Blog:
Friday 11th March 2022
-This week I have established my idea
-I know what my next steps are
Friday 11th March 2022
- Ideas development - how clear are you on form, theme, visual style, narrative, characters?
- Research - what have you been researching, how has that been useful? What sort of audience research are you going to do and how will this help you develop your ideas? What do you need to research next?
- How can you apply audience theory to your project?
-This week I have established my idea
-I know what my next steps are
Blog:
Friday 17th March 2022
Friday 17th March 2022
- What have you done this week on your final project?
- What problems have you encountered this week? How will your chosen solutions impact on the final product?
- Research: what have you found out this week, and how will this inform your pitch?
- What have you got left to do in order to be ready for you pitch?
Blog:
Friday 25th March 2022
Over the last few days I have completed my pitch for my final project. I think it went well as I said everything that needed to be said however some people didn't seem to fully understand it so I must've not made myself clear enough. My pitch was useful as it helped me to identify a few things such as questions that I am going to answer and the audience research that I need to do. My idea has adapted in terms of more the technical side of things rather than the actual storyline as when analysing some films I became more aware of the filming styles and wanted to replicate this more in my story.
Friday 25th March 2022
Over the last few days I have completed my pitch for my final project. I think it went well as I said everything that needed to be said however some people didn't seem to fully understand it so I must've not made myself clear enough. My pitch was useful as it helped me to identify a few things such as questions that I am going to answer and the audience research that I need to do. My idea has adapted in terms of more the technical side of things rather than the actual storyline as when analysing some films I became more aware of the filming styles and wanted to replicate this more in my story.
- What further research or development have you done in the past few days? How has this been useful? What do you still need to research?
- How have you adapted your idea in response to feedback from your pitch, or in response to your research? What difference will this make to the finished piece?
- If you have started to carry out practical experiments, how have those helped you shape your idea? Which techniques will you use again/develop further? What else could you try?
- What other problems have you encountered this week and how could you resolve them? Weigh up the various options....
- Check your schedule. Are you on track? If not, what do you need to do to catch up? What are the priorities for next week?
Blog:
Tuesday 29th March 2022
Today we looked at the marketing side of things for our final projects. Ideas for marketing and promotional ideas included
Tuesday 29th March 2022
Today we looked at the marketing side of things for our final projects. Ideas for marketing and promotional ideas included
- behind the scenes
- thumbnails
- trailers
- posters
- word of mouth
- Tiktoks (all social media platforms)
Blog:
Friday 1st April 2022
Since the last updated blog I have completed all of my filming and have begun the editing process. the filming went really smooth because
Friday 1st April 2022
Since the last updated blog I have completed all of my filming and have begun the editing process. the filming went really smooth because
Blog:
Friday 29th April 2022
Friday 29th April 2022
Looking at my footage, I would rate it:
*More generally, remember to reflect on:
- technical quality (framing, shot composition) 8/10
- camera techniques 7/10
- lighting 5/10
- suitability of location 10/10
- other mise-en-scene considerations eg props & costume 8/10
- whether you had planned sequences effectively 6-8/10
- whether you need to re-shoot/shoot pick ups 8/10 (pick up is only needed due to sudden lack of availability)
- what you have learned or what could help improve your next shoot?
*More generally, remember to reflect on:
- ongoing research, planning and development (what have you done, how has this shaped your project, how can you use it in the future?)
- problem solving (problems encountered, potential solutions, impact of these on final project)
- whether you can evidence reasoned and coherent decision making
- target audience - have you tested or could you test with a focus group? If not now, when & how do you plan to do this?
Evaluation:
My project was to make a short film influenced and styled around the theme of ‘social realism’. I wanted to begin this process by taking a simple idea and developing it over time to create an overall final piece of high quality.
I started the research for my piece by looking at the ‘hot’ topics that were in the news at the time.
A certain theme that was prevalent in the news at the time was ‘spiking’.
Although not a new phenomenon, when people think of ‘spiking’, usually they associate it with an intoxicating substance being covertly ‘slipped’ into somebody's drink without their knowledge and (usually) a female being the victim and a male being the perpetrator.
This is where my idea of a story about ‘spiking’ came from but, as I researched more and more it seemed to be that a new phase of spiking was being highlighted on news.
This involved injecting the intoxicating substance through the use of a hypodermic needle stabbed straight into an unsuspecting victim rather than the traditional ‘tampered’ drink.
This straight away ‘spiked’ an interest for me as it was what you would count as ‘unusual’ and my mind started filling with ideas on what I could do.
One idea was to have a male spike a female in a nightclub/bar setting.
This was quickly ruled out as being able to gain access to those kinds of locations and filling them with enough random people to make it look ‘natural’. This would not have been feasible within the time frame and lack of budget that I had for the project.
I also realised that I would struggle to find a venue willing to allow me access to their buildings as ‘Spiking’ as a topic is not something that a place would want to be associated with.
My research then carried on with trying to find more examples of people being spiked so that I could find out more of the technicalities of the issue such as:-
How long did it take them to notice that they had been a victim?
How quickly did the substance become effective once administered?
How did it affect people?
When talking to siblings and cousins within my large family group it soon became apparent that although there is a somewhat equal ratio of genders, no females had been spiked however 4 males had!
This then got me thinking about putting a completely different ‘spin’ on the perceived issue and instead having a ‘female’ spike a ‘male’.
Taking these factors into consideration, this had created a rough outline to my story which had to be developed from there. The outline was that a female was going to literally ‘spike’ a male using a hypodermic needle, whilst avoiding clubs and bars as the location.
Extra research, such as interviewing a family member who had received the same substance (Rohypnol) during a legitimate medical procedure, helped me understand the effects and speed of action of the drugs used and helped create the accurate final product.
During the development process, I focused on establishing what the aims of the product were to be.
The first aim was to ‘examine the representation of gender roles in a horror’, which I achieved though creating a female character who at the start the audience may assume will be the ‘victim’ unaware of how dangerous she actually is.
There is then the contrast as her character changes from ‘potential victim’ at the start, to ‘actual perpetrator’ as the film progresses.
Another one of my aims was ‘to use the color theory in my costumes to symbolize deeper meanings and context’.
As red is associated with danger, I dressed my actress in a red top, red skirt, with a red bag and coat.
I wanted to try just ‘hint’ towards the audience with this color that she wasn’t necessarily good from the start.
I believe I achieved this as the outfit and accessories worked well together creating a subtle hint to her potential danger and even having a red bag hinting towards carrying something dangerous in the final look. It isn't until you think about what is in the bag that you realize there is more depth to her styling and the colour choice.
My final aim was to ‘Use the style of social realism within the theme of a horror/thriller to generate a tone of actuality throughout’.
This aim of doing a social realism piece was set after I had enjoyed covering it previously in a project (homelessness), this time I wanted to mix it up by adding an element of Thriller / Horror.
I wanted the piece to create a steady tension which I achieved from the opening right through to the ‘twist’ at the end. This tension was even maintained with the final title being displayed in an ominous blood red typeface on a black background whilst still retaining ‘Social Realism’ as my overall theme, all depicted in my film could easily happen in ‘real’ life.
After evaluation from peers, if I did this piece again, I would bring in more close up shots to some of the scenes such as a close up of the hand putting the syringe back into the bag after the attack or even a close up of the poison being drawn up into the syringe at the beginning.
I improved the technical quality of my film over previous projects with a high-quality look. I achieved this by using a better-quality camera with a motion cancelling gimble and also took advantage of the bright ambient street lighting and natural conditions in Chippenham town centre by filming on clear and dry nights.
Whilst improving on previous projects in the technical qualities I still retained the character-based momentum of the story.
In conclusion my story and shots are very character based which is one of the reasons the film has worked as well as I wanted.
I tried to focus on the characters rather than effects as if you have anything too ‘over the top’ then it takes away from the character profile that comes with a social realism piece.
My project was to make a short film influenced and styled around the theme of ‘social realism’. I wanted to begin this process by taking a simple idea and developing it over time to create an overall final piece of high quality.
I started the research for my piece by looking at the ‘hot’ topics that were in the news at the time.
A certain theme that was prevalent in the news at the time was ‘spiking’.
Although not a new phenomenon, when people think of ‘spiking’, usually they associate it with an intoxicating substance being covertly ‘slipped’ into somebody's drink without their knowledge and (usually) a female being the victim and a male being the perpetrator.
This is where my idea of a story about ‘spiking’ came from but, as I researched more and more it seemed to be that a new phase of spiking was being highlighted on news.
This involved injecting the intoxicating substance through the use of a hypodermic needle stabbed straight into an unsuspecting victim rather than the traditional ‘tampered’ drink.
This straight away ‘spiked’ an interest for me as it was what you would count as ‘unusual’ and my mind started filling with ideas on what I could do.
One idea was to have a male spike a female in a nightclub/bar setting.
This was quickly ruled out as being able to gain access to those kinds of locations and filling them with enough random people to make it look ‘natural’. This would not have been feasible within the time frame and lack of budget that I had for the project.
I also realised that I would struggle to find a venue willing to allow me access to their buildings as ‘Spiking’ as a topic is not something that a place would want to be associated with.
My research then carried on with trying to find more examples of people being spiked so that I could find out more of the technicalities of the issue such as:-
How long did it take them to notice that they had been a victim?
How quickly did the substance become effective once administered?
How did it affect people?
When talking to siblings and cousins within my large family group it soon became apparent that although there is a somewhat equal ratio of genders, no females had been spiked however 4 males had!
This then got me thinking about putting a completely different ‘spin’ on the perceived issue and instead having a ‘female’ spike a ‘male’.
Taking these factors into consideration, this had created a rough outline to my story which had to be developed from there. The outline was that a female was going to literally ‘spike’ a male using a hypodermic needle, whilst avoiding clubs and bars as the location.
Extra research, such as interviewing a family member who had received the same substance (Rohypnol) during a legitimate medical procedure, helped me understand the effects and speed of action of the drugs used and helped create the accurate final product.
During the development process, I focused on establishing what the aims of the product were to be.
The first aim was to ‘examine the representation of gender roles in a horror’, which I achieved though creating a female character who at the start the audience may assume will be the ‘victim’ unaware of how dangerous she actually is.
There is then the contrast as her character changes from ‘potential victim’ at the start, to ‘actual perpetrator’ as the film progresses.
Another one of my aims was ‘to use the color theory in my costumes to symbolize deeper meanings and context’.
As red is associated with danger, I dressed my actress in a red top, red skirt, with a red bag and coat.
I wanted to try just ‘hint’ towards the audience with this color that she wasn’t necessarily good from the start.
I believe I achieved this as the outfit and accessories worked well together creating a subtle hint to her potential danger and even having a red bag hinting towards carrying something dangerous in the final look. It isn't until you think about what is in the bag that you realize there is more depth to her styling and the colour choice.
My final aim was to ‘Use the style of social realism within the theme of a horror/thriller to generate a tone of actuality throughout’.
This aim of doing a social realism piece was set after I had enjoyed covering it previously in a project (homelessness), this time I wanted to mix it up by adding an element of Thriller / Horror.
I wanted the piece to create a steady tension which I achieved from the opening right through to the ‘twist’ at the end. This tension was even maintained with the final title being displayed in an ominous blood red typeface on a black background whilst still retaining ‘Social Realism’ as my overall theme, all depicted in my film could easily happen in ‘real’ life.
After evaluation from peers, if I did this piece again, I would bring in more close up shots to some of the scenes such as a close up of the hand putting the syringe back into the bag after the attack or even a close up of the poison being drawn up into the syringe at the beginning.
I improved the technical quality of my film over previous projects with a high-quality look. I achieved this by using a better-quality camera with a motion cancelling gimble and also took advantage of the bright ambient street lighting and natural conditions in Chippenham town centre by filming on clear and dry nights.
Whilst improving on previous projects in the technical qualities I still retained the character-based momentum of the story.
In conclusion my story and shots are very character based which is one of the reasons the film has worked as well as I wanted.
I tried to focus on the characters rather than effects as if you have anything too ‘over the top’ then it takes away from the character profile that comes with a social realism piece.
I confirm that the work on this website is all my own and does not include any work completed by anyone other then myself, except where clearly stated otherwise, and that sources have been appropriately referenced.