WEEKLY BLOG
Week Two - Research
RESEARCH
What did you learn from your
research?
How has the research for your
medium helped you improve your
ideas?
How has the research for your genre
helped you improve your ideas?
In my research I learnt about a variety of different things,
firstly I looked into the history of short films which Is my
chosen medium for this project, I learnt that in the beginning
all films where short as they did not have the technology to
make feature length films. I also learnt that that the definition
of a short film is ‘a film that Is less than 40 minutes long’. As
well as this I looked at some short films to see how they are
made, I found that they are often very simple as they are used
to show off the creators skills so that they can be noticed and
then given the chance to create their own feature length film,
this is also why people submit their work to film festivals. I
also researched into the genre of my production which is gang
drama, I looked into the typical codes and conventions so that
I could incorporate them into my production, this was things
like costumes, props, locations and typical narratives as well
as typical editing styles and camera angles. I looked at two
short films from within my genre to see how they had been
made and what made them effective, one of the productions I
looked at was called ‘Amani’ and it was very helpful for me as
some elements of its narrative where similar to my narrative,
the main thing was how it showed that the character changed
and developed throughout the production, this was shown
through the clothes that the character wore and the way that
he acted, this was hugely helpful for me as I am now able to
apply this to my production to improve it. I also research into
professional directors to see what makes their work so good, I
found that they each have their own unique style that makes
their work stand out so I am going to make sure that my work
is unique.
The research that I did helped me to understand what a short
film was, it allowed me to understand what went into making
one. This allowed me to find out that a short film has to be
under 40 minutes, I was planning on making my production
shorter than this any way. The survey I sent out told me that
my audience would expect a short film to be about 10 minutes
long so that is how long I am going to aim to make my
production. I researched into why short films are made and it
made me think about what I wanted to get out of this
production, it made me realise that I need to showcase my
skills as best as possible as it is something I can add to my
portfolio. Researching the history gave me a good
understanding of where short films came from but it did not
affect my idea.
By looking at other short films and analysing them it allowed
me to see how they were made and what made them

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
effective. I learnt that the story needs to keep the audience
engaged and the best way to this is build a lot of tension a
keep the story surprising so it’s not predictable. I also saw how
they made use of different techniques as well as how they
applied the codes and conventions, this made me think about
how I would use them in my work.
By researching the codes and conventions of crime/ gang
dramas it allowed me to understand what I needed to put into
my production to make it effective. I found out quickly that my
production will not be following the typical narrative of the
genre but it will have similar elements like the fall of a
character. I learnt about the different types of characters
needed in the story to make it work, I then thought of ways to
implement these characteristics into my characters like how
the villain needs to be slightly insane to make him scary and
show that he enjoys what he does. Looking at costumes made
me realise that what the character wear in my production is
really up to me but I need to be careful with how it makes
them come across because appearance says a lot about a
person, because of this I decided I want there to be a clear
difference between the gangsters and everyone else. When it
came to the props I learnt that there are a few that are
commonly seen throughout the genre but most of the time the
props are only relevant to the story so it made me think about
what I would need to use for my production. I learnt that the
typical location for the genre is in a busy city but it is also
common to find them set elsewhere, this really made me think
about where I wanted my production to be set as I hadn’t
decided but eventually I decided I wanted it be set in a small
town so that the story would be relatable to more people and
also easier to film. When looking at camera angles I learnt
about different angles and their uses, this made me think
about when would be appropriate points in my production to
use them, I decided to use close ups every time the main
character commits a crime. Looking into editing did not really
help me as a lot of the techniques I would not be able to apply
to my production however I did think of a way to use parallel
editing by going between the criminals and non-criminals. The
music used in the genre is not very exciting, tension building
music to build tension and sad music when something bad
happens, however sometimes hip-hop music is used when it is
appropriate because of this I want to use “Gimmie the loot” by
The Notorious BIG when the main character is robbing
someone.
By using both primary and secondary research it has given me
two different sets of information. The primary research
consists of surveys or focus groups which means the people
answering them will be around my age which is the same age
as my target audience, this means that my primary research
helps me to make my production more appealing to my target
audience as the result I get are their opinions. The secondary
research I find on the internet, this gives me the facts about
the medium/ genre so I can use it to make my production
more fitting and make it seem more professional.
When doing research into my content I originally planned on
researching gang initiations and reasons that friends fall out
proposed project?
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?
What work do you need to complete
outside of lessons to stay on track?
but when I started looking into gang initiations I found that
there is a lot more that goes into making a gang. Firstly I found
out that the reason that people join gangs in the first place is
because they are often manipulated into thinking it’s the right
thing to do, this lead me to research manipulation techniques.
I also researched different gang activities to see what sort of
things they get up to.
By researching into manipulation techniques it will help me to
plan out how I want the gang member character to act as I
want him to manipulate another character into joining a gang.
The research into gang activities helps me to write some of
the narrative as I need to know what the character will do
whilst he is hanging out with a gang member.
The research into the content has helped me to make my
production more realistic as rather than completely make up
elements of the story I can use things that I researched to
make the story more believable. In my production the main
theme is about someone joining a gang so I researched into
different gang initiations to see what I could use in my
productions to make it seem real. I also looked into reasons
that friends fall out because it is a key part of my story so I
don’t want it to seem stupid, I found some ways that I could
incorporate in to my story so that it would make sense and be
sensible.
By looking at the work of professional directors I was able to
see what makes their work so successful. I found that they
each have a unique style that makes their work stand out so I
will ensure that my work is unique. I also found that they have
a signature that they are known for, Tarantino is known for his
unique narrative style and extreme use of gore, Scorsese is
known as the ‘king of the tracking shot’ for his effective use of
the tracking shot. I will try and implement Tarantino’s unique
narrative style and Scorsese’s tracking shot into my
production to see if I can make my work as good as theirs.
I am all up to date for this week.