Weekly Journal

Regular evaluation updates are required, as with every unit.

Please remember to take photos and get behind the scenes
footage as you film. You might find it easier if you note down a record of
what you did each day in a diary form.

Please use the following guidance to help you with each week.

Week 1 This week you worked on your research

What have you been asked to
do?
How has writing the brief helped
you to finalise your idea?
What did you learn from
practising the conventions you
researched?
Are you on track for this week? If
not, how far behind are you?
What work do you need to
complete outside of lessons to
stay on track?
We have been asked to create a short film that has a
non-liner narrative. We are doing this as a group of 4
but we have chosen a role to fill out each task like
research and others. Hopefully this unit will be fun to
do as it will be done with a group rather than by
myself. Because of this there will be lots of ideas
coming from group rather than just me.
We came up with an idea initially and then we work
to create a plan by creating production schedule. All
of this helped us to finalise our idea and also made
sure that everyone else was clear on what we were
doing. Because we are in a team a lot of the ideas
are moved around however we are a good team
and because of this using the brief let us pick an idea
rather than arguing about what idea to go with
It helped us to see what it might look like and what we
might need to do to make it better. As well as. This it
also made us see that what we needed to do was
within reach and was a very achievable goal.
I’m not very behind as doing this has been quite
smooth. This is mainly because we are a group and a
lot of the work is done well because we have shared
and decided what we are going to research. Fi there
is any work for me to do I will have to improve a lot of
my writing because I have have a couple of stupid
mistakes like capital letters and making sure that what
I have written makes sense when someone other than
me reads it
The main kind of work I need to is not starting work
that I haven’t done it is mainly having to improve the
work that I have done rather than doing it again

Week 2 This week you worked on your planning

How has analysing videos helped Looking at the videos helped me decide how I want it
you to understand the genre to turn out. Watching a thriller that is also a short film
better? has allowed me to find out what they look like and
the type of lighting I will have to use.
How did making infographics help
you to process your research?
What did you learn from your
planning? How has it helped you
to progress your idea?
How has your idea
developed/changed during the
planning stage?
How did you ensure that your
storyboards were to a high
enough standard?
What issues did you have when
planning your production? How
did you overcome them?
How much work did you
complete outside of the lessons?
Are you on track for this week? If
not, how far behind are you?
What work do you need to
complete outside of lessons to
stay on track?
Week 3
What practical work have you
done and how helpful was your
earlier planning?
It allows me to read the info that I have written down
to be digestible in a short way and also gives you
information quickly. It will also help as a small guide
when I’m shooting the short film
What I have learnt for our planning is that its very hard
to find people as actors as well as it is very hard to
agree on times to film. As well as this it has made it a
lot easier to agree on when we should do something
as we have a plan as to what is happening in each
day as well who we will need there to help film.
It’s been rewritten changed flipped moved and
argued about, but I think that what we have agreed
on is going to look really good. It took some time to
get to an agreement but once we agreed it was all
good
We made sure that we had written the script first as
well as choosing the best person in our group that can
draw and understand what we wanted it to look like
as well
Our main problem was taking the time to finalize an
idea as well as not having everybody available to
work on some of our planning like Dylan who had to
work through the planning stage and failed to give us
pictures of his house for the location recce
I Have completed a lot of my work outside of collage
because there has been a lot of planning and
creation in process and I need to convey that
I am on track however there are some things that I
would like to do to improve my grade
There is nothing that I NEED to do but there are some
things that im going to do to make my grade better
This week you worked on your production
Because of the planning the filming was quite
smooth however there were moments where we
had to change our plans because some of our
actors weren’t available on the confirmed times.
This really hurt our production in the long run and
a lot of the scenes weren’t available to be films
due to time restrictions
Upload your behind the scenes
photos and videos (explain what
they show)
What issues did you encounter
when filming and how did you
overcome them?
What locations did you use and
why did you choose them?
How did you find the editing
process?
What new skills did you learn
when editing?
this shows the beginning of our filming setting up the
scene as well as making sure that what we were
filming was organised using the clapper
This shows us setting up the position for where the
actors should be as well as setting up the lighting and
the position of the camera
We encountered a lot of problems when it came to
the space that we were filming in. this was because
the space that we were filming in was very small and
we had to find ways to film without showing the
camera or the position of any of the cast. We
overcame this by recording on the camera and then
leaving the room before the actors started. This
allowed us to exit the room as not to hit or move the
camera while we were filming as we were most of the
time pushed up against a wall or squeezed into a
corner.
We chose one of our actors houses because we
found that it was quite open plan and that we would
be able to move through it without having to worry
about opening doors or anything.
I found that the editing prosses was very smooth
however it did take me a very long time to do.
Because of our planning it was easy to understand
what went where and how the story went.
I learnt how to do a sun glare effect as well as how to
transform that into a transition to make the it looks like
it has happened in the past. I’m pretty happy that I
have learnt this because I think I might use it more
Upload screenshots of the editing
process and discuss why you
made these changes.

What issues did you encounter
when editing and how did you
overcome them?
How well have you worked to
your production schedule?
Are you on track for this week? If
not, how far behind are you?
What work do you need to
complete outside of lessons to
stay on track?
High Grade Tips
Near the end I felt like it didn’t end with a big enough
cliff hanger so made sure I made the end that felt
more like it fits the film.
When I was editing I didn’t have any massive
problems that stopped me from being productive.
There were some small problems that I made sure to
fix. This was mainly the colour as well as the program
failing to save and crashing
Not very well as a lot of the planned days we had
some of our actors being ill. If I were to do it again I
would make a backup plan for the days to work if
someone is ill as well as scenes that we can film
without them v
Im on track at the moment and there isn’t much to do
There isn’t much that I need to work on at the
moment

Use screenshots to support your analysis – especially when comparing your work to other
pieces.

Considered and capable demonstration of processes – detailed documentation of your

production process – such as still images, and annotated screenshots of your specific
production and editing process – including ‘what’ and ‘why’ and not just ‘how’.

Specific – be specific! Don’t just say e.g. ‘the lighting was good’ – show us where the
lighting looked good and why you think that.

Week 4 This week you worked on your production

What were The strength for our production was mainly the fact that our idea was very
your solid and allowed the audience to differentiate between thriller a horror.
production The camera angles are very good and do make a lot of scenes. The
research was very solid as we worked as a team to figure out what we
strengths?
needed to research. For example, we looked at robbers and how they
achieve their goals and what they tend to steal. We had a lot of our plans
set out and what we ended up wasn’t too bad in consideration that a lot
of our actors weren’t available. We also looked at other thrillers that were
short films and found out their genre conventions. This was really good as it
helped a lot in the planning for our short film

What were There were a lot of weaknesses. One of the main weaknesses was that the
your people that we chose to act weren’t available when we had planned to
production do it. Because of this we had to use emergency actors that weren’t as
good and a lot of the time that should have been filming was wasted due
weaknesses?
to changes in the timetable. The story was also very split up, so it was hard
to edit the film without a script or storyboard. Our scripts were very small, so
a lot of the story was spent trying to figure out what is happening. As well
as this we had very limited time so what we were producing was very
patchy and did have so parts that didn’t make sense.
How did you We worked on creating the film as well as writing the story. This was good
work as a because it meant that we all had a say. It also didn’t help in some places
group? as a lot of the people tended to mess around rather than work on the
project. Working as a team defiantly made the work load easier but it
made it so that we had to rely on everyone else ability to get the work
done to the point where you can understand it. If I were to do something
like this again I would make sure that I worked on my own with people I
trust to do the work well.
What was My role was to be the director of photography as well as making sure I
your role and drew the storyboard and worked through the props. This was good as I
how did you was allowed to express myself creatively when it came to filming the short
story. This was all very rushed because of the time frame but I managed to
perform?
get some of the things I wanted to do like filming a scene from under bed
to make the protagonist feel small went really well.

Complete a In a lot of the production we looked at they had a very clear storyline and
written the tension built a lot slower. Because of all of this we tried to do the same
comparison however it wasn’t very obvious that. This was happening. A lot of the short
films I watched had the use of very grey colour grading. I tried to do this
of your work
but in comparison they don’t look the same
to
professional
productions
you
researched
previously.
Use One of the main things that got used was the use of a small amount of
screenshots voice acting as we wanted it to sound quiet like a lot of the thrillers that
we watched. Other than all of this I believe there wasn’t much that we
of both
used to show the audience that it was a thriller, and this is why the short
productions film doesn’t look like a thriller and is confusing to watch. A t the end of all
to support of this it may not look like a thriller however I’m kind of proud that we were
your analysis. able to do what we did.
High Grade Tips
Use screenshots to support your analysis – especially when comparing your work to other
pieces.

Considered and capable demonstration of processes – detailed documentation of your

production process – such as still images, and annotated screenshots of your specific
production and editing process – including ‘what’ and ‘why’ and not just ‘how’.

Specific – be specific! Don’t just say e.g. ‘the lighting was good’ – show us where the
lighting looked good and why you think that.