LO3 - Evaluation

Weekly blog updates are required, as with every unit. Please remember to
take photos/screenshots as you film/edit. You might find it easier if you note down a record
of what you did each day in a diary form.

Please use the following guidance to help you with each week.
THESE MUST BE COMPLETED IN DETAIL. INCLUDE IMAGES AND BE
SPECIFIC!

Week 1 This week was spent on idea generation

What have you been asked to do?
Why have you chosen this target
audience?
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?
We have been asked to generate ideas at the beginning of the
week. We then got into a focus group for a general audience to
see what people suggested. We also send out a survey to get a
much broader response other than just ones within my class.
Once we got our focus group feedback we started to develop on
our ideas and created character and storyline for each production
then finalised it.
I chose to do 40 – 60-year-olds as I feel like I can have the most
contacts through my parents and other people I know. I also feel
it will be a lot easier with my ideas since it will need a mature
audience.
I have decided to go with a short film and music video. I have
decided that I am going to work with Liam Harman as we feel
our skills complement each other. For the short film we have
gone with the idea of woods being home to a mentally unstable
man who likes to collect strange and valuable objects. For the
music video we are going to do a nostalgic bus ride on the way to
somewhere. The bus song playing brings back memories as the
main character passes those specific locations.
Initially we were going to do a music video of someone not being
affected but all the bad things happening to him just because of
the music. After talking to the focus group, it allowed me to think
more about what is more impactful and allow me to develop
potential ideas for the concept.
No
I need to record 2 more people for focus group and send out
another survey as I sent the survey straight to the target audience
instead of a general audience.

Week 2 This week was spent researching target audiences

What did you find out about your target I found out some common hobbies that people between the ages
audience through your secondary of 40 – 60 are likely to do followed with some reasoning why. I
research?
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?
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?
Week 3
What genres have you chosen and why?
What have you learnt from your
secondary research this week?
also looked at what different social medias are
used for different ages; Facebook followed with
Youtube being the main social media source for
information. I also investigated the common
buying habit by asking a few friends what their
parents spend money on monthly.
It is given me an idea on where to advertise my
production and what elements I must implement to make it
interesting to them.
N/A
Yes, as I had to ask my mum and she found it hard to follow the
survey instruction as well as asking other people if they can help
without making them get frustrated or confused with the survey
while not taking a long time.
They are much more matured and understand deeper meaning to
things. They also interpret things through life experiences unlike
5- 12-year-olds who do not grasp the concepts of certain themes
like death and loses.
No
I need to get the Focus groups done for my target audience. I also
need to make an infographic and analysis, or the data gathered. I
also need to get proof of interview setup since the interviewees
are my parents and family. I also need to analysis 2 videos of
each production and how they meet the target audience.
This week was spent researching codes and conventions
I have decided to go with a psychological horror/crime as I feel
like that is the most common watched genre for my target
audience which is 40 – 60-year olds. Since they are a much more
matured audience it allows me to explore some darker themes
and experiment with how clips are put together to give the
biggest impact to the audience. For the music video I have
decided to go onto for a theme of nostalgia as it relates a lot
heavier towards older audience since they have much more life
experiences.
I found out that the duration of each shot can the pace of actions
can have a direct impact to how the audience respond, the
quicker the shots change the more the audience start to feel the
emotions of not knowing what is happening. By having a more
green/dark tone to everything it helps immersive the story.
People who are scared are unlikely to see everything bright and
colourful. I also found out that lighting can have a big impact in
directing the audience’s attention. By zooming in on key things it
can highly the important of it and foreshadowing that it could be

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?
Are you on track for the week?
What work needs to be completed in
your own time?
Week 4
What have you learnt from your primary
research this week?
What developments do you need to make
to your production for it to meet these
codes and conventions requirements?
How did processing the results of your
research help you to understand it
thoroughly?
a key element in the progression of the short
film. Another thing I found out is focusing on
the facial expressions of the characters since
there is no dialog so this would be important to
tell the audience that the character is feeling.
This has influenced me to focus mainly on
camera shots and lighting as I will not be able
to do much in post since that is my focus while working in a pair
is editing. It has also made me focus on the location to tell the
story since there is no dialog, the atmosphere needs to tell a lot of
the story. I plan on having additional signs and objects to make it
more immersive.
Have the audience connect with the protagonist and build on
their likeness then take everything away from them and leaving
them feeling empty. Do not give the audience time to understand
what is happening until it is too late, and they just watch knowing
the fate of the protagonist.
No, I still have a focus group to do with my targeted audience
and evaluate the survey replies.
I need to do a focus group of my targeted audience and evaluate
the survey replies so that I can adapt my ideas to what the survey
responses said to make it seem more appealing for 40 – 60-year-
olds.
This week was spent researching codes and conventions
I found out that I also need to use a lot of close to direct the
audience’s attention to add small hints. I also found out that
lighting can play a strong role in highlighting important things.
To create a cold atmosphere, I need to dull all the colours down
to show how the main character is seeing everything. I also found
out that objects can be used as metaphors for example a car
running on empty can be a person feeling emotionless. I also
found out while analysing “if we loved” repeating certain sounds
can add to the thoughts of the audience and character. Another
thing I found out while analysing “the interview” that the
duration of each shot and how long the audience has time to
absorb the information can be impactful. Having fast cuts gives a
sense of chaos, then suddenly slowing down gives a sense of
false relief until it starts speeding up again. The sound at the end
of the short film used a constant sound while showing the man
screaming but no sounds from him where being made which
could be useful to show being repressed.
I need to make it where it there is a crime element to the Film to
make it match much better with my target audience. I have
decided to add newspapers to add to the background story. I have
also decided to use a lot of close to direct the audience’s attention
to add small hints to tell the story especially. I also want to use
the same ending as “the interview” where the man could not be
heard screaming. I found this a good metaphor for not being
about to get help and trapped
I found out that there are many visual elements to tell stories and
how each camera shot is used to connect the audience with the
character. I also found out that there are 5 key structures to
storytelling, by focusing on each part you can create a whole
story from beginning to end. I also found out that the music and
instrument can be a strong element to guild the audience to the
story.
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?
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?
Are your storyboards up to standard?
Week 6
How did you find the filming process?
no
This week was spent planning your productions
This week we did some location scouting which I feel like will
help massively. Liam who I am working with had an abandoned
caravan in the middle of the woods which matched perfectly with
the theme of a rundown abandoned area. Another thing While
planning I found out that it would be difficult to find someone
who would be willing to help for several reasons, the main one
being Covid-19 as this was the biggest problem for everyone. A
lot of people didn’t want to catch it and spreading it to a loved
one. The solution we decided to do was work with people who
already had productions within the same area so that we didn’t
need to travel far or take anymore unnecessary risks.
we could do most of the filming in a short period of time and not
be taking any more risks travelling to help with other productions
since we would be in our ‘bubble’ and limit mixing with other
households but at the cost of more suitable actors.
We had issues with people who were able to travel and help with
the productions. Another thing we had a problem with is when
everyone would be free who were be able to help. We decided
that we would stay over in an old cabin for 2 days to try and get
everyone’s productions done.
Still have focus groups to do and analyse some examples to what
makes each production effective.
I still need to improve the storyboards and the location recce for
the music video so I can have an effective plan to follow.
No, I still need to complete the story board for the music video.
This week was spent filming
This week the filming process was a complete flop for the section
we were filming. many things were missed out in the planning
while shooting. Several camera shots were not filmed while the
lighting was too strong to be able to fix on the camera and in

Did you encounter any problems during
filming? How did you overcome them?
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?
Are you keeping up with your production
schedule?
What footage still needs capturing?
Week 7
How did you find the filming process?
Did you encounter any problems during
filming? How did you overcome them?
After reviewing footage, are you happy
with what you have captured?
Have the techniques you planned on
post.
Lighting and organisation between each shot.
Looking back at footage I realised that there
were plenty of shots that we forgot to do.
Almost everything since the lighting did not
match the goal. Initially we decide to use night-
time and used strong studio lights and set them to blue so make it
a cold feel to the scene and be able to control the atmosphere.
Lighting to create moods in each scene and sounds. I found out
while analysing short films that they used a lot of dark dull
lighting and a lot of directional sounds. These are the main things
that I found out to make an effective horror short film, so we
tried replicating with the lighting and working on sounds in post.
Yes, it gave the perfect atmosphere that we needed but I feel like
we chose the wrong times of day to film it. I feel like If we film
during the early hours or on a overcast misty day I will be much
more authentic and match with the theme I am going for.
No, missing scene footage and reshoot.
The first scene which would be the main character entering the
woods and him being watched from a distance. We plan on
filming this Monday
This week was spent filming
This week for filming was cancelled due to being put in tier 4
and one of the casts showing symptoms of Covid-19
One of the caste said they were showing symptoms of covid-19
posing as a health risk so we decided not film. We also go put
into tier 4 which means that we were not allowed to meet up with
anyone except 1 support buddy which would not allow up to get
everyone together at the same time when we needed.
N/A due to the circumstance for this week there was no filming
for safety and government guidelines.
N/A due to the circumstance for this week there was no filming
using turned out well?
Week 8
How are you finding the editing process
this week?
Have you encountered any problems
whilst editing? How did you overcome
them?
Are there any new techniques you are
trying to use during this editing process?
Are you on track with all of your work?
What work needs to be completed
outside of lessons?
Week 9
How did you find 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?
How did your productions meet your
target audience?
for safety and government guidelines.
This week was spent editing
Limited to what I could edit due to not being able to reshoot or
record the other sections due to lockdown.
Loads of footage was missing so there was not anywhere as
much footage as I would had liked to work with.
I wanted to try and use directional sounds more so make it much
more immersive but ended up not being able to due to the
missing shots needed to allow it to work effectively.
Mostly, I just need to upload the storyboards for the music video
and reformate the script for the short film since it is not in the
correct format for script writing.
I need to finish of the storyboards for the music video since I
didn’t do it during the planning stage, and I need to reformate the
script to make it a standard
This week was spent editing
N/A as stated the week before. The limitation of not being able to
film all the footage needed left an incomplete timeline to be filled
and edited
Not having all the footage was the stopping point for editing as
shots and scene that would add to the story never managed to get
filmed. I asked my teacher what I should do, and they replied that
I should just edit the footage I have so that I can show them what
kind of idea I had for it even if there was not all the footage
needed
No. Due to certain events we were unable to record all the
footage needed to play around with and add certain elements to
make it a successful psychological horror. I never ended up
having suspenseful shots that I wanted which would have played
a big part in making it a higher quality production. There were
also scenes that would have filled in some questions and invited
the audience to be invested in the story.
In the end I feel like my production did not fit a lot of the target
audience needs, this would most likely be due to having done the
focus groups late, by the time I had already planned the
production it would have been too late to come up with a new
idea. I found out that from the people I interviewer they did not
like the genre, or they were rarely in the mood for one. This was
a mistake on my part as I did not keep up to date with all the
planning and research and a lot of it was overdue by a few
weeks.
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?
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?
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 your work?
What work needs to be completed
outside of lessons?
If I could, I would have focused on sounds
since that it is a common element to horrors. I
would have tried playing around with more
directional sound to make the audience feel a
lot more immersed with the atmosphere, I also
would have liked to play around with the pace
of each scene to create the sense of confusion
or false sense of relief by either slowing or speeding up the
duration of each shot.
I was unable to fully fill the codes and conventions due to the
lack of footage to play around with and be able to implement
certain elements in like sounds as important shots were missing
to help tell the story.
At the current state with the footage missing, I feel like it is
nowhere near close to being completed or being classified as a
production that I can compare to professional productions.
Footage and a contingency plan. Next time I will try and plan my
production with as little people and easy of access to locations
before planning especially with Covid-19 restricting everything
like traveling and meeting with people. My focus for next time is
planning to allow a fuller proof production
Have a contingency plan to be able to follow and not rely on
other people especially at these restrictive times with Covid-19
and meeting up with other people. Next time I will plan around
the things I already have to allow it to be more authentic and not
have to worry about getting certain things.
I just need to rewrite the script, so it matches with the
professional standard of script writing but other than that I am up
to date with everything else.
Reformatting the script to a professional standard