Monday 10^th June

Today, we presented our final piece to a group of 10 people, so that they could peer grade it.

We did this by creating a PowerPoint Presentation, that just explained our brief/synopsis, our aims and achievements and our strengths and weaknesses, along with presenting our short film.

Overall, this presentation went well due to the fact that we received all of the praises and criticisms that we needed. It was very helpful gaining views from a large audience for the first time. It was also interesting to learn their opinions of our film.

Their overall view was that we were too harsh on ourselves in regards to our short film and it was much better than we had assumed.

After presenting our work, we scanned in their peer evaluation slips so that we could add these to our evaluations.

Speaking of evaluations, I also started the beginning part of this today. I aim to complete more of this tomorrow.

 Wednesday 12^th June

Today, I carried on writing my evaluation. I actually got a majority of this done. I focused on writing about and analyzing the pre-production process, which I analyzed in heavy detail. I am trying to focus on what went wrong in every process so that it is obvious for me what I have to change in the future. I also started writing about the production process, but did not get to finish this today, however, I hope to have it finished by tomorrow.

Thursday 13^th June

Today, I finished writing my Evaluation at 2502 words. Although I went overboard the word limit, I really wanted to ensure that I covered all of the areas I believed were necessary within this evaluation. I structured this in a way that I wrote about the pre-production process, the production process, and the editing process. I also ensured that I covered a conclusion, self-evaluation and peer evaluation from the presentation we did on Monday.

Friday 14^th June

Today, was the last day of college for this academic year and all that we did today was ensure that we had everything for this year completed and put into our google drive folders.

After ensuring everything was uploaded, we were signed off and that was it for the day.

Wednesday 5^th June

This was my first day back after the half-term break, and as I planned I continued working on my edit. As I had already made a simple compilation of the sequence a few weeks beforehand, today was the day in which I started adding the more complicated parts of the editing. Today I focused on the audio aspects of editing as I wanted to ensure nothing sounded too loud/static. For the majority of the short film, we included a lot of the camera audio due the fact that it created the right ambiance that we needed, as it is important to include background sound even if it is quiet, especially because we set our film in the post-apocalyptic future and one particular scene we filmed in a classroom where there were only 3 characters. Therefore, any royalty free classroom ambiance sounds did not work as they included other voices in the audio, which would not portray the aim of our story.

Furthermore, I also ensured that I found Foley sound effects for all the clips that did not have appropriate accompanying sound as it is important to have the most realistic sound effects because this ensures our short film can reach its highest standard if professionalism.

After finding all of the sounds that I wanted to use, I started layering all of the sounds within my edit such as the Foley, with the speech and ambiance sounds. I started to find that the sound started coming together along with the overall short film.

Thursday 6^th June

Today, I focused on the colour grading part of my edit. This is an important part of the editing as this can change the whole mood/atmosphere of the short film. I did 3 separate parts of the colour grading, the beginning, middle and end. I did this because I wanted to symbolize the different moods of the short film through the colour and tones. For example, in the beginning, I gave the scenes a blue undertone. However, because the original footage was already quite grainy, I attempted to fix this when grading by sharpening the scenes and adjusting the brightness by making it slightly to darker to make the grain less noticeable. These blue scenes create an almost uncomfortable mood which is what I was aiming to create, as the audience need to know that this film is not going to be a welcoming one.

When the main character begins to use her powers, I gave the scenes purple undertones as purple is usually associated with magic/spells. I wanted to make this evident in the scenes because the audience need to know that this is the significant scene.

For the dream sequence scene in field, I used warm yellow tones as I believe that creates a dreamier atmosphere. I also added a faded effect.

Monday 20^th May

Because we were not filming today, we reviewed the footage from Friday by uploading the footage from the SD card to the computer and opening it up on PremierePro. We luckily found that nothing from that day had to be filmed again. Therefore, to make the editing process easier, we started renaming the footage clips and the audio clips, so that we are not struggling to find the exact clips we need once filming is over.

I also saved all of the footage into my area so that I know where to find the footage. In the afternoon, we started creating beginning and end credits, as this was something to do to pass the time until the next filming day. It also just organizes our time in a more practical way as we now know that this is done and we do not need to complete it after editing.

Wednesday 22^nd May

Today was our final day of filming, however our main actor was not scheduled to arrive until 2pm which meant that we carry on editing the footage from the first filming day.

Once our actor arrived, we headed to our second filming location straight away, which was a field near the college. Since this scene was dream sequence, we ensured that we used the variety of camera angles we had initially planned doing. We found that some were a lot harder to do than we had expected. For example, the worm angle or a high angle shot, however we still managed to complete these angles, which I think will overall make our work seem a lot more professional. I personally think that this was the best part filming due to the fact that we seemed to work more cooperatively as a group.

After this we went back to the college to film our final scene, which was a good conclusion to filming all together.

Friday-24th May

We have now begun the editing process for our short film. Today I focused on ensuring the whole sequence was put together before I added any special effects to anything. After ensuring I put all of the sequences into my edit, I focused more on the Foley and ensuring I have put all of the sounds in the correct places. I wanted to get this part of the process done first so that I know I have gotten it done before I start adding anything to the sequence. When I get back after half-term, I aim to start adding the more creative aspects of editing to the sequence.

Monday 13^th May-

Today was the absolute final to have pre-production completed. I had personally completed everything but I just had to ensure everything was in neatly put into my InDesign document. Also by just adding in the very final details such as the actor’s names and our (the crew’s) details such as our emails and phone numbers in addition to the roles that we were playing. For example, including information such as what pieces of pre-production we each did and what roles we are going to fulfilling when we are filming.

After doing this I had my pre-production document complete.

Wednesday 15^th May-

Today was the beginning of the production for our FMP. However, we did not start filming today due to actors not being available yet in addition to the scheduling of equipment. So, we instead starting creating title sequences for the beginning of our short film. I did this on AfterEffects and ensured that the title stuck to the theme of our short film by making sure I used eerie background music in addition to making the title appear through multiple glitches in an almost uncontrollable fashion. I did this by following a YouTube tutorial on how to create a glitch effect on AfterEffect, I had to watch a video on this as I am not familiar with using this program as it is not something I have used often, therefore I just had to ensure that I was doing it correctly.

Friday 17^th May-

Today was the first day of filming, which overall went to plan, however there were some timing constraints due to the fact that our actors were not arriving until 17:30pm which wasn’t a big problem but it meant that the day went slower than we would have liked.

However, we made use of the time by ensuring that we had everything that we needed, including equipment and props. We then tested our equipment to ensure that nothing went wrong when it came to the time we had to film. We ensured that the two cameras were in sync with each other and that the SD cards were formatted, which eliminated any problem we could have with the footage or audio later on. Additionally, before the actors arrived we went to the location, which was just another classroom in the college, and set up everything.

During filming, everything mostly went well, despite their being a few inconveniences, which was mainly the scheduling and timing. Even though we still managed to film everything we needed, we did not have a lot of time to do it in due to the fact because we were filming so late, we had even more of a time limit because the college was closing soon. So filming seemed more rushed than I wanted it to be.

Another issue was the lighting inside of the college, which didn’t turn out to be as bright as we wanted it to be. The main reason behind this was because it was getting later outside, the outdoor lighting was affecting the interior lighting but luckily the change in lighting wasn’t that drastic.

Wednesday 8^th May

Today, we all focused on reviewing the script and trying to finalize it. We had to ensure that we were cutting down the amount of characters being included as we are not sure that we are able to get hold of actors to play the roles. We are hoping to get actors from the performing arts department, however, we are currently unsure of their availability as they have busy schedules at the moment and might not be able to act for us. However, we have been in contact with the lecturers and they are currently stating that we might be able to get the actors, but because of the uncertainty of this we need to ensure that we are not depending on too many actors as we may not get them.

Furthermore, another member of my group focused on creating the storyboards which is helpful to have as this starts bringing the script to life in addition to helping us envision the storyline overall.

Furthermore, members in our group started working on the logistical paperwork such as the risk assessment and equipment, which did not take long to do as we had already decided by this point everything that we need.

I personally completed a location reconnaissance form on one of the locations we know that we are definitely filming at, because parts of our short film is set in a school, we struggling to decide if we want to film these scenes onsite, at college, or at Bay House School and Sixth Form. However, even after contacting the sixth form, it does not seem that they are very confident in letting us film there, so it is looking highly probable that we will be filming at college.

Thursday 9^th May

Today was another day spent on working our pre-production folder. I mainly focused on inserting all of the documents needed that have been completed by other group members such as the script and storyboard. I ensured that included the different versions of the script in the document as it is important to show the progress of what we changed, and how the dialogue was changed. I also added in all of the storyboards after the script as the two match up together and helps to realistically portray the storyline. I have actually been laying out the pre-production document in this way: ensuring that all of the idea generation, project proposal, the different plot ideas, etc. are laid out in this way to show the process of the pre-production and how are ideas are becoming more developed and realistic.

Friday 10^th May

Today was a more practical planning day as a group member and I decided that we wanted to go to Bay House in order to get an idea of where we would film if this is a potential filming location. However, we got there and went to the reception desk, hoping to get some more information, but they just informed us with everything they had said in emails beforehand, which was overall telling us that we couldn’t film there anytime soon and we had to wait for them to get back to us. So we therefore have decided that we are not going to film there as it too much of a complicated process trying to film there, so we are aiming just to film onsite as this means filming can get done sooner.

On the topic of pre-production, I completed the shot today, which took a while as I was ensuring that I included every shot that I want to include within this short film. Additionally, I was also finalising the pre-production document by ensuring that I have all of the correct pieces of work in there. However, all of the pre-production has now been completed and we got this done by making sure that we all worked as a team. By giving each other set roles of what to do for pre-production, we got it done on time.

FMP- ‘Imperium’ Production Diary 1- Week 1-  29th April-3^rd May

Monday 29^th April-

Within this first week back, myself and my group began doing pre-production and the idea generation for our final major project in which we are intending to be a short film.

Today, we started creating mind maps, by putting our ideas down on paper, it was easier to start formulating main sequences that we could follow for the short film. My group and I had already decided beforehand that we wanted to stick to a Wiccan/witch theme as we found it would be an interesting topic to present on. Therefore, when we created our final project proposal, we explained all of the reasoning behind this.

However, when we started the idea generation, we came up with some newer ideas that we preferred, which meant that I edited the project proposal slightly to ensure that we could get it as accurate as we could. Saying this, we still have not come up with a set storyline as we are finding it difficult to find something that will make for a good short film story.

Thursday 2^nd May-

Today was the official start of pre-production. We decided that the way we wanted to present our pre-production was through an InDesign document.

However, before this, we had a talk with one of our lecturers, as we let him know that we were struggling to come up with an idea. Therefore, he ended up helping us formulate the main idea for our piece which helped us tremendously as helps us tremendously as this means we can now move forward with our pre-production.

After altering my project proposal to make it more accurate, I started creating a mood board. When looking for the images, I ensured that I was looking for images associated with Wicca/ witchcraft as this points out the obvious theme that we going for. But because we also want to include a more positive portrayal of witchcraft, I gathered more bright, colourful, positive looking images such as the crystals, the bright candles and the various other witchcraft items that are used within the Wiccan religion.  I wanted to show the obvious contrast between the darker side of witchcraft and the positive.

However, I created this mood board before we had the set plot idea, so I therefore created another one which stayed more accurate to the theme of our story.

Friday 3^rd May-

Today our group just started creating more of the pre-production. I personally focused on both parts of the pre-production, both logistical and creative. However, today I still focused on the idea generation process and I started writing up the plot ideas. We came up with about 4 different plot ideas. Initially, I started writing up simple summaries for each one. After doing this, I wrote a more detailed and elaborated storyline for our chosen idea with a beginning, middle and end structure.

Within this final version of the Project Proposal, in which I have a more finalised idea of what I will be going through with for final short film of this year.

Within this week, I will begin forming ideas for my short film through creating a second, more official project proposal that will be completed today. Then, my group and I will start officially working on pre-production such as the creative paperwork, which is the script (multiple versions), shot lists, story boards, etc. Then the logistical paperwork will need to start being completed, this is the risk assessments, the location recce and schedules for the short (what will be done and when it will be done.

I am aiming start all of this this week, and have it completed by the end of this week or by the beginning of next.