A great deal of research and planning went into making my two successful media products over the course of my A Level: at AS I made a two-minute film opening from the horror genre inspired by ‘scream the Netflix series’ and at A2 I made a short film in the social realism genre inspired by ken loach and together with two ancillary tasks: a magazine review page and a film poster. I feel the depth of my research and planning benefitted my final products greatly, especially at A2 where I could plan to avoid some of the issues I came across at AS.
At AS I did a preliminary task, which was vital as, although I had used a digital video camera, I had not learnt about specific shot types or storyboarded a video project. My class worked with a professional camera operator for a session to learn about how best to operate the camera, to pan, do a ‘hollywood cut’ and avoid ‘dead space’. The 180 degree rule was also complicated to master and took quite a few re-takes. It was only when I was actually filming that I realised how it is vital to prepare a shot-by-shot storyboard rather than rough instructions such as ‘actor opens door’ and how long the shot should be held to ensure I followed the rules of continuity editing. This also made me aware of the need for attention to detail such as continuing the take after action ends to have enough filming to cut correctly. I learnt from then on to storyboard with many more shots and accurate timings.
For my research, I watched lots of film/series openings and analysed them very closely. I completed a nine-frame analysis of Scream the Netflix series because it contained several shots that I wanted to replicate, such as the point of view shot from the killer outside the house. Furthermore at A2 I watched lots of short films on YouTube and on the website shortoftheweek.com. I also watched student short films to research how they achieved success on a low budget. These became easier to relate my filming technique to as I had limited actors, equipment and time.
Research into sound was also vital. I listened to the types of music and sound effects used on many horror films. Often this is copyrighted music, which presented a problem because the brief forbids the use of this. That meant I had to be creative in my search, listening to hours of copyright-free tracks on freeplaymusic.com, however unable to find something accurate enough to represent the theme of my film, I recorded my own music then edited it in iMovie and the focus group I played it too, said it was authentic and fitted the theme of my film very well. However furthermore at A2 I was able to research more into the different sound tracks I needed to use to fill my full short movie and acquired my music from freeplaymusic.com and merge certain bits of music together.
Location planning was key to my AS task because I was getting my actor to come to my house at a specific time of night so it was dark, therefore she had to stay. I had to work out when she had a free weekend so my crew could to get to the location at the right time and on the right day. Filming in my house proved more difficult than expected. The room also had big glass doors which I knew I had to ensure the crew was never visible in the reflections. Instead, I used the reflection of the darkness in the window to hide myself whilst filming looking like there was nothing in the window. This creative use of the surroundings actually helped create verisimilitude and ultimately improved my film opening. Additionally, I filmed quite a few shots outside, where I had no control over the weather and although it was windy, the sound of the wind became an external sound to my tension.
However, at A2, I was aware of the need to plan in more detail and ideally be in better control of my environment. Therefore I decided to get all my outside filming done on one day and I checked the availability of my actors in plenty of time. As she was a school student she only had the weekend and after school, therefore I knew for daylight I needed a weekend. So I organised for us to film on a Sunday as she had dance on a Saturday so I had daylight for my set. However I also chose a relative’s house for the interior shots and used my local sport centre for their studio, for the rest of the shots, which was convenient for my actors and enabled me to spend time setting up my shots and revisiting the location.
At AS I only had to research film conventions; however, at A2 I was using both film and two other media – magazines and film posters. As well as extensively researching similar products and conventions, I looked into the best software to use for these tasks. I found that both Photoshop and InDesign were excellent tools that are also used as industry standard. To be prepared for these tasks, I created a mock magazine review and film poster using that software. I had never used either before, but found I picked up the skills quickly through experimenting.
I used Blogger to record all my research and planning. At both AS and A2 I labelled my posts to organise my blog and help me refer back to key posts during production. Although I posted all my research into similar products, my storyboard, risk assessments and costume, set lists, etc at AS, I was still able to raise my game at A2 by doing twice as many posts and blogging in much more depth. For example, I analysed the whole of a short film rather than just nine shots, which gave me a much better picture of the variety I needed in my own project.
In conclusion, my extensive research and planning contributed hugely to the success of both my AS and A2 production outcomes. The use of storyboarding, shot by shot analysis and location planning were necessary in producing effective and aesthetically pleasing portfolios.
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