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?
I have to create a music video and stop motion suitable for a 5 –
12-year-old. The music video must have a strong narrative,
parallel stories, be editing to suit the song and stretch the full
length of the song.
The stop motion will have some kind of narrative, be made up of
foley sounds, be 24 fps and be between 1 min to 2 mins.
I choose 5 – 12-year-olds as my target demographic as I believe
this will allow me to be more creative and imaginative as 40 –
60-year olds like more down to earth gritty programming. My
chosen age range also allows me to be more experimental and if
my effects are poor this age range will be less critical as the have
not seen many effects a lot better.
This project is focused a lot on lighting and both projects ideas
have been created with the idea of best using these lighting skills.
The music video will have the characters moving from different
locations which means that each set will require a totally
different lighting look to help tell them apart. The video will also
have 2 story lines with half the cast inside a TV and the other
half outside searching for them, to help tell these locations apart I
will use lighting. The stop motion will have items of clothing in a
fight scene going through different dimensions these different
dimensions and portals will be marked by different lighting styles
which will also show off and improve my lighting skills.
The focus groups helped me decide my idea by telling me what
was possible and what wasn’t and encouraging me to do projects
that would be possible in the time limit available.
no
I still need to analyse my focus group and do my Surveys.

Week 2 This week was spent researching target audiences

What did you find out about your target I found out that a 5-year-old is very different from a 12-year-old
audience through your secondary
research?
How will this help you in adapting your
idea to meet the chosen audience?
How useful was interviewing people
from your chosen target audience?
and the content and expectation from each
group varies a lot. They did both have
similarities however and I will use these in my
production, both are curious about the world
around them and the people around them they
get this information from their peers, the media
they consume but mostly from their parents.
They both have a short attention span and cannot sit still for long
periods of time.
The earlier years also tend to trust the people around them and do
not understand that people may lie to them for their own
enjoyment.
Both are moving away from traditional hobbies such as Reading
and board games and instead are consuming a lot of video games
and video content, especially boys. Generally, children watch
more streaming content such as YouTube and to a lesser extent
Netflix. These have replaced terrestrial TV as the main source of
content and the Television has been replaced by mobile devices
such as Tablets and Mobile phones. Because of all these
distractions today’s kids are not meeting face to face much
anymore instead choosing to talk over social media or video
games with some just not talking to their friends at all and simply
playing games all day.
Both genders and age groups play a fair amount of sport although
not as much as they used to a few years ago, the most popular
hobbies for boys are football and for girls, Ballet. Painting is also
very common with younger years.
Both genders at an early age use around the same amount of
money however as girls get older, they tend to spend more
money on make-up and other cosmetics.
I will design my film to have scenes where the world around us is
explored and famous examples from history are shown to educate
my audience.
Because of the short attention span of my audience my film will
be short and will not have a long opening or ending which
stretches the run time, I will also have action start quickly and
not worry too much about setting up the characters or the setting
as this will cause them to disconnect from my production.
Because children unconditionally trust the media, they consume
my film must be factually correct and not mess with their
opinions or create biases.
My film will also have to be set up to be viewed on a tablet or
mobile phone so the details cannot be do small otherwise they
may not be seen, this also means my film will be in 16:9 so it
fills the whole phone screen.
It varied the younger children were more realistic and provided
ideas which could be used for the whole age range while the
older ones tended to be more violent and want more adult content
which would not be suitable for the younger age groups.
The younger children seemed to be more open to explain ideas
and what they liked an didn’t like about an idea whereas the
older groups were more positive as they thought they were being

Was it difficult to get a large response to
your survey? How could you improve
the number 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?
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?
polite to me by not being negative about my
suggestions. Overall, the interviews helped me
gain a better understanding of what my
audience wants rather than what I or my age
group would like.
Getting responses from my target demographic
was very difficult, even with my sister (who is
in this age range) putting out multiple appeals on social media
getting 30 responses for a very long survey was hard.
It got to the point where my sister was straight up asking people
to do it which eventually got us all 30 responses needed.
I should target my audience by including content that will suit
them and keep them interested.
For the music videos the characters must go places
My stop motion is going over the top in terms of physics is good
and I should embrace the advantages stop motion gives me to
create very cartoony, silly scenes. I will also light it
unrealistically and more to emphasis what is going on screen
(Have all the lights strobe for the final battle).
I have some more work to do but not a lot.
• Complete analysis’s
• Write about focus groups
• Analysis target audience research
This week was spent researching codes and conventions
My music video is a feel good whereas my stop motion is an
action film. I have chosen a feel good as it compliments the
music choice. I also choose a feel good as I think it will appeal to
my target demographic who are used to consuming depressing
content which isn’t healthy for their mental health. My stop
motion is an action video as I think this will appeal to my target
demographic who are used to fast paced action and storytelling,
children also have a good imagination so this cartoony fight will
appeal more to them as they can visualize it better.
I have learnt that my choice of music is crucial to how the
audience responds to my piece of work and how the audience
will understand a scene. Music can help the audience work out
who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist simply by the
music choice. Music can also set the tone or make a film so if the
wrong type of music plays it may clash with the visuals and
message of the film. I also learnt how different types of
characters effect the plot and the importance of a character arc so
the audience feels like that character has grown over the course
of the film and that this journey hasn’t just been a waste.
When it comes to my music video the visuals will be built around
the audio rather than the other way round, it will be my job to
create imagery that matches the tone and theme of the music. My
stop motion will be more straight forward and will probably have
some fast music to fit the fast-paced tone of the film. When it
comes to characters character in my music video there will be no
antagonist in the traditional sense just characters who want to
have fun and enjoy themselves as my music video is a feel good

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?
Week 4
What have you learnt from your 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?
so doesn’t really need anything bad to happen
to the characters.
My stop motion will have a very 2 dimensional
bad guy and good, this will allow the viewer to
pick a side quickly so the plot can move onto
the action which is the core of the story.
For my music video:
My music video must contain a chosen music video and the
visuals created should match the tone and pace of the music and
be edited to the beat. Ideally the content of the music video
should match the content of the music however this isn’t always
the case as sometimes the content of the song is either to hard to
film or is inappropriate.
My stop motion action video must be primarily made using stop
motion and must have a certain level of action sequences in
them. The film must ideally have the 2 main characters fight with
the goal of hurting or killing the other one so the fight can stop.
Not completely although I’m confident I can complete it quite
quickly.
• Complete analysis’s
• Write about focus groups
• Present results
• Analysis target audience research
• Complete weekly blogs for week 3
This week was spent researching codes and conventions
I investigated what I did for Unit 12 which was lighting. I looked
at video taking about how colour effects the audiences view of a
character or setting. Most of my primary research was done last
week so I spent most of this week just analysing others work.
I will have to make sure the story is clear to my audience by
using music, foley sounds, cinematography and most importantly
the characters actions. As neither of my films have dialog, I will
have to keep the backstories simple so the audience can very
easily understand what each character is like. To help make this
easier for the stop motion I will get the characters to fit into
Propp's Character Types this will allow the audience to pretty
much straight away know what each character’s motivation is
like and their purpose in the plot. To make it easier for my target
demographic to understand my films will all be linier as this
makes it much easier for children to understand what is going on.
The stop motion will also have music which is fast and upbeat as
my research showed this technique is common in a lot of films.
As we had to analysis in detail 6 films, I had plenty of time to
refine my understanding of all elements of each film. By doing
each section over and over I started to notice what they all had in
common and which elements worked and which ones did not.
The video for the ‘Punisher’ bar fight showed me what to avoid,
the audio in the film was very poor and therefore let down the
visuals as a result I have cut all dialog from my stop motion.
no
 Complete analysis’s
 Write about focus groups
 Present results

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?
 Analysis target audience research
 What I learned from the colour
correction work
 Analysis the video for Macklemore
 Complete weekly blogs for week 3
This week was spent planning your productions
My planning showed me how to organise my production better
and to manage my time better. Due to the number of visual
effects in my music video I have created a VFX list which tells
me which effects will be used on my production and how it will
be done which allows me to track all the effects I have done.
The props list has allowed me track the props in each scene and
which will be repeated so I can reuse the same prop. The crew
list shows me who I will need and for which scene, the stop
motion is very simple so only had myself on it.
The location recces helped me work out where would be suitable
to film in while also being practical, unfortunately due to the
Coronavirus I have had to film only in easily accessible places
such as my home and college. The production schedule allowed
me to plan my production with other peoples so they can help me
with mine while I help them with theirs.
The visual effects list allows me to work out which effects I have
done and which ones still need work this allows me to work out
which effects should do and plan my time around creating them.
The list also shows me if I have done the effects before because
if I have, I don’t need to spend as long on it as I already know
vaguely what I am going to do. The props list lets me plan my
time around building the props and then transporting them into
college this time keeping allows me to work on other jobs as I
already know if that prop has been built. The crew list allows me
to book people in for the right scene which saves me having to
many people on set or not enough people for each role. It also
allows me to pick the ideal person for the right job as I already
know their strengths. The location reeces would allow me to
make sure the location is available, this is important for the
studio as it has to be booked before I can film in it, however the
rest of my locations are at my house so I can film there when
needed. The production schedule was the most important part of
my planning, it allowed me to build in enough time to shoot my
film, edit and do all the VFX for my films. It also allows me to
get the right people in and book them for each day they are
needed. The production schedule also allows me to help others in
their productions without worrying that it will affect mine.
I found out that my actor could only do certain time periods so
instead of doing a 1-hour session every day of the week I made it
2-hour sessions 3 days of the week. The worry with this setup is
that if there is a problem that I only find out about in post that I
will be to reshoot 2 hours of work rather than just 1 hour.
I also found out that the music video is very long and that there
would be 40 -50 different visual effects shots in the production,
this has meant I have had to allow enough time to do all these
effects.
I started filming early so I could start working on the visual
effects on the weekend. I also did my storyboards to the video so
I could match each shot to the music which would allow me to

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?
plan better and save editing time. I also created
location reeces out of college as I needed to get
photographs from home.
I am not ready to film however I will do this
work parallel as it’s not too difficult.
• Complete analysis’s
• Finish writing about focus groups
• Present results of target research
• Analysis target audience research
• What I learned from the colour correction work
• Analysis the video for Macklemore
• Complete weekly blogs for week 3
• Add pictures to location recces update story board
with updated ideas.
My story boards have been animated and are put next to the
music I will be using them against. However as these were
created a couple of weeks ago as rough drafts the quality of the
drawing is poor and the boxes are often created without a ruler.
They also lack description of either what is going on or what
camera angle is going on.
The stop motion story boards are more conventional as I have not
decided what music or background audio will be played, I also
had to make up the basic story as I went along as so far, I only
had rough ideas which were not specific enough for a full
storyboard. The drawing quality in these is better and each one
has a description and camera angle which will make it easier to
shoot later as I already know what my scene will look like. The
only problem with these story boards is the lack of continuity, to
make it easier to draw and also stop it from becoming messy I
changed the character design which may affect someone else’s
interpretation of my work.
This week was spent filming – Music video
The filming process was easier than expected and didn’t take as
long to set up as I thought it would. The lack of sound recording
meant that I could talk to my actors while recording so they
would get their timing right when acting. The large amounts of
lights in the studio meant I could just use those and didn’t have to
put up new ones which would take up valuable time.
Because most of the scenes we in the studio Infront of a green
screen I didn’t have to worry about setting up the scene as the
actors could be placed anywhere, I wanted in the scene. There
was still a lot of practical effects which required a lot of time
setting up. In one scene a flower hangs down and moves with the
movements of the lead actor, to get this effect the flower was
attached with fishing wire to the truss and was also connected to
the actor’s jacket so when he moved the flower did too.
The main problem was keying out the green screen, the green
screen is long but not wide which means that the feet of my
actors are not covered by the green. Early on this meant I could
not have wide shots however I have since brought in my own
green screen which means that I can have full body shots. For

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?
one sequence however I needed a full body shot
with a lot of movement this means that I had to
rotoscope every frame of that sequence which
will take me a long time. Although not a
serious issue I found the lighting to be awful on
my actors and it is clear when watching that
they were not shot in front of a dark room but
were instead just comped into it, this is a problem that cannot be
fixed as the lights are not high enough to be able to give of the
correct look. Time management has also become a huge problem
as I have to create enough time to do all the effects I need and get
the effects to a suitable level.
I have to reshoot some of the shots with Dylan falling and
hanging of the rigging as his motion looks a bit unnatural and
forced and a lot of the green screen doesn’t look very nice with
that lighting. I also have to do reshoot the start and end of the
flower sequence as it doesn’t lead very well from the last scene
into the new one.
I have tried to use more visual effects this week such as
animating and motion tracking. During the indoor shoots at my
home, I got to use some of my lighting techniques that I learnt
last term. I shot Leila and my sister in cold harsh lighting to show
how depressing and unhappy they are this contrast the warmer
lighting of the studio which makes the world inside the TV more
appealing and inviting.
I shot everything so far in the studio in front of a green screen as
well as my house for the interior shots of my music video. The
locations are the best I could do for my film with the current
Covid restrictions. The house shot in is my own which is a bit
small and made it difficult to get the camera shots I wanted in
such a small space. In an ideal world the living room would be a
set as this would allow me to take walls down so I could fit the
camera in to all places I want.
I am behind on my production schedule as its taken longer than
expected to complete a lot of the visual effects in each scene,
however when it comes to shooting I am actually ahead of
schedule and it hasn’t taken as long to shoot each scene as
expected.
All of my stop motion needs to be filmed and I have only
completed a number of scenes however I plan on shooting a lot
more next week.
This week was spent filming – Music video
The filming process has been frustrating due to increased Covid
restrictions this has reduced the time available of my lead actor
which has made filming a lot more rushed than I would have
liked, this will defiantly affect my film as the actors could not
give their best performance and I could not get the best shots.
The visual effects work has taken way longer than expected as
each shot needs more work than I had expected. This has meant
that I have had to reduce the amount of time I spend on each shot
which means that I don’t get it to the quality I would like. I have
also had to spend extra time at college to get all the effects done.

After reviewing footage, are you happy
with what you have captured?
Have the techniques you planned on
using turned out well?
Week 8 – Christmas Holidays
How did you find the filming process?
Did you encounter any problems during
filming? How did you overcome them?
The Covid restrictions put in place have meant
that my filming schedule has been shortened so
I have to rush which is not good on myself or
the actors.
For a miniature sequence I needed to set my
cameras F-stop to 22 this means however that I
will need much light on the miniature to avoid
getting grain or having the image be too dark. I therefore
specially rented some concert LED lights as they would allow me
to have a very colour neutral light that is also bright enough. Due
to poor planning on my part and the rental company putting
pressure upon me the college would not allow such lights to
remain on college grounds as a result they could not be used for
the shot. The miniature lunar lander was also behind, my friend
who was 3D printing it was running behind as the 3D printer
broke so he had to get parts in from China. As a result, I will
have to shoot this sequence after the holiday when I can get the
lights back and when the lunar lander is complete.
Some of the scenes look good but the scenes shot later in the
week do not look as good because I was under more pressure to
get them done it time, However I hope that in the editing phase I
can correct the look of these clips so they match the quality of the
rest of the film.
For a sequence at my house, I used some very basic incandescent
bulbs and the internal lighting in the room the shot was unnatural
however I did make the scene look a lot more depressing and
colder so I believe it was a worthwhile sacrifice. When it came to
the studio lighting, I didn’t have time to change it and due to
other people also filming simultaneously I was not allowed to
change it this resulted in pretty poor lighting that didn’t often
over exposed the green screen which is a worry for when I’m
editing it.
This week was spent filming – Stop Motion
The filming process was a lot harder and more time consuming
than expected the stop motion took a lot of time to prepare and
photograph and the walking cycles done by the clothes on my
floor were hard to animate and took a couple of attempts to get
right. The filming was also limited by the size of the set as it was
quite big, I had to set the lights up far away from the action this
meant that to trigger the camera I would have to stand at the
other side of the room to remotely trigger it, this whole routine
for every frame slowed me down considerably. What also slowed
me down was the effort of animating it, it was shot against a hard
floor on a greenscreen which meant that I had to be barefoot
when waking on it, the action of crouching down on my toes for
a number of hours would make it quite painful so I could only
film in 2-hour sections to avoid getting cramps in my feet and
toes.
The area I wanted to shot in was quite open and would allow me
to fit both my camera and subject in the same space however my
family wanted to use this area for the Christmas tree so I would
have to use a much smaller area to make the best out of this I
bought very small baby and toddler costumes so they would take
up less space however this still wasn’t enough so I shot it against
a greenscreen so I could key in the floor I wanted underneath this
had the added advantage of letting the characters move around

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 9 – Christmas Holiday
How did you find the filming process?
Did you encounter any problems during
filming? How did you overcome them?
After reviewing footage, are you happy
with what you have captured?
Have the techniques you planned on
using turned out well?
the room without being limited to the space
they are in which is usual in this style of stop
motion.
I have to redo the opening walking sequence as
the one at the moment looks to static and
unnatural as the character costume creased and
gets all messed up by the walking animation.
I have tried animating a more complex character and used visual
effects to help tell the story by making the backgrounds move.
However due to the use of a greenscreen the lighting has to be as
flat and neutral as possible this means that I have not used and
special lighting tricks the costumes are also all black to make for
an easier key which means that I have not been able to use colour
theory on my characters either.
The location was not ideal for shooting it was too small to film in
effectively and had lots of windows which made it hard to film
during the day without sunlight hitting the set. However, with
recent government restrictions it is the best I could do. It did
however have lots of 13amp sockets which meant that it was easy
to power the lights, camera and when needed my phone too.
So far, I am on schedule and as I don more shots, I am getting
getter at doing them faster so I expect the shooting to be finished
by the end of next week
I still need to finish off the majority or my stop motion filming
and edit it, I still have a lot of shooting left on my music video
which also need to be edited. I also have some other work to
complete from the planning phase.
This week was spent filming – Stop Motion
The filming process was easier this week than last week however
it took a lot longer than expected so I will need another couple of
days to finish the last few scenes. I found it a lot easier to
animate the characters doing everyday actions such as running
and walking however more cartoonish actions were a lot harder
such as the protagonist getting sucked into a worm hole this was
harder for me to animate as a wasn’t sure would it would look
like as I didn’t have any real-world reference.
To make my workload a bit less I have cut some scenes from the
script and used the Naruto run when animating the ninja this
made it a lot quicker to film as I didn’t have to animate his arms.
For the most part I am happy with what was recorded despite
animating by eye the animations play at about the right speed.
Some of the walking cycles have looked a bit static and unnatural
however they are not bad enough for me to need to spend the
effort reshooting them.
For the most part my techniques I have used so far have looked
ok however I will not know until I get the footage into the editing
software if the green screening worked. This film has been
relatively light on a variation of effects so the only other effect in
my film was the animation itself which for the most part has
looked pretty good. This time to try and make it smoother I have
triggered the camera remotely which has made the footage look
very smooth when played back which is a great improvement
over my last stop motion.
Week 10
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?
Week 11
How did you find the editing
process?
This week was spent editing – Stop motion
The editing process for my stop motion has
taken longer than expected however it looks
much better than I had imagined. There were a
couple of shots that took full days to render
which I had not expected so that drastically
slowed me down. The shots that came out of the visual effects
phase have looked much better than I had thought there are even
a couple of scenes where the use of visual effects isn’t even
noticeable. When it came to editing, I have not yet added sound
effects however I have included a song to go with it which adds a
lot more excitement to the video.
The editing process has been relatively easy which is surprising
as the editing stage for my music video was extremely difficult. I
did have some computing issues with my computer crashing for
any shot over 2 minutes long. I did have the issue of trying to get
the footage to the right speed on my software as I did not have
premier pro instead all I had was iMovie and Motion. Neither
software was ideal and what I did was mix between the two. I
started by putting the footage into iMovie however this defaults
each photos length to 4 seconds and could not be changed
without going into each photo and manually changing its length,
that would be unrealistic. So, I exported that as one big clip
which ran for around 2 and a half hours long, I then imported
section of this big clip into Motion so I could do the necessary
VFX on each shot. I then export each shot individually into 18
different VFX shots these are then imported into iMovie where I
edit the film adjusting each shot for the music and do basic
colour correction. I also didn’t get enough time to do any foley
sounds as these would have taken to much time and I didn’t feel
they were needed as the music is powerful enough already.
The editing phase didn’t really introduce anything new that
hadn’t already been tried in previous productions. The way the
film was imported did however show me a trick I had never seen
before. When the footage is imported into, I Motion I have to
speed up the footage 9600% this means that when I exported
each clip it would have frame blends and motion blue making the
shots looks much smoother and covering up and mistakes.
Because I used iMovie there wasn’t really any new techniques I
could try as iMovie greatly restricts what can be done in the
editing phase
If I get time, I plan to improve my Lo1 work however that will
depend on how quickly I can complete my editing for the music
video. I would also like to add foley sounds to my stop motion
although this is not high on my list as I do not think it is
necessary.
So far all of this work has been completed outside of lessons due
to lockdown. This has made everything a lot more difficult and
greatly reduced my working speed. I do not really have the
computing power at home and as a result rendering of clips could
take hours and in one case a whole day this has put me behind on
my work and is the reason I have yet to include foley sounds.
This week was spent editing – Music Video
The editing process for my music video was relativity easy as my
storyboards already gave me the frame work to place each clip and for

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 long. The VFX was a lot harder however and took
much longer than expected due to the large amounts of
shots to be edited as well as the difficulty in some of
those shots.
When it came to editing the music video, I had shots
for most of the film however these were still in their
raw form and because of lockdown I could not get into
college to use their computers and software so the footage would remain
unedited. I had completed some VFX shots before college ended but
only enough to fill around 30 seconds worth of content. I had shot some
of the scenes in my house with Leila which did not need any VFX so
they were included quite easily into the final edit.
The outcome of my stop motion was surprisingly good and was much
better than expected the same could not be said for my music video, I
am pretty upset with this production in nearly every way. The Visual
effects vary wildly in quality, the flower sequence is relatively good but
the next shot has Dylan’s hair disappear in a very poorly done shot. The
lighting and cinematography during the opening scenes are poor it is
harsh, unnatural and obviously looks like artificial lighting was used.
The story also felt like a let down the connection between the two
characters didn’t really work and the idea of running of with a stranger
may not be an appropriate one for my 5 to 12 age demographics. One of
the few shots I actually like is the opening one which sets the tone well
and is quite visually appealing with bright colours and nice visuals.
My stop motion appeals quite well to my target audience as it is quite
fast with a lot of action. The actions while being quite aggressive is
relatively cartoonish which hopefully will allow kids to work out that
what is seen on screen can not be replicated and doing this in real life
would be quite dangerous. With hindsight I wish I had put a little
warning at the start of the programme like the one from OOglies which
stated that “these stunts are by trained professionals and should not be
attempted by children or silly adults” I think that would have helped
make my programme appropriate to my target demographic.
My music video was probably a little mature for my target demographic
it delt with a depressing and lonely home life which is a subject not
many 5–12-year-olds can relate too or even understand. The friendship
between the main characters is also quite complex it’s a friendship
where each one needs the other, Leila is shown a whole new world she
didn’t even know about and Dylan gets to escape his loneliness inside
the TV. I also feel like the show might encourage children to run off
with strangers which is depicted in my film.
I have used some of the codes and conventions in my work however I
haven’t used as many as I would like either due to time or the medium, I
am filming in.
For the stop motion the story is very basic as I wanted most of the
emphasis to be on the fight, as a result you have a Ninja which is the
protagonist and the Wizard who steals the bag who is the antagonist, in
the end however they both get trapped under the book and the
mysterious contents of the bag is never revealed. This is a very basic
plot but does have some similarities to Vladimir Propps character theory
and Todorov’s narrative theory. The music in my stop motion is an
instrumental version of Shoot to Thrill by ACDC this matches my codes
and conventions research quite well as it reflects the fast-paced tone of
the film and the heavy metal is associated with more ‘cool’ and
‘aggressive’ behaviour which is reflected in both characters. The
locations in my film were not ideal as they were too small however
narratively it didn’t matter as I used CG background anyway so I could
pick any background I wanted. There is no foley sounds in my

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?
production due to time restraints.
My music video doesn’t really follow any
conventional plot or characters, there are just good
people that help each other get what they want, the
plot is a feel good so there is no antagonist or anyone
who upsets their lives.
The music in my music video is a remix of a folk song by Johnny Clegg
it is faced paced and very optimistic in tone so my music video reflects
this. Like my stop motion all the locations suited what I needed to do as
I would eventually place my own CG background in anyway.
My stop motion is not of professional quality a lot of the animation is a
bit static and unnatural however the plot feels like it could find its way
as a short sketch as part of a larger show. I think that given enough time
and a couple more practise shots this production could be of very high
quality. The closest film I could compare this too is “Shiny”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUCTnmWT5Lk&t=77s)
Mine is near where near as good as this film uses more characters and
animates them a lot better than mine by using better walk cycles and
using better animation techniques. The only thing that mine maybe did a
bit better was my use of environment, my characters interacted with the
room it was shot in as they walk around it and transition from the floor
to the ceiling to the floor in micro scale.
My incomplete music video does not compare very well to any kind of
professional production I think this is because my film was overly
ambiguous for my skill level and needed way more time and practise to
be done right. The film that narratively and technically reflects my film
the most is A-ha’s “take on me” like mine the film sees the character
gets pulled into a new world with some weird effects. Take on me
despite being made in a world without computers still has better visuals
overall than my film this is because of the extra time available to the A-
ha animator and better skill set. When it comes to story, I think both
films have good and bad elements Take on me has a better sense of
threat with a bad guy whereas mine is pretty positive all round with very
little sense of threat which might make it quite boring to my target
demographic. The only good thing I think my film does better than
“Take on me” is flesh out the lead females’ character, my film shows
how she is longing for adventure as she feels trapped in her boring and
repetitive normal life.
My stop motion could do with another 30 seconds worth of animation
during the middle so the characters do a bit more hand to hand fight as
this should attract my target demographic. My stop motion also lacked
foley sounds due to time restraints I’m not sure if these would have
improved the film as it would take away from the music but it is
defiantly something that should have been applied even if they were
taken out at a later date. I also regret not making the contents of the bag
a bigger mystery that is eventually explained at the end. Next time I
would improve my animation skills by maybe using animation software
and also plan out with a stick figure the animations of each character so
I know what they look like. I would also manage my time better to allow
me to add more animation and do foley sounds.
The music video is basically one big failure in almost every way the
characters especially Dylan’s character does not have enough backstory
so the audience do not care about him as they cannot relate to his
struggle or understand his character. For the most part the visuals are
sub-par and are poor in quality especially the opening scene which has
some awful unnatural lighting.

What have you learnt about
yourself to take into the Final
Major Project? What do you
personally need to improve on?
Are you on track with all of your
work?
What work needs to be completed
outside of lessons?
If I was to do this film again, I would give each
character an object and goal to overcome which the
other helps them achieve. The visuals would also be
drastically scaled down and made simpler so that it
could be easily achieved in the set time slot and allow
me time to improve certain effects.
I have learnt that I am overly ambitious with my
projects and ideas and that for my final project I should do something
simpler that will also give me more time to fix shots or scenes that don’t
look good or could be improved. I have also found that I do not time
manage well even with a production schedule so for my final project I
will more closes follow my production schedule. I can be a bit of a
perfectionist so I need to learn when to walk away from a scene and just
except that it will be sub-par.
As far as I know I have completed everything however I will wait to see
if everything is up to the right standard of work from my teacher.
So far all work has been completed outside of lesions due to COVID-19
– 19 this has made every element of the film making process that much
harder.