2. TASK 1
CONTEXTUAL
As this is the start of the FMP I'm hoping to hit the ground running and work overtime at home to go above and
beyond. Starting the contextual document was a trouble for me as when writing the pre-proposal, I wanted to
create a documentary style video on F1 and sports but quickly came to the realization that it would be near
impossible to pull off. As I had created a high-quality film in year 1 and coming off the back of one of my
favorite and best projects so far (factual) I figured I wanted to focus my efforts on a technical cinematography
style film which I gained inspiration from through watching videos and creators on social media travel the world
and display all these amazing places through drones and cameras. While I knew I couldn’t make it to that scale,
it was still possible through knowing people with equipment and being able to lend cameras from college that I
could create a developed video with very professional traits. Creation of a mood board allowed me to put down
my idea onto paper and visualize what I wanted to create. With a lot of forests and natural beauty surrounding
where I live, I figured I’d want to make it wildlife and adventure based focusing on the beauty of nature which
was in a similar style to that of the creators I gained my influence from. I found gaining influence a very fun yet
also very challenging topic as looking across the internet for videos that fit the description of what I wanted to
make was very difficult and picking apart the style choices combined with what I like and what I want to test
made me realise the sheer scale of the FMP and how much work I would have to put in to achieve such a high
grade. Although it was challenging, I feel as though the style I want to adapt into my PowerPoints and the work
I’ve produced in this section was very high quality. The pressure to achieve was made very clear from the off so
having something as daunting as university to aim for was a mental challenge I found hard to overcome due to
the fact I had to achieve a merit to get into my selected course.
3. TASK 1
PROPOSAL
As I worked on the contextual document before writing the proposal, I found
this to be an easy task as I had already done a lot of the creative thinking
beforehand so stating my idea and creative vision was a task I finished quickly
and to a very high standard. The rational section was a struggle to begin with
as I found discussing myself and my strengths/weaknesses to be a challenging
task due to not wanting to make myself sound big headed. Bibliographies are
also a challenging section as in the past I haven’t really focused on Harvard
referencing so learning to document all my sources and reference them
through Neil’s toolbox was something I wasn’t used to which resulted in me
finding websites, forgetting to document them, and having to retrace my steps
completely to look for them. Overall, I’ve found task 1 to be a very enjoyable
experience as I feel I’ve been very productive in creating some high-quality
work keeping within the set deadline we were provided with. Researching
creators and finding a style I wish to research makes me feel excited for the
production and the opportunities I may have to film my video.
4. TASK 2
RESEARCH
Starting research has been a daunting task for me as I usually find my research to be one of the weakest parts of my work and something I find
myself struggling with on nearly all projects so ensuring I did this to a high standard was very important to me. Looking into the codes and
conventions of film was a very straight forward task yet I feel it took longer than it should have as I found myself often distracted with looking at pre-
existing videos which while good for the existing product research, I found myself looking for technical aspects over the actual conventions of the
films. I found looking into these conventions interesting as you often find when you think about the aspects of a film that they’re obvious but when
not thinking about them they go straight over your head. I found comparing these conventions to my video an easy task as my imagination for the
project stuck to the conventions very well however I did want to veer away from having a set storyline and go for a theme-based film which allows an
audience to connect to a character more.
Product research I found to be my favorite task of research as watching these films and taking inspiration allowed me to not only develop a better
idea for my film but appreciate the effort and ability a lot of these film makers put into their projects. The videos I’ve viewed have been a very select
few from a large bunch as I found these videos to be my favorite, not only aesthetically, but technically including methods of shooting, shot types,
atmosphere and use of music and foley sound. As I was being so picky with the videos I used, I found I was using up a lot of time and in the end, I
had to rush due to the fact I didn’t work on the days we were out of college which lead to me falling behind around a week.
Colour grading was a very common aspect in all the films I watched and researched and after researching methods, programs and tutorials I
developed a surface level understanding of what to do and how leading up to the problem-solving phase. Upon researching I found that grading was
an incredibly time-consuming task so implementing it into my project was going to be a challenge but upon further research there was very quick
methods making use of the film LUT feature in DaVinci resolve so luckily my plan of grading my shots was still on despite the fact I may have to
begin my shooting significantly earlier in order to grade enough shots to include in a short film.
The audience research I found was very surprising as I expected short films to have a far broader audience than what they did so developing my idea
to fit an even tighter niche would be a large challenge. My contextual work set a good start for my work as I had a solid plan surrounding an
outdoors style short film with a hiking focus so targeting my film to not only film makers but also an audience who enjoys outdoors and hiking which
when combined creates a greater sized audience for my film.
5. TASK 3
PROBLEM SOLVING
While I feel I am a bit behind schedule with work I feel as though my problem solving has came along very well. Working on my contingency plan
was something I had worked in depth on in a lot of projects, so it was a matter of listing all the things I must consider when going out and shooting
which the majority I have already experienced in prior projects. This task was completed quickly and in good detail needing no further revision which
made me feel confident in moving onto the other parts of the document. My experiments plan was another part of the planning which I was very
confident with due to the vision of my project and planning of what I needed to do. Colour grading was the main part of my practices, which as the
software was new to me, took a very long time to understand and master with many drafts and tests of methods and ways to grade and create a shot
that looked the way I wanted. I initially began practicing on shots from my year 1 FMP but found I needed to go out and shoot some new footage of
outdoors as a lot of my old FMP wasn’t good enough to grade due to shots being inside. I rented a college camera and went out one evening with
an actor and myself and began shooting which I'm very glad I did as I could begin getting used to shooting with a college DSLR. The only drawback
to doing this was I was once again short on time and eating into my planning was something I didn’t want to do. As I graded more and more shots, I
got a hold of a method I found produced the best results and that I could replicate quickly on a wide range of shots which produced bright colours
while keeping a somewhat dark and moody aesthetic using the color boost feature.
As mentioned previously, going out and shooting shots to grade was an important part of my problem solving but in doing that I could get used to
using the camera as it was something I’d never really shot with, and I was worried I would have out of focused shots. I began by using the auto
focusing feature but as I got more comfortable with adjusting the camera in different lights and scenarios, I turned it back onto manual focus and
began tinkering with settings in the same location, shooting the same thing over and over until I was happy with what I had came out with. While
shooting, I found daylight disappearing and the sun quickly setting so I thought to adjust the camera onto low light settings to see if the result
varied. I found shooting in low light a lot more difficult as finding lighting and making the shots look not grainy was difficult. To overcome this issue,
took a short break to research how to to properly shoot in the dark and what settings to use which made a large difference to the product. I didn’t
intend on shooting in the dark, however the skill and the knowhow helped me to better understand the camera and may be the difference to
producing better shot and focused footage for my video. In doing this I also took a lot of foley sound in hopes of testing for the right type of
environment to capture the nature of my shot. I originally went into town and shot but the environment didn’t feel authentic enough due to sound
pollution and other people limiting factors. To solve this problem, I went off into the woods near my house and filmed bites of sound to better suit
the footage I obtained.
Writing about the theoretical problems was mainly expressing difficulties in past projects that have held me back such as organizational and
technical problems. Limiting these problems will be largely in the planning scheme and how in depth I intend on reacting. In writing the contingency
plan I outlined the basic problems but planning in depth on how to limit them will be difficult due to the margin of error I have when shooting a
project in locations where kit and people could be hurt.
6. TASK 4
PLANNING
(AND ADJUSTMENTS)
My planning started off very well filling in all the location and personnel information until I got an email stating that the head of design at the Lake
District National Park was interested in the video I was creating and wondered if I would like to create them a promotional video to celebrate their
recent collaboration with Berghaus on their new hiking gear and outwear. Rather than completely changing my idea to a commercial I figured I
would take the video I was already planning and take it to the lake district and create a video with certain aspects of a short film and certain aspects
with a commercial. This did result in me having to go through and edit certain parts of my plan like where I wished to shoot and specific ideas like
stories but luckily, I got the offer before I got too deep into the planning. The main downside was I had already made my story board which followed
the narrative of an adventure/horror story so I will have to re draft that at some point during the planning phase. I’m incredibly happy that I've been
given the opportunity to work with a brand as big as Berghaus and represent an entire place like the lake district. Not only that but I feel like it’s
given my project more life and direction than just having a short film. For the future I intend on adding more sections into my planning based
around advertising and looking at the conventions and codes of creating online advertisements. The largest drawback about the recent idea change
will be the time it takes for me to edit all my documents as it’s a lot of content and researching to do while keeping to the already strict deadlines
given set by myself and by my tutor. The way I’ll get round it will be through working at home when I can on the parts off schedule like planning and
problem solving and trying to keep a diary of my findings on the end of my existing diary you’re reading now.
With having the opportunity to represent a brand such as the LDNP I figured that I would have to plan to film in the lake district, so I began looking
at the best potential places to film and planning the logistics of them. I went to a place called Keswick a lot as a kid so given the fact, I knew the
location a lot and had some good ideas for shots I began trying to sort out transport to get up there during out of college hours. After days of
waiting and contingency planning (due to the fact i was running out of time) I got permission for a lift for the day so after sorting days and actors we
headed up. Having to wait so long really limited me on the amount of time I had which means I've fallen a fair bit behind considering I must improve
and change my documents meaning now more than ever I must work more than I ever must not fall completely behind. My visual planning for the
production feels very developed and is detailed enough for me to go and shoot my project without having any setbacks minus the fact I still have an
out-of-date storyboard. An issue that arose during planning was my lack of ability to go and complete a recce due to the distance away it was so
relying on resources such as maps and memory were important when identifying risks and potential setbacks to the production of my video. The risk
vs reward factor of my project is very high due to filming so far away and only having 1 chance to film my footage so spending an extended amount
of time on planning was a risk I took, and I hope it will pay off. Planning for the style of my video was also important for the same reason as above so
insuring I had the correct props and outfits for my actor was pivotal. Luckily, he has some Berghaus in his wardrobe so filming the commercial should
be straight forward enough.
8. WEEK 12
My first week of production has been spent rounding up all the shots I’ve done and organizing
them into what needed shooting. I planned for my first shoot to be done in my furthest away
location meaning any they are the main and any other shots I want or need to do are in closer to
home locations and easier to film. As this week was in the holidays, people weren’t available for a
lot of time meaning this was my only real filming opportunity, so I made use of the time after the
filming day was complete to review and decide which shots from the footage, I gathered were
going to be colour graded and in what order I wanted them. For the importing of these shots off
the camera I used my device I bought which has a built in SD card reader meaning I wouldn’t have
to wait until college to do any of my work. After renaming all the correct shots and putting them
into a file I began colour grading using Davinci resolve 18. I started by adding the LUT’s, gamma
and colour spaces to the correct canon settings as we shot with the college 800D cameras. The
main area I worked on was making my shots seem brighter and more vibrant and they day we
chose to shoot became rather grey and dark in some points so using the Colour Boost slider
combined with other settings such as shadow and offset it drastically changed the image of the
shots as shown below. I’ve found this colour grading my favorite in the project so far as making the
shots look nice and better than before is a satisfying process. Overall, this first week of production
has been easy going and I'm ahead of my production schedule and I hope next week to have come
near to finishing my colour grading and to have begun assembly.
9. WEEK 3/4
• These two weeks have been repeating the same thing which has mainly been
assembly of my film in premier pro. Trimming the clips down and making sure that
they’re on beat to my chosen song has led me to a near complete production. I
went out shooting with my friend Jamie on a Saturday evening and picked up some
shots that I thought would be useful as I colour graded my shots. I found that my
footage lacked a lot of closeup shots so I asked if I could get a few and use them in
my own in which we did. During all of this I was picking out specific and my favorite
shots and grading a bunch at a time, so I had enough shots sorted for me to
complete the first half of my filming. During the construction of my video, I
sectioned off the music I selected into distinct thirds, so I knew how much I had to
grade for individual sections. I did this using the marker section on premier pro
meaning I could space out my workload evenly and effectively. My music choice
was made at the start of the week, and I purposely chose a dramatic piece to match
with the dramatic settings of my shooting and dramatic colours in which I
implemented in the grading process. I ran into the issue of running out of shots for
the part I wanted to use them in quite a lot, and I’d blame this on poor planning
and lack of an in depth shot list, storyboard and unknowing of the location I was
filming in despite researching prior. Combining all my colour grading shots into
one Davinci resolve document made the process a little easier while having every
shot in one place but limited my production time as I had to chop through and
create individual clips to put on beat. Overall these few weeks have been very
productive and I’m happy with the work I’ve produced and how its came out.
10. WEEK 5/6
The weekend of week 5 I began doing some backup shooting on my own in Knaresborough in fear I wouldn’t have
enough shots to complete my project. The time I began shooting was rather awkward as it was beginning to get dark
due to me having no free time to go anytime else. I was initially reluctant to continue filming in the dark but upon
discovering the cameras night mode feature producing some amazing shots I figured I’d go for as long as I could
while having the help of my friend Jamie and his girlfriend. While the shots were all high quality and focused well I
found the theme was verging away from my initial plan and when I purposefully included the lake district, using
shots from my local town didn’t feel authentic so I opted to leave them. Luckily after grading the final few shots in
DaVinci I had just enough to complete my commercial with only 1 repeated shot which I was very happy about.
These weeks were pivotal to the production of my video as this would be where I implement the marketing aspects
to my final product. Creating the collaborative logo was very easy as I had a clear idea from the off after looking at
other designer collabs where both separate logos were combined with an X. While the logo is simple, I found it was
effective and clearly got the idea and what the collab is which was what I was looking for. Luckily, no drafting was
required as I was satisfied with my logo so I could easily place it into my commercial when I wanted. I ran into a
problem with importing the logo into premier as I accidently left a part of the LDNP logo white, so I had to import a
plain white background and place it on the under layer in premier to ensure there was no odd white splat in on the
page. By adding a transition onto the logo, it allowed the video to keep the smooth flow which I wanted meaning my
production was just about done. I did find that with only a 45 second commercial I had little to do during week 6 as I
feel I may have an underdeveloped project. With only a week left, creating more content would result in it looking
and feeling rushed which I wouldn’t be happy with so leaving it and moving onto my evaluation was the best and
most efficient idea.
11. TASK 5
PRESENTATION
The presentation part of the project was a very proud moment as I felt I
could display my work to a large audience who could appreciate my work
for what it was. Submitting it on time for the deadline was a challenge due
to me having to edit the rest of my documents which took far longer than I
had wished. Creating my document for the presentation was a very fun
process as having my product based around a brand, I could explore ways
to promote my product which promotes the brand at the same time.
Looking into how brands promote products successfully was a fun
experience as a lot of what's behind the methods was very interesting.
While I believe the document was made well, I spent most of my time
fixing prior documents like research and planning to fixing my idea and
adding final bits of detail in to push my project into the merit bracket.
