Exam Question 1A Plan

Exam Question 1A Plan

Simplest way of answering the question:

• Paragraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short.

• Paragraph 2 should pick up the skill area and perhaps suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. use an example.

• Paragraph 3 should talk through your use of that skill in early projects and what you learned and developed through these. Again there should be examples to support all that you say.

• Paragraph 4 should go on to demonstrate how the skill developed in later projects, again backed by examples, and reflecting back on how this represents moves forward for you from your early position.

• Paragraph 5 short conclusion

(a) Describe a range of creative decisions that you made in post-production and how thesedecisions made a difference to the final outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.    [25]

Plan -

• Paragraph 1 - Introduction about the video I have created, magazine, advert and digipak. Speak about the genre and briefly the conventions. 
• Paragraph 2 - had the basic use of editing, talk about editing the Arctic Monkeys and the basic editing we included for our video draft. Able to add the song and put clips together in sync. Putting my digipak together and trying to combine the advert and digipak so they look like. 
• Paragraph 3 - We were then able to add effects to the music video at the certain points to make the video look more enthusiastic and to increase the tempo. Developed from the first time round as it added a different effect to the editing in post production rather than having a slow, plain video. Such as intro flashes at the start. Developed my digipak and advert so they both included elements 
• Paragraph 4 - Worked as a team for the editing in post production and sort of editing techniques we should add to our video. Watched it over and and compared to our other version to see if the effects had produced a positive outcome. After feedback I developed my digipak so that I could produce one that looked realistic and would suit my audience. 
• Paragraph 5 - Conclusion

Overall I have created four media products. One being in AS which was a magazine that I had to create for an indie audience. I then had to design three media products in A2, and this included a music video, a digipak and an advert. Like the media product in AS, all of these products were aimed at an indie audience.

To begin with the post production in my video and magazine I had the basic editing skills which was a low skill level which is why I had to spend a lot of time on learning different techniques. For the music video, the first time I was able to use editing skills in post production was after the class created and filmed their own version of Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor. This allowed to pick up new skills and techniques as it was the first time that I was able to use Final Cut Pro to edit a video, for example it was the first time that it was possible for me to try and fit our video footage in time with the actual song which is how I began to improve my basic skill. For my magazine, the first time I was able to test my skill level was creating the first draft of a magazine which is a fine example of the low skill level and creativity I had at that time period. For example the basic skills I had were putting the magazine together, however the fonts and the colour contrast I used showed that it was an area that I needed to develop on.

As I developed my skill level I was able to produce a better quality advert and digipak, which could have been due to the fact that I was able to have practice on Photoshop when creating my magazine at AS level. As of the time spent on photoshop in previous years I was able to use features such as the grid to align everything accordingly and ensure the colours matched (on the advert and the digipak). From developing my minimal skills this enabled me to become more productive in the post production stage and creating something that looks more professional and realistic in the indie genre. For the music video our skills began to develop in the way that we were able to start inputting editing techniques into our video, and this started with something as simple as making the footage black and white whilst using our inspiration from the Cigarettes and Alcohol video. Around this point also we started to make alterations in editing and play around with different effects which would help to develop out music video and make it a higher standard.

From this stage, there was an obvious increase in our skills for editing our music video. For example with the adding of 'intro flashes', this helped to increases the pace and enthusiasm of the song. This shows how far we have progressed from struggling to put the music in sync with the performers to adding editing techniques to make the video look of higher quality and to increase the pace of the song. I also believe that for our music video our communication and team work skills improved in the post production compared to the previous time for the draft and the creation of Arctic Monkey's video. For example we were able to work out who did what best and we would work on individual things so that we had the best outcome. We were also able to view our draft and compare it to our final video so that we were able to see the difference and the positive outcome in our post production, and this is a fine example of our development in post production. After feedback on my original digipak, I used the evaluative comments to improve the design as a whole and it allowed for me to pick up on little areas that I had left unnoticed. For example something as simple making the spine more professional allowed me to develop. 

Overall I feel as though from the beginning of AS and creating the magazine to finalising our music video, my skills have developed and creativity has improved. This is down to help from others and learning about the different features on the software, they have both worked to allow for me to improve the quality of my final outcome of the media products that I have created.