3. Research
The research helped my product because I was able to have a great watch of other peoples
projects that I wanted mine to have some similarities to and what style I wanted my film to
be. This enabled me to work more efficiently and take inspiration and ideas from other
short films about knife crime.
A specific existing product that I took inspiration from was a short film called Amani, a
strength that this video gave to my product was the extreme sense of reality I got from it, I
wanted my video to be as realistic as possible to have more of an impact on my audience
like I had with Amani, a weakness from this short film was that it was filmed and edited by
professionals, I was unable to reach up to its limit when it came to filming and editing.
My research also helped me with my short film by helping me come up with my ideas by
researching the different topics on knife crime, I was able to educate myself on people
personal experiences with knives and this helped me create my characters, these short
films and documentary's I watched showed the realism of the effects that knives bring to
young people especially, this was important for my film because it focuses on a teenager
who is struggling with the same situations other people struggle with.
The things that my research did not help me with was how most of the short films and
documentary's felt the same, all of the examples that I had researched all had a similar style
and because of this is was hard to come up with my own unique style for my product,
eventually I developed my own style was happy with but it did take a lot of editing and
time.
4. Planning
The planning helped me create my product because I was able to plan every step I was
going to take whilst I was filming and editing my short film, this helped me not to take too
long doing each step I needed to do. It did take me some time to get it the way I wanted it
to be, even though it did take me over a month to finish I am glad I managed to get it in
before the deadline.
My planning also was helpful because I was able to find out facts and statistics about knife
crime that I never knew before, this helped me create my characters personality's and how
they act around people.
The weaknesses of my planning was I think I spent too long on planning this film and I could
have potentially gotten more filming done with the time I was given if I hadn’t spent too
long on it.
The first step of planning was researching facts about knife crime and reading other peoples
stories, this did not take me too long as I was already quite educated on knife crime. But it
was good to learn new facts and statistics that I didn’t already know. I also planned my
storyboard and script, this was the most important stage in my opinion because without
these I would have struggled a lot making my film, the storyboard allowed me to plan out
all of the scenes I was going to film and so I could prepare for them quicker by getting the
equipment ready and so that the actors could practise their acting.
I also had to plan my schedule which tells me which scenes I am feeling on what days, this
was fairly short to plan as I already knew what days I would be free to film.
5. Time Management
My time management has improved drastically, I have managed to get all my work
handed in and completed on time, I am very happy of how I have worked on this
project and I hope to keep working in the same way. I can definitely still improve
my time management in some areas by speeding up with my work and getting my
PowerPoints done on time without rushing them and avoid any possible
distractions that can disrupt the quality of my work.
The time management with my planning took the most time to do, I had to plan
my story, my script, the actors and even where I was filming. The planning helped
me come up with ideas for my short film by watching other creators content. For
my production experiments, the planning for my experiments were quick and
didn’t take too long, I only wanted to experiment for a short time so I had more
time with my production.
The schedule was easy to plan as I knew what I needed to do, this did not take me
a while to plan out.
Overall If I had more time to produce, plan and experiment with my short film I
would have filmed more scenes, I am extremely happy with how it came out but I
feel if I had a little more time to work on it I could have made it even better by
improving my editing and adding extra scenes.
6. Technical Qualities
My short film “LIVING ON THE EDGE” is quite similar to another knife crime concept called “AMANI” they both
follow a teenager who has struggles with a gang, they both ended up in trouble because of it and now they
want to make a change. Eventually both their troubles catch up with them and they face the consequences, the
main character in my adaptation had stolen some money from the gang leader, whereas in Amani he had
robbed a bike off a gang members little brother a few years back. The differences they both have is the editing
style, AMANI went for a uplifting beginning to a dramatic climax showing everything the audience needed to
know, I decided to let the audience make up their own mind on what the character had done and how the
altercation started.
The software I used called FINAL CUT PRO allowed me to make this short film as good as it was. The technical
processors inside final cut pro let me add sound effects, background music, and visual effects to my film, I used
a colour grading software called Mlut, this software gave my short film a dark look to it similar to the look
Amani gave another similarity is the well filmed shots in both films, My camera captured really great shots, the
camera I used is the Canon 700D.
7. Aesthetic Qualities
I think my short film that I had created does look good, it is formal, neatly edited, not over the top
and strictly professional, I do think that my short film was creative because as a group we were
researching and discussing all the possible facts about knife crime that we could use in this film. This
helped us to make this film have more of an impact on peoples emotions when watching. The main
aspect of the film that I enjoyed was how intense the build up from the beginning to the climax was.
it felt it started off calm but also chilling at the same time but getting to the ending it got more and
more insensitive, I also like that it is a disturbing yet interesting topic to talk about, knife crime does
interest people and to create a short film about something so common nowadays it is good to make
people aware that carrying knives is bad.
The visual style my short film has produced is not pleasing for the audience, my film includes
numerous dark scenes, the entire dialogue is serious and isn’t meant to be humorous in anyway
shape of form. The colour that the scenes have adopted is a mix of black and grey, the reason for this
is because I did not it to be bright and ambient, the outfits have the same colours, the background is
mostly dim and boring and also the colour grading of my scenes I applied during the editing process.
The only thing I do not like about my short film is that I think the ending was rushed, I should have
done this scene within 2 days and not just tried to get it done as soon as possible, I think this
happened because it was the final week of filming and I also had to edit it all a few days before the
deadline so I can check if I'm happy with it.
Overall I think my short film does adapt the same style and visual styles as Amani, both characters
are from a similar background of troubled teenage years. However, the stories are completely
different, Amani did not bring it up on himself to carry a knife, My character did.
8. Audience Appeal
I have appealed to my target audience by showing the truth on what can happen
if a person decides to carry a knife with and without the thought of using it, I
showed that if you carry a weapon you are more likely to get hurt by your own
rather than another persons weapon. I have also focused on the responses I got
from my survey to make people interested in my film and can relate to it on a
personal level, I have shown that this happens almost everyday to young people
all around the country and that something needs to change about it.
My target audience is males ages 16-21, I will appeal to this group by involving
items that are popular with this age group, such as trendy clothes, popular music
and slang. Another reason why it would appeal to this demographic age group is
because people this age are more culturally engaged with knife crime and I think
watching this film could shift their viewpoints across.
I do feel like I have achieved my audience appeal because of all of the feedback I
have received from it, I have shown people within this age group and they really
enjoyed it, they also said they didn’t realise it could have been so dangerous.
What were the strengths of your research? How did your research help your product?
What were the weaknesses of your research? What could you have done better/improve? What effect would this have had on your product?
What were the strengths of your planning? How did your planning help your product?
What were the weaknesses of your planning? What could you have done better/improve? What effect would this have had on your product?
Did you manage your time well? Did you complete your project on time or would your products have improved with additional time?
What would you have done if you had more time to produce your work?
Compare your work to similar existing products and discuss the similarities and differences
Put your final piece(s) in the centre of a page alongside an existing product
Use text boxes and arrows
Does your work look good? Was it creative? What aspects of your game’s visuals do you like? What would you improve? How would you improve it?
Discuss the strengths and weaknesses
Put your final piece(s) in the centre of a page and analyse them
Use text boxes and arrows
How have you appealed to your target audience? What specific bits of content would appeal to your target audience.
Refer to your findings from your questionnaire.
Put your final piece(s) in the centre of a page and analyse them
Use text boxes and arrows
What changes would you make to your product based upon your peer feedback and why?