#361MC // Final Major Project: ‘Femme’ Day 1 Reflection

‘Femme’ has changed so much from the first initial idea of wanting to showcase in an  exhibition, to an interactive website and finally to a documentary. It’s come a long way with many hiccups and tough decisions but after day one of filming I’m feeling positive with it’s final outcome.

The day started late at 3:30pm with 3 interviews every hour – I spaced them out this way as I wasn’t sure how long each interviewee would need to answer ten questions on body image in social media – turns out each interview only lasted 5-10 minutes which was a blessing for my equipment recording space.

Being someone completely new to filming my own interviews was a gold mine for my anxiety and during the set up, which took an hour, I kept having to remind myself I could handle the situation. When the first interviewee appeared I felt more nervous than they did but after the first couple of questions I soon began to feel comfortable talking to each person about their experiences and opinions and was able to have a conversation that flowed quite nicely.

I used the Dedo lights to create a 3-point set up on the subject as I was working with white walls and needed to create some background interest, using the LED panel as well to bounce light into the subjects eyes off the ceiling created a beautiful ring light giving life to each person which I was super pleased with. My final day of shooting is Monday 24th April with the same set up and two camera perspective – overall the day went smoothly minus the H5 Zoom cutting out and not recording every so often which meant I opted at loaning the H6 Zoom instead for Monday’s shoot. Hopefully the second day will go just as well as the first with another 4 interviews, including myself.

Evaluation of FMP CW2 // For Submission

The planning for my FMP has been an ongoing process for about 3 months. I started thinking about what I wanted before Christmas and it was a very vague idea of holding an exhibition, much like an art installation but with all the complications that come with being able to pull that off successfully I had to re-plan and re-evaluate what it is that is within my possibilities at this point in time. 360MC has been a challenging module, which I have been frustrated and excited about – I’d have it no other way as a challenge means it’ll be all the more worth it in the end. During 360MC and the creative artefacts I found new ways of expressing myself creatively through different techniques such as stop animation, split-scan and photography. Although my final major project doesn’t necessarily embody these first three artefacts I know it has helped me to open my mind more artistically when thinking about my fmp.

The idea for creating an interactive website documentary was recommended to me by one of my tutors. At first I thought “oh god, I can’t do this” it felt huge, more than what I was capable of, and it still is a huge project but after more weeks of thinking about it and the details to make it possible it became more of a reality that actually, this could work. I’ve always loved interactive websites, being a internet junkie and a fan of the ever evolving way media is displayed on different platforms, I believe an interactive website is something that will really push me to excel creatively and artistically.

I’ve been passionate about feminism and body positivity for a long time now, having felt my own share of body shaming and not feeling like I can be my own person or express myself truly because of what people would say about me in real life and over social media. It would be false to say that social media doesn’t have a huge impact on the world and it’s youth and it will continue to grow and be more powerful. So, I figured to help not only myself but others, to embrace it’s rapidly growing pace and create something that everyone worldwide could have access to. To feel empowered and not suffocated.

My production website is something I have taken a lot of time into making as professional as I possible could, I displayed everything I could think of to get my message across in a stylistic and modern way, an aesthetic I have always been associated with. I made it concise and informative to really show my desire for my fmp and as a media professional and I believe I did this accordingly.

I always knew, ever since starting the media production course here at Coventry University, that my fmp was going to be the most difficult project I’ve ever done – and personally what I’ve decided to do it will be the most challenging thing for me to pull off individually, but I know that I am capable of doing it and doing it well. Since I am the producer/director of the project I will search for volunteers but ultimately I am the DoP, sound and editor for this project and it will embody everything I have to offer as a media artists.

For future improve, I will spend much more time researching and understanding my platform, for example, I don’t know anything about building a website so will need to hire help in. In future I’d like to be able to have these transferable skills and the time to perfect them so that if I want to create more interactive websites I will have the skills needed to do so independently.  As much as I already know about documentary, I’d also study this further and develop a better understanding of what it means to create a move documentary as well as tuning my feminist knowledge on self-acceptance movements.

Ultimately, I am happy with how I have grown as a media professional and as an individual since starting this course. I have develop a much wider understanding to the media industry in many ways, discovered new skills, styles and theorists. I’ve become more confident with equipment and expressing my ideas creatively. With my proposal video I believe this shows as it’s something quite different from the others on my course . I am eager to get started on this huge part of my life and really showcase my abilities as a student of Coventry University and as a media professional.