production diary

1. PRODUCTION DIARY
Millie Southall

2. Week 1 & 2
• This week we are starting the FMP. We are starting off by doing contextual research.
• I am studying Oren Peli, JamesWan and some paranormal trailers.These sorts of films were my
inspiration for creating my own paranormal film.
• So far I have written some slides on my practitioners, my own experiences and where I got the
ideas from. I got some advice to study the film “It follows” so I am not looking at the producer and
director of that film.
• I am doing my strengths and weaknesses table to help me visualise what I should focus on to make
my work the best it can be.The main issue for me is deadlines. I also think I can work on actually
learning how to use the camera that I own. During my research week I can look up tutorials on how
to use the camera itself to help me when it comes to production.
• I am starting my proposal today (26/02).The first deadline is on Monday (28/02) and that is for the
proposal and context work.
• I am a little confused by context work as I feel like the line is a little blurred between context and
research as I feel like they could be the same document rather than separate things.

3. Week 3
• This week I am starting my research. So far I have made a slide detailing all the research topics I
am going to go through. For my audience research I want to know what makes people want to
watch a film from a trailer. I am going to create a survey asking as many people as I can what
makes a film interesting from a trailer. I want to know how music effects the feeling of a trailer and
if jump scares make a film look more scary.
• I have created a survey today (03/03) and I have sent it out to my family and friends. I don’t have a
target audience other than people who enjoy horror films, so I have sent it to the biggest range of
people I can.
• I have researched films and posters and have learned all the conventions for trailers and posters
and will incorporate that into my final project.

4. Week 4
• This week I am continuing my research. I have gotten the results from my survey and now I am
making some question for an interview I will do over the weekend. I am going to try expand my
research on themes and topics of my work as much as possible because I am still unsure what sort
of style I am going for my film.
• I handed in my research today (14/03) and I got some feedback I am going to work on. I have been
told to make some sort of introductory slide to lay out what I am going to research so I am not just
jumping straight into it.
• I have also had some feedback from peers and I am now unsure weather I want to make it a trailer
or a short film, so I am going to talk to my tutors today (17/03) and see what their opinions are
based on my previous work.

5. Week 5-10
• This week I struggled to come into college so I tried to do all my work from home. I did work a lot
better sat home and managed to finish a lot of work, but I still have a lot of work to catch up on.
The main thing I need to fucus on for next week is problem solving. I need to actually get round to
doing experiments.
• For my problem solving experiments I am also going to use a trailer/2 trailers I have previously
made on a media AS level course and analyse them and what went well/what went wrong.
• In week 7, I am trying to catch up on all my work and do my planning at the same time. I need to
finish; experiments, problem solving and finish my improvements on the research power point.

6. Week 11
• This week I started Production Officially. OnThursday the 28th I started filming and I filmed this
scene that I planned.
• I was slightly behind with production compared to my schedule so had to film. I will be unable to
edit this until next week because I have not got premiere pro on my laptop but I will get it over the
weekend.
• So far I have managed to film some of the handheld footage and some of the footage in third
person.

7. Week 12
• I started off this week by taking some photos for my posters.
• I used a white background for my posters because this will make them easier to edit and change
the background of. I took a variety of different photos with different poses. It was difficult to get
good photos because my models struggled to keep serious whilst taking pictures. However after
some time, I managed to get some that I liked.
• I have started editing my photos into posters

8. Week 13
• I am having a bit of trouble with my footage so I am going to spend this weekend re-shooting
some of it. I am going to re-shoot the handheld bit but have a different actor do it or I might even
do it myself. I am doing this because I don’t have enough footage for my trailer but the actor I was
using is no longer available. I should have this done by next lesson and then next lesson I will be
able to complete my editing. For now I am going to make my other posters.

9. • I ended up re-filming a good proportion of my film. I reshot everything but with better lighting
after learning some new lighting skills. I learned that on premiere pro if you film in day time you
can easily make it seem like night time. After I had learned this, I went back and re did my footage
in better, clearer vision and then edited to make it seem like night time and it turned out a lot
better than it was originally.

10. Week 14 – EvaluationWeek 1
• This week I am starting my evaluation. I am tying in my evaluation with my last bit of production.
Because I had to re shoot some of my scenes, I am slightly behind on my production schedule but
that is fine because I think I am going to finish on track.The deadline is Monday the 6th and I think
from now I just need some dedicated editing time.To start my evaluation off, I have evaluated
everything preproduction so my context, research and planning. I am evaluating my production
work as I go along.
• One thing I am currently struggling with is my presentation. I am unsure how to present my work. I
have currently made an Instagram page for my film but that is all. I was going to make a snapchat
filter for my film but the software is really difficult to use. I really want to do some sort of filter or
augmented reality that involves the audience using their own devices and camera and bringing the
film to life. So far this is proving pretty hard to do.

11. Week 15 – EvaluationWeek 2
• This morning I decided I needed to finish my production work fully and I finished the majority of it
when my premiere pro decided to crash.This is not good because I had around 2 hours of
dedicated production time towards my project which was all to waste.
• I managed to finish my production and I also did another experiments to add to my problem
solving because I felt like my problem solving was really letting mw down, I think I have improved
it a lot and I think it is better now I have done a tutorial and a video experiment.
• It is not the last day before submission and I only have the last few slides of the evaluation to
finish. I think I am going to finish with time left, I definitely should not have left it this late to finish
but I am happy I have everything handed in on time and I have managed to hit the deadline. I also
need to upload my presentation work.
• I am happy to have finished everything, it has been a long process but overall I am very happy with
the final outcome of my work. I have had lots of ups and downs but it has all paid off.