Post Production – Progression From AS to A2

There have been mainly two types of text that I have worked in for my AS and A2 coursework pieces; Print and Film. To begin with, my progression of the post production stage for Film has been a lot better than that for Print because I have produced and editing four pieces in this course (Preliminary ‘Door Opening Sequence’ and ‘Busted Music Video’ and then my own music video in A2 and my own film opening for AS). This has meant that I have been able to develop skills in postproduction throughout the two years and especially my skills with Adobe Premiere Elements has improved because I used that piece of software for both of the coursework pieces (and using them in different contexts with the film opening and music video).
   Also, I have worked in a team while editing for the two preliminary tasks and this has helped my research and planning to be more precise as I knew that the editing stage is just as importance as the filming itself. This allowed me to learn before the Music Video that the Storyboard in planning is vital for the postproduction stages especially because it allows you to follow and keep organised with the footage that you are editing. Through teamwork, I have also developed that criticism is a good thing for audience feedback because it helps with the postproduction stage and allows the text to keep to the target audience and be more focused towards the overall impact that the text should have.
   Furthermore, I have also worked as an individual for my Print pieces and have constructed and designed three pieces of Print in this course (Preliminary ‘School Music Magazine’ and Ancillary ‘DigiPak and ‘Advert’ to go with my Music Video for A2). This allowed my personal progression with the Adobe PhotoShop Elements to develop because my editing and manipulation skills with images became a lot better for the DigiPak and Advert for A2. I have learnt that the key skills with PhotoShop are to use it as frequent as you can and ‘mess about’ with the editing features on an image in order to gain confidence with the software. It then allowed me to develop and enhance my creativity because I was able to use it with confidence and try new effects to make more eye-catching texts that will suit the target audience.

In order to widen my knowledge of the conventions of Key Media Concepts within Print and Film, I researched into the common conventions. These Concepts applied to both areas of the media:

·         Representation (Film: Representation of Characters, Character Roles, Stereotypes, Cinematography associated with representation such as high and low angled shots; Print: Representation of Artists, Male Gaze, Manipulation of Cinematography such as harsh and soft lighting in the photograph).

·         Media Language (Film and Print: terms such as Mise en Scene, Cinematography, Editing and Sound enabled me to focus on those key areas and develop my creativity through each of the four aspects).

·         Audiences (Film: BBFC certificates for films to give me an idea on the target audience; Print and Film: Direct Target Market Research, Reception Theories and Audience Theories).

·         Institutions (Budgeting, Logos and Branding for the Production Company and Artist).

For example, I used the conventions of using close up shots of the characters’ faces in my Film Opening sequence because those are one of the generic features of horror cinematography. This enabled the audience to decode the film opening as a horror and enhanced the representations of the characters.