1.1 Describe areas for development in your current knowledge, understanding and skills
What is your current knowledge and understanding of film? (For example: watching film, reviewing, photography, making your own films, Youtube channel, film or media course, work experience)
I am seventeen years of age and in the second year of a media course at Chesterfield College. I have been studying in media for the last year and in its field. I enjoy it a lot and want to continue growing in it. I am on the autistic spectrum and have mild learning difficulties, but this does not affect my ability or interest in media and filmmaking. I also volunteer for a local autistic charity and make promotional and educational videos for them and their supporters/families. While College can teach me the standard subjects in this field, the staff do not have the knowledge, experience or credibility to deliver training to the standard of the BFI Film Academy. I applied for this position because after reading the college prospectus and looking at the course on YouTube, The BFI Film Academy has a great reputation within this field and the resources and opportunities it can provide to young people like me is better than anything similar offered in this Country. The chance to mix learning and practical knowledge from the experts will show me a side of the industry that cannot be taught by anyone else. I have a desire to concentrate on film making and using my knowledge to make films, which can help and educate others. I would love to develop my skills and knowledge to improve my ability to make films and this course is the best way to do that. I am keen to become involved in the course, learn new skills and techniques from the experts and make friends with people who share the same interests as me.
I have been doing media related work for a charity that I volunteer for. I created a children’s video channel for the charity to try and entertain the children followers. It was very successful and the children loved it. I have also created videos to show how the charity has been supporting the members during the Covid 19 lockdown. I was thrilled to find out the local newspaper shared my video on their Facebook page and some of the stills were printed in the newspaper itself. All my videos are published on the Charity social media sites. I also enjoy creating films on video games and documentaries. I enjoy sharing my video to an audience, knowing that my work is being seen by others. I feel proud of my achievements and likes / followers on social media.
I am passionate about video making, visual effects and sounds design. I like to try new things and experiment with new ideas. I work with a great team at college and we try our best to build our skills and progress. It is my dream to become a film maker and I always try and go that extra mile. I create family memory videos and share these with my family and friends. I am also a young Leader for Scouts and they also ask me to make their videos for the scout parents and social media. I have created videos to share camp fun and promotional videos. To boost my knowledge I will experiment with various techniques. I use different light sources, different sound effects and any other resource that is available to achieve the desired effect. I prefer the practical side of filmmaking and feel this is where I am best suited.
here is a example of my work
1.2 Take a role in the production of a short film
What is your production role?
My role is a video editor because I have lot of good feedback on my editing from my teachers and friends and i love editing videos in general. Because we are editing in lockdown, I will have to take on multiple roles to work in isolation, as well as directing and camera man. I am also now taking on the role of an actor in my film (a silent role) because of working in isolation and social bubbles.
What planning will you do?
To do this I will be practicing video editing random short videos which I will use to help inform decisions I make as a director.
In pre-production I will be making a storyboard, get a script, get an actress, and also be organising a filming schedule. Then in production I will be shooting the actual film itself and acting in it perhaps if I don’t get enough actors and after that I will be doing the editing.
What specific skills do you need?
Editing, carm mind, team work, angling and planning. To be a good director you need to have A creative mind. Good teamwork. The ability to give feedback. To be a good actor you have to be able to get your mind into the head of another character, to be able to memorise lines, to be intuitive enough to know how normal people react to scenarios.
What equipment will you use?
To create my short film, I will need to use a phone, rhode mic, tripod and torch. I will open the legs of my tripod and attach my phone and microphone. I will lock the tripod in place so that it doesn’t move when I am shooting scenes.
What documents will you use and how?
i will use microsoft word to type everything up, for exampul my risk assesment. I will also write a script up on the onlien platform Celtx. I will make a storyboard. I will make a schedule and a call sheet so that my actors know when they have to be ready.
What other resources are needed in your film production? (For example locations, actors and anything else you will need)
i am still thinging of locason but i mighthe use my garige and for costumes a green screen suit with spots on it for covid. one of my characters is coronavirsu. The corona has to be faceless and green. my granddad has an old police uniform so ic an use that for a policeman. the actors are going to be wearing casual clothing. the coronavirus suit is my main concern. I will need to buy a green morph suit, these are around £14 on amazon. I want one that covers the face. I can try and find someone who is good at crafting things to make pompoms for the green screen suit and sew these onto it. I thought about colouring in the suit to represent the different corona particles but the lycra does not look like you could colour it in. I will stick sticky labels on the suit if I can’t find anyone to make pompoms. My actors playing characters will just wear ordinary clothing.
PLANNING MY SCRIPT
FOUR CHARACTERS
Joey: Protagonist. teenage boy. Joey is entertaining. He uses jokes to diffuse tension and is good at making people laugh. He’s also quick to judge. Takes things the wrong way. He holds grudges. Joey Wears a jumper, top underneath, and either jogging bottoms or jeans. Wears trainers. Favourite colour is blue. Wears quite plain basic clothes.
Elizabeth: Protagonist. teenage girl. She is kind, but claustrophobic. The script consults her inability to be inside. Before lockdown she was ok but being forced to stay inside has made her claustrophobic. She’s a fussy eater. Elizabeth wears trousers and a top and a jacket. Elizabeth will wear bright coloured clothes.
Corona: Antagonist. the unknown. No gender. Deadly virus. Mysterious. Game master / chess master. All-knowing. Coronavirus will wear a green morph suit with either stickers or pom poms stuck on it.
Police officer: Minor character. tells them its okay to come out at the end of the film. He is concerned, but sounds manly. Looks really big and tough but he’s actually very friendly. The police officers costume will be to wear a cop uniform that belongs to my granddad.
INCITING INCIDENT
In my original idea, Coronavirus was the antagonist and the inciting incident. But we considered the fact that many of the people we were screening our films to would be impacted by the coronavirus and may have lost family members because of it, and so this might seem insensitive.
Other ideas that cause my two main characters, Joey and Elizabeth to go into isolation, is radioactivity, or maybe a war and an air-raid siren. I also thought about the inciting incident being some kind of radioactive mutant, or maybe even poisoned air.
1.3
1.4 Review own technical skills and use of equipment
What did you do in your role?
I was originally supposed to be director and videographer, but I had to switch that last minute to be the main actor in my piece. I then had to direct my mum and Granddad on how to film so that they could achieve the shots I wanted and how it should look. My actor could not come in because of the covid situation, meaning I had to film with my bubble, so I had to step in and take an acting role.
How well do you think you carried out your role in production?
I think I was okay, because the only acting experience I have is messing around in my own world pretending to be an anime character. I like doing voices in drama classes but I’ve never acted before and learning lines was a challenge because I’m dyslexic and autistic. I was okay at directing and I took feedback on board from my actor and my mum and granddad when they had suggested shots for my film. I recognised it had to be collaborative and it was good to work with them and their ideas. My actor Molly who is in my support bubble was great to work with because she was willing to do anything, even drink cold soup from a can. As a director, I’d have to show examples of what I wanted to film and then insert myself into the scene as an actor. I’d have to explain things like what I meant by ‘full shot’ because they had no filming experience. It was hard working with my granddad as a cameraperson because he did record a lot of accidental footage.
What were your strengths and what were your challenges?
I was stronger at acting than I thought I would be, and my practising of voices came in handy.I think I was particularly good at the editing stage.I am really good at seeing the exact shots I want on my camera, I have the artistic vision. A challenge was learning lines and also writing the script because I am dyslexic and had to have help with this. Another challenge would be not achieving what I had imagined the shot to look like because I was not in control of the camera most of the time.
In what ways did your technical filmmaking skills develop over the course of film production?
I got better at explaining to people what I wanted to film and how I wanted them to behave in my film. I’ve not directed other people before so this was new. People from college usually know what I’m trying to get because they understand my process, but my family didn’t understand so much. I had to get better at explaining my ideas and different shots in ways they could understand. I had to develop communication with my other actor so she knew what we were going for.
How far has your knowledge and understanding of film production developed? (Consider your knowledge of technical equipment, on-set processes, production documents, post-production)
I learnt about what a windshield on the audio mic was, as that’s a new piece of equipment to me. I’ve learned that sound is really really important to the film and has to be recorded well or the film will suffer. I’ve not really done a risk assessment before so that was something new I had to work with. Two of my actors could not join me and I had to use my family members instead and be extremely resourceful to use people in my bubble to do the acting parts. I had originally based the script on my two actors and I had to adapt this, first when the role of Joe changed to a female, so I had to change some lines to suit, and secondly when I had to step into the role because of the Covid situation. I was only able to film in my bubble so rather than having been responsible for filming, I had to be in it, which was new for me.
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