Section 1A Question

Section 1A Question

In the last two years I have took an AS and a full A Level Course in Media Studies, using lots of different digital technologies and improving in my use of them as I have progressed from the AS to the full A Level. In the AS year I was asked to create the opening two minutes of a film and in my A Level year I was asked to create a promotional package for a music video. I will structure this essay by looking first at the pre-production of the tasks, then the production of it and finally the post-production of it. I will then use examples from the past to illustrate how I’ve used it.

In the pre-production of my AS Task I used Blogger, part of Web 2.0, to record my work and to store information that I needed before I could start to actually produce the product. Blogger helped with me creativity as it meant that I was able to set out the things that I had collected could be set out colourfully and clearly. I was also able to embed clips from video hosting site YouTube and diagrams from sites like Prezi, Slideshare and Wordle. I used Blogger because I felt that it was the best site as you were able to fit in lots of information and it was a good place to store it quickly and easily. To create things like preliminary task we used the computer programme iMovie, which we could add effects, cut clips and put videos together. Using iMovie meant that the tasks we were doing were able to be seen altogether as we could move the clips and use non linear editing so we could film little bits and then put them together to form this preliminary task. This helped with the creativity I had when doing this as it meant I was able to film the idea s and then get them in to edit and then if I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would I could edit, delete or replace clips easily and keep doing this until I was happy with the final product for the preliminary tasks. We had to create storyboards and when we had to animate these we used a USB Flash Mic as it was the easiest and best tool to use and it meant that we were able to get the audio files from it quickly. We had to record what we wanted from a script that we had previously prepared and we were able to do this without any other equipment, as we had the option of doing it, then if it wasn’t 100% matching to the animatic storyboard we could re-record. We could do this as it was just  a case of recording it and then getting the files using a USB connection and then putting them into the programme we were using to edit it.

In the pre-production of the A Level task I also used Blogger, as it was still the best site to store information and other parts of research as it could support audio, visual and word-processed files. However, because I had used it for the whole of the last year my skills on Blogger had improved and I was able to use more complex pieces of information. With the task including a Music Video the research included embedding lots of videos to get ideas from, and so had to get videos from the Internet on sites like YouTube. Creatively this helped, as you were able to see what you were doing and could see all of the information you needed to, helping your research. Another part of the pre-production was to use a site called Prezi, which is a zooming presenting website. This can store pictures, videos and text and it was a very creative way of presenting all of the information I wanted to, and this meant that I could see all of the things I wanted to, and could bunch things into topics so could have different parts of the music video at different parts of the website. For example, I could have one part for mise-en-scene, one for narrative and one for editing, to help with the managing of the project. To record preliminary parts for this part of pre-production we used a better quality Canon XL2, as we thought that it would be the best one to use to test out things like the slow-motion effects in iMac program Final Cut HD. We used it on a tripod to record small clips of different things and then, using a fire-wire, uploaded it onto the iMacs and then into Final Cut to check the footage, helping with creativity as we could see the footage and could decide if we were happy with it before uploading it online.

In the production of the AS project we used a Sony Handycam, which was useful as it meant that we were able to get all of the footage, and store it on location due to its 80GB internal memory. We used this camera to film all of the scenes that we needed to, creating a good effect as it had all of the features that you’d expect and made it possible to get all of the angles that we needed to. To put all of the clips together we used an eMac, which made it possible to store all of the information and due to the programs that are available on these Macs you could also go on to do little bits of editing in the filming process, if any small mistakes were seen in the coursework, as to not jeopardise the rest of the coursework and meant there wasn’t any need to re-record the bits we had on the eMacs. Also when producing the film we used iMovie as it was the best program to use, as we’d used it before, to explain some of the angles, how we wanted the locations to look and how the characters being portrayed were to act. It was a good programme to use because it meant that we were able to have all of the effects that we wanted to, but didn’t have to take a lot of our filming time to create these as it was reasonably quick, and was a good quality once we had completed these small points.

In the production of the A Level Products we used the Canon XL2, as it was the best quality camera available and, from what we did in the pre-production it was able to create the angles and zooms that we needed to create the music video that we had originally planned to. It was good because by using a fire-wire we were able to create these films in a non-linear fashion. The quality of the camera helped, because it meant that we were able to film, in detail, all of the things that we wanted to. In the A Level year we used iMacs, opposed to the eMacs that I mentioned previously. These were better as they allowed me to develop my skills, due to the better facilities that were hosted. The iMacs were used to display parts that we needed to check during the production and was a good tool to use for sheets we needed to run it smoothly e.g. Call Sheets, Scripts etc. They allowed me to be more creative, as they had all of the programs we needed to do this with Final Cut HD, Photoshop and iMovie at our disposal, so we could add or delete the parts we wanted to. It was also quicker when rendering the video clips we had collected and this meant that the time that we had was able to be put to good use and was used much more effectively. We used Final Cut to host these clips due to it being a better place to store the non-linear footage as we could be it as a timeline meaning that once we had it we could put it in the right place and then it would be ready for the postproduction that we would do later.

In the postproduction of the AS Task we used Photoshop a lot, taking advantage of its features to create titles and a company logo. It was good as it had many tools that we could use to make the project look professional and suitable for the audience groups that we were meant to be aiming for. One of the tools that we used was the lasso tool, which meant that we were able to grab parts of the larger graphics that we had, and make them smaller so that they were suitable for the task, and would fit with the genre we were working on (Film Noir). We also used Final Cut extensively, knitting together the clips using this program because of its features. We used the effects, such as the monochrome effects and the fade in/ out effects. These allowed us to create a deeper meaning in the film and could show elapses in time effectively.

In the postproduction of the A Level we used the Tricaster cameras, which are located in our filming studio.