for our next pitch in order for us to do
better we need to be more prepared because I often find I
repeat myself and this often wastes the audience’s time as they
have already heard this once. I will next time make sure that I
have some brief notes that I can communicate to our audience.
These notes will be brief but in detail to make sure we don’t miss
out any key points.