Describe how you develop your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decisions making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
I have developed my knowledge and skills throughout my two ears of studying this course. For my AS production, I had created a two minute film opening which I chose to based on the horror genre. It was based on a girl who had been spirited in some way and she had hunted and attacked what looked like an innocent boy in the woods. For my A2 production, I had created a film trailer which was about a family that looked 'normal' and it shows the girl grown up where she is attacked at her own home. We chose to base this also on the horror genre as we were familiar with the codes and conventions of a horror and so were aware with what we needed to do in order to make it successful.
I believe I have developed my digital technology skills through the use of camera. This shows when I reflect back on both of my productions and see a huge difference in the quality of the final productions. For AS, I used camera phones to record my footage and so when it came to editing everything together, some of the footage was facing the opposite way and so it was hard to cut in and out of shots to fit it all together. This led the final production to look unprofessional and so it looked low budgeted. Also, the sound was all muffled when listened to through a camera phone. However, I developed my skills of using a professional camera which was a Nikon and decided to use this in my A2film trailer. Due to this, the footage was very clear and so the lighting and shots was picked up really well and so the final production could look like how I had planned. I also used a tripod to ensure the shows were straight and not unbalance which is not something that I had access to at AS. Also, due to me using a professional camera, it had picked up all the necessary sounds that we needed and so we could fade these in and out of the soundtrack. This is effective as it gave the whole final outcome a much more effective and professional look.
Another way that I had developed my skills in the use of digital technology is through the software that I had used. At AS, I used Adobe Premiere Elements 10 which was useful, however, the transitions and edits were basic and did not included as many sophisticated and effective transitions such as when creating the production titles for the opening two minutes, I used simple effects such as fading in and out the image and then the same for the titles underneath the images. I believe this improved at A2 as we decided to use Premiere Pro which was a much more updated transitions , allowing up to have more choice into what works well and what doesn't. This was extremely effective when creating the production titles for the film trailer as we included different effects such as we used an image of a dog in black and white in which we then made it flash and appear in colour. We then had a second image in colour and added an additive dissolve over the top to make it appear more dynamic for the audience to watch. We also made it short and snappy and so the audience could get into watching the trailer. These transitions were not available to Adobe and so I had to experiment on Premiere Pro to find what suited best throughout the whole trailer and what fit the conventions of a horror genre.
Another way that I have improved is the amount of footage that I had recorded and the quantity of the shots between AS and A2. At AS, the number of shots taken was very limited to due to the phone battery running out or the lighting was not good. I had overall not filmed enough and so when it came to cutting down shots and fading different shots in and out, I had run out of shots and so had to end up padding out the opening two minutes to meet the necessary length and so resulted in it appearing more like a trailer than the opening two minutes. This made it look unprofessional and not like what the task asked. To improve this at A2, we ensured that we double filmed each shot and so we had more than enough footage to edit in the final making of the production. This resulted in us having a better outcome but also made bloopers out of the footage that didn't work or were not used.
No comments:
Post a Comment