Biggest Challenges
Initial Story Idea: I found that at the start of the project, I struggled to come up with a solid idea for my overall story. While knowing early in the term that I wanted to create a hypothetical three-part series, I needed an entertaining plot. With the help of tutor and peer feedback, and a large amount of research on story structuring, I was able to create the beginning story for The Identity - along with its catchy title.
Casting: In some areas, casting felt natural. From the start of creating the characters of Lauren, Helen, and Ethan, I was automatically envisioning them as the now confirmed cast of Tatiana Maslany, Felicity Huffman and Michael B. Jordan, as they were so right for the roles. However in other areas, I spent a large amount of time researching a variety of actors and actresses to portray the remaining roles, struggling to find the right fit. Especially with a character that no long exists (Evelyn) and Chris, as I changed their casting during the project, and eventually scrapped Evelyn altogether. While it wasn't smooth and simple in the casting process, I feel that the problems I faced were a learning curve and added to project development.
Synopsis: This felt like my biggest challenge, having never written a series or episode synopsis before, I was inexperienced in the process. My initial draft of both the series and episode synopsis proved to be too detailed in action, too long, and not visually descriptive enough for a conventional synopsis. I feel that in the first few drafts, I struggled to grasp the ways to write effectively, but with a lot of tutor feedback, I was able to achieve descriptive and entertaining synopsis across all areas that really capture my story.
What I'm Happiest With
Characters: I think that from early in my project, the characters that I was developing for the story started quite strong, and just got stronger. I feel like they were able to really come to life and be believable as watchable and realistic characters that all connect with each other. By researching character types, development and profiles before beginning all of my work on characters, this seemed to really help to improve them.
Broadcasting Channels Choice: I'm very glad that with tutor feedback I decided to use international co-productions for my series, as, after researching further, I found that this was the best way to broadcast a series that stars international cast and locations, along with broader possibilities for crew and marketing. After researching a number of international co-productions between American and England, I decided on AMC and BBC One, which I'm very happy with because they suit the show perfectly and allowed my creative possibilities to open up.
Opening Titles Editing: While there are areas of the opening titles that I would improve, I'm extremely happy with my editing style of the video. I enjoyed being able to produce this type of material in my project and incorporate editing into this term. I think the music selection, colourisation, cutting and text suit the series very well and are enjoyable to watch.
Marketing: One of the most enjoyable areas of the project, I loved creating all of the promotional material for The Identity. Through researching all marketing areas of both my channels, I was able to split and vary the creations that I produced, which I feel gave this area diversity. I'm pleased with how much I was able to create in such a small amount of time, producing two promotional images, two fake websites, five posters, a billboard, and a bus advertisement, all on my own, using online and my own images, and Photoshop.
Package Website: I'm very happy with the end result of my series package. I have no regrets about changing my idea to using a website instead of a book, as it's much more suited to my project and gave me a lot more creative freedom. I enjoyed creating each part of the website and developing the areas throughout the term, and I think the result is easy to use, professional and supports my project a lot.
What I would Improve
Opening Titles Content: While I'm very happy with the end result of my opening titles, I think if I could have (unrealistically) travelled across Philadelphia and London and used a large amount of realistic footage for my titles, it would obviously look a lot better. But I do feel that I made the best out of what was available to me, and achieved the look that I wanted from my footage.
There is only a very small amount that I would want to improve, as with careful planning, scheduling and organisation, I always made sure to leave myself enough time to improve and develop all of my work, making sure that nothing was rushed or not how I wanted it.
What I've Learned
I've learned that conducting a lot of research alongside tutor feedback is absolutely key in all projects. Without this research and feedback my work wouldn't be at the standard that it's at now, and I feel that they both really helped me to understand every area of my project before beginning or completing work on them.I'm also glad that I faced challenges in the project, as these helped me to learn the ways in which to overcome them and ways to avoid problems in the future. And I'm also extremely proud of myself for the amount I've achieved in a very short amount of time, creating fourteen large, detailed and exciting areas of my work, all in a solo project.
In relation, I've learned that planning and organising is everything. From the start of the term I created my own timetable and a list of tasks to complete for every single day since September, by sticking to this, I was able to complete everything on time and to a high standard.
This has been the most challenging project that I've completed so far, pushing me to work harder than I ever have before. But at the same time I've enjoyed this project more so than any others, and I think my hard work has created fantastic results.
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