L3 CMPT Final Major Project
WEEKLY REFLECTIONS
This is where you think about your FMP learning journey and development.
Dont simply describe what you did - consider what you have learnt and how this has benefitted your project.
Week 1 / 2
How has writing a concept / proposal
helped you with finalising your idea?
How did the feedback help you adapt
your idea what did you change after
feedback?
How has the research for your target
audience helped you understand your
production more fully?
How did your primary research help
you?
How has researching the conventions
of your chosen genre helped you
understand what is required from you
in order to meet a distinction grade?
How has including a variety of
sources (primary and secondary)
helped with your understanding of
your medium / genre?
High Grade Tips
Reflective Entries
This week you worked on your initial ideas and started your FMP
concept
Writing the concept/ proposal for my final project has made it
easier for me to lay out my plan and structure for my
production. Writing out my concept for my short film has
made me more confident now that I have finalised my
production and sorted out what I now to do for pre-
production.
The feedback given helped me expand in detail my concept
and pre-production information. I have written more detail
about the narrative of my short film and what elements of
different genres I want to include. I also added in information
about the target audience I want my film to focus on and
why.
This week you worked on your initial ideas and started your FMP
Research
Now that I have researched into my target audience I have a
clear idea what type of audience that I will be aiming for. This
will help shape my short film to be more suitable and attract a
younger audience.
My primary audience helped me the most. In my primary research
survey, I told the participants the general concept of my film then
asked them relevant questions. This was very helpful as it helped
knowing that they knew the idea. I got ideas on how plot could be
changed to fit my audience.
I know now that researching the convention of a thriller/coming of age film
that i need to include certain themes in order to make my short film
successful. I compared similar films of the same genre and studied what
makes them successful and known for their genre this has helped me
massively.
The primary research has helped me more specifically with my film, I
have managed from my primary research to find out my specific target
audience and what people would like to see in my short film (number of
characters, types of location etc.). My secondary research has helped me
in my creative side, I have been able to get inspiration from the films and
genres that I have researched. By looking at successful films in the
thriller/coming of age genre I individually looked at mise en scene,
lighting, plot and characters and figured how I can create a similar vibe to
my short film.
Research
Thorough research - include plenty of sources and detailed analysis of this information
relevant & coherent make sure your research sources are not just the same as the Media product you
hope to make - and talk about how they inform your planning
sustained continue your research throughout the eleven-week project and dont just limit it to the first
two weeks
accomplished & considered all of the above referred to in your daily/weekly reflections

Week 2 / 3 This week you will start your planning

What did you learn from your From my research I found of locations in which I can potentially film in, I
research? also researched the types of platforms and films that could inspire me for
my production. I also researched legal and ethical issues and filming
techniques.

How will this be useful to your
planning?
It was very useful in researching locations, this was because I needed to
find a location which was close and accessible to all of my actors and one
that suits the style of my film. This worked out well and I was able to find
three locations that I could potentially use, and one with a shelter in case
it rains throughout majority of my filming days. It was also usually to
research the different types of platforms. I think it is good to see what kind
of video sharing websites I can possible upload of my short in and which
one I should go with based on previous target audience research. It was
also important that I look into the legal and ethical issues when creating
my production. It was very important to look into ratings as my film is a
thriller and contains some strong language and blood. It was also helpful
to know the risks myself and my actors could come across while filming
so I can take precautions and make all my filming crew safe when
shooting starts.

What sources of information did you
look at that were different from your
proposed project
I studied the film stand by me which is a coming of age film, I also studied
the film se7en which Is a thriller. I researched se7en to study the
conventions of a thriller and how to make the audience feel on edge.
However I studied a coming of age film to understand their narrative
structure, character development and coming of age narrative
conventions in which I want to replicate in my own production.

What did you learn from your planning I researched the film se7en and learnt how they build up tension with the
this week use of low lighting and background music. The use of having minimum
sources of lighting made the viewer focus on the characters and make the
situation appear more dramatic. Studying stand by me, a well-known
coming of age film really helped me understand the general conventions
of a coming of age narrative. For example in the film they use innocent
relatable conversations between the groups of friends which contrasts
between the scenes of arguments later on showing character
development throughout the film. They also use soft lighting in some of
the shots and this is change in some of the more thrilling on edge scenes.
I will be using these small techniques that I have noticed in the films to
make my film have the same effect on the audience as both of the films. I
aim for my film to have the thrill and the tension of the thriller I have
studied and the narrative and character development of a coming of age
film.

What issues did you encounter and I found it difficult to find a practical location for my shoot. On the first day
how did you over come them? of shooting we had discovered that my location was too far to travel to
and had wasted valuable daylight filming time. Despite this I did have 4
other filming days planned so I had used the second day to find a different
 location which was a lot closer and had provided shelter from the rain
which was another previous issue. I also found it difficult to find the right
age rating for my film as researching it I had realised how specific the
ratings were to each film. Although after looking at my script and
comparing my films to other films I got an understanding of what the
rating of my film would be.

High Grade Tips

Planning & Production

effective planning, organisation your FMP Workbook will explain what you need to do in the next few
weeks to make sure all of your planning is completed, and also how this will help you
efficient production against timescales your FMP Proposal will clearly identify how you intend to
create your project before the deadline in May
commitment & subject engagement all of the above referred to in your daily/weekly reflections

Week 3 This week was the start of your production process

What practical work have you done
this week - and how helpful was your
earlier planning
I have started to physically film parts of my film. My planning has been
very helpful. I have used my planning to figure out the days that all my
actors are available and this has helped me plan out what specific scenes
and locations I will be filming on each day. I have also used the script and
this has saved me a lot of time during the shoot as I already has dialog
written out for the actors to say.

How will this be useful to you as your
production process continues
All my pre-production will be very useful to me. As the weather is due to
be rainy and unsuitable later in the week i know that as I have already
planned out alternative days that this should not be an issue. I already
know the locations and the availability of my actors so this saves me a lot
of time and should make the physically filming part of my film go a lot
more quickly.

Upload and pictures you have taken N/A

What issues did you encounter and
how did you over come them?
I had a few issues during my filming of my production. On the first day of
shooting we had arrived too late to the location, due to this it started to get
dark very early and the filming lights were not strong enough to provide
good lighting to film. Despite this I knew I had prepared 4 other alternative
days to film, I had used that day to film the ending scenes of my film in
order to make the best of the situation as these scenes were in the dark
anyway. In one of the last filming days one of my actors could not make
the last shoot, although I did have other spare actors I had already filmed
half of my film with this particular actor. Due to this I decided to change
part of the story
plot and made it so that character was busy and had to leave. Although
the character had to leave throughout the story I tried to make it look as
natural as possible and believe that it did not make too much of a
difference to the narrative. In order to make the narrative make sense I
ended up switching the two characters, I believe in the end it worked out
well and even made it easier to film.

High Grade Tips

Practical Skills & Presentation

 Considered and capable demonstration of processes very detailed documentation of your
production process - such as still images, and annotated Screenshots of your specific production and
editing process including what and why, not just how
skills and knowledge used to develop alternative ideas evidence of different ideas developed for
more than one version of your Media product

Week 4 This week was the second week of your practical production

What did you learn in your sessions
this week
I learned how to fit in filming a whole 6 minute film and edit in a week. I
had to also learn how to use professional filming lighting, I had never
used filming lights and found it slightly difficult at first to get the correct
lighting. Despite this I did slowly get the hang of it and learned how to
replicate the same lighting in each shot which is a useful skill to have
gained.

Have you tried anything new this
week - if so, was it a success
I had tried using both a professional filming microphone and filming lights.
These were both a massive success and it dramatically change the
quality of my short film. The microphone was very important as I was
filming outside and needed all the dialog to be clear and loud. Due to
filming a lot of scenes in the dark the lights made it possible to do so
without it being completely dark, it helped me gain the vibe and look that I
wanted.

What feedback did you find most My teacher had told me to fade the music in better and to edit some of the
useful verbal or written background noises in some of my clips.

How will this be useful to you as your It is useful as I will be doing some last minute editing on my short film to
production process comes to a make sure that I can make the sound as professional as possible, and get
conclusion as much hissing background noise out to make it more clear.

What issues did you encounter and
how did you over come them?
In some of my scenes I had accidently forgotten to turn on the
microphone which I had not realised until I had finished filming everything.
As it was a part in which one of my character was dying I had decided
that it was too important to just cut out, and the film would not make any
sense. With no more time to re-film, I looked up suitable music which
would work well with the film, I then used this over my film and think it was
very successful as many people did not realise that I originally planned to
have dialog.

High Grade Tips

Practical Skills & Presentation

Considered and capable demonstration of processes very detailed, annotated Screenshots of your
specific production and editing process including what and why, not just how
skills and knowledge used to develop alternative ideas evidence of different ideas developed, and
more than one version of your Media product

Week 5 This week was your finishing off week - for both your edits an
written work

What feedback did you find most I found verbal feedback a lot more useful this was because I think it was
useful verbal or written easier for my teachers to physically show me parts of my work in which I
can improve in comparison to reading feedback.
What did you learn in your sessions I learned how to edit together my film, I had used premier pro. I learned
this week how to add in titles, correct sound, correct lighting, use a wide screen
boarder, and add in background music.

How has this helped you meet your The use of editing of background music helped me reach my targets and
targets - see FMP Workbook brief. I had aimed to create an intense film which would keep the
audience on edge and the use of using music and quick shots has helped
me reach his goal.

How helpful did you find the pitch From doing the pitch I found it very helpful as I got loads of feedback from
what feedback did you get? my peers. The majority of my feedback was positive people said my idea
was unique and has a clearly thought out story line the use of having
teenage actors is effective.

How did your peer feedback help It has helped me understand what about my film has impressed them,
and what I should work on. This will help me in further projects, for
example people liked that I used teenage characters and clothing and
dialog as this is relatable to my target audience.

What issues did you encounter and
how did you over come them?
I had issues with my mic not turn on in which I resolved by putting music
over it. In some of the shots that I had filme in the dark the filming lights
did not come up as bright as I had thought it did, this left the shots looking
too dark. However, I did colour correct them as much as I could during the
editing to make these shots appear more clear however from this I have
learnt to make the lights brighter in my next production.

High Grade Tips

Evaluation & Reflection

reasoned decisions and inform the development of ideas both your evaluation and the weekly
reflections above will clearly show both how and why your ideas developed throughout the project
demonstrating clarity in thinking all of the above plus very clear links between your research,
planning, idea development and the production of your poster and film trailer