17/03/17

1:

For my first week I have been planning and creating my proposal. This is the first week of thinking and planning about my FMP. I have already come up with a few ideas that I think could work but I need to expand on these ideas for it to become an actual story. I need to think about my idea in detail for it to be a realistic base for it to be produced. I need to achieve this by researching the difficulties of my ideas and how they can work, by book or the internet. For example I have an idea for my film to end with my character on top of a really high hill that overlooks the peaks, but I need to know if this exists and if it’s possible. In my proposal I noted down what skills I feel I have achieved and it helped me to think back over what I have covered and what units I enjoyed, and what turned out well rather than others. For example sound didn’t turn out the best as I felt creating my title sequence turned out a lot better. I find it more enjoyable filming (cinematographer) than recording sound (sound designer). Writing a draft of my idea really helped me to think of more ideas along the way of the process. It helped me to think of different shots and what films I could be inspired by. I feel OK so far but I am struggling with piecing my story together as I am not sure on how to make it work, but I’m sure I somehow will.

24/03/17

2:

For this week I have been finishing my proposal as I keep adding on to the different boxes as I am slowly brainstorming. But I feel I can start my pitch as well now as I am almost complete with my pitch. I aimed to have a colour palette in my pitch so people would understand the running colour theme through my piece. I learned that from creating my own colour palette it’s not that easy as there are a lot of discrete colours that are hard to see. But I did find creating my own colour palette successful. I also thought it would be useful to incorporate a few songs in my pitch, so people could get a sense of what kind of rhythm I would like to have. I have also properly started to look at adventure film festival websites like SHAFF. I have been looking at websites like SHAFF because I wanted to have a variety of adventure films that inspired me, like Life On The Fells. I think it’s good to have films that inspire you because you need to have inspiration from somewhere. By the end of this week I also completed my skills audit, action plan, pitch and proposal. I don’t feel too confident with my idea as I feel I haven’t had enough time really, to actually think and put together a whole story. I hope my pitch turns out well and how I am going to present it as I am quite nervous.

31/03/17

3:

For this week I have thought of the aim/story behind my film as it needs a purpose to be created. I have been talking to my tutor Jack and he helped me think of the aim and why it should be made. This has helped me to structure my story even more because my film didn’t really have a purpose so it wouldn’t have made much sense and would have been unimportant. This week I also presented my pitch and I don’t think it went that well. I don’t think it went that well because I wasn’t that confident when presenting it and I don’t think I went into detail enough. In the end my idea wasn’t picked which i’m not too bothered about as I feel my idea wasn’t enough to become an actual film. I got chosen as the cinematographer in Georgia’s group and I’m really happy that I’ve been chosen as that role. I enjoy capturing shots and it will also help me to expand on my knowledge. Later in the week we had the first team meeting where Georgia explained her idea in full detail, with how me and Alex are going to perform our roles in the way she would like. I feel this went well as I am confident of what my role is and how I can start researching already.

7/04/17

4:

For this week I have started my research. Looking at what to research really helped me to see how important a cinematographer is, I aim to work hard in my role as I am aiming to reach my full potential. Having the team meeting already started me off on my research as Georgia gave me a few things to look into. My director spoke to me about the films that inspired her like Submarine. So I looked into the cinematographer of the film and what he felt about the film. Georgia was inspired by the shots and colour grading so I looked into the running theme with the colour and some interesting factors, like how each character had a specific colour that resembled them. I also looked at The Life On The Fells as it’s another film my director is inspired by. She likes the idea of it being a documentary by following each characters story. To help with my research I have spoken to my tutors and director about what exactly to research, so I now have a full list of what I have to research. Also I had a few meetings with my team so I have a full understanding of my task and what the film is about and what it aims to be. Having these meetings has really helped me to get a good mind set of determination to make myself happy and my director happy. I feel a lot more confident now I have spoken to my tutors and director about my research as I felt un-confident before.

2 weeks off:

28/04/17

5:

After coming back after the holidays I have completed most of my research but do still have a few more points to look into, but it won’t take all week. My aim this week is to complete all my research and start planning. Good thing about the planning is that my director has given the group each a planning role, so we all know what we’re doing together. I find it really helpful that each individual person has a piece of planning to do because then together we are covering all grounds and it’s less time consuming for us all. I have had a chat with my Tutor Lee about my research and if I covered all grounds and if it’s all needed. I also spoke with my director about if it was all necessary and useful. I found this to be helpful as I wanted my research to be valuable for our film and not a waste of time. On the 4th of May next week it will be our practice shoot which I am looking forward to as I can test out all the research I have completed. For example I need to test out tracking shots, but I think I am going to test that out in college as well before hand so I know how to set it up and use it properly. I feel good about this week as I have completed all my research and started with the planning, I am happy with the time position I am at with my work.

5/05/17

6:

This week was kind of stressful as it was the week of the practice shoot and I didn’t feel organised enough as me and my director needed to discuss what shots needed to be practiced and how they were going to be done. But for a lesson we worked together on creating a miniature storyboard of what shots can be done in the certain locations my director had researched. I found it really useful that my director had researched the certain locations she wants as I can then picture what shots might look like and how they might turn out. Going on the practice shoot really helped as we found some shots didn’t work like we visually thought they would. For example, we wanted a shot of an over shoulder pan like turn to reveal Alex’s face looking into the sky using a shoulderig. But it didn’t work at all because I couldn’t move swiftly enough using the shoulderig around her, as it wasn’t a flat surface and the angle was too complicated. So in the end we scrapped that idea. Location wise Padley Gorge was great as we found the perfect spot for Alex’s scene as it was in front of the river. For my scene we had to change locations because we originally planned to go to Mam Tor for the fell runner scene but the location was really far to walk which made it time consuming and complicated. So all three of us ended up exploring Castleton and found the Secret Valley called Cave Dale, which turned out to be ideal for the fell runner scene. I am really happy we found Cave Dale because it’s a really nice spot and it’s quiet. I feel the practice shoot went really well as we worked the complications out. To end the week, because we now knew our locations for definite, I created both risk assessments and both call sheets.

12/05/17

7:

For this week it already started off stressful as we had to create most planning sheets Monday and finish them off Tuesday. Because all three of us had a lot going on with other pieces of work, we didn’t have a lot of time together to do the planning like the storyboard that needed to be done together. So Monday afternoon me and Georgia sat down together and created the storyboard, she has already completed the AV script and shot list so all I had to do was draw the storyboard out as she told me how she wanted it. That day I also created the prop and equipment list so we were covered for knowing what needed to be brought. Tuesday I typed up the storyboard and printed it off, but I did have some complications with putting it in the google drive. But Georgia helped me with this. The first day of shooting I find went successful as we managed to film two parts of the story in one day which did take a lot of time and effort but in the end it came out well. However because it was a nice sunny day there was a lot of families with their children around so we did have to keep stopping now and then as people walked into our shots. But I am really happy that we got a lot done that day as it was tiring and stressful at times. On Thursday the weather was a bit mixed, as it was sunny but very windy. However again I think it went really well as we filmed everything we needed to film and even more. We were originally told that the Drone was broken and wasn’t usable, however on that day Mark Lincoln turned up with the drone working so we even got drone shots which we originally didn’t think would be possible. I found that day to be extremely tiring as I had to run a lot but it was worth it in the end. To finish the week off I have gone through shots with my director to see how they turned out and what was use-able, and from watching various clips I believe our film is going to look really good.

19/05/17

8:

This week has been a lot less stressful and calmer as I have been going over my work and making sure I have everything I need. On Monday I went over my bibliography making sure It had everything I had used for my work like the websites and books. This made me happy as I had got it up to date and made sure it was all done, which relieved me a lot. On Tuesday I made a plan of everything that I needed to do before starting my research, so I could tick off everything I have done so far. This helped me to see what I needed to do and what I had already finished. I then went onto uploading the rest of my planning documents but didn’t get too far. My director had created a shared file with all the PDF’s of the storyboards so I could use them online, but they had been saved upside down and I can’t find a way to make them the right way up, so I think I’m just going to have to upload them upside down. I had Wednesday off as it was a teacher training day and there was nothing I could do without my director, as she had already made plans because none of the tutors actually told us we could go in that day to do extra work. To finish the week off me and my director did colour grading to the final cut of the film. She had the idea that for each person’s sequence it would be a different tone of colour and I found this to really work. For the first person’s sequence we added a cold tone of blue to give it that fell runner feeling. Then for the second person’s sequence we added a warm goldish/yellow tone that was subtle but you could see what tone it was. Then for the last person’s sequence we added a cool green tone that looked really nice and it fitted really well with the sequence. To make this work we applied cross dissolve for the colour grading to slowly change into the other colour so it wasn’t like a block. I quite enjoyed this week as it wasn’t hectic like last week, and I feel I’m up to date with most of my work.

26/05/17

9:

I have found this week to be quite stressful as I felt pushed and pressured with time. It’s my own fault as I had forgot that I had to go back on some pieces of work and go over them. For example my proposal needed a go over as it had quite a few grammar errors. Also my tutor Mark gave me some feedback which gave me some work to do but it stressed me out as I thought I would struggle with getting it down in time, but I did do it. I had some difficulties with the feedback he had given me as I couldn’t remember how to turn some planning documents into PDF’s but I received help and accomplished this. The most stressful day for me was Tuesday as me and my sound designer were finishing off some sounds but our director was ill so we were stuck with what to do as the directors opinion is the most important. But the next day our director was better and listened to the sounds we did and helped us complete the rest so she could be there to listen. This week I have just felt really pushed for work and time as I thought I had almost completed nearly everything but I found I had quite a bit to do. So I thought it would be useful to make another list of all the remaining work and feedback I had been give to complete/re-do. This helped me to make a schedule of what to do and when to do it, it made me feel a lot more prepared. In the week off before deadline week I plan to complete everything that needs to be done before I can start my evaluation. Also in the week off me and my group are going into college for a day to complete sound editing as there’s just one or two things to finish off, which won’t take long. I am looking forward to deadline week so I can see everyone’s work and see how they performed, so I can take feedback on myself and understand how to be better.