Weekly Reflection

Week 1 - February 22nd -> February 28th

I have decided that I will do a 'film noir' period piece for my Final Major Project. This is what I wanted to do last year for my FMP but unfortunately couldn't due to COVID. I decided on this as it is something I have always wanted to do. I didn't do anything other than come up with the idea this week as I was still working on the last unit.

Week 2 - March 1st -> March 7th

This week, I fully moved onto my FMP and have started making my pitch. I created the slideshow and made a mood board with lots of interesting film noir shots that I wanted to replicate. We started to create our websites on Wix as well. I tried to design my website in an aesthetically pleasing way that tied in with the film noir theme.

Week 3 - March 8th -> March 14th

I finished my pitch slideshow and then moved onto my secondary research. I have not started primary research yet, however it just so happened that it was more convenient to conduct my secondary research first. I started by watching film noir films and taking notes about what the aspects that I liked from them and particular cliches that I wanted to play on.

Week 4 - March 15th -> March 21st

I had a change of ideas. My friend and I are setting up a sport supplement company and I decided that in order to get everything done I would need to combine the two. I have decided to do an advertisement for our pre-workout supplement as my FMP instead. I made an entirely new pitch slideshow about my new idea and then started my new primary and secondary research. I also made two market research surveys and shared them on my social media. I have significantly stepped up the work rate as I am now tight for time. I also read 'The 1-Page Marketing Plan' this week.

Week 5 - March 22nd -> March 28th

I did a lot of work getting up to speed over the Easter break. I have set myself a goal of doing an hour of work on my FMP every weekday, which I have stuck to this week and intend to stick to until the project is done. I have also set up a task manager/productivity system on Notion to help me stay organised and get everything done. This week has been mainly putting stuff on my website that I did in the previous week. My website is now looking a lot better and I feel no longer behind.

Week 6 - March 29th -> April 11th

This week, I have done a lot more secondary research, such as studying other videos and figuring out what aspects I should take from them based off of my primary research. I also read a summary of 'Thinking Fast and Slow' and intend to read 'Neuromarketing for Dummies.' I designed my packaging in Adobe Illustrator, which will be what is used for both the actual product and the product in the advert. I have been sticking to my pledge to do an hour of work every weekday and it has been paying off.

Week 7 - April 12th -> April 18th

I was given feedback on what I had produced over Easter and was told that I need to keep on top of my evaluations and organise my website better. This is what I started the week by doing. I then conducted my experimental research and now have a good idea of how I am going to actually make my FMP happen. The experimental research also helped me realise how much time I will need roughly to shoot the video. To finish off the week, I did my problem solving and tried to think of solutions to any potential problems I could potentially encounter when shooting my FMP. I also started to get in contact with the graphics department about how I would go about getting a label printed off.

Week 8 - April 19th -> April 25th

At the start of this week, I was told that my secondary research was not yet up to standard. I already had more planned for my secondary research, so I took this criticism onboard and tried my best to improve it. I read most of 'Neuromarketing for Dummies' and a 'Thinking, Fast and Slow summary'. I also took notes on this for my research. I also started to look at a few Youtube videos. The planning phase also started this week, I wrote my script and made a storyboard. I managed to get my label printed off, however there are a few adjustments I would possibly like to make to it. I am currently in the process of trying to book the TV studio, the college gym, a C100 and some LED lights. Unfortunately, the college IT system is down, which is quite irritating, as I would like to start production next week.

Week 9 - April 26th -> May 2nd

Unfortunately, I was not able to start production this. The college network was still down and I was told that I have to book everything by email. This was far from ideal because every location needs to be booked. My hands are tied at the moment and all I can really do is work on my planning and research a bit more. The stress is really starting to kick in as it feels like my grade is a bit out of my control. Of course, I could try to work around this but as it's an advert I genuinely want to use for a product, I want it to be as good as possible.

Week 10 - May 3rd -> May 9th

Yet another week has passed and it doesn't feel like I've done enough. I am now starting to fall behind schedule. I managed to get the TV studio booked for the morning of the Friday. I was able to get my greenscreen shots done, however, the product shots I was also going to shoot looked terrible. I think this is probably due to using LED lights as opposed to the soft boxes I have at home. No matter how hard I tried, I could not seem to get the shots looking anywhere near the standard of my experimental research. I decided I would do the product shots at home in exactly the same manner as my experimental research. Unfortunately, when I got home, I discovered the spray bottle I had packed for a practical effect had leaked all over my product. This caused the paper to wrinkle up and is now unusable. I will have to wait until someone from the graphics department is in college before I can print it off again. Unfortunately, there are not many staff in college due to there being no internet, so many are working from home.

Week 11 - May 10th -> May 16th

I am still trying to get hold of the correct people in order for me to shoot. I am really starting to get stressed as I am running out of time and there isn't much I can do about it. I started my production diary this week, in order to document the little progress I have made. I have been told that I need to wait for next week to shoot and if I still can't get the gym booked, I need to start a backup plan. I recognise that I am cutting it quite fine here, so I will make sure that I have everything done on my website that I physically can without having shot everything, over the weekend. I also went in on Friday to help Ben shoot. I shot all his behind the scenes for him, which I will also put on my website as I actually put a lot of effort into it. This will be on my production diary page.

Week 12 - May 17th -> May 23rd

I was finally able to shoot this week. I shot the product shots and the gym shots after I was able to get the label printed by a private company. I was very happy with the product shots but not so happy with the gym shots. I only had an hour to shoot and then no one turned up, so that hour turned into half an hour, which is not ideal. I had to make the most of it though.