FINAL MAJOR PROJECT
PLANNING & PRE-PRODUCTION
Pre-Evaluation
When it comes to expressing a type of angle, purpose or message targeted towards my specified audience, I would say that ensuring that I get all research correct and recall the events in the movie at hand accurately. To be particular about the matter, at least one of the works I will be discussing has yet to have a physical release in the United Kingdom, considering that you are still able to go and see it in certain cinemas – therefore, it would be a small obstacle for me to discuss the ideas this film presents as I will need to limit my material to official sources. The clips and imagery that I choose to use must be authentically sourced in order to prevent accidentally linking to any piracy that can be found online; this could potentially get me and my brand into legal trouble due to the unauthorised distribution. Furthermore, it means that I will have to mostly recall the key events of the movie by memory – seeing as I do not have any way to watch through legal means. Whilst on this topic, the sort of animation that I am choosing to cover is rather niche in the grand scheme of things and hence its rather hard to know what pictures I am and am not allowed to use – especially when it comes to the publication process of the review. Using certain images without permission from the copyright holder can also lead to further complications. After talking through this with my tutor, we concluded that when it comes to my portfolio, there will be no issues with me using these pictures in my pieces of writing – which is a relief, taking into account that I need this material as reference for the points that I am making. However, if I were to disclose the review on a public domain, such as the Miskin Views site, I would have to limit myself to using royalty free photos to confirm that we do not run into any sort of hassle.
There we two angles that I am able to approach; that being content directed towards an audience that has already seen the movie, and additionally content that is aimed towards an audience that has yet to see the movie for themselves. With each individual review, I have to come to the conclusion on whether or not to use it for one angle or another. Both of these categories can open their own unique line of discussion with the reader; as they will each be able to provide their own personal viewpoint based on their own knowledge along with the knowledge I am providing. It’s essential that I outline this before I head into the procedure of writing – to which I will.
As mentioned in my streak of previous work, I have established a professional sense of writing style that is directed towards a well-informed and educated viewership. Therefore, I am aspiring to use this to my advantage to establish my identity as a writer. Considering that I use an array of professional language, to develop this further my tutor suggested studying a portion of vocabulary used when it comes to filmography. Distinct terminology will assist me in recognising my readers’ own comprehension – e.g., use of words such as protagonist, narrative, linear structure, etc., will allow me to analyse the movie to an even greater extent. I will thus be able to extend on this set image for myself.
At this stage of the project, I feel as though my schedule has been completely established and I am quite comfortable with my current pace; I will be using my time in college to write and thoroughly edit each review, exchanging drafts with my tutor, and then making use of my time at home to lay out all of my work onto my portfolio. With this, I shouldn’t get stuck in the cycle of attempting to balance between the production and pre-production and showcasing the evidence of this on my website – as I would occasionally fall behind in that aspect. Throughout my previous projects, this was a prominent issue that I am determined to not let happen again. I am assuring to follow my schedule exactly as I had planned.
Additionally, as I had intended, I have used my time throughout the spring break to design and structure my portfolio ready for me to display my work as well as my progress. Overall, the measures I can take are staying on track and precisely following the schedule to consistently keep up with my workload; this way, I will be able to produce a steady stream of work.
Thought Process
Using my proposal for reference, I started developing upon the idea I had constructed for my first review to publish following the schedule; this would be a piece of writing investigating into the key principles introduced in the movie Belle, that released in the country earlier this year. The director's goal with the movie was to present a positive aspect to the internet that is often overlooked and to showcase this through Belle as a protagonist and the gradual shift between her as an individual and her alter-ego. The film focuses on embracing yourself as an individual and coming to terms with grief - slowly healing and growing to love yourself again. Overall, this is what I aimed to revolve my review around - seeing as this fell under Mamoru Hosoda's message.
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I felt relatively compelled to cover one of Mamoru Hosoda's works in principal due to my fondness for numerous of his other movies; at a young age, I watched The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and instantly fell for the simplistic expressions that manage to convey such emotion as well as the fluid animation for the time; which I did not exactly expect, considering that I purchased the DVD for myself solely on a whim, completely unaware of both the story and the characters. Hence, when I learned that the recent movie from the Studio - Studio Chizu - would have a cinematic release in the United Kingdom, I instantaneously knew that I had to go and watch it for myself. With this being the most recent animated film that I have seen, I concluded that it would likely be for the best if I de-constructed this film first out of the selection I had generated - as it was still lingering within my mind.
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Seeing as this would be my first piece of work, I thought that establishing a structure for my review would assist me in setting a brief understanding of the material I would produce. With my initial goal being to immerse the reader in my writing, I came to also understand through talks with my tutor that a continuous flow in writing is important in order to achieve this. Furthermore, my content must also match the assigned title from the get-go; as a title is required to build a basic foundation of what the viewer plans to read when clicking onto the review. Introducing the ideology sooner in comparison to later would come to be absolutely fundamental towards supporting my main viewpoint. Hence, I would then also be able to expand upon this further in. Summer Wars, another creation of Mamoru Hosoda and his animation studio, Studio Chizu, has a multitude of connotations that I was able to link to Belle - predominantly through their approach to virtual reality as well as both the advantages and disadvantages. I would like to at least mention this in passing during the introductory paragraph of the review, as this will also allow me to form a relationship with other dedicated fans of the studio; hence hopefully enticing them to read further.
Shortly after my presentation, the fact that I must acknowledge cultural differences as well as the flaws that can be seen in the works that I am covering was addressed; therefore, I am certainly making sure to acknowledge this alongside my thesis. With this in mind, I concluded that it be most beneficial if I covered the negative qualities of the film nearing the end of the review.
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I will also have to clarify what specific type of audience my review is targeted towards - those who have already seen the movie, those who have yet to see it for themselves or perhaps even both. Either demographic with this taken into consideration would be able to provide me with their own personal interpretation based on their amount of knowledge prior to reading. Considering that I am primarily looking to produce investigative-focused reviews that delve into taking real-world circumstances and applying them to fictional media, hence the analysis part of my final project's title, it's crucial that I am able to open a discussion with my possible viewers to generate opinion. I will have to keep this in mind not only for this review, but also for my further works. Belle, in this situation, is a rather new film that has yet to release on Blu-Ray within the United Kingdom as of writing - due to this, I will attach a spoiler warning for anything of substance past the opening scene that has already been published online to promote the film. However, as previously mentioned, I am seeking to pick apart Belle as a film and as to how successfully it manages to express the director's intention; due to this, I am quite limited on my current options and consequently to achieve my objective I will have to cover Belle in its entirety.
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Regardless of this, I managed to settle upon this review being directed towards both sets of readers - personally, I willingly have read about and watched videos discussing topic matters from films that I have yet to see myself as I thoroughly enjoy consuming the media through someone else's viewpoint and then going on to construct my own, using their knowledge and input to guide my own. In fact, it is what led me to want to construct this type of content in the first place. I believe that the exact same concept can be applied to this case. I would be enthralled if someone else felt that way about my own works; therefore, with this review in particular I would generally go as far as to say that is the sort of connection I am seeking to establish with my reader.