weekly reflections diary

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL WEEK 1
Adam Lepard

My target audience is teenagers and young adults aged 16-21
as in my research for last years FMP I discovered that this was
the ideal audience for a horror film and I think that it’ll be good
to stick to this as it gave me a lot of freedom last year so having
a similar audience classification shouldn't be an issue. I think
that my project could be focused more on appealing to both a
male and female audience this time as the film has a male and
female protagonist who come from different backgrounds so it
should appeal evenly to both audiences. I think that overall my
audience won’t be to different from last years FMP but I’ve
improved it so that the gender of my audience is more
balanced.
The project is important to me as it’s a concept that I’ve been
trying to develop for the past year so I know what I’m wanting
to create when planning and developing my project. As I’ve
mainly been researching this week I’ve looked at the horror
films/media inspired my project and explained how it’s
impacted my concept and where it fit’s in to my concept, doing

I think that the main difficulties I could run into in this project
are that my planning could prove useless when I’m actually
filming my project and because I want to film one long take
my planning is fundamental to my success so I need to put a
lot of effort into planning out exactly how the scene will work. I
think that an issue I may find in my primary research (which I
will be doing in week 2) is the survey as I need to make sure
that I can find a place to share it so that I can get a lot of
replies as well as making sure my questions are necessary
and important. I think that as long as I can for the eventuality
of main problems I may face I can make it through the FMP
without much issue.
Other than horror films my key influences are from the play
Romeo and Juliet as the plot of the play is a major influence
on my film concept as I would give my film the subgenre of a
romance/tragedy mainly due to how I envision my film ending
however I’m not sure this influence will be felt in the scene I’m
making as the scene is more action focused. I’m yet to speak

In my previous projects I’ve learnt to become better at
organizing which should be really helpful for planning
this project and making sure all my actors show up or
that I have back up actors incase things go wrong. In
last years FMP I worked with coloured lights which I
want to use in this project as well as it adds a nice
aesthetic as well as being something I have experience
with.
I think that I need to build my confidence work with
actors as the scene I’m filming will require some pretty
emotive acting so I want to develop my directing skills
so I can get the best possible performances from my
actors. I also want to develop my skills with making
music as in my last project I wanted to make music and
it took up a lot of production time so this time I want to
make music again but I want to research and plan in
advance so that I can produce it more efficiently.

I think that so far I’ve done a good job explaining my influences as well as
the techniques that I want to incorporate into the scene. I’ve also
researched into horror/film theory to get a better understanding of what
make a good movie and how I can improve my style of horror which I
believe has been successful so far. I think that my main issue when
researching has been that I’ve found it difficult to keep up a good pace
while writing so I’ve found my self falling behind a bit however this
shouldn't be to much of an issue as I can catch up outside of college and
I’m getting faster at writing now. In week two I want to finish my research
entirely by completing my secondary and primary research including
interviews and a survey. I also want to start my planning as I think that this
will be one of the most important parts of my FMP.

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)

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL WEEK
2
This week I’ve added my target audience to my research
PowerPoint so that I can show who my project is being made for, I
made a survey so that I can get some feedback on how I can
improve my initial concept. I looked into different aspects of film
making and how I would incorporate them into my project such as
the music, lighting and writing, I found this useful as it helped me to
imagine how the finished product should look and sound like. In my
audience research I looked at the reviews for films that had
influenced me and pointed out the faults in these films and how I
can improve upon these issues in my project.
I think that the most important thing I did this week was to look into
important directing skills such as writing screenplays and directing
actors as I can tell that these are really going to help me during
production with the organization of filming. Directing actors will
probably help me the most as it will make filming more efficient as
well as improving the performances that I get.

next week I will need to do some research into filming
techniques such as long takes as this will be the key aspect
to my filming, I also need to send my survey out so that I can
analyze the feedback I get and explain how it will help me in
my project. I want to look at some horror film trailers and
explain how they will influence the trailer that I want to make
for my film.
I’d say the hardest part of this week was explaining how
music and lighting has influenced me, I watched scenes from
Suspiria and Carrie and Listened to lot’s of different songs
which had the tone that I’d be aiming for in my scene, I think
that writing about these subjects was difficult for me because
it’s hard to describe what makes these elements so impactful
for me. I went through these slides a couple of times
because I wanted to talk about the technical elements of
these subjects rather than how the music/lighting made me
feel as I think that looking at the technical aspects is more

I think that the most important part of my research this week
was my primary research into directing non-actors/actors as I
think that this has taught me some really useful skill that I can
use on set. I watched D4Darious for this and I think that his
videos are really great as he gets to the point quickly and it’s
clear that he has a lot of experience with film making.
Something else that will be really useful is the research I did
into screen plays as it’s given me a new way to help my self
and the actors.
I think that my next week of research I’ll probably run into
issues with my survey, I think that I’ll probably get some
responses that aren’t really what I’m hoping however most of
the questions aren’t really there to effect my video but to find
out more about who would watch my film and how I could make
it more appealing to them.

The first thing I did this week was finishing my audience research as
I wanted to learn more about how my audience felt about the current
state of horror films and the results of this survey surprised me as
they reinforced that my concept and plans would appeal to most
audience members which was something I wasn’t actually expecting.
The research survey also told me about what sorts of sounds and
lighting I can use to unnerve my audience and this also kept in line
my plans for red/green lighting and loud blaring music. I also
researched several other aspects of films that would help in my
project such as films trailers, long takes, aspect ratio, shot transitions
and techniques that build tension and fear, all of this was useful for
getting a better understanding of how I could create interesting
content for my film/trailer. I started thinking about what I want to film
for my production experiments and I think that this was important as
it means that I can start transitioning my focus from research to
planning.

3
I think that the strengths of my research has been my exploration
of many subjects to build a better understanding of my concept
and how I will execute it. I think another strength of my research is
the study of my audience and the idea that I can improve on the
faults of films that have inspired my concept. I think that there are
other areas of film production that I could research however I want
to progress to the planning and pre-production stages of my FMP
so I think that if there's anything that I genuinely need to research
then I will do so in my own time and add it to my PowerPoint. I
think that the research I’ve done so far has helped me a lot with
visualizing my concept and coming to a point of understanding
where I now know exactly what I’m going to make and I have a
greater understanding of how I will film/produce my film scene and
trailer. Overall my research has helped me to solidify my concept
and will influence and increase the appeal of my project.

4
This week I’ve been working on my problem solving power-point
which I will use to effectively solve issues that may occur in the
production process of this project. from what I’ve learnt making this
PowerPoint I think that the biggest issue that I’ll face in my
production will be filming as it’ll require a lot of planning to be
successful, in order to avoid as many problems as possible I know
that now I must set up all aspects of the filming production as early
on as possible (aspects such as a crew, actors and setting). In week
5 of production I’ll be working on my problem solving by doing
experiments with filming and making music so that I have more
preparation and practice when it comes to my actual production. I
think that if my music experiment goes well I can use it in my actual
video instead of wasting time trying to make something new in my
production. I know that doing this problem solving will help me to
make effective decisions during my production that will help me to
use my time efficiently as well as helping me to prevent theoretical
and practical issues.

4
I think that my biggest strength in my work this week is how
I’ve expressed what issues I’ll face through what problems
have influenced my work in the past, doing this has allowed
me to see what I could do differently and so I think that I’ve
been able to give better explanations of how I can solve and
prevent issues that I would face if I didn't have the
experience that I’ve gained on this course. I think that my
project is going well so far as I’m pleased with the
knowledge/understanding that I’ve learnt from my research
and I think that my problem solving has helped me to get a
better plan to avoid future issues in my production. I think
that something that worries me is the one take tracking shot
as I know that it’ll be a challenge to film however I’m
confident that if I plan enough then I can make it work to
great effect.

5
This week I worked on my production experiments, doing this
was important for me as I think that the production process is
something that I need to be well prepared for so learning editing
and filming techniques will help me a lot when it comes to
production. I worked on lighting experiments where I tested the
capabilities of coloured lighting gels which gave me a lot of
answers for thoughts I had about what I will need to do to make
the lighting work in my project. I also experimented with match
cuts where I failed to get the continuity right between cuts so
this has taught me to concentrate more on what the result of the
cut will look like in these shots. I did an experiment where I film
a lot of one takes where the camera would follow a person up
and down stairs as I would need a similar shot in my video and
it turned out fairly well but I think that I will need a shoulder
mount or some sort of equipment that’ll make the footage more
stable. I think that the main experiment that I did this week was
working on my music as this took the most amount of time and
effort, I did this experiment as I wanted to get more practice for
making music in my production. I think that my music turned out
really well to a point where I will most likely use it my scene
however I will also make a second track during production that I

5
As well as experiments I worked on a cast and crew list where I
decided on who I would want to work in my project and I’m pleased
with the list I just need to contact everyone now and see if they want
to do it so we can all decide on a date to film. I pretty much figured
out the total costs of the production so that I could go ahead in pre-
production knowing what I will need to spend money on. I think that
doing my experiments has taught me more about how I should be
approaching my production as I now have a better idea of what I
should be planning and how I should plan for it in my pre-production.
I think that before production starts I should have a second attempt
at making match cuts as this was something that didn’t really work
in my research so I think that trying this again would help me a lot to
grow my skills in editing and having a better eye for detail so I keep
the continuity between shots. I think this week was a success for me
as I managed to get a lot of work done as well as progressing my
skills with filming and editing.

6
In this week I began my work on my pre-production power point. In this week I
wanted to explain the aesthetic/visual aspects that would go into the production
process, this meant planning out a variety of visual aspects. I started by explaining in
a couple of slides the cinematography, a distorted nightmare of a house party bathed
in primary colours, taking inspiration from films such as Suspiria (1977) and
Climax(2019) I explained how the cinematography whould be similar to the colour lit
shots from my FMP last year. I wanted the lighting to feel unatural so that the
audience would get a sense of paranoia, different colours would represent different
things such as red meaning danger or green signifying sickness. I liked explaining
the cinematography as it’s a plan that I’ve had since last year so I’m excited to finally
make it happen.
The next thing I started planning was the design of the masks as this would be a key
visual aspect as it would give a sinister vibe to the antagonist of the scene. To plan
the mask I researched various mask designs from different cultures and countries
such as african, japananse,mexican and astec mask designs. I was looking to find
designs that looked distiurbing and had a certain horror aesthetic. I enjoyed planning
the mask designs as it gave me a good look at designs I can take inspiration from
when I make my own mask.

6
The next thing I planned this week was the the visual aspects of the trailer. I made
a mood board of the trailer using images from horror films to represent what would
inspire certain shots and some images where there to set a mood for the trailer. I
also planned what font I would use for the title of the film which didn’t take too long
as I pretty much immediatly found the font that I wanted to use as it stood out as
something that would look perfect with the colourful distuirbing aesthetic of the film.
I think that designing the visuals of the trailer was quite fun, I liked my mood board
especially as it sort of encapsulates the trailer and I’m really pleased with my font
choice as well.
My colour scheme was something that I had already planned out a while ago which
where primary colours green, blue and red as I knew that these would be the
colours of light that I would use. I made a colour scheme out of darker versions of
these colours as I wanted my scene to have quite a dark aesthetic. I’m not sure
there is much I can do to improve my colour scheme slide as there isn’t much to
talk about, I just want to film it with these three colours.

6
In this week I also wrote the profiles of the characters who will appear in the film scene, I wrote
mainly about their appearances and motivations in the scene, this should help out when I’m writing
my screenplay this week as well as being useful information for the actors. I’m pleased with the
characters for now but I have a feeling that I might not be able to use them due to the ever
increasing possiblity of lockdown due to the corona virus, if this happens I will have to use an fairly
different scene idea instead which I will write about in my problem sloving powerpoint next week.
I have also made mood boards for the designs of various rooms in the house/set which are the
kitchen, the staircase/landing and the room where one of the characters is killed. I think that my
mood boards for these rooms were a good quality as I made sure that the images I used would
match my desired aesthetic and I wrote about why this was important in those slides.
Overall I think that I managed to do a lot of high quality work this week which I hope to keep up
next week as I move on to planning more technical aspects. I think that my planning is running very
smoothly due to my preperation and the idea I came up with to split my work into two loads,
aesthetic and technichal elements. All I need to do in my planning now is to make lists of
equipment, make a screenplay and storyboards and add anything extra that I might need.

7
IMPORTANT: In my time of writing this I’ve been ill for the last two weeks and unable to
work because of it. I had a pretty bad cough and headaches a few days before lockdown so
I was self isolating along with my family due to the fact that I had symptoms of the virus. So I
haven’t been able to make any progress for a while. EXTRA IMPORTANT: I’m having to
work on my old laptop which can’t take screenshots so unfortunately I won’t be able to
include images of my work in the weekly reflections now. I didn’t manage to finish my
reflections for week 6 before I became ill so you’ll notice that week 6 has no screenshots
either. it’s safe to say that the lockdown and the illness I had will have a negative effect on
the quality of my work. I’m going to need to add even more slides to my planning and I’m
going to have to change the scene I planned to be entirely different to what I had in mind. I
curently feel really tired and sad that I can’t go ahead with the ideas that I wanted, and I’ll
have to settle for something a lot more generic. I’m frustated that I’ve been set back so far
from where I should be right now (I have friends who have already filmed their projects and
are editing) and that I’ve been pretty much powerless as to whats cuased this. I still want to
work toward making my film to the best it can be, and I believe that I can do this, but it’s
going to take a lot more effort and time. I’m still aiming to get a distinction, and I’m going to
put in the effort to achieve this.

weekly reflections diary

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