WEEKLY JOURNALS
This is where you think about your FMP learning journey and development.
Don’t simply describe what you did - consider what you have learnt and how this has benefitted
your project. What do you need to improve?
THIS IS JUST GUIDANCE THAT YOU NEED TO ADAPT TO YOUR OWN PROJECT. YOU HAVE CREATED YOUR
OWN PRODUCTION SCHEDULES AND YOUR WEEKLY BLOGS SHOULD REFELCT THAT.
THESE QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN THE WEEKS YOU COMPLETED THEM. DO NOT JUST SUBMIT THIS
FORM FILLED IN FOR YOUR WEEKLY BLOGS. THERE SHOULD BE 11 WEEKLY BLOG ENTRIES (INCLUDING
EASTER).
Week Three - Research
RESEARCH
What did you learn from your My research helped me with developing my original idea. The
research? genre of my short film is comedy therefore I looked into other
short films that won awards. I looked into the aspects that make
the comedy funny and shifted and tweaked my original ideas to
make it fit into the comedy genre. I learned about the codes and
conventions of the comedy genre by analysing short films such as
‘’. I found out about the subgenres of comedy films which are
How has the research into your target My target audience are my peers so doing focus groups and
audience helped you improve your surveys helped me to get an insight of what my peers would like
ideas? to see in my short film. Furthermore I asked them about what kind
of comedies they like. I got information of the types of comedy
films that my target audience like for example the movie Home
Alone. Knowing what type of films my target audience is
interested in helped me develop my narrative. Remembering the
narrative of home alone helped me come up with the scenario
of the house robbery. However, what happens in my production
is completely different to Home Alone.
How has the research into your Research into platforms wasn’t useful for me as I already knew
platform helped you improve your that I will be using YouTube to upload my production. Its free and
ideas? commonly used among low budget productions. The other
platform I would of chose is TV. Tv however would be way more
expensive and not worth the cost. It would also be very hard to
get my production on there. YouTube on the other hand is very
easy to publish on, another bonus is that I can upload the video
directly to my website. I need to be careful about the copy strike
policy on YouTube, all this means is that I can’t use music or
footage that isn’t mine as the video can get taken down.
How has researching characters and Researching types of characters in comedies helped me make
actors helped you decide who to up my cast and crew list. The people that Acted in my
cast? production were the following: Angelo Mandez, James Ravenhill,
Dylan Coates and me. All of the following people have some
experience in acting as they are all media students. The main
thing I learned from my research on actors in comedies is that
actors are portrayed as being all equal, no one is placed above
anyone in any way. This means that I will have to be careful with
my camera angles as I don’t want to make any character seem
more powerful or important than the other as this is going to be a
comedy. I have made it clear whop the protagonist and
antagonist will be on my character description booklet. I made
sure that my character profiles aren’t too complicated and that it
will be possible to show them in my production by only giving a
brief description about them.
What have you learned from your For my test shoots I tried something that I have never done
test shoots? How will you use these before. For my first technique I did object tracking through
ideas in your production? different camera angles. This technique will be useful for one of
my scenes where the victim fights back and throws a rock at one
of the robbers. For my second technique I did the medium shot as
it’s the most common and effective shot that I will be using in my
short Film. In this shot you can see the facial and hand expressions
of the characters allowing you to get a more intimate
connection with the character as a viewer.
What work do you need to complete I will need to complete 8 more weekly blogs.
outside of lessons to stay on track?
High Grade Tips
Research
● ‘Thorough research’ - include plenty of sources and detailed analysis of this information
● ‘relevant & coherent’ – make sure your research sources are not just the same as the Media
product you hope to make - and talk about how they inform your planning
● ‘sustained’ – continue your research throughout the eleven-week project and don’t just limit it to
the first two weeks
● ‘accomplished & considered’ – all of the above referred to in your daily/weekly reflections
