Thursday 10th February  2022

This week not much happened hence why i thought it best to type out my diary entry for this week. Tuesday our extended creative media project was launched. I didn’t have much difficulty coming up with a idea as i had already came up with one before the project launch so this week was more on detailing my idea a little more. I wrote my rationale as-well as my project proposal which was pretty easy to do due to me already having a pretty finalised idea for my project. Next week I will be making a start on planning my video essay.

Thursday 17th Feburuary

Unfortunately I had to postpone my video essay. This week has been a fairly unproductive week in terms of my cmp this week was taken up completing a different project I had a fallen behind on this combined with issues with travelling into school I havent made any progress towards my cmp however my aim for next week is to start and finish my video essay.

Thursday 24th February

Im a-lot more behind schedule than anticipated but when creating my gannt chart i had scheduled in extra time so in terms of my project Im not too far behind. This week I finished the script for my video essay and then received some feedback from mentor, the main point was to watch mark komodes video essay on rom com and use the notes i gained from that in my script to focus on what rom com is. I have now completed my script and now will begin on creating the edit. Aswell as completing my video essay script i also began my research into my target market.

Thursday 3rd-10th Of March

This week I began my video essay edit, Im behind schedule due to technology issues, premier pro has been struggling to run on the laptop Im currently using, it struggles to play back the sequence as-well as lags during the actual editing process this means its taking a-lot longer to edit then it normally would take me. I want to assure this problem with premiere doesn’t eat in to my research time so i have made the decision to continue with research along side trying to complete my video essay, this means that although my video essay will be submitted later i wont fall behind in research which will definitely effect the overall success of my project.

10th March- 25th March

For now I have decided its best to type out my production diary due to technology issues and other factors. I am going to review over my last two weeks of progress. As I have stated in my previous production diary entry I have had to post pone the production of my context essay until I am back in school, due to premier pro struggling with the amount of files added and the fact it’s running on a laptop. I have finished my Research for my project, in relation to my gannt chart I am technically behind my planned out schedule however when making the gannt chart I had decided to start parts of my projects earlier then what was advised by our tutor therefore I am still on track for our up coming deadlines. My Research went incredibly smoothly I was able to gather relevant media that helped with the development for my project. Watching The proposal really helped outline the colour pallet and aesthetics of my piece however Currently I am deciding wether to add some blue shades into my aesthetics. Now I am heading to the planning and production stage of my project which requires me to make the necessary documents like shot lists, scripts and risk assessments as well as working out some technical logistics specifically how I plan on shooting the running part of my end scene, Currently I have spoken to my peers who drive on wether filming from a moving car would achieve the results I want.

Recently I have been thinking a lot logistically about how shooting the whole short film will be achievable, with a bigger time frame it is achievable however with the time frame I have and also bringing in to regard how my project is running currently there been alot of time issues. There are alot of location changes which means alot of traveling, with crew and cast to which can work out to be a problem due to availability as others also have their projects to work on, I am currently thinking it may be ideal to plan out the whole short film but shoot only the final scene as its the most planned out scene in my head, aswell as it being achievable in my time frame. Especially with the issues im having regarding premier pro it would also work out easier to edit only one scene.

Thursday 31st March 2022

This week I finally managed to finish my video essay which means my context is complete. I will now begin writing my script and storyboard. Not many problems have occurred this week but as planning and production starts I need to be aware of some technical,logistical and theoretical problems I may be encountering that week .

Technical issue

For the past few weeks I have struggled to finish my video essay due to premiere pro freezing while editing making it skip clips which when trying to overlay audio for the right time this is a big issue. Although there was no way to “fix it” I knew after the first time it happened that it takes a lot more time to edit which I could schedule in and work around. Reaching this problem in the early stages of my project prepared my for what could go wrong with the editing process of my actual project, Now I know the laptop can struggle when editing big project when it comes to my final edit I will complete most of the edit on the school computers as they ran a lot faster and easier then a laptop, and in situations where I will need to use the laptop to edit I will be prepared for its slowness and make wise choices on when I choose to edit based on time.

Logistical Problems

As we move forward into planning and production Its time to start finding actors for my short film,My worry is that due to the acting strands at school doing their own productions they may not have time to join my project which means I will have to use those i have around me to act in my film, which may bring town the production quality of my piece as they may not have acting experience or skill.

Theoretical Problem

I am now starting the script writing process which presents the theoretical problem; will I be able to write a script that my audience will understand and connect too, and will I be able to use excellence storytelling skills to do so. I have wrote many scripts however I know from old projects that often during script writing I get lost in the story and end up over complicating a script. Im going to try and avoid these problems by taking my time with the script and making sure I take time to pause and assess if my story is on track and understandable.

Thursday of 7th April

This week I began writing my script, and have now just finished the beginning few scenes of my script, Like I said in my previous diary entry I often tend to lose track of my story and it gets quite confusing and loses its sense of direction, stopping to assess my writing after a scene or two may of seemed tedious but its really helped keeping my story clear and understandable which overall is making the process easier. I am still currently writing my script however I'm on track and expect to finish it by next week.

I have spoken to a friend in music about the cover song I needed (paolo nutini candy). She spoke to a music student called Marty who has agreed to do it and I should be getting it by the end of the month.

I have thought about the logistics of getting an actor further. After my script is finished I'm going to advertise the roles needed via instagram, but because of how obscure my films main character is I'm worried that I won't fill that role. I have thought this out and in the event that I don't get any responses, I will talk to my friends directly and see if they can help, it's likely as a last resort they will be willing to help. Worse case scenario I will talk to a fmp student who can animate and may be willing to help animate my project but I want to avoid this as it means I won't have a chance to focus on the cinematography of the project which is my main focus.

This week the project has been running smoothly and Im on track with what I need to get done.

14th of April

Unfortunately I had a health issue and was immobilised with pain which meant that the pace of my project slowed down however I managed to finish my script which is a total of 10 short scenes, Which I predict will make my project around 10 minutes long which is the length I had originally planned, Due to the many health factors that have gotten in the way of my projects progress I think with the best interest of handing in my project I will shoot my final scene and edit that to hand in, due to loosing alot of my shoot time. Depending on how the shooting of my final scene goes I will decide whether it's possible to shoot the rest of my short film. One technical issue I faced this week was with the script software celtx which is the software I'm used to using. However the servers have been down for about 2 weeks, I checked with a peer who uses the same software to check if it was just me. I decided to look into other script writing software I can use and found a software called studiobinder which had similar features to celtx so it wasn't hard to navigate.

I had some challenges with my script writing process, I wanted to include a character that clive meets to add some more entertainment and make the plot less repetitive and I was struggling with adding that character in, after a lot of thinking I managed to come up with the character of a driver who saw clive struggling and offered to help, and it's the conversation between clive and the driver in the car that adds to the entertainment. I was also struggling with getting my character from a to b and making it realistic to shoot, I chose to use the location of woods twice but have it be different parts of the woods.

Moving forward I am now beginning the rest of my pre production paperwork as well as advertising on instagram for my roles.

Onces again my logistical worry is gathering actors but in my previous diary entry I have a plan if there is no one available to act.

When it comes to storyboarding, I loose alot of time trying to find the right stock image or struggle with drawing, which leads to me having to rush the storyboards, however as i have already lost a lot of time on this project to use my time to its potential Im going to focus on filling out the important technical information like camera angles and sound and then adding the getting the images done.

21st of April

21st of April

This week I finished my storyboard and will now begin the script breakdown for my final scene so I know what props and costumes. I have also spoken to my peers who can act in my piece.

First theoretical problem is the quality of the acting in my piece, due to lack of time I won't be able to gather and audition theatre students to act in my piece so I have used the people around me to fill my roles, as they are fmp students they don't specialise in acting so there’s a chance the acting could not be to my desired quality, as i'm focusing on the cinematography of my piece it's not to much a of a worry.  

Last week I spoke to my friend who is a music student who spoke to her classmate about covering my song, however after directly messaging him I still haven’t had a response so I knew I was worried about getting a cover song in time for the editing part of my production which is the logistical problem im facing currently, i'm going to try and reach out again and if i don't get a response this week i'm going to have think about other options including maybe having to cover it myself .

A Small technical issue is due to Celtx being down. I had to use a software I'm unfamiliar with due to this I was unable to create a front page for my script.

A theoretical/logistical issue is, contrasting my progress to my gannt chart I am meant to be past the production stage so my problem is actually getting my final project film, Im hoping now i have actors. My production should start soon. To keep track of tasks i need to complete i have created a to do list which should help keep me on track.

28th Of April

This week I created a to do list to keep track of what needs to get done asap including props, other pre production documents as well as set and costumes.

This week I finished adding the images to my storyboard as well as creating a script breakdown of my last scenes so to keep track of actors and props and costume, while reading through my script to do this I discovered that I didn't include costume in my script which created a problem when doing the script breakdown, as although I knew what my characters are wearing, As I had already exported my script I didn't want to to go back and add wardrobe in as I'm already quite behind and wanted to focus on moving forward, so I noted down the costume in the script breakdown and added in the production note section that the script doesn't mention costume.

A technical issue I had came across when exporting my script is that on studio binder the software (I used for my script writing) there's not a option to create a front page like their is on celtx, and i was unable to work out how to do so, as im currently rushing to get the important pre-production documents ready for shooting.

I have now gotten actors and costumes for my main character. I'm planning to do a test shoot for the running scene next week but need to confirm with my actors and crew when they are available to do this.

I have also booked the space for my stage scene (12th of may) . I'm going to talk to my sister who is currently in her last year of university studying stage management and set design so her input on set and lighting will help with the production quality.

As I want a crowd for my stage scene i'm going to have to create a cast call for that scene, I was debating asking those whose available on the day of shooting however this would of been a huge logistical error as I will also need to do blocking and set up and I will need cast to around for the whole time, which could be more than a hour and choosing random people on their lunch break which mean they might leave before we are ready to shoot.

After speaking to Matt Evans who is playing Liz’s Love interest in my production I managed to arrange Clives costume as Matt had The blazer jacket, shirt and Trousers that matched my desired aesthetic for my character.  

I still haven't heard back from the music student I contacted for my cover song, Which means I'm going to have to find someone else. I'm going to try advertising it on my instagram as I have alot of musicians on there who might be interested.

5th of May

Production Diary 5th Of May

This week I have got a lot of my pre-production work done, I have completed the map and poster prop, ready for printing, Aswell a test shoot for my running scene the test shoot outlined how I can shoot my running scene which for the past few weeks I have struggled with ideas on how to do that logistically, Now I know I can shoot it in a moving car driving slow with the actor running alongside it, to avoid any accidents I am filming on a industrial estate instead of a road, which means less cars will get in the way of my shoot.

I logistical issue I am still working through is the need for crowd during my shoot on the 12th, I posted an advertisement for the roles on my instagram however was unable to get a response, I have spoken to a pupil from year 12 who is currently sources classmates who will be able to fill these rolls. If I still don't have enough people I am going to try and fake the look of a crowd by keeping my frames quite tight while shooting 4 people.

14th of May

This week I shot the intended scenes for my project. Last week I was faced with the issue of not having a crowd for my project, I was hoping that on the day of the shoot (12th of May) that the year 12 may have been free however this was no the case, so I decided to have it that clive is late to the performance and comes in as this have ended.

This shot worked really well and I actually prefer it to my original idea.

Like I have mentioned, on the 12th of may was our concert shoot, things didn’t go off to great start due to one of my actors running late, the actors scene was last however he was also providing the costume for my main character which meant we couldn't film anything with Clive in it yet. We had the space from 12.30 - 4.30, although we had a schedule due to missing costume we had to delay our start time.

When booking equipment there was no LED panel light available to combat this I decided to purchase a lot of fairy lights to brighten up my set, but to luckily on the day beth our technical found a light she could give me, this made it easier to achieve the lighting and aesthetical warm style mise en scene  i wanted for my piece.

It was half one and we still haven't heard from my actor/costume assistant so we decided to film the scenes with just dolly to make the most of the time we had. I was unable to get rostre for this shoot but I worked out that we could have the bleachers that are in the space to act as our stage. When shooting I made sure the focus had a slight blur effect on the background.

Dolly scenes turned out really successful, Matt had arrived at 3pm which meant we had only an hour and a half to film the scenes with clive and matt in, the shooting process felt really rushed in my opinion, the actors wanted to get things done as quickly as possible because of there other commitments, although i had gone through the scheduling with them previously, The shots I managed to get were are really beautiful however I wished I had gotten the chance to perfect them. The lesson I learnt from this is it's very hard to direct people who you're friends with as it's quite hard to form this dynamic of who's running the production. I think next time shooting with friends I will definitely set better boundaries as to what to expect when shooting with me and what the dynamic of the team should be as I feel this will allow me to have a lot more control.

I had also found out a day before my shoot that my cover artist is unable to do the song,

This was completely unavoidable as I had arranged the collaboration in April and him dropping out was incredibly unexpected, due to time concerns I will have to use the original which means that I have less freedom when it comes to sharing my content.  

On the 13th of may we filmed at new addington industrial estate, I had arranged for my actor to be picked up by our “stunt driver” due to us filming quite late, and due the previous shoot being delayed due to late-ness, as i wanted to film in the dark but not complete pitch black, we had to be very considerate of timing.

Having risk assessed this shoot prior due to the use of a moving car when filming everything went extremely successful and safe and we finished the shoot in the expected time frame.

May 23th

My deadline is fast approaching, for the last 10days I have been editing my project, and today I finally finished, not being able to perfect my last scene on the 12th of may meant I had to use premier pro to try and get my goal outcome, this was long and tedious but I manage to get a result as good as i'm going to get (using a lot of crossfades)

A big issue I have with my footage shot in the dark is when colour grading it gets more grainy which I had planned to fix with after effects however its not downloaded on the laptop im borrowing for school, so I chose to limit how much I colour grades Clives running scenes, the graininess in livs scenes works with the overall style im going for so is not huge issue.

I had spent a lot of time working out how I wanted scenes to look, and after 2 days spent trying different options that were extremely technical I decided to go back to the basics and just adjust the colour tone and saturation as the footage was just not working and like I said extremity grainy.

I knew from previous projects that premier pro on a laptop can lag sometimes, so I made sure to edit in intervals to prevent losing anywork, this actually helped me to have a more successful edit because it allowed me to come back often with fresh eyes, instead of overworking the project.  

I noticed in my footage that in some shots you could see freddies hair, this ruins the immersion of clive being half sheep, I did try to cut and crop areas but it cut of to much of the character, I know when shooting I was constantly having to remind freddie about the hair, in future projects when using a mask I will probably find away to slay the hair down slickly, or use a actor with short hair.