Planning Diary

Week 1


Leading up to week 1 of our blog posts we had been briefed about what our year 13 coursework would consist of and were being introduced to short films through viewing them in class. We were already making notes on the films and discussing what we thought to be successful or not. When the week beginning 28th September arrived, we used the first week to complete our evaluation of our AS Coursework, this consisted of three blog posts. 


Week 2


In week 2 we used our time to look into short films, posting blogs on 'The Definition of a Short Film', 'Codes and Conventions of a Short Film', 'SWOT', 'Demographics and Psychographics' and even researching the rating system from the 'BBFC'. All of these blogs helped us to prepare our coursework as soon as possible as we had learnt the importance of time management from the previous year.


Week 3


Week 3 was a week of research. Most of the group completed textual analysis' of existing short films so that that the majority of the group had a detailed understanding of the features and successes of a short film. We chose to analyse 'About a Girl' which was dramatic with a serious tone throughout, 'Terry Tate: Office Linebacker' which contantly upheld a comedic genre and 'Owl Creek' which was thrilling. We made these choices as the three films had contrasting genres, themes and audience responses and we felt that this was a good decision due to the fact that we had not yet decided what our short film would contain yet and therefore the analysis' would pay off as valuable research.
Also in terms of the research we carried out in this week, we looked at some of the institutions which may produce short films and therefore which would be most suited to the one we were to make. We also, as a group, devised a questionairre about what people expect from a short film. After posting a blog of the results we collected we were able to draw positive conclusions about what would make our film as effective as possible, which we took through to week 4 to begin our brainstorming.

Week 4

By week 4 we had collected a good amount of research and were able to begin coming up with ideas for our short film. We therefore posted blogs containing our 'Initial Ideas' and created a 'Mood Board' of the ideas, locations and themes that we had come up with. We decided on the genre 'romantic tragedy', of which we posted the 'Codes and Conventions' for and we were also able to decide who our target audience would be and recorded this on the blog too. We also wrote about our 'Inspirations and Influences' which had impacted our decisions for the film.

Week 5

At week 5 we had made some decisions about the genre and storyline we would be using and could move on. The things we decided this week were written on the blog 'Casting Decisions' where we described the reasons why we chose Charli and Renaud to play the lead characters, and 'Settings and Locations' when we had carried out some research into good places for us to shoot. We were then in a position to write our 'Brief/Sypnosis/Pitch' which described what and why we had made the decisions for the short film that we had. We also posted a blog about the ways in which we would use cinematography effectively to help make our film a success.

Week 6

In week 6 we were able to draw up our storyboards and write a script as a guide for when we were ready to start te filming process. We therefore also devised a shooting schedule and filled out a 'Risk Assessment' so that all of these blogs would be useful preparation for the following week. As we had become aware that week 7 would consist of both filming and editing, we felt it was wise to plan when and what we would edit.

Week 7

Week 7 was our first week of filming. We went to the Costa coffee shop to film the first scenes of the film in which the two main characters meet and their relationship begins. As we had fully prepared the shots that we wanted by creating the storyboards, the process went smoothly and we had achieved some mid shots of both characters by the end. By the following day the shots we had taken had been edited and we were ready to carry out the second day of shooting after school. We went to Renaud (our actor)'s house to shoot two seperate scenes. As we had not seen the whole house in detail before that day we had to make some decisions when we arrived (for example, which bed to use for the scene portraying the girl's illness). However this didn't take too long as we were very pleased with the setting and felt it was appropriate to what we hoped to achieve. We therefore shot the sequences of Renaud walking into the bedroom and sitting with her on the bed, as well as the scene where the two characters argue, for which we took over the shoulder shots. We also posted blogs about how the day went and carried out some further preparation for later on by researching what type of music has typically been used for films of a romantic genre so that we were able draw inspiration and guidance for our own.

Week 8

On 16th November we travelled to South Weild to shoot some romantic shots of the couple. We aimed to achieve some wide shots and therefore decided to shoot the pair walking hand in hand across a field, sitting on a bench together with a landscape view ahead and standing by a lake. We also had to shoot a scene involving a kiss and a couple of words of dialogue. On 19th November we went a beach in Shoeburyness to shoot more scenic shots of the couple, we shot them walking down the beach hand in hand, skipping stones together, and sitting on a rock from two angles. We then used the rest of the week to post diaries of the two days and edit the footage we had.

Week 9

There was still more filming to be done at week 9 which we carried out in 3 seperate locations. On 25th November we went to St Mary's Church in Shenfield to film Renaud at the graveyard, here we shot him flicking through photographs and extreme close ups, as well as a reverse pan to reveal the setting he is in. We then went to a street named Rose Valley in Brentwood to film Renaud walking down it. From here, we went to Brentwood Train Station to film him standing on the platform and the train coming. We then made another diary of the day shooting and edited the footage by the end of the week.

Weeks 10 & 11 

We used weeks 10 and 11 to complete an diary to describe when, what and why we edited all of the footage we had. We also moved on to completing the ancillary tasks in a joint effort as we completed a magazine review and poster for the film and posted research and the final products over different blogs.

Week 12 onwards

From 17th December we designated the different evaluation questions between the whole group and used our last weeks to complete them.