reflective logs

INTRODUCTION

This project portfolio is a report of my extended project for my first year UAL Extended Diploma in Film and Television Production in the Media Pathway. The Reflective Logs section of my page includes my weekly reflections on my progress. I will update this part of my portfolio every week so that I am able to keep on track and clearly record what I have learnt and how that will affect my project.

WEEK 1 - 14/03/22

This week, we began to work on some initial ideas after receiving the brief for our Final Major Project. For this 10-week task, we are able to choose a medium of our choice that we have studied so far over the course, some of which including short films, sound, lighting, and script writing. Before brainstorming any ideas, we were tasked with revisiting the Who Am I? task that we studied at the beginning of the course. By creating mind maps that allowed us to consider our likes, dislikes, fears, and aspirations, it allowed us to gain an insight to what topics we might like to explore. As well as creating several mind maps, we were also tasked with discussing the mediums that we have most enjoyed over the course so far, what mediums we feel have been our strongest areas, and what elements we feel we could improve on. This part of the task also allowed me to reflect on what we have learnt so far, giving me some ideas as to what my FMP could involve. When considering what medium I would like to use for my FMP, I thought about the elements that I have particularly enjoyed learning and would like to further my knowledge in. Some of which included script writing, colour in film, and sound. For each element, I formulated a basic idea that could possibly be developed into my Final Major Project. For the script writing idea, I was particularly intrigued in creating a Murder Mystery screenplay, as I thought that this has a wide area for development, allowing me to further my skills. Furthermore, for the colour theory idea, I spoke about how I am interested in exploring how emotion can be conveyed through colour in film. Finally, for the sound idea, I spoke about potentially creating a short film that could solely be based on sound and action, using little or no dialogue. Once I had my three ideas for my FMP, I conducted a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) Analysis on each idea. This allowed me to think in more detail about each idea and consider their viability. Next week, I aim to gain and analyse feedback on my three ideas and come to a conclusion on which idea I would like to produce for my final major product.

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WEEK 2 - 21/03/22

For this week’s tasks, we continued to build upon our ideas for our Final Major Project. Last week, I was successfully able to formulate three potential ideas for my FMP and now needed to gain feedback on each idea. The way in which I gathered this information was by conducting a questionnaire that I sent to several of my peers to complete. In the questionnaire, I included a brief synopsis of each idea and asked each individual to comment on a strength and weakness, and then ultimately decide on which idea they felt would be the most viable. When reviewing my feedback, I was pleased to read the answers as I felt it gave me a good insight on which ideas could be possible, and which would prove more difficult to undertake. By conducting this survey and gaining this primary research, I am now able to understand the importance of sharing ideas with others, and gaining feedback before solely going ahead with the idea, as the answers may raise some points that were previously missed out. Whilst I found the peer feedback very helpful, I also decided to speak with my lecturers to gain their opinions on my ideas. When sharing my ideas with my lecturer, they gave me some good feedback as to which idea would be the most viable, why some elements of an idea could prove to be tricky throughout the process, and which idea would allow me to demonstrate and strengthen my skills the most. I now felt that I had a wide variety of feedback from a range of different people, that I was able to decide which idea I would go ahead with. I concluded that I would like to continue the process with Idea 1, which focussed on writing a Murder Mystery screenplay, which would also include elements of comedy. Over the course so far, I have found the script writing unit the most enjoyable and is something that I am interested in pursuing in the future, so I felt that this would be the best project idea for me to develop.

As previously mentioned, I didn’t yet have a detailed plot for this idea, which is why it is extremely important for me to conduct some research that will help me to develop my idea further. In order to have a clear idea about what research I will need to carry out, I created a Research Plan, which included different topics that I would like to research which included the fundamentals of Script Writing, Character Development, Target Audience, and the Skills and Techniques needed throughout the project. For each topic, I decided on what exactly it was that I needed to find out, what form of research I would use, and the relevance it would have to project. By creating this Research Plan, I now have a clear vision of the work I need to complete moving forward. After completing this, I began to work on my Project Proposal, which would allow me to clearly explain my ambitions and ideas for the project, what I intended to achieve and some of the initial resources that I would use for my research. In the following weeks, I will begin to carry out my research, referring back to my Research Plan to ensure that I remain on track and am able to start developing my idea further.

WEEK 3 - 28/03/22

For this weeks task, we continued to work on our Research plans for our final major project. After finalising my research plan, I began to work on my project proposal; a document that would allow my to explain my idea and clearly set out the structure of the project. I began the document with the Rationale section. This part of the document allowed me to briefly discuss the skills and techniques that I have learnt so far and how I intend to incorporate them in my Final Major Project work. I also briefly explained my project idea in this section too. Secondly, I began to work on the project concept section which would allow me to explain my idea in more depth. It was at this part of the proposal that I was able to detail the synopsis of my script and who my intended target audience are. Finally, in the evaluation section, I detailed my aims and objectives for the process going forward. I also stated that I will continue to review and refer back to these aims throughout the course to ensure that I remain on track.

In addition to this, the project proposal also offered a section which allowed me to include any proposed research sources that I had already found, which I intend to study during the research part of the project. This gave me an area to record all of my initial primary, secondary, qualitative, quantitative research sources. These resources ranged from websites, books, scripts, and films, as I felt that this would give me a broad range of sources to gain a variety of information from. At the end of the project proposal, I was able to create a project action plan and timetable, which allowed me to clearly set out what tasks I plan to complete for each week of the project.

Once I had completed the project proposal document, I had to begin work on the project proposal pitch - a five minute pitch that I will need to present to my lecturers, detailing the basis of my Final Major Project idea. Following the guidance from my lecturers on how to structure the pitch, I discussed key points of my project such as, the synopsis, tagline, target audience, treatment, the key question, character development and script formatting. I also added some relevant images to my project proposal pitch to make the presentation more visual and interesting. Alongside this, I also created a pitch script with notes to help me make sure what I need to talk about during the presentation. Going forward, I intend to begin my research for my Final Major project.

WEEK 4 - 04/04/22

For this weeks task, I began to conduct my initial research using both primary and secondary methods. However, before I could begin my research, I needed to set out a clear set of Research Questions that I would need to ask and refer back to throughout the process. I started this part of my research by thinking about what I aimed to achieve from the project, and then asking myself the questions of how I was going to complete that. I had to consider what I wanted to accomplish through the process itself, and what aims I had for myself, personally, through completing the project. After setting out my research objectives, I began to research more about the role that I would be taking on for this project, as script writer. I researched some of the requirements that make a good script writer, and some of the attributes and characteristics needed. I researched in detail how script writers should be adaptable and flexible when working both individually and collectively with others, and the importance of having a passion for the topic you are writing about. I used several online, secondary resources for my research, which I referenced at the end of the document.

Furthermore, I began to research the subject/topic element of my script, being the 'Murder Mystery' element. It was at this point that I referred back to my research plan to remind myself what I needed to research for this section. I began by researching the main aspects needed to create a murder mystery script. I found this part of the research very helpful as I was able to remind myself of some of the common attributes of a murder mystery, whilst also learning some new information about the murder mystery subject. I then continued my secondary research when delving further into the art of character development. I learnt about the importance of having interesting and intriguing characters, as well as the meaning of dynamic and flat characters. I also discovered how important it is to spend a good amount of time developing your characters personality and inner thoughts and emotions as this could have an influence on how they speak or act in your film. Finally, I researched the importance of giving your character a 'status'; whether they be a lead, supporting, or minor character.

Overall, I found this initial researched to be very helpful and think it will prove beneficial to me throughout my project. Next week, I will continue to conduct more research, particularly on Target Audience and Skills and Techniques.

WEEK 4 continued - 11/04/22

For this weeks tasks, I continued to carry out several research tasks which would help me in producing my final major project. Last week, I started to look at researching the subject/topic element of my project when studying the key aspects of a murder mystery script. However, this week, I started to look at both the target audience and the skills and techniques sections of the research.

Starting with Target Audience research, I had previously decided in my research plan that the best way to gain feedback about my target audience would be by carrying out primary research. I decided that, for this task, I would do this by creating my own questionnaire that would help me in determining my target audience. An advantage to this technique was that I could tailor the survey so that it was relevant to my idea, resulting in beneficial answers that could have an influence on my project. I sent my online questionnaire out to a wide variety of different people, from friends and family, to sharing the survey on social media platforms. This would allow me to gain a broad range of feedback and identify the similarities and differences between those who would give me feedback. I found this task extremely helpful, and as a result, I now have a clearer vision of who my target audience are and what aspects they would like to see included in my work. Furthermore, I intend to conduct a further questionnaire to gain my target audiences views and opinions on my project idea.

Furthermore, I also started to research what skills and techniques that I will require for this project. After several feedbackers for my target audience questionnaire suggested 'Knives Out' as their favourite film, I decided that I would research this further and study how the script is written. I was able to download a copy of the screenplay and identify familiar techniques, yet also techniques that I wasn't yet aware of. Some of these included how to structure voice overs, split lines of dialogue, and off screen shots in a script. I found this task very useful as I was able to see how a professional screenplay is structured, particularly one that follows similar themes and genres to my own project.

Next week, I will complete my project proposal pitch for my FMP, and continue with my research.

WEEK 5 - 18/04/22

For this weeks tasks, I continued to carry out several research tasks which would help me in producing my final major project. Last week, I continued with my Target audience and Skills and Technique Research when delving deeper into what my Target Audiences opinions are about the Murder Mystery theme, and narrowing down the exact techniques that will help me form a high standard screenplay.

When continuing to look at Target research, I had now successfully determined an overall group of people that my project will be aimed at through the use of a primary research questionnaire. However, I now wanted to learn more about what my target audience would like to see in a 'murder mystery' character. Since I found using a questionnaire the best method of gathering first hand information previously, I decided to create another survey, which would ask questions based on character development. I asked questions which challenged my peers opinions on murder mystery protagonists and antagonists, what age characters they prefer to watch, whether they enjoy watching peaceful films or films that involve conflict, and what attributes their overall, ideal murder mystery character would have. Once again, I found this survey to be very useful and I was able to gather some very interesting feedback which will help me with forming my characters later on in the process.

Secondly, I also continued with my Skills and Techniques research this week, when reading the book, 'The TV Studio Production Handbook', and learning about different methods that help to formulate and refine ideas. The authors, Lucy Brown and Lyndsay Duthie talk about how the methods of mind mapping, lateral thinking, reverse thinking, and blue sky thinking can all help in the process of coming up with ideas, which in some cases, involve starting from the final 'scene' and uncovering the plot by working backwards from that point. I did some further research on each technique and was able to discover whether they would prove beneficial to my own project when it comes to finalising my ideas.

I found the tasks that I have completed this week to be very useful, particularly, the character development questionnaire which will no doubt prove very helpful when it comes to forming my characters in the coming weeks.

WEEK 6 - 25/04/22

For this weeks tasks, I continued to carry out several research tasks which would help me in producing my final major project. Last week, I continued with my Target audience and Skills and Technique Research when conducting a survey that asked my target audiences opinions on 'Murder Mystery' characters and when experimenting my skills in my character development and first draft script.

This week, I continued with my skills and techniques research when looking at another book titled, 'Scriptwriting: A beginners Guide', by Stanley Fernando. In the book, Fernando discusses how he tends to form his own ideas, with his main method being that his entire plot often stems from a single scene. For example, he explains that if you think of a scene, try to build a story around that scene - perhaps that scene could be then end scene of your film, challenging you to work backwards and create the events that led up to that moment. He also goes on to explain the importance of making a note of every idea that you have, even if they end up in the wrong order, they can then be re-ordered to form your plot. Whilst talking about this, he also talks about the different abbreviations, such as (V.O), being voice over, and (O.S), being off screen, that can be used when script writing. I found reading this book very useful as it further encouraged me to think about different ways that I can find my ideas, and how to develop them further.

Now that I had conducted a wide range of research, I now felt that the time had come to begin putting these skills and techniques to use, which I did when beginning my character development. When speaking with one of my lecturers, they suggested that I might find it useful to establish my characters before finalising the treatment of my plot, so that I had a clear set of people and was able to decide what role they would play in the narrative. I found this piece of advice very useful as when I began to detail my characters personalities and attributes, I was beginning to form a plot in my head, and how each character could be incorporated into the story. Continuing on from this, I then started to write an 'experimental' draft script which would allow me to put my newly found skills into practise, whilst also understanding my characters better - how they would speak, act, and react. I then evaluated this piece of work, noting aspects of script writing that I had been able to include, whilst also talking about which elements I could also use that would enhance the quality of my script.

Finally, this week, I also began to work on my FMP Pre-Production Documents which would detail the synopsis of my idea, the requirements of a script writer, the production schedule, and a contingency plan. This is a working document that I will continue to add to over the coming weeks.

Overall, I found the tasks this week to be very beneficial, improving my knowledge of how scripts are structed and how I can build upon my original ideas to add more depth and detail to them.

WEEK 7 - 02/05/22

For this weeks tasks, I continued to work mainly on my pre-production documents, when moving onto the production research section of my project. Last week, I was able to begin working on the synopsis and script writer requirements sections of the pre-production paperwork, allowing me to focus on treatment and experimentation this week.

When it came to beginning my treatment, I knew that, in order to move forward with my project, I needed to clearly understand the overall structure and plot of my narrative. I also needed to have a clear outline of my characters, which I started to develop last week. However, before I started writing my treatment, I felt that I needed to fully understand my characters, so decided to go back to the character biographies and work on them some more. When sharing my original biographies with my lecturer, they suggested that I thought about them in further depth, giving them unique attributes, learning more about their background, and most importantly, understanding their motives and linking them to the victim. Working onwards from this advice, I was now able to build a more in depth character profile, and start to see how they might be connected to the victim. Furthermore, as I knew I wanted to include twists and turns throughout, I plan to reveal one character as the murderer, before revealing the real murderer at the very end of the script. This is a key element of the plot and will provide the main twist at the end of the narrative.

Now that I had my characters clearly developed, I felt ready to begin writing my treatment. For this part of the production stages, I needed to set out a clear beginning, middle and end structure of my plot. I detailed what events would take place at each point in the script and how they would all lead up to the murder and the reveal. I also explained in more depth, the characters motives and the reasoning behind why they committed the crime.

Once I had a clear idea of both my characters, and my treatment, I now started to experiment the skills and techniques that I had learnt when writing my first experimental draft script. I set out which techniques I aimed to include in this script and how I would plan on introducing my characters and their personalities. When writing the script, I made sure to include techniques such as a Voice Over (V.O), multiple INT. and EXT. scenes, and an off screen (O.S) scream. These are all elements that I learnt about during my project research. Once I had finished writing my first draft script, I then evaluated what aspects I was able to include, and what aspects I still needed to practise. In addition to this, I also gained some feedback from my lecturer, which I will keep in mind when writing my second and third draft scripts next week.

WEEK 8 - 09/05/22

For this weeks tasks, I was now able to move on to the Practical Skills section of my portfolio. It is in this part of my website where I am able to experiment and practise the practical skills that I have learnt across the course of the project so far, and where I can work on several draft scripts, before submitting my final edit. After completing my first draft script last week, I was now able to progress by starting to work on my second and third drafts.

When working on my second draft script, I was able to make any changes and adjustments to my script which my lecturers had previously pointed out, whilst also moving the plot forward and revealing more about the characters. When reflecting on my lecturers feedback, there were several elements of my first script which needed changing or developing. One of these key points was that my lecturer felt the characters of Max and Bob were slightly underdeveloped, and that their personalities and attributes weren't particularly strong. As I discovered last week, it is essential that, as a writer, you fully understand the nature of your characters, and in a sense, become them, when writing their dialogue. This piece of feedback prompted me to once again review my character biographies and ensure that I had a clear understanding of who my characters were and that of their intentions. In terms of Max and Bob, Max's character clearly feels some resentment and jealously towards James, and Bobs character is seemingly an all round carefree and kind soul. Therefore, I needed to ensure that these attributes were clearly portrayed in my writing. I made several changes to each characters actions and dialogue to make sure that they were further developed, and detailed these changes in the Practical Skills section.

For my third draft script, my main focus was including elements of comedy throughout, as this was one of the key themes that I aim to include. I was able to include several comedic situations throughout the third draft, whilst also introducing new characters like Richard, Dorothy and Diane. These characters allowed me to expand on the comedy that I could use, as I was able to write funny interactions between them.

Once completing my second and third drafts, I once again asked my lecturer for more feedback as I understood the importance of having others review your work to ensure that you are not missing anything out. After my lecturer sent me some detailed feedback, I was able to clearly see the strong points and the weak points of my script. My lecturer and I agreed that Draft 3 was definitely the tighter version out of the two, and that the characters ambitions were displayed more clearly. However, there were still a few changes that my lecturer suggested I make. Some of which included the idea of having several voice overs of James throughout, so that this acted as a constant reminder of the plot, and that he was somewhat on the journey of uncovering his killer with the viewer. Another point that they made was that Richards motive was not as strong as the others, making him less likely to be a suspect. They suggested that I could find a way in which Richard knew James, giving him a stronger reason to have potentially killed him. This is something that I was keen on developing, and will attempt to do so in my fourth draft.

Overall, through writing my second and third drafts, I feel that I was able to continue developing my skills, whilst also moving the plot forward, and focussing on the key themes of my script.

WEEK 9 - 16/05/22

For this weeks tasks, I was now ready to move onto my fourth draft script, in which I would move forward further with the plot, and complete the first draft of my entire story. For this draft script, there were several elements that I needed to work, after having received some feedback from my third script.

One of the main points that I received from my lecturer was that I could try to develop the Voice Over technique that I had used at the beginning of the script. They suggested that it might be interesting to have the voice over continue at various points throughout the script. This would keep the viewers attention on the overall plot of the story, and keep them focussed on wanting to find out who murdered James. It would also allow James's character to remain persistent throughout, and act as though his ghostly spirit also wants to uncover what has happened to him. A place in where I felt this technique would be appropriate was during the end section of the interview scene. Towards the end of this scene, Detective Jones asks each of the suspects the same question - 'Did you kill James', to which all of the suspects deny. After each suspect tells the Detective that they are not the murderer, a voice over of James can be heard further questioning them with comments such as, 'Didn't you?' and 'Are you sure?'. This added voice over increases the tension in this scene, cumulating in Dorothy's final denial at the end of the scene. In the fourth draft script, I feel I have been able to successfully extend my use of the voice over technique to add suspense to the scene.

Furthermore, my lecturer had also suggested that Richards motive wasn't particularly strong, and that his reasoning for possibly killing James needed to be further developed. After some thought, I decided that it would be interesting to have Richard as the brother of James's boss. After Richard hears James telling Dorothy that he has falsely called into work sick, it would annoy Richard to hear that his brother is being taken for a fool. This simple anecdote allows Richard to later become a suspect during the questioning of the murder.

In conclusion, I was able to make the necessary changes to my script this week, whilst also completing the overall arc of the story. In preparation for the final submission week, I will gain some last pieces of feedback from my lecturer, and ensure my script is correctly formatted, before submitting my Final Major Product.

WEEK 10 - 23/05/22

For the final week of the Final Major Project, I now needed to ensure that I had tied up any loose ends, and make sure that my script was to the industry standard. After completing my fourth draft script last week, I now had the chance to review my work and gain some final feedback before submitting my final script.

When sharing my final draft with my lecturer, they suggested that I needed to make a few minor changes to make my script the best it could possibly be. Several of these changes were simple grammatical errors that required corrections, however, they also questioned some parts of the plot. One of the parts that my lecturer and I discussed was the final moment of the script, where Max and Bob walk away into the distance, with Max doing a final evil grin, and telling Bob that James 'got what was coming to him'. Even though the main twist was that it was Diane who killed James, and not Dorothy, I thought that this final moment kept the viewer guessing until the very last moment, and echoed the first lines of the script spoken by James - 'The truth is, you never really know who you can trust. You never really know who's watching you. You never really know the extreme lengths that some people will go to, to get what they want.'. I decided to keep this moment in the script as, even though it didn't add any major twists and turns to the overall narrative, it could have been seen as either a playful remark, or a sign of revenge. It could have implied to the viewer that there was more to the story that met the eye, or that Max simply said it out of spite. It was a creative choice that will be left up to the viewers interpretation.

After making all of the final changes to my script, I checked that everything was correctly formatted and uploaded my Final Major Product Script to the Practical Skills page. After doing this, I now had to complete my Evaluation of the project as a whole. I decided that I would find it beneficial to reflect on each stage of the project, starting with the Context section. I was able to reflect on the beginning stage of the project, look back on the three original ideas I had, and if I had felt I had been able to carry my chosen idea through to create my end product. I then went on to discuss each part of my Research, breaking my reflection down into the Subject/Topic, Target Audience, Skills and Techniques, and Production categories. For each section, I reflected on the research that I had conducted, and whether I thought it had benefited my project in any way. I spoke about the new techniques that I had learnt and whether I would do anything differently, should I have the chance to complete the project again. Furthermore, I then spoke about the Practical Skills section and how it allowed me to experiment with and practise the new skills and techniques that I had learnt.

Overall, the Evaluation section of the project allowed me to reflect on the project as a whole and how I felt I had progressed throughout the process. In conclusion, I have enjoyed completing this project and feel that I have learnt new skills which I will continue to work on and practise to further my knowledge of the industry.