Post production Essay

Post Production Essay

Describe how you developed your postproduction skills for media production and evaluate how these skills informed your creative media practice.  Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

  

Throughout the 2 years of media studies coursework I have develop my post production skills which has influenced my work and creativity within the course in many ways. In AS I created a 2 minute film opening sequence, made to look within the Film Noir genre. Whereas in A2 we were asked to create a music promo package; including Music Video, Digipak and Advert within the indie genre (The Automatic – Monster). Throughout this essay question I will explain in depth about my postproduction development I have done throughout my AS year of this course and then back that up with how I have developed my skills into my A2 year.

In AS I had to create a shot film sequence opener which lasted 2 minutes with the film noir genre. To start with I used the E-Macs and these were slow and took quite a long time to load up which restricted time on the making process, I movie was used first for the movie but it didn’t acquire the effects and manipulation of Final cut so I moved onto that to create the sequence. Final Cut was used to add effects and allow for non linear editing on the movie opener in AS also it aided the production process for faster post production, this therefore expanded my creativity in the Final Cut area as it was way better than IMovie. Final cut in AS was very hard to use and took a lot of working out to get used to the method of manipulation. Garage band was used in AS for the backing track, garage band was used for pre-set sounds which added a atmosphere into the film sequence, this was good because it already had sounds within; which allowed my creativity to develop with mixing different pre-sets together, instead of looking for sounds myself. Garage band was good but only had certain pre-sets to use so this was its downfall. www.blogger.com was used in the postproduction process as it allowed us to upload posts directly into one place. Blogger is a web 2.0 programme that is highly controllable and quite quick. Blogger was hard to work with as we didn’t know how to manipulate texts or work it as well as we could have in AS.  Live Type was used in AS for effects on the titles and uploading them into Final Cut for a more professional look in the film opener. Photoshop lastly was used in AS for the production of the company logo, this allowed my creativity to go wild but with restricted knowledge on this programme I struggled with it.

In A2 I had to create a music promo package within the indie genre, which included a music video, Digipak and a advert. The track, which we chosen was Monster by The Automatic. In A2 we had I-Macs so we had better quality hardware to aid the postproduction process. Final cut was used for non-linear editing, Manipulation and Effects, Locking tracks and markers to aid lip-syncing in A2. In A2 I had better understanding of Final Cut and its additions, which allowed for more creativity within my music video such as lip-syncing, with the locking tracks and markers. The lip-syncing task was easy, as I knew how to work the programme better than in AS, also in AS I didn’t have to lip sync edit as there was no lyrics to the opening sequence this allowed me to be more creative with the editing such as though beats and faster editing. On the whole in A2 my creativity developed in the post production process than in AS, as I was better prepared for the editing and manipulation programmes within Final Cut such as Locking tracks and the marker tools which I didn’t use in AS at all as there was no need as it was lip-synced. Faster Editing to go with thought-beats, wider range of effects used (marker and slider tools), incorporating a track into Final Cut via web 2.0 and ITunes, using Final Cut more easily also are just a few of how I have developed from AS to A2 allowing my creativity to go wild also. Blogger is a 2.0 web programme and this was used in A2 also, but I had more posts and better understanding of it, which enhanced my creativity in postproduction such as more videos and images to go with the manipulation of the texts. Photoshop in A2 was much improved, as I had to create a Digipak, advert and company logo. My Digipak and advert used lots of images and text, much more advanced than AS. I had better understanding of tools such as the lasso tool and the magic wand but also the layers and how to manipulate them. As a whole on the Photoshop front I have definitely developed my understanding, which therefore enhanced my creativity and knowledge of the programme allowing me to use more texts and images with ease etc.

Creativity mind Map

Creativity mind map

View more presentations from SFDobson94.

Section 1a - Digital Technology

Section 1A - Digital Technology
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. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time. 25 marks

Throughout the 2 years of media studies coursework I have used a range of different digital technologies which has influenced my work and creativity within the course in many ways. In AS I created a 2 minute film opening sequence, made to look within the Film Noir genre. Whereas in A2 we were asked to create a music promo package; including Music Video, Digipak and Advert. Throughout this essay question I will explain in depth about what digital technologies I used throughout my AS year of this course and then back that up with how I have developed my skills into my A2 year.I have developed my skills in the digital technology area such as the use of camera’s, additional software such as Final Cut, I and E mac’s, internet connected software such as Blogger and also Video camera’s. In my pre production area of work in AS level I used www.blogger.com to organise my planning materials, this is a web 2.0 technology and this means its an interactive and can post and edit the blog, also links to the idea of 2-way communication. In A2 I also used www.blogger.com but I had more knowledge on the website and was able to design it to look more professional and also allowed me to have a lot more posts in second year so I had to organize my posts a lot more, so my development of this digital technology has improved a lot. In AS I also used a stills camera (Nikon D80) this was used for my storyboard of my 2-minute sequence, also I used a Flash Mic, which I used a USB cable to import straight into IMovie, which was needed for the sequence. In A2 I used the same stills camera the Nikon D80 but had a more knowledge of how to use the camera and the picture were more crisp and fluent. I didn’t use the flash mic in A2 as I imported the song which we were creating a music video for to go into the background into IMovie this was easy as my knowledge has developed, I done this by importing the sound from a ITunes account. Production in Both AS and A2 required Final Cut this was used to created the videos of both coursework’s, in AS in only used a drag tool which shortened the sequence to 2-minutes which wasn’t very accurate, in A2 I used the razor tool to cut my video bit by bit to gain more accuracy and more fluency, this is still a basic tool but my development show me that this was needed for the development of my video which showed I have gained skills and confidence in this area. Additional software such as Photoshop was also used to make my logo for our company for, AS this wasn’t very difficult as it was very basic with a few colours and text. In A2 I have used Photoshop on the I mac instead of the Emac, which is faster and easier to work with. But also I have created my company logo, digipak and also my advert in Adobe Photoshop at A2 this required a lot more images and text using such as the magic wand or the lasso tool to get everything to fit and look more professional, this shows big improvements in my developments of digital technologies such as additional software. AS production required a video camera (Sony) to record my film opening, but was only needed for like 10 shots at most but in A2 I had to record more than 50 or even 60 this shows I have more confidence in using this camera and my digital technology of this has improved. Post production is needed to create the final product of the course in both AS and A2. In AS I used Final cut but just in a simple way dragging and importing the film and piecing it together, but in A2 I had several layers of video which needed to be in sync all using the razor tool which was quicker and more efficient. When it came to editing my AS film opening, I attached my Sony handycam camera to the Emac computer via a USB cable to import my footage into Final Cut. Final cut enabled me to edit and cop footage and piece it together. Also in AS I used Photoshop for the post-production process of my company logo. Tools included the lasso and paint tools. In A2 my understanding of Final cut and Photoshop improved greatly as in Final cut I used more layers and quick time conversation as this was the more convenient and effective method and also in Photoshop I used more tools such as the magic wand tool and such to create a more detailed digipak and advert.