LO3 - Evaluation
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?
This week was spent researching codes and
conventions
After the work for this week had changed on the LO1
tab, I realised that these questions may not be relevant
to my work content that I was set this week. So, I will
attempt to work out how this new content fits into this
brief and conclude what I have learnt from it. So far, I
can see a separation in primary and secondary search
that had occurred. With the editing of my own
experiments and the chance to experiment with what I
was taught.
The primary
research set for
this week was to
learn about the
white balance
and use of
sound in
professional productions/ student productions and be
able to re-create them/ modify them myself. The first
activity was to layer pre-made Foley sounds from the
internet onto one of the videos on VIIBE. To suit my
production’s genre of horror, I chose the first video on
the left because of the dark isolated wood location. In
my explanation, I explained why I used the sounds in
the order that I did. I thought by layering them in what
sound would be closest to which one is furthest away,
like the wind, lake or the movement of a far away
object. I wanted to put myself in view of the Filmer and
create a realistic auditory scenario that matches with
the visuals. I didn’t go crazy on the sound effects as I
wanted to strip down any use of music/ disruptions to
build up the sense of isolation/ realism that the
audience could put themselves in. Therefore, making
the scenario relatable to evoke a negative emotion
towards seeing the video. Dong this has helped me to
establish what would be best when editing/ planning
my own productions so that I can successfully build up
a real scenario through the simple use of Foley sounds
and music without the need of dialogue that most films
depend on explaining the narrative to the audience. I
found that this was something that I had done last year
when reminiscing on my old projects. I felt unengaged
with the content that I had made last year and felt like
the script/ visuals didn’t co-inside with one another.
This time, I want to be able to clearly make the
connections to visual stimuli by providing well known
sounds that connect to it. Like the laugh of kids to be
played over the picture of the younger versions of my
main characters.
The last primary research-based activity
we had to complete allowed us to sit
down, learn about the white balance of our camera and
re-create them for ourselves before editing them and
talking about the meaning behind the colour tone. For
our task we were told to use the same 6 pre-sets on the
same subject for videos lasting 10 seconds each. I
found this task to be mostly successful, with the
saturation of the pre-sets becoming more and more
saturated until the last pre-set that turns out to feel
cold in tone. The most effective pre-set in my opinion
was the ‘fluorescent’ setting. The cold and isolated blue
colour tone helps to connote a serious situation that
the audience may feel a negative emotion to. The least
effective pre-set was auto. It was said by my teacher to
be the worst of all 6 for any type of shot because of the
lack of saturation of real-life colours. However, the
‘fluorescent’ setting will be something that I will be
using in my production since it is about grieving,
sadness and reminiscing to the point of feeling sad.
These are all negative emotions that will help the
audience to understand the narrative and feel
empathetic towards the characters and the actions that
help to emphasis the negative emotions.

The secondary research

that I had to produce was taught to us over the week
along with our primary research. The first task we had
to complete was looking at films with no dialogue and
how we could apply the codes and conventions that we
found from them through analysis. The first video we
had too look at was ‘how to write a film with no
dialogue’. The narrator taught the audience to keep the
story 100% visual, with a ‘simple structure, single goal
single obstacle’, all represented through action with a
non-bloated back story’. These tips are easy to apply to
my short film so that the audience can keep engaged
with an array of visuals that can tell the story without
the need for it to be verbally explained.
The next tasks of the day were to answer
the questions on 4 videos, provided to me by the
course website. The videos were of ‘The black hole’,
‘alma’, ‘same love’ and a university short film. The
questions asked us to expand on our thoughts of the
use of colour, setting, narrative, sound/ music and
characters. All key features that need to be visually
represented well to make a great short film.

I found some good features to these videos and have

decided what I would like to use for my own short film/
stop motion. Firstly, ‘black hole’ uses a dark, cold and
blue colour tone that I would like to use for myself. The
reason being that the tone expresses a sad or calm
situation to enhance the characters similar emotions.
Plus, the apparel suits the office job scenario that the
characters present in, which gave me the idea of my
own character wearing black at the beginning of my
short film when attending a funeral for their best friend.
Alma and later work I did on Wednesday, has helped
me to realise how important sound is in productions.
The sound and music in Alma both worked well
together to show how the young chid is lured into a
shop by herself to then be trapped inside a doll. This
strong narrative had helped to convey the cycle of life
and how the soul can be re-claimed and born again in
different bodies. The sounds also worked with the
music to convey a winter setting.

The colour in
‘same love’
helped to convey the different stereotypical norms that
were forced onto the characters. With pink colour tones
for the girl and a blue for the boy. A yellow was
introduced to ironically suit the fear of the son being in
a same sex relationship. With the yellow tone typically
being known for happy situations. Another task we had
to complete was watching a university example with
the same brief as ours. This helped me to
realise that what I am learning this week
should always be important in
productions to successful tell the narrative in a visual
manner.

Tuesday brought the analysis of two existing examples

into Wednesday morning. I was told to analyse the
productions and expand on how they fitted the
Todorov’s narrative and weather they fit a linear or non-
linear narrative. To which ‘runaway’ had a non-linear
narrative with a full circle of events that metaphorically
showed the abuse the daughter experienced from the
mother. I love the idea of a non-linear narrative and
found that my own sort film would feel more creative if
I only reveal certain pieces of information at a time
through the act of reversing the 5 stages into New
equilibrium, an attempt to repair the damage,
recognition of the disruption and equilibrium. These
stages help to reveal pieces of information to the
audience with a main disruption and solution at the end
with an introduction to the problem at the start.

Next, we had to look at the propps theory and apply

stereotypical characters into our own characters. After
learning about the stereotypes, I have concluded that
my main character Enzo, will fit the protector/ victim
(princess). I learnt that the princess is the one who
always needs help being saved. On the other hand,
Arlo will be the hero/ helper. The one who helps Enzo
get over death and grieve of loosing their best friend.

Next, I was told to analyse two examples that had good

 use of music. The music in IT and Psycho
was very effective in suiting the horror
genre that I hope to use in my own
productions. I thought that the pauses and build ups in
between events helped to put the audience on edge as
to what would happen next until they eventually hint
the next attack with visual/ audio cues like the music
track slowly building up before the event.

The last task I had to endure was scouting typical

locations that many would use in either horror, in my
case, or my productions like short film or stop motion. I
chose a haunted house, a normal house, a graveyard,
town or a woods. All typical locations that I
continuously see in productions. I scouted some good
locations around my local town, due to my actors
possibly only being available for Marlow, and the
surrounding towns like Henley, high Wycombe and
Aylesbury. I wanted to use a church/ graveyard for a
funeral location. An apartment neighbourhood where
my character would live, office places for my character
to potentially work and towns that all share a typical
British ‘feel’. I would like to add a counselling/ therapy
place to show the progression of working on the
character’s mental health.

Are you on track for the I have made sure to complete each day’s tasks on the
week? What work needs to same day/ the morning before so that I can fully work
be completed in your own on the next day’s lessons. The only thing I had to
complete for this week was this weekly blog, updating
time?
my production schedule and annotating my last
lesson’s work. I hop to feel more organised for next
week like I did this week by repeating this method of
work.