This document contains weekly reflections from a student on the production of their 60-second short film. In the first week, the student conducted research on similar short films to gain inspiration and brainstormed ideas. They decided on the idea of portraying the passage of time using a clock or watch. In the second week, the student did further research and created a survey to collect audience feedback. They found the survey useful but other films about time were not as relevant. In the third week, the student completed pre-production planning including storyboards. They found the storyboards and structure breakdown helpful. In the fourth week, the student began filming using stop-motion animation and their friends as actors. The stop-motion came together well
2. This proforma is to record how you worked on your production
You should complete this each week during production
Consider all relevant areas that you covered that week
Think about what worked/what didn’t work/how you can improve
and actions for the following sessions/weeks
3. During this week I started the planning for my short film production, my production
has to be 60 seconds long and must include the line “that wasn't supposed to
happen”, a watch or a clock and no dialogue. I started doing research on short films
that were 60 seconds long to gain inspiration and have an understanding of editing
techniques, shots and narratives used to see how a full story is fitted into 60
seconds. I also brainstormed ideas that I could use for my own productions, I made
mind maps and mood boards to help me narrow down my ideas into a final idea. In
the end after all my research and brainstorming I came up with the idea to make the
narrative of my production about time since I had to include a clock or watch and my
idea was very outside the box and unique compared to my classmates ideas. The
things that worked for me when doing this was getting inspiration from my research
as one of the short films I watched greatly inspired me to make my production about
the passage of time and an ageing character, when doing this the things that didn’t
work for me were the mood boards and mind maps as they didn't help me gain much
extra inspiration or ideas for my production. I could improve by making my mind map
more in depth and I will plan to conduct thorough research throughout planning of my
production.
4. This week I continued to do research for my production. I researched big budget
Hollywood films about time to find out what type of approach they had to portraying
the change of time and what box office and critical success these genres of films
gained, I also researched about the BBFC age ratings and decided a age rating for
my own production, I also looked at production techniques such as camera shots,
sound and editing. During this week I also made a survey on survey monkey to
conduct some primary research about my audience, this was very useful for me as it
showed me what my audiences film preferences are meaning I know what to include
in my production to appeal to my audience an I also found out my audiences
opinions on my production idea. Collecting this primary and secondary research was
very vital to my production as it allowed me find out the do’s and don'ts when
creating my short film and it gave me some insight into current products which also
helped me gain inspiration. During this week the things that worked for me were
making the survey and collecting results as they gave me valuable research
information, another thing that went well for me was looking at production techniques
as it gave me inspiration and insight into things like camera shots, editing, sound.
The things that didn’t work for me were looking at other big budget films about time
as none of them followed the same theme as my production and couldn’t be related
that well, I can improve my actions for the following sessions/weeks by continuing
with thorough research throughout my planning production.
5. This week I finished my research PowerPoint and started with my pre production
PowerPoint in which I planned the my production of my short film, I planned the
story, made a structural breakdown, visual planning, concept boards, shot list, story
board, production group info, cast info, location information, risk assessment,
contingency planning, production schedule, call sheets, Resources, costume,
props, consumables, diegetic sound and non diegetic sound. This allowed me to
have a thorough planning guide for my short film which will greatly benefit me when
filming my production. When doing this the things that worked were the story board
and structural breakdown because they allowed me to actually clearly plan out my
production, however the things that didn’t work for me was the concept board as
this gave me no further inspiration and was very hard to differ from my mood board.
I can improve my actions for the following sessions/weeks by thinking of more shots
types and scenes to be added into my production.
6. During this week I finished my pre production planning and got onto filming, I filmed
at my house using a DSLR camera and a tripod I took various shots of one scene to
make sure that it was to my liking and I took multiple photos of a picture album being
filled up with photos to create a stop motion animation, I also did the same with a
calendar to show the dates passing by. I did this at my house with my girlfriend and
my mum as my actors during the evening so I wasn’t able to use a lot of natural or
high key lighting like I hoped. I enjoyed filming this task because I got to see my
production come together, when doing this task the things that worked was the stop
motion animation as it came together quite well. I can improve my actions for the
following sessions/weeks by editing my final piece together fluidly with the stop
motion animation.
7. This week I started editing my production in adobe premiere, when doing
this I cut out all the audio recorded from the clips and found royalty free
sounds and music to go over the picture. I also edited all the pictures I
took into my production as a stop motion animastop motion animation,
and separated the animation with a time-lapse of a watch and more stop
motion of a calendar dates being crossed off. When doing all of this I
also used transition effects as a way to give the film a bit more of an
authentic feel and making it clear for the audience to know what's going
on and to make the audio come into the scenes smoother. When doing
this task the things that worked well for me was the stop motion
animation and the audio editing and sound effects, if I were to do this
task again id change the location of the character either in the beginning
scene or end scene as the location was the same in each shot showing
the characters making it a bit cinfusing to the audience what has
occurred.
Editor's Notes
Discuss the tools and processes used in your production. Log your thoughts and feelings about your work.
Discuss the tools and processes used in your production. Log your thoughts and feelings about your work.
Discuss the tools and processes used in your production. Log your thoughts and feelings about your work.
Discuss the tools and processes used in your production. Log your thoughts and feelings about your work.
Discuss the tools and processes used in your production. Log your thoughts and feelings about your work.