Week 1:

This is the first week of being introduced to the A2 OCR media course. We
were directed to the OCR brief page in
order to choose what brief and what
coursework we would like to select for
A2. Compared to the AS course there is
a much wider choice of media we could
select, for example video games and
music videos. Selecting the brief was an
overwhelming process as it determines
a large amount of our A level grade.
Originally I selected the film trailer
brief, I began to analyse trailers such as
the Godzilla trailer and the Son of
Rambo trailer. After analysing these
trailers I made a U-turn and decided
against the trailer, this felt like a big
decision to make as I was off and
running on the research. However I believe making a successful trailer proved
very difficult without telling a story and giving to much away which would have
greatly affected my production marks therefore I turned against it and opted
for the short film process.

That night I began watching different short films
in order to see what makes a good one and what
makes bad one. The ones I found most moving
was Love field by Mathieu Ratthe and Elefante by
Pablo
Larcuen so I
began to
analyse
them.

Week 2
This week I will be looking into institutions that can distribute short films. I
have decided to study Film Londons London Calling. This is an independent
organisation that typically distributes first time film makers and script writers
projects. Studying this organisation
has given me the opportunity to look
at the types of short films that get
distributed and the quality that they
reach.
I additionally this week looked at the
BFI and the short films that they produce. Comparatively to London Calling, the
BFi tend to distribute and produce known and experienced script writers
work. This in my opinion is clear to see in the final
product, for example it is obvious that the short
films produced by the BFI had a much larger
production budget with higher quality actors.
If I was to choose between these organisations who
would distribute my short film, I would choose the BFI. The BFI are an
internationally known distribution company, therefore if my film was to be
distributed by this institution it is highly likely that viewing figures will be much
higher than that of London Calling. Additionally if the BFI were involved I would
have a much larger budget available to my disposal.
I found this section of research interesting as previous to the research I was
not aware of institutions that produce short film other than the BFI. It was
interesting to see how an independent organisation operated and distributed
their films compared to the BFI.








Week 3
My aims for this week were to produce a research survey that would enable
me to see and understand what my target audience would like to see in a short
film. I attempted to be as open as possible with my questions to try and get as I
tried to get detailed opinions from my target audience on what they believe
makes a good short film. This is the, in my opinion, most important aspect of
my research as it enables me to collect responses from my target audience and
therefore directs the way my short film will flow and the content of my short
film.

To create this survey I created Survey Monkey. This is a website which allows
you to create and distribute surveys over the internet for free. The use of the
internet enables me to collect results from all over the world and not just my
class. It also allows me to see what different cultures think of short film and
how they should look and what content message should be. My questions I
included are below.





Week 4

I completed research this week into film classifications, I found this section of
research very challenging for my research. All I could find was classification
systems for films, not short films, therefore I decided to do in depth research
into the BBFC and films that they have certified. I researched the BBFC and the
process that they go through to classify a
short film. To further research I looked at how
the institutions would classify to film at
different ends of the spectrum, Shrek and
Snatch an 18 and a PG.


This week I also decided to start looking at posters for sci-fi films. This was
done to allow me to see the common conventions in a sci-fi film. I thought
posters would be the best way to do this as it is the common codes and
conventions which will draw the audience in to watch the film, this would also
be highlighted within the poster it is a marketing mechanism to draw the
audience in. I looked at Tron the sci-fi, fantacy Disney film this week.





Week 4

I continued to look into posters this
week as last week I feel it helped me
develop my knowledge. This is greatly
beneficial for me as it enables me to
understand what my audience are
looking for in the short film. This week
I analysed two posters. I looked at The
Matrix, an award winning sci-fi film
and I also analysed Thirteen, a film
about a relationship between two
teenagers. This was done because I
intend for my short film to be about
the developing relationship between
two characters.



Week 5 and 6

This week my results came through for my survey. I sent it off to people in my
class, teachers and other media knowledgeable people. It was interesting to
see what my target audience came back with as I
genuinely did not know to expect. In my survey I asked
the audience for information such as their age and gender
as it enabled me to see whether they would fit into my
target audience and therefore how valid there responces
would be.








I continued this analysis for the next week as well as I only
had 8 responses to work with. It also took a lot longer to
interpret the results and what they meant for my final
piece.







Week 7

This week I decided to complete another short film analysis. I did this as all the
posters I was looking at were
posters for full length films. By
analysing another short film it
allowed me to get back into the
short film mind set.
For this short film analysis I
worked with George Feast to
create the analysis. This was
done because he is the person I
will be producing my short film
with, it gives us the opportunity
to work together for the first
time and see how one another
take apart and analyse a short
film and understand how one
another works.









Week 8

This week I created and edited a Vox Pop. I enjoyed this section of my research
as it was the second opportunity I have had to use a camera and practise my
camera framing, even if it was just created a Vox Pop. It also gave me an
opportunity to speak personally to my target audience and see what they
would like