primary

surveying:

The first piece of research I wanted to do was to get the opinions of those around me about the three genres I was most keen to look into. I asked questions to do with the parts of my film I was most uncertain with, this being mainly the character development. I also wanted to find out new films for me to watch for things I was unsure with. This is why I decided to ask about specifics as well, therefore I could get others opinions on what they felt portrayed the best in each element of a film I want to focus on.

reviewing the responses:

Overall I was quite happy with how my survey went. I feel I got some quite useful answers and that people understood my questions. I got the knowledge I wanted from this survey. Next time, I would make the questions shorter, as I feel there was one question people got confused on, the whole thing didn't link as well as I hoped. The next stage was to organise and review the responses so it's easier to use and access. I am quite happy with using Typeform as a free survey, despite the response limit.

The first few questions were to find out what the people around me like. I made sure I chose a diverse group of people, so that it was a fair survey result, especially with this question. As I wanted to find out what kind of films people watch, this may be why each film genre is very close together in favourites. With these questions I wanted to find out what people felt were the specifics of each genre were and the important parts of each genre. This means when I decide where I want my film to go, I can make sure I'm researching the important parts of it all, that the audience will take into account and notice. Here, I also asked for a film from their favourite genre, so that I had reference to what each genre really was in everyone else's eyes as well as mine. One of the biggest things I was struggling with was finding new films I haven't watched before that would be good for inspiration for my film. There is a lot out there and I needed some form of what others deem good that I could be watching. This list was very useful, there are some new films I will be watching now.

Marvel is a big influence for my short film, therefore I asked for favourite Marvel films and what about them that made them so good. This way I know exactly what films to look at when learning about certain elements of film-making. I not only know what others find a good representation of that element but also where to get inspiration from. The individual elements of my film are very important for the overall look. Using this I can see exactly what people are seeing when they see professional standard work.

One of the most important things I needed to ask was about character. This is because I have had experience with the other elements more than this before. Whenever creating a film, aside from the bird from my Cartoon project, character development has been the least of my worries. Despite not having much time to develop my character, this time I want to focus on how to make a memorable character. Asking about some of the aspects of famous faces gives me a chance to study what makes these characters so well represented and developed for their own franchise.

This question here is very similar to the questions I was asking before, however I was always unsure what the answers would be on the other questions so made this question so that I could gather film resources for what I know I needed to work on. This will be especially useful for sound and look best used VFX in others opinions.

Overall, I am happy with the answers and advice I got out of this survey. The responses filled the void I was looking for, which was the desire to find out what was important to a varity of people when it comes to connecting to films, and to find out examples of existing products my audience find enjoyable and for what reasons. This means I am not bias in what I am doing and now I feel a lot more confident in knowing where to go if I am feeling stuck on a certain element, this will be very beneficial for my secondary research. If I were to do a survey again, I would really look into what I wanted to find out from my audience, this way I can think more deeply about the wording to get a more thought out answer to my questions and the people I am surveying will better understand what I am asking of them.

reaching out to a practitioner:

I wanted to reach out to a practitioner early on to see if I could get a response. I messaged my favourite bigger VFX artists, but also looked up other visual artists and came across quite a few portfolios which I reached out to one called Tommy Yoder who is a game developer and work I really enjoyed. To the left is the email I sent to him.

I was quite excited to hear from Tommy as he was someone who has worked his way up by creating his own independent business, using each project to push and expand his skills base. He describes his work as being fun challenges which is what I want my FMP to be. This really encourages me to strive not only for what will appear best in my film but what I will gain the most knowledge from. He has his key skills but works up by doing what he wants on the games as what he wants to learn skill wise. This is inspiring that he can use the final products as skill learning opportunities. This makes me want to feel not so cosy on this project and push the skill boundaries higher.

In the final part of his email, he states that creating effects for other people is something important to consider. From this, makes me take a different approach to creating my effects. Looking at it in a way of if someone else were to use this effect for their film would you be happy to hand it over in the condition. Looking at it like this will really help me to focus on the details and find little parts of my effects that aren't up to the professional standard I am looking for. The other take away from this part of the email is to do nothing but keep challenging myself even when I am completely lost as to what I should be doing as this is the only way to truly achieve and get better in my specific art.

Overall, Tom helped me a lot to understand not the practical side but what is important for each projects aim. Although he is a game developer he started in the same path as me which is useful for finding out how he developed and got to where he is today. My biggest takeaway from this email is to focus on thinking about what skills I want to improve next. This will bring me the most focus and mean my films will consistently be better. Furthermore, I feel the most important point is telling me to consistently challenge myself. This will allow for a lot better and more professional detailing, particularly if I am thinking in the head of passing this on to someone else for their own film.

contacting independent artists:

The next thing I wanted to get done early on was to reach out to a few practitioners that I might have the chance of asking some questions. I used Quora to ask a few main questions about advice that would be given to beginner film makers as I was feeling quite lost in the process, being overwhelmed with how much I could/ there is to do. I had already talked to a bigger practitioner but wanted to get a more general idea of these who may be in the same position as me. To the left are the questions I asked and below are the answers I was given that I felt were most beneficial to me.

The first answer here is the most useful for this question as it brought my back to what I personally wanted to achieve and what I want to gain out of this. What skills do I really want to achieve and need to research. For me this is After effects and cinematography, therefore I will be focusing on these in my experimental research. This answer also highlights the importance of research in everything you do when it comes to a film. That is even the experimental and production side. Whilst the next answer doesn't massively apply to myself, it highlights representing a good cause. In my case this is Covid. Therefore I feel I need a little more representation for it in my storyline or I the visual representation. Maybe I could create a more diverse environment and have masks as the solid visual representation.

Above all else, this response reminds me that when learning, there is nothing more important other than doing it and getting it wrong. In particular this reminds me not to always thrive for perfection but improvement. I should approach any idea I have even when these change a lot.

When asking this question in particular, I thought I would get a more practical response on important things to do when actually doing post-production. However this talks about the need to actually have a reason behind your shot before you even start to think about the how, there needs to be a why and it needs to contribute to either the character or the storyline. With regards to my story this makes me think about not having anything too crazy effect my characters. I want to do this to show that the reaction my character has is not from just the fact he has the superpower and therefore can use them but because they have something they are so afraid of that they will use to protect because they are so naturally inclined to do this for their sibling. Commenting on the natural instinct this pandemic has given carers.

Overall, I feel this research was useful in a way that was not expected. From this I expected more response about practical elements. However I feel this advice has made me realise how important the research is and finding put about the meaning of my film. From this I will do more research into how covid has actually impacted teenagers my age so I can develop how I comment on the effect of the pandemic further.

affects on teens during covid

After doing some secondary research on how teens took on a lot of responsibilities during covid, I wondered how severe these pressures were. Therefore I reached out to my friends to ask how they felt they have dealt with responsibilities during covid, and how they feel they have come out different towards the end of covid. This would help me connect to a teenage audience more who have had difficulties during the pandemic.

Above are 3/4 of the responses I received from my friends, these were the kind of responses I expected to receive. These create a overall negative overtone for the effects on us during the pandemic. The response on the left feels most inspirational to me as this could primarily inspire my story of a teen carer. This is the base for the story I want to portray and therefore if I feel I need anymore inspiration and insight into that lifestyle I could ask further questions. I want to make my short film relatable, in a way that shows the overwhelming, non-stop environment of the pandemic, I could do this by after my character puts their sibling to bed, showing them going to do more work, showing that even after a long day there is still things to do as teenagers, due to the immense workload. My favourite thing said out of all my responses is ''We just want to be 'normal' teenagers". I like this because it not only shows the stresses of the pandemic but it also portrays how much has been taken away from us. Like others we have had to adapt to a new life, however we are not living the way teens in other generations would have. We have a huge social gap now and have missed out particularly my own year, of the longest summer break and the time we go from high school to college and start understanding ourselves the most. Spending the whole of this indoors has created a big hole in who we are and created social issues a lot of us have never had before. It feels a lot of pressure to have to catch up to who we should be and what we should have done by now. This can include anything from my cancelled driving lessons to finding out my style. We feel very behind in our own lives, not just in the present but also from the past year.

To the left is a response I felt I was less likely to receive, this is a positive response to my question suggesting they have more free time for themselves. I wondered why this response was different, and I feel it is a lot to do with the home environment, mindset and the state of your mental health. Struggling with any of these things will instantly put a downer on the time spent in quarantine. It still highlights the increase in chores which I can portray in my film, however it creates a new idea I could look into, a perspective where corona has bettered in a way. Maybe when my character goes to get work done after putting a sibling to bed, it can show not only how busy they are but also how they now have that time by themselves to try and relax and rather than being in a stressful school environment.

interview with a friend about covid impact

After receiving responses about how my friends feel covid has impacted them, I got one response that seemed particularly driven towards what my film will be based around therefore I asked and we agreed to ask some further questions about their experience in lockdown. Below is the conversation we had and what I learnt from this.

Having this short chat about home life whilst looking out for siblings was both interesting and reassuring for me to know I am on the right track to creating my film. I first asked about a general routine in which the day was described as hectic, waking up early and focusing on making sure her siblings have what they need for the day. In comparison I wanted to know how it would feel to have lockdown life without these responsibilities, in which she described it as a '9-5 job', something teens are not and should not be used to. She feels a better social life and more time for school work would be available had someone else been able to care for them. This inspires me to create that stop-start nature in my film. Maybe by presenting my character stopping work to sort out their sibling and instantly returning to it, highlighting the all day struggle of that rhythm. To expand on knowing what my character would actually do in the situation I am presenting them with, I asked about the emotional ties to the siblings, how have they changed since before lockdown. She describes herself as a 'third parent', explaining how she has more of a parental worry about them and tends to be the first one to complete and chores without hesitation. This encourages my choice to make my character have a natural fight instinct, as when put in that situation, a carer has that same instinct. Sometimes 'forgetting they are my siblings'. The last thing I wanted to ask which I felt I had room to portray in my film was how free-time is spent. As expected she described her free-time as spent doing sixth form work, late into the night when really it should be a time to relax and de stress. She describes her life as a 'second priority', making the siblings seem more important, therefore enforcing how I feel my character would respond. Overall, I see a parent like figure made due to this lockdown and have a better insight in how and how not to portray the hectic schedule of college and caring.

survey about my film idea

After doing a lot of secondary research, I much further developed my FMP idea. I came up with the idea that I might make this short piece a movie trailer, therefore it has much more purpose ending on a cliff-hanger and also more reason to be shorter. I asked questions here about little things about movie trailer to see what people think of about trailer and what is good in them.

These first questions were to clarify some end point ideas for my film. I came up with the idea of creating my film into a trailer and therefore wanted to know where people who watch trailers and short films often see these and if my title for my trailer was something appealing to the audience. Sixth Sense was my first choice and the one I felt was best so I am glad this is the best, and Youtube is the main platform I felt my age range could access and therefore I wanted to see if there was anywhere mainly else, which there wasn't. However i could still look into where else my film could be placed.

These questions were about what people like to see within a trailer that is not necessarily to do with details. Thankfully my trailer will be left on a cliff-hanger after showing the development of my main character developing the powers. I think the reason people find this most appealing is because their mind can wander into what actually will happen next without a definite answer. It leaves mystery and therefore a deeper thought process. With the second question here I am going to try and lean towards creating a jam-packed trailer with lots of action and intensity. I am going to make this so my trailer leads in to the action rather than jumping straight in, as although this is impactful, I want to make the connection to the audience first.

These questions are about more how I will visually represent my film. My main idea revolves around a story and although I will be sticking to this primarily, it has inspired me to not drag the story out as much. And with regards to the flash forward, I will try and more create the intense environment that would be portrayed with an action movie, somewhat blurring the vision of the character portraying that more zoned out vision. I also from seeing the response to the second question, now want to try and see if I can create a quick finale to my scene. This will help when looking at the length of my trailer but also making sure I don't include too much detail so it becomes confusing.

The last questions I asked about was the character. Due to wanting to have a conversation at the start between my two characters, I wanted to know if introducing these characters was important and at to what point having a connection to these characters was important. With this information I want to make sure I am making a connection between my characters and somewhat introducing them a little. This just encourages me to make sure I am picking out the most important information, rather than a blown up story from the characters. This could include names and current emotional status. This feels enough to connect the character to the audience without giving a long winded, boring backstory. I feel the cinematics and speech from the other character could be enough.

Overall, this survey has given me into a better insight into how detail in the storyline is not always the biggest thing. The audience doesn't want as much detail about a story than I thought, rather to feel a stronger connection. This can be done through cinematography and small amounts of detail rather than something long. I need to think about what pieces of detail would be well contributing to the storyline.

location recce

I feel location is very important, I have three locations in mind and have been to explore. I feel getting an idea of where I will be recording early on and doing research on this will be useful, also for a storyboard idea. Below are photos of my three location ideas for the second part of my film, as I will be filming the first inside, in my house.

Here is the area where I live. I will be using my house and garden for any scenes needed there after I had done any moving or tidying necessary. In regards to outside, it's easier to get to for most people and also means I can more easily do experiments here for what my film will look like. However, it is busier so it might take a lot longer to film and I have recorded here before so mixing it up could be a good idea.

My second location is quite a generic open plan field with a park nearby, I feel like this would be good as it's a very typical environment so feels more realistic however there is an issue with lots of public, and therefore limitation on what I can/ should be recording.

My third location is the one I want to use the most out of my choices so far. It's a very quiet forest area that people very rarely walk through. This means I would have a lot of time here and not be in the way of the public. I don't have to worry constantly about someone needing to come past. It also a vast place, and therefore gives me a lot of diversity in where I can film. I feel this may be my chosen location for filming, if it is feasible to get people here.