WEEKLY JOURNALS

This is where you think about your FMP learning journey and development.
Don’t simply describe what you did - consider what you have learnt and how this has benefitted
your project. What do you need to improve?

THIS IS JUST GUIDANCE THAT YOU NEED TO ADAPT TO YOUR OWN PROJECT. YOU HAVE CREATED YOUR
OWN PRODUCTION SCHEDULES AND YOUR WEEKLY BLOGS SHOULD REFELCT THAT.

THESE QUESTIONS SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN THE WEEKS YOU COMPLETED THEM. DO NOT JUST SUBMIT THIS
FORM FILLED IN FOR YOUR WEEKLY BLOGS. THERE SHOULD BE 11 WEEKLY BLOG ENTRIES (INCLUDING
EASTER).

Week Two - Research

RESEARCH

What did you learn from your From my research I have learnt about my genre, medium and
research? content of my production and how I can apply it to my work. I
have learned about the medium of my project which is short films
and how short films should be made as well as what goes into
them to make them good as well as what does not work in short.
After this I looked into the purpose of short films and why people
make them, the main reason for this is because there are many
made and I found that they are usually made as an a way for
unknown producers to show what they are able to produce
without a big budget which is relevant to me because I have
almost no budget and I am a student so this is like a showcase of
my skills. I also learned about my audiences and what they
would expect from a short film, what they think a short film is,
what makes a good short film, how long it should be and what
they have watched. This taught me more about the audiences
that my production will be seen by and how I my project should
be made so that it comes out well and gets good enough
ratings. I also learned from good productions that had won
awards in the past so that I could see what is has won awards
and what I should aim to my production to somewhat be like in
structure. I then learned about the awards that you can win for
short films and what I can enter as this is important so that I can
follow the guidelines for the competition. I also learned about
genre and the codes and conventions of the genre so that my
work includes these codes and conventions to make it a sci-fi. I
also learned from a focus group what they think a sci-fi should
have and what they think of my idea and what I should make
sure I do and do not do. Finally I looked into content and learned
about the content that will be in my production as this is
important so that I know what Is going into my production. This
taught me more about simulations and how we could live in one

How has the research for your
medium helped you improve your
ideas?
How has the research for your genre
helped you improve your ideas?
which is useful as my idea basis is about living in a simulation that
we are unaware of. This taught me the perspectives of people
who think we are likely living in one and the facts supporting and
against the fact.
When looking at medium I looked at good examples of short films
that were either popular or that had won any award(s). When
analysing these production I looked at what they them good
and then looked at how the ideas could make my idea better, I
looked a lot at the structure of them and the short films as one of
my challenges would be including all the information and
messages in a short time frame so I would have to look at how
they managed to add depth to the film and make viewers care
or be interested without a lot of time to do it in. I also looked at
the awards available for the medium and why they these
productions won the awards. I noticed that these production
had very high quality production work that went into it, like
camera work, editing and sound effects etc. I learned that in my
production I am going to have to make sure my lighting,
camerawork and sound effects on top of the acting and editing
is all up to a high standard as none of the good quality
productions compromised on this. My storyline will also have to
make sense in the little time I have, all of the productions I looked
at had really good narratives that engaged viewers in a short
amount of time which will be key for my production as I cannot
waste long amounts of times on creating character depth to
make the viewers care so I have to engage viewers through the
narrative and gradual character depth like the examples I
looked at did.
When looking at genre I had to look at sci-fi as my production fits
the sci-fi genre, when researching genre I looked at conventions
of the genre, both from my own knowledge but also from other
sources, this made me think about my idea of living in a
simulation. I will have strong male lead which is very common in
sci-fi productions I will also showing advanced technology as the
operator in my production will be using an advanced computer
to operate the simulation. When looking at short films in the
science fiction genre I looked at two award winning short films in
the sci-fi genre. Something they use a lot of is special effects and
alien like technology and themes, this would be a challenge to
have in my production as good quality special effects and alien
props would be hard to get right so I will not be using too many
special effects or props to show this as it will overcomplicate my
production, from this I decided to make my narrative be set in
the everyday life of the character I already thought of. This
means that I will not degrade my production by including bad
quality special effects but I will still be able to make a good
quality production. I also make a focus group which gave me
good feedback on my idea, something that stood out was that
my idea although science fiction, will not include a lot of the
idea that they would expect to be in a sci-fi as they mainly
expected flying ships and lasers so my production will be a
different variant of the sci-fi genre. However they did mention
things like not to make then narrative too complex as it would be
easier for it to go wrong and for the viewers to be confused by

How has researching the conventions
of your chosen genre helped you
understand what is required from you
in order to meet a distinction grade?
How has including a variety of sources
(primary and secondary) helped with
your understanding of your medium /
genre?
What sources of information did you
look at that were different from your
proposed project?
badly made messages and narrative structure but to still explore
the deeper meanings of living in a simulation which I will take into
consideration when planning my production. I have not done my
book research yet and that will be a part of my catch up work.
I looked into the conventions of my genre and I understand that I
will likely have to include more conventions that I expected to
achieve distinction to better clarify the genre however I do
believe my idea will still reflect the genre it is, I will add more
codes and conventions of my genre like some special effects
into my editing to then make the sci-fi theme stronger and
clearer. I will also to things like make the fonts used for titles sci-fi
themed so that it keeps the sci-fi theme throughout. I also
understand that the camerawork, lighting, editing, acting,
scripting, locations and sound have to be very good and
believable as the sci-fi genre uses a lot of themes and ideas that
are not real so everything should be as believable as possible so
that the ideas that are not real are then also easier to be
engaged by and are more believable themselves in the
productions reality.
The primary research has been really useful as it has helped me
get direct feedback from audiences about my ideas and the
genre of my final idea. They have given me a better
understanding of what people expect from my production and
they have also given me ideas of what to include in my
production. The surveys have been useful to get to a variety of
people and this in turn has given me valuable feedback on what
different audiences would expect to see in my production in
terms of the sci-fi genre and the short film medium. As survey’s
are efficient for quick answers, they have been really useful
getting my responses back to then apply to my final idea type up
and my idea development so that I know what I am going to put
into my production and how it should be made so that I do not
confuse people while still effectively telling a story with complex
ideas and messages. The secondary research has been good as I
can get quick answers from reliable sources when done right. I
looked at reliable online resources that have been helpful as
they have taught me things that I do not already know from my
own knowledge and this then not only furthers my knowledge on
the subject but it also helps with adding to my idea as I learned a
lot about what makes good short films and the codes and
conventions of the sci-fi genre. This is useful as the sources then
give me a clear understanding of what I should be doing and
avoids mistakes that would degrade my work.
So far I have used 14 other sources for my research as these are
YouTube and website links. These links are from trusted sources
and have been really useful for my research. I have looked at
news sources, educational sites used by teachers, popular
trusted YouTube channels and relevant sites with direct
information I need. For example I got direct research information
about awards from the UK Film festival website, I then also looked
at a list of awards shows to find the right one for my work and to
research into them.
How will this be useful to your
planning?
How has the research for your
content/topic helped you improve
your ideas?
How has the research into
artists/producers helped you improve
your ideas?
This will all be very useful in my planning as I have found out a lot
about what I will need to put into my production during the
planning stage, I have also received valuable information from
audiences about what I should do and not do in my production
which is going to help while planning as I can tailor my
production to make it more appealing to my target audience
and avoid mistakes or problems that may come up. During the
planning stage I will be looking typing the script and making
storyboards so from the research I have gathered I will be able to
make my narrative in full detail while making it more appealing
to audiences and this has taught me a lot of useful information
relating to what is typically in Sci-fi short films and short films
themselves. The online sources have helped with finding direct
information from professionals and trusted sources, this will be
useful during the planning stage because I know what goes into
professional level short films and why they have won awards. This
can be applied during the planning process as I will be able to
try to include these qualities into my own production while
planning.
When looking into content I looked a lot into the required
conditions needed for our reality to be a simulation, I also did
some primary research into what people would do or think if they
found out their reality is a simulation. This was very useful as I
learned about how the psychological factors could be
incorporated into my production as this will be a strong point in
my production. The mental factors in my will be a big part of my
production and will affect the protagonist quite strongly
throughout the production. This is important because I want to
show some of the psychological effects on the character when
he finds out that he lives in a simulation and how his perspective
changes on life. I also looked at quotes from intelligent famous
people like Elon Musk and Neil Degrasse Tyson as they not only
have a great understanding in their fields but they also have a
strong argument for how we may exist in a simulation, this is
helpful as they talk about points that I can use in my production
that can either be incorporated into the narrative or the script
and storyboards. This all helped my idea because I looked into
relevant points that will make my production more believable
and more factually correct, or as factually correct as something
theoretical can be. My idea is now more factually correct and
developed as this has given more good information on what
should be in my production and what I should consider when
actually thinking of scenes for the script.
When researching professional productions or productions that
have won awards I saw the way that artists and producers have
made their productions. I have seen how different producers
have made their ideas into short films and how they have made
them good quality, and even good enough to win awards. For
example “The Gunfighter” had very high quality pre-production
and it shows in the film but it also had a very unique narrative
with a narrator that could be heard by everyone n the scene
creating comedic scenes that were very entertaining, this is
because the producer created the production from a very
unique idea that turned out really well, this is relevant to my idea
 as my idea not completely unique it still comes from a unique
area of the sci-fi genre and the simulation idea always causes
viewers think about reality and people start to question things
because of the ideas that come from the narrative, this helped
with my idea by showing how ideas that are not in the norm of
filmmaking can create more powerful thoughts and provoke
these thoughts, my ultimate goal will be to make people think
about the meaning of their reality by seeing how the main
character is affected by finding out he is living in a simulation. This
has changed from my original goal as originally I wanted to show
the messages behind my idea of living in a simulation however
now I want people to think about it and contemplate the
meanings behind as hopefully they will be relevant to our reality. I
Looked at other productions and noticed how other producers
have stemmed from unique ideas and then applied them to our
current or future situation like “The space between us”, the
producer thought of the creature called “Adam” then applied it
to a possible future of humanity on Earth. I want to apply my
unique idea to our current reality as it is relevant and the
producers who I have researched have made really good
productions through doing this.

What work do you need to complete I need to complete my work on book research as I have not yet
outside of lessons to stay on track? fully researched relevant books. I also need to complete my
work. I also need to complete my content research, it is almost
complete but I have some more to do.

High Grade Tips

Research
● ‘Thorough research’ - include plenty of sources and detailed analysis of this information
● ‘relevant & coherent’ – make sure your research sources are not just the same as the Media
product you hope to make - and talk about how they inform your planning
● ‘sustained’ – continue your research throughout the eleven-week project and don’t just limit it to
the first two weeks
● ‘accomplished & considered’ – all of the above referred to in your daily/weekly reflections