Outlined Process
The first step in this process was to form our group. In my group, I had Finlay, Adam, Advait and myself. After forming each of our groups, we needed to brainstorm and form ideas about what our actual production would be. The topic we were given was based on having a “lightbulb” moment. Our group struggled with this crucial step as we all couldn’t decide and agree on a good idea that was attainable and achievable. We all decided that our film would be based on basketball because most of us like the sport. For the film we had created now, we had a basic foundation and idea about what it is going to be about, but there were a lot of variations and ideas everyone had and we couldn’t agree on one. However, we were able to agree upon an idea that everyone was happy with. After getting approval from Mr Hamilton, we started to create a storyboard and script so we all had a clearer image and layout of how we can portray certain scenes with camera shots and dialogue. Some scenes required close-ups to create more tension with the characters, and some needed long shots to establish a location. This process was long and challenging, but we eventually got it done and approved. After this, we started to film our project. The start of the filming process was difficult because some people were away as they were sick, or had COVID. We needed to film certain scenes that didn’t require the people that were away, which was hard to organise. After filming our idea for around 4-5 weeks, we were finished and we could start editing. The main editors for our group were Adam and me. Since there was limited time, we needed two editors but at the same time, having more than that can get tricky because we don’t all have the same editing style and the movie will not flow. We needed to use certain effects in premiere pro to make our movie more realistic. This is included certain sound effects, the Ultra key, music and other video effects. After editing for 2-3 weeks our media production was finished, and we were able to show it in this Illuminate festival for the end-of-transition event.
How did we come up with the idea?
Our group struggled to come up with this idea because there were many variations of what people wanted to create. For example, we all wanted the movie to be basketball related, but some people wanted it to be about a school tournament, and some not about school at all. However, our final video was about school and basketball combined. The story is about Adam, a basketball prodigy with big dreams and hopes of getting into the NBA one day. However, he is academically challenged and is abused by his parents. On one particular lunchtime, we show him destroying his friends in basketball. His friends are praising him and encouraging him to go play basketball professionally and he replies, ‘If only it were that simple.” On the last day of school after a semester, he shows his parents his report card and they are very disappointed. All the academic subjects are c’s and d’s, but sport is the only “a”. Adam tries to convince his parents that he can pursue a career in basketball, but the parents don’t believe in him. They send him to an intense private tutoring centre during the holidays. Here we show an intense montage of him trying hard but failing but excelling in basketball and creating new friends. After the holidays his grades still haven’t improved so they continue the tutoring during the school term. One day in the tutoring centre, he decides not to go and goes to play basketball on the basketball court next to it. He plays for a while and forgets about the time. His mother comes to pick him up and sees him playing basketball well. The mother is in shock with her jaw dropped to the ground. His parents finally enrol him in basketball, and he performs well. The scene then cuts to 10 years later when he is playing in the NBA. Their parents are proud of him, and he is happy.
Three Obstacles and Challenges:
In the process of this media production, there were many obstacles and challenges our group faced. Some of these challenges were minor, but some were major and severely impacted our group. The three main challenges our group faced during our production were time management, the roles of the production and the absence of some of our group members.
1: The first of the challenges was time management. Despite having our film needing to be ready in the next term, we were still under a lot of time pressure. The first of our problems in terms of time management was not being able to come up with an idea. Our group spent an entire double period trying to figure out what our idea was going to be about. We were arguing with each other and not working together as a team. We all thought our ideas were good and needed no changing and didn’t listen to our group members about their ideas. We argued that others’ ideas were unattainable and too ambitious when we could try to respectfully negotiate with each other about everyone’s ideas. That process would have been a lot more efficient and easier for everyone. Instead, we argued a little too much and we wasted a lot of time. We also wasted time making the storyboards and scripts because only a couple of people were doing the scripts and storyboards while everyone else was doing other things. This meant that all the work was being done by a couple of people which is unfair. If everyone contributed, we could have finished the planning process a lot faster and more efficiently and could have started filming earlier.
2: The second of the major challenges that we faced was the roles of the production. Despite having clear roles for the production, nobody was willing to act in certain roles such as the mum. This is because everyone wanted to play “better” roles such as the main character or his friend. Also, none of us wanted to play a female character. We also ended up wasting a lot of time on this which we could have used to spend on more important areas in the production process. However, after negotiating and talking to each other, I decided to step up and play the mother. The father was also a difficult role to choose because like the mother, it was considered a “boring” role in comparison to being the actual star of the show. These roles also required costumes, which felt embarrassing to wear in front of audiences, especially as we knew that this film was going to be shown at the illuminate festival, in front of many people. However, Advait also stepped up.
3: The third of the major challenges that we faced was the absence of group members throughout production. Due to inconveniences such as COVID-19, being sick, different events and carnivals etc., a lot of the weeks our full cast wasn’t here. This made it significantly harder to film as some crucial parts of the film which required the main character needed to be pushed back. This was not ideal as we had a deadline and we wanted to spend more time on these important scenes. Some of our scenes also required the green screen, which other groups also needed to use, so if the person needed in the scene wasn’t here, and the green screen was available at the time, it would be considered a missed opportunity. We needed to space out and allocate how much we would spend on each part of the production. This included planning, filming and editing. If we used too much filming time due to people being absent, there would be a small amount of time left to edit which would be a problem.
What would I do differently next time?
If I were to do a media project similar to this again, I would change a variety of things that relate to my three challenges and obstacles. The first thing I would do differently is more time efficient. In this group project, our team wasn’t the best at time management. Next time, we can improve our time management by splitting the jobs more evenly. This would make it so that all the work is not being done by just one person for a longer amount of time. This would make that piece of work go faster, so we can work on the next task. We can also split the jobs in a way which would suit everyone best, by working with their strengths. For example, those who are better at editing so edit a bit more, and those better at acting should get a bigger role than others. We can also try and communicate effectively with each other. Communication is a big part of any team project, not just media. This ensures that everyone knows what they are doing and how we are going to approach it. Effective communication is even more important in this case because we need to know who will be away. If people can let the group know that they won’t be able to make a certain day, that allows us time to plan and see how we can work more efficiently.
Final Presentation
The goal of this entire media project was to show our work at the illuminate festival. The illuminate festival was made for different groups in Year 8 across the different arts subjects to show their work. However, the topic revolved around some sort of illumination. For example, in media, our project had to revolve around a lightbulb moment. For our production, our lightbulb moment was when the mother and father realise that Adam is good at basketball. To emphasise this moment, I edited a lightbulb to give a hint to the audience that she has a really good idea. On the night of the performance, there were three large screens to show three different movies. This allowed the movies to be seen more efficiently and people could focus on more than one screen. This meant that the audience will never get bored because if the movie starts to get slow, there is another one next to it. This festival was a representation of all our hard work and efforts and it was a fun event.
The link above goes to our full media production.