Friday, 26 September 2014

Audit of AS Skills - Creativity

Pre-Production -

When I began the course I had minimal if any sense for creativity with regards to creative presentation formats. I was producing a blog for the first time and had no idea as to how to produce a blog and what should be on a blog and how to present my work. In order to improve my understanding of blogs I began to search through a variety of blogs, exploring blogs such as Food blogs, Performance Blogs, Personal Blogs and previous media students blog work. This inspired me and improved my understanding of what should be on a blog, alongside the help of my teacher encouraging me to begin to use online presentation formats such as 'Prezi' and 'Pintrest'.

Production -

During the filming and editing process of the AS course I was able to apply my own ideas into the open title sequence, applying my own vision and putting my ideas into practise, I found this the most engaging part to the course and was easy for me to apply my own creative ideas. I was able to put the imaginative ideas into practical outcomes and improving my knowledge of what is possible and what wasn't with what I could achieve. Overall I fond that less was more with my ideas, for instance I learnt to only give a small hint, a sense of enigma and building tension in an opening title sequence, to engage and excite the audience, rather than tell a story and feel as though I have to explain everything in one go.

Post-Production -

Returning back to blog work for the evaluative questions in response to the production section of the AS course I answered all my questions on multiple on-line presentation platforms, for example I used 'Exam Time', 'Sound-cloud' and created a 'YouTube' video, which in comparison to my initial blog posts clearly demonstrates my development in creativity for presentation purposes. Not only did this allow for a more creative and engaging piece of work to have been produced but I felt I could be precise and separate information accurately, making my response clearer and easier to understand.

Thursday, 18 September 2014

Audit of AS Skills - Digital Technology

Pre-Production-

Interestingly enough, despite being brought up and surrounded by constantly evolving and developing digital technologies my personal skills and experience with digital technology was minimal if anything at all, as the posts in my AS blog regarding the 'Pre-Production' for my opening title sequence suggest I was lacking in the application of contemporary media formats, my posts where heavily text focused and simply involved the simple typing and publishing of a post. This was also my first experience with a blog and so was completely unaware of all the new on-line presentation formats available such as 'Prezi', 'Powtoon' and 'Exam Time'.

Production-

When filming for the opening title sequence I developed my skills with regards to the use of the digital camera (Using a 'Digital Cannon 700D'), having only experienced filming with a camera in a stationary position, I was able for the first time to experience working with a moving camera, I was able to begin to track the camera and tilt, and began working with a variety of shot sizes. Equally I was able to see on the screen of the camera what I was producing and was therefore able to make decisions on the spot as to whether I should consider a different shot size or camera positioning etc. As well as being able to make immediate judgements on lighting and correcting any obvious filming mistakes.

My editing suite skills were minimal and as I began to edit together my opening title sequence (using an 'Adobe Editing Suite') I began to experiment with a variety of new editing techniques, broadening my knowledge with regards to editing. For example I began to cut and mix two scenes together, alter lighting within scenes, and cut and mix music together. I was able to put forward my own editing ideas and put them into practise developing my skills and creativity as both my creative and practical abilities came into contact, overall developing my editing capabilities.

Post - Production -

When arriving at the end of the AS course I had been introduced, trailed, practised and felt confident with a variety of new digital technology formats, as presented within my evaluation questions. Each of my evaluation questions where presented on an on-line presentation format such as 'Prezi', 'Powtoon', 'Soundcloud' and the creation of a video uploaded onto 'Youtube' in order for myself and my group partner to verbal responded to one of the evaluation questions. Although these methods required a wider and more intense thought process, what it enabled me to do was to mentally separate and clearly demonstrate my overall achievements within the entire AS process. As well as being able to consider and present my evaluative response clearly and precisely, I found the process more enjoyable as opposed to heavy blocks of text as I had previously set out to do at the begging of the course.