12 Month Personal Development Action Plan

For my 12 month development action plan I've split the plan into three main goals and gone into detail of each goal, listing details of the goal and how I can achieve it in a specific timeframe. My first goal and most important goal to me is to get into University to do a course in either film or photography.

To do this I'll need to work on a personal statement and have this complete, ready to send off before the 15th January (which is the deadline for applications). I'd like to have my personal statement complete on the 15th November so that I can apply to Universities sooner rather than later. This seems like quite a daunting task so to get this done I'll need to set out a plan for each paragraph of the personal statement, brainstorm ideas of what to say & do research online by watching videos and reading articles and other personal statements. I'll also need to ask for feedback from my lecturers and adults so I can keep adapting and improving the personal statement.

Next I'll need to find some University courses that apply to me so I can apply to them and have good options (if I get a place). I have some universities in mind already but I'd like to find a couple more and ideally I'd like to have this done by the end of the month, so to make a sound decision of courses I need to read their prospectuses and look at their websites which will state what they look for in a student.  

Lastly I'll need to take action on what the university websites say about ideal students and make myself appealing to the university by acting on this. This will mean working to my best ability in this college course to try and get a distinction, and working on personal projects outside of college. I'd like to make at least one product a month up until University so I gain lots of experience and knowledge whilst also having some work to show for myself. This product could be something moving image based, audio based, or photography and design based. I'd also like to try and watch at least 3 films a week to get more familiar with analysing and understanding them, and again to gain experience.

My second goal is to improve in my college course so I can achieve the best grade possible, which will help to lead me on into higher education. I've split this section up into the three lessons we're taking this year: Contextual Studies, Moving Image and Audio. To begin with, for Contextual Studies I'd like to learn how to pitch better, which means delivering my ideas and presenting more effectively. This is because pitching is an important skill to have in the media industry and can help massively towards getting your ideas heard. To do this I'll need to research effective techniques online and practice pitching in these lessons.
 

Something I'd like to improve on in Moving Image lessons is knowledge on real life aspects of film and tv such as budgeting a production, lighting techniques, scriptwriting and storyboarding. I know how to do all of these things but I'd like to research them in more detail and learn how to do them better so I can improve my work. I'll be able to research all of these things online so I aim to be more skilled in all of these things by the end of the year.

For audio I want to become more familiar with sound in premiere so that I can apply this knowledge to my video productions. To do this I need to pay full attention and contribute in my audio lessons with Tom, as well as doing research and experimentation outside of college by watching videos on it and googling it.

My last main goal is for personal things outside of college. For these I'd like to make myself more attractive to future clients and employers which means making a portfolio and personal website. Which I aim to have completed by the start of 2018. I also need to work on independent projects outside of college with other creative individuals which I will do on my free days and in the holidays. Lastly I need to keep myself organised so I can work to my best ability. I can do this by setting deadlines and achievable tasks for myself.

I hope to check back on this blog monthly so I can see what I'm doing and what needs to be done, leading to my personal development.

Differential Focusing Techniques - Experimentation

In this lesson we experimented with different lenses and apertures to see how they affected the depth of field. As the aperture increases numerically the depth of field gets deeper. This video shows the different apertures + lenses I tested:
I concluded from this that a small aperture like f1.8 makes the background very blurred and soft, bringing focus to the foreground. (Professional look also) This looks better for portraits in my opinion. With a large aperture like f22 the background and foreground are both in focus so this should be better for location photography or trying to get a shot where everything is focuses on. Additionally, with the zoom lens fully zoomed in you need to bring the camera quite far back to get the subject in frame, which can be an issue. Another thing I noticed was that the perspective changes with lenses.

Enter the Pitch - Research

For the research of Enter the Pitch we needed to come up with a film idea which is based off the Bible. I'm not a Christian so I didn't have a lot of knowledge on Bible stories, however I have seen a few Biblical themed films such as 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and 'Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat' so I had some knowledge.

To begin with, I brainstormed about what kind of film I wanted to make and thought of some of my favourite films, which let me to 'Goodfellas'. From this I decided I wanted to make a Gangster film. This is because in Gangster films I find the stories are gripping and I like the style and tension in these films. I looked at some clips from gangster films for inspiration and found a clip from 'Goodfellas II' where somebody is given the Kiss of Death:

I then remembered the part in the Bible where Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss as this is shown in the film 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and thought that these 2 things can be linked. This is because the kiss of death is a kiss of betrayal in the mafia, similar to how Judas' kiss betrays Jesus. For further research I looked at wikipedia pages of both of these subjects:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_of_Judas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_of_death_(mafia)
After this research I was able to come up with some good ideas for me to start planning out my film. To help me with this I made a moodboard to get some ideas and themes down such as similar films, styles, and time periods.

Enter the Pitch - Pitch Reflection

For this module we had to work on our own film ideas for the competition "Enter the Pitch". To do this we had to come up with a film idea based off a Bible story and create a treatment and pitch for it. Once we had completed a treatment we had to pitch our film ideas. Below is my pitch which I will reflect on in order to improve my pitching skills for next time.

Overall I think I pitched my idea fairly effectively as I got the idea across in time and went through everything I wanted to. When watching my pitch back on video one main thing that stood out to me was my use of "uh's and like". This makes my pitch seem more unprofessional and not as concise which I'd like to try and improve on next time to clean up my pitch technique. Another thing I noticed I could improve on is my speed as I speak quite quickly. This can partly be justified as we had a 2 minute time limit but I think this is also something I can try to work on.

I also thought that to improve my pitching technique I could try and maintain better eye contact when pitching as this shows I'm more confident and that I have memorised my ideas (because I'm not looking at the notes as much).  Furthermore, I thought that the use of hand gestures would make my pitching more effective. By using gestures I can get the idea across better and won't look as static.

In Conclusion, I think that I need to try and act more confidently when pitching and try to be more logical in my thinking and slow down when speaking. This will make my pitching a lot more professional looking and effective.

Personal Logo - Contextual Studies

Below is the logo I've created for a company I'd like to pioneer in the future; "Forget the Youth". At this point it's just the name of a magazine I create/produce and distribute independently that features my photography. In the future I'd like to start a clothing line under the same name and produce videos as the company, be it skate videos, commissioned music videos for artists or freelance random videos, not to mention becoming a well known youth culture magazine similar to 'Dazed' or 'iD'.

Representation

I chose the name 'Forget the Youth' mainly because I find the name ironic/satirical. This is as lots of adults and businesses are constantly trying to appeal to young people and fit in with youth culture but overlook this and don't achieve it very well.
Furthermore, lots of individuals forget that young people are going to grow up into adults and become the new modern society (Young people are our future etc etc..) and the planet which they are going to live in becomes impacted terribly due to the past societies actions (House pricing, pollution, the education system, economy and brexit to name a few).
Additionally the company will focus on youth culture topics such as fashion/style, music, skateboarding, filmmaking/photography, art and more.
To conclude, I guess that the brand name can be interpreted in a range of ways, and the audience may interpret it how they please.

Design Choices

Looking at the design aspect of the logo, I chose the bold font paired with a stroke (outline) and shadow to give it a vintage and retro feel, as I felt this design choice is the most aesthetically pleasing and appealing to my target audience (12-24 year olds) whilst looking professional enough for potential clients. I chose the colours dark red and gold because they're bold and compliment each other well, making the logo stand out but also look visually enticing.

MacGuffins

Definition

A 'MacGuffin' is a plot device which acts as a goal or motivating object/person in a film. Sometimes it can be the most vital part of a film's storyline but it is the effect of the McGuffin on the characters and motivation which is what makes it important. It leads a film from one part to the next and helps the story keep moving.

Commonly the MacGuffin is focused on in  a film in the first act, and after this becomes less important. A lot of the time they reappear towards the end of the film (or in the third act) and help the problems which have arisen in the film become resolved.

Example

For example in "The Shawshank Redemption" the central MacGuffin could be seen as the pick. This is because early on in the film it's introduced and helps Andy and Red become familiar with one another, developing the characters relationship. Although the pick is prominent throughout the film, it declines in importance because the viewer assumes Andy is just using it to carve small rocks. It regains importance towards the end of the film however when we discover that Andy has actually been using it to escape prison - a big twist on the film which is unexpected and resolves the main issue (Andy's innocent).

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Good eye for design - I have a sound knowledge of colour theory and text placement etc, which is effective for the creative aspect of a project. I'm also interested in mise en scene which is helpful when setting up a scene and editing footage.

Analytical in my work - I have the ability to be thorough and analytical with my work so that I can achieve the best grades for research and written work.

Writing skills - With an A in GCSE English I can safely say that my writing is at a high standard that makes my work look professional, clear and easy to read.

Ability to follow brief effectively - When following a brief I make sure to read it in full and check that I have accomplished all tasks listed to achieve the highest mark possible.

Weaknesses

Not asking for feedback on work - When doing my work I get fairly engrossed with it. I also feel self conscious about it and this means that I don't ask my peers or lecturers for feedback, which I will try to change this year. To improve on this, when I have done a first draft for my work I'll ask a lecturer to look at it and give me some feedback. Hopefully it will help me view my work from another perspective so I can improve it further.

Leaving work to the last minute - A lot of the time I'm not motivated to do the work set which means I leave it to the last minute and have to rush it so I can't put as much effort into it as I like to. This can be improved by me creating a schedule so I know the due dates for all of the different production targets, and becoming more organised so I have a motivated mindset allowing me to do the work. After the October half term I'll put a schedule into action so for the next set of work I'll have a clear understanding of deadlines. This leads me on to my last point:

Bad organisation - With Google Drive and files on my computer I allow things to get very jumbled and disorganised which can lead towards me losing work or making it harder to complete work. This can be solved by me allocating some time in the half term to tidy up files on my laptop and google drive making everything more clear and organised.

Opportunities

Work experience - In the summer holiday I had a weeks work experience with the crew of Doc Martin filming for ITV. This helped me gain a lot of knowledge on what its like working in the industry and was a great opportunity.

Client/Industry placements - During this year of college we will be given client work and maybe industry placements which will be a helpful opportunity for me.

Access to equipment - The cameras and other new equipment at college mean that I can produce an excellent standard of work effectively.

Out of school projects - The hobbies I have outside of college like my YouTube channel and Independent magazine business are a big help in giving me opportunities in the media field.

Threats

Distraction from work/Time management - When doing work I'm easily distracted by social media and other distractions so I hope to cut down on this. One way this could be achieved is by giving myself a set time to do work with small 5 minute breaks in between. This way I would be less distracted and allow myself to focus on doing the work.

Only doing bare minimum of work - Sometimes I find myself only doing the bare minimum of work so I need to try and make an effort to go the extra mile. This links back to my weaknesses of me not being motivated enough so to solve this problem I will have to again try not to rush the work (leave myself a good amount of time to complete it) and make sure that everything is organised well.

Lack of motivation - I find it hard to be motivated to do work sometimes. In order to solve this I'm going to try getting motivated by watching videos or setting myself achievable targets to do with the work, as a lot of the time I'm not motivated because there seems so much to do.