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Grace Bundy
Final Major Project
Initial Ideas
I decided to create a mind map with very vague ideas and topics that I could create my documentary on. I wanted to gain an idea about what I think has a sense of pride, if that was a specific person, or a movement in history, or something more vague like mental health. From this I can see which ideas that I want to develop and think that has potential for the documentary that I am going to make. I think the ideas that I want to develop are mental health, an athlete, and Jane Austen because I think that these are the most interesting approaches that I could take. They are all very different ideas because I wanted to explore the different perceptions of pride.
Initial Ideas
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Idea 2
Another idea is to focus on athletes. That could either be athletes in general, or could be focused on athletes within a specific sport, or just one person in specific that I would find interesting to research into and talk about, examples of this are Lizzy Yarnold and Andy Murray. I am thinking of possibly talking about all the sports as a whole and then throughout the documentary focus more on a specific person. Athletes take a lot of pride in what they do and I think that this could be a very interesting approach to a this project.
Idea 4
This idea is about doing a documentary on actors. I will start off talking about the celebrities of Hollywood as a whole and then will choose an actor more specifically that I find interesting and that I think shows a true sense of pride. I will then after doing research talk about that person in the documentary linking it to pride and how that person has helped to inspire people to take price in themselves. Possibly actors include Tom Cruise and Edward Norton, I want to choose someone who is interesting and well known.
Idea 1
The idea is to create a documentary trailer for a film about feminism. I feel as if this is a growing talked about topic, making this idea have potential to be interesting to a big audience. I would show the change and growth of women's equality, starting from the suffragettes. I will include some sit down interviews where I find out peoples opinions on them. I will do research into this and include this information in the trailer. I will have a variety of different shots with voice overs to make it interesting to watch. I think that this would be an interesting and factual for people to watch.
Idea 1
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Idea 3
This idea is to focus on mental health I think that this would be an approach that wouldn't be the obvious choice to pick. When doing research into possible ideas I thought about people who are too proud to ask for help. This is how I thought of focusing a documentary trailer on mental health. I think that it is an important topic to talk about, and it is not a direct link to pride but one that I think would be interesting to watch. I would research into mental health and the video would be about someone who is struggling with mental health issues and doesn't ask for help.
Idea 5
This idea is to create a documentary about Jane Austen, I think that it would be interesting to find out more about her and her views of the dependence of women on marriage. I would talk about her life and books that she has written, and link it back to pride. I will say how she took pride in her work and her life. I will interview people and ask there opinions about her, and will present it in an interesting way by focusing a lot on the editing.
SWOT analysis
Mental Health
Since creating the mind maps and some basic ideas of what I want to include and focus my work on, I have now created more of an idea about what I want the video to be about. I want to go down the route of creating a short film about someone who suffers from depression. It would show a day in the life of this person, and possibly having a voice over throughout to show the thoughts of the person. The video would take two different turns it would show what would happen if the person didn't get help and would then show what would happen if the person did and would show the different outcomes.
Strengths- It is an interesting approach to pride and I think that it is a good link to it as well. I will easily be able to film it with the equipment available at college which is going to give it a professional finish. I also have the right settings to film it making the film look more realistic.
Weaknesses- I will have to use a few actors which could affect the overall look of piece. I will have to make sure that I convey the link between mental health and pride so that it is clear to the audience the link between the two.
Opportunities- I will be able to focus a lot on the camera skills as I will be creating a short film so I can create some test shoots to see the different camera angles and shots that I could possibly include. I might include some foley sound effects to the piece to create some of the sounds as I think when creating a serious film, sound has a big impact in the way that it is presented. I will edit the video using Premiere Pro so I will show the editing skills that I have which is a focus of mine. I think I will use colour grading to create the effect that I want which is also going to be done using Premiere Pro.
Threats- Time management could be an issue due to the amount of planning and research that I am going to have to do. This is important that I complete a lot of research so that I convey the character with depression correctly in the film.
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Athletes
The idea is to create a documentary type video about athletes, I would talk about how athletes take pride in what they do and give some examples of some athletes that inspire me and that has been very successful. I will also include some vox popping and ask people in the street their opinion on certain athletes to see what they think and get their opinions. I might also include a sit down interview where I talk to some people to find out more. I will then explain what the results were and at the end I will link it back to pride.
Strengths- This idea is a clear relation to the sense of pride and I will be able to show the link in the video. I think that many people would find this topic interesting and are intrigued to find out different opinions on athletes. I won't need any actors for the piece as it is going to be mostly interviews so that answers are going to be peoples true opinions.
Weaknesses- The idea I don't think is very original, there are many other videos out there on this subject, so I will have to find a way to make mine different than the others.
Opportunities- I will be able to show my interview and researching skills that I have, as I will have to look into the life of a certain athlete and the success that they have. I can apply the research well when completing the work
Threats- I don't think that this idea is going to give me the opportunity to show my potential. The editing involved would be quite basic as the main focus would be on the vox popping, and there wouldn't be any special effects, or any other advanced editing because of the style of the piece.
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Celebrities
The idea is to create a spoken word type documentary. This is a different approach to the other ideas that I have but one that I think is quite an interesting. I would research into a specific celebrity and create a typography video using After Effects. I will talk about how that celebrity takes too much pride in themselves, and explain how pride can sometimes have a negative effect on people.
Strengths- It is a very different approach to the video and I will be able to clearly link pride to celebrities. The whole video is more of a direct link to pride making it clear to the viewer the connection between the two. If done well typography can look very professional and effective making the video more interesting to watch.
Weaknesses- The video could come across quite boring due to the lack of variety because the entire video would all be spoken word. I don't think that there is enough variety in skills that I would use as the main focus is going to be on After Effects rather than the filming side of things.
Opportunities- I will be using After Effects to create the typography, so I can show the skills that I have using this programme. I will have clips playing in the background to make it more visually pleasing.
Threats- I am going to have to make sure that I practice a lot before I create the typography as this is not my strongest skill. I am going to need to watch some Youtube videos and practice which is going to be quite time consuming. Actually creating the typography also takes a long time to do so I will have to make sure that I have good time management so that I leave enough time to complete it.
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Storyboard- Mental Health
As part of the development of my idea I decided to create a simple storyboard so that I have an idea of the story of the film. I have not gone into much detail as the purpose of it is to give me a better understanding of the structure of the piece and what I want to happen. It has helped me to do this and from this I can see the outline of the story and I am able to develop and improve this to create a more detailed idea of whats going to happen. The basic storyline is as follows: starts of showing a teenager who struggles with mental health issues getting out of bed and getting ready to go out. It will show the struggle that she has to go through to do everyday tasks. It will show her going for a walk to the park, focusing on the teenagers feelings and emotions. Then shows her back at home where she gets a message from her friend asking if she is okay. She will reply saying that she is fine, and she carries on with her day. It will then rewind and show what would happen if she replied in a different way, by admitting that she is not okay and that she needs help. The friend will then come over where they will talk and will show how her her life is improved.
Primary, Contextual & Secondary research-Mental Health
I need to do some research into mental health so that I make sure that I convey the right emotion in the film and so that I am more knowledgable on it as this is going to make the production process a lot easier. To do this I am going to use a variety of websites to find out the causes, symptoms, and treatments are of depression.
Secondary
I used the NHS website to find out some more information about depression so that I have a better knowledge on it.
Depression is more than simply feeling unhappy, sad or fed up for a few days, but is more where you have these feelings persistently for weeks or even months rather than just for a few days. It is not something that you can control and is not a sign of weakness, it is a genuine illness that you are not able to just snap out of. With treatment and the right support you able to make a full recovery.
Depression affects people in different ways and can cause a variety of different symptoms. Generally if you are depressed you have the feeling of sadness or hopelessness. Other symptoms include feeling tired and having a loss of energy, loss of self-confidence and self-esteem, many also have symptoms of anxiety. Having sleeping problems is also common as well as loss of appetite, difficulty concentrating and thinking about suicide and death are other symptoms. There are different levels of depression ranging from mild to severe. If you at its mildest then this is where you feel persistently low and unhappy, whereas if you are severe then this is where you have suicidal thoughts and self harm because you believe that live is no longer worth living.
There are different causes and triggers for depression, this could be from life- changing events such as bereavement, having a baby, and losing your job are just some examples of what can trigger depression.
Treatment for depression can involve a combination of lifestyle changes, going to therapy, and getting medication. If you have moderate or severe depression a combination between therapy and and medication is recommended. If you have severe depression you may be referred to a specialist mental health team for intensive specialist talking treatments and prescribed medication. Joining a support group or reading a self-help book might also be beneficial as they can help you gain a better understanding about what causes you to feel depressed.
Many people with depression will benefit from changing their lifestlyle like exercising more, drinking less alcohol, stop smoking, eating healthily.
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Statistics
At then end of the short film I want to include some shocking statistics so I have done some research into this and chosen the most surprising to me that I might include.
1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year
60% of children and adolescents with depression are not getting any type of treatment
Contextual
I decided to do some research into mental health videos that already exist so that I can take some inspiration from them and to help influence my own ideas. I was mostly focusing on the way the video was presented and the different techniques that they used to film.
I found this short documentary on YouTube which I found very inspiring and interesting to watch. I liked the different camera angles and shots with the voice over through out. All of the shots looked very dark to represent the mood of the piece, I will take this approach when doing my own work because I think that it is very effective. These shots were colour graded which I am going to practice with so that I can create a similar approach in my own work. The voice overs which showed peoples real feelings and emotions made it more effective and made the overall video more interesting to watch because it is real. This video helped me with my own video as it gave me an idea of what I want my video to come out like, and has helped the way I present my idea. I am considering having a voice over through out to show what the women is really feeling.
This is another video that I found, and the one thing that stuck out to me the most was the colour grading used. The colour is very dark again to represent the emotions of the character. This short film takes a similar approach to the other one due to the voice overs used. The voices are very clear but monotone which links well with the topic of the video. Another aspect that stuck out to me was the music that was used, it was quite loud which caught my attention. I really liked the music that they chose because it again went well with the video. It made the video a lot more engaging my having the voice over as well as the music. The difference between the two is that the first one the shots are of different landscapes, because the main focus of the video is the listening to the audio. Where as the other video it is more of a combination between the two which is why I prefer this video because there is more going on which makes it more engaging to watch.
I found the video 'living with depression' very interesting to watch. It takes a similar approach to the other videos that I have watched as it has used a voice over which is explaining what living with depression is like. It explains what having depression is like which seems to be a common approach when creating a video for this subject. There are lots of different shots used which are showing what she does everyday. Each of the shots are very simple because there is not much action happening, showing her picking up her keys, or getting in the lift and then it cuts to the next scene. The way that they have cut the shots and the length of them are very interesting to me because it works well with the mood of the piece. I feel that because the shots are only showing little movement and excitement so it mimics the feelings of the person in the way that it is a continuous feeling and how each day nothing changes. The cuts between the shorts are not in chronological order, one shot will be her at home and the next she is on a beach. I like this approach because the video is not supposed to be telling a story through the different shots, but the main focus is of the monologue and the shots are linked to what is being said. After watching these videos I am going to consider making some significant changes to my own idea as I like the approach that all the videos have taken.
I decided to create a questionnaire to see what people thought of my idea so that I could make improvements. This is going to help me to decide if I should choose this as my final idea. After creating the questionnaire I sent it out to my target audience so that I can get their opinions on my idea, as these are the opinions that are relevant to the video. I started off asking if they thought focusing on mental health is a good idea for the final major project. Out of the 10 responses that I got 9 said that they thought that it was. This is very encouraging for me to now proceed on with this idea due to the majority of the people saying they thought that it was a good approach. I wanted to find out if they thought that mental health is a good link to pride on which 70% said that it was. I think that the percentage wasn't as high as the first question because mental health is not necessarily and obvious link to pride, but I think that it does still have a connection between the two, in which most people agree with. I wanted to find out if people would be interested in watching a video about mental health, because if they aren't then this going to majorly affect my decision on whether to proceed with this idea. However, from asking this question 90% said that they would be interested, which is helpful to me knowing that the vast majority would want to watch the video. The next question was open ended so that I can get a more in depth opinion of what people wanted to see. Most of the responses were about showing someone suffering and struggling with mental health issues, some saying to show that person before and after getting help. A few other responses said to show the facts and statistics revolving around mental health. I have taken all the responses into consideration and it has helped me to understand what the audience are looking for in the video. My video idea, I believe covers the majority of what most people wanted to see as my main focus is to show a teenager who struggling from mental health issues, and showing how her life would be different if she got help and how it wouldn't if she didn't. The next question I asked was do you think focusing on mental health as a whole would be a better approach than to focus on a specific sub section? I asked this question because I wanted to know whether focusing on mental health in general will be more interesting to watch by a wider audience. The results I found were surprising as they showed half the responses where yes and the other half were no. The people that answered no were then asked what specific mental illness would they want it to focus on. All of these responses were either depression or anxiety. This didn't surprise me as this is what is most common to people meaning more people might be able to relate to the video, or just to be able to take something from it. The other 50% thought that is was best if the video was focused on mental health in general possibly meaning that they think it would be best if all areas were covered, or thought that the video should be about mental health facts and statistics, in which they wanted to learn more about as a whole issue. The next question was to find out how they would improve the idea. The answers were all relatively similar which said to make sure that the video shows the link between mental health and pride.Other answers said to make sure to do research so that the way that you are going to portray the character with mental health issues a realistic representation, and by doing research it is going to help with this. This was useful for me to find this information out about what I need to improve on as I can now take it on board and make sure that I use this to make my video better. The last question was a rating out 10 of how good they found the idea. 5 people rated it a 7, 3 people a 6, 1 person a 5 and 1 person a 4. These results were quite varied which surprised me, but half of the responses did rate it a 7 which I think is a good rating and for the other responses it could of been because of the improvements that they think that I need to make, which could be the reason for some of the lower ratings. Overall, this questionnaire has helped me to gain a better idea of what the target audiences opinions are and what they think about my idea. I will take all the answers into consideration and will make the relevant changes to my idea to make it better.
Link to Pride
I thought that it was important to state the link between my idea and pride, so that I refer back to this to make sure that the connection is between the two is obvious. The point of the video is to show the different outcomes that could take place depending on the choices that a teenager suffering from depression takes. One outcome shows her struggling with life, and the other shows her getting help and how her life has improved. The link to pride is to swallow your pride and admitting that you need help. The whole point of the video is to show what would happen if you asked for help and what would happen if you didn't. At first I wanted to create a type of documentary about it, but then I thought it would be more effective for me and give me more potential and opportunity to show my creativity by creating a short film about depression.
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Colour Grading test shots
After analysing some videos I thought that it would be most beneficial to me to practice colour grading because it is an important aspect when creating a short film, especially when focusing on the depression because the colour of the shots reflect the mood of the piece. I found some images that helped me to have a better understanding of colour grading and I was able to compare the before and after pictures to see the difference. It showed me the importance of this aspect, so I am going to take some pictures similar to the ones that I found and play around with the colours using Premiere Pro.
Using Premiere Pro I played around with the colour grading to try and make them as similar to the original image as possible. I tinted the photos, as well as changing the exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites and blacks, which gave me the look that I wanted. Some of the results were subtle which is the look that I wanted. This was a good way to experiment with colour grading as I was able to get use to the different tools available and have a better understanding of what they are used for and was able to practice for when I film the actual video. I learnt a lot from this and looking at the outcomes I can compare the before and after images to see what looks different. Overall, I like the colour grading effect and will definitely use this in my final video as I can see that it effects the way the image is perceived and changes the overall look of the piece.
Interview test shots & Primary research- Athletes
A storyboard was not going to be as beneficial to me for this idea as this is an interview type documentary, so all the answers are not going to be planned. Therefore, I decided to create some test shots for the vox popping side of things, so that I can gain practice in my interview skills and practice with the camera angles and the audio. I think that this is going to be beneficial to me because I am able to look back and see what I need to improve. After analysing my previous work I am now going to take the improvements that I need to make into consideration when filming these test shots. I thought of a few questions that I am going to ask that is relevant to the topic. The first question I asked was if they would be interested in watching a documentary about athletes and in particular Serena Williams. The other question was if they would be interested in watching a interview style documentary. The reason why I asked these questions was to not just test the equipment and the lighting but also to gather more peoples opinions on my idea as part of my primary research.
Contextual
As part of the contextual research I decided that the most beneficial thing to do is to analyse my past work on vox popping so that I can see what when well and what I need to improve. I am going to analyse the video so I know what I can do better next time. I am also going to watch some youtube videos to see what other advice I can gain to help me.
Primary, Contextual & Secondary research- Athletes
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After re-watching the video I focused on my vox popping techniques. My initial thoughts about it is that the audio is not consistent between the the different interviews. This needs to be improved so that there is a volume consistency between them all. In some of the clips there is background noise going on which means that I could have chosen a quieter place to film, which I will take into consideration more when I am filming for this project. I then watched a video aout the basics of vox popping. I watched this so that I can improve my skills and knowledge about vox pops. This video helped me to know the importance of being ready so that when you see a person they don't have to wait around for you to be ready. Another point that she made was to be approachable by smiling, as being filmed can be quite intimidating to people. Also, she said to ask open questions which need a descriptive response so that it make it more interesting and you get more information from the person.
After filming the interviews I edited them using Premiere Pro. Instead of including me asking the questions I decided to put the question on the screen. I wanted to try this approach to see if it would make it more professional. After completing it I liked that it makes it clear to the viewer what question is being asked, however after watching other interview style documentaries this approach is not normally taken, which is why I would prefer not to have the questions displayed. I used the boom mic's to record the audio because I thought that it was most appropriate to use this mic rather than the others available. I recorded in one of the editing suites which I used the natural lighting to film in, but after looking at the footage it is still rather dark which is why when I film for the actual video I will make sure that I film in more of a well lit area so that the quality of the video looks better. The audio came out well, which is because of the room that we filmed in meant that there wasn't any background noise or any echo's. I interviewed two people, and when I was editing I put their responses of the same question next to each other, so that it made more sense to the viewer when watching the video. I think that I should have filmed the interviews closer to the person rather than having their whole body in shot.
From both the responses I can see that they both thought that focusing on athletes would be an interesting approach to the video and that they would enjoy watching this type of video. They also both said that they enjoy watching an interview style documentary which is reassuring to hear. Overall, the test shots have been very beneficial to me as I can see what went well and include this in the video, and then what needs to be improved to make the video better.
Link to pride
For this idea I believe that the link to pride is more obvious then the other ideas. Athletes take a lot of pride in the sport they play and I think that creating a video asking peoples opinion on them is a good approach to take with this subject. The questions that I ask will be specifically linked to pride so that the relevance is clear when watching the video.
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I created another questionnaire for my idea about making a documentary about athletes because I wanted to find out my target audiences opinion on the idea. The first question was find out if they would be interested in watching a video about peoples opinion on athletes, in which 70% of the responses said that they would. This shows to me that the majority of people would want to watch it, but compared to the questionnaire I conducted on mental health, the responses for this question were significantly lower compared to the other idea. The next question was to find out if they thought the vox popping and interviews are a good approach to the FMP, in which 90% of people answered yes they thought that it was. Getting these responses has reassured me that this is a good way to present my idea. The one person that answered no said that they thought it would have been better if it was presented in a short film documentary. I appreciate this comment as it gave me an insight into how else I could have presented my idea but because the vast majority of the responses said that they though it was a good approach I will be sticking with this approach. The next question was to find out if they thought there was a clear link between athletes and pride in which 70% said that it was an obvious link and the other 3 people said that it wasn't. This still shows that most of the people thought that the link was clear. I will take the other answers into consideration by making sure that I reinforce the link between the two. The next question was to find out if they thought that interview style video are interesting to watch in which everyone who answered said yes. This is very beneficial to me as I know that interviews are going to be the main focus on the video as I know that it is going to be most interesting for my target audience. I then wanted to get some suggestions as to what athlete they thought it should be about in which the responses were very varied. Some of the responses were focus on olympic athletes like, Tom Daley, Jessica Ennis and Usain Bolt. From this question I can see that who ever I focus my video on not everyone is going to be interested in that specific person due to everyone liking different athletes. However, this doesn't mean that they will not watch it as I know that everyone likes the style of video that I am going for. The next question which is most beneficial to me is ways that I can improve the idea. The results included, having different aspects to the video like typography or to make sure that the link to pride is clear whilst watching. Other responses included having a variety of peoples opinions so that it is interesting and to make sure that it isn't repetitive. These answers have helped me and I will make sure that I take their thoughts into consideration. The last question was a rating out of 10 in which 7 people rated it a 6 and 3 people a 7. This is encouraging to know that everyone rated it over half. I think that they chose these numbers was due to the minor parts that need to be improved and if I do this then the ratings would go up.
Secondary
I wanted to do some research into the possible athletes that I would talk about and focus my video on. After the primary research that I gathered I have narrowed the list of athletes to Jesse Owens, Serena Williams and Andy Murray as they are all very successful and people who I find very inspiring and am interested in learning about. As part of the documentary I am going to use some interesting and relevant clips of the athlete and am going to have a voice over stating some information and facts about them. As part of the primary feedback I realised that I need to incorporate some different aspects to the video so that it makes the video more engaging and interesting to watch, which is why I am going to include this aspect to the video. This is why it is important for me to do research into the athletes so that I am able to gain more knowledge on them but also so that I can narrow it down to one athlete that I would want to focus on.
Jesse Owens
Jesse Owens was an American track and field athlete and four-time Olympic god medalist in the 1936 games. He specialised in the sprints and the long jump and was known for being "perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history" in his lifetime. He set three world records and tied in another. The 1936 Olympics in Berlin is where he achieved his international fame by winning 4 gold medals which were in the: 100 meters, 200 meters, long jump and 4 x 100 meter relay, making him the most successful athlete at the games. Owens was ranked by ESPN as the sixth greatest North American athlete of the 20th century and ranked the best his sport.
At the end of 1935 a secretary from the NAACP which is a civil right organisation in America which is to advance justice for African Americans, wrote a letter to Owens although it was never actually sent. In the letter he was trying to persuade Owens to not take part in the Olympics of the grounds that an African-American shouldn't promote a racist regime after what his race had suffered at the hands of white racists in his own country. Owens was convinced by the NAACP to declare "If there are minorities in Germany who are being discriminated against, the United States should withdraw from the 1936 Olympics" yet he and others did take part after the American Olympic committee president branded them "un-American agitators". Following Owens success from the games due to Hitler and other government officials had high hopes that German athletes would dominate the games with victories.
Serena Williams
Serena Williams is an American professional tennis player. The women's tennis association ranked her no. 1 in the world in singles on eight different occasions between 2002 and 2007. In total she has been ranked first for 319 weeks. Her 39 major titles puts her joint-third on the all-time list second in the Open Era: 23 in singles, 14 in women's doubles, and two in mixed doubles. She is the most recent female player to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles continuously. She also holds the all-time record for the most women's singles matches won at the majors with 335 matches. She has won 14 Grand slam doubles titles all with her sister Venus, and they are unbeaten in Grand Slam doubles finals. She is also a five time winner of the WTA Tour Championships in the singles division and has won four Olympic Gold medals, one in singles and three in doubles. She has earned almost $29 million in pride money and endorsements, making her the highest payed female athlete in 2016. Due to her many victories she has become a huge influence on young boys and girls who see her as a role model, and she has used her platform for good. As an example in October 2018 she stepped up to support October's Breast Cancer awareness month in which she sang acappella to "I touch myself" in a video. Even though she was out of her comfort zone she still was able to have the courage to sing topless for a video to promote checking yourself.
Andy Murray
Andy Murray is a British professional tennis player from Scotland who is ranked no.233 in men's singles as of 4 February 2019. He is a three time Grand slam tournament winner, two time Olympic champion, Davis Cup champion, winner of the 2016 ATP world tour finals and former world no.1. He defeated Novak Djokovic in the 2012 US Open final, in which he became the first British player since 1977 to win a Grand Slam singles tournament. He is also the first British man to win multiple Wimbledon singles titles since 1936. He is the men's singles 2012 and 2016 Olympic gold medalist, making him the only tennis player to have won two olympic singles titles. At the beginning of 2019 he announced that he may retire in the following month and would like Wimbledon to be his last tournament. He has recently had a second operation on his hip and if he returned to tennis would be putting himself at great risk of further injury.
After gathering this information about the three athletes I now feel that I have more knowledge of them and am able to compare them to decide which one I would want to focus my idea on. I feel that I am most interested in creating a video about Serena Williams, as I find her very interesting and inspiring and think that she is good person for the topic of pride. I think that the target audience will be very interested in learning more about her which is why she is going to be the main focus of my video.
Typography Practice- Celebrities
Using After Effects I wanted to create some typography so that I am more knowledgable and experienced with the programme. I can also play around with the different fonts so that I can see which ones are going to look the best for my idea. It has helped me to improve my skills of the programme and now that I have more practice I am able to create the video a lot quicker.
I followed two different tutorials so that I have enough practice for creating the real documentary. The first tutorial that I followed was to have basic practice using the programme. I learnt how to animate the words so that they moved and changed size. I was able to play around with the different font types and the colours. I then followed another tutorial which was more advanced where I was able to animate the words in different ways. I used more of the tools available like rotation and opacity which is shown in the screenshot below, making it look more professional. It was very time consuming but now that I have practiced I am more confident and will be able to create the final piece quicker. I really liked the outcome of the videos, one tools that I liked the most is the 'easy ease' tool which makes the overall video flow better. I enjoyed experimenting with the different animations that they have available and I will make sure that I include these in the final video.
Primary
Primary, contextual & secondary research
Contextual
Using the website 'learn about films' I watched a typography video which I found very interesting and useful to me. The actual topic of the video is not relevant to pride but more of the technical side of is relevant to the type of video I want to create. I have included 2 screenshots from the video which shows the basic concept of the video. It has the word in bold and an image in the background which relates to what the word is saying. I like that they have used the related images in the background as it makes it a lot more interesting to watch. This video is aimed at people who are interested in learning about typography and about different ways you can create a video. This is because it is an interesting way that they have created this video and is inspiring to people. They could have used After effects to create this video which is what I am going to be using as it is most appropriate to this style of work.
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There are lots of other works that are similar to this approach like the lyrical kinetic typography video on the song Closer. They are quite similar as they both include typography, meaning that they both probably used After effects or a software similar to this. They both have the lyrics/words being said as it appears on the screen. Even though the lyrical video has sentences on the screen rather just one word at a time, but it still does have a very similar concept. This is useful to me as I can see the different type of approaches that I can take and it depends on the mood that you want to create. This has influenced my own project if I am to choose this idea as I am able to consider how I want to present the typography. I like the use of colours and fonts in this video and would like to take a similar approach when creating my own video.
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I found this video on Youtube which influenced my idea on the technical side of things, the video is called 'Why I hate School but Love Education'. Again the topic of the video was not relevant to pride but the way it is portrayed is what I focused on. The video consists of the words being typed letter by letter rather than the words just appearing. There are some animations next to it to represent what is being said at that moment or the words will move around the screen. Having these different animations makes the video really interesting and makes me want to include some of these aspects in my own as I think that it makes it look very professional and more visually appealing. I think that they used After Effects again because of the way that they have made the video. This is similar to the other videos that I have already spoken about as they are both include typography.
Primary
I created another questionnaire for my final idea to see what the target audience thought. The first question I asked was "Do you think typography is a good approach to the FMP?" In which 90% of the answers were yes. The high majority of these answers did surprise me hut it is reassuring to know that most people liked the idea. To the one person who didn't think that the next question applied to them, in which I asked what they thought would be a good approach. The answer to this was to do interviews and vox pops which is the same approach as my other idea on athletes. The next question was to find out if they find typography videos interesting to watch. This is a similar question to the previous one but the slight difference between the two is if they enjoy watching them type of videos and the other is do you think it would be a good approach meaning is it going to show off my creativity and give me the potential to show my skills. The answer to the video being interesting again is very promising as 90% of responses were yes and 10% saying no. This is good for me to know that people would actually be interested in watching a typography video. The next question was to find out if they thought that celebrities was a good link to pride. The results showed that 9 out of the 10 responses said that it was, which is helpful to me as I can now know that the connection between the two is obvious when watching the video. The following question was "would you be interested in watching a video about how celebrities take pride in their job?" 80% of the answers said they would be interested and the other 20% said that they wouldn't. This shows to me that the majority of the people said that they would want to watch a video based on my chosen topic. I then wanted to find out what celebrity that they would be interested in watching and learning more about. The responses were a very varied the ones that I thought were the most interesting to base my video on is, Steven Spielberg, Beyonce, and Jennifer Anniston. These are the three that I agree with the most that I would want my video to focus on as I believe they are all very interesting and all take a lot of pride in their work. The next question is to find out how to improve the idea in which people answered by saying to add more depth to it, include different aspects like interviews or vox pops, others said to make sure that you keep the relevance to pride, include animations or relevant images to make it more visually appealing. These answers were very helpful and I will take all the responses on board through out the rest of the pre production process. I lastly wanted to know what would you rate this idea in which the responses were quite varied. The most popular was a 6 rating, in which 4 people chose and 3 people chose a 7. The other ratings I received was a 4,5 and a 9. From this I can tell that peoples opinions are quite varied and I may have got some of the lower scores due to the improvements that they think needs to be made.
Secondary
After the completing the primary research I have decided to choose three celebrities that I would possibly want to focus my video on. The three celebrities that I have chosen is Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Anniston, and Piers Morgan because they are all completely different but are all interesting to me. I will research into all of them as it will help me to decide which celebrity I want to focus on and will help me with the writing of the script that I have got to make.
Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg is an American film maker who is one of the most popular directors and producers in film history. He started of by directing television and several minor theatrical releases before he became the director of Jaws which was released in 1975, which was very successful and is considered the first summer blockbuster. His releases from then on was mostly science fiction and adventure films with films like Indiana Jones, E.T. and Jurassic Park was seen as archetypes of modern Hollywood escapist film making. In his later work he focused more into addressing humanistic issues an example of this is Saving Private Ryan, and Empire of the sun.
Spielberg co-founded Ambin Entertainment and DreamWorks Studios, which is where he was a producer for several successful films, including Back to the Future and Men in Black. He then later on to creating several games within the video-game industry.
He is one of the American film industry's most critically successful filmmakers, who is praised for his talent in talent and versatility. He has also won the Academy Award for Best Director twice. His net worth is estimated to be more than $3 billion.
Jennifer Anniston
Jennfer Anniston is a very successful American actress as well as a film producer and a businesswoman. She began working as an actress at an early age with a small role in the 1987 film Mac and Me. She then rose to fame when she played the character Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends from 1994 until 2004. From this she earned Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards. She has since played lead roles in numerous comedies and romantic comedies. Other successful films she is in include, Bruce Almighty, The break-up, Marley & Me, Just go with it and We're the Millers. Each of these films grossed over $200 million in worldwide box office receipts. She had also co-founded the production company Echo Films in 2008.
At the start of her career she did four television shows which were unsuccessful, she was then encouraged by the head of NBC entertainment to continue acting and a few months later was when she was cast for Friends. This was when she played the character Rachel Green from 1994 til 2004. This was when her career took off and from then on was cast in many successful films, and is now the highest payed actress in Hollywood in 2018.
Piers Morgan
Piers Morgan is an English journalist, writer, television presenter and former talent show judge who is currently working for itv presenting for Good Morning Britain. His career started as a writer and editor for tabloid papers like The Sun and The Daily Mirror. At age 29 he became the youngest editor of a British national newspaper in more than half a century. He then went on to become a judge on America's Got Talent and Britain's Got Talent. In 2008 he won the seventh season of the US Celebrity Apprentice. He also presented Piers Morgan's Life Stories since 2009 and has on Good Morning Britain since 2015.
During his career he has been very controversial due to the strong opinions that he has and he has participated in many debates on the itv show, and is also well known on social media from the tweets that he has published.
After researching into these three celebrities with all different industry backgrounds I can now decide which one I think is most suitable to the topic and which one I am most interested in. From this research I have decided that if I was to choose this idea then I would go with Steven Spielberg because of the accomplishments that he has I think is going to be more interesting to make a video about and I think that this is the best link towards pride.
Peer Assessment- Peter
I like how you have showed your process of elimination starting off with 5 ideas and then narrowing it down to three. You have created some important research that is going to help with the decision of which idea to choose like the swot analysis and the primary research. I think that you need to create some test shots so that you can visibly compare the ideas as this will help for you to see which one is best.
Research Evaluation
After completing the different forms of primary, secondary and contextual research for my three ideas it has helped me with the decision of what idea I should go with. I have done the research for each of the ideas that is relevant to my idea and will benefit me. The mental health idea I thought that it would help me to show my vague idea by creating a storyboard so that I am able to convey the basic outline of what I am wanting to create. I then researched into mental health and was able to gather some statistics so that I was more knowledgable of the subject, and will also help me in the developing and filming of the idea as I can make it more realistic. I then looked at similar videos to my idea and was able to take aspects of them and incorporate this into my own idea. I then created a questionnaire as part of my primary research so that I can gather peoples opinions of my idea to help me improve it. I analysed all the responses which helped me to see what others think and when developing my idea I will refer back to this to see what other people think I need to include. I then looked into colour grading because from analysing the videos I realised that it was a reoccurring thing. I then found some colour grading images online and recreated them and played around with the colour grading to try and replicate the original image. When I create the video I am now able to colour grade due the previous practice that I now have.
For my second idea which was to create an interview style documentary on athletes and after the primary and secondary research I was able to decide on which athlete I want to focus on. For the primary research I created a questionnaire and I analysed the responses that I got to see how I can improve. This has helped me with the development of my idea and to see what peoples opinions are. I then completed secondary research into three athletes that I would want to create my video about, and from this I decided to focus it on Serena Williams. I then analysed my previous interview video that I created in another project and analysed it to see what I did well and what I thought needed to be improved. I also watched another video about vox pops to gather some tips and important information that would help me when filming my own. I then completed some test shots, to practice interviewing people and to also gather some more peoples opinions as part of primary research. It helped me to see what I need to improve and the if the audio and lighting was good enough.
For my final idea I started off creating typography test shots using after effects. I followed two tutorials so that I can gain enough practice for when I make the video.
I then looked at already existing videos that were similar to what I wanted to create so that I could gain some inspiration and to help gain more ideas for my own video. After analysing the videos I was able to see what aspects that I liked which helped me to improve my own ideas. I then created another questionnaire as part of primary research to see what people thought of my idea. I was able to see what needed improving and helped me understand what people wanted to see. From this I then researched into the three possible celebrities that I wanted to focus to help with my decision of which one to choose and to help influence the script that I would need to create.
Overall, all this research has helped me to develop each of the ideas but also has helped me decide which idea I want to progress with and create a video. Once I have presented my idea and gather their feedback I will then make my final decision, but from this process I think that the mental health idea is giving me the most amount of opportunity to show off my skills and creativity more so than the other ideas. I feel that this idea has most potential and even though there is a lot of development needed I think that with the pre-production process I am able to expand and develop the idea enough for it to turn out really well. However, I will take the feedback from the presentation into consideration which could sway me into choosing the other ideas.
Final Idea
After presenting my three ideas to the class and explaining the process of my decision and the work and research that I have been doing has reassured me the best idea of mine is to focus on mental health. After creating the questionnaire and having my peers answer the questions about the presentations and their thoughts on my ideas and decisions to see what see what I can do to improve. The presentation helped me hugely to see what others thought of my idea and helped me to think of ways to improve or to include which I have not noticed or thought of myself. From the results of the questionnaire it has shown me that I made the right decision to go with the topic of mental health. In this idea I am going to show someone struggling with depression and shows them trying to cope with everyday tasks. After the contextual research on this has helped with the influence on my idea. I am going to research more into existing videos and analyse the different shots, colour grading and framing devices so that I can have a better idea of what I want to film and start to develop into the idea more. This stage so far was to have just an outline of the ideas and to make myself more knowledgable on the different subjects. But now that I have chosen to go with this topic I am going to start with the development on this, which is going to include mood boards, storyboards, test shots, colour grading testing, framing devices, analysing previous videos, shot lists, character analysis, all of these things are going to help me improve the idea and to have a clear idea of what I want to create. I feel most passionate about this idea compared to the others because I think that it is going to give me the most opportunity to show my skills and knowledge through out the planning stage as well as the production and post production. From the answers from the questionnaires it has shown to me that I have made the right decision to choose this idea as many other people thought that I chose the best idea. One of the main reasons that I have chosen this idea is because of the link it has to pride. The other ideas that I had thought of the link to pride was very obvious and I didn't find them as interesting and I wasn't as inspired and didn't have many development ideas possibly because I didn't feel as a passionate and excited as I was for the other idea. With the mental health video that I want to create I have a lot of inspiration and plans for progressing and developing my idea in which I am able to show off the skills I have. The other two ideas I felt were restricting me from this and were limiting my creativity. All of the ideas were very different from each other, which is what I wanted to do that I was able to decide which route I wanted to go down and was able to research into the different sectors. Focusing one idea mostly on typography and after effects, the other to create a documentary, and the other last a short film. These three ideas are completely different and it gave me the chance to decide which route I wanted to go down and I was able to realise that the short film is best for me and the skills that I have. Now that I have chosen which idea I can now start more in depth research, and preparation into the filming of the video.
Proposal
In task 3 of the brief it states that I need to produce a schedule to show what I am going to be producing and how. As part of the proposal document you can see a table which I have filled in clearly stating what I am going to doing within the next month to get to the filming part of my project. Now that I have completed the proposal I can now move on to the development of my final idea. Now that I have chosen my idea I can now go into more depth into the research and start with the pre-production of the video. I will be doing primary, secondary and contextual research, storyboards, test shots, limitations and potentials list, production schedule, problem sheets, risks that may arise, shots lists, pre-production paperwork to show the development and progress of my idea.
Context
Now that I have finished the specialist study I am going to start on Unit 13 which is the FMP. In this project I am going to be creating an inspiring short film to try and help teenagers reach out and get help when they are suffering from mental health issues, more specifically depression. The task of the project is sense of pride so the link between the two is the message swallow your pride and ask for help. The message will come up at the end of the video to make it clear to the viewer the link between the two. Now that I have decided on this I am going to start the planning and research of my idea so that I am ready to film. The aim of the project is to help people who are suffering from depression to speak out about it and get help. The reason I have chosen this idea is because I think the link to pride isn't really obvious but at the end of the video it is going to make sense. I have looked into similar videos which cover similar ideas which gave me inspiration for me to think of this idea. I want the video to help people who are struggling with mental health so that there is an actual point to the video. After watching similar videos it gave me inspiration for my own ideas. The purpose of the videos that I watched I wanted to have a similar purpose myself which is to motivate and inspire people to get help.
Daily Log
I have decided to create a daily log to help me see the progress that I have made and so that I can reflect back on what I have done.
8th March- I have finished my presentation to the class and am now getting feedback off them. The presentation is going to help me to decide which idea I should go for.
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11th- Now that I have got the feedback I am going to analyse the results. I wanted to get the feedback analyse done by today so that I am able to move on and start the proposal. I analysed the feedback in detail and was able to then make my final decision on what idea I wanted to choose.
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12th- I have started the proposal document by completing the rational. I am a bit behind on my work as I wanted to complete the concept box in the proposal document. However, the rationale took me longer then I thought so now I am going to have to complete the project concept quicker so that I can stay on track.
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13th- completed the project concept and evaluation as part of the proposal document. I was able to complete the project concept and the evaluation quicker then I expected meaning that I am back on track and am now able to move on.
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15th- completed all the harvard references, and the timetable. Now that I have created my proposal document I can now start with the secondary research focusing more on my chosen topic. I am happy with the outcome of the final proposal document.
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18th- started the more in-depth secondary research by analysing quotes that I found. I wanted to spend a lot of time on this section as it is important for my final video and will influence it. I left a lot of time for this and was able to complete the research within the day, which I was happy with. I now want to look at a variety of websites to find out more about depression specifically.
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19th- used websites to find more out about depression. I was able to look at a few websites looking into more the causes and treatments for depression to make me more knowledgable on it. I think this is important for me and I feel as though it will help me when developing the idea.
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20th- interviewed my peers who have struggled with depression and edited the footage using premiere pro. I wanted to get some primary research done so that I can find more personal experiences to do with depression. After completing it, I feel as though it went very well and has given me more of an insight into mental health. I am now ahead of schedule as I was able to get the filming and editing done relatively quickly, and had planned to spend longer on it but I was able to complete it rather quickly.
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22nd- analysed two videos to help with inspiration and development of my own ideas. This part actually took me longer then expected due to analysing the videos in great depth. This now put me behind schedule due to the amount of time it took. It took me a long time to write up my analysis but I am glad that I put in the extra time for this as it made a lot of changes to my idea. Now this timing issue has occurred I am going to have to complete the storyboards quicker.
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25th- created a storyboard using the website storyboard that. Due to my previous experience in this website I knew the different controls and was able to get the storyboard done relatively quickly. I am pleased with the storyboard as I am able to reflect on this in the future when in the production process.
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26th- finished creating the storyboard and produced a list for the potentials and limitations. This wasn't too difficult to complete and was relatively straight forward. No problems occurred and I am pleased with the outcome as I can now see what aspects need improving and indicates to me what I have to do next.
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27th- created a shot list to have a clearer idea of what I need to film. This was important part of the planning process and it helped me to have a better and more in-depth idea of what I needed to film. The shot list was quite vague and at some point I feel as though I will make another one to help with my development.
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29th- drew out my own storyboard to have a clearer idea of the different shots that I need. This was something that wasn't planned so it did put me behind time, however I felt it was necessary for me as it was going to help me show my visions of what I want the video to look like.
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1st- reflected on my own development and created a questionnaire on google forms for peer feedback. I was already behind schedule due to adding in another storyboard but I let enough time for a reflection as I thought that it was important for me to reflect back on the progress that I had made and also to see what I needed to do next. I am glad that I left time in my schedule for this as it was very beneficial to me.
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2nd- reviewed the feedback and created another shot list to show the development of my idea. After the development I had a bit of extra time to do some extra planning before shooting. In this time I created another in depth shot list which I thought I would have to do anyway due to the first one being vague. The updated one has definitely helped me more as it shows in more detail what is going on in the video.
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3rd- Did a colour grading analysis and planned out my audio. I was on track at this point as I did extra work outside of college as this part was crucial to me. The audio was an issue for me due to copyright reasons on a lot of the songs, but after doing lots of research I was able to find a few that I was interested in using.
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23rd- Pre-production paper work so that I am ready to film. I was able to fill in the pre-production paperwork relatively quickly due to previous practice on this. I am now ready to film the test shots in preparation for the final video.
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24th- Filmed my test shots and edited it and reviewed it so I am ready to film. Luckily everything went smoothly during the test shots and I was able to edit and evaluate it within the day. I did spend a lot of time on this and am glad with the outcome as I could see what the issues were and what I needed to do to improve.
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26th- Filming was delayed a day because the actor was off sick. This then put me behind schedule and meant that I would have to use some of my test shots in the final video. This was not ideal due to different costumes but feel as though I could edit it well enough so that it wasn't noticeable.
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30th- I was able to film the entire video in one day due to the preparation and the test shots that I did I knew clearly what I needed to do which meant I didn't waste any time and completed it quickly.
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31st- Started Editing- Using premiere pro I edited the footage. Due to lots of previous experience I was able to edit the footage relatively quickly meaning that I was back on schedule from the previous delay.
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1st- Finished Editing- I then finished off the editing making small tweaks to make it look as professional as possible. I then evaluated my work which took quite a long time but it was definitely important to reflect back on my work to see if I needed to make any improvements.
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3rd- I then created a powerpoint which was going to be up when presenting my work. It was going to have pointers on so that I knew what I was going to talk about.
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There were a few set backs but I feel as though that I was experienced enough in other parts like the editing which meant that I was able to get the work done on time. I allowed extra time for some mistakes and for me to do reflection which was important. Looking back now I should have left a bit more time for actors being ill which made me very used for time but overall I am happy with the outcome of the video.
Target Audience & Genre
It is important to identify who the video is targeted to and the genre of the piece. After doing research into my idea I think that the audience most suited to my video is going to be teenagers who are also struggling with mental health as these are the people who can relate to it more. The ages from 13-19 more specifically as this is the ages where mental health starts to effect young people more. The actor in the video is also a teenager which makes it more relatable for a similar age group to watch. The genre of the piece would come under an inspirational short film as the video is there to motivate people to get help and shows that when you reach out and get help is going to help you. The purpose of the video is to help people and I feel as though having a target audience for younger people they are more impressionable and more likely to take what you say on board, therefore going to help them in the future.
Ethical Issues
It is important to firstly understand the ethical issues of mental health and depression. After doing some research I came across an interesting website which focused on peoples rights when they go to see a mental health professional. "They have legal and ethical rights that are meant to protect them. The three major rights of patients; confidentiality, the right to treatment, and informed consent." When talking to a psychologist they should be able to talk to then in almost complete confidence. If the therapist talks to someone about their patient then they have broken one of the main ethical obligations of a psychologist.
Another ethical issue is that patients have the right to treatment. It is ethically wrong to discriminate towards people when giving out treatment. This could be class, race or gender for example. No matter who you are everyone has the right to receive treatment when necessary.
The last ethical issue is the right that doctors and therapists have to inform the patients of the risks and benefits of treatments. It is ethically wrong for the doctor not to tell the patient of the side effects of medication as they have a right to know.
Mental health has a lot of ethical issues due to its confidentiality and I think that it was important to find out more about these issues so that I am more knowledgeable and understanding of the subject. Using this information I now know more about the rights patients have and how important it is for everyone to be treated fairly and equally. This is going to help me now as when creating my own video, whatever it may focus on I have to make sure that I am showing mental health in a serious and mature manner and so that I do not show anything ethically wrong in my own video.
https://study.com/academy/lesson/ethical-issues-mental-health-right-to-treatment-informed-consent-confidentiality.html- This is the link to the website which includes the video that I watched which helped with the ethical issues.
Primary, Secondary & Contextual research
Overview
Now that I have chosen my final idea I think that it is necessary for me to do more in-depth research into my subject which is mental health, and more specifically depression. I think that it would be good to find out more about the illness so that when I am filming I portray the character in the most realistic way possible. I also think that it would be beneficial that as part of my primary research that I interview some peers of mine who suffer from depression, so that I get first hand information from someone and am able to ask what it is like for them personally, to help me base my character off. I am going to analyse more existing videos as well because I find this very beneficial to me as inspiration for the development of my own ideas.
Secondary
I wanted to find out what it feels like to have depression. I found this website which had images and quotes to explain what it is like. I think that this approach is better than just having a simple definition as you can get a more in depth understanding of what it is like. I decided to choose a few quotes that I thought were most interesting and helpful to me, and I am going to analyse the meanings behind them a bit more. https://www.psycom.net/depression-what-depression-feels-like?
"What is depression like? It's like drowning except everyone around you is breathing"
Feeling of being absolutely alone and how terrifying it is to be imprisoned inside the inescapable bog that comprises serious depression. The feeling of being utterly helpless, leaden, dull, unable to move. You are trapped-an unwilling witness to those living what appear to be happy lives. Anger at everyone's obliviousness to you condition invades your lungs, heart, and spirit.
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The term 'drowning, except everyone around you is breathing' says to me that depression in this sense is overwhelming and can possibly drag people down to a depth which others may not be able to relate to or imagine. It's a stillness where you don't really know what to expect, but can try to predict. It's something that is tough and possibly fatal without the help required.
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“Having anxiety and depression is like being scared and tired at the same time. It’s the fear of failure, coupled with no urge to be productive. It’s wanting friends but hating socializing. It’s wanting to be alone but not wanting to be lonely. It’s feeling everything at once, yet being paralyzingly numb.”
Major depression and anxiety disorders often go hand in hand. A study shows that 85% of people who suffer from major depression also have generalised anxiety disorder, with 35% showing signs of panic disorder.
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This factual information that came with this quote really intrigued me and made me realise the common connection between depression and anxiety. The quote shows how depression is contradicting, not wanting to fail but then not wanting to be productive. I think, this has allowed me to further explore the synopsis of depression and how I will be able to relate this to my project. It will also allow me to be able to create a hopefully more in-depth final product.
“The only thing more exhausting than being depressed is pretending that you’re not.”
When there is no one you can be 'real' with there is no break from the misery and solitude. The sense of exhaustion wrapped into depression grows solitude. Each time you lie and say that you are fine, you die a little more inside.
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By exploring the feeling of depression and how people react to being depressed will hopefully allow me to make something more believable to the audience, something that they can relate to and fully understand. When a person doesn't want to talk about their day for example. People assume they're introverted and don't care, but in reality may be feeling an underlying feeling that we may not fully comprehend. This is what this quote is representing to me.
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“That’s the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious—and it compounds daily—making it impossible to ever see the end. That fog is like a cage without a key.”
This famous quote describes the utter hopelessness of enduring what feels like endless blackness. Human beings need hope to lift themselves up. If your thoughts tell you there is no possibility of ever feeling better, the chances of recovering are dimmed. There is little motivation to work in therapy or to partake in any pleasurable activities.
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To me, this quote is very overpowering and something that only someone else with depression could fully understand. I will attempt to contextually analyse it by saying that I believe there to be no way out according to my connotation of this quote, I believe that he/she is saying that he doesn't want to be depressed and actively tries to get out that foggy cage, but doesn't know where to start. That's why having the awareness and help necessary to those that need it would be a great addition to my project.
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Secondary Research
After analysing these quotes I wanted to do some other research into the symptoms and warning signs of depression. I found this website that I found very interesting to me (https://www.helpguide.org/articles/depression/depression-symptoms-and-warning-signs.htm) which is where I found the answers to my questions. The following is all the research that I have found beneficial and relevant to my idea and that is going to help me with the understanding of depression.
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Symptoms-
Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness- nothing will every get better and there's nothing you can do to improve the situation
Loss of interest in daily activities- don't care about anything that you were interested in like hobbies, and social activities. No ability to feel joy and pleasure
Appetite or weight changes- significant weight loss or weight gain
Anger or irritability- feeling agitated, restless, or violent. Tolerance level is low, short temper, and everyone and everything gets on your nerves
Loss of energy- feeling tired, or sluggish and physically drained. Your whole body feels heavy, and even the smallest of tasks are exhausting to complete
Self-loathing- strong feelings of worthlessness or guilt. You criticise yourself for perceived faults and mistakes
Reckless behaviour- Substance abuse, compulsive gambling, reckless driving, dangerous sports
Concentration problems-having trouble focusing, making decisions, or remembering things
Unexplained aches and pains- Increase in physical complaints such as headaches, back pain, aching muscles, and stomach pain
The most common symptoms of depression seen in teenagers is irritability, anger and agitation. They may also complain of headaches, stomachaches or other physical pain.
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Depression isn't like a lot of the other illnesses where there is a specific medical cause which makes treatment straightforward. Depression is more complicated. Its caused by a combination of biological, psychological and social factors, which means that lifestyle choices, relationships and coping skills. There are some risk factors that make you more vulnerable to depression which include:
Loneliness and isolation
lack of social support
recent stressful life experiences
Family history of depression
Relationship problems
Financial strain
Childhood trauma
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Coping with depression-
Reach out to people- Talking to friends and family even when you feel like you want to be alone is going to be a huge help. The person your talking to doesn't need to be able to fix you but just to be a good listener.
Get moving- Regular exercise can be effective as an antidepressant. Taking short walks or dancing to music is a good help.
Having a healthy diet- Reducing consumption of foods that affect your mood like caffeine, alcohol, trans fats, and sugar, and opt for foods with high nutrients.
Engage again with the world- Spending time outside, or taking up a hobby will help to make you feel better over time.
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These are the different symptoms and explanations that I found to do with depression. I also learnt more about the different causes of depression, and what makes people more vulnerable. Now that I know these I am going to try and incorporate some of these aspects into my own video. I think that this is important for me to know these different symptoms so that I convey the character with depression correctly and accurately. The ones that I am going to focus on the most is loss of interest in daily activities, loss of energy and anger and irritability because these are the most common symptoms when it comes to teenagers having depression. From doing this research I now feel that I know more about depression which is going to make the filming process and the development of my idea easier for me because I am more knowledgable on the illness. As well as using websites to find out more about depression I found some images which I thought were a good representation of depression. Most of the photos that I found were all quite similar, showing a person with their hands on the head looking down. They were also all black and white because it seems the most related to what it is trying to represent. I will use a similar approach when filming my own work by using dark and bland colours to make the feel of the video more related to depression.
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Primary Research
Now that I have chosen my final idea I think that it would be beneficial to me to interview some people who come under my target audience who have struggled with depression so that I can find out more about peoples personal experiences with mental health issues. I think that getting first hand research will help me with my own video so that I can relate my work to some peoples own experiences. The problem with this is that depression is still a big stigma, making it difficult to find people that are willing to talk about something so personal to them. I have spoken to one of my peers who is willing to talk about her struggle with mental health, who I am going to interview. I'm hoping that this is going to help me with my own storyline for my film and help influence some ideas by trying to incorporate the feelings and emotions that she had and include similar feelings when filming my own video.
I interviewed two of my friends, one who has previously had depression and the other who is struggling with depression now. I asked them both a variety of questions, both different questions that were most relatable to their story. I wanted to find out about their story, what caused it, how they feel, and other questions that I thought were important to find out information about. I found this very interesting to find out people's personal experiences with depression, and made me realise how everyone's story is different. Now that I have interviewed them I am going to take their responses into consideration and am going to include the responses when thinking about what I want the character to be like. I found this primary research very touching to hear peoples personal experiences which has motivated me more to make a good short film to try and help others to swallow their pride by asking for help. Compared to the other ideas this one is going to help people and has more of a meaning behind it compared to the other two ideas which didn't motivate me as much as I didn't feel as strongly about them. From the first interview my friend mentioned how she always feels tired which is a point which I have thought about and decided I want this to be a focused symptom in my video.
Contextual
I decided to look into some existing videos that are relevant to mental health so that I could get some inspiration for my own video. I had done this previously but now I wanted to look more in depth in the video and taking the best aspects from, like different types of shots that I find interesting to me.
I found this short video on YouTube which I found really interesting. The video is about a teenager who gets a text message asking if they are okay. It then cuts to her doing different things with voice overs which is the thoughts in her head. She would show her looking in the mirror and the voice over would be her saying that she feels fat, or she would be in bed an the voice over would be her saying that she feels tired. All of the cuts would be her in a different place with another description of what she is feeling like. The video really gets to the point and even though it is quite a short video you can really tell that a lot of research has gone into it because everything that occurs are symptoms of depression. At the end of the video the girl goes back on her phone and types 'I'm depressed' she then deletes it and types 'I'm fine'. I think that this part is what made me find this video really touching, because it shows the front that she is putting on and then behind closed doors she's suffering from depression. I think that this is really powerful and says a lot about depression and the message that the video is making which is that teenagers need to speak up and get help.
From this video I am going to adapt and develop my idea by changing the storyline slightly because I really like certain parts of this video that I will change and include some aspects into my own work. I am going to take a similar approach, I am now going to show the girl struggling with getting on with her everyday life, focusing on getting out of bed and trying to get ready. It will then show her getting a message from her friend and she is about to reply saying that she is fine but then as she is typing she has flashbacks to her being really depressed and is thinking about suicide. She will then delete the message and instead she types 'I need help'. The screen will then go black and the text 'swallow your pride and ask for help' will appear on the screen.
I analysed this video briefly before but now that I am doing more in-depth research I thought that it was important for me to analyse the video in more detail. After re-watching the video I have looked more closely at it, focusing on the different symptoms of depression that they have shown. The video has got a narrative throughout which I think is very effective and I am considering having a similar aspect in mine so that it makes it more interesting, but creating a narrative is not one of my strengths especially for a subject that I am not very familiar with or am able to relate to it. I think that it would be easier if I could relate to the subject more, however since doing the interviews as part of the primary research I do feel more knowledgeable on this. I am going to consider this and will possibly do a practice script to see if I am going to use it in the final video. The narrative in this video was very effective and one part that stuck out to me the most was at the end when she said that there are two solutions one is to get help and the other is to attempt suicide. I think that this was very touching and made me think about including this aspect into my own work. I have decided to develop my idea slightly by showing the two outcomes. As the girl is about to reply to the text message she is going to be having visions as such which will show her having suicidal thoughts and then replying to message by asking for help. This will show how she had to decide which outcome she wanted and decided to get help. I wanted to link my video slightly to what the women said in this video because I thought that it was very true about what she is saying, and I think the development that I have made to the video has given it more of an interesting storyline and made it more purposeful to watch.
Potentials & Limitations
I wanted to find out what potentials and limitations there are with my idea so that I am able to see the good and the bad things within my idea. The parts that are a limitation I am going to try and work on these and adapt my idea so that I can make it better and give me as many opportunity to show off my skills and creativity.
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Potentials-
I chose this idea over the others because I thought that it has more potential. It is giving me lots of opportunities for the idea to be improved and developed and I am able to show the process that I go through to get to the final product. The idea has given me a platform to show off my pre-production skills that I have. An example of this is the storyboarding I am going to do as well as the test shoots, and in-depth research that I am going to do to help develop my idea.
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I am going to be able to focus a lot on the camera skills, because I am creating a short film the different camera angles and shots are a main priority of mine. I am going to make sure that this is a focus of mine so that the film looks professional. The test shoots are giving me the opportunity to practice this and focus specifically on the different angles.
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Another potential with this idea is that the link to pride is not too obvious which makes it more interesting for me to be able to incorporate this aspect throughout the video. I believe that it is making it more challenging for me but in a good way because if I portray pride correctly in this video then the video I believe will turn out well.
It is also giving me the chance to show off the editing skills that I have in the post production part of it. Using Premiere Pro to edit the footage and to colour grade will show the different skills I have with using the programme.
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I believe that by me choosing this idea is going to give me the biggest chance to show off the parts of media that I am good at.
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Limitations-
Due to the topic of the video it is going to be difficult to convey the mental illness as an accurate representation. Because of this it is important for me to do lots of research into depression meaning the amount of production and post production time is going to be limited, meaning that time management is one of the problems that I have.
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Another limitation that there is, is the lack of experience I have in this type of video. I have not previously created a short film and have got to do my own research into them. I am not used to focusing on mental health either due to the lack of knowledge on it making it more difficult to me to think of ideas of how to portray it.
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The lack of actors is also a limitation of mine because I do not have many people that have enough time to be in my project. Because of the type of video that I am going to film the main focus is on one person meaning that I only need one actor. Because it is only one main actor, they are going to have to have enough spare time to be able to be in my short film.
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Storyboard
I have created a storyboard using the website storyboard that because it is important for me to draw out my plan, for the benefit of me as well as the actor. I used this website because it gives me the chance to show what I want to happen in each of the scenes. However the website doesn't show the different realistic camera angles but the point of this for me was to map out what I want the video to consist of. I am going to draw my own storyboard as well which is going to have more realistic views of what each shot is going to look like.
I decided to draw out a storyboard as well as using the website to create one because the one that I was able to draw gave me the chance to show the different camera angles and shots where as using the website I was restricted in doing this. I decided to draw arrows on some of the images to remind myself of the different shots that I want within one of the scenes like a side or front angle. I included small annotations to show what was going to happen in each of the shots and the type of shot that it will be.
Shot List
A shot list is important so that I understand the different scenes that I need to film. The shot list is there to help me plan out my ideas, I am not going to be explaining the type of shots yet because I am not at the stage of that but am just stating what I want to happen in each of the scenes.
- The teenager girl in bed when the sound of the alarm goes off, she then snoozes her alarm and turns over in bed as she pulls over her face
-Cut to her in a different position and the alarm goes off again this time she finds the strength to pick up her phone and turns her alarm off
-sitting on the edge of bed looking at herself in the mirror, then she puts her head in her hands (common image that I have seen when doing research)
-walks down the stairs into the kitchen, opens the cupboards looking at the food she could eat but deciding against it
-lays down on the sofa curled up, picks up her phone and looks at the time, throws her phone down next to her
-cut again to her walking into the kitchen and pouring a bowl of cereal only to see her eat a mouthful and throwing the rest away.
- her phone makes a noise as she gets a notification from her friend, asking "are you okay?" she reads the text and puts the phone back down ignoring it.
- cut to her laying on the sofa pointing the remote at the tv then picks up her phone again and scrolls through social media as she gets a reminder to do her homework
-cuts to her at a desk in her bedroom at the computer trying to do work, she pushes the work aside and puts her head on the table
-cut back to her on her bed laying down listening to music when she opens up the text message asking if she is okay
-between each letter that she's typing cut to her laying in her bed crying, holding pills in her hand and looking in the mirror. short snappy cuts between typing and the flashbacks
-when she's finished typing she pauses and looks at her phone and deletes the message and types, "I'm depressed I need help" and sends the message
-screen goes black and then "swallow your pride and ask for help"
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Development Reflection & primary research
I thought that it was important to reflect on the progress that I have made and to reflect on the development that I have made since starting unit 13. Since the presentation I have created a proposal and done a lot more in-depth research into depression and various other types of research to help with the development of knowledge on the chosen topic. This has been important to do so that when creating the video I am able to have a better idea of how it should be presented. I have still got the link to pride in my video but have been developing the idea to make it better. Since doing the research I have changed the idea slightly to improve it and I have shown the changes that I have made and have justified my decisions. I decided to create a questionnaire to see if my peers think that I have made a good development and if the link to pride is still there as well as finding out if the changes that I have made are for the best.
I thought of six questions 3 in which were closed and the other 3 were open ended. I wanted to find out what my target audience thought of my idea so far but more importantly the progress that I have made. I have reflected on my own development but I thought that it was important to find out what other peoples opinions were of my developed idea. So the first question that I asked was 'Do you think I have made good development on my idea" in which everyone answered yes. This is good for me to hear so that I know that 100% of the responses think that since choosing my idea I have made good amount of progress on it. I was surprised that all the responses answered the same but it does reassure me that I am heading in the right direction. The next question was "Do you think that the changes are justified", I asked this question because I wanted to make sure that I had explained why I had made the changes that I had. The responses for this were also promising as 100% of responses were yes. This proves to me that I have gone into enough detail with my explanations to prove that the changes that I have decided to make are for a reason. This is important to know because if it wasn't clear to the audience as to why certain changes were made then it would seem pointless and would be a waste of my time, every decision that I make has to be backed up as to why I have made them changes and from the responses it seems that I have done that. The final closed question was to find out if they thought that I had done enough research in which 8 out of the 10 responses said that I have, meaning 2 people said maybe. I am pleased with the amount of responses who said yes as it shows to me that the majority of people think that I have done enough research into my chosen topic. The other two responses said maybe which shows that they were in the middle, which makes me think that they did this because they couldn't tell if it was enough and could have thought that it was more of a personal question that only I can answer. The next question was to find out what they liked about the idea and what was good about it. Most of the responses were similar which was I have done a good amount of research, that I have justified my choices, I have shown the development in detail and that I have planned my idea out well. This is really good feedback for me as it helps me to see what I have done well so that I can keep doing this. The next question was going to help me more which was what I need to do to improve. This is more important to me because I want to know what I can do to make my work better. The responses again were all relatively similar, which was that I needed to make my shot list more detailed, to reflect more on my own work throughout, and to make sure that the idea of the video is clear to the audience. This was really helpful to me because I can now go back on my work and make any necessary adjustments. I will now create another improved shot list by making it more detailed as a few of responses mentioned this. The final question was "what do you think I should do next?" The responses to this question was to create test shots, to improve my shot list, or to start pre-production paperwork. This again has helped me to have a better idea of what people think is necessary for me to do next and by saying to test shots and pre-production paperwork shows to me that they think that my idea is developed enough to start to film. Overall, I am really happy with the responses, it has helped me to know how to improve my work and what to do next as well as reassure me that I have developed my idea well. I am going to take all the feedback on board and make the necessary changes to my work to make sure that I reach my potential.
Pre-production Paperwork
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Risk Assessment
As states in the brief I have to create a problems sheet which states the issues that I am going to face and explain how I will approach these risks. In regards to this I have filled out a risk assessment form which clearly states any risks that may arise and a contingency plan for any risks that may arise. In the following word document is where you can find the form.
Location Report
I had to do a location report so that it shows that I am using the location for good use and is there to refer back to so that I know what I need to do in that specific location. Luckily for me I am filming all of my video in one area making this part easy for me to fill out.
Equipment rate card
Completing an equipment rate card sheet was important for me to see how much I would have to budget on this film. I have highlighted the equipment I have used and totalled up the amount needed.
The point of the pre-production paperwork was to make sure that I am prepared to film. I had to create a risk assessment to show that I can identify the risks of the filming location and what to do if the risk occurred. I then had to create a location report so that I knew what I needed to film in each of the locations. I then filled out an equipment rate card so that I could see how much the video would cost to make in real production. The shooting schedule was important for me because when problems did arise I changed the shooting schedule slightly so that I could make sure that it was more realistic and achievable for me. I then finished off with an agreement form which was essential as it gave me permission to film Alexis and to use the footage.
Shooting Schedule
I decided to create a shooting schedule so that I can make sure that I get all my footage that I need filmed on time so that I have time to edit and evaluate it. I will refer back to this so that I make sure I am on track to complete my work.
Agreement Form
I got Alexis who is the only actor in my video to fill in this form which gives me permission to film her and for her to be my video
Shot List Development
- The teenager girl in bed when the sound of the alarm goes off, she then snoozes her alarm and turns over in bed as she pulls over her face
- close up shot of the alarm going off
- side shot of her in bed
- front shot of her turning over into a different position
-Cut to her in a different position and the alarm goes off again this time she finds the strength to pick up her phone and turns her alarm off
- front shot
- side shots
-sitting on the edge of bed looking at herself in the mirror, then she puts her head in her hands
-front shot as if the camera is the mirror
- behind shot showing her actually look in the mirror catch her putting her head in her hands
-walks down the stairs into the kitchen, opens the cupboards looking at the food she could eat but deciding against it
-behind shot at the the top of the stairs looking down
- bottom of the stairs looking up
- front shot of her as she walks into the kitchen
- over the shoulder shot as she looks in the cupboard
-lays down on the sofa curled up, picks up her phone and looks at the time, throws her phone down next to her
- front shot of her on the sofa looking at the tv and picking up her phone
- cut to side of her picking up her phone
- over the shoulder shot focus on her phone as she checks the time
- front shot as she throws her phone on the sofa
-cut again to her walking into the kitchen and pouring a bowl of cereal only to see her eat a mouthful and throwing the rest away.
- behind shot as she walks into the kitchen
- side shot as she opens the cupboard
- her phone makes a noise as she gets a notification from her friend, asking "are you okay?" she reads the text and puts the phone back down ignoring it.
- cuts to her sitting at the table, front shot of her eatting
- close up of her when her phone buzzes
- over the shoulder shot focusing on the phone as she reads the text
- cut to her laying on the sofa pointing the remote at the tv then picks up her phone again and scrolls through social media as she gets a reminder to do her homework
-side shot of her pointing the remote at the tv
- front shot of her on her phone
- behind shot of her on her phone so you can see what she's doing (scrolling through instagram) and the alarm goes off
- front shot her getting off the sofa and leaving the room
-cuts to her on her bed with her laptop trying to do homework see her getting stressed and shutting the laptop off
-side shot of her laying on the bed writing her homework
-front shot of her getting annoyed and shutting the laptop off
-cut to her now laying down listening to music when she opens up the text message asking if she is okay
- side shot of her laying down listening to music
- side shot of her as she picks up her phone and opens the message
- behind the shoulder so you can see the message
-between each letter that she's typing cut to her laying in her bed crying, holding pills in her hand and looking in the mirror. short snappy cuts between typing and the flashbacks
-when she's finished typing she pauses and looks at her phone and deletes the message and types, "I'm depressed I need help" and sends the message
-screen goes black and then "swallow your pride and ask for help"
Colour Grading analysis
I watched this tutorial about the basics of colour grading. I did the basic practice earlier on by playing around with the different settings just to get used to it. I now want to learn about colour grading in more detail so I decided to watch some tutorials on it. This video was short but I learnt a lot about what all the different settings are used for and how to make the footage look more professional. Colour grading is an important aspect in my work because it is going to help set the mood of the piece and give the overall video a more saddening effect to go with the topic of the video. It also makes the footage look a lot better quality making my work look a lot more professional. Once I have filmed my test shots I am going to take the advice from this video when colour grading my work. I will make any other adjustments necessary to make it look how I want it to.
Audio
After focusing a lot on the different shots that I want and what I want to happen in each scene I thought that it was important to now focus on the audio and see what different types of audio I want in the video. I need to decide between a narrative which would be what the girl is thinking or if I would just have music in the background to keep the focus on the action. There isn't any dialogue in the piece which means that I do need some type of sound to keep it interesting. To decide what audio I want I am going to look at possible music that I could use as well as creating a script for the narrative that I might want to use. Once I have created mutest shots I will try both of the audio types to help decide which one is better.
Planning Evaluation
I have been doing lots of planning over the past couple of weeks so that I am more knowledgeable on depression. This was an important part to this project and now I have finished I am ready to complete final video. I have done lots of research into the symptoms of depression as I would like to make some of these clear in the video. As an example tiredness, and lack of hunger are both symptoms that I am going to incorporate in my own work. By doing the research into this has helped me to know what the symptoms are and in effect have helped to plan my video. When completing my primary research I interviewed my friends who have suffered from depression so that I could learn more about peoples personal stories and how it is different for everyone. I was also able to take some parts of it and include it in my own video. In the interview one person reiterated how tiredness and lack of motivation was a huge factor for them. From this I was able to include that symptom in my own work and help to plan what was going to happen. It also gave me inspiration and motivation for my own work as it made me realize how the video that I am going to make is going to help others and it made me realize that I had made the right decision by going with that idea rather than the others. I then looked into other videos to gain inspiration and see what parts I liked of their videos. I feel as though this part of the research helped the most as I was able to see what mine could similar come out like. In one of the videos the texting aspect of the video I liked and found very touching which gave me the idea to have a similar approach in my own video. This was where the biggest changes of my idea we're made as I thought by watching that video is was very touching and that it linked well with pride. I then decided to have a similar approach in mine which was to have a friend message her asking if she is okay. After this research, I did the paperwork necessary, shot lists, development reflection, storyboards, audio and colour grading analysis. All of this research and planning has helped to develop my idea to get me ready for the final video.
Test shots
Now that I have finished all my pre-production paperwork as well as all the necessary research and development I decided to do the test shots of the start of the piece so that I can get a better feel for how the video is going to look. Since filming it I have been able to play around with the colour grading and have edited the footage twice once with the music and the other with a narrative to see which one I prefer. It was not necessary for me to film the entire video as a test shot as this would have taken a lot of time in filming and editing but by doing a segment of it, it has given me an indication as to what it'll look like. The props and the set up was not exactly how I wanted it to be but the main focus was the way the video would look. It gave me the chance to play around with the colour grading in which I followed the tutorial above and to see what type of audio would be best. It also gave me the chance to realise if I have done enough research and planning into my idea, if so then the filming of it would be smooth and I would have a clear idea as to what I needed to film. I would know the different shots that I needed to get and the way the actor has at act, so that I can get the filming part of it done as soon as possible so that I can start the editing process.
In the middle screenshot it shows the volume of the audio that I used. I decided to include some sound effects rather than using the original sound so that it was more professional as it didn't have any of the other background noises which I didn't want in the video. As seen in the screen recording I found the sound effects on youtube and converted them so that I could use them in
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I have now completed my test shots, as you can see I have included some screenshots and screen recordings of what I did and the process of my editing. The top left screenshot shows the how I adjusted the different tones to help with the colour grading. In my previous research into existing videos on this topic the colours seem quite dark and dull to replicate the mood of the piece. This makes a huge impact to way in which the video is percieved which is why it was crucial to me to practice this in my test shots. I followed the youtube tutorial which I analysed above, it is one that I found which gives me a basic idea as to how to colour grade and make the footage look more professional. In the video it told me to make an adjustment layer so that the colour grading was applied throughout all of the clips, which I found very useful and did not think to do before this, I used my own initiative however by adjusting the different settings as to what I felt was best for my piece, the tutorial was there as a rough guide and I feel like it helped a lot with the look of the video.
premiere pro. The audio was the most time consuming part of the editing process as I had to find the sound effects that were most realistic and relevant to my work and having to match the sound up correctly with the action also took a lot of time. I then had to adjust the volume of the piece so that the sound seemed more realistic. I feel as though I have done a good job of this but feel as though I could have used adobe audition to edit the sounds in more depth and will consider doing this for my final video depending on the time I have left to finish. I feel as though I can make the sounds more realistic and play around with the volume a lot more by using Audition. I recorded a few of my own sounds because I couldn't find some that were fitting enough. I ended up only using one of these due to the quality of the sounds, during the actual video I think I will record some of my own sounds as well as finding them off youtube depending on what is more fitting for the video.
In the top right image you can see what the timeline looks like once I had finished. The pink bar is the adjustment layer, which has the colour grading effect on. Then I have the footage and the the sounds underneath that. I played around with what music I want in the video I included a few of them above but decided to go with "Touch" because I felt that it was more fitting to the piece. I have decided not to reedit the footage with a narrative instead as I think that the song that I found works well with the piece and would be more effective then having a narrative over the top. I feel like due to time management I do not have enough time to test creating a script but I feel as though the audio works well as it is.
I feel as though to improve the video for the real thing I need to make sure that the actress is clear what is needed to do as some improvements need to be made on that part. I think that this is a small problem as I will go through my storyboard with her so that she has a better idea as to what she needs to do. I also think that I need to make sure that the costumes and props are all correct to make it more realistic. I think that the colour grading is a little off and that it could have been made slightly lighter in some of the shots as it does come across dark and as points are unable to see the actresses face. I think I did a good job at the audio but like I have already said it did take a lot of time and this is what needs to be improved upon, now that I have had plenty of practice however I feel as though I can now get through it quicker.
Overall, I am pleased with how the test shots went. I was able to play around with the different aspects that I wanted too and has reassured me that I have done enough research and planning to film the final video. I think that it has helped me to realise what I need to do next and what I could do to improve to make the final piece better. I do like the outcome of the piece but their are a few things that I think could have been better which I can now improve upon when filming my actual video. Being able to practice colour grading and the audio will mean that I am able to get through the process quicker for the real video as it has helped me gain a better understanding of the controls and what I need to do.
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Final Video- Evaluation
When starting Unit 13 I was at the stage of the assignment where I had chosen my final idea and was now ready to develop and progress my idea to make it better so that I was ready to film. I started off doing research into my chosen topic which was depression. I felt that it was important for me to do the extra research so that I have more knowledge on the subject making it easier for me to present it in a realistic way. I completed secondary, primary and contextual research to help with this development which I found very useful to me. This part of the project was very time consuming which had a knock on effect with the rest of the work but I felt that it was necessary to do as it would help me when storyboarding and planning the film in more detail as I was able to apply what I learnt from the research into production. Looking back on the research now I feel like it was very successful. All the research that I did helped me in the end and it was all relevant to the topic. I feel as though I should have cut down the amount of research I did as it took a very long time to do and meant that I had less time on the actual production of my video.
I then started the planning of the piece which included the storyboards and the shots list. I firstly created a storyboard on a website so that I can clearly show what I wanted to happen in each of the scenes. Following on from this I drew my own storyboard so that I can show the different camera shots I wanted to show a more realistic view of the scene. I found this very helpful to me to know what I wanted each shot to look like and it was the stage in the project which showed my idea coming together and showing the clear development of the plan. I then created a basic shot list explaining what I wanted to happen in each of the shots to show a written as well as visual plan of my idea. This part went well as it helped me to show my plan to others and to have a clearer idea of how it would look.
The next part was to reflect on my development that I have made and to get feedback from others to see what they thought. In order to do this I created a questionnaire which I got my peers to answer. I feel as though this was very helpful because I wanted to see what others thought of my progress so far and to get advice on what I needed to do next and how to improve my idea. I analysed the results so that I could get a clear decision of what I needed to do next which was to create a developed shot list so that it was more detailed. I then did this again but in more detail to show more detail about what I wanted to happen. This was a crucial part in the project as getting feedback is important as it helped me to know how to improve and develop my idea more.
After this I was nearly ready to film so I completed the relevant pre-production paperwork including risk assessments and a shooting schedule. Before completing the test shots I thought that it was important to analyse a tutorial video on colour grading so that when editing I knew how to colour grade to make it how I want it to look. This video was very helpful and by doing this when editing my footage I was able to colour grade it accordingly by following the tutorial to help me. I then researched into different music that I could use which went well with the mood of the piece. Finding the music I wanted earlier pre production helped me in the editing part as it made it a lot quicker as I had already done previous research and practice.
I then completed my test shots which were very successful as it helped to realise what went well and what I needed to improve upon. Creating the test shots gave me an idea as to what my final video is going to look like. This was very helpful to me as I was able to decide on the audio I wanted to use as well as practice the colour grading more. After finishing the test shots I was ready to film. As shown on the shooting schedule it shows that I started filming on the Friday but filmed the majority of it on the Monday. Using my storyboard I was able to see what I needed to film and the different shots that I need. I decided to change some of the story as I decided not to have the flashback scene as I thought that the acting required for this part would be quite advanced so I decided not to include this part in the final cut. The filming part of it went very smoothly and took be a few hours to film on Monday. I got a variety of shots that I needed and from this I then started the editing process. The things that went is that I was able to use my storyboards as referencing when filming so I got the work down quickly as I knew exactly what needed to happen. The research I did also helped me to tell the actress what they
needed to do and how she needed to act. I colour graded the piece as well which I think turned out well, you can see that it relates to the mood of the piece as it is quite dark. The other part that I thought went well is the sound effects, I decided to just use the footage and re-recorded some of the sounds that I wanted so that it came out clearer. I had to re-record the duvet sounds as well as the cupboard door shutting. I feel like this adds a bit more realism to the piece by doing this. Some other sound effects I got offline like the phone sound effects as it was easier for me to use that. I then added in the background music and due to my previous research the song went in well with the footage, and the mood of the piece. I feel as thought the music makes a huge impact to the piece and I really like this aspect of it. I decided to add a zoom transition to one of the clips so that the link between two of the shots linked together better than a normal cut. I followed a tutorial on Youtube to do this and I really liked the outcome of the effect of this. I feel as though the link to pride is very clear and the storyline of the video is easy to follow which I feel as though is an important aspect that needed to be successful.
The parts that I think that could have been improved is the variety of shots. Some of the shots turned out to be too long and due to the lack of action within the shots I feel as though it would have been better if I switched between angles more to keep it interesting. I feel as though this was a big part of the project that needed improving on and if I had more time then I would have liked to re-film some parts to make more of a variety in the shots. I feel as though I needed a bit more action in the piece or have a different shot in another location just to keep the interest of the piece. I feel as though I should have had better time management so that I had more time to fix my mistakes.
I created a daily log to show the development of my work and to so that I could see the progression that I had made. I think that this helped me so that I knew what stage I was at and so that I could keep track of my progress. Within the daily logs I wrote down if any issues occurred so that I can highlight the problems and the fixes of what I did. For example the day of filming was delayed due to spending a lot of time on planning and test shot which delayed the shooting of the video. To get around this I was able to use some of my test shot footage as I felt as though it was good enough to use in the final video. Having the daily log there definitely helped me along the way as I was able to track my progress and if problems occurred I would be able to reflect back on it.
All the research that I did has helped me to get to the final video. The research I did was for a purpose which was to help to get to the final video rather than being pointless. I feel as though that the research that I did helped link to the video and is what shaped the final video. The acting of the character was influenced by the secondary research that I did. The plan of the storyboard was also influenced by the research that I did. The whole concept of what was happening in the video was all due to me doing the research into depression. The research helped me to make decisions that I needed when it came to what I wanted to happen in the video and what I wanted the character to act like. The contextual research had a huge impact to the outcome of the video and I feel as though it is present in my video. The idea of the text messaging was influenced from a previous video that I watched and I feel as though it made the overall video more meaningful and impactful to watch.
Throughout the process I did a lot of practical things. Premiere Pro is the software that I used throughout this process for different reasons. I started off practicing colour grading and then moved on to editing my interviews as part of my primary research. I then used the software to edit my test shots as well as my final video. Other practical aspects that I did was the storyboarding as well the after effects practice that I need nearer the beginning when deciding on my final idea. Overall, I feel as though that I have done a lot of practical aspects throughout this process.
I got my peers to watch the video to see if they understood what was going on an understood the point of the video and because I included the motto at the end it made it clear to the audience the link between pride and mental health. After getting their responses I was able to see that everyone was able to understand the point of the video, which shows that the video seemed successful.
Overall, I think that the video turned out similar to how I had planned. I liked the way the editing turned out but feel as though I should have filmed more variety of shots to make it more interesting. I think that there could have been parts that could have been improved but all in all I feel as if the video has turned out how I imagined and that I have successfully shown the link to pride from my video.
Presentation
I have created a powerpoint which I am going to use when presenting my final video to the class. I have included all the work that I have done since unit 13 to show the progression that I have made. I am going to talk about what I have done to get to my final video and then I will show it to the class and get their feedback.
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