Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making.

In year 12, for my AS production, my task was to create a short thriller film opening. In year 13, my task was to create a music video for a chosen song followed by ancillary texts which consisted of a website and digi-pak. In order to begin thinking about the outcome of these products, thorough research and planning needed to be done in order to understand the market with similar products and to figure out who are target audience would be.

In my AS production we used web browsers and the internet such as Google and Youtube for our research and planning stages to search for similar products on the market and to watch trailers to get inspiration from. We looked at films that we had seen before which could potentially relate to our product, and then later we browsed films which we had never heard of or seen, to have an unbiased initial opinion of the film and trailer. We needed to get the synopsis of each film and see which best resembles our idea. Films such as ‘Obsessed’ and ‘Prom Night’ were the two in which we could strongly relate to in terms of having similar codes and conventions in a thriller with an added twist. This was to have the protagonist (a young, vulnerable teenage girl) to turn for the worst and get revenge, in which the audience are unsure about as it ends as a cliff-hanger.
Both Google and Youtube were once again popular in my A2 task as it was vital to use the internet to search for similar artists and products and browse through their websites and watch a wide range of music videos to further our knowledge and ideas. Furthermore, this year I was able to use YouTube to search for tutorials in understanding how to use Photoshop and Final Cut Express. The advances in technology are continuously improving and luckily, the internet is always filled with current and fresh information such as tutorials which I was able to use and develop skills for in order to complete my final product.

In my AS production, in order to make and edit our product, we were first introduced to Final Cut express. As a media student, this was my first time to have heard of the software and to have used it. In fact, it was my first time to use an Apple Mac let alone all the software’s that came with it. Clearly my lack of knowledge meant that the production and editing process would take its time to perfect and finally produce the outcome that we wanted. However, for my A2 product I was able to use these skills developed to contribute to creative decision making as I was more comfortable in experimenting with various effects other than the typical fade in and out tool. I was more confident in showing off these skills and furthermore, much faster at it this year because of the consistency required in editing the product and piecing it together for the final make. For example the wipe effect was used to make our product look fresh and innovative whilst sticking to the codes and conventions of an alternative genre. During our planning and research stages, we thought it would be unique to use a rewinding effect to symbolise our artist going back in time and facing reality by ‘moving on’ in life. We got this idea from a similar video by Coldplay. In their ‘Fix You’ video, the whole music video is rewound from start to finish which we thought was something to consider as many products do not have or use that effect. It was pretty easy to do on Final Cut, regardless of the fact that it was also a lengthy process (by having to individually select the clips that needed to be rewound) but ended up being a success and fitted in with our narrative.
To create our website we used “wix” which enabled us to create a free website to promote our artist. Once again inspiration was taken from similar artists’ websites such as James Morrison and Coldplay, and YouTube was used for further tutorials in how to navigate on Wix as this was new to all of us. It was a challenge to get used to but at the same time a great experience. I was able to use my creativity in making the website as I was used to exploring artists that I favoured personally, and was able to bring ideas in which I thought would work well in terms of the layout and information displayed.
For our album cover the digital technologies used were the professional camera for the photos and later Photoshop to edit and make the picture represent our artist and genre to the best of our ability. The gap from using a normal phone camera or a digital camera to the professional camera was pretty huge. There were a lot of things to be considered such as the focus or to illustrate depth of field. Camera positioning was very important and was a factor I never considered when taking photos in my everyday life. I believe I was able to bring my basic camera skills to capture the images that we did because I had an initial idea in mind in what I wanted to express throughout the photo shoot. During the Photoshop stage, I knew how to use the basics to help strengthen the photos. We made them black and white to conform to the consistent trend kept throughout the main product and website which also had symbolism of the artists’ emotion of sadness.
In conclusion my AS production task helped me to develop a foundation of skills in which I was able to carry onto my A2 product and strengthen them further. AS helped me to incorporate these skills to contribute in creative decision making for my final A2 product. Hopefully these skills were expressed well in my main product and ancillary texts.