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06/11/17

 

What I have learnt/ What happened/Personal Reaction

Today we began on the creative conscious section. We started going through the brief and forming our ideas for what we wanted our creative conscious to be about.

The creative conscious is a project which gives us the opportunity to make a drama or documentary about a socially valuable projects that we are most interested in. Examples of different topics which we could do is mental health, racism, sexism etc.

At first I was going to make a drama/documentary about young children who live with ADHD and look into their lifestyles and how theirs are different because they have ADHD. It was a week later where I discovered that ADHD is not a topic that I am extremely keen on learning more about. This is when I decided that I would make a documentary on Mental health and this would include me interviewing those with any sort of mental health issue and finding out what life is like with these issues and seeing how they cope with them. There are a few people from my college who have agreed to be interviewed for my documentary and I wish to contact more people through sites such as 38 degrees and change.org.
 

What went wrong/Weaknesses

I managed to find a lot of things that could go in my research section for example I found a few documentaries similar to the one I wish to create. Bee also told me about different filming techniques to use for when it comes to my interviews for example over the shoulder shots and also close ups of the interviewees hands and eyes. I believe that this creates engagement for the viewers. Bee and Sonia also told me about different sites to help me choose a topic and form an idea such as Change.org and 38 degrees. These sites had many petitions. There was also the creative conscious site which had a lot of creative conscious award winning pieces. This were god to watch for forming ideas on different shots and camera angles.

  
 

What action did I take

 

• It took me a while to form a good idea for my creative conscious.

• I wasted a lot of time doing work on my first idea when it was not going to be my final idea.

• I couldn’t find much that I was interested in when I first went on the sites recommended.

 

I thought that this was a good way to start the creative conscious project as I got all the support I need for forming an idea. What was really helpful was that Sonia and Bee explained the creative conscious brief thoroughly before we went of by ourselves and started working on it.

 

What is my next plan?

 

07/11/17 - Creative conscious talk in the Auditorium

 

What I have learnt/ What happened/Personal Reaction

 

Today all the students on my course went into one of the assembly halls where we listened to a woman give us a presentation about the creative conscious project and different things that are useful to include in our pieces. She also showed us through the creative conscious website and we watched some of the award  winning pieces. This gave us all inspiration for our own ideas. Izzy who studied this course last year spoke to us as well and showed us her documentary that she made for the creative conscious. I really liked Izzy’s work because she was very involved in her piece as well. The mode of her documentary fitted into the participatory column because of her involvement with her contributors. I want my documentary to fit into the participatory category as well

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10/11/17 - Contacting contributors

Description - Today I went on Change.org to find other contributors for my documentary. I found a comment on one of the petitions about mental health and contacted the person but because she placed a comment on the petition many years ago I did not get a response from her. Luckily I have two college students Dave and Alex who have both agreed to be in my documentary and also one of my teachers (Nick) who has agreed to be in on of my interviews. In order to find more contributors I have told many people about my project and tried to reach out on my social media platforms.

I am currently in the process of watching mental health films and documentary and trying to get inspiration for my own idea. I have also looked up different facets and statistics which I wish to place in my documentary. This will be a good way of filling the gaps between the interviews that I do. For the college students interviews I was thinking of holding them in one of the small rooms as I believe that it will show a sense of connection between me and my contributors.

 

• I never got any responses from people that I contacted online.

• Bee was not keen on my idea.

 

Personal Reaction

Today was rather useful although it was also quite repetitive as we were continuing with our research for our creative conscious. The most interesting part of this session for me was going through all of the websites looking for more facts and comments to help me find contributors.

 

11/11/17 - Pitch

 

What I have learnt/ What happened/Personal Reaction

 

Today I started working on my pitch. It was quite easy for me to work on my pitch because I pretty much used the same setup as my pitch from last years FMP. In my pitch I made a powerpoint presentation and I spoke about my idea, the style of my documentary, equipment which will be used and similar productions which has given me inspiration for my documentary. My pitch is currently nine slides long and there is still plenty more which I need to add into it before it is complete for example different types of shots I need to use and research that I did to help me develop my idea.

I also did other research into my idea and watched clips from different documentaries on mental health to help me develop my idea.

What went wrong/Weaknesses

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What action did I take

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Personal Reaction

I found that this lesson was very good and useful. I really enjoyed doing my pitch because it was nice and simple for me as I have done one many times before. I also got lots of research done as well.
 

16/11/17 - Film Week (Detroit)

Description - Today we went to the vue cinema in Angel in Islington to watch the 1967 set movie Detroit. This was on a wednesday morning alongside the rest of my class and other students that do media subjects in the college. I found this film extremely captivating. Although this was a very interesting movie it also made me feel very emotional as it was set in a racist era so showed what life was like for blacks living in the 60s.

After the film we were told we could go straight home. When I got home I continued working on my creative conscious paperwork and research.

 

What went well?

The movie I watched was very enjoyable. I was very excited to watch this when it came out in the cinemas and when we got the opportunity to watch it for free with college this made me even more happy. This was also a good way to spend time with my fellow pals on the course.

 

Problems Faced

• Sonia and Bee were rather disappointed with us when we did not attend the other film trips even though these are all movies that we have already seen.

• The weather was very bad on this day which unmotivated me. It was raining and was windy.

 

08/12/17 - First Day of filming

Description -

Today I did my first shoot for my creative conscious. The shots that I took were mainly test shots but there is a lot of things I recording that I wish to use in my documentary. For example I took a nice panning shot of my road and the school next to my house. I also took a nice shot of the church and cars going up a hill in muswell hill.I filmed these shots alongside a fellow student who helped me carry things from location to location which made the whole filming process quicker and easier. For the rest of the week I wish to film my interviews. The people that I hope to film before the christmas break is Dace, Nick and Alex who have all agreed to talk to me about the mental health conditions that they face. Another person that I wish to film is Meghan who is a friend of Sinead. Sinead gave me this connection when she found out that my documentary was also on mental health and she told me that Meghan would be more than happy to be interviewed. Each interview will be no longer than 3 minutes.

 

Problems Faced

It was really good that I took these test shots although it was quite difficult filming when it was very cold and windy. This horrible weather really demotivated me during the filming process. I also didn’t have much storage left on my SD Card. This meant that I had to spend time deleting a lot of my old footage or footage that I don't need which took up a lot of my filming time. I also spent about 40 minutes filming when I scheduled to spend 1 hour filming. The person that I took filming with me was being rather impatient and kept on complaining about the weather.

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Actions to take

• In order to make sure I do not get demotivated from the weather I will make sure that I wear more layers when I go out filming.

• I am going to buy a new SD Card which has more storage space on it so I don't have to face the issue of deleting videos during filming time.

• On my next filming day I will be sure to bring along someone who is more professional and will assist me in a mature manner.

 

Personal Reaction

I thought that this was a very useful day. Although not everything went according to the schedule I still managed to get some amazing shots which I wish to to include in my creative conscious.

 

04/01/18 - Placing my footage on final cut pro

Description - Today I secured my editing computer and began placing all of the footage I had on final cut pro. I showed Bee the street shots I took and she liked them except she sad that there were not enough of the shots that I’ve learnt in college and said that I should re film them. I also showed her the green screen room interviews that I done and the sound quality was not very good on them due to the echo. In tomorrow's lesson I am going to be filming in one of the computer rooms where there is less echo and ambience noises. I will be re filming the interviews with Alex, Nick and Dave.

 

Critical Incidents

• I discovered that my sound was no good because of the echo in the green screen room.

• I also found it confusing to change the colour of my background.

 

Actions Taken

As my audio wasn’t up to scratch I decided that I would equalize my audio as it was the most I could do considering my deadline was very soon. In order to understand how to change my background to make it white I had to watch different YouTube tutorials as Bee and sonia were occupied throughout the day.

 

Personal Reaction

I thought that this day was very productive as I got at least half of my footage uploaded onto the Final Cut Pro. At this point in the Creative Conscious I still have some more shots to film which I hope to get done as soon as possible.

 

15/01/18 - Deadline Day

Description -

Today is deadline day which means all my production paperwork should be finished and my edit must be completed. I have a list of things that I still needed to complete before 5pm. I have to complete

 

Filming Minds Unlimited

 

What I have learnt/ What happened/Personal Reaction

 

During the half term, I had planned with 2 of my actors the date we had to film. Even know it was not convenient for me I had to find it to be convenient as my actors where the main part of my project as everything I worked production paperwork wise r they were basically putting it it together for the screens.  I was very confident as I felt I was on top of everything, and was not falling behind as when I go back to college I will only have the two weeks to edit, which I thought would be fine. Furthermore, waiting for the day to come to film I decided to focus on my paperwork and making sure it was done to the best of my ability.

 

What went wrong/Weaknesses

Unfortunately I did experience a number of issues. Firstly, my actors let me down the night before and messaged me and said they were not able to do it as they were ill because of the weather. This was a big downfall for me as I understood because I was sick but thought they could have informed me a few days before instead of the night before the actual day. Furthermore, I did not think this would have been an issue for me which is the reason why I did not have a plan B as I have always known Mean to be Punctual and to not let down last minute.

What action did I take?

The actions I took was the following day going to college, I spoke with Bee and Sonia and had Dave as my plan B luckily who could do it. Unfortunately we never got round to filming. However, Izzy Stokes was my last option to film as I didn't have anyone else in mind that has gone through a journey experiencing mental health. However I emailed her and she got bk to me the night before and said she couldn't do it. I had that feeling she was not able to do it as it was very late notice.

 

What’s my next plan?

Discussing what direction I should go in with Bee or Sonia.

 

Final Evaluation

What I have learnt/ What happened/Personal Reaction

 

Today's deadline day, and I have not filmed. Discussing this with people I told her if she can just give me a fail. However, this will be shown to the university that I want to go to. Knowing this Bee gave me an idea and said to me that I should film different individuals in college, standing in front of a white background saying different words associated with mental health issues and get them to think of 10 words associated with the word. This will be an elegant video as I feel it will get a big word across to some extent about the certain situations individuals go through. Furthermore, I have decided to use a number of individuals so there was be a number of words be spoken about briefly.

 

What went wrong/Weaknesses

 

Nothing has gone wrong so far. The only weakness I have at the moment is that I will have a very short time to film so incase my video is not as good, i’m trying to update my reflective journals as much as possible just so it can boost up my grade to at least a merit.

 

What action did I take

Go back through my paperwork, just making sure it's up to scratch and to make my reflective journals are updated to a good amount.

 

What’s my next plan?

My next plan is to film and edit to the best of my ability as I have to hand my project in at 5:30.

 

    Strengths, Weakness, Threats and Opportunities

I feel that my strengths have increased much better from the last projects. The reason I say this is because I managed my time. The reason I say this is because I completed all my paperwork at the right time and did not find anything negative wrong with it and completed it to the same standard as my last FMP. This was mainly because of how the 72 hour challenge was and how it helped me realize that if i focused work won't be needed to be dragged on to the deadline day when im stressing.

Weakness throughout Creative Conscious was just the filming as its deadline day to and I have not filmed, as my actors let me down last minute. However, honestly, i have not stressed at all as I have been very laid back with this project as all I've wanted to do was start my FMP.

I have and can come  across  a few threats. Firstly people not showing up on time, or letting me down a number of times which, I did experience. Secondly, not completing my work on time. Secondly, having the weather rain suddenly, Thirdly, the lighting not being as good as it can be.

The opportunities I can and will come across was having a range of feedback throughout and also having a boy in the second year called Alex to look over my video for me when it's done. This will good as he will give me good feedback on my video and will tell me how to improve kt and what he enjoyed about it and what changes he thinks I can do to improve it.