Planning for theoretical Problems
Problems I may encounter when researching and
planning
1. A problem that I could encounter may be that
my research is either incorrect or lacking
accuracy and confirmation.
2. Another problem I could encounter may be
that I do not include all of my research into
the narrative, making my research null and
make the story lack emphasis.
3. In this research I could get problems from not
receiving enough survey responses to have
valid results for my research and planning.
How I plan to resolve
1. When it comes to researching, getting a vast
variety of different topics and using a wide
variety of sources allows you to be able to
understand multiple views on a certain issue,
and using accurate and confirmed information
from reliable sources means that my research
will be accurate and reliable when delving into
different areas of my research. Confirming
research through different sources is also a
way of proving that your information is
relevant and accurate. Another way to get
accurate information is through a source, such
as interviewing someone facing the issue we
are researching.
2. It is always relevant to get a copious amount
of research, but you must keep in mind that
you should only research that which you plan
to include. Researching different issues will put
the knowledge in your brain, and writing down
will help you remember. Keeping hold of
different aspects of a topic you want to
include in your narrative is key when it comes
to actually writing script and drawing
storyboard. Understanding key aspects of a
topic usually cause you to intertwine your
knowledge into the story anyways, but keeping
note of what you have researched and
including it is a good idea.
3. Survey Responses will always be a problem
when it comes to research. You can never
promise to get hundreds of responses when
you send out a survey, but there are methods
to use to get as many as possible. The best

4. I may get enough results, but these results
may not actually help me in any way due to
them being completely false or being ‘troll’
answers.
5. One problem that might be a huge problem
when researching is not having enough
variety in my research in which means I would
have very limited knowledge and not enough
information to create a performance that is
accurate.
thing to do is to advertisement. Publish these
survey links across social media, email friends
and family and make sure people know about
your survey. There is only so much you can do
to get responses, but making sure that you
publicise the links and let people know you
need the help would very much help you in
your efforts of getting plenty of valid results
for a survey.
4. Getting results is one thing, but getting valid
and helpful results is another. The only way I
can advise getting the most legitimate results
is advertise it to family, who you can trust to
help you out, and use social groups that work
in the Media area, as they will understand the
importance and also have more of a valid
point when it comes to helping out in a
project. Also friends that share the same
interests as you, work wise, could help get
legitimate responses but on social media, you
must understand that there will be ‘Trolls’, but
it is simple enough to remove unhelpful
comments.
5. Variety in research is something I glossed over
in a previous point, but I think is something
that I believe won’t be an issue. On the
internet and through books and magazines,
there is a huge variety of different sources that
are accurate and also delve into different
aspects of a certain topics. Using a variety of
sources and searching up certain aspects of a
topic I want to research will help in my
endeavour of getting a vast variety of
knowledge helping me create an accurate
portrayal. It should not be too much trouble to

6. In my planning, my Character profiles may not
actually suit the Actors I end up being able to
cast in my production.
7. One problem that we could face is that we
have too many characters meaning that we
would not be able to get enough actors to
confidently play these different roles and be
accessible to us.
find a variety of source material that focuses
on different aspect I am keen on portraying.
6. The Characters we have created and their
personality’s link to a certain look we have in
mind. When casting we want to get an actor
that will fit into this desired role, someone that
matches our ideal. Being unable to cast
someone similar to our character just means
that we will tweak this to suit our Actor and
our story. The development phase gives us
access to mould our idea to suit our resources
best, and if that means changing aspects of a
character, so be it. We wouldn’t change the
character, but more traits that suit the Actor to
make the performance more believable and
successful.
7. We understand that casting will be difficult
therefore we don’t want to make a lot of
important characters, but more characters that
will be used in certain scenes to fit the
narrative therefore we won’t need the actor for
a lot of shooting days. We don’t really want
more than 7 main characters because A. it is a
short film and B. because it could get too busy
and hard to get actors that are easily
accessible to us. I think we are only going to
try and keep 3 or 4 Core characters that are a
necessity which would be a protagonist, an
antagonist and 2 main helpers. This means
that if we can’t cast certain characters, these
characters can be easily cut out with the story
not changing dramatically. Everyone we will
decide to cast will be people who we can trust
to be consistent and available to do a good
performance
8. One problem that could be a huge hit to our
production is if an Actor drops out, causing a
huge problem for filming.
9. When on the topic of casting, we may
encounter the problem of not having enough
auditions making casting very limited and
showing no variety or reasoning for choosing
certain actors.
10. Having a cast is well and good, but when
planning filming there may not be any
relevant locations for us to choose that
accurately represent the scene we are trying
to create.
11. Locations we choose could also have a
problem in the form of not being accessible
for us to use.
8. Like I said previously, we are going to cast
people that we can rely on, and give us a
schedule that we can work around. If we have
people drop out, it could mean that are
production could mess us, so keeping a
contingency plan consisting of backup actors
and locations in case we face this very
problem. We want to make a shooting plan
that hopefully doesn’t cause this problem and
creates a smooth filming process
9. Auditions are a big part of casting and looking
for people that are able to portray our
characters. Having people audition is a
different field, we need to find relevant people
who fit the roles, are available and can act. To
get a lot of people to audition is near
impossible therefore we need to audition
relevant people and get enough variety to
have backup choices that work for us.
10. We want to have a lot of locations that in
some form are difficult to get, but work better
for our film. Relevant locations can be hard to
find, but reaching out to contacts could help
us get a location that is relevant. We also have
easier accessible locations that a close to us a
backup, such as places in Henley and
Beaconsfield. We will make scenes that could
have replacement locations but fit into the
narrative we are creating so that we can try
and go the extra mile.
11. I went over this previously, but using locations
from contacts will allow us to have a better
chance at getting the locations we desire. We
will be efficient to the point of working to the
guidelines when using the locations and only
use them when it is accessible to us. Again we

12. When planning and researching, Test shoots
are very important to practise, but a certain
test shoot may not actually be relevant or
help me.
13. One of my main goals of this production was
keeping my schedule updated but that means
an obvious problem could be that I don’t
keep it updated and loose track.
14. When planning, script and storyboard are very
important, so my storyboard needs to have a
lot of variety and accuracy to what we want to
portray so that it is relevant to my production
and is overall helpful.
15. A problem I could run into is not being able
to get confirmation from actors and crew
when planning to film.
have back up locations that we will use in case
we aren’t able to use a desired location.
12. I think that honestly any test shoot will help
me, practising certain techniques, even if they
are not actually used, will help me with my
evolution as an editor, and means that if we
do end up using a shot, I will be able to
successfully achieve the desired look. Test
shoots are only there to benefit me as a
creator and help learn the best technique.
13. This is a goal I want to stick to, and even if I
don’t keep the online word document
updated, if I jot down what it is, I have done in
the day I will be able to remember and write
this down. Getting a journal for FMP would be
beneficial and therefore I could just write
whilst I am doing something so that I always
have a source that is updated.
14. I always take pride in doing storyboards with a
lot of necessary detail to the point that it is
easily understandable and portrays the types
of scenes, framing etc. Will and I both want to
be ambitious in this project therefore the
storyboarding will represent what our aims are
and the variety of shots we want to get.
15. When it comes to actors, we plan to get
people who are very involved and easy to get
in contact with. As long as we maintain
contact with our actors, we can easily get
confirmation of dates and accessibility whereas
crew are only there as a helping hand, so if we
are unable to get confirmation, that won’t be
too much of a blow to our production. Me
and Will are always going to be the prime
members of the crew, additional help will only
make things easier for us.
 16. One problem that would possibly halt
progression and improvement is not having a
source of feedback for the drafts I create of
my production.
17. Both Will and I made the bold decision of
working together, but a very possible problem
could be that Will and I fall out.
Planning for practical and technical problems
Practical and technical problems I may encounter
1. When it comes to the technical side of my
production there is a few errors and problems
I may encounter such as forgetting an SD
card.
16. I plan to get feedback from multiple reliable
sources. From me reviewing my own work to
having teachers and peers, watch and take
note of possible improvements will be
beneficial to improving my work therefore
once the production has its first few drafts
complete, I will get reliable people to analyse
my work to further improve.
17. The reason I chose Will as a partner, is not
only his skill with camerawork, but due to our
bond. We have spent 7 years knowing each
other and have stuck together through thick
and thin. We have fallen out before and will
fall out again, but we know each other’s mind
sets when going into a project and understand
that we must take things seriously. I think if
we fell out, we would both understand that
our work is our main priority. We chose to
work together because we knew if we start
slacking, the other will pick them back up and
falling out isn’t a big possibility as we have our
goals set and the correct mindsets going into
this unit.
How I plan to resolve
1. Depending on location SD cards may be
available anyways (someone’s house/ College)
which means problem averted, but for other
locations that would not be the case. This is
obvious and is something that I will make sure
happens, which is prepping the night before.
By keeping one SD card in a camera at all
times means that you won’t have to worry, but
as well as this I will always bring a spare in
case this fills up. Both Will and I will bring
spare SD cards so that we won’t face this issue
2. Another problem which involves forgetting
things could be forgetting to bring LED lights.
3. Forgetting to bring batteries to a shoot is also
a very feasible and could spark many
problems.
4. Another thing that could hinder the technical
side of filming is actually recording the film
without sound
5. Probably the easiest mistake to make is losing
focus, making the Film blurry and somewhat
unprofessional.
6. Something that could happen but would be a
huge problem is a Camera breaking, by either
dropping it, sitting on it, losing it. Anything
that causes the loss of equipment could very
much hinder your production.
2. Lighting is important when filming, using LED
lights helps lighten up dark areas and fix
problems such as grain and flicker. Forgetting
a light is not as dramatic as forgetting an SD
card, as lighting wise you will just have to
make smarter decisions with the lighting you
have available to you. But as well, this is
another case of simply preparing before
shooting.
3. Batteries are the same as SD cards, they are
vital to shooting and without them filming is
impossible. For this problem again it is about
charging batteries before, keeping one battery
in the camera, and bringing a spare one with
you. With batteries, bringing the charger is
also a good option because if you run out of
battery and have an accessible source of
power, you can charge them up.
4. Now this is a mistake everybody makes and is
very painful when watching back footage. To
make sure that we know the microphone is on,
doing sound tests will let us know whether or
not the mic is on, or if it is working properly
therefore the mistake will hopefully be averted.
5. This point relies further to Will, but I will add it
in as it is a legitimate problem, but losing
focus is a very tedious issue, but to avert it,
testing focus before hand and/or getting crew
that can focus shots and operate cameras will
hopefully resolve any issues with focus.
6. Now having a camera break is probably the
worst-case scenario, that would be an
expensive loss, therefore I feel that the
resolution is something that is probably
accurate for everything, is just be careful and
don’t misplace any objects.
7. Something that is very likely and would be a
major setback is having Premiere Pro or After
Effects crash throughout the editing process.
8. Something that would probably affect
someone the most and could completely
destroy everything about your production is
having a hard drive malfunction.
9. Something that could cause major issues in
reshoots and editing, is losing your Footage.
10. A nightmare for any editor throughout a
project is having a Project delete. Whether or
not it was purposeful, losing your project
would be very disheartening.
11. Having footage and everything is good but
having a Film without sound effects or music
could end up not being very good.
12. Colour grading is important to any film, but it
can be quite tricky to do a good colour grade,
depending on the footage itself, and the look
you are trying to create. This means a
plausible error could be the colour grade just
not working with your film.
7. This is always a problem that is likely to occur
throughout the editing process. There is an
easy solution in the form of constantly saving.
Saving your work is probably the best way to
keep your work saved and up to date.
8. This would be anyone’s nightmare having a
hard drive malfunction. This could cause you
to lose all of your work and progress. A simple
yet successful solution is simply backing up
your work by copying it onto a separate drive
so that in case there is an error, or it is lost,
you will still have all of your work and
progress.
9. The response to this point is the exact same as
before, which is backup up all of the files and
footage to another source so that I have
multiple copies of the footage if necessary.
10. As I have said, this would be a nightmare and
absolutely horrible if this did happen but a
way of stopping this is A. saving a copy on an
external drive, and B. creating new project files
per draft.
11. Music is used to help emphasise emotions and
help portray a message. Especially with drama
being my genre, no music would ruin the
emotion I am trying to make, and make it look
quite unprofessional. Therefore, I must make
sure I keep on top of the edit so that I have
time to find and implement good music and
sound effects to create a good production.
12. I personally am not the biggest fan of colour
grading, most of the time people go over the
top with colour grading and ruin the aesthetic
of the film. Colour grading is best when it is
subtle, therefore I will make minor and subtle
colour grading changes to match the overall

13. It’s all well and good storyboarding, and
filming, but an error with this could be that
the footage doesn’t work together, and the
narrative doesn’t flow properly.
14. Something that has happened before and will
probably happen again is the exposure being
too high or low.
15. I layout and demand scenes to be filmed a
certain way so that it makes the editing
process for me easy, so one problem that
could happen is some footage could not work
with After Effects.
16. I love to have a shot framed correctly or else I
feel that the footage is dodgy and
unprofessional, so a problem lies in the fact
that framing could be off.
aesthetic of the scene and create a look that
matches that of which suits the codes and
conventions.
13. This is a very relevant problem and has
happened before. Luckily, I have learned to
work with my storyboards and create a
storyboard that flows well. When drawing a
storyboard, I tend to imagine the scene in my
head therefore if it flows in my head, it usually
will flow once filmed. One solution that is also
very easy, is adding in/ removing certain
scenes to create a nicer flow between the
footage, and the narrative as a whole.
14. Again, this is more Will’s problem, but we will
double check over the footage when filming
and when setting up a shot, use the correct
settings to get an even, well lit shot. Hopefully
for Will’s specialism we have no errors with
this.
15. Depending on the effect we are creating,
editing shouldn’t be too much of a problem, it
might just take me a little while longer to work
on. Also, if it is too bad, we can also re-shoot
and re-shoot it properly, but hopefully under
the instructions there should be no errors with
this.
16. Re-shooting is a simple way to re-film and
correctly frame shots, but depending on
location and time restrictions, re-shoots may
not be accessible, but luckily there is another
solution. This is in the form of editing.
Tweaking the crop, rotation, scale, positioning
etc. will easily help me when trying to correctly
frame some footage if the framing is a little
off.
 17. One problem that students make a lot, is not 17. Keeping an imaginary line is probably the best
following the 180-degree rule when shooting. bet when thinking of the 180-degree rule, and
also before shooting, deciding where to place
cameras in response to what action will take
place in the scene. This makes it easier to not
mess up as you will have already thought out
a plan around this. There is also a trick to
break the 180-degree rule, which is having the
camera every shot go round making a
seamless move that goes round your
supposed lin.
Mid Project check-up (After Research and planning)
It is around the Midpoint of my Final Major Project and my Research and Planning in complete. It was a very
successful part of my project that has helped me very much when developing character and narrative to a
point that it was realistic and professional. I feel that the planning phase overall has been a success with
minimal failures.
Along the way I have encountered a few problems. These luckily have been more minor issues when going
through the planning process and have managed to get past each of these issues. One major issue lies in
casting. We have a nice variety of people meaning that backups were available
but there had to be a few changes that our original cast due to people’s
availability. We created character profiles in which suited one actor such as Bart
being Otto, but due to his unavailability we had to re-cast, but our re-cast
didn’t really fit the role we had created. We then decided that go get past this,
we should tweak the character to be more relevant to our actor, so that we
have a good casting and also a character that our actor can really portray well. We stuck to not having too
many characters therefore we didn’t need to cast too many people, making availability easier so when going
into filming, we have a good cast, who are readily available for the dates we set. Auditions themselves and
that process went well, but for one character, Daemon, we have Johnny in mind to cast, but he hasn’t been
very good when contacting him and hasn’t sent over an audition, so depending on the results going into the
filming weeks, we might have to recast and use our contingency, which is Chris.
When it comes to the production schedule, my tracking has gone really well, as I said, the online document is
usually updated every couple of weeks, but I use my booklet to keep track of everything I do per day
therefore I am completely up to date with what I have done in the weeks.
The final thing to say is me and Will have not yet fallen out, therefore everything is looking good. We have
both progressed well and our project, research and planning are all going amazing and we are excited to
finish this project going into the production phase.
End of project review
It has gotten to that time already. The clock strikes near to the end of my production. It has been an amazing
ride and I personally believe this is one of the best things I have ever produced. I am so glad about how this
has gone, and how we have managed to deal with our problems and move past them with a confident stride.
It is without say that Will has been a huge benefit to me in many ways throughout this journey and together
we have created something to be proud of. There were a more errors a long this ride and I want to talk
about them and how we managed to get past all of this.
The first issue that arose was to do with the point I made about having too many characters. It wasn’t the
main characters that were a problem, it was the extras. Due to are film being and Action Drama, Action is
crucial. To make an interesting action set piece you often have guards or goons that expendable characters
you can kill off. In our production, one of the action set pieces, which was the smallest action set piece (just
pushing people when running down stairs) had to be modified, as there were no people able to help us out
and pretend to be guards. This was quite the drawback, as a lot of our scenes we had to modify, so that it
suited the amount of people we had available. Using certain cast members as guards as well as their role was
something, we did to avert these issues. We were cursed with a difficult time to film, as everyone was
prepping for exams and their time was taken elsewhere. But luckily people like Oscar, were able to help and
be guards for our shoots. I would have liked to have more guards, but you have to work with what you are
given.
I talked about this in the mid-project check-up, but Johnny was our desired cast for Daemon. Johnny was
horrible when it came to keeping in contact, and when it came to the final week of filming, we had no other
choice than filming Thursday, so we recast so that Chris would take up the role. We put too much hope into
Johnny being available and should have recast a lot sooner so that there was less stress on our production.
Filming without sound. A mistake I hope we wouldn’t make, but sadly we did. There were only two occasions
where this affected us. The first was in the bar fight, when Oscar runs into the room. Will decided not to
check audio and made Oscar run through, but there were no footsteps to accompany this. Luckily, I found a
really good Foley effect that suited the run, and this problem was soon fixed. Also, it is literally a one second
clip, therefore it is not the most important loss of sound. Sadly, the second shot without sound was a lot
more important. In our final scene we only had around 2 hours to film everything. Due to Chris’ availability
we had to shoot everything with him first. This means that in the remainder of the time we had, we had to
film us coming in and going into the office. We recorded two different perspectives, A go-pro POV and a
tracking camera. Annoyingly, Will didn’t check the audio before giving the camera to Grace, meaning we
filmed a perfect shot, completely without audio, and recreating the whole soundscape of the room, my
dialogue, our running was borderline impossible. We reshot that shot but the second time round, the
exposure, and all the settings were off due to us being rushed into reshooting, and that shot blatantly looked
terrible. Luckily when it got to the office, it looked better and the go-pro footage looked great, so we pieced
it together with the scene still looking good.
Now a problem I didn’t think I would encounter but was a major annoyance was my project deleting. This
happened very late into production, and I had finished all of my project apart from the SFX. Luckily the night
before I finished it all and saved a copy to my other drive but when I went to college the file just vanished off
of my hard drive, along with two of the After Effects compositions that I had done the night before. I still to
this day have no form of explanation to what happened but it is as if my hard drive just went back a day.
This proves that it was a brilliant decision to save my project to an external drive, making sure that everything
is safe. I re-did the two compositions and in a couple of hours restored the project to how it was. Thankfully I
stuck to my guns and was safe with this project throughout otherwise I would have lost everything and would
have had to start from scratch.
The final issue I faced, which was a painful issue to say the least. I give very strict orders when it comes to
filming scenes meant for After Effects VFX, but on one occasion, Will decided to not listen to me, which was a
pain and a half. For the shot with Tia and I, will was instructed, when it goes to a 50/50, to rest the tripod
down and not touch it. This is because the frame needs to completely still so that I can make someone be
translucent. Will ended up holding the tripod, making the footage itself shaky. Rather than this being a simple
15-minute edit, it took me more than 1 hour and 45 minutes to try a fix it, and the final result somewhat
works, but the effect is slightly noticeable. Sadly, due to timing restrictions and scheduling, re-shooting this
was not an option, and I made sure that Will understood his mistake and how much is negatively affected
our production. Will’s supposed reasoning is because the tripod was going to fall, but due to the amount of
times we actually filmed that shot, he should have told me that he held it so that we could have reshot it one
more time. Frankly what’s done is done, and I tried my best to mend this mistake.
Overall, Will and I worked exceptionally hard on this project and are very proud of the results, we tried to
cause as little problems as we could, and I believe we did well in restoring any issues caused. In any
production there will always be flaws or issues throughout the making of it all, but I believe we did a good
job in minimizing this and creating an overall good production.