At the start the week the first thing we did was coming up with our initial ideas and plans for our projects, at first I found this quite challenging as I had never worked with the genre adventure before and so I didn’t really know much about what went into an adventure film. I spoke to some other classmates and about their ideas which helped generate my own. I then spoke to Lee about what sort of things could go into my film and I then began to understand what goes into an adventure film and what I could do in my project. To generate my ideas further, I researched a few existing adventure films, local and worldwide that other people have produced. Following this, it really helped me come up with my initial ideas for my project. I then shared my ideas with the class; including Lee and other classmates. After doing this research I made sure that I noted down he videos and websites that I looked on and which ones really helped me and why, this was then added into my research blog.

In the next session we had, I needed to create my Final Major Project Proposal, this included creating a Rationale, Project Concept, Evaluation and Bibliography.

For my rationale, I went into detail about what my initial ideas for my short film are and I summarised the reasons and purposes of why I chose my idea. I also wrote about what skills I have developed over the year (in college) and how these skills will help me produce a successful film. I then went on to write about what skills I need to develop and how my film will offer me opportunities. I also wrote about why my film should be made and if there are any similar films already/ if there is a gap in the market for my film.

In the second section (project concept) I clearly explained my plans and initial ideas for my film, what type of adventure film I am wanting to produce, the levels and types of resources that I will need to create my film and generally what I am aiming to produce.

I then wrote my evaluation, explaining how I will reflect on and evaluate my work, I also described how I intend to record my decision, making and how I will document changes in my ideas as my work progresses. I also commented on the impact it would have on my own progress when working in collaboration with other class mates. I then added a bibliography to source all of my research (in Harvard style.)

Once completing my proposal to a high detailed level, I then decided to conduct some primary research of my own.

Me and few other classmates worked in a small group to conduct some primary research. We went outside in and out of college to record interviews in the loud, busy, windy environment. I learnt that changing the levels when audio recording helps you get a clearer crisp recording and when at the perfect level background noise wasn’t then a problem. After practising audio recording a few times I learnt how to get the levels perfect. This helped me practise my recording skills for example: holding the boom mic in a certain position to reduce background noise. The only issues had been when loud cars etc went past, we could hear them quite clearly in the audio however once we moved around and found the perfect place to record this issue was solved. I found this research to be very useful for when we go to the Peaks- also known for being windy, it has helped me realise what I need to do to get better audio when there is background noise etc. I am now more confident with recording audio in these conditions.

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Overall, I think that this first week has helped me develop my skills a lot for when we visit the Peaks District, for example I have learnt how to get the perfect audio recording when out in windy conditions and just generally helped me think more about my idea and what skills I will need.  I am happy with my development in my work so far.

Next week I will spend most of my week conducting a lot of research, both secondary and primary. This will give me a better understanding about Adventure and Adventure films.