Ewan has been keeping a weekly reflective journal documenting their progress on their final media production project. In week one, Ewan completed their proposal and context research ahead of schedule. In week two, Ewan focused on secondary research, analyzing existing films and audience reviews to inform their project. Ewan found audience research to be the most useful. In week three, Ewan reflected that their research was strong with variety but could still analyze more films. Ewan was surprised by negative reviews of classic films. Their research will help them avoid cliches.

1. WEEKLY DIARY
Ewan Ewan

2. REFLECTIVE JOURNAL:
You are required to keep a weekly
reflective journal.The aim of the
reflective journal is for you to discuss
the challenges, obstacles and
difficulties you are managing and
solving during your FMP project.
This can be in one of the following
formats:
 Written journal (min. 300 words)
 Video journal (min. 3 mins)
 Audio journal (min. 3 mins)

3. WEEK ONE

4. ■ Who is this for?
– I have already written about this while writing my proposal so I have a good idea of this.
“My film will focus on the drama genre with little violence.This makes it seem more tailored to
female audiences. However, there will be bad language and more adult themes, and because
of what I have planned, I believe that it will be tailored more to young adults, aged between
16-24. I don’t think that there’s much of a specific social class, so I would argue that it would
beC1, which is lower middle class.This is due to the fact that it occupies a large percentage of
the population, and so it would most likely be that class that watches it. My geodemographic
is anywhere that speaks English, so it would mostly be for England or the USA. I’d argue its
more for English audiences because of people of a specific psychographic.This psychographic
is belongers.These people are brand loyal and are more attracted to products where they’re
from, in this case, the UK”
Why is this important to you?
This project is important to me as it’s my final chance
to show what I’ve learnt at the college. Over the past
two years I have had the chance to create a wide
variety of projects, and now it’s time to see how
they’ve all come together to make one, big, final
project. In one PowerPoint, I have already looked at my
past evaluations to see what I need to improve on, so I
know what I can do to make this the best project I’ve
done yet.

5. ■ What worries you about the project?
– My worry is that my final product won’t be good enough. I have a
really solid plan of what I want it to look like in my head, but
whether or not I can mimic that I’m not sure. I’ve done things like
this before, but the fact that it’s the final project adds pressure
and can make me doubt my ability. I know I’ll be able to do it
well, but there’ll always be that voice in the back of my mind.
■ What influences do you have outside of this specific type of media?
– I am also concentrating a lot on getting the right music and the
right poster for my project, just as a bonus to pair with my main
project. In my research so far in the first week I have touched
upon these, but I haven’t gone into masses of detail yet. I’m
concentrating on still image in a couple of areas, as I want to also
make aT-shirt design. I haven’t got any ideas just yet, but I’ll
make the designs from scratch when that time comes.

6. ■ What skills do you already have that will help you produce it?
– I think my best qualities that will help is my skills in editing and
thinking of different shots. In my head I can clearly picture ideas
that look good, and so will improve my short film.As well as this I
think I do best in post-production.Cutting at specific times and
changing the camera at the right time really improves the film.
People will notice if you cut too much or too little so it’s a matter
of editing to make people feel more submerged in the film.
■ What areas do you need to develop confidence in?
– I feel like I need to get better at actually holding a camera. I don’t
have very still hands a lot of the time, so I usually just end up
using a tripod, but if I want to do it freehand, then I have to be
able to keep my hands still enough for it to look good

7. ■ Week 1:What I did and how it went
– The first week of the FMP I spent on my
context and film theory PowerPoint. Although
I didn’t do too many slides for my context, I
backed it up with a five minute video talking
about them in more detail, which also depicts
the scenes which I was talking about at the
time. As well as this, I completed my work on
film theory, which I tried to link my short film
into. For example, mentioning how films use
colour, then how I will. I was done with some
time to spare, so I also managed to finish my
proposal. It included a pretty detailed
schedule that I need to stay on to complete
my work well. As well as this, it has a fairly
brief description of my film (Around 250
words). All in all I think it was a pretty good
start to the project, and a very good week. I
got a lot of work done to a high standard and
I’m well on my way to finishing the rest of my
project to an equally, if not higher standard. If
I was to improve on one thing, I’d probably
have another go at recording my script for my
video. I didn’t notice until I was editing it that I
said some words wrong. It is only a small
mistake that doesn’t effect much, but it’s
noticeable.

8. WEEKTWO

9. ■ What have you been working on this week?
– This week I have been concentrating on the research
element of pre-production. I have split this up into
different sections, separating my existing products up
with my various types of primary research, such as the
survey.This week I concentrated mostly on secondary
research, starting with existing products.This is where I
analyse films and tv programmes and talk about the
areas of them that I want to be similar to mine. I did this
for around six products as well as various other bits, such
as posters and T-shirt designs. Next I moved onto
Audience research. Again this involves existing products,
but in a different way. I took both positive and negative
reviews from review sites, usually imdb, and talked about
the reasons why they thought what they thought.This
gave me a good idea of things to avoid and put in, as
many people thought the same things were both good
and bad. After this was done, I started some subject
research. In this area I concentrated on the more
theoretical areas of film as that was my main subject and
an important part of production. I didn’t finish this area
however, and that’s a job for next week. Finally, I created
a survey.This didn’t take long but I have left it up over
the weekend so I can go on to analyse it onTuesday.

10. ■ What have you learned from your research so far?
– From my research I’ve learnt a lot about what I should
and shouldn’t do.Through analysing the reviews, I’ve
learnt what people tend to like and don’t like, and so it’s
taught me about plenty of things to avoid and include.
■ How will that influence your project?
– It will hopefully help my project a lot.This genre has
many clichés that I’m not a fan of, and so doing all of
this research has made me aware of a lot of them, so I’ll
be able to avoid them when production comes along.
■ What else do you think you need to look at in your
research?
– Next week, the plan will be to finish subject research
and analyse it. As well as this, I will need to analyse my
survey results.This will involve talking about common
trends in my results and how I will adapt my short film
depending on the results of it. Finally, after all that is
done, I can go back to each area and complete them in
more detail, making my research powerpoint a lot more
solid, and so hopefully improving my grade.

11. ■ What problems have occurred during this
week of research?
– I haven’t really had many problems this week, the
only one maybe being that I had trouble finding a
wide array of sources for my research. Because of
the fact that a lot of my research was based on
fairly recent products so I had to stick to websites
a lot of the time. However I found plenty of books
for other areas so I managed to fix the problem
fairly easily.
■ What type of research has been most useful
this week?
– I think so far my secondary audience research has
been the most useful. It’s allowed my to get the
opinions of real people as to what they want to see
in a genre similar to this one. It will eventually be
one of the biggest areas in my research to help my
final product, so that’s why I believe that it’s my
most useful area so far.

12. ■ What problems might you face on your second week of
research?
– How the second week of research goes completely depends on my level of
creativity. A lot of the week will be spent adding extra content to my
research, so I’ll need to think of a lot more different films and other areas
to research. It’s possible that I could get to the point where I have trouble
thinking of films or other types of research to do, so I have to be creative
enough to keep thinking of different items to add.

13. WEEK 3

14. ■ What do you think have been the strengths of
your research so far?
– I’m very pleased with how my research has turned out,
so I think there’s plenty of strengths to it really.The
main one though I’d say is the variety of research
examples that I’ve included in it.There’s multiple
different types of both secondary and primary research,
which in turn makes my research better, and so it will
help me more.
■ Do you think there are other areas that you might still
need to work on?
– Although I think my research is very strong, I also think I
could always do more. If I was to improve in one area, I’d
add more products to my secondary research for
existing products.There’s so many films and tv
programmes out there following the genre I am, so the
more I analyse, the better my product could end up.

15. ■ What has been the most unexpected finding in
your research?
– The most unexpected area was how many people could
dislike so many classic films. When conducting my
audience research, there were so many negative
reviews for things with such high ratings. This was
originally how I got the idea to do secondary audience
research, because I wanted to talk about why people
thought these great films were bad
■ What specific impacts will this research have on
your project?
– My research, especially my audience research, has
helped me find positives and negatives in many current
products,This has given me a very good idea on what I
should include or avoid in my final product. It’s helped
me learn about clichés, and where to draw the line if I
add something comedic, and so I can tailor my product
to fit a wider audience because of it.

16. WEEK 4

17. Week 4 was the beginning of problem solving.This involves me
talking about what could go wrong and how I fix it if it does, or
plan for it if it can’t be fixed. It also involves completing
experiments
■ Overview of problems
– When working on problem solving, I didn’t really have
any problems that specifically apply to just me.This
means all I had to think about was problems that
could happen to anyone who’s doing a short film like I
am. Most of the problems were technical since the
majority of what I’ll be doing will be on a computer,
however the most important problems I might face
will be practical, happening when I’ll be filming.
■ What is the biggest problem you could face?
– The biggest problem will be do with the weather.
Most of my short film will be shot outside and I can’t
control the weather, so it’s important that I make it on
a date that’s dry.The problem is, there’s still no
guarantee that there won’t be any rain, so all I can do
is hope. If all else fails I could film what I need to on a
different day, however that creates even more
problems, like having to get the actors again on a date
that works for both of them and me.

18. ■ What further problem solving are you looking to do?
– The next week for problem solving I will concentrate on experiments.
There’s aspects of this short film that I haven’t tried before, so by
trying them now I can be better for when the time comes and I actually
need to do it.This goes for everything, not just filming. It is the same
for editing and photoshop, and I’ll try to get at least one of each in this.
■ Why do we do problem solving?
– We do problem solving because it’s important to plan for the worst. It’s
better for nothing to go wrong and have plans than something going
wrong and not having plans. Looking through problem solving so far,
very little of it is probably going to happen, but it’s important to know
that if it does, I have a plan for how to get through it.
■ What do you think are your greatest strengths?
– My biggest strength is how I am on a computer. I may not be the best
at filming, but editing is a big strength of mine, as well as working on
Photoshop. In production, all of these make up for my weaknesses,
masking something that might have gone wrong and making my final
product look really good.

19. WEEK 5

20. ■ How prepared do you feel to start production in 1 week's
time?
– As of now, I feel fairly prepared, however I still have some of
the most important areas to do. I know I’ll be able to complete
it all in one week though, so I do feel prepared.These areas
include the story board and the shotlist, two of the most key
areas for when filming starts.
■ What planning have you done this week?
– I have gotten quite a lot done in this first week of planning.The
main thing I got finished was my script. I even managed to get
feedback and make improvements in the same week, making it
even better. As well as this I got all the little bits done, such as
health and safety, contingency planning, finances, all of those
bits. I also completed all my poster planning, drawing up
concepts for the two that I want to make as well as their colour
schemes.This bit was very useful to me as I now have a very
clear image in my head of what I want my posters to be.
■ How well do you think your first week of planning went?
– It went very well, I was productive, and I have a clear idea of
everything I want to do. I also know what I need to do next
week so I know next week’s planning will go just as well. I
completed a very large chunk of that PowerPoint and so I have
more time next week to concentrate on the bigger areas.

21. ■ What impact will this week's work have on your project?
– A massive impact, I finished my script and doing so completed my story.
Before this I had no idea how to end my film, but now since I have my script
finished, I have an ending, which is very important. Arguably, this week's
work was the most important work I have done so far. Everything is
important, but a script and a finished story is definitely the biggest thing I
need.
■ What else have you still got to plan?
– Two of the most important areas of planning, the storyboard and shotlist.The
shotlist is what I will use when I’m filming, as it a step by step guide of what I
will film.To me, the shotlist is the most important thing I can do, as it helps
me remember the shots I think of and allows me to complete all of them to a
good degree.
■ What is the biggest threat to your project right now (other than a global
pandemic the like of which we’ve not seen for generations)?
– I’m having a lot of trouble finding a second actor. Some of my shots require a
manual change in focus, so I can’t do it myself, but if I can’t find anyone else
to be in it, then I’m in big trouble.

22. WEEK 6

23. This week was a strange one. Due to the pandemic, we
started working from home as of Wednesday. This will
drastically affect what I do in the future, but as of this week
everything was the same as usual, just from home.This
week I have finished my planning and so I am ready for
production on Saturday.
For this second week of planning, I’ve finished off the last of
the bigger areas, in this case my shotlist and my story
board.The two give me a mix of a more detailed description
of each shot, as well as a visual aspect to show what I mean,
in case specifying the type of shot didn’t completely do it.
As well as this, I found what music I wanted to use in my
project. I’m not sure if I will use music, that’s something I will
find out in editing, but it’s good to know that it’s there in
case I do use it. I already know I’m making multiple versions
of my film, so I’ll see whether or not I like it with the music
in.
I’m happy with my planning. Every single slide gets the
point across and is useful in one way or another, it has by far
been the most important bit I’ve done so far. I know exactly
what I’m doing throughout production so for the next six
weeks I should be fine and know what I’m doing.

24. Just like last week, the work I’ve done this week will have a major impact on my
production. The shotlist will most likely be what I go off during production, and so it
will be the most important thing for me going onto filming. As well as this, I’ve
chosen the music.This may seem like a small part, but it could have drastic changes
to the feeling of my film, so it was important that I find the right song. Now my film
has all come together. It’s difficult because I’m working from home, however it’s
made easier by the fact that my planning has every little thing sorted.
The next step is to start production. My most important area is of course filming
and editing my main film, then of course I have two different posters to make as my
next biggest part. After these two if I still have time then I will complete the smaller
areas, for example, the t shirt and getting posters printed. As of now I don’t think I’ll
be able to print anything. Everyone has lost their jobs so buying and printing is
difficult, so I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to do it or not, but I will see how
everything is later in production.
Other than a global pandemic, the only thing that can go wrong now is based upon
my actors and whether or not they decide to show up.They’re the key part in
finishing my work to a high standard as I have everything sorted, so we’ll see when
production comes along.