Exam question

Describe how you developed your post production skills for media production and evaluate how these skills informed your creative media practice. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills were developed over time.

Throughout the two years of the course I have developed my post production skills and these skills informed my creative media practice.

The two briefs I was given were at AS to create a 2 minute opening horror film sequence including titles, and at A2 I was to create a music promo package which included a music video, digipak and advert for the song ‘Shadows’ by Warpaint.

I will answer this question by first discussing post production at AS and then go on to discussing how I had developed at A2.

During the post production stages at AS I used IMovie, which was easy to use and enabled me to add various effects to the sequence. However I don’t think that this enabled me to be creative as much due to the small choice of effects that are provided, however the ones that I did use were effective and easy to use. At AS I also used photoshop to create my logo, which enabled me to be very precise and specific when I edited it, however photoshop wasn’t something that I was familiar with so it took me a while to get to grip with the tools that were available for me to use.  Photoshop allowed me to be creative because it allowed me to do anything I wanted to my logo and although I struggled with this at first I eventually got my desired logo. Using photoshop I was also able to use a large variety of different effects for my logo which allowed me to be creative as I could use many layers and fonts, which made me logo look unique. During post production at AS I also used blogger which is web 2.0, this allowed me to post things and get comments back from other users. This developed my post production skills for media as I began using blogger as I had never used it previously, and it allowed me to get feedback and comments from other uses on the work which I was doing. I also used an EMac, which I thought was very slow to use and not up-to-date. The EMac enabled me to be creative as there were many tools on there which I could use, and this developed my skills as it was something which I had never used before.

During the post production stage at A2 I moved on to using final cut rather than IMovie, and I found that final cut had a larger variety of effects which I could use and which were very effective for my music video. This enabled me to be more creative than I was at AS and it meant that I could now use both IMovie and final cut. Final cut also enabled me to use non linear editing and edit my music video in whichever order I liked, which meant that if there was a scene in the middle which I didn’t like then I could change it to something more preferable or use a better clip. This informed my creativity as It enabled me to experiment and try out clips which I hadn’t thought of using before, which turned out to be better than the ones that I had planned on using. Also, final cut enabled me to use the green screen, something which I was unable to do at AS on IMovie, and once I learned how to use it I realised that I could now do a wider range of things when editing my clips, which again allowed me to be more creative as I could choose more creative backgrounds than I would have previously been able to.  During A2 I also used web 2.0 technology again and put my music video on facebook, this allowed me to gain feedback from many people and it was something which I had never tried before. Some of the people which commented gave me ideas on how to improve, which I then took into account which gave me better ideas which therefor allowed me to have more creative ideas that I had previously never thought of, this was something which I didn’t do at AS which I feel would have helped me. I again used photoshop at A2 but this time I was more experienced due to the experience I had with it at AS, this time I was able to create more things on it such as a digipak and advert, and I was able to use images instead of just words. When using it the second time around I used a large amount of layerd compared to just using 2 at AS and this was something which made it look more effective.

Exam question 2

Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.

My production work was well informed by research into real media texts and throughout the two years on the course my ability to use such research has developed considerably.

The two briefs I was given were at AS to create a 2 minute horror opening film sequence, and at A2 to create a music video promo package which included a music video, digipak and advert, and the genre I chose for A2 was the indie genre.

I will answer this question by discussing pre production, production and post production at both AS and A2

During the pre production stages at AS I done a nine screen analysis of the Texas chainsaw massacre, this influenced me to use shots of the crime and also to use different effects of the opening sequence. I also done a timeline of the Peeping Tom opening credits, and from doing this I could see that the opening credits were quite long, and I also discovered that the director was named last at 4.27 minutes in. This encouraged me to make my opening credits longer and to put the director last. I was also influenced by se7en, and from watching this film I was influenced by the way that the murdered wasn’t really revealed fully and just evidence was there, so this influenced my opening credits.

During the pre production stage at A2 I analysed a range of music videos from the indie genre, which included videos from Warpaint, Yeasayer and Vampire Weekend. These videos had no clear narrative or the narrative was complex which was something I thought I could bring into my music video. I also analysed adverts and digipaks, and took influence from the way that they were laid out, with clear writing indicating who the artist was and the album name, and the images also matched the genre, so therefore I matched the images on my own digipak and advert as closely to the genre as I could. I also done a nine screen analysis of a music video by Yuck, and from this I discovered that they held up signs with some of the lyrics on, I decided to do this in a similar way for my music video by writing the words on pieces of paper, as I thought it worked very effectively in the Yuck video.

During the production stage at AS due to the influence of other horrors I had seen such as se7en, I decided to film using unrevealing camera angles, such as the over the shoulder shot of the knife and of the killer looking through the book of images, and this allowed me to create suspense. During the production stages I also used very low key lighting, because all of the horrors that I had watched were very dark and dreary, so I decided to use this in my opening sequence. I also used images of children as this was something I had seen often in horror films and I found it very creepy, so to stick with the conventions and create more suspense, I took this influence from other horrors I had seen.

At A2 I was influenced by videos such as Vampire Weekend, and used images of the band playing, I also done audience research and found that this was something that they expected to see within the video. I was also influenced by Warpaints video of Stars and seen that their video was quite dark, and as my chosen song was called ‘shadows’ I decided that it would be good to be influenced by this and use some dark shots, therefore I done some shots outside by a fire, which I found did work very well. To add to this during the production stage I was also influenced by the mise en scene used in music videos such as Warpaints video and Yucks, so I decided on costumes that fitted with the genre and ones which were similar to those I had seen in music videos I had studied.

Finally at AS in the pre production stages I was influenced by the times in which the opening credits appeared, so decided to space out the timing of the opening credits and also decided to put the directors name last.

Exam Question

Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these contributed to your creative decision-making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

Over the past two years I have used a wide variety of digital technology, which I have used for media production. At AS I created a 2-minute opening film sequence including titles, and at A2 I created a music promo package which included a music video, digipak and advert. I will discuss how I have used digital technology in the past two years during pre production, production and post production.

During the pre production stage at AS I used digital technology which included IMovie, which I used to edit our opening film sequence. Whilst using IMovie I used different effects and transitions, which were simple and easy to use. I also used an EMac throughout the pre production stage of my opening film sequence, which again was easy to use but was also slow. As well as this during the pre production stage at AS I also used Web 2.0 technologies, one of which was blogger. I used this to post the different stages of pre production, such as the planning and research.

I then moved on at A2 during the pre production stages, where I changed from using IMovie to final cut, which allowed me to edit my music video more accurately than I could my previous project, and it also allowed me to use more complex and sophisticated effects and transitions. Whilst I was using final cut I also used the razor tool, and it also allowed me to edit my music video in a non linear fashion. I again used blogger at A2, but this time I learned how to change the themes and layout of my page, and I also posted a lot more posts than I did on my previous project. During my second year I used an IMac, something which was a lot faster and better to use, which also meant that clips would render faster on final cut.

During the production stage at AS I used a Sony digital handicam, something which was easy to use, and small and compact. I also used a still camera to take images during the production stages. I also used an EMac, which we transferred our video to, ready to be edited.

At A2 I then moved on to using a tricaster in the studio, something that was a lot harder to use than a normal handheld camera, but was more flexible and it allowed me to film from different angles. I also used a green screen for my A2 music video, something which allowed us to change the background, although the first time we used this it didn’t go as planned as there were green lines around the main actress, but the second time around it was more effective and it worked well. To film my outside scenes I used a Nikon D80, which was still easy to use, but still worked well for the scenes I needed it for.

Finally, during the pre production stage at AS I again used IMovie, to edit the opening film sequence, which was very easy to use but it had a limited number of transitions and effects that I could use, although these were the effects that I intended on using. For instance I used the cartoon effect near the beginning of the sequence. To create the logo I used photoshop, which enabled me to create a simple logo that was effective. As well as this I used garageband to create the sound effects which was really easy to use and again it enabled me to crate something effective.

Finally at A2 I moved on to using final cut to edit my music video which enabled me to use more effects and edit in a non linear fashion.