Ben Smith's Blog

Lockdown Evaluation In this evaluation I shall be evaluating my “LockDown” assignment. I will discuss the research process, the pre-production, the production, the post production, and finally my conclusions. I will examine my strengths and weaknesses, and also areas for improvement. At the beginning of the assignment, I created a survey about how people would understand disability and wanted to find out more. I found this quite challenging, as it was hard to find a suitable set of questions, and I found it difficult to come up with the right questions to ask, but also not too personal, as I was concerned that people wouldn’t answer. The research phase was something that I enjoyed, as I wanted to do it differently from what I had done previously, which was to create a poll on Instagram for people to respond to. I also created a short interview with my mum discussing disabilities, which in turned gave me a couple of ideas for my vlog. I also watched videos about my hero Rob Pars...

PRE PRODUCTION Unfortunately, due to the current crisis in the world, I would have put a lot more into the pre-production stage, by creating story boards etc. and going into more depth in the risk assessment and location recce etc. Also because I was limited as to what I could do with the production, the pre-production was also limited. Below are the pre-production documents that I could produce whilst I  was at home  

SECONDARY RESEARCH For my secondary research, I have been researching my idol, a drift racer called Rob Parsons. This man is my idol and inspiration, because has had a difficult section of his life. This section of his life has been taken away from him due to his accident, but he has persevered and overcome this massive hurdle in life by getting back into motor sport via drifting. I also created a short questionnaire to put on Instagram to see what people think about disabilities. I have decided to make an infographic to present my research, and say why this research will help me make my vlog. From my research I have found out that Rob Parsons is a really talented driver and has overcome a massive challenge, and he has persevered through it all. If he can do it, I can do it. My research tells me ...

Primary Research Because my project is about my disability and lockdown, I have decided that for my primary research I will do a 1:1 interview with my mum, as she knows all about me and my disability. I think this will help me when I make my vlog, because my mum is my carer, and she has helped me throughout my 20 plus years, going through problems with school hospital and other things. My mum is very aware of my capabilities and what I struggle with e.g. cooking, carrying heavy objects and going out and about. Interviewing my mum helps me see my disability from a different perspective. These are the results of the interview- 1.        Did you think you may have a disabled child when you were younger? Yes, I did, when I was younger, when I was about 15, I had a premonition that I would have a disabled child. 2.        Did you understand disabilities before I was born? No I didn’t, but when I was younger I used ...

 Lockdown  In this essay I shall be discussing my lockdown project. This will be in the style of a vlog, where I can share my personal experiences about my time in lockdown. Also, how it has affected me with my disability and my struggles. I shall also discuss what it is like to live my life during lockdown. I will be talking about what I'm finding hard with my new day to day life, and the ways in which I'm adapting to this. I will also discuss the issues I will face when making my vlog. My vlog will be in the style of a real vlog, which is in the style of a documentary about my life under lockdown. I have never made a vlog style project before, but I want a challenge, even though I am not sure how successful I will be. I wanted to make a documentary for my FMP during this college year with one of my peers, but the situation in the world has made this impossible. So, I have decided to make this project about my disability, and how the crisis has made times hard right...

Short Film from a Genre and Auteur Perspective For the short film that I have produced for the past month, it is the genre of "Horror". Two of the codes and conventions of my horror are the use of a dark colour palette throughout the film and low key lighting, I also used extreme close-ups as can be seen in the phone box shots as the main character is talking about his plan, and of the mobile phone on the floor. The reason why I used a close-up on the phone because I want the audience to focus on the phone as it creates suspense. I used zombies because the living dead is a recognised theme in the horror genre. I used slow editing to build up the suspense for the audience. I didn't use flashbacks because I didn't feel that the film was long enough. Other conventions that I did not use were quick flashing shots or jump scares. My film did not add anything new to the genre, as most of the ideas have already been taken and I am only studying at college My usual ...