Developmental Diary
Tom Haase
Research
Day 1
• Today was the first day of my Final Major Project, and I started by conducting some
background research. I researched (using different types of sources, such as websites,
books and journals) different graphic design theories, designers, their work, their
approaches to work and their beliefs, which gave me and will give me more understanding
about producing graphic design products and how professional designers produce work to
make it look and be professional.
• I think I will need to produce more background research to obtain a good understanding of
all the aspects in the graphic design industry at the moment, although I believe today I
have produced a good amount of work in the time I had.
• To improve this work I could discuss in more detail how I can use these theories and beliefs
from existing products and designers to benefit my products I will make, as these aspects
of graphic design will make my products appear to be more professional and appealing to
my audience.
Day 2
• Today I worked on my Proposal. In my Proposal I talked about my previous work I have
created throughout my time on this course and how these courses have helped me
reach to the point I am at now (the FMP). I mentioned the last project I worked on that
was similar to what I will be creating for my FMP (a film cover), which were album
covers and advertisement posters. I discussed how these projects will help me in my
FMP and the skills/experiences I now have the knowledge of as a result of these
previous work productions. This section of the proposal was helpful because it made
me realise the skills I already know and how I can use them in my FMP, to improve my
products.
• The next part of my Proposal consisted of my project concept, where I discussed what I
will be making and how I will go about doing this. I talked about what research I will
conduct and what planning I will conduct and how these will help me with creating my
products and their final outcomes. This was useful to show others my thoughts and
ideas so far on my FMP, as it was displayed clearly. However, later in the project, I may
decide to conduct more research or planning than I have discussed in my Proposal, as
these are my initial ideas for my project, meaning they are not final but they are a
strong starting point.
• After my project concept, I discussed how I was going to evaluate my work, where I
explained the on-going and final self-reflections I will conduct on my work. This will
help me to see if I need to improve on anything within my project, for example I may
need to work harder or change certain aspects of my research as it doesn’t help me.
• I haven’t finished my Proposal and will need to do so tomorrow, by creating a
bibliography and production schedule.
Day 3
• Today I carried on with my Proposal, as I wanted to finish this before continuing with my background research. Yesterday I
had finished the explanation and display of my work and the process I would take to fulfil my plans, so today I finished my
Proposal by developing a bibliography and a production schedule.
• I started my bibliography by referencing different sources, from books to websites, to videos, to get a variety of source types
I will/have/may use in my FMP. This was a useful and effective way to display my sources to others, to show where I will and
have gathered my information from. I tried to choose reliable sources, which is why I chose a variety of different types,
however I may not use all the sources I may need to double check some information these sources provide using other
sources to see if the information is correct.
• I created a production schedule my the 3 weeks of production I have. I assigned specific tasks to certain days, which will help
me keep on track with my production and will allow me to see if I am too far behind or I have more time to spend on the
topic I’m currently working on. Making this production schedule also made me think of all the aspects of planning and pre-
production etc. I need to conduct before production, therefore during pre-production I don’t need to think of what to
discuss, as I have already planned it.
• With my proposal I am happy with what I have produced and I believe I have included everything I need to benefit me during
my FMP, however an improvement I will need to make it removing some information from a section in the Proposal as I have
written a lot more than the accepted amount.
Day 4
• Today was the start of the week, so I started the next section of my FMP, which was research.
• First I created a survey on ‘SurveyMonkey’, where I asked questions to determine my target audience
and also to get my potential audience’s views/thoughts on my initial ideas and what I could produce
(identifying focal points etc.). This is only the first day of the survey being released, therefore I didn’t
collect any responses, however I attempted to spread my survey everywhere I could. I used many ways
to reach my survey to people, for example I E-mailed it to people on my course, I posted it on my social
medias, posted it on survey responses websites and I simply asked people.
• I am very pleased with the survey I created because I believe it will help me greatly in understanding my
audiences and their preferences involving my products and their aspects.
• I believe I have created my survey to a good standard to obtain knowledge about my audience and have
posted it around enough to get a large number of responses, therefore, at the moment, I can’t find
room for improvement.
Day 5
• Today I collected some more responses for my survey and started analysing existing products that are similar
to my product ideas.
• Today I only analysed some film covers, as I am going to analyse 4 (most likely) and then analyse advertisement
posters and merchandise. I have planned out which products I am going to analyse and have already and the
products I have chosen are all horror film related. The main products are from The Conjuring 2, Insidious and
Friday the 13th. I have chosen these because they interest me the most and the imagery is aesthetically
pleasing on the products, which is what I am aiming for in my products.
• I am happy with this research I am conducting because I believe it will be beneficial to my work, as I will
understand what professional products there already is and how they are presented, therefore I can use
certain aspects of these professional products to make my product look more professional and appeal to my
target audience more.
• I need to carry on with these existing product analyses because the more products I analyse, allows me to
understand how products look/are professional better. This will allow me to make my product as appealing as
possible to my audience.
• I believe I haven’t analysed enough products today and will need to work harder tomorrow to analyse more, to
make sure I don’t fall behind on my schedule. However, on the other hand, I have planned the research I am
going to conduct, therefore I won’t be spending anymore time deciding on what to write about, and will just
write what I need to.
• Finally I believe that I have planned and conducted enough to allow me to achieve a good grade, and the only
way I can improve (to my knowledge at the moment) is by completing more analyses tomorrow than I did
today.
Day 6
• Today I carried on with my existing product research (as I have a lot to research) and although I stated
yesterday that I wanted to complete more research than I did on that day, I believe I have not done this,
to I standard I want, therefore I am not very pleased with how much work I have completed, although
the detail of the work I have complete pleases me. On the other hand I haven't had a lot of time to
complete my work today, compared to the amount of time I had yesterday, meaning I will need to
complete some additional work outside of college.
• It was only today I thought to discuss context in my existing product research, therefore I spent all my
time on researching and discussing the context of my chosen products. In this context research I talked
about the target audience of the product, what the product is, who it was made by and when it was
made and the significance of all aspects in the production of the product.
• I am going to continue more research outside of college, because I don’t want to fall far behind of my
schedule, and I want to finish this research before the end of next week.
• I believe I have produced my work to a good standard of detail and I am pleased with my research,
however, as I said yesterday, I could improve by producing more work in the time.
Day 7
• Today I continued with my existing products research and I still have not finished this section, which I
am not very happy about because I don’t want to fall behind my schedule. I also made a start on my
production research, where I have planned to talk about: tutorials I could use, structures/layouts,
advantages and disadvantages of location for photography etc., costs for props, costume and other
potential items needed, photography/video settings, lighting techniques and finally availability. This
pleases me a little bit more (the fact that I have planned what to research), meaning I can just carry on
straight away, next time.
• I believe the research I will complete will be very helpful for my work, and is a good way to display what
I am going to use and the reasons and effects of my choices.
• As I said last week, I still need to produce more work and work harder, as I have a lot of research to
conduct.
• To improve the work I have completed, I could discuss more potential ideas of props/lighting/tutorials
etc. This will give me an even wider range of potential usages in my production, meaning I can narrow
down my ideas later, and explain my reasoning for doing so.
Day 8
• Today I continued with my research again. To start the day I went back he existing products I had already done
to add more detail to it, as I didn’t think I had enough. I also changed the layout of my existing product research,
as the font size was too small and it was hard to read, so I spaced the text out more (over 3 slides) and added
arrows to show directly what I was talking about. I think this has improved my PowerPoint overall.
• From the existing products I have learnt how they display certain imagery and the reasoning behind the
producer’s choices. I have also learnt that it’s a good idea to include aspects that provides meaning (instead of
just designing it so it’s appearance is good). Which I believe will be fairly hard to do but would be good
experience and will allow my work to be of a high standard and good planning and pre-production should make
it easier.
• When I finish my existing product research I need to analyse my survey results and conduct production research
(which both I have planned and created a layout for).
• From the start of the project (as I stated in my proposal) I wanted to create something which creates fear and
mystery, likely something with a double meaning, which my research shows is a very popular idea, meaning my
audience would like to see this.
• My research has highlighted some problems (that I can overcome) for my planning and pre-production, as I
haven’t thought of how to use lighting and props effectively, which all the professional products have done. This
means I will need to produce more research and planning on these aspects, to make sure that my cover will
appeal to as many people as possible and the appearance is of a high standard.
• So far I believe that the detail of my existing products is my best aspect of my research, as I have analysed
multiple aspects of the product, discussing my own opinions and others’ within the analysis and displayed it
clearly to show what I was talking about, hence why I am very happy with my existing product research.
Day 9
• Today I sharpened up my existing product analysis, by adding more imagery to show exactly what I was
talking about. I also started my analysis on my survey responses/results, for a deeper look into my target
audience, finding out who they are and how I can appeal to them more. I started this by screenshotting
the bar charts (given by Survey Monkey) and the stats given with them and adding them to my
PowerPoint, displaying each question on its own slide.
• I feel like I will need to include a lot of detail in my survey analysis because these responses from my
peers (primary research) and the questions are personal to my product and what I want to create,
therefore I want to find out and analyse how I can appeal to my target audience to the best of my
ability.
• I think this primary research has been very helpful so far because it has allowed me to look into my
target audience in more detail, using questions and responses relatable to my potential products.
• This primary research has changed how I was going to approach my work slightly because I was planning
on adding a lot of detail and have a fairly busy cover but my target audience do not approve of this and
would prefer to have a much more simplistic look, which I will try to work towards now, to appeal to my
target audience.
• This is the last day of the week (at College) and I do not believe I am close to completing my research,
therefore I will need to continue with this work at home, outside of College times, so I can include all
the detail and information I want to (to make my work of a high standard) in the time available.
Problem Solving
Day 10
• Today was the first day of a new section of the project (Problem Solving). In this section I
am going to identify potential and inevitable problems that could/will occur
before/during/post production and the solutions for these problems.
• I started by identifying and solving some theoretical problems, for example the weather for
doing a photoshoot outdoors, as a low temperature can affect the camera negatively,
which will cause visual implications on my photography. Next I will go onto discussing
practical problems, such as production techniques, lighting and camera use, and how I will
tackle these problems. I am pleased with the detail I have included in my problem solving
so far, and I believe this will help me because I am identifying problems early giving myself
time to solve them appropriately, therefore I will not have these problems during
production, making my production a lot easier.
• I don’t believe I need to improve the problem solving research/work I have conducted so
far, as I have included a good amount of detail, but I do need to now solve my problems
and discuss how and why I did solve it in a certain way, for example a problem I have
included is camera use and lack of experience and to solve it I will take pictures and test
different settings on the camera and edit them in Photoshop, using different effects I could
use in my production.
Day 11
• Today I continued with my problem solving. Yesterday I started identifying potential and inevitable problems that could/would occur
in my production and I stated what I could do to solve these problems and today I started actually solving the problems.
• The first problem I solved was not being able to use a camera appropriately. The camera we use for our productions (that college
provide us with) is a DSLR Canon 600D camera, which has many different settings I could use. I haven’t used this camera (with
manual settings) enough to be experienced with using it, so I took pictures around College outside and used different settings to test
which were best for certain lights etc. I found out that the Aperture Priority mode was the most effective, as it allowed me to create
the image with an aesthetically pleasing exposure, with the camera adjusting the shutter speed automatically. The other mode that
was useful was full Manual, as I could choose all the settings appropriate such as exposure and shutter speed, therefore I could
adjust the settings to the surroundings of the location, to create an effective image. During these experiments I took photos of
people and structures in different lighting to test how the camera would react. If I were to conduct these experiment photos again
however, I would do in dark lighting as my product is a horror film, therefore I will be using dark lighting on my cover and the camera
works different in darker lighting. On the other hand I am now much more in the knowledge of how to change the settings to fit the
lighting and location appropriately, therefore when it comes to my actual photoshoot for my product it won’t be a difficult task to
change the settings.
• To display how I solved this problem, I showed the images that I was most pleased with, that I took in the experiment and discussed
what settings/modes I used, why I used them and how they were helpful, which was a good way to explain my reasoning behind the
solution and I will do this for all the other problems I am going to solve. During planning and evaluation I will mention the aspects of
my production I completed successfully, that was once a problem for me and the same for aspects I still did not master, and discuss
what I could have done to allow myself to overcome these problems easier.
• Solving this problem and other problems I will solve are/will be helpful for my production because I won’t be suddenly affected by
not knowing how to do something important in my production (such as working a camera) and I will be able to use my time wisely
and not waste time trying to figure out how to achieve certain things.
• At the moment I am pleased with how I am approaching the problem solving and believe this will help me throughout my
production, however if I were change anything I would solve the problems in a way that is very specific to my product. For example
the camera experiments were taken outside in light (during the day) but to make it more specific to my product I should have taken
them in dark light (at night/evening) or in the studio and chosen settings that are best suited for my product.
Day 12
• Today I continued with my problem solving. I discussed how one of my problems was using Photoshop effectively
to get a horror related image/design, with the use of lighting, filters, shading and effects etc.
• I edited two different images (images from my experiment photos). For the first image I followed most of a tutorial
and changed removed certain aspects that didn’t suit my image or what I wanted to work towards, and for the
second image I experimented on my own. In my problem I stated that I didn’t know exactly what I wanted, which
is why I wanted to do this more than once, and I will do more Photoshop effect experiments to go with these, to
find which aspects best fit my final product.
• At the moment I am pleased with what I have created because I have only spent a short amount of time on the
experiments and in my opinion they are still to a fairly good quality of work, and I think there are aspects I can
take from these experiments that I can use in my production. For example the gradient layers were quite effective,
as they allowed me to emphasise certain aspects of the image, for example the eyes, when darkening the bottom
half of the model’s face. I also found out which colours/shading I shouldn’t use on certain models and in certain
lightings, for example if it’s too dark then I shouldn't use a very dark lighting, therefore my image won’t be
darkened so much so the detail isn’t noticeable, as the detail and imagery is the main focal point of the product
(as I have in the idea anyway).
• After completing these experiments I discussed them and the process I went through to get from the original
image to the final edited image, and discussed the tools and effects I used throughout the process. This was a
good way on displaying my experiments and the reasoning behind why I had done them, and it also allowed me to
see which aspects of these experiments were good enough to use in my final product and which aspects I should
stay away from, to make my product to the best it can be.
• As I said I have only completed two experiments to do with Photoshop effects and I want to complete more, to get
a wider range of potential aspects I can use and narrow down which I shouldn’t etc. I also need to discuss and
solve other practical problems, involved in my production that will likely occur after I have experimented more
with Photoshop effects.
Day 13
• Today I continued with my problem solving.
• To start the day I decided to experiment with another Photoshop effect. I followed a tutorial on YouTube for a
cracked head (a head inside a head) effect, which on the thumbnail of the video looked very spooky, so I
chose to follow it. I am very pleased with what I have created and the process I went through to get to my
final piece. I am most pleased about the tools, techniques I learnt in this process, for example the ‘Liquefy’
tool, which allowed me to manipulate the photo. For example the original photo I used was of me with a
bland expression but with the tool I made the expression on my face to be fairly sad-looking, which I used for
the cracked head’s expression. This effect is a good possibility for my final product, because I really like the
appearance of it and it brings two different meanings to the same image (which is exactly what I want to
portray through my imagery).
• After creating this effect I discussed the problems I will have with lighting in the studio, in more detail. To
solve the problems involved with this, I researched ways to use the lights safely and effectively for my
model’s safety and my products appearance. This was very helpful I believe because it allowed me to plan
(already) how I can use my light safely and effectively, along with the other research I conducted on lighting
in this section (with the tutorial I watched on YouTube).
• I have planned out the next problems I need to discuss and solve and these are all practical problems,
including my ability and equipment, therefore I know what I am going to do for my next working days and I
believe I have a good chance of finishing this section in time for the start of the next section, whilst still
including enough detail to make it of a high standard.
Day 14
• Today I carried on with my problem solving and I believe I am getting towards the end of this section (which is
ideal because I am starting planning next week).
• I started by discussing and analysing my ‘cracked head’ experiment I made on Monday, discussing the tools and
techniques I used to create it. This was very helpful because I learnt new skills (such as the Liquefy tool) and
this analysis was a easy and effective way of displaying these tools/techniques I have learnt and writing them
down, so I can remember how I created aspects from the experiment I can use in my product. Another useful
tool I learnt was the Puppet Warp tool, as this allowed me to manipulate the image (along with the Liquefy
tool) to make it appear how I want, for example with the movement of the cracked head on my Photoshop
effect experiment.
• I still need to discuss more practical problems but I have planned these out, therefore I know exactly what I’m
going to discuss and I believe I will finish in time for my next section of my FMP.
• As I said already, I believe that I am ready to start my next section (planning), especially with the fact we have a
1 week break, so I could complete work at home. On the other hand I need to complete my Research, as I
believe it is not completed to a good enough standard, but within out 1 week break I think I will be able to
complete both sections, allowing me to be free of previous section’s work and start on my Planning.
• I do not think my website is up to date, with all of my finished work uploaded to it, so over the half term break I
will need to update my website. This will be useful because then I won’t have to upload all my work at the end,
it will be backed-up and protected and I may be able to get some feedback on the work, as it’s available to the
teachers, meaning I could improve my work if necessary. Overall updating my website and finishing my Problem
Solving and Research (in more detail) are on my to-do-list at the moment and when I have finished this I will be
caught up and on time on my production schedule.
Planning
Day 15
If have written my shooting script
in paragraphs, where I have
explained how my shooting is
going to be conducted. Although in
addition to this, I could have
added a tabled schedule to show
the timings of the photo-shoot in
detail. I may need to add this at a
later stage if needed.
I am pleased with the accurate
pricings I have listed for my
equipment and props, as these
are a clear indication of how
much my production would
cost, if I were to fund
everything on my own.
The layout for these planning
aspects is how I will be
structuring all of my planning
and I believe this will work
efficiently (apart from my first
‘Shooting Script’ slide, which
would benefit from a table.
Structuring my planning this
way is also a good way to use
and display detail for each
aspect.
I have chosen to include
finance in my planning because
it is very useful to show how
much my project would cost if I
were to fund it individually and
how much it will cost now (as I
have to buy the props).
Day 16
• Today I continued with my planning.
• I logged my meeting I had with my model, to ensure we both knew the date and time for the photo-
shoot, however this was short as I only have one model involved in my project. I also planned the
facilities and materials I will be using, the limitations/risks that may occur and how I will be using them.
This was a useful way to display my ideas for my product.
• Linking with ideas for my product, I started creating a mind map on Bubbl.us to show the my ideas for
imagery in detail.
• After creating this mind map I will also create one for colour and one for text and these planning aspects
are both laid out on my Planning PowerPoint, therefore I know what I am going to talk about. I have also
planned to discuss the imagery, colour and text in more detail focusing on individual colours, fonts and
imagery and the reasoning for these idea choices.
• I have also planned to discuss camera, lighting and post-production.
• Overall I believe I could improve my planning, but at the moment I am unsure on how to improve it. I
think that there isn’t enough detail, however the aspects I have planned so far are hard to elaborate on
and I have mentioned all I can.
• For my style sheets, I believe I will be able to discuss/plan these in detail, which is likely the most
important section of the planning, therefore my planning won’t be completed as a lower standard I am
expecting now.
• I have now updated my website, with all my PowerPoints added, however I still think I can improve my
previous PowerPoints, therefore I will update them when I have added more information and detail at
later stage.
Day 17
• Thursday
• Today I continued with planning
• Coming to the end of the week, so far I believe I could have produced more work and conducted more
planning to help me with my production, however this just means I will need to work harder next week.
• As I mentioned yesterday I was going to finish my imagery planning. I finished the mind map today and started
discussing more specific types of imagery and discussing how and why I will use it in my products. This was
very helpful because when I start producing my products I wont have to plan at the time and I can get on with
creating the products quickly and efficiently, meaning I will have more time after creating my work to either
improve the products or produce more. I mentioned using distanced imagery for my poster, as this creates
mystery because you cant see the identity of the character in the image. I also discussed using close up
imagery for another product, with a scary/spooky effect on the character’s face, for example a sewn mouth.
• I am still yet to discuss and plan text/fonts for my products, which I will do next week. I think I will be able to
plan this section with a good amount of detail due to how I have planned my imagery.
• Over the weekend I need to update my website with the improvements I will make on my previous
PowerPoints as I have been given feedback for these sections, for example more detail to be included in a
certain area of my research.
• Overall I think I need to work very hard over the weekend and next week to make sure I do not fall behind on
my planning, as this will affect my production and mean I will have less time actually create my work.
Day 18
• Today I started planning my colour and text/fonts as I mentioned last week. I have created mind maps
for both of these sections, however I still need to discuss and plan specific text/fonts in more detail as I
have done for imagery and colour. Although I don’t think this will be a hard task because from my
research the font ‘Who Asks Satan’ has proven to be appreciated by my target audience and I think the
aesthetics work with my idea of imagery and colour, therefore this is likely going to be the font I will
choose to discuss specifically in more detail, however I will discuss another font as well as this to give
myself a back-up in case my original chosen font doesn’t look as pleasing as I hoped in my actual
production.
• After I have done this I will then create layout plans and discuss these, which will give me a basic
template of how I will structure my products. I will create a very brief layout using shapes on
PowerPoint and then copy this layout and replace the shapes with images and texts, as they would
look on my product. I think that this will be very helpful as I will have a plan to easily follow during my
production and will know exactly how to structure and order each element in my product.
• I mentioned last week that I needed to work hard this week and complete a lot of planning compared
to last week and so far I believe I am on a good track to doing so because I only have my layout plans
to conduct from now which shouldn’t take a very long time, meaning I can start production at the start
of next week, therefore I will be on track with my schedule I created near the start.
Day 19
• Today I carried on with my planning and with production starting next week, I do not believe I am (currently) well-planned to start
production, however I will be working tomorrow and over the weekend to plan more, as I have only planned imagery in detail and
need to discuss and plan layout/structure and fonts in detail. I do believe that this is possible though, therefore I shouldn’t be behind
schedule when my production actually starts next week, but I will need to work hard and often over the weekend.
• With the planning I have done so far I have mixed opinions on it. For finance and timing etc. I haven’t included a lot of detail and it
doesn’t look very planned (due to the lack of detail), although I don’t know what to include to improve this, so I will have to add to
this later after more thought and completion of my style sheets. I have created one style sheet so far, which is the imagery and I
have included a lot of detail in this section, which I am pleased with and I plan to discuss my other style sheets with a similar
structure, meaning my other style sheets will likely be as detailed as my imagery style sheet.
• I also have other planning to conduct, for example post-production and my copy, which may be a bit of a struggle to get finished
over the weekend, however if I work hard I will be able to complete this and could also add more to it during production, for
example write the copy for the back cover of my film at home, whilst making my front cover in College.
• I think that my production schedule will be fairly useful next week, as my pre-production schedule has proven to be useful, showing
me I am falling behind a bit too much currently.
• I will be using my planning as a structure for my production, to make it run as smoothly as possible, as I want to be able to spend a
lot of time on detail, rather than ideas on how to structure the basics of my products.
• In my previous products I haven’t used my planning as much as I should have, possibly due to the lack of detail I included (which will
be different for this planning), therefore I had to recreate some aspects of my products from scratch during my production, which
wasted a bit of time, however this is unlikely to happen for this project.
• During my planning so far, I have learnt that there are many different imagery types and techniques I can use, which is good as I
have a wide range of choices, however it is hard to make a final decision, as they may look less aesthetically pleasing as I planned,
when I make my actual product. However I will see how this finalizes after my products have been made, and can change them after
feedback and evaluation if need be.
Day 20
• Today is the final day of my planning section in my FMP and I believe I am on track to finishing it over the weekend,
so I will likely be finished before I start production. Today I finished planning the text/fonts I will be using in my
products and I discussed them in detail and I am pleased with the amount of planning I have done on this section.
After planning my text/fonts, I then planned my layouts and how I will be structuring my products. I used shapes in
PowerPoint to display the order/structure of each product (film front cover, back cover, poster, merchandise). I
then copied the layout plans and replaced the shapes with actual images and the text I will be using in my final
products to show briefly how my products will look before editing. I think that this is a good representation of my
ideas I have for my products. However I don’t think I have planned my merchandise very well because it is quite
hard considering the products are going to be 3D, for example a jumper or T-shirt, therefore it was difficult to add
text/images onto the merchandise products and make them look realistic to an extent.
• Next week I will start my production and I think I will be ready for production on Monday and I am looking forward
to creating my work and believe I will do so efficiently. During production I think I will use my planning often to
make sure I am following it and to make my production time run smoothly, however I may change my mind during
production if I new better idea comes to mind (however I will only change ideas that are small and wont change
large ideas because then my research and pre-production wouldn’t be relevant).
• The planning I conducted for my FMP in my first year on this course was not very successful as I didn’t end up
following it as much as I had hoped and made decisions during my production, which slowed the process down.
Although I do not think my planning will be as unsuccessful for this project because I have spent a lot more time
and effort on this planning.
End Of Pre-Production

Developmental Diary (pre production)

  • 1.
  • 2.
  • 3.
    Day 1 • Todaywas the first day of my Final Major Project, and I started by conducting some background research. I researched (using different types of sources, such as websites, books and journals) different graphic design theories, designers, their work, their approaches to work and their beliefs, which gave me and will give me more understanding about producing graphic design products and how professional designers produce work to make it look and be professional. • I think I will need to produce more background research to obtain a good understanding of all the aspects in the graphic design industry at the moment, although I believe today I have produced a good amount of work in the time I had. • To improve this work I could discuss in more detail how I can use these theories and beliefs from existing products and designers to benefit my products I will make, as these aspects of graphic design will make my products appear to be more professional and appealing to my audience.
  • 4.
    Day 2 • TodayI worked on my Proposal. In my Proposal I talked about my previous work I have created throughout my time on this course and how these courses have helped me reach to the point I am at now (the FMP). I mentioned the last project I worked on that was similar to what I will be creating for my FMP (a film cover), which were album covers and advertisement posters. I discussed how these projects will help me in my FMP and the skills/experiences I now have the knowledge of as a result of these previous work productions. This section of the proposal was helpful because it made me realise the skills I already know and how I can use them in my FMP, to improve my products. • The next part of my Proposal consisted of my project concept, where I discussed what I will be making and how I will go about doing this. I talked about what research I will conduct and what planning I will conduct and how these will help me with creating my products and their final outcomes. This was useful to show others my thoughts and ideas so far on my FMP, as it was displayed clearly. However, later in the project, I may decide to conduct more research or planning than I have discussed in my Proposal, as these are my initial ideas for my project, meaning they are not final but they are a strong starting point. • After my project concept, I discussed how I was going to evaluate my work, where I explained the on-going and final self-reflections I will conduct on my work. This will help me to see if I need to improve on anything within my project, for example I may need to work harder or change certain aspects of my research as it doesn’t help me. • I haven’t finished my Proposal and will need to do so tomorrow, by creating a bibliography and production schedule.
  • 5.
    Day 3 • TodayI carried on with my Proposal, as I wanted to finish this before continuing with my background research. Yesterday I had finished the explanation and display of my work and the process I would take to fulfil my plans, so today I finished my Proposal by developing a bibliography and a production schedule. • I started my bibliography by referencing different sources, from books to websites, to videos, to get a variety of source types I will/have/may use in my FMP. This was a useful and effective way to display my sources to others, to show where I will and have gathered my information from. I tried to choose reliable sources, which is why I chose a variety of different types, however I may not use all the sources I may need to double check some information these sources provide using other sources to see if the information is correct. • I created a production schedule my the 3 weeks of production I have. I assigned specific tasks to certain days, which will help me keep on track with my production and will allow me to see if I am too far behind or I have more time to spend on the topic I’m currently working on. Making this production schedule also made me think of all the aspects of planning and pre- production etc. I need to conduct before production, therefore during pre-production I don’t need to think of what to discuss, as I have already planned it. • With my proposal I am happy with what I have produced and I believe I have included everything I need to benefit me during my FMP, however an improvement I will need to make it removing some information from a section in the Proposal as I have written a lot more than the accepted amount.
  • 6.
    Day 4 • Todaywas the start of the week, so I started the next section of my FMP, which was research. • First I created a survey on ‘SurveyMonkey’, where I asked questions to determine my target audience and also to get my potential audience’s views/thoughts on my initial ideas and what I could produce (identifying focal points etc.). This is only the first day of the survey being released, therefore I didn’t collect any responses, however I attempted to spread my survey everywhere I could. I used many ways to reach my survey to people, for example I E-mailed it to people on my course, I posted it on my social medias, posted it on survey responses websites and I simply asked people. • I am very pleased with the survey I created because I believe it will help me greatly in understanding my audiences and their preferences involving my products and their aspects. • I believe I have created my survey to a good standard to obtain knowledge about my audience and have posted it around enough to get a large number of responses, therefore, at the moment, I can’t find room for improvement.
  • 7.
    Day 5 • TodayI collected some more responses for my survey and started analysing existing products that are similar to my product ideas. • Today I only analysed some film covers, as I am going to analyse 4 (most likely) and then analyse advertisement posters and merchandise. I have planned out which products I am going to analyse and have already and the products I have chosen are all horror film related. The main products are from The Conjuring 2, Insidious and Friday the 13th. I have chosen these because they interest me the most and the imagery is aesthetically pleasing on the products, which is what I am aiming for in my products. • I am happy with this research I am conducting because I believe it will be beneficial to my work, as I will understand what professional products there already is and how they are presented, therefore I can use certain aspects of these professional products to make my product look more professional and appeal to my target audience more. • I need to carry on with these existing product analyses because the more products I analyse, allows me to understand how products look/are professional better. This will allow me to make my product as appealing as possible to my audience. • I believe I haven’t analysed enough products today and will need to work harder tomorrow to analyse more, to make sure I don’t fall behind on my schedule. However, on the other hand, I have planned the research I am going to conduct, therefore I won’t be spending anymore time deciding on what to write about, and will just write what I need to. • Finally I believe that I have planned and conducted enough to allow me to achieve a good grade, and the only way I can improve (to my knowledge at the moment) is by completing more analyses tomorrow than I did today.
  • 8.
    Day 6 • TodayI carried on with my existing product research (as I have a lot to research) and although I stated yesterday that I wanted to complete more research than I did on that day, I believe I have not done this, to I standard I want, therefore I am not very pleased with how much work I have completed, although the detail of the work I have complete pleases me. On the other hand I haven't had a lot of time to complete my work today, compared to the amount of time I had yesterday, meaning I will need to complete some additional work outside of college. • It was only today I thought to discuss context in my existing product research, therefore I spent all my time on researching and discussing the context of my chosen products. In this context research I talked about the target audience of the product, what the product is, who it was made by and when it was made and the significance of all aspects in the production of the product. • I am going to continue more research outside of college, because I don’t want to fall far behind of my schedule, and I want to finish this research before the end of next week. • I believe I have produced my work to a good standard of detail and I am pleased with my research, however, as I said yesterday, I could improve by producing more work in the time.
  • 9.
    Day 7 • TodayI continued with my existing products research and I still have not finished this section, which I am not very happy about because I don’t want to fall behind my schedule. I also made a start on my production research, where I have planned to talk about: tutorials I could use, structures/layouts, advantages and disadvantages of location for photography etc., costs for props, costume and other potential items needed, photography/video settings, lighting techniques and finally availability. This pleases me a little bit more (the fact that I have planned what to research), meaning I can just carry on straight away, next time. • I believe the research I will complete will be very helpful for my work, and is a good way to display what I am going to use and the reasons and effects of my choices. • As I said last week, I still need to produce more work and work harder, as I have a lot of research to conduct. • To improve the work I have completed, I could discuss more potential ideas of props/lighting/tutorials etc. This will give me an even wider range of potential usages in my production, meaning I can narrow down my ideas later, and explain my reasoning for doing so.
  • 10.
    Day 8 • TodayI continued with my research again. To start the day I went back he existing products I had already done to add more detail to it, as I didn’t think I had enough. I also changed the layout of my existing product research, as the font size was too small and it was hard to read, so I spaced the text out more (over 3 slides) and added arrows to show directly what I was talking about. I think this has improved my PowerPoint overall. • From the existing products I have learnt how they display certain imagery and the reasoning behind the producer’s choices. I have also learnt that it’s a good idea to include aspects that provides meaning (instead of just designing it so it’s appearance is good). Which I believe will be fairly hard to do but would be good experience and will allow my work to be of a high standard and good planning and pre-production should make it easier. • When I finish my existing product research I need to analyse my survey results and conduct production research (which both I have planned and created a layout for). • From the start of the project (as I stated in my proposal) I wanted to create something which creates fear and mystery, likely something with a double meaning, which my research shows is a very popular idea, meaning my audience would like to see this. • My research has highlighted some problems (that I can overcome) for my planning and pre-production, as I haven’t thought of how to use lighting and props effectively, which all the professional products have done. This means I will need to produce more research and planning on these aspects, to make sure that my cover will appeal to as many people as possible and the appearance is of a high standard. • So far I believe that the detail of my existing products is my best aspect of my research, as I have analysed multiple aspects of the product, discussing my own opinions and others’ within the analysis and displayed it clearly to show what I was talking about, hence why I am very happy with my existing product research.
  • 11.
    Day 9 • TodayI sharpened up my existing product analysis, by adding more imagery to show exactly what I was talking about. I also started my analysis on my survey responses/results, for a deeper look into my target audience, finding out who they are and how I can appeal to them more. I started this by screenshotting the bar charts (given by Survey Monkey) and the stats given with them and adding them to my PowerPoint, displaying each question on its own slide. • I feel like I will need to include a lot of detail in my survey analysis because these responses from my peers (primary research) and the questions are personal to my product and what I want to create, therefore I want to find out and analyse how I can appeal to my target audience to the best of my ability. • I think this primary research has been very helpful so far because it has allowed me to look into my target audience in more detail, using questions and responses relatable to my potential products. • This primary research has changed how I was going to approach my work slightly because I was planning on adding a lot of detail and have a fairly busy cover but my target audience do not approve of this and would prefer to have a much more simplistic look, which I will try to work towards now, to appeal to my target audience. • This is the last day of the week (at College) and I do not believe I am close to completing my research, therefore I will need to continue with this work at home, outside of College times, so I can include all the detail and information I want to (to make my work of a high standard) in the time available.
  • 12.
  • 13.
    Day 10 • Todaywas the first day of a new section of the project (Problem Solving). In this section I am going to identify potential and inevitable problems that could/will occur before/during/post production and the solutions for these problems. • I started by identifying and solving some theoretical problems, for example the weather for doing a photoshoot outdoors, as a low temperature can affect the camera negatively, which will cause visual implications on my photography. Next I will go onto discussing practical problems, such as production techniques, lighting and camera use, and how I will tackle these problems. I am pleased with the detail I have included in my problem solving so far, and I believe this will help me because I am identifying problems early giving myself time to solve them appropriately, therefore I will not have these problems during production, making my production a lot easier. • I don’t believe I need to improve the problem solving research/work I have conducted so far, as I have included a good amount of detail, but I do need to now solve my problems and discuss how and why I did solve it in a certain way, for example a problem I have included is camera use and lack of experience and to solve it I will take pictures and test different settings on the camera and edit them in Photoshop, using different effects I could use in my production.
  • 14.
    Day 11 • TodayI continued with my problem solving. Yesterday I started identifying potential and inevitable problems that could/would occur in my production and I stated what I could do to solve these problems and today I started actually solving the problems. • The first problem I solved was not being able to use a camera appropriately. The camera we use for our productions (that college provide us with) is a DSLR Canon 600D camera, which has many different settings I could use. I haven’t used this camera (with manual settings) enough to be experienced with using it, so I took pictures around College outside and used different settings to test which were best for certain lights etc. I found out that the Aperture Priority mode was the most effective, as it allowed me to create the image with an aesthetically pleasing exposure, with the camera adjusting the shutter speed automatically. The other mode that was useful was full Manual, as I could choose all the settings appropriate such as exposure and shutter speed, therefore I could adjust the settings to the surroundings of the location, to create an effective image. During these experiments I took photos of people and structures in different lighting to test how the camera would react. If I were to conduct these experiment photos again however, I would do in dark lighting as my product is a horror film, therefore I will be using dark lighting on my cover and the camera works different in darker lighting. On the other hand I am now much more in the knowledge of how to change the settings to fit the lighting and location appropriately, therefore when it comes to my actual photoshoot for my product it won’t be a difficult task to change the settings. • To display how I solved this problem, I showed the images that I was most pleased with, that I took in the experiment and discussed what settings/modes I used, why I used them and how they were helpful, which was a good way to explain my reasoning behind the solution and I will do this for all the other problems I am going to solve. During planning and evaluation I will mention the aspects of my production I completed successfully, that was once a problem for me and the same for aspects I still did not master, and discuss what I could have done to allow myself to overcome these problems easier. • Solving this problem and other problems I will solve are/will be helpful for my production because I won’t be suddenly affected by not knowing how to do something important in my production (such as working a camera) and I will be able to use my time wisely and not waste time trying to figure out how to achieve certain things. • At the moment I am pleased with how I am approaching the problem solving and believe this will help me throughout my production, however if I were change anything I would solve the problems in a way that is very specific to my product. For example the camera experiments were taken outside in light (during the day) but to make it more specific to my product I should have taken them in dark light (at night/evening) or in the studio and chosen settings that are best suited for my product.
  • 15.
    Day 12 • TodayI continued with my problem solving. I discussed how one of my problems was using Photoshop effectively to get a horror related image/design, with the use of lighting, filters, shading and effects etc. • I edited two different images (images from my experiment photos). For the first image I followed most of a tutorial and changed removed certain aspects that didn’t suit my image or what I wanted to work towards, and for the second image I experimented on my own. In my problem I stated that I didn’t know exactly what I wanted, which is why I wanted to do this more than once, and I will do more Photoshop effect experiments to go with these, to find which aspects best fit my final product. • At the moment I am pleased with what I have created because I have only spent a short amount of time on the experiments and in my opinion they are still to a fairly good quality of work, and I think there are aspects I can take from these experiments that I can use in my production. For example the gradient layers were quite effective, as they allowed me to emphasise certain aspects of the image, for example the eyes, when darkening the bottom half of the model’s face. I also found out which colours/shading I shouldn’t use on certain models and in certain lightings, for example if it’s too dark then I shouldn't use a very dark lighting, therefore my image won’t be darkened so much so the detail isn’t noticeable, as the detail and imagery is the main focal point of the product (as I have in the idea anyway). • After completing these experiments I discussed them and the process I went through to get from the original image to the final edited image, and discussed the tools and effects I used throughout the process. This was a good way on displaying my experiments and the reasoning behind why I had done them, and it also allowed me to see which aspects of these experiments were good enough to use in my final product and which aspects I should stay away from, to make my product to the best it can be. • As I said I have only completed two experiments to do with Photoshop effects and I want to complete more, to get a wider range of potential aspects I can use and narrow down which I shouldn’t etc. I also need to discuss and solve other practical problems, involved in my production that will likely occur after I have experimented more with Photoshop effects.
  • 16.
    Day 13 • TodayI continued with my problem solving. • To start the day I decided to experiment with another Photoshop effect. I followed a tutorial on YouTube for a cracked head (a head inside a head) effect, which on the thumbnail of the video looked very spooky, so I chose to follow it. I am very pleased with what I have created and the process I went through to get to my final piece. I am most pleased about the tools, techniques I learnt in this process, for example the ‘Liquefy’ tool, which allowed me to manipulate the photo. For example the original photo I used was of me with a bland expression but with the tool I made the expression on my face to be fairly sad-looking, which I used for the cracked head’s expression. This effect is a good possibility for my final product, because I really like the appearance of it and it brings two different meanings to the same image (which is exactly what I want to portray through my imagery). • After creating this effect I discussed the problems I will have with lighting in the studio, in more detail. To solve the problems involved with this, I researched ways to use the lights safely and effectively for my model’s safety and my products appearance. This was very helpful I believe because it allowed me to plan (already) how I can use my light safely and effectively, along with the other research I conducted on lighting in this section (with the tutorial I watched on YouTube). • I have planned out the next problems I need to discuss and solve and these are all practical problems, including my ability and equipment, therefore I know what I am going to do for my next working days and I believe I have a good chance of finishing this section in time for the start of the next section, whilst still including enough detail to make it of a high standard.
  • 17.
    Day 14 • TodayI carried on with my problem solving and I believe I am getting towards the end of this section (which is ideal because I am starting planning next week). • I started by discussing and analysing my ‘cracked head’ experiment I made on Monday, discussing the tools and techniques I used to create it. This was very helpful because I learnt new skills (such as the Liquefy tool) and this analysis was a easy and effective way of displaying these tools/techniques I have learnt and writing them down, so I can remember how I created aspects from the experiment I can use in my product. Another useful tool I learnt was the Puppet Warp tool, as this allowed me to manipulate the image (along with the Liquefy tool) to make it appear how I want, for example with the movement of the cracked head on my Photoshop effect experiment. • I still need to discuss more practical problems but I have planned these out, therefore I know exactly what I’m going to discuss and I believe I will finish in time for my next section of my FMP. • As I said already, I believe that I am ready to start my next section (planning), especially with the fact we have a 1 week break, so I could complete work at home. On the other hand I need to complete my Research, as I believe it is not completed to a good enough standard, but within out 1 week break I think I will be able to complete both sections, allowing me to be free of previous section’s work and start on my Planning. • I do not think my website is up to date, with all of my finished work uploaded to it, so over the half term break I will need to update my website. This will be useful because then I won’t have to upload all my work at the end, it will be backed-up and protected and I may be able to get some feedback on the work, as it’s available to the teachers, meaning I could improve my work if necessary. Overall updating my website and finishing my Problem Solving and Research (in more detail) are on my to-do-list at the moment and when I have finished this I will be caught up and on time on my production schedule.
  • 18.
  • 19.
    Day 15 If havewritten my shooting script in paragraphs, where I have explained how my shooting is going to be conducted. Although in addition to this, I could have added a tabled schedule to show the timings of the photo-shoot in detail. I may need to add this at a later stage if needed. I am pleased with the accurate pricings I have listed for my equipment and props, as these are a clear indication of how much my production would cost, if I were to fund everything on my own. The layout for these planning aspects is how I will be structuring all of my planning and I believe this will work efficiently (apart from my first ‘Shooting Script’ slide, which would benefit from a table. Structuring my planning this way is also a good way to use and display detail for each aspect. I have chosen to include finance in my planning because it is very useful to show how much my project would cost if I were to fund it individually and how much it will cost now (as I have to buy the props).
  • 20.
    Day 16 • TodayI continued with my planning. • I logged my meeting I had with my model, to ensure we both knew the date and time for the photo- shoot, however this was short as I only have one model involved in my project. I also planned the facilities and materials I will be using, the limitations/risks that may occur and how I will be using them. This was a useful way to display my ideas for my product. • Linking with ideas for my product, I started creating a mind map on Bubbl.us to show the my ideas for imagery in detail. • After creating this mind map I will also create one for colour and one for text and these planning aspects are both laid out on my Planning PowerPoint, therefore I know what I am going to talk about. I have also planned to discuss the imagery, colour and text in more detail focusing on individual colours, fonts and imagery and the reasoning for these idea choices. • I have also planned to discuss camera, lighting and post-production. • Overall I believe I could improve my planning, but at the moment I am unsure on how to improve it. I think that there isn’t enough detail, however the aspects I have planned so far are hard to elaborate on and I have mentioned all I can. • For my style sheets, I believe I will be able to discuss/plan these in detail, which is likely the most important section of the planning, therefore my planning won’t be completed as a lower standard I am expecting now. • I have now updated my website, with all my PowerPoints added, however I still think I can improve my previous PowerPoints, therefore I will update them when I have added more information and detail at later stage.
  • 21.
    Day 17 • Thursday •Today I continued with planning • Coming to the end of the week, so far I believe I could have produced more work and conducted more planning to help me with my production, however this just means I will need to work harder next week. • As I mentioned yesterday I was going to finish my imagery planning. I finished the mind map today and started discussing more specific types of imagery and discussing how and why I will use it in my products. This was very helpful because when I start producing my products I wont have to plan at the time and I can get on with creating the products quickly and efficiently, meaning I will have more time after creating my work to either improve the products or produce more. I mentioned using distanced imagery for my poster, as this creates mystery because you cant see the identity of the character in the image. I also discussed using close up imagery for another product, with a scary/spooky effect on the character’s face, for example a sewn mouth. • I am still yet to discuss and plan text/fonts for my products, which I will do next week. I think I will be able to plan this section with a good amount of detail due to how I have planned my imagery. • Over the weekend I need to update my website with the improvements I will make on my previous PowerPoints as I have been given feedback for these sections, for example more detail to be included in a certain area of my research. • Overall I think I need to work very hard over the weekend and next week to make sure I do not fall behind on my planning, as this will affect my production and mean I will have less time actually create my work.
  • 22.
    Day 18 • TodayI started planning my colour and text/fonts as I mentioned last week. I have created mind maps for both of these sections, however I still need to discuss and plan specific text/fonts in more detail as I have done for imagery and colour. Although I don’t think this will be a hard task because from my research the font ‘Who Asks Satan’ has proven to be appreciated by my target audience and I think the aesthetics work with my idea of imagery and colour, therefore this is likely going to be the font I will choose to discuss specifically in more detail, however I will discuss another font as well as this to give myself a back-up in case my original chosen font doesn’t look as pleasing as I hoped in my actual production. • After I have done this I will then create layout plans and discuss these, which will give me a basic template of how I will structure my products. I will create a very brief layout using shapes on PowerPoint and then copy this layout and replace the shapes with images and texts, as they would look on my product. I think that this will be very helpful as I will have a plan to easily follow during my production and will know exactly how to structure and order each element in my product. • I mentioned last week that I needed to work hard this week and complete a lot of planning compared to last week and so far I believe I am on a good track to doing so because I only have my layout plans to conduct from now which shouldn’t take a very long time, meaning I can start production at the start of next week, therefore I will be on track with my schedule I created near the start.
  • 23.
    Day 19 • TodayI carried on with my planning and with production starting next week, I do not believe I am (currently) well-planned to start production, however I will be working tomorrow and over the weekend to plan more, as I have only planned imagery in detail and need to discuss and plan layout/structure and fonts in detail. I do believe that this is possible though, therefore I shouldn’t be behind schedule when my production actually starts next week, but I will need to work hard and often over the weekend. • With the planning I have done so far I have mixed opinions on it. For finance and timing etc. I haven’t included a lot of detail and it doesn’t look very planned (due to the lack of detail), although I don’t know what to include to improve this, so I will have to add to this later after more thought and completion of my style sheets. I have created one style sheet so far, which is the imagery and I have included a lot of detail in this section, which I am pleased with and I plan to discuss my other style sheets with a similar structure, meaning my other style sheets will likely be as detailed as my imagery style sheet. • I also have other planning to conduct, for example post-production and my copy, which may be a bit of a struggle to get finished over the weekend, however if I work hard I will be able to complete this and could also add more to it during production, for example write the copy for the back cover of my film at home, whilst making my front cover in College. • I think that my production schedule will be fairly useful next week, as my pre-production schedule has proven to be useful, showing me I am falling behind a bit too much currently. • I will be using my planning as a structure for my production, to make it run as smoothly as possible, as I want to be able to spend a lot of time on detail, rather than ideas on how to structure the basics of my products. • In my previous products I haven’t used my planning as much as I should have, possibly due to the lack of detail I included (which will be different for this planning), therefore I had to recreate some aspects of my products from scratch during my production, which wasted a bit of time, however this is unlikely to happen for this project. • During my planning so far, I have learnt that there are many different imagery types and techniques I can use, which is good as I have a wide range of choices, however it is hard to make a final decision, as they may look less aesthetically pleasing as I planned, when I make my actual product. However I will see how this finalizes after my products have been made, and can change them after feedback and evaluation if need be.
  • 24.
    Day 20 • Todayis the final day of my planning section in my FMP and I believe I am on track to finishing it over the weekend, so I will likely be finished before I start production. Today I finished planning the text/fonts I will be using in my products and I discussed them in detail and I am pleased with the amount of planning I have done on this section. After planning my text/fonts, I then planned my layouts and how I will be structuring my products. I used shapes in PowerPoint to display the order/structure of each product (film front cover, back cover, poster, merchandise). I then copied the layout plans and replaced the shapes with actual images and the text I will be using in my final products to show briefly how my products will look before editing. I think that this is a good representation of my ideas I have for my products. However I don’t think I have planned my merchandise very well because it is quite hard considering the products are going to be 3D, for example a jumper or T-shirt, therefore it was difficult to add text/images onto the merchandise products and make them look realistic to an extent. • Next week I will start my production and I think I will be ready for production on Monday and I am looking forward to creating my work and believe I will do so efficiently. During production I think I will use my planning often to make sure I am following it and to make my production time run smoothly, however I may change my mind during production if I new better idea comes to mind (however I will only change ideas that are small and wont change large ideas because then my research and pre-production wouldn’t be relevant). • The planning I conducted for my FMP in my first year on this course was not very successful as I didn’t end up following it as much as I had hoped and made decisions during my production, which slowed the process down. Although I do not think my planning will be as unsuccessful for this project because I have spent a lot more time and effort on this planning.
  • 25.