L3 CMPT Final Major Project Reflective Entries

WEEKLY REFLECTIONS
This is where you think about your FMP learning journey and development.
Dont simply describe what you did - consider what you have learnt and how this has benefitted your project.

Week 1 / 2 This week you worked on your initial ideas and started your FMP
concept

How has writing a concept / proposal Writing my concept has helped me as I have thought through my idea
helped you with finalising your idea? properly and it allowed me to think about things I had not originally
thought about. Now I feel I have a good idea and start to my project.

How did the feedback help you adapt After my feedback I thought more deeply about a message I could put
your idea what did you change after forward through my video and ways in which I can change the
feedback? conventions of rap videos.

This week you worked on your initial ideas and started your FMP
Research

How has the research for your target
audience helped you understand your
production more fully?
The research for my target audience showed me who my production
would most appeal to and what they like seeing the most. This
helped me understand my production more fully as I knew how to
directly target my audience and create something that would appeal
to them. For example I know a lot of people think that the normal
conventions of a rap video are over used so therefore I wanted to
make something that isnt as common and in doing this would make
it stand out.

How did your primary research help My primary research helped me to tailor my production to the wants
you? of my target audience, this would ensure the best response to the
video and lead to more views on YouTube creating a wider audience
for my production. I could use responses from my survey to adjust
my plans for the video and use the things I find out from other
videos to also show me what makes a music video successful.

How has researching the conventions
of your chosen genre helped you
understand what is required from you
in order to meet a distinction grade?
By researching the conventions of my chosen genre I have seen the
most successful videos and understand what specifically makes a
video in the genre Im doing stand out and attract views. By looking
at these conventions alongside the guide set by the college of what
was required for a distinction grade I could match it up at plan
something to the criteria.

How has including a variety of
sources (primary and secondary)
helped with your understanding of
your medium / genre?
By using primary and secondary research I could understand what a wide
range of people thought about my genre of music. I conducted surveys
and looked at YouTube comments to find out the sort of responses to the
genre and videos. This helped me to understand how people perceived
the genre and what I could change. As well as this I found out about the
genre itself and what platforms work best to air it on. All this research has
developed my understanding of grime music and aided my planning
positively.

High Grade Tips

Research
Thorough research - include plenty of sources and detailed analysis of this information
relevant & coherent make sure your research sources are not just the same as the Media product you
hope to make - and talk about how they inform your planning
sustained continue your research throughout the eleven-week project and dont just limit it to the first
two weeks
accomplished & considered all of the above referred to in your daily/weekly reflections
Week 2 / 3 This week you will start your planning

What did you learn from your I learnt from my research that 16-25 year olds would be my target
research? audience, the best way to reach this audience is through YouTube as it is
world widely used and more popular than TV, I discovered that people
find rap videos quite repetitive as they do mostly follow the same
conventions and that this genre of music is generally more popular than
males.

How will this be useful to your
planning?
This will be useful to my planning as I know what my audience want to
see from a video and how best to reach them. This will help me develop
my script for my video as I know what elements to use. I also know what
kind of costume and props to use as well as locations. By creating my
video to my research and responses the video is likely to be successful.
This makes it useful.

What sources of information did you
look at that were different from your
proposed project
I used google stats to show me what kind of popularity things like
YouTube had and how it developed over the years, I also looked at a
wide range of YouTube comments from all kinds of videos to see exactly
what went down well and what didnt. I read BBC articles about peoples
online habits to give me more of an understanding of my target audience.

What did you learn from your planning I learnt from my planning that I am going to need a range of props for the
this week mise-en-scene in my video, I am also going to need dancers.

What issues did you encounter and
how did you over come them?
I had difficulty script writing as I find it hard to put things together when im
not actually doing them. I find that most times my videos do not follow my
original script as in the production process I realise different things look
better. But I feel like I have a clear plan and know what Im doing, I
concentrated on different sets of shots and what locations I was using
which helped me to script the video.

High Grade Tips

Planning & Production

effective planning, organisation your FMP Workbook will explain what you need to do in the next few
weeks to make sure all of your planning is completed, and also how this will help you
efficient production against timescales your FMP Proposal will clearly identify how you intend to
create your project before the deadline in May
commitment & subject engagement all of the above referred to in your daily/weekly reflections

Week 3 This week was the start of your production process

What practical work have you done This week I have started shooting my video, I found my earlier planning
this week - and how helpful was your early useful as despite my issues I had a clear script which really guided
earlier planning me through different shots. My use of locations was good and my mise-
en-scene was effective, my props list helped this.
How will this be useful to you as your This will be useful as I believe my work is successful so far and due to my
production process continues planning I know exactly what still needs to be done. I feel motivated and
excited about this production which will help me to finish the task and
work to the best of my ability.

Upload and pictures you have taken

What issues did you encounter and
how did you overcome them?
I didnt have that many issues with production as I was well prepared due
to my planning and contingency plan. I had spare batteries, SD cards,
extra filming dates etc so everything went according to plan. One issue I
had was lighting as some of the shots were coming out to dark so I
adjusted the iso on the camera.

High Grade Tips

Practical Skills & Presentation

Considered and capable demonstration of processes very detailed documentation of your
production process - such as still images, and annotated Screenshots of your specific production and
editing process including what and why, not just how
skills and knowledge used to develop alternative ideas evidence of different ideas developed for
more than one version of your Media product

Week 4 This week was the second week of your practical production

What did you learn in your sessions I learnt in this session that I have a wide range of shots which I think will
this week work well, I have finished the filming stage and am now onto editing. I
have learnt that having a clear script and getting lots of B role is really
 useful when making a music video.

Have you tried anything new this I have tried some new editing skills cutting really quick shots to the beat. I
week - if so, was it a success believe this was successful as it makes my video more interesting to
watch. Also using different shots together makes the video more diverse.

What feedback did you find most
useful verbal or written
I think both sets of feedback were useful as I can always refer back to
written feedback and know how to develop my work but opinions etc. are
also very important as you know what other people like about your
production and what they think you can change because everyone sees it
differently.

How will this be useful to you as your Itll be useful as I know the final things to add to my production to meet the
production process comes to a criteria and have something that is suited to my final project. Itll also help
conclusion me evaluate it.

What issues did you encounter and
how did you over come them?
I had a few issues with editing as the computers are really slow and it
often takes a long time to open my work. I also had issues where the
schools programme is a less good version than my own, this meant it took
longer to edit my work than usual as there is nothing I can do about the
college facilities.

High Grade Tips

Practical Skills & Presentation

Considered and capable demonstration of processes very detailed, annotated Screenshots of your
specific production and editing process including what and why, not just how
skills and knowledge used to develop alternative ideas evidence of different ideas developed, and
more than one version of your Media product

Week 5 This week was your finishing off week - for both your edits an
written work

What feedback did you find most Both feedback I found useful as it all helped me understand what was
useful verbal or written good and bad about my project. This meant I could develop it and change
the parts that werent so good leaving me with the best end result.

What did you learn in your sessions I learnt that my video was successful with my target audience and that
this week people enjoyed it.

How has this helped you meet your This has helped me meet my targets as the feedback was constructive
targets - see FMP Workbook and by comparing with the guidelines I knew what I had to do.

How helpful did you find the pitch The pitch feedback was very helpful as my fellow students were the target
what feedback did you get? market so there opinions were really useful. They answered all the
questions showing me the areas I was successful in.

How did your peer feedback help Again it helped as they are my target market so their responses showed
 me whether I was successful in the task or not.

What issues did you encounter and I had no further issues.

how did you over come them?

High Grade Tips

Evaluation & Reflection

reasoned decisions and inform the development of ideas both your evaluation and the weekly
reflections above will clearly show both how and why your ideas developed throughout the project
demonstrating clarity in thinking all of the above plus very clear links between your research,
planning, idea development and the production of your poster and film trailer