A presentation of my progress of research and planning.

1. PLANNING AND RESEARCH:
SARAH SALEH

2. WHAT RESEARCH DID YOU CARRY OUT INTO SIMILAR
PRODUCTS?
Primary research: our primary research began with looking at many different short films within the thriller
genre once we established that we wanted to base our short film on that. I then chose 3 different short films
to use as my case studies, which were; “Dexter opening theme” – TV Show, “Ben” – nanalew and “Unwind” –
MainstayPro. These were all helpful into creating our vision as they all contained certain aspects of what we
wanted to include i.e. camera shots. I watched a lot of different thriller/horror short films and I decided that
these 3 were the most suitable. The key figure was in choosing something that did not need a big a budget or
was too complex for us to do. My case studies fit this particular criteria. Each case study had something that I
specifically wanted to learn from such as how the first perspective shots were done in the unwind to help
move the narrative, how the cutting and pacing through action and chase scenes were choreographed to
create tension and excitement in Ben and how implication can be used by micro shots in Dexter. Once I saw
how it was done in these short films, it gave me confidence in my own ideas and it significantly helped in
giving us a solid starting point and plan.
The strides which I have taken from last year is evident starting from the clear and careful way in which I have
selected the case studies I have used, making sure the one I chose will all aid me in different ways. In
comparison to the previous year, where I would have chosen anything just to get it done. I have also learnt a
great deal from orchestrating my own photo-shoot from last year, as I have a clear understanding of the
importance of such things as lighting and even the necessity of not leaving booking equipment last minute.

3. WHAT RESEARCH DID YOU CARRY OUT INTO YOUR
TARGET AUDIENCE?
While looking at the target audience we chose to focus on Dexter, mainly as the other case studies
were available on YouTube and therefore making it significantly more accessible for other, it is also
harder to predict a the exact demographic of the audience. In order to analyse the target audience of
Dexter we looked at:
• The average age and gender demographic
• The average ratings (including online ratings)
• Day and time it originally aired
Taking all of these figures into consideration (including the fact that is air on a cable network
meaning that it has a limited availability), we were able to deduce that majority of the viewers were
males over the age of 18, due to the mature context of the show. Following this precedent, we
decided that we were going to target the same age and gender group. However, after filming most of
the footage, we decided to lower the age to 16, as there wasn’t any extreme violent or graphic
scenes.

4. HOW WELL DID YOU ORGANISE ACTORS,
LOCATION, COSTUMES AND PROPS?
I feel as if we had an almost seamless transition from planning our shooting to actually shooting our
short film. This is mainly due to the fact that we regularly had team meetings where we would have in
depth and detailed discussions. We were all, creatively speaking, on the same page which made
everything much more easier to produce. The early issues we ran into was not on whether we could
get an actor, but rather did we want an actor, but as we started to draw specific scenes we wanted
include, it was clear that we did need an actor. Our short film relies quite heavily on props so it was
important that had to make a list of all the props we intended to use, this made it very easy on the
days of shooting as everyone knew what to bring and when to bring it.
The hardest obstacle we had was trying to find a suitable location to film our container scenes. We had
looked into many different possibilities such as renting garages, studios and lock up. We eventually
looked into booking a space at big yellow self-storage place, however when we called them we were
informed that filming was not permitted. This left us with very limited options, but we were able to
create what we wanted by using a storage container in the school premises. This ended up working
best for us as the location was perfect distance meaning that we didn't have to carry our props too far
a distance.
Its hard to compare this with my music magazine project as I was really faced with any of these
problems. The closest issue I ran into was getting a willing model that fit in with my music genre and
the type of message I was trying to send. Another minor issues was props, which was guitar. This
wasn't much of an issue as I already own a guitar.

5. EVALUATE YOUR STORYBOARDS
We made a rough storyboard in the very stages of our planning, this was done mainly just to get our
ideas onto paper in order to help move the planning process along. We then made a another
storyboard that were the fountains of our short film. After making a few adjustments we had our
storyboard ready enough to start shooting. However as we started shooting we realised that we
needed to add more details i.e. camera shots, different angles, which we initially didn't add to our
storyboards. This caused us to go off book for a lot of scenes in order to piece everything together,
despite this we did to the main skeleton of our storyboard. Surprisingly doing this actually helped us,
as we were able to learn from our mistakes, but we were also able to shoot a few things that weren't
on the storyboard but increased the quality of our short film. This allowed us to go back to our
storyboard and add more detailed scenes. I think the most important and difficult aspect of the
storyboard was the fact that we had two parallel storylines that we would flashback to. We didn't
know quite how to structure it at first, but after a failed attempt to create both storylines in the same
storyboard, we decided to create two different storyboards with their own individual timelines, but we
would make a mark on each one to show where each flashback would happen.
In comparison to the music magazine project, I would say that I put in much less effort in a sense that
with this project I find myself constantly looking for areas in which we can improve on and make
better, whereas with my music magazine I did maybe one or two drafts and would go on from there
rather than scrutinise my work like I am doing for the short film project.

6. EVALUATE YOUR TIME MANAGEMENT IN
COMPARISON TO YOUR PREVIOUS PROJECT?
There is a huge difference between my time management this year in comparison
from my music magazine project I did last year. The most glaringly obvious
difference is actually creating a structured and detailed production schedule. While
this seems something quite small, the biggest flaw of last year was leaving
everything last minute and not following a schedule. Another thing that drastically
helps is being part of a joint project as it allowed the burden of work to be shared,
it also makes me want to strive further into meeting deadlines, as no one really
wants to be the one to let down the group. This project has been a massive change
from the music magazine project, where I was admittedly not as enthusiastic as
the current short film project.

7. HOW WELL HAVE YOU PRESENTED YOUR RESEARCH
AND PLANNING?
In comparison to my music magazine I think there is a big difference in the
process of my researching and planning. This is mainly due to the fact that both
of the projects are vastly different and therefore I had to approach them
differently. Whilst doing the short film project I was able to branch out and use a
variety of media formats in order to illustrate my research process such as prezi
and YouTube. In contrast to the music magazine project where most of my
presented research was very linear and basic (i.e. PowerPoint). In a way I think
that the experience of my first project has allowed me to become a lot more
confident in expressing my ideas and thoughts in creative ways.