Final Major Project Pre Production

How I’m Organising The Project - Original

I’ve always believed that a good structure of planning is the key to a project being completed efficiently. To organise my project, I have used a useful app named Todoist. I have been using this app for a year now and I find it incredibly easy to use. However, it is sophisticated enough that you can do more with it then just make lists. I love the way you can set dates to complete tasks by and easily switch the dates if your plan changes. At first, I was just using this app to note down things I needed to do and adding dates to things if they needed to be done by a certain date. Then I discovered projects which allow you to group things within a certain category or project. I have made a few projects since then. Weekly Planner is the project I use every week to plan what tasks I must complete for that week, my outfits, and shopping lists. I come onto Todoist every Sunday to plan out my week. This keeps me organised for the week ahead, so this is something I’ve made a habit of doing. Along with this project I have created another permanent project named Website Content. I have created separate tasks of ideas I can use to create posts for my website if I have no ideas. I have also utilised the label tool to determine whether these tasks are a written-up blog post, a film, or an edit.

I did have a look at another project managing app called Trello. I have only briefly gone over it, but I decided to instead use it for a future project once I am more familiar with it. Along with this, I found it incredibly complicated to use, considering it does the same things that Todoist can do. However, this could just be because I have not used Trello much yet and I need to spend more time using it to give it a chance.

I have used the project making tool to plan out my planning process and any other tasks for this project. I've named it Final Major Project, and included sections such as 'Pre-Production', 'Pre-Production In Progress', 'Production' and 'Postproduction'. Under these sections I have and will note down lists of all the tasks I need to complete for those specific parts of the project. This helps break things down and I can look at the project separately and in a clearer way. Once I have started tasks, I will move them to 'In Progress' so that I can see what I have started and need to finish before moving on to new tasks. I will fill out the ‘Production’ and ‘Post Production’ once I have completed the pre-production section of the project because I will be clearer on what the next stages are. The great thing about Todoist is that I can add detail to tasks through the Description tool. This is useful if I want to add extra information for that task. I have added some new labels that I can use for different reasons. I have ‘Help’ which I will use if I need help with a task. Labelling everything is an easy way of telling me where I am with each task. I have another label named ‘Doing’ which is what I will use once a task has started to be worked on but isn’t finished. This will help me see where I am in terms of progress. The final label is ‘Add or Edit’ which I will use for the things I have done but would like to improve on.

How I’m Organising The Project - Refreshed

I have completely refreshed the way I am approaching the planning for the project. Since the last write up, I have been investigating into different softwares. I'm looking specifically for softwares with more detail tied into them. I was recommended Freedcamp by my Dad, who has paid the full price for the Pro version, which I very much appreciate! This means I have access to the full plan that includes all the tools in it. This will allow me to use a wide variety of tools while I put project management into practice.

I started off by learning how to use the software, this took me two days. Then I created a project and called it 'Final Major project'. Then I created three lists in the tasks section named 'Pre-Production', 'Production' and 'Post Production'. Within these lists I have/will add lists of things to do that will help me progress with the project. The next step was to work out dates for each of the tasks. I needed to decide start dates and due dates for every task. Some of them I would give myself one day to do, others are spread over two days or a whole week. So, I've tried to be realistic by giving myself enough time to do each thing. Some days I have given myself two tasks to do if they are particularly short or won't take me long to do.

Something I would love to utilize in the future to go even more in depth with my tasks is the description tool or the subtask tool. Descriptions is a great option so I can add more detail about the task or create some specific points within the task. Subtasks can be used to create a whole new specific task underneath a more general one. Update – I have gone through every task and added more detail explaining exactly what I need to do for each one. Along with this, any tips that I will need when the time comes to completing them. This just helps to gear me up so I'm not unsure while completing these and I know exactly what I'm doing in the future.

The great thing about Freedcamp, is that I can change the way I view tasks. You can look at tasks in four different views – List, Table, Kanban & Gantt. Gantt allows you to see your lists and tasks in a calendar type view, prioritising the dates. You can clearly see what is starting and due when and normally ends up going in a staircase pattern. Kanban sets everything out in a 'Do', 'Doing', 'Done' mindset. This is useful as I can see exactly what still needs to be done, what I've finished, or what is yet to be started – basically the progress of each task. Setting out your tasks in the List option is an easy way to see every task with lots of detail. Table view helps split the different aspects of your tasks into its own column. This includes - start date, due date, priority, progress.

Past Ideas

When thinking of ideas, I went for a fairly easy route. I was actually thinking of doing something like this a while back anyway. I find it so interesting when films are about real-life events and so my plan is to base this from my experiences.

When thinking of ideas, the first thing I thought of was to base it on a personal experience. I was actually thinking of doing something like this a while back anyway. This would tie into my first-hand experiences surrounding mental health and social media. I wanted to show and exaggerate the feelings I felt during this period. To do this, I was planning to use interesting editing and shots to create the sense of stress and loneliness I felt. I also wanted to have a hidden voice showing the negative thoughts I was having. I had always found it so interesting when films are about real-life events and so I thought this was a suitable plan at the time.

However, I decided to rethink my entire idea and change the style of media and the idea along with it. I have always succeeded in animation and it's what I genuinely enjoy more than anything I've done on this course. While thinking through what to do, I knew I should do something that I was good at and something I knew would be possible. The problem with my first idea was that it was far too ambitious. It was causing me to get stressed every time I thought about how I was going to pull it off. I just didn't know how I could make it as good as it was in my head. This led to me struggling to move forward as each stage was making it seem even more difficult. Because of this, I started to think over the entire project and what would be best for me. I have made loads of animations in the past and have always done really well with them. So, my second idea was to create an animation similar to ones I had done in the past. But I wanted to take it to the next level by adding expressions to the characters. This included a mouth and eyes. This way the characters would portray their emotions and actions through the way they look, not just by the way they sound.

This idea turned out to be extremely short lived after having a conversation with my dad. Through this, I got inspired to make a documentary about a similar topic to my first idea. So, I have finalized this idea as 'Social media and mental anguish'. A documentary showing the concerns of using social media and the affects it has on the mind. I will be using a combination of animation, showing a main character representing the person experiencing this anguish, and narration to give out the information. I plan for this to be extremely informative and educational. The main purpose of this will be to raise awareness.

Finalised Idea

While I was developing the final idea, I was really trying to think smartly about one, my resources, two, my time, and three, what would be the most impressive and impactful idea I could create. Through this, I decided to make a documentary. Funnily enough, I went back to my original idea and stole a few key parts from it. This was to help me develop the topic of this idea. This documentary is about social media and mental anguish. Essentially, the effects social media has on mental health, and more specifically, the mind.

As I have mentioned already, this documentary is being provided in order to inform, educate, and raise awareness. That’s the main purpose of this documentary. The goal of the video itself visually is that it should be impactful. I would love to grab the viewer’s attention so that they take in all the information the documentary has to offer. The key thing I want to achieve is that the viewer comes out of this having learnt something. But, not getting too tied up with the facts, they must enjoy it to. Because of this, I will really need to consider the balance of fun and factual.

The important thing to think about with this project is the structure. I will have a combination of multiple elements meaning it will be very busy in terms of the content. This causes extra attention to detail when planning the structure. I plan to include animation, interview segments, visual facts portrayed through the use of text, clips demonstrating the outcome and cause of the topic and commentary to explain the information (this will be written out on the script). The idea is that I will order these in a particular layout, so I know precisely where each of these will occur within the film. In the future, I will also need to plan the introduction, the middle, which will be giving evidence for the explanations, and the conclusion.

Documentaries that I have watched normally show a past event. This is simply showing something that has happened to a person in the past and recreating it through animation or film. This is where animation will come into my video. I will use a stickman to represent the person in the situation. Along with this, I will proceed to animate whatever the narrator is saying at that point in time. Sort of like a visual to support the words.

In terms of the factual side of this film, I would like to include definitions of words mentioned (this could be during the introduction), stories about what people have gone through that goes with the idea of social media and mental health, and statistics. This includes numbers, percentages, and time.

Mind Maps

Structure

Introduction

I would love for the video to start with the main point of the video. Discussing mental health and social media. The introduction should include descriptions of what each of these things are and how they intertwine. To grab the viewer's attention, I will provide a few facts. I would like to use ones that are quite shocking but will keep in line with the opening theme. It's no good if we move into interviews without the audience knowing about the running theme.

Middle

I would like to pull up some subjective information. This will include survey feedback and interviews. To support this, I would like to mention counteractive points. For example, why social media isn't such a bad thing and all the positive effects it has on people. This will create interest and argument. Moving further into the video, I can use animation to show a personal story. This will back up my statements and show that it does happen to people. The main reason for this is that it gives an example of someone going through the situation that the documentary talks about. This will help the viewer understand the documentary better when speaking about the effects social media has on people. The reason I have gone for animation, is because it looks simple and slick and it’s a realistically easy way to go. Especially compared to creating a whole side story film, which would have to be a completely separate project on its own. By using a stickman, I can show what is happening in a very basic way. I will use speech bubbles to indicate what the character is thinking, feeling, and saying. I can also use colour to show these things even more. I will use software Animate to do all of this. While this is happening, the narrator will be talking about the story, preferably in third person.

Conclusion

A summary of what we've learnt. Maybe I could include a few rhetorical questions, so the viewer is left thinking about the topic after the video has finished.