1a Essay

Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making.

For my AS coursework we were given a brief to create an opening for a film of our chosen genre. Creativity refers to the use of imagination and original ideas in the production of an artistic piece.

I was able to demonstrate my creativity throughout the construction of our film through using different technologies and software’s in order to create the film. Using different software allowed me to create a new product and present information in different ways showing I used not only creativity but my innovative whilst also developing my digital technology skills. Editing the film took creativity, as a group we wanted to use interesting shots and make the narrative flow yet be exciting. To demonstrate creativity throughout the film, the software used to edit the footage was Final Cut which allowed us to use various transitions such as fades and also to cut footage exactly where we wanted and incorporate lyrics. As a group we used our collective creativity when coming up with an idea, deciding on the genre of thriller. We decided on a thriller because we all had a good knowledge of the codes and conventions and found it was a popular genre with our target audience.

Although there were obstacles in the way of our creativity such as staying in with the codes and conventions of already established films, taking risks and not knowing whether they would work and lack of confidence in using these new technologies. To overcome these obstacles I had to make sure I could find a way round them in order to retain and gain marks. When we started work on our film for the pre production tasks we had to look at existing products to gather what the codes and conventions were. We looked at films such as Obsessed and Prom Night. We listed what we found and knew we had to stick to these conventions in order for our video to be a thriller. To make sure we stayed within these boundaries we made a list and then whenever we had footage or were deciding on shot types we would refer back to this list to make sure it was suitable. Taking risks with using different technologies and software’s were an essential part of the process as we needed to represent our findings especially in the pre production stages in a exciting new way that isn’t the same as others. Finally a lack of confidence in using the new technologies had to be overcome because I needed to gain all the marks I could and make sure my work was of a very high standard.

My ability to be creative progressed into Year 13 for my A2   coursework. I was in a group of four and the brief was delivered which was that we had to create a music video for a song without a video of our chosen genre. As a group we chose the genre of indie alternative genre as we thought this was less popular than for example rap or pop. Using our creativity from the start we created a survey on Survey Monkey to determine what genres our target audience liked. In my A2 coursework my creativity and digital technology skills vastly improved as throughout my AS coursework I didn’t use many software’s and tended to stick to the ones I was comfortable with but through my A2 coursework we were given a list of different software’s and websites to use which allowed my creativity to be seen. Firstly I discovered slideshare which allowed me to upload my power point presentations and post them on my blog which people could look at and read through. This allowed me to create a power point with spider diagrams and pictures but upload it to my blog which before learning of slideshare I did not know you could do this. I also used throughout the process photo bucket which allowed me to upload my photos into a slideshow, this was a creative way to present them and was different to others work showing I was using my innovative.  I also discovered PhotoBucket which allowed me to present my photos into a slideshow which was an interesting way for people to look at my pictures.

For my AS coursework when answering my evaluation questions I used a video and powerpoint’s but for my A2 I used SlideShare, PhotoBucket and another software I discovered which was Xtranormal. This allowed me to input information to a website where you choose a character and the computer inputs your speech and the character says this aloud. It is an interesting and fun way to present information which keeps the audience interested in your answers. In the group I worked mainly on the website in which I used a website creating software called Wix. I had no previous knowledge on this software, therefore in order to create a high quality website I watched the online tutorials to learn about the certain aspects of the website and picked it up very quickly allowing me to make a high quality and informative website. 

In conclusion my digital technology skills have vastly improved from my AS course to my A2 course. I have discovered new technologies and software’s as well as improving my knowledge of ones I had previously used. Photoshop was one of my biggest improvements as I learnt to move layers, add layers and edit photos which aided the production of the website and the digi pack. Overall I believe my skills improved vastly which helped me used my creativity and innovative to present information in different and unique ways learning from my AS course to make sure I gain every mark possible and give myself skills in these technologies for future products.