Today we had our briefing about our Year 1 Final Major Project (FMP). This will be a big, detailed project over many weeks.
First Initial Idea
Before the coronavirus lockdown, I'd been thinking about different ideas of what I'd like to do for my FMP for quite a while and I already had a number of ideas about what to do. I had pretty much settled on one that I was really pleased with, doing a chase scene utilising a lot of different camera movements, because over the course of this year I have become fascinated by the use of camera movement in Films and TV shows and the effect that it has. I discuss these initial ideas in more detail in the Initial Ideas section of my website.
However, it was apparent that filming a chase scene was not going to be feasible if we remain under lockdown for the duration of the FMP, and at this stage no one knows how long lockdown will last. I could have gone ahead and planned the chase scene in the hope that we would not still be under lockdown, but this didn’t feel like a sensible decision. I felt it was better to plan a film that I could still make if we are under lockdown. So, I made the decision to start my idea planning again, from scratch.
Re-thinking my Initial Ideas
Tom had sent us all a very useful extract document from a book called "On Being a Photographer" by David Hurn in conversation with Bill Jay, about choosing a subject for a Photography Project because Tom explained that the principles are the same as for choosing a Film Project. So, I decided to try using the principles from this extract. You brainstorm some initial ideas then you ask yourself 4 questions to reduce them down to the best ideas. The 4 questions are
1) Is it visual? Although some subjects which don’t immediately appear visual could be with a lot of thought, this question is still a way of focusing on ideas with the most visual potential.
2) Is it practical? This includes being accessible. The example given in the extract is Japanese pagodas – of course I could find footage and photos of Japanese pagodas, however it would be so much better to be able to film them myself, but most people can't just fly off to Japan.
3) Is it a subject about which I know enough? You can do research to learn but the extract suggests that at least "enough" knowledge is useful to be able to add something rather than just re-hashing what has been done before.
4) Is it interesting to others? This is the final question to ask yourself if, after the other questions, you have a few possibilities all of which are otherwise good.
Following this process, which I have written more about in my "Initial Ideas" section, I settled on the idea of D&D (the fantasy role playing quest game Dungeons and Dragons) including how D&D can teach you useful skills to help with real life. Usually a group of about 3-8 D&D players would meet up in person but now there are more ways for a group to "get together" online and play, like using Roll20 (online D&D app) and Discord (Voice calling app). I felt it met the criteria of the 4 questions because it can be a very visual game with lots of images available, it is definitely accessible to me since I play it regularly both as a player and DM (Dungeon Master, who runs the game) and both in person and online using Roll20. The online nature makes it accessible even during lockdown. I am pretty knowledgeable about it, and my Podcast included reference to an aspect of it. Also, although many people think of it as a nerds and geeks game, it actually has a huge and passionate fan base so it would be interesting to others. The format would have been an informative video about the usefulness of D&D in real life that could go on YouTube. However…
…I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it just felt like something was missing. I couldn’t work out what at first, since it is a subject that I am passionate about. I tried starting to plan out my ideas of what a finished product would look like. It wasn't coming together. When I told one of our tutors, Nargess, about the idea, the feedback that she gave me wasn't exactly negative about my idea, but she didn’t sound that impressed either. This confirmed my doubts. I decided that I really needed to try to analyse and understand my own concerns. I didn’t want to go forward with an idea that I had doubts about, since I want my FMP to be really good, the best that it can be. And if I have doubts then that could come across in my work. So, I decided to have another re-think.
Diary and Blog
After hearing about how we need to do a regular blog as part of our project, I decided to start keeping a diary in Word as well, for myself. My thought is that, since I am dyslexic, it is not easy to type directly into a blog which will be published, as I need to be able to "splurge" my thoughts onto "paper" then go over them and make some sense of them and organise them into an understandable order. I also like to be able to spell check everything before other people see it. So, in my diary I can splurge, I can just add notes about thoughts as they occur to me, even just one or 2 words that will make sense to me but not to anyone else reading them. This way I will be able to keep an immediate record of all my thoughts. I decided that this would then give me a good basis for writing my twice weekly blog.
Overall Reflection and Evaluation
I started off feeling a bit concerned because I had felt so secure with my original "chase scene" idea, and lockdown has turned everything upside down, and there doesn’t seem to be much time to come up with a workable alternative. However, I feel this is good practise for working in an industry where things are often fast moving, problems of all sorts can throw initial ideas into disarray, and solutions need to be found quickly and innovatively. So, I am trying to embrace the challenge and use it as a learning and developing opportunity, trying to think outside the box.
Likewise, I am trying to use this project as an opportunity to find good solutions to certain challenges that my dyslexia presents me with. On the whole, I like being dyslexic since one aspect is that I think very visually, which is great for making films. So, it will be good to challenge myself to find solutions for slightly more problematic areas of my dyslexia like blog writing, e.g. keeping a "rougher" diary to use as a basis for a blog.
My Key Learnings: I learnt that it is a good idea to take what feels like a negative situation and see it as a challenge and opportunity to develop my skills.
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