For week 5 of his filmmaking project, the student: 1. Completed problem solving experiments testing color tones, music mood, and camera angles to convey themes. 2. Finished his problem solving mind map and notes documenting potential issues and solutions. 3. Tested contrasting color tones to match different themes and changing mood with music, crucial elements for his film.

1. Learning journal

2. Week 1
For this week of my FMP I started on my inspirations document. This document allows me to look at different directors and
products to try and take inspiration from them. This is a very useful task as it allows me collect different ideas from already
existing successful subjects and try to translate the positives of each into my final product. I decided to look at directors who
have made films which include similar themes to my film. This including high school dramas teen drama, and films which
explore the theme of homosexuality. This has allowed me to collect a better idea of how specific themes should be
portrayed.
During the week I also completed my proposal. This document allows me to really plan out my work and gather a good plan
so I know exactly the product I want to create. As well as that, the proposal document allows me to review past work to see
how it has benefited me. This really allows me to reflect on the skills I have learnt and really realize the exact techniques I can
use to benefit my final product.
I feel the week went well. The positives were that I completed a useful and detailed inspirations document. It will allow me to
overall create a much better final product as I now know what features and techniques work and which don’t. I have also
looked at different ways the directors shoot different scenes more specifically group conversations as I need to make sure I
can shoot these perfectly to allow the product to convey the correct tone. If I could improve my work this week, I would have
collected even more inspirations as this would allow me to gather an even larger array of knowledge. Perhaps I should have
looked at more than just the films, I could have looked at different music and themes of different products. Although I did
look at the colour scheme of one product I could have looked at more as this would allow me to gather different inspiration
for more products and really allow me get an exact idea of the theme and music I want to use.

3. Week 2
During this week, I began on my research document, I first began by researching existing products. This specific task is incredibly
useful as it allows me to how successful products similar to mine function and become so successful. From this, I can take inspiration
from the different features and techniques that the products use and try to incorporate it into my final product. Researching existing
products also allows to see the negatives in different films, this is useful as it helps me to get a better understanding of how my
genre works therefore showing me what not to include in my final film. Adding to that, in the document I have also included
audience research. Currently, I have only got secondary audience research. I want to include Primary and secondary as this will allow
me to gather a large range of audience information. I feel this will give me a better overall insight of my audience meaning that I can
target my product specifically to them.
Next week when I continue with my research document I am going to include a group interview with the colleges LGBT club which I
plan to attend. I want to attend this club as it ill allow to gather some real experiences from real people who have gone through
similar events to what occurs in my film. This will allow me to take inspiration from their experiences and translate their feelings and
emotions into my final product. This will give my film a much more professional and realistic tone.
I feel my research this week went well. This is because all my existing products were useful and I feel I have definitely taken different
techniques from them. My audience research was also good as it has gave me a better idea of who to target my product at. If I could
improve what I have done, I would research more existing products. This is because I feel the more I research, the more information
and skills I will pick up. This will overall benefit my final product and allow me to create the best one I can.

4. Week 3
During this week, I continued with my research document. I made sure that I had some solid primary research as I felt this was good
feature to include. For this, I designed a survey where I asked an array of questions which I believed would benefit my final product.
This included asking how people think homosexuals are treated in todays society and if they know anyone who has had an difficult
experiences coming out. I personally felt like this was useful as it allows me to gather some real peoples experiences and peoples real
opinions. This allows me to gather a better overall understanding of the subject and the idea of me gaining information about real
experiences allows me to add a realistic aspect to my product. This is good as it makes the story seem much more believable
therefore engaging the audience much more effectively. Another significant element of my research was the interviews I collected. I
wanted to personally interview some people who had experienced coming out as I felt face to face I would be able to really
understand their situation and get really detailed insight into their experiences. This would allow me to create a much more realistic
and authentic product.
In my research so far I feel I have completed a few different useful tasks. However, I feel the interviews and the existing products have
been my biggest strengths. This is because the interviews have given me a really detailed insight into real coming out experiences
which will allow me to create a much more believable product. The existing products are very useful as they all me to collect a better
understanding of how my product can actually be filmed and edited successfully which is useful as it will allow me to create a much
better final product.
My research is good however there ae some areas I can work on. This includes perhaps researching even more existing products. I
feel this would be useful as it will allow me to gather even more techniques on how to create a successful product in my genre. As
well as that, I feel like I should complete some more subject research, this is because it will allow me to learn more about the theme
of homosexuality therefore collecting a better understanding of the topic. This may benefit me when planning and directing as I will
know more about the topic making me understand more how people act when they are hiding their sexuality and the way they react
to different things.

5. Week 4
During this week, I began on my problem solving task. This document includes me displaying all the possible problems which could occur
and then how I will overcome them. I decided to spilt this up into two different categories, “Practical and Technical problems” and
“Theoretical problems”. For “Practical and Technical problems” I included ideas like backing up problems, equipment problems, storage
problems etc. For “Theoretical problems” I decided to include problems with actors, working outside, transport etc. I decided to firstly
create a mood board for each category, this was to allow me to display all my ideas clearly and give a simple description of the issue
which I may have to face. After that, I decided I wanted to explore some of the problems in more detail. For this, I picked out the key
problems and indulged into how they can be avoided and the detail of the problem.
The problem solving document is very useful. I think this is because it allows use to really see how to overcome different problems whilst
in production therefore saving us much needed time in the future. The time saved whilst completing this task can then be put into
production therefore allowing us to create the best possible product we can.
In my product, I feel my biggest problem will be my actors. I think this is because in the past I have had different difficult experiences
with actors, especially the reliability of them. Because of this, this has left a constant negative idea of their reliability in my head, to
prevent this issue I am going to make sure I have solid back up options so that even if my first choices aren't available when I need them,
I will have a good back up who can do the job just as effectively.
This next week, I plan to complete experiments for my product. This is always useful to because it allows me to gather a solid idea of how
to achieve different features included in my final product. I have decided exactly what I am going to try yet however, I have a few ideas. I
think I want to properly test how I can change the colour correction to fit the tone of the product, as well as that I want to see how much
I can change the colour tone between different shots and see if the product still looks professional and effective.
So far, my project is gong quite well. The tasks I am completing are of a good quality. However, if I was to improve I would make sure that
all my work is fully complete and on my website at every single deadline as sometimes I forget to put my work up on the website.

6. Week 5
Week 5 was my second week of problem solving. During this week, I completed some practical experiments as well as also
completing the finished touches of my problem solving mind map and notes. For my practical, I decided I wanted to firstly test out
different colour tones for my product and see how I could contrast different colour tone sin my product to convey different themes.
I felt this was important to do as in my product I want the colour tone of the product to be dark and depressing to match the story
however, when the boys start to fall in love I want there to be a sight increase in temperature. I needed to test how much I can
change the two tones without it not looking clean and professional. Adding to that, I also tested out how music can affect the mood
of the same shot, I felt this was important to test out as I feel music is going to be incredibly important in my final product therefore
testing this is almost crucial for me. Finally, I tested how different camera angles created different ideas. By this I mean if I film a
shot looking down upon the subject, I wanted to see how much this made them look vulnerable and weak as I will be including
some shots like this in my product when I want a character to appear vulnerable.
Overall, I think my experiments went quite well however, to improve I could have completed more of them. In the future, I may
come back to the document to add additional experiments or document problems which I have realized I will need face. This may
because as I am developing my product, more problems could come up which I need to try and tackle.