Throughout my 2 years of media studies coursework I have used a range of different digital technologies which has influenced my creativity in many ways. In AS I created a 2 minute film opening sequence, including titles from the Horror Genre. Whereas in A2 we were asked to create a music promo package; including Music Video, Digipak and Advert. Throughout this essay question I will explain in depth about what digital technologies I used throughout my AS year of this course and then back that up with how I have developed my skills into my A2 year.
When beginning my AS coursework I used blogger, a web2.0 application, the term was coined by Tim O'Reilly in 2004 and means that it's a socially interactive site available for anyone to use. This program was used throughout every stage of my coursework, however during the pre production stages most of my posts where created as research and planning was the part of the coursework that included the most written detail. Because all of my work was documented in one place it meant I could focus on the most important factors that would influence me in the correct way to make a unique horror sequence. When planning my film sequence I created a storyboard that effectively planned my film, I then took images of my storyboard using a Nikon D80 SLR camera, imported these using a USB cable onto the Emac computers to edit together in I-Movie. When the anamatic was then put together it showed my creative ideas behind what the sequence would be about and by adding various effects it made it much more realistic. The video was then uploaded to blogger, which I followed with a detailed paragraph on how it was created and how it give me more creative ideas that I would follow on into my filming stage.
When beginning my AS coursework I used blogger, a web2.0 application, the term was coined by Tim O'Reilly in 2004 and means that it's a socially interactive site available for anyone to use. This program was used throughout every stage of my coursework, however during the pre production stages most of my posts where created as research and planning was the part of the coursework that included the most written detail. Because all of my work was documented in one place it meant I could focus on the most important factors that would influence me in the correct way to make a unique horror sequence. When planning my film sequence I created a storyboard that effectively planned my film, I then took images of my storyboard using a Nikon D80 SLR camera, imported these using a USB cable onto the Emac computers to edit together in I-Movie. When the anamatic was then put together it showed my creative ideas behind what the sequence would be about and by adding various effects it made it much more realistic. The video was then uploaded to blogger, which I followed with a detailed paragraph on how it was created and how it give me more creative ideas that I would follow on into my filming stage.
In A2 my skills in a lot of the tasks had developed on a larger scale as I understood how to use the programs at a higher level. When using Blogger this time I knew how to make my blog look of a professional standard by changing the various themes to suit the genre of music that I had based my own video on. I also posted a lot more posts compared to my AS brief as the whole production value was of a larger quantity. I documented 89 posts in A2 compared to only 22 in AS, this is over double the amount however in A2 a lot more preperation was needed as the brief we had was to complete a full music video that had lots of aspects to record in order to make it look as realistic as possible. We again created a storyboard which consisted of the different scenes that would be in our music video, the same Nikon D80 SLR camera was used, however because I am also a photography student it meant I developed a deeper understanding of how the camera works and meant I could change the settings to capture the 'perfect version' of the paper drawing, so by altering the aperture to the correct setting it meant only a slight amount of light was allowed through to ensure the drawings could be seen clearly and the examiner could understand. I also used Photoshop to edit scenes from exisiting music videos together, they each consisted of parts that I believed were most influential and would help me generate better quality ideas for my production.
The production of my AS coursework involved using the Sony Digital Handy cams which have 60x optical zoom and 80GB of memory. This was used to film the whole of my horror sequence but also the prelim task that was set at the start of the year, however I only knew how to use the basic settings which is why both sets of work where of an average quality. But I did acknowledge the other settings in some parts of the filming which is seen through the obvious change as both clips process. Some of this filming was captured in the Tricaster Studio 2.5 m.s, however we only used the basic grey screen (which is usually used as a green screen) to add suspense and realistic settings to our own horror sequence and we thought by using this studio it would look of a more professional production. As the scene shows the killer tormenting the victim who is tied up and by placing her in a dark room it shows we have thought of the usual conventions that are included in our genre. After again transferring all of our clips onto the E Mac's via the USB cable, it was then time to think about adding the titles as they were also part of our marks, these were completed using Live Type, a program which gives you a variety of options to change the colour, size, font and shape of your text, I wanted my text to look of the genre so I settled on the slashed text that looked like someone had scratched it out themselves and I believe the outcome would have looked so much better compared to using basic font available on word.
The production of A2 brief was a lot tougher as so much more elements had to be considered. We used a Sony Handy cam for the off site scenes which is the same type of camera that was used in AS however the settings where much easier to work with as we had chance to use them multiple times in the first year so our filming for the music video was much cleaner and meant we could use the zoom controls correctly for example in one scene the main actress is seen behind bars as she moves around intensely the camera had to follow her and different shots had to be captured in order for her to look professional. We also used the Sony HD camera this time around too as one of our scenes was conducted in the Tricaster Studio 2.5 m.s and the apparatus where put to use, a range of lights where positioned around the room for our scene to be lightened correctly and the camera itself meant we could create a much clearer video as the camera had a higher number of megapixels compared to the handy cam. After filming we added the footage to the I Mac computers which are much faster than the original E Mac's we used in AS because they are newer models, the files were transferred via USB and then converted from MPEG to DV files so the sound and footage could be seen as one when editing, the program used to carry out this task was Streamclip as DV files are mainly used in Final Cut because they are of the highest quality, this did take some time however the outcome was of a better standard than previous footage I have filmed. When it came down to editing I had a better understanding of Final Cut and mainly used the in and out markers to cut down the 'best bits' of clips we filmed and also the razor tool to cut out unwanted parts, I also found out how to add video effects and filters such as the Strobe Lighting and Slow Motion that we used throughout our video, overall this was done to give our video a professional look as we wanted our actress to stand out and give viewers a surprise comparing the knowledge to AS where no imaginative effects where added shows how I have developed a deeper understanding of the digital technologies available to me.
The production of A2 brief was a lot tougher as so much more elements had to be considered. We used a Sony Handy cam for the off site scenes which is the same type of camera that was used in AS however the settings where much easier to work with as we had chance to use them multiple times in the first year so our filming for the music video was much cleaner and meant we could use the zoom controls correctly for example in one scene the main actress is seen behind bars as she moves around intensely the camera had to follow her and different shots had to be captured in order for her to look professional. We also used the Sony HD camera this time around too as one of our scenes was conducted in the Tricaster Studio 2.5 m.s and the apparatus where put to use, a range of lights where positioned around the room for our scene to be lightened correctly and the camera itself meant we could create a much clearer video as the camera had a higher number of megapixels compared to the handy cam. After filming we added the footage to the I Mac computers which are much faster than the original E Mac's we used in AS because they are newer models, the files were transferred via USB and then converted from MPEG to DV files so the sound and footage could be seen as one when editing, the program used to carry out this task was Streamclip as DV files are mainly used in Final Cut because they are of the highest quality, this did take some time however the outcome was of a better standard than previous footage I have filmed. When it came down to editing I had a better understanding of Final Cut and mainly used the in and out markers to cut down the 'best bits' of clips we filmed and also the razor tool to cut out unwanted parts, I also found out how to add video effects and filters such as the Strobe Lighting and Slow Motion that we used throughout our video, overall this was done to give our video a professional look as we wanted our actress to stand out and give viewers a surprise comparing the knowledge to AS where no imaginative effects where added shows how I have developed a deeper understanding of the digital technologies available to me.
Post production in AS was the part of the course when the evaluation questions are completed and the Flash Mic was used to voice record over one of our presentations we put together to make it more interesting to watch because extra information would be given. You simply speak into the mic for as long as you need to and then stop it, the clips can be transferred separately through a USB cable and this time we opened our files up into I - Movie to give each of them a listen to make sure they were useful before then overlapping the sound with the slides in Final Cut. This process was only completed for a small number of our evaluation questions and I believe it was because I was new to all of the technology available to me that I took the safe option and created word processed answers, however my creative potentional would have been developed if I did decide to think of more ways to present my questions.
When it came to the post production of my A2 brief I was much more focused on the end result and because I had completed the same type of tasks in AS I knew that a lot of work needed to be done in the evaluation stages to pick up the highest marks. So instead of only using word processed documents I was much more creative and for one of the questions my group used the Tricaster Studio once again to record an evaluation video where we also used the Auto Cue to read off our script as it looked much stronger than looking down at a piece of paper, we also ordered out who would say what in our group which meant the process went quicker as the writing was so easy to read. This was also chance for us to use the green screen which played our finished music video on a continuous link as we explained the processes we went through to complete it in as much detail as possible and because I actually talked about different elements on video it looks more professional than writing it down. After filming the whole duration of the clip it was then converted to a DV file before being uploaded to Final Cut where a lot of editing took place to add extra images and separate clips of our music video that linked to what we were talking about. By again using the razor tool to take out less important parts I used the different extra's to the best of my ability to make each of my evaluations as strong as the rest. Overall throughout the process of both of my coursework briefs I believe the different technologies I used in AS where of a average standard and I think I developed how I used them to a more professional standard in A2.
21/25
ReplyDeleteA very good response with some good use of examples of digital technologies from AS to A2. You did get a little mixed up when talking about the post production stages however you still made a wide range of sepcific points. You also discussed some development from AS to A2 so continue to develop this in your reponses. In your introduction please remember to identity film genre for AS and genre, artists and song for A2. You must also time yourself for this answer as you will only have 30 minutes to write this response. Keep up the good work!
Sally