Extra Research Evaluation and Reflection
Generally I am constantly reflecting on and evaluating all areas of my Year 2 FMP in my head as I go and I am using my reflections and evaluations to inform my decisions as to where to go next. I use my ongoing Journals to document this. However, since Research is such an important part of my whole Year 2 FMP, I wanted to write something specific about my reflections and evaluation about my research here.
Research and me
When I started to plan, evaluate and reflect upon my research for this Year 2 FMP, I decided to have a look back at my Research Evaluation and Reflection for my Year 1 FMP, since I learnt a lot about myself in that project and have been using what I learnt. I haven’t actually re-read my Year 1 FMP Research Evaluation and Reflection since last summer, however upon re-reading it now, I find it interesting that it is as true now as when I wrote it, and what I have learnt about myself from my research this year, and particularly for my Year 2 FMP, has built upon it. So, to start with, I’d like to recap and reflect upon some particular parts of my Year 1 FMP Research Evaluation and Reflection with quotes from it that stand out for me, then develop what I learnt about me and research since then.
“I have done loads of research, as I hope is evident from my Bibliography List. [Note: True again this year. Even more so.]
I think it is fair to say that “I love research and I hate research”. How can I make what seems to be such a contradictory statement? [Note: Still true]
Well, I love immersing myself in researching all aspects of an interesting topic, especially when it involves films and filmmaking. I love watching behind the scenes footage, re-watching films, seeing other people’s comments online discussing it with people, finding little known facts. My brain goes into overload making links, coming up with all sorts of ideas and I “create” footage and see it in my mind. [Note: Again, still true]
However, I find I really dislike, and find extremely challenging, having to write all my research up. I appreciate why I need to do this as part of a qualification, even one as flexible as the UAL one (which I love). It is like in exams, any awarding body needs to be able to verify that you can do what they are certifying that you can do. And one obvious way is with written evidence. So, I have done my best to present my research. I have certainly acted on it throughout the whole FMP process, and I am confident that it will have improved my finished product and that I have learnt loads that will be useful to me going forward.” [Note: All still true, and I did learn loads that has been helpful to me this year, and will continue to be so]
“I have mentioned elsewhere [Note: last year on FMP 1] about Krysty Wilson-Cairns, screenwriter for 1917 (2019), commenting in an interview with BBC Radio 1 Film Critic Ali Plumb (BBC Radio1, 2020) about watching every single “one shot” movie that she could find after Sam Mendes (Director) rang her, thus immersing herself in it. I know that I can certainly do the whole total immersion part of research and absorb the knowledge, make links etc. I fully appreciate the need while studying to present research in a way appropriate for attaining qualifications, and I feel that this UAL course is the best I found for incorporating research into our projects in as appropriate way to filming too, as possible.”
“Over the course of this year I have learnt about how I research best, to be effective and efficient. I know that some people, as they research, make lots of written notes about what they are learning, because otherwise they won’t remember it. Many of my friends do this. However, I have found that this is not the way that I learn best from my research. [Note: This hasn’t changed and is still true]
While doing my research for my FMP [Note: my Year 1 FMP], I did something that I realised that I haven’t really done before: I tried to analyse and reflect upon just how I research best to try to figure out why that might be. My purpose in doing this is so that hopefully I can make my research as efficient and effective as it can be for this project, and also, and just as importantly, for future projects and for my future career. So here are some of my reflections on how I find I research best, with my attempts to analyse and understand why [Note: this has been useful for this 2nd year of the course]
- The way that I have found that I work best, in terms of absorbing and retaining the information with research, is to totally immerse myself in as much information on a topic as I can. [Note: Very true, I have found that when I give my brain a large quantity of information, in an appropriate format, my brain makes all sort of links and comes up with ideas that I don’t believe I could have thought of by “analysing” the information in a more traditional sense. I find it interesting that people in the Industry such as Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who I wrote about above, talks about “immersing” herself in her research.]
- I find I take information in best if it is in video format, i.e. simultaneously visual and audio. I used to think that I was a visual learner, but I don’t think that I am. I used to think that I was a visual leaner, because I struggle with words (dyslexia) and prefer visual representations, but I have learnt that static images don’t actually stick in my brain either, I really need some motion – good, really, given that I want to go into a moving image industry. I think that I am much more of a kinesthetic learner. Many people associate kinesthetic learners as needing to DO things to learn. “Doing” certainly helps me learn, but I researched this [Note: I researched it last year, as part of my FMP 1], and found that actually it makes even more sense since it is “movement” that stimulates kinesthetic learners to learn best. So, movement in a video that I am watching, movement as I am using a piece of equipment like a camera [Note: Last year I had reflected about how I learn how to use equipment best by using it. I will discuss this further below], movement as I am having an animated discussion with someone about something amazing that I have found out (usually about film).
- I find I am best not to try to take notes. This is because taking notes distracts me from what I am trying to absorb. [Note: So very true still. However, I will also discuss this further below too]. When I take things in and make links, sometimes between things that may not seem to have obvious links, they stay in my memory.
Maybe this is because I see things and take things in differently due to my dyslexia. I generally see dyslexia as a benefit, although I do have to confess there are somethings that it makes challenging.”
Back to this year and the present time (makes sense, my film is about Time Travel, after all)
Last year, after reflecting upon “Research and me” generally, including the quotes above, I went on to reflect upon what I had learnt from the specific research, which I will do below for this this Year 2 FMP as well. But first I want to add to the reflections I quoted above from last year’s FMP 1.
2 comments first that I mention in the [Notes] above.
Firstly, that I learn best how to use a piece of equipment by actually using it and experimenting with it. This is still true, and is very useful, as it was 2 years ago when I got about 5 mins training on how to use a boom camera for the first time (I was there on time, but they were very busy), and then had to use it live on a large screen for a huge audience and follow instructions in my ear from the director at the same time. I feel this is, and always will be a useful skill that not everyone has. However, upon reflection over this last year, especially due to Covid limiting our time in College with all the wonderful equipment, it made me see that although I do learn best this way, when I enter the Industry, I will probably frequently not have the opportunity to solely learn how to use equipment in this way that I prefer and is most effective for me.
This year, for my FMP 2, I knew that we have a College Panasonic S1H 4K camera. My research had made me decide that it would be the best camera for me to use for this project. Ideally, I would have done this research over a longer period in College last term, I would have been able to use this camera and learnt how to use it that way. But I couldn’t do this, due to Covid. So I did have to try to teach myself using alternate methods how to use it. My main method, the next most effective, was to watch YouTube videos of other people using it. This helped a lot. But it’s a camera with a huge number of options, so I did also have to delve into the Manual that was on College Cloud. I couldn’t have got my set up right without looking in the Manual or figured out that this camera would let me achieve what I wanted to achieve. Yes, if we had been in College more last term then I could have asked tutors for a practical demonstration and asked lots of my questions, tried it out, and learnt quickly that way. But that wasn’t an option, so I had to “problem solve”, and find an alternate way. I still don’t particularly like delving into Manuals. My dyslexia doesn’t mean that I can’t read, I can read ok because I worked hard on my reading since it is a vital skill. But it does make reading very hard work, a slower process than for most people and quite exhausting.
Osmosis
For my Film Studies GCSE I had to write an essay during the exam, which was always pretty much the same format. Our essay was on Tsotsi (2005). Our tutor suggested that we write the essay, get it marked, then memorise it. Because of my dyslexia, I couldn’t memorise it, so after I wrote it and I got it marked, I watched, re-watched and kept re-watching the various YouTube videos and behind the scenes footage of the director, Gavin Hood, had made, talking about his reasons for various decisions, with the actors and cinematographer also commenting. I got 20/20, so I think my research methods work. Same for GCSE revision, loads of YouTube clips about all my subjects, including Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Film Studies, Geography, Maths and 2 Englishes, both general videos and lots specific to the syllabus that I was taking. I watched them repeatedly, rather than reading books, and it worked because I got 5 A*’s, 2A’s and 2B’s. In the past, I watched TV programs about directors who researched in a similar immersive way.
What I like about researching this way, is that as well as learning specific useful things, it also allows the weird way that my dyslexic brain works to digest, combine, filter, and reassemble in my own unique way what I am learning. For this project, there have been specific pieces of research that I have noted to use in my film. However, there are also hundreds of other little things that my brain has picked up and incorporated into my overall knowledge that have also affected all my decisions. Because of the research that I have done throughout this course, and specifically for my Year 2 FMP, I have a huge wealth of knowledge that I can now call upon and that is also just part of how I think. I am really looking forward to the UAL Level 4 course that I will hopefully be doing next year, to be able to expand my knowledge even further by immersing myself in so many areas of filmmaking. This Extended Level 3 Diploma has given me the knowledge to understand what I am watching in all areas, and better analyse it inherently, to really increase my knowledge for when I enter the Industry.
I found it interesting, back in January, when I was on a Zoom call with the director Damian Power (TOWIE and Made In Chelsea) and he was telling me about his new feature film that he wanted me to be Runner on (which I did), he was describing quite a lot of it in terms of other films. For one example, he was telling me that he wanted the end scene to have a feel of the final scene of Jaws (1975). At that time, I hadn’t watched Jaws (1975), so I immediately went and watched it, and I could see what he meant. I could see that it’s a sort of Film Language between people in the Feature Film Industry and makes it easier to convey what the director wants. When Damian was describing a certain “look” and “feel” that he wanted, it made me think of the film The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019), and I said that to Damian. Damian was pleased, and he said that was exactly the feel that he was going for.
I also remember, during my research for my Year 1 FMP, that both Sam Mendes, director of 1917 (2019) and his cinematographer Roger Deakins, were mentioning other films when describing how various sequences had come to them. They often described the overall effect or feeling evoked by these films, rather than wanting to recreate particular scenes. Our Year 1 tutor, Tom, told me that it’s fine to take ideas from other films, because I had been concerned that doing that might be plagiarism. Tom explained that you can’t just lift things totally from films, but all directors use other films to inspire them, and that it is what you DO with what has inspired you from other films that is important.
And that there are very rarely entirely new ideas. Not never, but less often than you would think. We studied Adaptations with Nargess (tutor) this year, and it had never hit me before just how many adaptations there are in the Feature Film Industry, from straight up adaptations of books like Pride and Prejudice into films like Pride & Prejudice (2005) to less obvious adaptations of the same story into Bridget Jones Diary (2001). It may not be a direct adaptation but when George Lucas was creating Star Wars (1977) he was inspired by director Akira Kurosawa’s samurai films. I feel I am building up a good collection of inherent knowledge from all my research, to really help me in my future career in the Fiction Film/TV Industry.
Specific research for this Year 2 FMP
I have done a great deal of research for this project. Obviously, my research included useful Content and Contextual research, but I also researched Film Theory, such as Editing Theory and Theories relating to how I can combine shots to have the effect that I, as director, am after.
I looked at Theories relating to shot choice, such as the 180-degree rule for when 2 people are talking to each other in separate shots. I researched various ways that I could edit my footage to show 2 people when played by the same person, for example when Tom Hardy played both Reggie and Ronnie Kray in Legend (2015). I researched how to mask and crop to place text on the screen so that I could have it revealed when a foot lifted up. Also, how to have my Protagonist walk first behind text on the screen and then in front of that same text. I researched how to create a phone text message and make it appear on the screen, and then track round as the camera pans round.
I researched Theory of Comedy and what we find humorous, and how I could use what I learnt to solve Theoretical Problems such as how I could make my film humorous. It’s all very well thinking of a story line that could be funny, and that you find funny, but I am aware that I could tell the same story in two different ways, with different dialogue and/or shots, and one way could be funny and the other not funny.
I researched to find various views generally held about Time Travel, especially various rules that are generally held to apply to Time Travel.
So, I wanted to research various Theories of Comedy generally, and then I homed in on using these theories for Visual Comedy too. I looked at practitioners of Comedy and films with comedy elements. But I was aware that I needed to know the underlying theories in order to analyse the examples that I was looking at.
Bibliography
Last year, in my Year 1 FMP, I realised that I get so engrossed when I am immersed in what I am researching, especially with YouTube clips where there are always suggestions on screen for other potentially useful and interesting videos, that it was easier than I would like to miss out on noting down all my research sources in my Bibliography. To be fair, I still had 142 references in my Bibliography last year, but I know that I missed some out.
I decided that this year I need to find a solution to this problem. Because I know that I still get engrossed when I am immersing myself in a topic, for example when researching the director Edgar Wright, who was fascinating, I developed a method to try to not miss out sources in my Bibliography. I copy and paste the link into a document, either a Word doc, an Edexcel doc or Notes on my phone depending on what device I am using at the time, then I can put all the links into a spreadsheet and go back later to get all the rest of the details that I need. If necessary, I can also check my YouTube History. That is not so reliable since my YouTube History also contains links to video that I watched and decided actually weren’t of any help. But by copying and saving the links, rather than trying to save all the information needed for Harvard Referencing at the same time, I feel that I have managed to include by far the majority of my research sources. As long as I have the link, I can go back and find all the other information. I realised that if I try to note down all the information needed for Harvard Referencing at the same time then I lose my thought process, whereas just copying and pasting a link keeps my thought process going.
I have also continued researching and will continue researching all the way through my Year 2 FMP and use this continuous research to inform all the decisions that I make. In writing up my research I have explained how it has informed all my decisions. These are decisions, including Content, Creative, Format, Technical, Editing, and Shot List decisions. For example, my research even showed me, particularly in 2 YouTube videos, the importance of keeping your Cast and Crew happy on set, both videos suggesting that food is a very important part of a successful film shoot. That hadn’t occurred to me, but it made sense, and my Cast and Crew were happy about this. I also considered Covid Safety and made sure that the food I bought was individually wrapped to reduce the chances of Covid Spreading due to lots of hands picking out unwrapped food.
I can do no better than to reiterate what I said in my Research section in my Year 1 FMP, which is as true now as it was then and will continue to be so:
“Research is a valuable and vital element of any project and should inform all decisions. And it did.”