Weekly Progress + Plan

Here is my weekly progress and plan for component 1.

Component 1 (Film Opening)
Week	Start Date		Task		Blogpost Title	Content	Deadline
W1	30 September	Pre Production	Research	1	Brief
				2	Team
				3	Weekly Progress
				4	Preliminary Research	Broad genre research	W3
W2	7 October		Research	5	Research: Industry	Who makes music videos?	W3
W3	14 October		Research	6	Research: Genre	Codes and Conventions of your genre	W4
W4	21 October		Plan	7	Statement of Intent	Your initial proposal	W5
W5	28 October		Plan	8	Storyboard	Shot by shot plan	W7
				9	Script / Screenplay		W7
							W7
W6	4 November		Plan	10	Screen Test	Actor auditions	W7
				11	Classwork	How to: Camera, MeS, Sound, Edit	W7
							W7
W7	11 November		Plan	12	Location scout & Risk Assessment		W7
				14	Filming Schedule	Film over the break?	W7
							W7
BREAK

Week 1: 

This week marked our first week back after term break, and we dived straight into media theory, specifically focusing on industries. We began by discussing the three crucial stages of film production: production, distribution, and exhibition. I learned that each stage plays a vital role in how a movie is created and, ultimately, how it reaches its audience. The production stage involves the actual making of the film, including filming, sound recording, and editing. Distribution covers how the film is marketed, sold, and made available to the public through different channels, such as cinemas, streaming services, and DVDs. Exhibition is the final stage, where the audience watches the film, whether in theaters, on television, or online platforms.

Week 2: 

This week, we shifted focus to researching the genre of our project—thriller! As a group, we began analyzing movie trailers within the thriller genre to understand its conventions, themes, and typical structures. We discussed elements like pacing, sound, lighting, and narrative twists that make thrillers so engaging and suspenseful. Watching the trailers helped us see what works in the genre and gave us inspiration for our own project. It also made me realize how important it is to balance expectations—while we want to include key thriller conventions, we also need to consider ways to subvert them in order to make our movie opening stand out. My teacher encouraged us to watch some thriller movies on our own time to expand our understanding further.

Week 3:

In Week 3, we began digging deeper into our research by focusing specifically on movie openings within the thriller genre. My group initially analyzed a couple of movie trailers, but it turns out we needed to focus more on the openings themselves, so we adjusted our approach. Watching and analyzing the openings of famous thriller films gave us insight into how directors set the tone, build suspense, and introduce key plot elements early on. The openings were often full of tension, mystery, and visual cues that drew the audience in right away. As we went through these openings, we began discussing which elements we wanted to borrow for our own project. I found it useful to look at how these films used technical aspects like camera angles, lighting, and sound design to create a specific mood from the very beginning. It gave me a clearer idea of how I can approach the technical side of my own project. While researching, I realized that the opening of a thriller has to hook the audience immediately, so we need to make sure we don’t waste any time in building that initial tension. In the coming weeks, we plan to continue researching more openings and refine our ideas further.

Week 4:

This week, we started narrowing down our research and began focusing more on how to use technical elements to enhance our movie opening. We discussed how factors like camera movement, sound design, and lighting could create a sense of suspense or danger, which is crucial in the thriller genre. We also started brainstorming ideas for our movie opening, jotting down our thoughts in a statement of intent. Writing this statement helped clarify the direction we want to take, but I still feel unsure about my ideas. They feel a bit basic right now, and I’m worried they won’t stand out enough. However, I’m hopeful that as we keep working on it and refining our ideas, we’ll be able to elevate them into something more unique.

 
Week 5:

Week 5 was all about diving into the practical side of filmmaking. We watched an educational video on how to create an effective storyboard, focusing on how to make it clear, informative, and easy to follow. Last term, I struggled with creating a storyboard, so I’m hoping that the tips from the video will make it easier this time. I want to keep the storyboard simple but detailed enough that it’ll be easy to interpret by anyone who reads it. My group also started working on our initial storyboard, focusing on the first four shots of our movie opening. While the storyboard is still in its early stages, I can already see how it will help bring our ideas to life. It’s much easier to visualize the opening once it’s broken down into individual shots. I’m in charge of creating the storyboard, so I plan to bring it home and finish it over the weekend. I’ll then be able to focus on other tasks, like writing reflections and blog posts, which will help me stay organized as we move forward. Even though I’m feeling a little unsure about the direction of our movie opening, I’m confident that once we have the storyboard complete, we’ll be able to see the bigger picture more clearly.

Week 6:

We spent this whole week working our movie project by chipping away at the bothersome tasks at the beginning such as the  research, classwork, filming schedule. I forgot how tiring these tasks are, but thankfully my group is dividing the work so it won’t be too burdensome on us. I’m in charge of creating the storyboard, so I’ll bring that home for the weekend and finish it by Sunday so I can start working on other tasks such as reflections and blogs. Starting this work can help get it out of the way, so we can focus on filming, brainstorming, and creating our opening in the next weeks, and hopefully create a good product. I’m a bit worried about recruiting actors, as I have a gut feeling not a lot of people are willing to act in our movie. In class, we also made a screen test in class where everybody had to deliver some cliche lines, and the performance of everyone was a little underwhelming. So I fear, we might have to look for actors elsewhere. If it comes down to it, I’ll have to be the actor, though I am not confident in my acting abilities. Lets hope for the best. 

Here is a checklist I used to keep track of my blogs!

Personal Reflection:

Keeping a weekly progress log has been really useful for staying organized and tracking our progress. It helps me see what we've accomplished each week and keeps me focused on the next steps. Writing it down also makes it easier to reflect on challenges and stay motivated throughout the project, although I keep forgetting to do it. It’s a bit bothersome, but overall beneficial.

Week	Start Date		Task		Blogpost Title	Content	Deadline
W1	8 January	Production	Shoot		Editing Mini Project	A short recreation of a scene from your genre	W10
					Behind the scenes	Images of your filming shoot	W10
					Filming Schedule
W2	15 January		Shoot		File Organisation	My system of storing video files
W3	22 January	Post-Production	Editing		Editing Process	A description (including screen shots) of how you edited your post	W12
W4	29 January		Editing		Audience Feedback	A review from your target audience	W12
W5	5 February		Editing
W6	12 February		Self Reflection		Self Reflection: CCR1		W16
					Self Reflection: CCR2		W16
W7	19 February		Self Reflection		Self Reflection: CCR3		W16
					Self Reflection CCR4		W16
W8	26 February		Self Reflection
W9	4 March		Finalise
W10	11 March		Finalise		Final Film Opening		W17
					Final CCR

Week 1:

I was absent for the entire week and missed a whole filming project. Whoops. However I reviewed my team’s work and they gave me insights on their experience doing this shooting practice mini project which we can apply to future filming. I’m actually kind of sad I missed this mini-project, it looked fun :( However, less work for me I guess.

Week 2:

This week, we looked into audience theory such as hypodermic needle, 2 step flow, uses and gratification, and more. We also started practicing editing by editing a short scene that our teacher recorded. We learn about continuity editing this way, which we can apply to our opening to make it smoother and more dynamic. Since continuity editing plays a huge role in our final project, this practice was incredibly useful.

Week 3:

This week we learn about many different theories such as reception theory, representation theory, social learning theory, desensitization theory, cultivation theory, and some more gender-related theories by butler, van zoonen and mulvey. We learnt so many theories this week so I was a little overwhelmed with information but it was very useful as we could apply these theories in our media exams. On Wednesday, my group and I also finished up our filming and started our editing. We looked into our dominant reading and compared it to our statement on intent. We made a few changes but overall kept our planning more or less the same. We’re gonna all start on the important blog posts like the production and editing post. 

Week 4:

Since this week was mostly taken up by the lunar new years holidays, we didn’t do much in class. However, we continued our important blogs and started with our typeface development for our title and credits. We had to scrap our original title idea as our opening no longer had that concept, so we asked ChatGPT to generate some names for us that now we are considering and will hold a group vote for to finalize it. However, we did start testing out which fonts would suit our opening. We also got some feedback from our teacher on how to make our opening better and we are planning to make some changes and fix some errors accordingly. 

Week 5:

This week, we made a google form to collect feedback on our opening. We asked 3 people we knew to answer our google form regarding our video, and we received feedback which we could apply back onto our video. Even though I didn’t agree with some of the feedback, and some of the feedback contradicted with each other, it was still useful to see the perspective of our audience. Since a movie opening is made for the audience, it’s important to appeal to them and satisfy their expectations. However, since the people answering the form were our friends, I’m worried if their responses were biased.

Week 6

This week, we did our media lessons online because of the heavy rain, that prevented us from going to school. So, we started our CCR1 and CCR2 online during media lessons to get a head start on, as the last time I did a similar project, I did the CCRs very last minute which lead to mediocre work. This time, I plan on doing it earlier so I can have more quality and in depth. On Thursday, we also had to reshoot some scenes due to continuity errors and ekhem my bad acting performance. Thankfully, it helped a lot and improved our video as we now had more variations in camera angles to make our video more dynamic and less bland. It also gave us more shots of the party scene specifically, where we were advised by our teacher to film more of as the party was looking rather empty with minimal scenes. In the end, it was worth the trouble.

Week 7

This week, we had media mock exams so it was very hard trying to balance revising for the exam and working on this project. My editor in my team was also absent these past 2 days, meaning we couldn’t really continue editing the new clips we reshoot. However, I got good scores on my exams so hard works pays off! Studying all the theories and technical elements really refreshed my mind and I thought about how I could apply some of them onto my project.

Week 8

This whole week, we were focusing on media mocks again, so we didn’t use any lesson time for the project. Additionally, our teacher had to go camping with the upper graders, meaning he wasn’t there to give suggestion and feedback when we finally had a project lesson on Thursday. I actually used the time productively and used it to help give feedback on the editing and finish up the remaining blogs. I also got a good score for my next media mocks, yayyy.

Week 9

One week before submission, meaning we should start working on our CCRs and finishing up the production and post production blogs. We spent our media classes working on the project, especially finishing up our editing process. We had lots of problems with editing, because our video was way longer than the two minute limit, meaning we had to cut a lot out of our video, and thats why its currently fast-paced. At first I had no idea how we could do it, however we did it and it was better than expected. Next time though, the planning should be better to avoid this issue.

Week 10

Deadline week!!! I did so much work, I didn’t sleep at all. I just found out that I still can’t put pictures into my blogs, so thats very annoying and inconvenient. Somehow I didn’t learn from the previous project that I have to start my CCRs earlier than one day before the deadline. However, I don’t think I’ve ever worked harder. Next time around, I’ll start my CCRs way earlier and finish up the video at least a week before the submission date. In that way, I won’t have to pull an all nighter.

Personal Reflection:

Keeping a weekly progress log has been useful as I know what we’ve done over the weeks, and it serves as a refresher on what we’ve learnt in the past. It’s also nice to see how far we’ve come, and low key reminds me that deadlines are getting closer and closer, which motivates me to work harder. It’s like a mini-reflection every week, making it easier to identify mistakes or improvements in my attitude or my project itself.