Essay plan: Digital technology

Question: Explain how your skills in the creative use of digital technology developed over time. Refer to a range of examples from your media productions in your answer. 

My AS media production group produced a film opening sequence for a feel good/teen film entitled 'Connect Four'. It focused on 2 male and 2 females that were friends but something in their path damaged their friendship forever. Where as our A2 media production focused on a music video for the artist 'Halsey' and her song 'Gasoline'. For our music video we wanted to be more creative and use a wider variety of skills. Therefore decided on a strong story line about a women who is fed up with the spotlight, she is powerful with an unstable side. In both years digital technology was a key process in learning new skills and developing our creativity. 

During the preliminary stage at the start of the course, our groups knowledge on the whole was very limited on the whole was very limited on post-production and editing technologies. We had to start editing on premier pro when we did our 'Juno' task, but I was very unfamiliar with the software and its features were overwhelming. This task was required to include certain shots, therefore I focused on this and not music effects, color correction, transitions etc. But instead ensured match cuts, shot reverse shot and 180 degree rule were present. 

During Year 12, this contrasts massively with the digital technology we used for our preliminary tasks at AS. This is due to my increased knowledge of digital  software, we could focus more on creative and in depth software. Where as in A2 we would focus on more basic software and use less advanced cameras. Using an advanced camera in Year 13 (Sony A500), helped us to focus more on the more creative aspects of post production. I did not focus as much on simple cutting but instead on complex editing (e.g.fast cutting), for example in our music video 'Like Me' we had a series of black screens in between a shot. 

For our final production in Year 12, we learnt many of our digital technology skills from our preliminary tasks such as Juno and The Sunshine Killer. This enabled us to develop a creative and innovative production, whilst following the conventions of teen films, we got inspiration from 'Stand by me' and 'Breakfast Club'. From studying and researching these films we were able to develop from very simple cuts (straight) to dissolves, transitions and fast cutting between our titles. Fading from being young into being teens that are still together as friends. 

This also contrasts to our Year 13 production, as we then had a greater understanding of the digital technologies used and how post-production skills are important. We achieved more creative productions through the sound in the production, for our music video 'Like Me' the beats allowed us to experiment with fast cuts and black screens in between shots. These black screens in our music video showed the 'crazy' side of our artist, which is very important in attracting our audience. 

Following the conventions and themes for our indie-pop genre we created a relevant music video four our song, creating an insane feel. This helped us to show our editing skills, developing our use of fast cuts that we had first used in our preliminary tasks in Year 12. The fast cuts, camera moving with artist and black screens all helped to create a crazy feel to the production. We were able to use our skills from our preliminary task in Year 13 using 'Premier Pro', to edit our final music video to its highest quality. The skills of using saturation and color correction meant that the scenes could look darker and more eerie, like we wanted them to. Also some scenes were to yellow looking so we color corrected this on premier pro. All of the skills we have collected and applied have help create a high quality product. 

Essay plan: Using conventions of real media texts

Use of real media conventions involves consideration of other texts that you looked at and how skillfully you were able to weave their conventions into your work or ways in which you might have challenged them. 

Tips:
- As film research
- What film openings did you research
- Genre (what kind of characters, setting and location etc.)
- Format conventions: titles for a film opening. 

Essay Plan- Research and planning

Intro

• Split up research and planning 
• In year 12 we made a film opening about a group of friends who decide to start a board game club...
• In year 13 we made a music video for an Indie artist called 'Ivory' and it had a very deranged, unusual feel...
• In both years research and planning was very important... 

Year 12 (research)	Year 13 (research)
Genre conventions- E.g. Stand by me, little genre research completed.	Similar artists- also compared to different genres, developed/challenged conventions. In depth research.
Titles- screenshot research, real media conventions.	Titles- 30 second breakdown of shots, mise en scene etc.
Costume/mise en scene- only one costume throughout the entire film opening.	Costume/mise en scene- multiple locations for filming, lots of outfits and makeup/hair changes.
Narrative- beginning of a film and basic/simplistic narrative.	Narrative- There is a whole text and narrative that needs to be strictly followed. Also it has disjuncture.
Audience- No research, not needed.	Audience- It is very in depth and sophisticated.
Year 12 (planning)	Year 13 (planning)
Storyboard- Very basic and stuck to the storyboard.	Storyboard- More in depth storyboard, helps get ideas for it and helps identify problems.
Risk Assessment- is very basic and not very detailed.	Risk Assessment- More dangerous locations, so more complex risk assessment.
Steal-o-matic- No steal-o-matic needed in year 12.	Steal-o-matic- An advanced steal-o-matic had to be made. There is more challenges to face.
Shooting schedule- very simple and with little dates.	Shooting schedule- Fairly complex, with more dates and details.

Exam Overview

OCR G325:

• The exam is 2 hours long
• You spend 1 hour on each section
• Have to answer 2 questions from Section A
• And spend 30 minutes on each of these individual questions 
• Section A is worth 50 marks (25 marks for each Q) and Section B is worth 50 marks
• Section A- about our coursework
• Section B- Collective Identity (representations of British youth)

There are four possible subjects our Section A questions could be about:

• Digital Technology 
• Research and Planning 
• Post-Production (editing, sound etc)
• Using conventions from research texts 
• They could also feature a creativity angle such as: 'How creative were you in your research and planning?'