AS Media
G321
Foundation
Portfolio
Saturday 11th April
7.Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I think I've learned a lot more since our preliminary task. After we'd completed the task we were given feedback from our teacher. She said that the match on action was very good, there were no continuity errors and that we had to use a wider range of camerawork and more complex editing techniques in the full task. In addition to this we wanted to improve our use of sound so our video looked more professional and was of a better quality.
I think the area I learnt the most about during the full task was definitely the editing, I hadn't done any kind of editing before this year and although I did some of the practical work on the preliminary task it wasn't nearly as complex or as lengthy as the full task. I had originally learnt how to put text on the frame when we did the prelim however in the main task I learnt we could animate the text and helped to decide which transition would be most suitable for us to use in our opening. I think since the prelim I've learned a lot more about the editing software and how to use it, I could definitely use the software independently for some of the more basic editing techniques. I think Jemma and Steph both helped to explain some of the stuff to me, Jemma taught me how to close up on the footage for more precision when you split the footage which I think was quite useful in the smaller bits that I did edit.
I was very hesitant about the practical editing which I think held me back from doing as much as I could and I definitely want to do more of the practical editing next year. Although I didn't do a lot of the practical editing I was witness to all of the editing, through watching I know how to line up video and sound so the scene looks smooth and asynchronous. I also learnt that you can put sound/video on separate tracks in the editing software so that sound from one video clip can be added in without the video. I also learnt more terminology for editing, I learnt a lot more technical terms for editing techniques. The best example is superimposition, a technique we learnt about during our research and planning and a technique we made use of in our opening, we singled it out almost immediately after learning about it, even before Steph joined us as a group. We thought it looked good and during the editing process I learnt how to successfully superimpose images, something we did in our media product.
I think in terms of editing I've learnt much more since the prelim task including using a range of effects on the text and images. I also learnt how to use filters on an image and about selecting the right one for the right frame. I've also learned a range of things that you can do using Sony Vegas Pro but have yet to try them out practically. For example I know that you can do colour isolation and add backgrounds and other things into the frame but I don't know how to do them. I think next year I'd like to look into using different editing techniques that we didn't use this year, such as colour isolation.
I think that mise en scene was something we thought about a lot when we did our prelim, we had costumes, we manipulated the lighting, we had multiple props, we thought about blocking. We put a lot of consideration into the mise en scene, which I think was something we didn't do as much with the full task. We didn't focus as much on the costumes and a lot of the lighting used was natural so we couldn't manipulate that very efficiently. Blocking was something we thought about a lot since we thought character placement was important especially for the antaognist since she had to pop up all the time. Despite being unable to manually manipulate the light we did so through editing using filters and saturation manipulation.
We made use of props in both our prelim and our main task I think we did so successfully in both tasks. I think that if I were to redo the task I'd like to pay more attention to certain elements of mise en scene in the main task because I don't think we were foused enough on it. I think that the main thing I learnt about mise en scene in progression from our prelim is that it is something that we have to look at every element of in every frame because it does have a huge effect on everything going on and we perhaps may have been more successful in creating a clear storyline with more selective, appropriate use of mise en scene across the opening.
Because sound was a weak area in our prelim we focused on it much more heavily in our main task. Our use of sound was much more varied and appropriate as well as accurate. I learnt of multiple sites where you can download tracks and sound effects royalty free, I also learnt of the different kind of licenses you can get to use certain tracks or effects. I think the main thing I learnt in terms of using sound in the full task was how complex the process of finding and adding sounds into our opening. I didn't think the sound would take as long as anything else did but we downloaded multiple sound effects and backing tracks to test out on our opening to see which one was best. I think in the end we made good choices about which sounds to use in our opening and overall I think it went well.
I took Media as a GCSE, during the two years of it I was introduced to a lot of new terminology I'd never heard before. The majority of which focused around camera angles, shots and movement. I think because of my previous knowledge I didn't learn as much new camerawork terminology this year although I did learn some from independent research (extreme long shot etc) however I did learn a lot more about the practical use of cameras. During the filming process I did a lot of filming which helped me to understand how long and hard filming something is.
I think that because in the prelim task we were nowhere near as ambitious with camerawork and the range was very small we mostly used close ups and long shots, so the full task was a huge step from the prelim because we had so much more to think about and many more shots, angles and movements to cover. We also had a lot more to think about in terms of what was appropriate for the genre, for example if we'd used an iris in/out it wouldn't have suited the thriller genre and we would've lost marks.
We did two or three takes of almost every shot we had planned in order to get the best footage for our opening. It took us a while to get everything ready and set up the shots; we of course had props and costume that had to be kept the same every time we recorded. The filming was a difficult process, because we had to get all our filming done in such a short time, I think we underestimated how long it would take us to film everything we needed for our opening. As an average it took us about an hour to film one scene, the school scene actually took us the longest to shoot because we had so much difficulty with continuity. We actually did some parts of the living room scene during lunch on a school day because the location we used was close and we were almost late to a Media class (almost).
We had to retake multiple things when filming, the one we redid the most I think would have to be the scene when the antagonist appears behind Jemma and chokes her, we shot it a lot of times because it was hard to make it look realistic without hurting Jemma. I believe the shot we used was the first we actually filmed because it looked the most realistic which was because Jemma was actually having trouble breathing at the time as you can clearly see by her red face and the vein popping out in her forehead.
I think filming was the most difficult part for me personally because everything had to look perfect. The lighting, costumes, acting, the NVC had to be right, the camerawork had to be perfect, which is a lot to cover anyway but to have to think about it constantly was a long and hard process. We were watching what we'd filmed back every time we shot something and there was always the question of what would look better, could we try something else, would it make sense to do this. During the filming process I mostly learnt how difficult and time-sensitive filming is, although I also learnt a lot about the practical use (tripods, positioning) and some new technical terms (extreme long shot, big close up) the thing I will likely remember most is how much hard work we put into getting our footage.