1. Researching and
planning the movie
image work
By Thahmina Khan

2. Research:
What research did you carry out into similar
products?

From looking at my case study’s, the aspects I found useful as research for my own production
was the film “Insidious”, this is because the sound affect used where there was a foggy
atmosphere and none of the characters were talking created a dramatic atmosphere which is
similar to the theme I want to create in my short film as it sounds spooky and more like a horror
film.

In addition, another technique which I found useful in my case study was the exploration on
editing, this is because the cutting rate in “Insidious” was fast, this helps produce an uncertainty
and tightness atmosphere which most horror films include.

From my research on my case studies, the last element that I would like to be included in my
short film is a linear narrative structure, this helps create a continuous order where the film is
working towards; the problem usually occurs in the beginning or middle of the film but at the
end it is solved.

Concluding from my research when doing my case study’s, I have found that most horror films
prefer to have a narrative structure as all the tension builds up slowly but towards the end of
the film, all questions are unanswered and solutions solved.

3. How have your skills in researching real media
products improved since the AS course?

My skills in researching have improved dramatically from AS media when I was
producing a music magazine till A2 media as now had to create a short film.

An area of researching that I have developed on is my case studies from AS
media. This is because when I had to produce the music magazine, my case
studies were rushed and not thoroughly thought, this was shown when it came to
making my music magazine, I struggled on this because I did not have much
similar music magazine case study’s I could relate and get ideas from, which
then I struggled on writing up the evaluation when it came to linking ideas from
the case study to our music magazines.

I have realised there has been a development on the case study research as now, I did
through research on similar short films that I can pick up ideas from and add in to my own
short film. This made creating my story board easier as I had more ideas to create the story
from. Moreover, I am familiar with always relating my case study’s back to any of my
research as I had to do this in AS media for the music magazine.

Moreover, I realised when producing my short films, I always used my story board, plans and
notes to help me create the short film whereas in AS, when we produced our music
magazine, I did not have any plan to get me through this process, this meant that my
organisation skills have developed as well as my researching skills.

4. Research on target audience:
What research have you carried out
into your target audience?

When me and my group pitched our treatment to the class, we received feedback
where there was constructive critics and good points of our treatment.

The feedback helped conclude potential target audience of our film as our class is full
of teenagers aged 17-18; they liked our idea of the short film which helped reinforce
that our short film would be successful on our potential target audience from the age
13-19. The reason we chose to stay 13 and not below because our main character is a
13 year old girl who has supernatural elements occur to her, if a child below 13
watches our short films, they may get more spooked out than an older age group.

Also when receiving audience feedback from my class and the teachers, I realised
comments received was the same as when I produced my music magazine. This
included points needed to improve my product and good points too, for example
when presenting our treatment on our short film, someone mentioned that having one
of the locations in the forest will make our film more scary then our other locations.

5. Logistics planning:
How well did you organise your actors, locations,
costumes and props?

The release forms, risk assessments and call sheets all came in useful when organising our actors,
locations and props as. This mean that our organisation skills were good however improvements
could have been made. For example, when it came to shooting, our prop was not organised
successfully as we had to take pictures on the day whilst printing it and putting the image into the
frame, doing this on the day of our shooting meant a delay of one of the scenes which had to be
filmed another day in the same location.

Also filling in the risk assessments were useful as we were aware of any hazard thought our filming
days. For example one of our locations was in the forest so we made extra care of the camera
equipment as we were shooting outside and also looked at the weather website to see if it would
rain the day we wanted to film. This helped us be aware of the rain and temperature so our actors
did not freeze.

In addition, our costumes were quite organised as we planned days before filming what each actor
had to bring in n what day.

Furthermore, throughout our logistics planning, this included regular team meetings which helped
ensure that every group member knew what they were doing and the days we planned to film.

The logistics planning was much better when creating the short film compared to producing the
music magazine as this helped me and my group to be ahead of schedule, this meant that we had
more time to efficiently do each task correctly whilst having time to regularly update on our blogs
and improve it. Blogging this year was one of the main improvements compared to AS media
because, when producing the short film, I updated any piece of media related work I do on a daily
basis.
Risk assessment sheet

6. Narrative planning:
Evaluate your story boards and/ or scripts?

When carrying out the tasks to complete the story boards and
script, we had to divide each of these to the member of our
groups.

First we started of creating a plan of each scene that every
frame would include, this included camera techniques and
angles of the camera so that when it came to putting these
notes on to the story board, each group member knew what
to write. This ensured that our story board was detailed and
easy to do. We then divided our plan into four story boards
each group member does.

The script was roughly planned out in class what we wanted
each character to say, this was then finalised in Microsoft word
with better dialogue and format, at the end of this, I updated
the task and script after it was approved by our teacher and
added in a few comments she pointed out to our story boards
and improved on before blogging.
First page of story board

7. Evaluate your story boards and/
or scripts?

Thought our narrative planning, the only problem occurred was that one of the group
member was not present in the first team meeting so me and the other group member
talked about our story boards and did this on our long break we had together, this team
meeting also included us doing some of the call sheets and printing out all the risk
assessment, location and actors release form out. Because me and my other group
member seemed to be doing most of the tasks, it seemed unfair on us as the other group
member did not do as much as we did, so this could have been improved if we was more
firm on the other group member and all three of us planned out exactly what sheets we all
needed to do, this then would of ensured that there was fairness in the same amount of
tasks each group member does.

The planning, sketches, plans and mock-ups compared to A2 media than first year when
we had to create our own music magazine was that this year was much better organised
and more sketches were needed to be carried out when producing a short film. This
meant that more work had to be done but because I had a taste of how planning starts of
in AS media when making the music magazine, I knew what needed to be included in the
case studies for the short films as it was a similar layout.

8. Evaluate your own, and your group’s time
management. How does this compare to time
management of the music magazine project?

My time management was efficient as I always ensured I did the
task given straight away and moved on to the next task needed to
do, this then made sure that me and group’s time management
was ahead in schedule as we started to shoot early and start on
editing as soon as possible.

Time management of the music magazine project compared to
the short film would be that this year is much better on carrying out
tasks as me and my group are ahead of schedule however, when
carrying out the music magazine project in AS, I would say that all
my tasks were given in on time however there was some slight
delays on photo shooting.

9. How well have you presented your
research and planning?


I would say that my creativeness on using different technologies
to blog up my work has improved to last year’s blog.
This is because I try to make sure I don’t use the same technology
more than twice so use different technologies to present my work
in, for example, last year’s production schedule was done in
Microsoft word however this year I had done it in time toast. I
found this much more efficient as I could easily go onto my time
toast and add in any extra notes to my production schedule, such
as me and group being ahead on tasks were updated and I also
changed the dates to when we shot our film and started to edit
them.