AS Production Reflection

Digital Technology

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We used a video camera that a family member had let us borrow for the duration of the filming process. This was a Sony Handy-cam DCR-DVD92e camera. This was the only technology that was used in our opening two minutes. We thought this would be good because it had a built in microphone and an option to zoom if we wanted it. This would have been good because it enabled us to have wider options to use if we wanted to.

What software was used?

We used Adobe Premiere Elements 10 to edit our footage. When we first started out using it, it was extremely hard to come to terms with but eventually we managed to find our way around the editing software and therefore our production time became a quicker process. We found editing to be particularly difficult when dealing with rendering as some of our footage was out of focus but we didn’t realise until we looked back on it recently.

We also used Adobe Photoshop for editing our production titles on because this enabled us to save the document as a picture and uploading this was a lot easier than trying to do it straight onto Adobe Premiere Elements 10.

What equipment was used?

We used the camera as mentioned previously as well as props including a school bag, school equipment and settings such as a sixth form college and roads leading to the college. We found that the props helped establish the setting of the opening two minutes; however we could have use more technical shots to make sure we enhanced the audience viewing. We could have also used an additional microphone last year to make sure the sound was a lot clearer. This was a drawback from last year because of how our sound was the main issue raised. The sound should have been re-recorded because of how we had to deal with the muffled background noise and the soundtrack was too loud to hear what the characters were saying.

What were the technical pros and cons of the software and hardware?

Some of the pros we had with the production were that it fitted well and some of our shots that were edited together worked particularly well with how they flowed. However, I found that there were more cons. One con was that the quality of the footage was very poor and it was not as clear as what it could have been. This made it seem like the footage was shaky and that it was out of focus. We also had difficulty in getting the sound right, which is something I feel would have improved our mark. We also needed to edit our film better because we had a lot of jump cuts which were obvious to the audience. We should have spent more time trying to fix these because it made some of the shots not work as well as what they should have.

In what ways was technology used to create the production?

We used a camera that was particularly old which is why the footage was not as clear as what it should have been. We also used Premiere Elements to edit our film. This was something that became easier with practice. We found that by the end of editing our production, we knew the different areas of the software such as adding effects and transitions to the opening two minutes.

In what ways did the technology constrain or enable the production to be developed?

The technology constrained us in the production of our opening two minutes because of how we were not able to directly play back what we had recorded. This therefore made it harder to know if we had to re-film some scenes. We also felt that not having a tripod constrained us because it meant that our footage was shaky and out of focus a lot of the time. If we had invested in one, our production would have been better because the quality would have improved.

How have you developed these skills at A2?

We invested in buying a new camera and a tripod this year because of how we wanted to improve the quality of our footage the most. Our new camera had a playback option so we were able to see if we needed to re-film some of the scenes. We also used a tripod for most of the scenes in our trailer to ensure that we had a steady image throughout. We quickly were aware of the improvement in the quality as soon as we came to edit the footage. Another area which we wanted to perfect this year was the sound and therefore we re-recorded the dialogue and were able to research ways to lower the soundtrack volume. This helped dramatically because of how clear the speech was. Researching how to lower the soundtrack volume also helped us because it meant we could play around with it to make it the volume that we wanted. It also enabled us to not have it as loud as what we did with our AS production. As this year at A2 we were producing a horror film we wanted the soundtrack to be quite low to build tension. Regarding editing, we used the same software as our AS production because we knew how to use it. We found it easier this time because we knew what worked and what didn’t. For example, we were able to know what transitions and effects worked well and for what time in the trailer. We used a fade to black for when it was a change in time or scene which also helped the production not seem as jumpy. We used the effect additive dissolve for our production titles, which is the same effect for what we had at AS, because we knew this made it the titles seem dramatic.

Creativity

How did you use media forms to come up with something new and original?

We were able to use media platforms such as YouTube to research our genre and gain ideas of what we thought would work well. We looked at some examples of romance opening scenes to identify any common features that were shown. This helped us to gain knowledge of what we should include. We had an idea of what we wanted to do when we started and we developed this idea to fit with the conventions of romance films.

Where did ideas come from?

We thought about doing a school setting so that our target audience could relate to the opening two minutes. We thought about where we could do this and the storyline behind it. This worked well because our ideas fitted with our initial plans of what we wanted to do.

How did you work collaboratively to share ideas?

We both added in our ideas and found that they would fit with each other. We discussed every detail together to make sure that our ideas would incorporate what we both wanted. We did find that some ideas didn’t fit which meant that we would talk over another idea and replace it.

How did you change things?

We made sure that we were constantly showing each other different ideas and if something didn’t quite fit we would make sure to plan something else together and overcome the obstacles. We also ensured that we were discussing any changes the other thought there needed to be which was good because it meant that we were collaborating ideas.

How did you use tools like Adobe Premier Elements etc to achieve something imaginative?

We used this software to create our production and found that it helped hugely once we gathered how to use it. It took us a while to know how to use the program but once we got the hang of it, we were able to sufficiently produce or opening two minutes.

What was the intended outcome of the production? (assessment objectives, preferred readings, promotional purposes?)

We intended for the production to have clear indications of a romance film but found that it seemed more like a drama. We found that doing a romance film was particularly hard because of the limited time we had to indicate to the audience the genre.

How were these outcomes achieved in terms of page layout and camera shot choices (codes and conventions)?

We used a voice over which was a common feature of romance film openings and used some light music, mainly piano based. We also used a range of shots, but mainly long shots and medium shots which was conventional of a romance film. As we only had two minutes for the production length we found it hard to show the genre of the film but succeeded in these areas.

How have you developed these skills at A2?

At A2 we developed these creativity skills because we knew what worked well last year and what didn’t. We changed the genre to something which allowed us to be more creative in the sense we could explore more shots and different editing techniques. We found that a horror film may be slightly easier too and with the trailer it made editing a lot easier as shots lengths could be varied. We found that we were able to use a quick pace for the trailer to help build tension for the audience. The sound therefore worked better because we were able to use a range of soundtracks for different parts of the trailer.

Research and planning

What real media and audiences did you look at?

We focused on the audience we thought would watch a romance film and made the production around this age range. We found that many romances were rated at 12 and so we thought a school setting would suit this range because of how the audience would be able to relate to it.

How did you record all that research?

We uploaded everything we found onto our blog page as this is what we referred to the most. It also meant that if the other person was to miss out on something then we could easily share ideas through our blog pages.

What primary research was undertaken?

We used some questionnaires which we handed out to different people to gain an insight into what sort of films people watch and what they expect in a romance film. This helped when trying to plan the conventions of a romance film because we could conform to what the audience wanted and expected to see. We also used interviews for the actors in our opening two minutes to find out their experiences with acting and what roles they prefer. This was interesting to do because we were able to see their ability in acting.

What secondary research was undertaken?

We primarily used secondary data for our research. We used this to gain an insight in different opening two minutes. We were able to use websites such as YouTube to see what other film openings included so we could gain some ideas based of these. This was particularly hard because we did not want to copy some of the ideas that were already around.

What quantitative and qualitative analysis methods were employed?

We used both qualitative and quantitative data in our research to gain statistical and written research. We found that our questionnaires were what gained quantitative data because of how we used mainly closed questions but our interviews gave us qualitative data because of how we used open questions.

How effectively were storyboards/shot lists/script followed?

We didn’t really stick to our shot list or our script because we never really looked back on these but our storyboard was quite similar to what we were trying to achieve.

How have you developed these skills at A2?

These skills have developed at A2 as we were able to include more in-depth research and spend more time planning what we wanted in our trailer. We found that we stuck more to what our ideas were at A2 because of how we wanted to achieve better. This is shown in the quality of our production this year compared to our production at AS.

Post-production

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

At AS our audience feedback mainly showed the issues with the sound and lighting. We knew that this was already an issue but we learnt that for future productions that we may need to re-record things to make sure they are to the best quality that they can be.

What editing decisions were made? How did they inform the production?

We made sure that all our footage was edited together well so that we limited the jump cuts. Unfortunately this didn’t work out as well because we have a few shots that could have been cleaner. There was one point in our production where we had a big jump cut which most of our audience did pick up on.

How did the post-production process enhance the overall production?

It made us aware of our areas in which we need to develop and therefore our next production we would be able to focus on these areas to make sure we get it right. We made sure that these areas would be better next time by discussing what we could have done better, such as buying a new camera.

How have you developed these skills at A2?

We made sure we took our audience feedback from AS into consideration at the start of A2 to make sure that we would better ourselves in our trailer. We found that buying a new camera and investing in a tripod made our quality of footage better. Also by re-recording some scenes and our dialogue made a huge improvement in our sound which is one of our successes this year.

Using conventions from real media texts

In what ways have your products challenged or played with conventions?

We changed the romance conventions by introducing the male protagonist at the beginning. This was something we wanted to do because it would mean that the audience could connect with the characters from the beginning, however we found that this could be a drawback because the audience had no enigma code of too who the male could be.

Is your work generic or experimental, or both?

We found that we were mainly experimenting with our AS production but it didn’t work out as well as we had hoped because the scenes would not fit together. It was also something that the audience picked up on.

How have you developed these skills at A2?

We made sure we stuck to the conventions of a horror film to ensure that it was clear to the audience. We found that these conventions were easier to conform to and so our production was better. We found that having a plan was better as well because we were able to follow it and our production benefited from it.