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
week? What work needs to be
completed in your own time?
I have made sure to complete each day’s tasks on the
same day/ the morning before so that I can fully work on
the next day’s lessons. The only thing I had to complete
for this week was this weekly blog, updating 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.