I get it. I did VCE. Its hard to balance every subject, all the homework, all the SACs and stay social. I always left everything to the last minute. Except when it came to my media film. My media film was my outlet, it was something I enjoyed. I would come home from school and easily spend 5 hours contacting people, brainstorming and Googling.

VCE prepare

I understand that you all aren’t going to spend that much time on your production. As you actually want to do other subjects homework.

One of the biggest problems with student films is planning. Students have a limited time to complete their production and have to concentrate on following the criteria to do well.

If you were studying VCE Business Management, you would have heard of S.W.O.T analysis. S.W.O.T stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. When making a film, you should be constantly analysing your situation, to ensure you are ready from any change to plans.

Here is an example list of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Strengths

Filming at your own house – will have easy access to catering facilities. If your media teacher hasn’t already told you FEED YOU CAST AND CREW WELL – IT WILL KEEP THEM HAPPY!

Weaknesses

Actor experience – You are using your little cousin in your film. He has not had any acting experience. You will need to spend more time with him to make sure he understands his role.

Opportunities

Prices of HD cameras have gone down – This may influence the equipment your school has for you to use.

Threats

Its winter – It could rain, what’s your back up plan?

There. By analysing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats you can easily start to create lists of things you need to do. If you want to understand SWOT analysis a little bit more, here is a good site: http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot/. Although, knowing the details isn’t necessary for the exercise I just did. Just analysing what you are going to do will help!

It is also extremely important that you leave time to develop your script. Refer to Episode 3 of the VCE student podcast for more information on script writing.

Quick tip: SWOT analysis is something you can continue to do throughout the process, as the list will change. It is also great for your Production Plan.