Reflective Logs

13 April

I’ve added to my mind map the potential locations and actors I will be using. All the cast are confident in acting and most take Performing Arts. Some roles I still need to clarify such as the person that’ll interview Hogan when he goes to get a job and various extras. These are minor roles and I’ll probably be able to fill them in the future.

I’m still scouting out various locations for the office setting. Ideally it would be empty, bland looking and available at day time. I’ll have to ask permission to use the TV Studio, but I’ve seen it used for filming before.

15 April

I started work on my case studies as part of my research. I’ve decided to look at ‘The Office’, ‘Parks and Recreation’ and ‘Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling’. I’ve chosen these three media products because they relate to my film and i can learn from them and translate that knowledge into my piece. The Office and Parks and Recreation are both popular mockumentaries that I hope to be inspired by in terms of shot types and style. Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling is a short film targetted at a mainstream audience that aren’t neccesarily wrestling fans. As my audience will undoubtably have the same the types of people, I could learn a lot.

20 April

Today I thought of how I might use the green screen in the TV room in my film. Having more technical depth to my film might make it more impressive, and it would be a useful skill to develop. My idea was to have the wrestlers attacking the office workers and, in their head, they’re in the wrestling ring with a huge audience cheering in the background.

I also completed my second case study on Wrestling Isn’t Wrestling.

21 April

Today I started surveying people around college. As the 16-25 age range was going to be my target audience, their answers would directly influence my film. I’m seeking mostly quantitative research right now, and then I’ll do a follow up case study for qualitative. I’m asking about what comedies they enjoy. Most of the people I’ve talked with so far have seen The Office and like the mockumentary format, which is good news. Due to such a large of people saying this, I can confirm that mockumentaries are not niche, which makes finding a target audience much easier.

27 April

I looked at techniques used in mockumentaries using this article.

28 April

I finished surveying people and studied the results I got here. Now that I have this information on my target audience, I can begin taking this into account and make adjustments as I go. I also analysed the focus groups I did but was unable to upload the audio.

4 May

I completed my proposal which contains the logline, synopsis, characters, locations, audience, budget and funding. I also finished my third case study on Parks and Recreation.

Later I did some technical research on green screen. I experimented in Final Cut Pro and even made a short video. It was fun to mess around with and I got to add a skill to my repetoire.

12 May

I completed my research evaluation and finished that stage of production. On reflection I assessed how useful the research I conducted was, and how it will affect my film in the long run. Now I can move on to pre-production.

13 May

The first pre-production I did was my location recces and risk assessments. I went to my desired locations, the exams office, TV Studio and the Job Centre. I filled in the forms and took photos for each of them. While I was there I also determined what risks may be present, and considered how I could minamise these risks. Again I wrote this on my sheets.

14 May

Today I did some more pre-production sheets. I finished the call sheet, screenplay, consent form and script breakdown. I also researched different props for my major characters and explored use of props, but decided that I most likely wouldn’t need anything.

15 May

I was unable to meet the pre-production deadline. This was due to personal reasons and I don’t have much left to do. I’ve done most of my storyboard, although I am struggling with the drawing aspect.

24 May

I’m now signed off from pre-production and I’ve made a schedule for filming over half term. I’ve communicated with everyone and have worked out that Friday the 3rd of June would be the best date. This is quite close to my deadline so until then I’ll be editing archive footage and collecting shots from around the city.

29 May

I’ve finished the intro to my film, comprised mostly of archive footage with narration by my friend. I’m proud of this part as it looks like the start of a real documentary, in my opinion.

3 June

Today was the day I originally planned to film, but that fell through. This was stressful uyt out of my control. We’ve rescheduled for Sunday, and I’ve been assured that this time no one will cancel.

5 June

Today I filmed a majority of my piece. I used the new office I had found, and we were able to get good footage quickly. I’m feeling far more positive now. The only shots I have yet to get are the ones in town, which won’t take very long.

7 June

I started editing the footage I already have. It’s coming together well so far and I managed to get a large ammount of it done just today. The only footage I’m missing is the shot outside the Job Centre.

8 June

I filmed the Job Centre shot and continued editing. I made a few adjustments to perfect the presentation. I’ve also added music to the intro and credits which I think really fit the feel and theme well.

1o June

I finished! I spent today putting on the finishing touches and then uploading it to YouTube. The people I’ve shown have really liked it and I’m very satisfied overall!

FMP Evaluation

How did you arrive at your film idea?

My final idea was a combination of a few of my initial ideas, with the problems that they had cut out. It involved my interest of pro-wrestling, the mockumentary style and was of the comedy genre. My final idea rectified the cons of the initial ideas and combine the positives of each of them too. A mockumentary on wrestling was something I hadn’t seen done before, so I felt like I would have a lot of opportunities to not only make my film funny but unique also. Instantly I had ideas for scenes and an overall plot in my head, so I decided to continue developing the concept

How effective was your research in informing your idea?

Overall I would say that research was not necessary to make my film entertaining and appealing. The research I did was just confirming what I already knew and I learnt very little from analysing the techniques of other producers. While all my research was conducted extensively, and there were certainly points where it lead to a change in the development of my film, I feel like it was a needlessly large stage of production.

One of the times that my research was beneficial would have been the case studies. Observing iconic examples of similar products was inspiring to me, and helped develop ideas for my own scenes. I also found the target audience for my film by comparing the audiences for The Office and wrestling as a whole. Audience research was difficult because regardless of what I determined as my target demographic, the film would actually be shown to only one group of people. Furthermore, it would have been harder to gather primary research if my audience was, for example, older people that did not attend college. Luckily my demographic was a group of people that I interacted with daily, and would also be the type of people to actually view my completed film. All I learnt from my surveys and focus groups was that the mockumentaries people were most familiar with were ‘The Office’ and ‘Parks and Recreation’ and that about half didn’t know who Hulk Hogan was. But I had already assumed this and considered ways to incorporate those people.

How did you develop your idea into a film?

Since the conventions and tropes of mockumentaries already existed, all I needed to do was think about how I would approach them. One of the first ideas I had was using ‘talking head’ segments with my characters, and had the image of a sort of dry satire from the beginning. Next I had to realise my characters and setting. In ‘The Office’, the setting rarely changes and becomes familiar as a result. Even though my film wasn’t designed to be a TV series, I wanted my viewers to make comparisons to ‘The Office’ as I thought it would help them realise what genre I was going for without it being explicitly stated. The characters were very basic, and I feel like I could have done more with them if I had the budget. For example, I originally wanted to include the ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage, but creating a believable ensemble for the flashy character would have been challenging, especially considering that it wouldn’t even be for the main character. Hulk Hogan was minimalistic also, although I liked how it turned out, and people recognised him from just three props. To fully develop my concept into a film, I needed to create a rough outline of events and a script of what characters would say. First I noted down my initial scene ideas and they developed over time from there. The script/screenplay was challenging in this project as I struggled to write down word for word large parts of the dialogue because I felt like it would feel mare more natural if it was slightly improvised or adjusted during filming. Because of this, although the screenplay and storyboards were followed during filming, many of the lines are different. Once all of this was established, it was easy to convert these scenes, lines, characters and locations into a film.

What other areas of your film did you research?

I looked into a variety of techniques to potentially use in my film. The first of which had been green screen. I had my eye on the green screen in our TV Studio all year, but had not yet had the opportunity to use it. My initial idea was to use it when Hulk Hogan is daydreaming, so it appears he is envisioning himself in a wrestling ring. I tested this technique by downloading some green screen assets from YouTube and testing them in Final Cut Pro. It was fun messing around with it, but eventually I decided against incorporating it into my film. I felt like it would have looked far too cheap and wouldn’t occur in a documentary, whereas cutting to archive footage could potentially be edited in, a dream sequence realistically wouldn’t.

I also made three case studies, looking into two mockumentaries and a short film by Max Landis about wrestling, targeted at a casual audience. In the mockumentaries I was mostly studying their tropes and how I could use them myself. From ‘The Office’ I also looked at shot types, particularly how the camera angles changed during funny or awkward moments

In terms of primary research, I conducted both a survey and focus group. The purpose of these were to establish if my film’s themes and concept would be well received by my target audience. I first surveyed people in that demographic and then followed up with a focus group for those of them that responded positively to the initial questions that were designed to gather quantitative data. In the focus group I gathered qualitative data by asking for opinions.

What were the milestones identified in your plan?

I was late in my pre-production deadline, which would put more stress on my filming time, although it didn’t affect me too badly.

Did you deviate from your original plan?

I deviated somewhat, but nothing major was altered. The locations I used differed quite late into production. I was very glad I made this change, as it originally came about from not being able to use my original locations, but it worked out being better than I had thought. I was able to use a legitimate empty office. If I had used the exams office in college like I had planned, it would have been hard to find a time when it was empty, I would either have to get permission from people in shot, or ask to film in a time when there would be nobody in, which would be improbable. On top of that it would have been even harder to film there over half term. I also wasn’t able to use the white screen to shot my talking head segments, but I was glad this changed also. Having the talking heads in the office made more sense, and mimicked the style of ‘The Office’.

There were slight changes to the screenplay and storyboard, but that was to be expected as they will never be an exact depiction of the film. There was also one major change to the story. I swapped out the character of ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage for my own character ‘Tony the Titan’. This was because I would have to spend more time introducing the Macho Man with archive footage and it would require more props to make believable. By using my own character I was able to make my own mock wrestler and would be in control of how they looked and acted.

What elements of your film were the most successful?

The aspect of my film I was most proud of was my introduction. I feel like this was the type of standard you’d expect in a real documentary. The audio was synced perfectly, the narration was well done and the intercut shots of real wrestlers and my own, budget Hulk Hogan was entertaining. Continuing on from this, I thought that the film was as funny as I had hoped. People watching laughed at the comedy parts and there was an overall positive response. People who had never seen wrestler enjoyed parts such as the sequence involving Hulk Hogan dreaming of wrestling and going on a rampage. I believe this shows that the archive footage did its job of making people feel less alienated and I was glad that everyone could enjoy my film even if the wrestling themes had put them off initially.

What elements of your film do you feel needed further development?

The weakest point of my film in my mind was the lack of interesting shot types. I didn’t do many takes during filming and didn’t put much thought into my approach to each shot. I was so eager to do the shots I knew would work well that I didn’t stop to consider more effective or innovative alternatives. By not doing multiple takes I hindered myself later in production where I noticed errors like camera shake and unwanted things being in shot. Luckily I was able to avoid most of this in editing but it could have been better if I had a variety of takes to choose from.

What elements of your film would you change, and why?

If I the opportunity to reshoot this film, I would definitely put more focus on the budget. I think the film would have looked far better if every actor had been in outfits I had selected. The clothing brought from home didn’t look authentic and wasn’t the look I was going for. For Hulk Hogan I would have liked red sunglasses, a bald cap with the blond hair (as my actor’s black hair was showing), a white buttoned shirt and a Hulk Hogan shirt underneath that he could burst into later in the film. The moustache and bandanna looked good, but he was lacking the complete look. The sunglasses were fine from a distance, but upon closer inspection you’ll see that they’re from Thrasher, a brand I doubt Mr Hogan purchases.

Overall, how satisfied are you with your final product?

Initially I found it difficult to feel positive about my film, but now that I reflect on it, I’m quite satisfied. Everyone I’ve shown it to has liked it and the feedback on Facebook and YouTube has all been positive. I delivered on all the things I wanted to create and my film resembles what I had envisioned in my plans. Therefore, I see it as a success and I’m proud of what I’ve made.

What have you learnt through completing your final product?

I learnt how to independently plan for my film’s location and other details. The location especially was a decision that came late in production and required a lot of communication to get permission to use and get all my actors there. In previous projects I had only use local locations that did not require permissions or difficult commutes. Developing this skill was useful because I now have more confidence in this area and will be able to expand my range of locations in future projects.

Hulk Hogan Goes Back to Work (Final Film)

Script Breakdown Sheets

breakdown 1 Opening scene in the city breakdown 2 Interview scene breakdown 3 Talking Head segments breakdown 4 All office scenes

Characters / Prop List

Hulk Hogan is of course my protagonist. He’s essentially items include his signature bandanna, moustache and sunglasses. He’ll also be wearing a simple button up shirt, as he’s in a formal environment.

$_57 72911703 Hulk_Hogan_Hulkamania_Youth_Sunglasses white-shirt