Some prompts for Q1a

Always acknowledge your source! In this case David Allison, who posted the following on the OCR Media teachers' discussion list:

digital technology

•     How has digital technology helped you to capture your ideas for media production?

•     What benefits do digital technologies offer over analogue? Are there any disadvantages?

•     How did digital technology influence your work in post-production – for example in the creation of video effects, or the manipulation of images.

•     How have your skills with digital technology developed, and how has this influenced your productions? 

•     What role might digital technology plan in the distribution of work such as yours?



creativity

•     What features of your work would you say are original to you?

•     Which media texts and producers have influenced your creative decisions?

•     How successfully does your work engage its audience and provoke its interest?

•     Consider some of the creative choices you had to make during the course of your production – how to use cameras, lighting, dialogue, colour etc. How did you make these decisions, and how did these contribute to the final production?



research and planning
•     How did your research into genre contribute to your production work?

•     How did your research into audience contribute to your production work?

•     How did your research into institutions responsible for the production and regulation of the media influence your production work?

•     What pre-production planning techniques did you employ (scripting, storyboarding, shot-listing, flat-planning etc.)? How effective was your planning – how did it help you in the production phase?

•     What did you learn from planning your first production that helped you to improve your planning for the second?

•     How did you use audience feedback to influence your production work while it was in progress?



post-production

•     How much of your text was ‘created’ only in post-production?

•     What technologies did you use to modify your raw material. How did this change the meaning of your work?

•     How much did you manipulate sync sound or create new sound for your text? What effect did that have on your text?

•     How much of your footage ended up ‘on the cutting room floor’ (unused) and why?



using conventions from real media texts

•     In what ways have your productions used or developed conventions adopted from real media products?

•     In what ways have your productions challenged or played with conventions adopted from real media products?

•     In other words, is your work generic, or postmodern – or both?

•     Some media producers adopt a style of working that is quite distinctive – explore how work you have produced may have been influenced by your own favourite producers/directors/designers/publishers.


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Most of the students at LongRoad attempted essay plans on the various Q1a topics - again, it would be useful to look through some of their posts (at

Q1 Film

Q2 Film

S1 Film (storyboard)

T1 Film

T2 Film

U1 Film)

e.g.:

post production essay

What decisions did you make in post production stages of your two products? evaluate the success of these decisions

Editing

• in final cut
• fix any mistakes
• base shot inter-cut with other shots
• generated images for animation
• lip synced the sequence

marketing

• looked at other ideas from exsisting digipacks
• used photoshop and illustrator to make digipack
• used opacity masks and blending effects to combine images some real and some animation

sound

• synced the music with the video

CGI effects

• animation in photoshop
• using filters, blending options and batch production process
• saved time from original sketching idea

video commentary

• used to explain various production and post production techniques

feedback on rough cut

• used audience preview to gather feed back on what did and didn't work
• we found we had to much of one shot so we re-filmed some extra shot that we could add in

transitions

• fading effects to move between real footage and animation
• fade to bring in the heart in the sky

thriller

editing

• final cut
• basic techniques such as cuts and simple juxtaposition

marketing

• used effects to create an overall image theme that could be recreated into posters and adverts

sound

• made sound track using garage band
• help make a professional sound track

CGI

• Green screen to change back ground
• made titles appear in the computer program

feedback for the rough cut

• used audience preview to gather feed back on what did and didn't work

essay plans

"how has your understanding of real media conventions developed over your A-level studies?"

intro

• conventions are a set of elements that identify a specific genre
• study them to help understand and identify genre within real media texts
• helps to create more authentic work
• learn to understand conventions so can apply them to own work

thriller conventions

• identity - amnesia, double identity
• protagonist has a fatal flaw
• sense of confusion

explain each convention and how you used it in your own work

music video conventions (rock/indie)

• performance based - lots of footage of band/close ups of singer
• surreal elements
• crowds

explain each and how you complied to or challenged the convention

conclusion

explain how you think your skills have developed in general.

"what decisions have you made during post production stages of your work and how have these affected your projects?"

intro

explain post production and what it can consist of

• link between visuals / sound
• soundtracks
• cuts/filters/transitions
• order of footage

thriller

• B/W filter
• long shots at beginning/faster cuts as action progresses
• soundtrack speeds up and slows down with action
• jump cuts to disorientate

music video

• dim filters over some footage/enhanced color over other
• order of footage - cutting between two scenes
• lip syncing