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.