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
Over the two year course in media, I have learnt and developed lots of skills within multiple different topics of the course. One of the main areas in which I learnt and developed was the use of digital technology.
At the start of year 12 , I had absolutely no skills or knowledge of digital technology and how it could be used in creating a product. At the start of year 12, I was introduced to Premier Pro CS6. This software is used to edit and create videos. To begin with we were told to import videos onto the software and play around with adding effects to them. To begin with I found this really difficult.I had never used this software before and it took some time to navigate the site and find out what does what to the videos. I did not really enjoy using Premier, just because I found it difficult learning how each effect would affect the video. We also studied opening sequences. We recreated the opening sequence of the film Juno. During this task we studied and learnt how opening sequences work, how the filming is carried out and how after effects are added on. During this process I, developed my skills with using cameras and I also helped out my other group members with editing. Because my knowledge of Premier was not the best, my group members helped me navigate and build my confidence my editing skills. I took this skills with me when we were given our prelim task. The prelim task was to create a short film in a certain genre. We had the genre of documentary. From my previous experience with creating Juno, I helped a lot with the filming. We used a school camera, Sony Handycam which was not of the highest quality, but worked with the old style documentary feel. We all took a part in the editing of the footage. I helped to sequence the footage. This involved collecting and reviewing all the shots we took and deciding where they would look best in the film, and cut out ones that did not work. My group also played around with colour correction and decided to change half of the footage into black and white. This was fairly straight forward to do. The prelim and the Juno task was straight forward and of minimal skill development. Compared to the skills that I use now, these tasks are quite basic. Our main task that we had to complete in Year 12 was the creation of a film opening. We were put into groups of 3 and had to film, edit and blog about our work. The main website we used was Blogger.com. I only created 62 blog posts for this task. The creation of the film opening was significantly harder than the prelim and Juno task. When creating this task, we used two cameras. One camera we used was the school's Sony Handycam and the other one was Sony Cybershot hx300. We used two cameras because they differed in quality and for parts of the film, we wanted low quality to highlight it was a home video. The Cybershot camera was of high quality and was a good difference to the Handycam's low quality. It made the final piece of a high standard. When editing the footage on Premier Pro, we used a more editing techniques than we had in previous tasks. We used effects such as Reverse effect - this reversed the footage we shot - this worked well because it allowed us to burn paper and then reverse it to reveal the photo. We also sped up the footage by 200% and used colour correction to make the footage brighter. The effects we used were minimal but created a higher standard finish and was a skill development compared to our previous task. In year 12, we also used the social media Twitter as a promotional age for our film opening. To create the film poster, we used Microsoft Word. This was a basic software and the finish was not to the highest standard.
In Year 13, the development in the creative use of digital technology increased dramatically. In Year 13, we were given the main task of creating a music video and all other cross media branding that promotes the band and the video. The first thing we did was to recreate the music video Call Me Maybe. We recreated this so we could get used to the filming difference from in year 12. When creating a film opening, there was a maximum of about 20 shots that we had to film. Whereas when filming a music video, there could be at least 100 shots per every 30 seconds. We filmed the prelim mainly on iPhone camera. We filmed it on an iPhone because we found that it was easier to get close up shots of the singer. After we filmed the prelim, we moved straight away onto working on creating our own music video. Before creating our video we did a lot of research into other genres and videos - to present all this research we created we used a online presentation system called Prezi. I had never use this before but it was straightforward and easy to use and the presentations I created were of a high standard and showed clearly the research we did. We also used Screencast, to record what was on the monitor screen - such as a website we were researching. Again I had never used it but would definitely use it again. For the filming of the music video we used the camera Sony Cybershot hx300. We had used this camera because we wanted a high standard of footage and this camera allowed us to use different camera techniques and movements - such as panning - without the footage going out of focus. Similar to our prelim, we also used an iPhone to film parts of the footage- such as the glass smashing scene. We used an iPhone for this part because it allowed us to film in slow motion. On reflection, I wouldn't of used the iPhone to film in slow motion. Instead I would of put an effect on the video on Premier. This year we used Premier Pro again to edit our footage. In contrast to last year we used Premier on a more advanced level. Last year we used basic skills, such as reverse and minimalist colour correcting. This year we used tools such as Ghosting (provides a layered effect), Gaussian blur (which added a vintage feel to the footage), Roughen Edge and Edge Feather ( to create a textured effect on the footage in the TV scenes). From just these few examples, it is clear to see how our skills working with Premier Pro have developed over the years and how this has enabled us to create a high standard product. Another piece of software we used last year and this year is Blogger.com. In year 12 we used blogger to post updates of our project and overall I posted about 62 blog posts. This year we used blogger to again post updates of our project, but also blog posts about in depth research and influences we found. This year I posted over 100 blog posts. This increased number of blog posts highlights how my understanding of media has developed and how my skills have improved as well. This year we also created ancillary texts to promote our music video and our band. These consisted off a website, digipak and posters. We used Photoshop and a website called Canva to create the posters and magazine cover. These two pieces of software allowed us to create a good well finished magazine cover and posters. Compared to Microsoft Word which we used in year 12 to create our film poster, it was a lot better and we were really pleased with these pieces of software. To create the website we used an online software called Wix. I had never created a website before therefore had never used Wix before but the software was straightforward to use. The first draft I created was god but due to feedback I decided to scrap it and start over. The second draft was miles better than the first draft with added sub pages, links and videos all available within the website. When I first started using Wix, I did not know how to add these accessories but after some practice my skills developed and I was able to create a good piece of work. We also used social media to promote our music video and our band. Last year I only used Twitter to promote our film opening but this year we used Twitter and Instagram. We created our Twitter page in a lot more detail this time, giving people the option to contact us directly rather than just view the page. We also decided o use Instagram because we had a greater understanding of what social media our target audience uses and decided that Twitter and Instagram would be the most attractive to our target audience.
In Year 13, the development in the creative use of digital technology increased dramatically. In Year 13, we were given the main task of creating a music video and all other cross media branding that promotes the band and the video. The first thing we did was to recreate the music video Call Me Maybe. We recreated this so we could get used to the filming difference from in year 12. When creating a film opening, there was a maximum of about 20 shots that we had to film. Whereas when filming a music video, there could be at least 100 shots per every 30 seconds. We filmed the prelim mainly on iPhone camera. We filmed it on an iPhone because we found that it was easier to get close up shots of the singer. After we filmed the prelim, we moved straight away onto working on creating our own music video. Before creating our video we did a lot of research into other genres and videos - to present all this research we created we used a online presentation system called Prezi. I had never use this before but it was straightforward and easy to use and the presentations I created were of a high standard and showed clearly the research we did. We also used Screencast, to record what was on the monitor screen - such as a website we were researching. Again I had never used it but would definitely use it again. For the filming of the music video we used the camera Sony Cybershot hx300. We had used this camera because we wanted a high standard of footage and this camera allowed us to use different camera techniques and movements - such as panning - without the footage going out of focus. Similar to our prelim, we also used an iPhone to film parts of the footage- such as the glass smashing scene. We used an iPhone for this part because it allowed us to film in slow motion. On reflection, I wouldn't of used the iPhone to film in slow motion. Instead I would of put an effect on the video on Premier. This year we used Premier Pro again to edit our footage. In contrast to last year we used Premier on a more advanced level. Last year we used basic skills, such as reverse and minimalist colour correcting. This year we used tools such as Ghosting (provides a layered effect), Gaussian blur (which added a vintage feel to the footage), Roughen Edge and Edge Feather ( to create a textured effect on the footage in the TV scenes). From just these few examples, it is clear to see how our skills working with Premier Pro have developed over the years and how this has enabled us to create a high standard product. Another piece of software we used last year and this year is Blogger.com. In year 12 we used blogger to post updates of our project and overall I posted about 62 blog posts. This year we used blogger to again post updates of our project, but also blog posts about in depth research and influences we found. This year I posted over 100 blog posts. This increased number of blog posts highlights how my understanding of media has developed and how my skills have improved as well. This year we also created ancillary texts to promote our music video and our band. These consisted off a website, digipak and posters. We used Photoshop and a website called Canva to create the posters and magazine cover. These two pieces of software allowed us to create a good well finished magazine cover and posters. Compared to Microsoft Word which we used in year 12 to create our film poster, it was a lot better and we were really pleased with these pieces of software. To create the website we used an online software called Wix. I had never created a website before therefore had never used Wix before but the software was straightforward to use. The first draft I created was god but due to feedback I decided to scrap it and start over. The second draft was miles better than the first draft with added sub pages, links and videos all available within the website. When I first started using Wix, I did not know how to add these accessories but after some practice my skills developed and I was able to create a good piece of work. We also used social media to promote our music video and our band. Last year I only used Twitter to promote our film opening but this year we used Twitter and Instagram. We created our Twitter page in a lot more detail this time, giving people the option to contact us directly rather than just view the page. We also decided o use Instagram because we had a greater understanding of what social media our target audience uses and decided that Twitter and Instagram would be the most attractive to our target audience.
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