Research and Planning the Moving Image Work

Chee Lau

Product researchWe started off the year by researching into short films that were of a similar genre to what we wanted to create in our own short films. I started browsing through short films with good ratings as they would be the ones produced at a high quality and there could be things that I could draw into my own film. The three films I looked at were ‘Orange Drive’ by Mark Lester, ‘Beast’ by Troels Faber and ‘Plastic Bag’ by Ramin Bahrani, although these short films weren’t of the comedy genre which I ended up using there were strong features of each film which I learned from and it helped me create my own short film. As I didn’t find short films that I would link together to my short film through comedy I looked at full length ones such as ‘Superbad’, ‘Project X’ and ‘American Pie’.

I can definitely say that my research skills have improved in every aspect, throughout the 2 years I’ve learned to watch films in a different aspect, appreciating and understanding features that the director has chosen to use. From this I have been able to label and pick out specific techniques that I like and would want to use in my own work. I think that my analysis of written media has also improved, I’m able to understand and draw from work that I have seen, this had led to my own work being of a higher quality through my analysis. An example of my progression would be firstly learning simple camera shots and their effect, then seeing how they can be used at different lengths or angles and what they portray.

Audience researchFirstly when me and my group came up with the idea of creating a short film revolving around three teenage students throwing a party it didn’t take me long to realise that people of my age would be the target audience for my short film, that was a no-brainer. We felt that the people we were targeting would be able to relate to our film through having similar experiences in their life, it might also give them an insight into someone's life they might have no understood before. Through research we found out that the comedy genre is an obvious choice that is enjoyed by people of our age, we saw this through the success of films such as ‘Superbad’. We collected some feedback from our peers when we pitched our treatment to them, we received positive feedback when we explained the idea of making a comedy with the use of song lyrics, they also advised us on areas that we could change such as not using songs for speech throughout the whole film.

Logistics planningMy group and I planned everything well, we came to the agreement that we would do weekly meetings to keep up to date on everything that has been completed and what needs to be done in the next week and so forth. We talked outside of college by using an app called Skype to talk to each other, we messaged the actors through this, sent them all the details of when we would be filming, where the location was and how to get there etc. When it came to filming the storyboard and script were helpful as we could tick off each scene as we done them, the actors knew exactly what would be next and everything was done in time, another convenience was that the actors were all friends so it was easy to keep in contact with them, a few times we had changed the schedule of filming and they were able to come with short notice, this wouldn’t have been possible if we didn’t know the actors as well.

In comparison to last year I felt it was harder to keep everything managed for the filming because I had more people to manage and make sure they would be on set though they were friends which made it slightly easier. When we needed to take photos for the first year magazine it was easy to organise because we just needed to get a camera and book the studio and we were set. Overall I think I have become more organised through learning from mistakes coming from the first year, I was able to avoid them before they appeared this year.

Evaluate your storyboard and script

We created the storyboard and the script at the same time as this was essential for the type of film we were making, we decided it would be easier to plan out each scene and then find the songs that were necessary to fit and make it work. We split the work between us by one person drawing the storyboard, we all looked back on each scene afterwards to make sure it was suitable as well, as for the script we all had some input on it, we all had to look for songs that would fit each scene, they had to be relevant and recent songs so the audience would be able to recognise the songs. We had a lot of problems, firstly with people not always completing their end of the work which meant other members of the group had to pick up the slack, when filming we also found out that songs didn’t fit a scene when it came to acting them out, we had to find replacement songs and also scrap some scenes overall.

In comparison to last year I think that when it came to planning the schedule of how we would complete the work we rushed it and didn’t complete it to a good standard of what we were expecting therefore I wasn’t happy with the final piece of work.

Evaluate your own and your groups time management

For this year I think my time management was a better level in comparison to the first year, I was able to use my experience in leadership to know what needed to be done and if I had to do it if others didn’t complete it. I think the schedule that we were given at the start of the year also helped me keep track of time and work at the same time, I was able to keep up to date which was the focus of the year. As for my group I would say they were at an acceptable level, at times we were behind on our storyboard because people didn’t complete their share of work which then affected us all, we had to then meet on Skype outside of college to get the work done.

Comparing to last year my time management was much better, for both years I had been team leader, not out of choice, I made sure my group knew what had to be done this year so we didn’t fall behind if possible, this meant we were able to have more time to be creative when designing out work because we didn’t have to worry about just finishing it at a lower level than we would have liked. In my first year the group organisation was easy because it was just two people in my group, the other person was organised which also helped so I would say time management was equal for both years.

How well have you presented your research and planning?

I believe that I have presented my work in a much higher standard in comparison to last year, my planning has been done at a higher level as I have the knowledge coming from last year, I knew what mistakes would crop up and how to avoid them. I am able to present my progress throughout the second year through blogger which makes it so much easier to keep track of my work and my groups, I am also using other creative technologies such as Prezi, Slideshare and Spiderscribe to present my work, I didn’t feel confident in using them last year so my presentation of work is definitely at a higher level in comparison to last year.