Technical Skills development

The task was to film a short film about somebody receiving bad news, and to include different types of shots in it. I played the lead in this short film, and I also did a lot of the editing. The end result turned out okay although it was a bit shorter than we had planned. I have learnt that it is very important to film masters shots.

The task was to record a small convosation from a script, one of the read throughs my role was to read one of the charactors lines, and the second read through I was in control of the boom mic. The end results were okay although the levels of audio weren't stable, sometimes they were really quiet and others thye were too loud. I leanrt a lot of this task, for example, i learnt how to properly hold a boom mic to record the best possible sound. Also the importance of recording somewhere that isn't too windy, in the audio we recorded the wind is very stong, which ruined some parts of the audio.

The task was to get different shots using different kinds of lighting. My main role on the task was being the subject of the pictures that were being taken. The end result was good, a lot of the pictures showcase different types of lighting really well, but a few of them are out of focus. I have learnt that there are a lot of ways to creatively light a set to make it look really unique. I also learnt about the impact of using jells on lights.

 

Guide to preparing material for editing

First off you must use a local login instead of a network login, this means you'll only be able to access the files you create on this computer on this computer. This is important to do when editing video because the files will be large and won't be able to transfer over the network smoothly.

You will find the SD card slot on the back of most macs, once the SD card is inserted it will appear on the desktop. highlight all the files you want and drag them over to where you want to place them. Before doing this you should make a folder for your project, under the movies folder would be sensible.

With in this folder you should make other folders, one for the video, one for audio and one for graphics that you might create, your actual Premiere file should also e saved in this folder. You should drag and drop all of your video files into the video folder and all the sound you recorded into the audio folder.

 Once this is done if you just right click on the SD card and click eject the card will be ejected safely.

It's important to make sure the project is set up correctly before you start this. Make sure you set the file to save in the correct place, this is very important for file organisation to make sure you keep all of your files together. It's also important to make sure all of the scratch disks are set to the right locations, this makes sure that everything save to the right folder.

If you right click on the bin section in the bottom right hand corner of the screen there will be a drop down menu, click import and select all of the files you need to import. It's important to make bins to put all of the footage into, and to make sure that the bins mirror the folders in the project folder. If they're not it could get confusing. I also have a folder for music, which is where I imported my music into, it is very important to make sure the music you use in royalty free, it would be illegal if not, or if the source isn't credited properly, a good website for music to use in projects is incompetech, this website has many free to use songs, as long as you credit the website.

Under the footage bin I separated into days of shooting just to make it a little bit easier to navigate and find files that I need, although this isn't necessary, it does make it easier to locate things.

To create a title click file go to new and scroll down and click legacy title. a box will pop up for you to create and edit a title.

Video first cut

Research portfolio (research dossier for research unit)

Primary research

Create your own user feedback survey

This is a questionnaire I created to my the advert unit to gather feedback to see if my advert appealed to my target audience, this is also a good example of primary research because I'm gathering information directly from part of my target audience. Instead of gathering information from other sources. This makes it more reliable because I know exactly where it came from. 

YouTube. 2019. BTEC 3MW 'Where do you stand?'.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNM2sV0lVKo [accessed 29th Janaury 2020]. This is a short documentary that I made about teenage pregnancies and abortion, I think it's a good example of primary research because it's directly gathering peoples opinions and takes on the subject matter

Secondary research

I used this power point to pitch my idea on how to re brand a Unilever product.

This PowerPoint is a good example of secondary research because all the information came from external sources, I spent a lot checking all of the information is correct and i also linked all of the sources I used which is a must when conducting secondary research. For example I had to research Barb figures to decide when my advert should be broadcast, I also had to look at the BCAP code to make sure the advert wasn't going to break any rules.

BARB. 2020. Weekly top programs. https://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/four-screen-dashboard/. [accessed 27th March 2020]
Broadcast code. 2020. Broadcast code. https://www.asa.org.uk/codes-and-rulings/advertising-codes/broadcast-code.html [accessed 27th March]
https://robbiechilderhousetvblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/product-advert-analysis.html

This analysis of an advert is also a good example of secondary research because it has a lot of information in I've gathered from various sources. I made sure all of these sources were valid and correct.

Quantitative research

Create your own user feedback survey

Most of these questions are quantitative questions, this means that the results will be numerical, so they can be put into graphs, chart etc.

This is an example of a graph which is from my advert evaluation. Which helped me see what age people were who were seeing the advert.

Qualitative

This is qualitative research, it's research that can't be put into graphs, but its much more in depth than quantitative research.

These are some responses to a question on my questionnaire for my advert project. This helped me see more specificity who my target audience are.

single Camera production essay

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is all about Charles Foster Kane's life from different peoples perspectives. Such as his second wife, Susan Alexander, and people involved in his work life (running a newspaper) such as Jim W. Getty. Who was Kane's main rival.

The story is set after Kane's death and follows a journalist who's trying to find out what Kane's last words meant which were 'rosebud'. He does this by interviewing several people involved with him. At the end it's revealed that rosebud was the name of the sled he had when he was a child, it's never said why that was his last word, it's left up to the imagination, many believe it represents that the only time he was truly happy was when he was a child, showing that money and fame hasn't made him happy.


I really like this shot/scene because the way it's shot is very ahead of it's time and stylistic. This is one of the first scenes in the movie so it sets up a good tone and feeling for the rest of the movie.




-YouTube. Last words scene (1/10)Z Movieclips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFSjHBVx-xk [accessed 8th January 2020]


I also like the scene where it's revealed what rosebud means. It was Charles Foster Kane's sled when he was young. I really like this shot because it's never explicitly said what it means, it's up to interpretation.

-BFi. 20 inspired visual moments in Citizen Kane. https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/20-inspired-visual-moments-citizen-kane [accessed 10th January 2020]




I also like the scene where Susan Alexander leaves Kane for good, I think this is a good representation of Kane never being able to be truly happy, this was the last straw the pushed him over the edge.

- Youtube. Citizen Kane - Room Trashing Scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFT083GhycM [accessed 10th January 2020]






I really liked this unique technique they used for the film, where all the ceilings on all the sets were made out of a cloth called muslin, so they could put lights and microphones in the ceiling for clearer audio and more impressive lighting.

-Twitter. Radley Mason. https://twitter.com/RadleyMason/status/885831255845027841 [accessed 14th January 2020]

This is a very impressive shot because it's actually 2 bits of films layered on top of each other, this was done to achieve the lighting the was it is, there's a divide between the two characters on screen. They also needed to use two bits of film to be able to get the man in the background, this wouldn't be possible with just one shot.

-BFI. 20 inspired visual moments in Citizen Kane. https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/20-inspired-visual-moments-citizen-kane [accessed 14th January 2020]



This is a very impressive shot because it was a combination of a drawing and real film, the stage is all real and the crowd is a drawing, the production team poked holes through the picture ans shined lights threw it, this was to make it seem like the crowd was moving, I really like this shot because they were doing something very ahead of their time.

BFI. 20 inspired visual moments in Citizen Kane. https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/20-inspired-visual-moments-citizen-kane [accessed 15th January]

Research Dossier (screenwriting unit)

It can be very difficult for younger, less experienced writers to get into the industry, there are a range of competitions that are accessible, in one country or internationally, that give young writers opportunities, some examples of these are:

BAFTA Rocliffe Competition

They have different competitions for different genres that run throughout the year, for example, Drama, comedy, writing for children etc. The competitions are only open people who live in the UK. all entries receive feedback. Although the entry fee is £42.
BAFTA. 2020. BAFTA Rocliffe Ne Writing Competiton. http://www.bafta.org/supporting-talent/rocliffe. [accessed 3rd April 2020]

Channel 4 Screenwriting Competition

This contest is run by channel 4, 12 writers will get an idea of how the TV industry works. The prize is to develop your script with a professional script editor. After developing your script Channel 4 may option it for 6 months, this contest is free to enter.
BBC. 2019. Channel 4 Screenwriting Course 2019. https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunities/channel-4-screenwriting-course. [accessed 3rd April 2020}

The Script Room

The Script Room takes in unsolicited scripts from the public. It isn't really a competition, it's a way for the BBC to discover new talent. They're not looking for a specific genre, they're just looking for original scripts. Submission are open in December and January to the public. They're not looking for any kind of adaptations, they want purely original scripts, they're much more likely to get produced.
thescriptroom. 2020. Welcome to the Script Room. https://thescriptroom.com/ . [accessed 3rd April 2020]


This is a short example script of different terminology often used.

There are many different places you could find inspiration, there aren't any limits, for example many movies and TV shows take inspiration from news and real events, for example, actual events from the Normandy beach landing in world war 2 was referenced to make Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg. 1998). IMDb. 1998. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120815/. [accessed 3rd April 2020]

Games are also another avenue that have inspired many films, for example, it's clear that Sucker Punch (Snyder, 2011) was inspired by action games, although nothing specific, the imagery looks heavy inspired by over the top action games. IMDb. 2011. Sucker                 Punch. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0978764/. [accessed 3rd April 2020]

 Life experiences also heavily influence films, it would be hard to not have your life impact a project at all. For example, Boyhood (Linklater, 2014) was a retelling of the life of the director, the whole film was influenced by their life. IMDb. 2014. Boyhood. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1065073/. [accessed 3rd April 2020]

Also paintings have influenced a lot of film makers before, for example, this painting by Edward Hopper influenced the classic Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960). Dusty old thing. 2020. The Fascinating Story Of The House Behind The Bates' Mansion In Hitchcock's 1960 Classic. https://dustyoldthing.com/hopper-house-hitchcock-psycho/. [Acceseed 3rd April 2020]

There are many different types of primary sources that can be used to gather information about an idea for a script, for example, you could conduct a survey about what people think about your idea, if your survey consists of yes/no or 1-10 questions you'll gather a lot of quantitative data which is very good for analysing and putting into graphs and charts, although this is very limiting and doesn't really show peoples opinions on your idea. If you ask more opinionated questions (this is called qualitative data) you'll get more opinions which could be useful, but you wouldn't be able to see this data in graph or charts.

Taking pictures is also a good primary source because you can visualise where scenes could possibly take place. This could possibly be extremely helpful in describing to people your idea.

Making a mood board is also a good way to visualise what you want the project to look like, this method is useful because it doesn't take much time but could generate a lot of ideas and inspiration.

I will take pictures of potential shooting locations, this will help me visualise what the finished project will look like. This is good because I can decide where I'd like to shoot my short film.

I will also give people surveys to fill out to see if they would potentially like my idea, the themes and ideas included. This would be good because it allows me to see generally what the public think about my idea.

There are many different types of secondary sources for example, reviews on other films, reading these could be useful because they could give you an idea of what to do, things to avoid and generally what the public like and dislike.

Watching similar films to your idea is a good source of secondary research, this is a good way to gather ideas and figure out what you actually want to happen in the project, although it is very important to not copy and films, or other peoples ideas, this would be plagiarism and against the law.

reading books that are similar to your idea could also be a helpful form of secondary research, because they could give you new ideas of things to include in your own idea, although, the same goes for when you're watching a film, you can't completely just make the same thing.

I will watch similar films to my idea for inspiration, and to see how the pacing is (although with my idea being a short film the pacing would have to be different). This would also help me seeing all the different styles and themes used in similar films.

I will also research different reviews for films like these, this will help me see what these films did right and what they did wrong. When doing this it is very important to look at multiple reviews because some websites may have a biased opinion on them.

The advantages of primary are that, it is very trust-able because you conducted it yourself so you know exactly where it came from, this can't be said for secondary sources, they most likely are true, but there's a chance it's completely fake. Although it is much easier to gather secondary sources, it is also much quicker. Primary research takes much longer to gather because you have to go and conduct it yourself, which is usually very time consuming.

The bit of information that has been most useful to me has been the box office figures and budgets for the movies that are similar to mine, this is because they showed me that these kind of movie can be very profitable and successful. A good website for this is imdb.com it has a lot of box office information available.

 I haven't disregarded any information I've found, it's all been useful to me and has helped me develop my idea. I thin disregarding facts could possibly have a negative impact on the finished product. If you're disregarding something just so you don't have to take something into account it could have a negative impact.







I'm mainly managing all the information I've found using cloud storage, this has worked really well for me because it's easy to access any of it where I am I don't have to carry a USB drive with the files on. I've got all the research in one folder on my one drive account. I also have a PowerPoint I used for my pitch which contains a lot of the information that I've found.