LO3 - Evaluation

Weekly blog updates are required, as with every unit. Please remember to
take photos/screenshots as you film/edit. You might find it easier if you note
down a record of what you did each day in a diary form.

Please use the following guidance to help you with each week.
THESE MUST BE COMPLETED IN DETAIL. INCLUDE IMAGES
AND BE SPECIFIC!

Week 1 This week was spent on idea generation

What have you been asked to do?
Why have you chosen this target
audience?
What two productions have you decided
to make? How do they allow you to
improve your skills?
How did the focus groups help you to
select your idea?
Are you on track for the week?
What work needs to be completed for
you to catch up?
In this unit we have been asked to create two different
productions, for the same target audience but slightly different
briefs. I have chosen the 40-60-year-old demographic as I think it
will challenge me as I have never made a production for this
target audience. We then had to choose what productions to
make.
I wanted to challenge myself this unit ahead of my FMP, but also
do something I enjoy and I feel that if I had chosen the other age
range (5-12-year olds) as I feel I would be a lot more confined in
what I am able to produce and unable to express myself freely to
get the highest possible grade
I have decided to make a short film and a Lego stop motion
animation. The reason for the short is that I have experience from
many past units of making them, and therefore I feel confident
when doing so. Doing another will help me gain even more
ahead of my FMP.
My focus groups made my confidence grow about my secondary
research, as the focus group echoed a lot of things I’d learnt and
planned to add to my production from my secondary research, so
having this made me feel more confident because a lot of the
their likes were the same as the ones I had spent a lot of time
researching.
yes
yes

Week 2 This week was spent researching target audiences

What did you find out about your target
audience through your secondary
research?
From researching my target audience using secondary research, I
found a lot about their personality traits, hobbies and how
common things like addiction occur in the age group. I found out
that the audience really like adult humour when in the comedy
genre, and like realism when in the crime drama genre. I also

How will this help you in adapting your
idea to meet the chosen audience?
How useful was interviewing people
from your chosen target audience?
Was it difficult to get a large response to
your survey? How could you improve
the amount of respondents for your
FMP?
What have you found to be the key
things that you should be targeting your
audience with? What makes this
audience different to the one you never
chose?
Are you on track for the week?
What work needs to be completed in
your own time?
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found out that they are in the middle age which
means they are one of the most unhappy age
groups. With stresses from ageing parents, P
children and for women going through the i
menopause stages, I have learnt different c
reasons as to why they’re happy and how I can t
use this in my own productions- one of which u
showing the alcohol popularity in my short r
film, and the narcotics used in series like
breaking bad and narcos in my short. e
By understanding what they like in my genres I
was able to emphasise these, making them the 6
spine of my short film and basing it on
narcotics, and having the location for my .
animation as a pub, seen as a common place in .
the UK for my age group. The more I
.
emphasise these topics in my shorts the more
my audience will be engaged, as my research has shown this is
what interests them. If I hadn’t of researched this well I wouldn’t
have known what they want to see from my production, as this is
a age range I have never specifically made a production for.
I found it very difficult do the interviews. Due to COVID-19
restrictions, apart from my parents the other interviews had to be
done over whatsapp calling, and as it is abroad it didn’t work
well as the connection was constantly dropping off and we had to
do it multiple times, eventually having to give up the video
element and using the audio only, but even that was choppy and I
was unable to do it well. I feel my questions were done quite well
but as a lot of the audio didn’t work the answers weren’t as
detailed as I had hoped. I tried to make up fir this my going even
more in depth in my secondary research and making sure my
survey reached everyone I could have got.
It was a challenge I don’t know personally many people in the
age group. Aside from parents and the odd uncle/aunt, I felt
myself low on ideas. However, after doing secondary research
and seeing how 70% of my target audience at least own a
Facebook account, I shared it on my Facebook- this didn’t help at
first as I didn’t have many friends, in the age group on the
account, but then I got permission to share it on my mums
account which helped me a lot, because most of her friends and
family fit the age range and they helped me bump my numbers
up for each survey. I will also be doing this for my FMP if the
age range is similar.
I really want my productions to be relatable to my target
audience as doing so will help them to enjoy it so much more. I
found out a lot about the target audience, such as hobbies, and
their platforms of choice, which was in this case Facebook for
social media and Television for watching crime dramas, this is
something completely unique t0 this target audience, as if I had
surveyed my age range of 14-20 year olds, I would have not
needed to advertise on Facebook as social platforms like
Instagram and snapchat are much more popular in the age range,
and subscription services like Netflix, and even YouTube are
more popular than watching tv.
Yes, all work has been done.
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Week 3
What genres have you chosen and why?
What have you learnt from your
secondary research this week?
How will this influence what you include
in your productions?
What are the key conventions for your
chosen genres? What MUST you include
for it to be that genre?
Are you on track for the week?
What work needs to be completed in
your own time?
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This week was spent researching codes and P
conventions i
c
For my short film I have chosen crime dramas.
This is due to this being the most popular genre t
out of a survey I did, as well as from secondary u
research where series like breaking bad and r
narcos were very popular among my audience, e
and as it is a popular genre, they’re more likely
to enjoy the production as it’s a genre they’re
6
already familiar with. For my animation I’ve
gone for an adult comedy/sitcom, as I saw from
my research how popular adult cartoons are in .
my age range, these consist of sitcoms like .
family guy, the Simpsons and American dad, .
which are all animations with an adult ‘twist’
I learnt a lot from analysing many examples of productions for
each genre, including the codes and conventions I need to know
ahead of my production. All of the short films I analysed had
actors with very authentic emotion which is something I’ve noted
down as something to concentrate on in my production, when
looking at animations they all had well written adult comedy,
something I’m going to have to work on as I’m not too confident
in writing skills. They also had swearing in them, particularly
robot chicken which is a popular animation, this emphasises to
me that adults like the contrast when seeing an animation like
Lego and seeing them do ‘adult’ things like swearing etc..
The research will heavily influence the stages of making my
productions. For my short I need to make the actors as authentic
as possible – going from costume design and emotion as there is
no dialogue so will need to tell the story a different way. For my
animation I also need to work on my script, incorporating some
adult humour into it and making it more enjoyable to watch.
From my research ive also seen the importance of set design.
This means ill plan ahead of time for the design of my pub, as
this is clearly something that will effect the overall quality of my
production.
For crime dramas, realism is a huge factor why people of my
target audience watch them. I’ve learnt this from my survey. I
also need to include some sort of narcotics or weaponry as this is
another reason why my genre is so popular. Therefore, a central
part of my story is to do with narcotics as I know that it is
popular among my audience and will make it more likely for
them to watch. For my animation I need to include humour, the
fact it is a sitcom means it is based off of comedy. Stereotyping
is also big in sitcoms. An example of this is in the Simpsons
where they portray homer as an American middle-aged father-
making him an alcoholic, abusive overweight man which is a lot
of the stereotypes on them. I will use stereotyping for English
middle-aged men- who are also commonly seen as alcoholics in
pubs, and also my protagonist, the Scottish bartender who has
strong beliefs, always speaks his emotions and can be rude.
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 Week 4
What have you learnt from you primary
research this week?
What developments do you need to make
to your production for it to meet these
codes and conventions requirements?
How did processing the results of your
research help you to understand it
thoroughly?
Are you on track for the week?
What work needs to be completed in
your own time?
Week 5
What did you learn from your planning?
How will this be useful as your
production process continues?
What issues did you encounter whilst
planning and how did you overcome
them?
How much work did you complete
outside of the lessons?
Picture 11 ...
This week was spent researching codes and
conventions
P
This week I learnt about white balancing and i
how much it effects my footage, I also learnt
c
more about sound design and how it is a big
part of the production and I think this will be t
extremely useful to me due to my short film u
having no dialogue so one of the main things I r
will ned to get right is having high quality foley e
sound, and I am confident I can do so due to
me being comfortable during this practical
6
exercise.
I need to consider my foley sound and plan this
far ahead of time for both productions, this will .
help me be prepared and be able to quality .
check it all efficiently before production, due to .
it being such a vital part in both these projects. I also need to
have my actors portray very authentic emotion as this is
something that my target audience have told me they liked in the
example productions of ones similar to mine.
It is much simpler when having a plan, in this case I used a
checklist of the different things I needed to research, like my
target audience and codes and conventions of each genre, and I
also noted what I needed to ask in my primary research. This
allowed me to go through my research not just quickly- but also
really efficiently. I felt my research was good this week and my
teachers have agreed it is at a high level
This week was spent planning your productions
I learnt about how much detailed was needed in my planning,
especially in my script and storyboard which I constantly made
drafts of and improving it all week until it is at a high standard. I
learnt about how to write scripts for non-dialogue films too, as
this was my first. I spent a lot of time making sure the stage
directions and other details were as accurate as possible so it
wpoul0d be more convenient for my actors.
It is useful if my planning is to a high standard is because of how
efficient it will make my production stage, meaning that I have
more time to spend on postproduction which is my area which I
tend to do the best on and thus getting a good grade. It is also
useful ahead of my FMP to refresh and remind me of how long
planning takes- therefore when it comes to my FMP, I can
allocate the right amount of time to panning, as being organised
will help me push the higher grades.
I struggled with my storyboards at first, but once I took my time
and went through my head slowly about each shot and refresh my
mind on why different angles are used and why I felt more
comfortable doing it and feel my storyboards are at a good
standard.
I was constantly looking at my script at home wondering ways of
improving it, as I felt it wouldn’t be my best work to do it all in
one setting so every day I re read it aloud, making sure it sounds
good and for my short film script io kept making sure I wasn’t
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Are you ready to film next week and if
not, what do you need to complete to be
ready?
Are your storyboards up to standard?
Week 6
How did you find the filming process?
Did you encounter any problems during
filming? How did you overcome them?
After reviewing footage, what do you
feel you need to reshoot?
What new techniques from your previous
units have you tried to use?
Are the locations you filmed at suitable
to your production?
Are you keeping up with your production
schedule?
What footage still needs capturing?
Week 7
How did you find the filming process?
Did you encounter any problems during
filming? How did you overcome them?
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missing anything.
I need to do a couple of tasks before filming
including crew list, equipment lists and making
P
my set for my animation and props for my i
short. I should be able to at least start my c
animation filming next week. t
Yes, after some time working on them, I now u
feel they’re at a good quality with good r
illustrations that let my marker know what I
e
want to portray the scenes as.
.
This week was spent filming .
.
This week I only filmed the start of my animation. It was
frustrating as my parents are working from home and constantly
in and out of the room, I was filming in. I spent the first couple
days completing my tasks I needed to catch up on and I also built
my Lego set, which took quite a bit of time. I focused on this a
lot due to this being something from my primary research that
my survey and focus group want me to focus on to ensure that
my production is at a high quality.
The lighting in the room I was filming in was terrible, it is
normally good because of sunlight, but as this week was
extremely gloomy, I ordered some new external light which
came the day after.
Thus far I don’t think I need any of my animation reshot.
From the First units last year I worked on animation and I went
back to look at it and looking on my feedback for it to see what I
could improve from it. One of the comments was shaky camera,
but I feel that was much less of a problem this time around
Yes, as is the only space in my house I have to do a production
like this, even though there are numerous disruptions.
My production schedule was done before more COVID-19
restrictions were implemented, so its hard to follow it exactly,
however I’m trying my hardest to. One thing I can’t currently do
is have my actors come to record their voices, so I need to wait
until after Christmas and hopefully restrictions are lowered by
then.
Half of my animation and my short film.
This week was spent filming
Again, due to the COVID-19 restrictions it is really hard to do
my productions to a high standard with other people as you can’t
see people outside your house. However, I have continued with
any outstanding planning that had to be done and almost finished
my animation. It was again not ideal as the room I was it was
disrupted from both parents working from home, but whenever I
could I did a few shots.
The only problems were that my parents each took work calls in
this room, so to work around it I had to ask them to always let me
know when I’m able to film, however sometimes they have
unscheduled calls they need to take and that disrupted my
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After reviewing footage, are you happy
with what you have captured?
Have the techniques you planned on
using turned out well?
filming.
I think it looks fine but without the voices it
would seem strange. The shots themselves are
P
well lit, including the characters all looking i
clear. I don’t think I need to do reshoots but c
once I get into college on the computers, I can t
be certain. u
Techniques like using a steady tripod and r
external lighting helped me a lot as each of the
e
shots were clear and straight. Some techniques
I haven’t been able to try yet as they were in
the script which I have been unable to record. 6

.
.
.
Week 8 This week was spent editing

How are you finding the editing process
this week?
Have you encountered any problems
whilst editing? How did you overcome
them?
Are there any new techniques you are
trying to use during this editing process?
Are you on track with all of your work?
What work needs to be completed
outside of lessons?
Due to a new national lockdown, I’m unable to record my voices
for the animation so my teachers have told be to hold off editing
until we have further information, instead I have a little footage
from my short im going to put together as a prievew and work on
other parts of this unit
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-
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This week I completed an analysis on a survey that I had needed
to do, as well as analysed my interviews and edited them.

Week 9 This week was spent editing

How did you finding the editing process? -

Have you encountered any problems -
whilst editing? How did you overcome
them?
Are you happy with the outcome of your -
productions? Why?
How did your productions meet your -
target audience?
What aspects of your productions could -
have been better targeted to your
audience?
How effectively have you matched the -
codes and conventions you researched
earlier in the unit?
How do you feel your work compares to -
existing professional productions?
Are there any areas where your -
production falls short? How would you
improve it next time?
What have you learnt about yourself to -
take into the Final Major Project? What

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 do you personally need to improve on?
Are you on track with all of your work? -
P
What work needs to be completed This week I did more work on this unit
including a couple weekly blogs that needed i
outside of lessons?
improving, and improving my focus group. I c
also anaylsed one of my short films that needed t
doing to do with Todorov’s theory. u
r
e

Week 10 This week you pitched 6

How did you choose to pitch your idea?
What made your pitch stand out and be
different? Why would it convince
someone to invest?
How did the pitch go?
Is there anything you would do
differently in your next pitch?
- Pitch was cancelled early january .
Pitch was cancelled early january .
.
Pitch was cancelled early january
Pitch was cancelled early january

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