Presentation, Final Brief Choice and Summer Review

Below is my presentation that I am to present to the class to show why I should be able to do what brief I have chosen.



I have also decided that I am going to do brief 10. The short film. It's something new and it's something I've wanted to do for years, and with five minutes to play with I feel I'll really be able to show off my skills. I still have all my materials for the documentary ready as a back up, but hopefully I won't need them! So hopefully the short film about the Grim Reaper will become a reality.

                                         
Overall, I did think I would've done more over the summer. I wanted to have over half of the pre-production complete, however I now realise that I really under estimated the amount of work that would be.

However, I'm still happy with how much I have done. Two scripts, a fair amount of research and several storyboards. I've completed ten blog posts before we've even started the year. I'm planning to keep slowly working, aiming for at least one post a week, with hopefully around 5-8 posts a month. With a steady flow of pre-production I should be able to keep ahead and minimise chances of becoming over-whelmed.

Reflection:
In reflection, I am happy with the work I have completed over the holidays. I'm confident for this year, and looking forward to it :)

Celtx

A couple of days ago I thought it may be a good idea to find a script writing software, as it may just help my final product in the long run. What I found was Celtx, was looks like it's going to be very useful for my production.

Celtx is a video production manager site. On the website, you can keep scripts, budgets, storyboards and more all in one place, which then is easy to share with others. I've been using it for one of the scripts, and it's really useful. 

When you create a project, you can enter the information for the following.

• Script
• Budget
• Catalogue
• Index Cards
• The breakdown
• Shot list
• Schedule 
• Storyboards
• Photos/Film

So far it's been really helpful when writing the script. I imagine that I will be using this site for the rest of my production, as it seems to cover all bases that we have to use for our final product.

Reflection: I'm really happy I found this software. I feel that with it my production is going to benefit a whole lot from it, but also I feel that it'll help my script writing skills, something that I feel I've always struggled with. 

Dropping a brief

So at the start of Summer I had decided to do some research and pre-production work on three briefs so when I came back in September, I would be ready no matter which brief I decided to do.

However, I have now decided to drop one of these briefs. It's probably better that I've realised this now, as it makes it easier to focus on the other two briefs, one of which I will be doing.

The brief I am dropping is brief two. This was the brief that was main product was a teaser trailer. I have to decided to drop it for a few reasons.

The first reason is that I don't think it allows to show off what I can do as well as the other briefs. Teaser trailers only last about a minute and a half at most, and that's a push. I think I'd struggle to fit what I wanted to fit in, in such a short space of time. The other briefs give me much more time and potential to show off what I can do.

The second reason is simply because I cannot find the inspiration for it unlike the other two briefs. I tried writing a script for it but I couldn't find my footing with it, and I had the same problem with the storyboards for it. I just realised that I simply prefer the other two briefs a whole lot more.

So, I've dropped that brief. This way I'll be able to focus more on the other two briefs that I actually feel that work best for me.

Reflection: I think this is a quite good thing, as it's better to realise now rather than later. As mentioned above, I can focus now on the other two briefs.

Target Audiences Prezi

I've created a short prezi about the three briefs I'm still to decide on. The documentary, teaser trailer and the short film. I have attached the prezi below.



Reflection: This little piece of research was actually very helpful. I didn't realise that the average age of a gamer was so high and I didn't know the zombie genre was enjoyed by older audiences also. Without this, I would've create either of the products without the correct target audience in mind.

August 3rd update.

We have just over a month left of the summer holidays, so I thought I would make a little update on what I've been doing.

So I've stared scripts for the three briefs that I've chosen. (Short film, Documentary and Teaser trailer.) Out of these three, I've completed the Documentary script's first draft about videogames, (Which can be read here!) and I've nearly finished the script for the short film about the Grim Reaper.

I've also completed a survey that is going to help me get a better understanding of the target audiences for each brief, which brief is most popular and what I can do to make these briefs more appealing. I've only recently sent it out, so expect a follow post in a few days. You can read/do the survey here!

Before the end of the next week, I want to have completed a prezi about each brief and it's target audience and conventions. Doing this will not only help me decide on which brief to do but it'll also help make sure that when I create my product, that it is aimed at the correct audience.

I also want to have completed a storyboard for each brief. Just one scene, so I can get a better picture of what each will look like. It'll also help me later on when I'm trying to explain my ideas to others. I'm still undecided on if I am going to create these storyboards digitally or not.

Reflection: I feel like I'm making good progress over the holidays. If they continue the way I am, hopefully come September I'll be prepared to present my ideas and possibly even start pre-production sooner rather than later.

What I have learnt from last year

So in year twelve we had the task of creating a noir OTS for our coursework. I feel that while my group's final product was good, we still made a few mistakes on the way, and I feel that I actually learnt quite a bit from this.

I think my biggest three mistakes were time management, organisation and having no storyboards.

Last year my group and I started pre-production in Decemeber, but it still wasn't early enough for our project. We found ourselves struggling in Janurary to finish up our OTS and we had to rush our final scenes.

To combat my time management problems, I am starting pre-production extremely early to keep ahead. This way if I do make any mistakes, I'll have plenty of time left to solve any problems. It also means that if I need to reshoot any scenes, I'll have plenty of time to do so. Finally it also means I'll be able to be more ambitious with my ideas, as I'll have the time to play with.

Last year my organsitation skills were rather poor. I managed to get all the actors to come at the location, but when they arrived they didn't really know what was going on. I failed to actually inform them on what we were doing, which meant that it slowed production and caused more problems.

To better improve my organisitaion skills I'm going to try better inform my actors, letting know before hand what they're doing. Also, since I'm working by myself I will have to assemble a small crew, so I'll make sure they have there own scripts and storyboards so they are well informed.

Finally my final mistake last year was having poor storyboards. Because of this, as script writer/co-director it made it very difficult to put across my image for the OTS. It also meant that the actors didn't quite know what to do without futher explanation.

Hopefully this year for my media product, whatever there may be, I will have storyboards for the entire thing. I'm hoping to create these storyboards before production so that when I come to actually film my product I will have everything planned out, so my actors and crew both know what I want to create.

So in conclusion I am try to take every precaution I can to overcome the problems I made last year. I think the hardest challenge will be the time management, because even with my head start I feel that at times I will struggle to juggle my media coursework and all my other A-level lessons.

Reflection:
In reflection I think looking at my previous works and the mistakes I made is going to help me in long run. While I'm sure I'll run into new problems as I start pre-production and then production, I feel overall that I will be better prepared to face any problems that I come across.

What I am planning to do over the summer

So when I come back from the summer I have to have decided which brief I want to do and I have to be able to pitch my idea to my class and teacher to convince them that my idea will work. So over the summer I have to decide on one brief.

To try narrow it down, I'm going to complete storyboards, character concepts, surveys, research and prop and costume lists. With this information I'll be able to decide what brief I wish to do and if it's possible.

Anything that I create will be uploaded to this blog over the summer.

However, for whatever brief I do I'm setting myself the task of having the following prepared for it. They are as followed: 

• Having a first draft of the script
• Deciding and identyfiying the target audience
• Having two or three storyboards completed
• Having first drafts for the designs for the characters
• Looking into music that would fit with the product
• Assembling a cast for filming
• Creating a prop list
• Creating a costume list for the characters

With this information I should be ready to present the final idea that I have decided. My aims are to finish pre-production by the end of November, so I can start production in December. Hopefully by mid Janurary I can wrap up production and finish editing by the start of February. This will lead another two weeks to clear any thing up.