My research and planning skills have improved significantly from my AS media coursework. For my short film, I conducted thorough case studies of similar films like "Mama", "Insidious", and "The Eye" to find narrative structures, editing techniques, and atmospheres to incorporate. My storyboards and script were well-organized with input from classmates. While time management as a group faced some challenges, I ensured my individual tasks were completed on schedule. Overall, my presentation of research and planning has developed through varied use of technologies like blogs and timelines.

1. Researching and
planning the movie
image work
By Thahmina Khan

2. Research:
What research did you carry out into similar
products?
From looking at my case study’s, the aspects I found useful as research for my own production
was the film “Insidious”, this is because the sound affect used where there was a foggy
atmosphere and none of the characters were talking created a dramatic atmosphere which is
similar to the theme I want to create in my short film as it sounds spooky and more like a horror
film.
 In addition, another technique which I found useful in my case study was the exploration on
editing, this is because the cutting rate in “Insidious” was fast, this helps produce an uncertainty
and tightness atmosphere which most horror films include.
 From my research on my case studies on “The Eye”, the last element that I would like to be
included in my short film is a linear narrative structure, this helps create a continuous order
where the film is working towards; the problem usually occurs in the beginning or middle of the
film but at the end it is solved.
 Concluding from my research when doing the case study’s on “Mama”, “The Eye” and
“Insidious”, I have found that all these horror films prefer to have a narrative structure so that
tension builds up slowly but towards the end of the film, all questions are unanswered and
solutions solved. This was one of the elements I liked that I ensured that would be added into
the short film I am creating.


3. How have your skills in researching real media
products improved since the AS course?

My skills in researching have improved dramatically from AS media when I was producing
a music magazine till A2 media as now had to create a short film.

An area of researching that I have developed on is my case studies from AS media. This is
because when I had to produce the music magazine, my case studies were rushed and
not thoroughly thought, one of the case study’s name was “Billboard magazine”, this did
not have much relative information that I would of liked to add when making my own
music magazine, because of this, I struggled on writing up the evaluation when it came to
linking ideas from the case study to our music magazines. In addition to this, another case
study that I used last year was “Top of the pops”, this magazine had brief research and I
should of chose a better music magazine to do a case study on as there was no similarities
from this to the music magazine I have produced in AS. This meant that when thinking of
ideas for creating a music magazine, I didn’t have much inspiration to choose from.

I have realised there has been a development on the case study research as now, I did thorough research on
similar short films that I can pick up ideas from and add in to my own short film; these case study’s included
“Mama”, “Insidious” and “The eye”.

This made creating my story board easier as I had more ideas to create the story from. Moreover, I am familiar with
always relating my case study’s back to any of my research as I had to do this in AS media for the music magazine.

Furthermore, I realised when producing my short films, I always used my story board, plans and notes to help me
create the short film whereas in AS, when we produced our music magazine, I did not have any plan to get me
through this process, this meant that my organisation skills have developed as well as my researching skills.

4. Research on target audience:
What research have you carried out
into your target audience?
When me and my group pitched our treatment to the class, we received feedback where
there was constructive critics and good points of our treatment.
 The feedback helped conclude potential target audience of our film as our class is full of
teenagers aged 17-18; they liked our idea of the short film which helped reinforce that our
short film would be successful on our potential target audience from the age 13-19. The
reason we chose to stay 13 and not below because our main character is a 13 year old girl
who has supernatural elements occur to her, if a child below 13 watches our short films,
they may get more spooked out than an older age group.
 Also when receiving audience feedback from my class and the teachers, I realised
comments received was the same as when I produced my music magazine. This included
points needed to improve my product and good points too, for example when presenting
our treatment on our short film, someone mentioned that having one of the locations in the
forest will make our film more scary then our other locations. Also from last year’s research
on target audience, there was useful comments where my classroom had ideas on a
better name for my music magazine.


5. Logistics planning:
How well did you organise your actors, locations,
costumes and props?

The release forms, risk assessments and call sheets all came in useful when organising our actors,
locations and props as. This mean that our organisation skills were good however improvements
could have been made. For example, when it came to shooting, our prop was not organised
successfully as we had to take pictures on the day whilst printing it and putting the image into the
frame, doing this on the day of our shooting meant a delay of one of the scenes which had to be
filmed another day in the same location.

Also filling in the risk assessments were useful as we were aware of any hazard thought our filming
days. For example one of our locations was in the forest so we made extra care of the camera
equipment as we were shooting outside and also looked at the weather website to see if it would
rain the day we wanted to film. This helped us be aware of the rain and temperature so our actors
did not freeze.

In addition, our costumes were quite organised as we planned days before filming what each actor
had to bring in n what day.

Furthermore, throughout our logistics planning, this included regular team meetings which helped
ensure that every group member knew what they were doing and the days we planned to film.

The logistics planning was much better when creating the short film compared to producing the
music magazine as this helped me and my group to be ahead of schedule, this meant that we had
more time to efficiently do each task correctly whilst having time to regularly update on our blogs
and improve it. Blogging this year was one of the main improvements compared to AS media
because, when producing the short film, I updated any piece of media related work I do on a daily
basis.
Risk assessment sheet

6. Narrative planning:
Evaluate your story boards and/ or scripts?

When carrying out the tasks to complete the story boards and
script, we had to divide each of these to the member of our
groups.

First we started of creating a plan of each scene that every
frame would include, this included camera techniques and
angles of the camera so that when it came to putting these
notes on to the story board, each group member knew what
to write. This ensured that our story board was detailed and
easy to do. We then divided our plan into four story boards
each group member does.

The script was roughly planned out in class what we wanted
each character to say, this was then finalised in Microsoft word
with better dialogue and format, at the end of this, I updated
the task and script after it was approved by our teacher and
added in a few comments she pointed out to our story boards
and improved on before blogging.
First page of story board

7. Evaluate your story boards and/
or scripts?

Thought our narrative planning, the only problem occurred was that one of the group
member was not present in the first team meeting so me and the other group member
talked about our story boards and did this on our long break we had together, this team
meeting also included us doing some of the call sheets and printing out all the risk
assessment, location and actors release form out. Because me and my other group
member seemed to be doing most of the tasks, it seemed unfair on us as the other group
member did not do as much as we did, so this could have been improved if we was more
firm on the other group member and all three of us planned out exactly what sheets we all
needed to do, this then would of ensured that there was fairness in the same amount of
tasks each group member does.

The planning, sketches, plans and mock-ups compared to A2 media than first year when
we had to create our own music magazine was that this year was much better organised
and more sketches were needed to be carried out when producing a short film. This
meant that more work had to be done but because I had a taste of how planning starts of
in AS media when making the music magazine, I knew what needed to be included in the
case studies for the short films as it was a similar layout.

8. Evaluate your own, and your group’s time
management. How does this compare to time
management of the music magazine project?

My time management was efficient as I always ensured I did the task given straight away
and moved on to the next task needed to do, this then made sure that me and group’s
time management was ahead in schedule as we started to shoot early and start on editing
as soon as possible. However working as a group caused some problems, for example
relying on a group member to get a task done so as a group, we can all move on to the
next task, also ensuring that when it came to editing, all of us turned up to the sessions,
nonetheless this was not the case as one of the group member consistently does not turn up
to lessons, but we dealt with it by confronting her with It and also the teacher realised this so
then she started to take our work seriously from time to time.

Time management of the music magazine project compared to the short film would be that
this year is much better on carrying out tasks as me and my group are ahead of schedule
however, when carrying out the music magazine project in AS, I would say that all my tasks
were given in on time however there was some slight delays on photo shooting.

9. How well have you presented your
research and planning?


I would say that my creativeness on using different technologies
to blog up my work has improved to last year’s blog.
This is because I try to make sure I don’t use the same technology
more than twice so use different technologies to present my work
in, for example, last year’s production schedule was done in
Microsoft word however this year I had done it in time toast. I
found this much more efficient as I could easily go onto my time
toast and add in any extra notes to my production schedule, such
as me and group being ahead on tasks were updated and I also
changed the dates to when we shot our film and started to edit
them.