Review of the pre production process of a digital media project

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As a team we were asked to create a film opening for a thriller genre. Although we worked as a part of a group, I understood that my individual role would include researching other thriller films and deconstructing the codes and conventions of this type of genre, researching different fundings for films and also writing a report about my findings. This was all established on our individual blogs on the Wix website.

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Onset of the project 

During our first team meeting we discussed our brief and if we understood what we were asked to do. Through this meeting we also decided ideas for our plot such as, the message we wanted the audience to convey, the setting, character ideas, the location and also eventually our sub genre. Our team meetings were productive as we communicated successfully as our ideas were documented on a mindmap. Each team member was productive as we delegated our roles fairly. For example, even though we shared the roles, I had the opportunity to research options of subgenres, the conventions of these and also scribe for different group meetings on different days. This impacted the project positively as it helped the progress of our ideas and improved the standard of our film. However it could have also slowed down production due to members not completing their set tasks. 

 

Research

Initially we researched different theories conveyed in films such as the binary opposites theory and also then individually researched a film that supported this theory whilst also having a similar subgenre to our chosen one. This theory entailed Claud Levi Strauss stating that the majority of media such as films and books contains opposing main characters, which helps develop the plot. Therefore using this theory aided our group in deciding our protagonist and antagonist as it offered us different ways to support or challenge this theory. For our first task we split into pairs and set up an online questionnaire that surrounded the topics of what our target audience wanted to see in our film opening. After receiving the responses, I found out that 75% of the respondents would watch a thriller film with a female led cast. Thus I understood that choosing 2 of our group members to act would satisfy our audience. Making this decision was fairly easy in our group due to the fact it had low risks and we all agreed with the idea. 

 

However after finding 87.5% of respondents were aged 15-17, it became clear that we had a decision to make about the age rating of the film. Therefore we quickly chose to have it at 15+ as this questionnaire was aimed at our original target market. 

 

Therefore we understood that to be successful we had to conduct multiple tasks to aid with our creative process as it ensured we were prepared for our filming sessions later on. We did this by sharing each task individually to be more time efficient. The collective research that was conducted  all together included shot lists,editing experiments and researching titles. 

However whilst playing a part in these roles, my research other days included drawing out storyboards, taking a turn at collecting sound, creating a SWOT analysis table based on our previous group meetings  and conducting filming experiments. During these filming experiments I completed a composition task and experimented with different lighting by taking a series of photos to see which one would suit a thriller film. 
 

Whilst doing these tasks independently, we also completed our location recce, our costume, make up and props plan. We had a few issues with our location recce, as originally we made it last minute, and then when we changed our location we did not create a new one until later on, after we had already filmed there. Also during our creative process I produced a thriller film rationale that showed we understood the details of our brief and how we conducted the planning of our film. Overall the research was purposeful and the only task we did not complete was a script as we decided to have very little/ almost no dialogue in our film opening. 

 

Logistics

During the pre production process we had several logistical issues we had to overcome. Due to us having four members in the group, we had more factors to consider. We needed to consider the risks of our locations and also travelling to get there. We did this by discussing and writing up a risk assessment that concluded any problems we may face whilst trying to get to our location, what to do if they did come up, any problems surrounding the set up at our locations such as any dangers and how we would handle them. I reported our solutions in the form of a mindmap. 

 

For example, one factor we had to consider was availability of actors and bus fares/ times. To overcome this we chose two of our group members to be our actors as they would already be available to film. Thus we also realised it would save spending money on extra tickets for other individuals. A second factor we had to consider was ensuring we arrived and left with all of the equipment we borrowed. Thus I took the responsibility of creating a list of tagging every item we took and crossing it off when we left the school site and also our filming location. 

 

Another complication we had to factor in was what would happen if any of our group members became ill, or were infected with covid-19 and would have to self-isolate. Thus to ensure we were prepared, we documented all precautions that the government advised such as wearing masks whilst travelling, sanitising our hands and equipment after use, social distancing and also ensuring we took lateral flow tests before we left to film . This risk assessment was successful as it helped us ensure that the production of the film was not slowed. However, although illness did not affect us during filming, it impacted our editing sessions. Therefore meaning that a few members were missing and behind on any edits we had 

made. 
 

Finance

Working on a full scale production for a thriller film would incur huge costs and my research showed me that I could acquire finance in the following ways like kickstarter funding, crowdfunding, and government funding.As we were aiming to work with little to no budget we chose to borrow camera and sound equipment from our school as it would ensure we would not pay anything for rental. However even though we had no budget, one of our members continued to make a budget spreadsheet to imitate how we would organise our finances if we did have one. This was successful as during our filming sessions we returned each camera, tripod, battery and deadcat mic with no damages or misplacements for no cost. If we had to acquire a budget I think we would’ve chosen to finance our project through crowdfunding as it would be the most efficient way to pitch our film idea to a group of people.