Post 10 - Script Writing

Initial ideas:

This video explains our group's initial ideas in the form of a brainstorm spider-diagram, and how we will turn it into a narrative.

Analysis of the Title for Our Short Film:





Feedback of the First Draft of Our Script:

In order to gain a spread of feedback and different opinions of the spread of our target audience, we asked an older female adult, and a teenage boy to read our scripts and then feedback their thoughts to us. These videos are the responses.

Post 9A - Research Into Our Target Audience

The Demographic of Our Potential Target Audience

 

The Psychographic of Our Potential Target Audience

 

How Our Distribrution Methods Effects Our Potential Target Audience

We have used the distribrution method of using a QR code on the back of our postcard as a method of distributing our film. The audience can scan the QR code using a smart phone, and this will take them directly to our film's website or YouTube where they can watch clips or the whole thing.

This method of distribrution is becoming increasingly popular nowadays as QR codes are getting more and more exposure, and are being added to more and more advertisements. This modern method of distribruting effects our potential target audience as younger people and fashion-concious people seem to be more aware of the QR codes and how they work. However, people who are interested in breaking away from the mould, and a sophisticated film audience may also have an interest in the QR code as they are a new innovative and interactive way of accessing websites instantly. Therefore, these are the kind of people who our film is aimed at, and so in theory they will have common interests, and will find the QR code a fast and easy way to find out more about and watch our short-film.

Another distribrution method is watching the films at film festivals.
I have talked about film festivals in more detail in Post 9.

Post 9B - Further Research of Existing Short Films

'Toast'

This short film's duration is very conventional of short films; just under seven minutes. 'Toast' has one central protagonist, a young female, and three supporting characters.

The genre is social realism, and is very much of the independent film style due to the hand-held unsteady camera work and the use of natural lighting.

Zooms are used quite regularly as opposed to hard cuts jumping in and out.

The title of the film is displayed in clear text at the opening of the film, and the credits are written at the very end of the piece using a rolling transition and against a black background - something which is also very conventional of short films.

'The Artist'

This short film opens with a visual effect creating a sepia tone, giving the appearance of an old-fashioned film, and the lettering of 'The Artist' is typed across the screen letter by letter, creating the effect of someone actually typing out the title of the film. We could use this technique when displaying our main character sending a text message, as the 'typing' effect is very successful. The text itself is in a white sans-serif font, and it is easy and clear to read. This short film also has the style of independent short-films due to the natural lighting and low-quality visuals. I feel that the quality of 'Toast' is much more professional, and we should aim to film our footage using a similar quality camera to achieve the best result possible.

Post 9 - Short Film Research

Why make a Short film?

In order to research this question, I have read the two articles, 'The Long History of Short Films' and 'Short Films that Launched Big Names' from the Daily Telegraph website.

The article, 'The Long History of Short Films,' as the name suggests, writes details of the history of short-film making, and explains the development of short-film making as the years have progressed. It states that to begin with, all films viewed by an audience were actually short-films, and gradually started to become longer during the 20th Century. This is because during the 1900's, "improvements in recording and editing technology allowed film makers to produce longer, multi shot films."

As far as the audiences were concerned, the article states that the short films were often "one-shot 'actuality' or 'interest' film depicting celebrities, royal processions, travelogues, current affairs and scenes from everyday life". Therefore, it is apparant that audiences seemed to enjoy films which they could connect to, and preferred films about everyday life and current affairs going on in the world around them, and used these films as a way of finding information out.

Therefore, I can see how and what short films were used for during the 20th Century and before, and we shall make our short film for a similar reason; to explore attitudes towards homosexuality in a modern day, British teenage culture.

Who is our target audience?

From research, we found that our target audience would be young adults from 16-25 years of age, both male and female. Another potential target audience would be people who have an interest in the French New Wave, and are interested to see our take on it, and how we could put a modern spin on the style of these films. Additionally, our film will be of the gay-interest genre; therefore, it could appeal to those who have an interest in this genre too.

How are short films distributed?

The vast majority of films are distributed at Short film festivals such as Encounters International Short Film Festival, the London Short Film Festival and the LA Shorts Fest - the largest film festival in the world.

These festivals have an endless variety of different genres and sub-genre films as they have no reason to stick to the conventional genres which Hollywood Studios would choose to. For example, independant short films can explore 'taboo' issues which Hollywood style films never would, such as social realism.

However, in this modern day and age short films are sometimes distributed using the internet, and dominantly the website YouTube.

Using YouTube, we have watched 3 short films which are of the gay-interest genre, and discuss social realism issues of being homosexual in modern day society.

What genres of short films are popular?

http://shortfilmshub.com/most-popular-short-films/

According to Short Films Hub.com, the top three most popular short film genres are Romance, Comedy and Drama. Therefore, we will aim to produce our piece within at least one of these genres.

All of the successful, award-winning British short films which I have looked at (for example, 'September' and 'Jade') have been in a social-realism style, and deal with ideas which are present in a modern day British culture. Therefore, as myself and our group are British, we shall aim to also create a social-realism short-film.

How long are the films?

From research, I have found that in order to be categorised as a 'short-film,' our product must be no longer than 40 minutes.

However, in North America, short films generally have a duration of between 20-40 minutes, but in Europe and Latin America, films which have a duration of between 1-15 minutes is considered to be a short film.

The films which I have analysed on YouTube, made by students of a similar age as myself, and British films which I have analysed all seem to be no longer than 15 minutes. Therefore, we shall make a short-film which is shorter than longer.

How are the films structured?

Because many short films are produced by independant companies or directors, they often break conventions of Hollywood Studio style films, i.e. films which abide by Todorov's equilibrium theory. Although many of them flow in a chronological order, most do not have a narrative resolution, and many leave a lot of answered questions and 'loose ends.'

For example, the short film, 'Tender' which I previously analysed ends on an enigma, and leaves the audience wondering what it was/ what he was going to do with the weapon he was holding.

Extra Independant Research:

Cinema 16 - A British Short-Film DVD.

I have purchased this DVD and have watched several of the award-winning short films on it for inspiration. This includes the film 'About a Girl' which I have talked about in a previous post.

I have found this DVD hugely benefitial as I can see some common features which these films have, for example, many of them are of the drama genre, and dull lighing is used quite reguarly. None of the films appear to be glamorous, and well lit like a typical Hollywood style film would be, but are instead give a social-realism, dull and bleak appearance.

I can use this research to aid myself and my group when talking about technical details within our short film.

Post 8 - Media Language

My understanding of the term 'media language:'

The way in which we construct everything, both audio and visual within our short-film, from the location, to characters, to set design, all form parts of media language - and therefore is influenced by the four other areas to consider when making a short film: Genre, narrative, representation and audience.

By carefully selecting the specific shots that we use, we are able to communicate our film to the audience in the exact way that we want to.

An example of this from the past is the Kuleshov Effect; demonstrating and indeed proving that if different shots are constructed through different choices in media language, then they construct a different meaning.

For instance, if we were to use a shot of our protagonist frowning, and then followed this with a shot of a cheerful younger child walking into the room, then this would suggest to the audience that he is a miserable, grumpy, horrible person. However, if we were to follow the frowning close-up shot with a shot of someone being bullied, then this would suggest to the audience that the protagonist doesn't agree with bullying, and therefore the audience would be more supportive towards him as a character.

How I can use this when creating my short-film:

From understanding the term 'media language' it has become much more apparent that we must be careful when not only considering the micro elements of our short-film; camera, mise-en-scene, sound and editing, but also the more detailed, such as the subtle symbolic elements in addition to the sizes and angles of shots, continuity and framing.

As described above, we must make careful choices about where we want our characters to stand in the frames and the angle of the shots, so to convey the correct amount of status, and we must ensure that when editing our footage together, there are no continuity errors, thus ensuring that the sentences that we create are the correct media language and communication to our audience.

Post 7 - Audience Theory

People to consider:

David Gauntlett:

The effects model used to be popular theory when discussing audience in media. However, in more recent times, The 'Hypodermic Needle' theory, suggesting that the audience are 'injected' with information without them really realising, has become out of date.

David Gauntlett suggests 10 reasons for why the effects model is now incorrect, from his study in 1998:

1. The effects model tackles social problems 'backwards.'

2. The effects model treats children as inadequate.

3. Assumptions within the effects model are characterised by barely-concealed conservative ideology.

4. The effects model inadequately defines its own objects of study.

5. The effects model is often based on artificial elements and assumptions within studies.

6. The effects model is often based on studies with misapplied methodology.

7. The effects model is selective in its criticisms of media depictions of violence.

8. The effects model assumes superiority to the masses.

9. The effects model makes no attempt to understand meanings of the media.

10. The effects model is not grounded in theory.

Julian McDougall:

http://www.participations.org/Volume%207/Issue%201/mcdougall.htm

Audience reception theories to consider:

• Preferred reading/ Dominant hegemonic position


• Negotiated reading/ Negotiated hegemonic position


• Oppositional hegemonic position


• Aberrant decoding


• Moral Panic


• Mode of Address


• Profile the target audience


• Consider the viewing environment

Analysis of 4 short films in relation to this:

1) 'Whore'

Due to the name of this short film, the audience are instantly making judgements on the characters, particuarly the female characters, before they have even watched any of it. This could be the preferred reading which the producers desired, so that when the audience start to learn more about the characters, there are surprises or elements to their character which perhaps the audience didn't intially anticipate. The audience could have a negotiated reading of this short film too as the boyfriend character could be seen in several ways, he could be seen as a 'user' and an unpleasant boyfriend, or he could be seen as the victim of the girl. Furthermore, this short film could lead the audience to have some form of moral panic as the film represents young British teenage girls in a very negative way; leading the audience to perhaps worry about teenage girls in their lives.

2) 'Tender'

The preferred hegemonic reading of the short film 'Tender' is that the main character, the boy in the image above, should be felt sympathetic towards due to the way that he is constructed. His life is shown to be very dull, dangerous and upsetting as he is living in the slums of social realism, with a young mother who cannot pay the bills, and has an abusive, violent boyfriend. However, the abbarant reading could be that actually the audience ignores this, and instead thinks that this character deserves what he gets due to the ending of the film where he takes a weapon which is previously shown being used as a weapon that his mother's boyfriend uses to beat her with, and uses it to beat up a girl that he knows.

3) 'About a Girl'

The preferred reading of the short-film 'About a Girl' was that the producers intended to shock the audience with the enigmas and the ending. However, it could be argued that there are elements of an oppositional hegemonic position when analysing this short film, as there are several different moral messages which come across in this film. For example, although the audience may agree with some of the messages being conveyed by the characters, they may strongly disagree with the actions of others, such as the cruel actions of the girl towards her baby.

4) 'Jade'

I have chosen to also analyse this short film in relation to audience theory, as it could be percieved in many different ways. In regards to the profile of the target audience, 'Jade' won the Berlinale Silver Bear for Best Short Film, and so it was fairly successful. The mode of address which 'Jade' uses is very conventional; it suggests that what the audience is viewing is reality as although there are several eye-level, head-on shots, the characters never directly look at the camera and address the audience.

Writing my short-film script:

In conclusion, the analysis of the short films will aid myself and our group when writing our short film's script as we are now much more aware of the hegemonic positions which we will want our audience to be in, as well as constructing our characters and locations in the way which we want our audience to percieve them, in order to create the preferred reading.

Post 6 - Representation Theory

Summary of theories which will benefit our group's short film:

Daniel Chandler:

He suggests that these are the key questions to consider when thinking about representation, particularly for a short-film. Therefore, these are the questions which our group will ask ourselves when making our short film.

What is being represented?

How is it represented?

Using what codes?

Within what genre?

How is the representation made to seem 'true', 'commonsense' or'natural'?

What is foregrounded and what is backgrounded?

Are there anynotable absences?

Whose representation is it?

Whose interests does it reflect?

How doyou know?

At whom is this representation targeted?

How do you know?

What does the representation mean to you?

What does the representation mean to others?

How do you account for the differences?

How do people make sense of it? According to what codes?

With what alternative representations could it be compared?

How does it differ?

A reflexive consideration - Why is the concept of representation problematic?

Marxist Approach to Representation:

Marxist approaches take as their starting point the idea that popular culture reflects the dominant ideologies of society from which it comes. A study of media texts will therefore reveal these ideas and beliefs and also the ways in which they are presented to construct ideas of what is 'normal' or 'common sense.'

Althusser was partly influenced by Marxism, and he theorised the idea of 'interpellation.' Media texts will interpellate viewers into the ideological roles required of them in society (as consumers, as law abiding citizens, women as mothers or sex objects.)

Gramsci and Hegemony - Subordinate groups in society are coerced into accepting the dominant ideologies of powerful groups by means of concessions made to them. In terms of the media, this has lead to studies of representations which appear to challenge dominant ideologies but which only offer concessions. These concessions do not overturn the existing ideological framework. For example, in 'Speed' Sandra Bullock appears to be a 'strong' woman as she drives the bus with skill and bravery; this offers a concession to female spectators who may then accept or overlook the fact that she is unable to effect a rescue of the passengers and has to be rescued by the hero at the end; so, the idea that women are subordinate is not overturned.

Another example of this is Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft in the film series, 'Tomb Raider.' She is constructed to be a strong, brave, powerful woman, and therefore could be perceived to be subverting the hegemonic representation of women, but actually, what is often overlooked is that she is constructed wearing hardly any clothing, and is very much sexualised, meaning that although at a first glance it could be argued that Lara Croft breaks the hegemonic view of women, but actually, she is merely just another sexualised object.

Analysis of Representation in 3 media texts:

1) The Representation of Race in 'Hotel Babylon:'

The extract of 'Hotel Babylon,' series one, episode five, constructs the representation of ethnicity using mise-en-scene. Costumes are used to show status and power between the different ethnic groups in this extract. For example, white people are portrayed as Police Officers and well-off hotel managers dressed in Police uniform and expensive looking smart business wear. Where as, the immigrants are shown wearing tatty overalls and aprons. This suggests that ethnic groups besides white people are somewhat of a 'lower' ranking and class. This is reinforced by the setting of the extract; a hiding place for the workers underground, beneath the main stories of the hotel. This again suggests that not only in a literal sense in this case, but that immigrants are beneath white people in this society, therefore reinforcing hegemonic traditional views of ethnic minority groups.

2) The Representation of Age in 'Friends:'

The extract from the US TV Sit-com 'Friends' constructs the representation of the elderly in a very traditional and hegemonic manor. The mise-en-scene of character movement is used to create comedic effect at the expense of an elderly character, being massaged by a significantly younger character, Ross. The elderly character is positioned lying face down, and is completely unaware of what Ross is doing to him. This connotes to the audience that elderly people are oblivious to what is going on around them, thus constructing a very negative representation of the elderly as a group. This is anchored by the mise-en-scene of sound; the non-diegetic sound of a laughter track encourages the audience, and indeed prompts the audience to laugh at the elderly man, thus reinforcing this traditional and hegemonic notion of the elderly.

3) The Representation of Gender in 'Dr. Who:'

Gender is represented in 'Dr. Who' very stereotypically hegemonic. Rose, the Doctor's female assistant has been constructed with the mise-en-scene of tight clothing, large hoop earrings, wearing lots of the colour red and a lot of make up. All of these micro elements sexualise her, something which stereotypically happens to women in the media when hegemony is present - such as British television. Rose states, "I'll let the Doctor describe it..." suggesting that she doesn't have as much authority as the Doctor. Furthermore, the camera angles are used to represent Rose as the smallest character, perhaps making her appear to be weaker than what she is - reinforcing a hegemonic ideology of women.

In conclusion, this research will be used to influence our short film when deciding how to represent our characters, particularly the protagonist for whom it is important that we represent in the correct way we want to. We shall need to bare in mind any potential hegemonic codes and values which may be in our piece, and must acknowledge and explain them if they were to be included.

Post 5 - Narrative Theory

Summery of narrative theory which will relate to my coursework:

Roland Barthes stated that there are FIVE action codes which are used to construct the narrative:

Hermeneutic codes - an element of the story which hasn't been explained, and unanswered questions make us as an audience think.

Proairectic codes - are used to build tension, and gives the audience an indication that something is going to happen.

Semantic codes - are the connotations, and extended meanings in the media text.

Symbolic codes - is the symbolism within the piece.

Cultural codes - something which is accepted, and that we believe in our culture.

Our piece will incorperate all of these action codes as we will use hermeneutic codes throughour the piece in the form of an enigma, "who will he meet at the end?" "Why is he so uncomfortable?" We will use proairectic codes to build tenstion in the form of the mysterious text messages. We will use semantic codes and symbolic codes to create very subtle messages to the audience about the protagonist's sexuality, and finally, we will use cultural codes to explore the idea of homosexuality within a British, teenage culture.

Levi -Strauss examined the social function of stories/ myths as reconciling contradictions in human experience, explaining the inexplicable, resolving inequalities, helping people to move on with the cruelties and harshness of their environment. A fundimental structure of myths is concept of binary opposites, a conflict between two opposites: female/male, good/evil, strong/weak. This structuralist approach has been very influentional in the study of film narratives, for example in the study of the Western.

Propp studied the structures of Russian folk-tales, suggesting that no matter how widely they differed in surface detail they all shared the same structural features of character roles and actions.

Todorov theorised the equilibrium/ disequalibrium theory, and suggested that all stories have a beginning, a middle and a resolved end. He stated that a story starts with equilibrium, then the equilibrium is distrupted, and finally the equilibrium is restored.

However, Julian McDougall warns us not to "clumsily apply a formalist model" as it "does little in terms of understanding our roles in constructing narratives, and how narratives carry discourse that appear natural."

He states that: "I want to suggest an approach to narrative theory that does not use Propp and Todorov; not because there is anything wrong with an approach that uses his old models to demonstrate the fixed, narrow and predictable nature of storytelling in the West, but because I think it presents a model of narrative flow as fixed and 'applicable' and I do not agree that we read texts in this way, necessarily."

From these theories, I have learnt a great deal about narrative and the techniques to use when writing a plot of a short-film.

Analysis of narrative in exsisting short films:

1. 'Jade'

The short film Jade contains many of the narrative theories explained above. It opens with a teenage girl, the protagonist, swimming, surrounded by blue water, blue walls, blue tinted clothing, and above all, a blue positive pregnancy test. This creates an enigma to the audience using several of Roland Barthes' action codes: the hermeneutic code of the positive pregnancy test, a proairectic code as the silent auditory codes create tension, anchored by the girl's distressed character movement and facial expressions, and the symbolic codes of using the colour blue to symbolise her bleak feelings and emotions, and the pregnancy test itself which is ultimately a very important part of the plot.

2. 'Pop Art'

This short film could be linked to Todorov's Equilibrium theory. 'Pop Art' is about a young boy who has an inflatable friend. The short film opens with the young boy in school, talking to his surreal friend, who throughout the film makes references to wanting to go into space. The boy seems to be fairly happy when he is with his friend and so the equilibrium is balanced and content in the opening of the piece, but the equilibrium is disrupted when this friend sits on a pin, and deflates a little. The equilibrium is restored when the inflatable friend finally achieves his dream of floating up into space, and the boy waves to him as he drifts up. Therefore, this film follows Todorov's theorised film structure, and it appears to be fairly successful as this film is the Winner of the Narrative Short prize in the Austin Film Festival 2008.

3. Apply theories of narrative to your coursework productions - 'Justice'

This is the short film which our group made for our AS Preliminary Task, entitled 'Justice.' The short film opens with an aerial shot of the room, creating the enigma of the whereabouts of the location. An interrogation police officer enters the room and begins to question the suspect. The suspect refuses to confess, and so the officer decides to take matters into her own hands, block the CCTV camera, and beat the information out of the suspect. This only becomes clear when the door of the interrogation room opens, with the officer walking out proudly, and the suspect lying face-down on the table. Therefore, this could be linked to Levi-Strauss in the way that our piece uses the idea of good vs. bad, and also female/ male conflict, and the harshness of some environments. Our piece could also be linked to Propp's structural theory in terms of plot as our piece had quite a conventional plot, i.e. Good person trying to defeat bad person.

In conclusion:

I have noticed how effective/ ineffective these narrative theories have been in existing short films and my own short film. When writing the plot of our short-film for A2, I must be aware of Roland Barthe's action codes, as well as structural theories to ensure that the plot is understandable, and makes sense to the target audience.

Post 4 - Genre as a Media Concept

What is Genre?

A set of characteristics/ formula recognised by audiences over time, e.g. iconography, narrative, mise-en-scene, themes and representation.

At an ideological level, genres offer comforting reassurance and a closing down of the complexities of life, allowing audiences to 'escape.'

Genre films work through important cultural myths and fears by repetition, innovation and resolution. For example, American films incorperate Western values such as not breaking the law, honesty, modesty and heroic.

Provides a relationship between audiences and producers which minimises the risk of financial failure. Meeting audience expectations results in generic pleasures, and so the producers can be more confident that their films will be successful.

Films function like language - offering a set of rules and a vocabulary with which to organise meaning.

Not static but constantly renegotiated between industry and audience - a combination of the familiar and the unexpected.

Summery of genre theories which will apply to my coursework:

Christian Metz, in language and Cinema 1974 suggests that there are four types of genre films;

The experimental - for example, sleeper hits such as 'Paranormal Activity' 2007.

The classic - for example, 'Dracula' 1931

The parody - for example, comedies such as horror film parody 'Shaun of the Dead' 2004 or James Bond parody, 'Austin Powers' trilogy, 1997, 1999 and 2002.

The deconstruction - for example, 'Scream' 1996.

Our film will be an 'experimental' as we will be experimenting with styles which were used in the French New Wave by directors such as Jean-Luke Goddard.

Stuart Hall developed ideas around the different interpretations or readings of genre and media texts which the audience could have:

The preferred reading - the view intended by the media producer.

The negotiated reading - agrees with some, but not all of the preferred reading.

The oppositional reading - the audience understands the preferred reading but chooses to take other values from the text.

The aberrant reading - the audience doesn't understand/ identify the preferred reading.

Emily Altenloh studied and observed audiences in cinema, and found that GENDER and CULTURAL PREFERENCES had an effect on the choices that the audience made.

(Altenloh's Study, 1914.)

She made a distinction between male and female viewing preferences in cinema, and found that women preferred romance, music and melodrama, and male working class cinema goers preferred more violent films. From this, she also found that males vary in their generic preferences, but females were more homogeneous.

Altenloh also talked about ESCAPISM, and described escapism as "providing an experience which everyday life did not provide."

From this theory, we could assume that females would enjoy watching our short film as it would fall into the romance category, and males may also enjoy our film if we were to include some sort of violent scene. However, our short film will not relate to her escapism theory as we plan to make a social realism film.

McQuail, Blummer and Brown in 1972 theorised that media creates a DIVERSION.

We as an audience create a personal relationship - feel part of a generic social group.

We create a personal identity - reinforce our own values through compassion to stars in the media/film.

We have surveillance - the media/film shows us what's happening in the world; it constructs a representation of places which we may not have been to, i.e. America.

Our group can use this theory when talking about our short film as we use the ideas of creating a personal identity by encouraging the audience to feel compassion to the protagonist in our piece.

Schatz suggests that there are only two types of genre; ORDER and INTEGRATION.

Films use the same structures, with different paradigms. Therefore it is problematic to break down films into categories.

This means that over time, the plot and structures of films haven't really changed at all, but the set and characters have. For example, an old generic Western film which has a plot of cowboys verses Indians, is no different to that of a modern day Sci-Fi film of spacemen verses aliens. Therefore, Schatz states that mise-en-scene is a crucial feature of genre identification.

Themes of Genre:

Metaphysical (meaning beyond science) themes are those ideas in society, which are general and abstract, such as ideas about life, the universe and everything. Science-fiction films could be said to use metaphysical themes because it deals with issues that are abstract. For example, when a man travels into space and there are tensions and conflicts it may make us consider the human condition. Is the human condition always linked to conflict? Can human kind ever find peace? Can we answer the big questions in life? Do we get a sense of hope or despair in the film we've watched?

Social - issues such as sexuality, race, crime and drug addiction. These may be included in the horror or Sci-Fi genres too as Sci-Fi films may deal with social issues such as showing a vision of a perfect society or a non- perfect society.

Ideological themes - As America has a massive influence on the cinema which is received in most countries, it might be fair to ask what type of ideological themes are being conveyed by the American moviemakers. In action films, it is normal to have America represented as the 'good guys' or the brains behind the operation, whilst we may see characters with foreign accents (including English) being represented as the 'bad guys.'

Our short film will be of a social theme as it deals with the idea of sexuality.

My short film:

In conclusion, this research will influence my short film as we now have a greater understanding of 'why' genre works, as opposed to simply 'how' genre works. Therefore, when making our film we can be cleverer about the ways in which we construct the characters, scenery and compositions of camera shots. Additionally, when creating 'subtle messages' to the audience, we can make them more successful.

Post 3 - Skills Table

This task was designed to allow us to explore which skills we feel, as a group, we have developed over the course so far. The grid shows us how we have learnt so many different types of skills, perhaps without realising that we have learnt them, and it allows us to see which skills we can now improve upon when making our short film.

From analysing the skills table, my personal 5 SMART targets for the next project are:

1) To improve my ICT skills when using the editing software in order to add more cuts into our piece. This is due to the one scene which we used in our AS opening sequence being too long, and therefore not as successful as it could have been.

2) To maintain the level of teamwork, if not improve it as last year I feel that our group worked really efficiently and effectively as a team as we spread out the work equally, and we all contributed to the task.

3) To improve upon my self-managing skills; working towards my goals showing initiative, commitment and perserverance in order to produce a successful short film.

4) To be even more detailed during research and planning by looking at directors who could influence us. I could research into Jean-Luke Goddard and the French New Wave to see how they used camera angles and shots creatively.

5) To improve my creative thinking skills even further when thinking of ways that we can be symbolic, and use subtle visual codes to connote meanings and messages to the audience when making our short film.