Kieran Beal is choosing to do a film project for their final rotation. They have enjoyed film projects more than print or video game projects in the past. They want to improve their time management and expand their use of equipment like boom mics and steady cams. Kieran created mind maps and mood boards to develop a rough idea for a film about a happiness-inducing drug. They analyzed mood boards focused on storytelling and aesthetics to influence the contrasts in their film and inspire a simple graphic poster design. Researching other works dealing with psychological themes will further develop the core idea.

1. Initial Plans
Kieran Beal

2. Initial Reaction
• In this final rotation we have been given the option to pick a topic of our choice ranging from, film, video game or print, we have been given 8 weeks
to complete this project. After the last project I am confident in my skills to create a film that is up to a good standard that will obtain a good grade.
While I had also created printed magazines and websites as well as a video game animation I believe that I was more skilled in film production as well
as enjoying the topic much more, while I did enjoy the photography aspect of the print rotation I don’t think I completed it to the standard that I
completed my short film to. In the first project we filmed an advert around Irn-Bru and in the film rotation we covered a fictional/non-fictional film, I
found creating a film easier to complete from a creative aspect and so I think I would choose this for my project.
• While I don’t have any background in film from a production perspective, I have studied film before in A level and that is where I acquired a
fascination for film and a desire to produce my own work, since then I have been passionate about the film industry and so I wanted to have at go at
the creation aspect myself.
• After analysis of my work from all 3 topics, I think I have a skill for the theory part of the project, researching pre-existing products and analysing the
techniques and work put into them, to figure out what exactly I think made them good. At the same time however I think I need to accelerate the
time I take planning the initial idea of a product, as I tend to spend a long time dwelling on this area until I have an idea that I both like and is
practical, I take a long time on this segment of the project and this is something that I need to speed up so that I have more time for the actual plan
so I can start production on time, overall time management is my biggest concern that I need to improve upon.
• The college has more than enough equipment that I could use for production in my project, before now I have stuck to using basic equipment such as
a camera and tri-pod, this however is something I wish to expand upon as I believe that I could improve upon my finished production using different
technical equipment, including a boom mic for better sound quality and a steady cam to keep the camera stable, I prefer this technique to shaky
cam, as far as software goes I haven’t used after effects before despite this being software that the college has, however I have had practice in
Premiere-Pro and for the most part know how to use it fluently (leaving out some of the more advanced aspects) and as a result I would likely use
this instead for editing and finishing my project.
• To manage my time effectively and ensure that everything is completed on time, there are multiple methods to approach this however I think that I
would go with the Gantt chart, this will allow me to quickly manage how much time I invest in each aspect of the project.
• Reflection will be a vital aspect to create my final project, A method to doing this will be to revise what I have reflected over in my last film project
and use this material to improve upon my work further.
• I am going to create a short film for my final project likely based in fiction for an extension to possibilities and of my film, with this being said I think I
would stay away from using any special effects (green screen) as in my last project this created questionable results, so I think for my film I would like
to stick to digital effects and camera work if possible.

3. Mind Map
The point of the ideas that I generated on my mind map were meant to demonstrate a level of ambition
while also staying within the bounds of reality, however I decided to carry the idea of a happiness inducing
drug over because it seemed to be the one where I could tell the most effective story while still being
possible, whereas a film based around a VR headset for instance would require the actual console to film.

4. Mind Map (final rough idea)
My final rough idea had a lot more ambition in it that I decided to cut out because it would've
simply taken too long, for instance creating a custom advert for the fake drug is something
that I wanted to do but I simply didn’t have time to do it, so my final rough idea was meant to
cut out any of the unrealistic parts of my plan and leave something that is more possible to
do.

5. Mood Board (storytelling)

6. Mood board (Aesthetics)

7. Mood Board Analysis
My mood board is split down the middle in terms of the images being similar. Contrasting colours and sights to
each other, the resemblance is split down the centre to show a before and after effect. I'm going to achieve this
effect through editing effects on premiere pro because I want to be able to reflect of light and dark. This is
because my film literally contrasts the differences between seeing a world for what it is and seeing it through
rose tinted glasses, and how larger powers e.g. large corporations trying to force you to see what they want
you to see. My mood board influences this by using bright and dark images of towns and rooms, and even a
good and bad visual representation of figures of authority, this is often a change of perspective that occurs
when we grow up from being children.
My second mood is more to gain inspiration for a style of my film poster. I'm wanting to create a simple graphic
design as visible from most of the posters, I want to use this method because personally I like they're stylistic
nature, but in addition to that they are a good way to convey the feeling of the product without making the
poster too busy, generally using bold colour schemes to capture the audiences attention and that’s why these
ones stand out to me the most. These particular poster designs also rely primarily on illustration and few words
if any at all, and I think that it's best if posters promoting products lack a large amount of words and rely more
on a purely aesthetical aspect. After looking at my mood board and analysing the core features of it, the
psychological themes of isolation and pressure, I believe the next important step in my research I think will be
to look at different products that also include these psychological themes, shows such as 'Sherlock' and 'Black
mirror' would be a good place to start in this regard. It has also helped my realise what my centralised idea for
the full idea will be like in my full proposal. It has also helped my realise restrictions that I'm going to have in
place for my project, the second mood board that I have created has also helped me realise that it would be a
good idea to create a poster advertising my film to accompany it, the designs that I have viewed on my mood
board have also inspired me to create a poster that is both simple but also focuses on a singular character or
object, I think that this is a good idea because it will create a feeling of tension and uneasiness, the colours that
I use in the production of the poster will also play a large part in this case, will have to research other products
that use these techniques to see if they have been able to use it to a similar effect that I want it for.