The document reviews Aidan Harrison's skills in researching, planning, and constructing a British gangster film opening. It discusses researching conventions and films in the genre, planning with a mind map, storyboards, and character profiles, and constructing with a scene script, filming techniques, and overcoming technical difficulties. While many aspects were helpful, the document identifies areas for improvement such as better documentation, more planning of costumes and locations, and increased focus on lighting, framing, and complex editing.

1. Skills review
Aidan Harrison

2. Research
• I looked at conventions of British gangster films to start with looking at films that were iconic
I found this helpful as I was focusing on the success in the genre. This was useful as it made
me remember the things that make up a British gangster film. By focusing on mise en scene
as a section this helped me in construction. This helped me with my analysing skills as well.
We then looked at who produce and distribute British gangster films so that we what types
of target audiences we should market to, this was helpful as it gave us a good understanding
on the genre overall. We then analysed 3 openings in detail by using a timeline, this was
really useful for construction as it made us focus on all the little things that happen in a short
amount of time, for example I noticed that snatch would keep all titles on for the same time
so I took this into consideration when making my opening. also looked into directors to gain
an understanding on certain styles or a take on the genre and took aspects of their style into
my own work in terms of narrative and visually. Looking into costume was useful but
something I need to remember to execute better in a2 as it could have made my opening a
lot more believable. Looking into which films were most profitable and successful was a
good thing to do as I then knew where to look for inspiration though that was a useful skill
to have developed. Looking at theorists allowed me to think of a whole narrative and get a
good understanding of the plot then I could decide how much I wanted to give away in the
opening. looking at previous as work was definitely worth doing as the bad ones stick in your
head and you remember not to make the same mistakes.

3. Planning
• My original mind map for planning was very useful without as I
narrowed down many important factors into a format that was easy to
refer to so I think this was a successful way of preparing and also it
helped my narrative. Planning my costume was good as it showed I had
a good understanding of the genre but some of the clothes weren't
accessible so I wasn’t able to use some so next year I need to plan with
what's available. Storyboarding was helpful when done in detail as you
can refer to it a lot in filming and even if its not every shot you can make
up the gaps, it was a good skill to develop as I never used to use
technical language when I storyboarded but doing that with shot types
was very helpful when filming. Going through the character profiles and
thinking about them in depth was good as we were then able to
understand them and construct the narrative around them. Some of the
locations were not ones that we used so it would have been good if I
updated those. But looking into my locations was worth doing but could
have thought more in depth about it. Planning my titles was very
important as those were the things I had planned to execute well, it also
allowed me to do it quickly when it came to construction as I already
learnt how to create them.

4. Construction
• I think documenting my construction was a thing I need to do better, we
started with showing people our initial screening and getting some
feedback but I didn’t put that on my blog so its things like that, that may
have helped me develop ideas and techniques. Doing a scene script was
useful as when it came to filming I was able to refer to it through out to
make sure everything was how I wanted it. I think giving my self more time
to do a draft scene would have been good as the scene wasn’t as good as I
had hoped when I wrote the draft. Documenting technical difficulties was
useful as I can now show that I overcame them and I now know how to
overcome them in the future. When filming I think I should have focused
more on lighting, props and framing as some of these things let down my
opening. experimenting with movements was good as it was new to me
but I would like to include more next year and maybe some more complex
things in editing. Looking at my final film I can see all the things I shouldn’t
do so even that will be helpful to look back on.