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? This week we have been asked to generate ideas for the
BeCreative unit, to start with we had to pick from 3 mediums:
 Short film
 Music Video
 Animation
And pick between a target audience of 5-12 year olds and 40-60
year olds.

After picking of 2 of the 3 mediums we had to generate 3 ideas

for each, I picked Short Film and Music video. After coming up
with 6 ideas in general I completed a focus group and sent a
survey out for feedback on these ideas to help me later pick the
final two. I created a production schedule and finally wrote my
proposal for my final ideas and extended my explanation on them
slightly.
Why have you chosen this target I chose 40-60 for my target audience for 2 reasons, the first being
audience? that I don’t know many people within the age range of 5-12, most
people in my life are older than me and I could get the most
accurate results using a group of people I was more familiar with
and had the most access to. The second reason I choose 40-60
year olds is related to the two mediums I chose, I wanted to pick
two productions that would be beneficial for me to produce, both
a short film and a music video allow me to explore with
cinematography and visuals a lot better than I feel doing an
animation would. I feel like this age range would be much more
inclined to watch something with carefully thought through
visuals more than an animation, to me this seemed like
something the younger target audience would have enjoyed
more; and if I had chosen 5-12 I would have most definitely
considered.
What two productions have you decided As mentioned above I’ve decided to make a Music Video and a
to make? How do they allow you to Short film to help me with my chosen specialism from the
improve your skills? previous unit. Last unit I chose to go into directing and
cinematography as these are something I am looking to go into in
the future, I thought it would be helpful for me to carry this on
for this unit, not only to familiarise myself with it more before
taking the path at uni, but to also use all the information I have
 gathered from doing a large amount of research
on it and using the BeCreative unit to play
around with it slightly and see what works
before this years FMP. Allowing me to improve
my skills massively, although this unit is still
very important, especially in current times; it
still allows me room for improvement and
learning. Making two different productions in such a short
amount of time is something I am defiantly going to find
challenging but in the long run I know will benefit me hugely.

Both Productions I have decided to make were chosen because I

thought they would benefit me the most in allowing me to
improve my skills, I feel as if I had done an animation, although
fun, it wouldn’t have helped me too much within a
cinematography aspect, at least not the end of it that I am looking
into going into.
How did the focus groups help you to I carried out two focus groups, one on each production I was
select your idea? intending on making. The feedback I got was varied as it
definitely could have been better but I think this was a mistake
on my half as the questions I asked didn’t allow enough depth for
answers to tell me what I was looking for. The overall tone I got
from my focus groups was that all ideas would work and would
be suited to my target audience. I used the surveys I created to
further pick my final ideas as they were much more beneficial to
me.
Are you on track for the week? I am
What work needs to be completed for I am caught up
you to catch up?

Week 2 This week was spent researching target audiences

What did you find out about your target I carried out secondary research this week, although I found my
audience through your secondary primary research much more helpful and factual, the secondary
research? research told me a lot about the generation as a whole, a majority
of 40-60 year olds fit into the category of “Generation X” I
carried out my secondary research on Gen X because from my
primary research I found out that I reached more 40-50 year olds
than 50-60 year olds and because Gen X are ages 40-55, this felt
the most beneficial to me.
How will this help you in adapting your This will be helpful when adapting my idea further because I
idea to meet the chosen audience? have allowed myself to deepen my knowledge within a
generation I was particularly unfamiliar with; deepening this
knowledge has allowed me to get a better understanding of their
watching habits and common likes and interests, as a filmmaker
this is helpful for many reasons. When creating for a target
audience that you personally don’t fit into, it can be very difficult
to produce something that they would enjoy, by researching into
their habits, traits and personalities a bit more, you can begin to
think about how to adapt your ideas and your style to match
something that the set audience would be interested in.
Obviously, this is extremely important because different
generations have clearly different watching habits and if aiming
for a set audience you need to look into this and match it,
otherwise your less likely to achieve within that audience.
How useful was interviewing people I found the interviewing process the most helpful. Two of my
from your chosen target audience? interviewees; Nik and Nicola Goodman gave
me such in depth and constructive feedback
from the questions I had asked them that I left
the interview feeling much more confident in
both my music video and my short film ideas.
Although only 2/5 of my interviews felt
comfortable with me recording their face, I still
had permission to record the audio for all 5. As all that
particularly mattered is being able to hear what is being said, this
wasn’t much of an issue for me personally, however, did make it
more difficult to edit. Making sure I picked people within the age
range of my target audience was extremely important as this was
an opportunity for me to have a sit down conversation with
someone aged 40-60 and have a genuine chat about what they
would like to see, rather than feeling more limited within a
survey, this allowed room for us both to express opinions more
freely.
Was it difficult to get a large response to Personally, I did struggle to get a large response to my survey. I
your survey? How could you improve ended up with 24 responses when the aim was 30-50. Although
the amount of respondents for your 24 was still helpful for me and gave me the information that I
needed to be able to understand what the target audience wanted,
FMP?
I think in order for me to improve on this and get more responses
for my FMP would be to send the survey out as early as possible
to allow for maximum time and people to see it, I also would ask
people to share the survey once they have completed it. This
ensures my survey would get the most coverage possible.
What have you found to be the key From my research, I found out that my target audience has a few
things that you should be targeting your key points that I need to make sure I include within my
audience with? What makes this production, this being.
audience different to the one you never  Thought provoking
 Dark but not explicitly violent
chose?
 Good use of colour

These key points would be quite the opposite (for the most part)
if I had picked the other target audience of 5-12-year olds.
Although it still would have been important for me to create
something thought provoking with a good use of colour, it would
have had to be done in the complete opposite tone to what I am
aiming to do with my target audience. Clearly the “not explicitly
violent” applies to the other target audience of 5-12 as well. For
my production with 40-60 year olds as my set target audience, I
have decided a darker narrative that gets you thinking more
psychologically with darker colours to suggest uncertainty and to
match the dark themes. If I were creating for the other target
audience of 5-12 I would pick a lot brighter colours and a happy
upbeat soundtrack to make the productions cheerful and light-
hearted.
Are you on track for the week? yes
What work needs to be completed in n/a
your own time?

Week 3 This week was spent researching codes and conventions

What genres have you chosen and why? For my two productions I have picked different genres. My short
film is a Thriller and my music video a coming of age/ drama.
 I chose these genres based on the feedback I
got last week from my focus groups and my
surveys, as well as the secondary research on
the chosen target audience. I think I picked the
genres very well as they both are quite broad
genres to go into and allow for a lot of
experimental room. Considering this is the final
bit of playing around we get to do before our FMP I am glad I
have chosen genres that’ll help me learn and expand my
knowledge into filmmaking and as well as leaning new things, if
my productions go well it could push me to do a similar genre for
my FMP.

What have you learnt from your I have learnt quite a bit from my primary research this week.
secondary research this week? Especially within the sound category. We analysed clips from
well know films and focused just on the sound from them. This
was eye opening to me because I hadn’t really thought about how
experimental you could be with sound until this, for example, I
had watched “A Quiet Place” in 2018 when it first came out and
had thoroughly enjoyed it, it wasn’t until this week when I sat
down to analyse it, that I realised how much of an impact sound
can make to a film. The way that John Krasinski wrote a deaf
character into the narrative then completely took this a whole
opportunity to play around with the sound is so admirable and
has opened my eyes completely. I didn’t know that it was
possible to make the audience feel quite as much from sound,
obviously music is very important in setting a tone whether that
be happy or sad, but the use of external sound and more
specifically where these sounds are and aren’t being used was
completely eye opening and quite possibly something I would be
willing to try in my FMP if I came up with a narrative to
accommodate it.
How will this influence what you include I have learnt what is necessary within the genre of my
in your productions? productions. Obviously, sound doesn’t play a part in my music
video however, locations will play a huge role in this. The way
that location in used in genres differ massively and it is important
to get this right in order to articulate your narrative in a music
video and film where no dialogue can do so. This has Influenced
my use of location for my productions massively and has put a
much clearer picture of the end result in my head, an example of
this would be that for my music video I am looking to include
comparison shots of a happy childhood with a much more
isolated adulthood; a perfect example of a location to use for this
would be a large open field, as a child this would represent
freedom but as an adult it shows how alone you are in a world so
big and I think it would be a perfect comparison shot for my
production in order to help tell the narrative.
What are the key conventions for your For a Thriller I would say that:
chosen genres? What MUST you include  Darker tones of lighting
for it to be that genre?  Times of absolute silence
 Confined spaces as a location
 Higher pitched sting sounds for music.

For a coming of age/drama music video

 Wide open locations
 Make it relatable
 Lighter tones of lighting (childhood)
 Darker tones for the drama parts
 These conventions will all play a part in
making sure my productions stick within their
genres. This is extremely important for both of
mine as essentially, they are both silent
productions. No dialogue to assist in either of
them, therefore it is critical to get this right.
Are you on track for the week? yes
What work needs to be completed in n/a
your own time?

Week 4 This week was spent researching codes and conventions

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?
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 This week was spent planning your productions

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 This week was spent filming

How did you find the filming process?

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 This week was spent filming

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
using turned out well?

Week 8 This week was spent editing

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 This week was spent editing

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?
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?
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 of your work?
What work needs to be completed
outside of lessons?

Week 10 This week you pitched

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?
Is there anything you would do
differently in your next pitch?