Reflection on the AS year

When receiving feedback from my teacher Rebecca, she suggested that I could improve my blogs about the skills I have developed in the AS year and explore that in more detail. Using this feedback I am going to make a new blog about my reflection on the AS year.

Although I have always been keen on technology and I have developed many technical skills by myself, the AS year was very important to improve these skills and learn how to use them in a more professional way. The AS coursework required us to produce a thriller opening title sequence and present research on a blog. First of all, I have never used a professional camera before that, so it was a new skill that I have acquired. I learned how to use the camera JVC GY-HM100, however I believe I only learned the very basic, which was enough to produce standard footage, but I could have explored more the camera services. I have used the zoom and the focus to create sharp extreme close ups of the child main character in our thriller and I have also used the camera flash to film a couple of shots when the day was gone and we hadn't finished our filming yet. It wasn't in our plans but the result was ok apart from the fact that the colours of the footage looked a bit bluish and I did not like that effect so I changed the colour correction later on Final Cut Pro. 

I have learned how to produce quality footage because I adhered to the rule of thirds, especially since many of the shots were the girl's face and I had to make sure it was well centred and well framed. I learned all the different types of shots and in our thriller, since I have done most of the filming, I put in practice the different types. As for example I often used close ups and mid shots to show the character's expression of innocence or anger; long shots to show the setting and the costume that was relevant to the genre; high angle shots to put the child in a vulnerable position; over the shoulder shots when the child was painting so that we could see her painting from a similar perspective to hers; panning to show the contrast between the normal part of the river and the frozen part, which was representative of how she switches from a good girl to a bad girl. Learning how to use the tripod was also essential as in the film, the camera has to be very steady, and also it helped to create different angles (especially high angle shots). I could have experimented more perhaps with camera movement, which wasn't used a lot, and also hand holding the camera which I also haven't used a lot. 

However, the skills that I believe I have developed the most were the editing skills. I have never used FinalCut Pro before and I have learned how to use a variety of different functions to create different effects. As for example I used levels corrections to make footage that looked dark brighter; I have used colour correction changing the footage to red to create connotations of danger and make it look creepier; I have used slow motion to give a dramatic sense to the swing chains and fast motion to make playground toys move faster than usual without anyone playing in it, which also creates a creepy atmosphere; I have used various filters to give a 'flicking' effect to some shots (I'd split one shot in three parts and add the obvious filter in the middle so it would start normal, filter appears, then it would go back to normal) to create scary effects and give a sense of distortion; I used jump cuts of the little girl destroying a drawing which create a sense of dysfunction, implying her psychological breakdown; as it was a discrete opening, I have used transitions such as fades to show that a new scene was being introduced and it wasn't linked to the previous; I used cross-fade between a shot of blood in the bathtub and a shot of the girl's evil face, which implies she provoked that bleeding; I have edited the titles in FinalCut Pro because I wanted to create a dysfunctional effect by slightly moving the titles position at each frame so it would look shaky; I wanted to make the title letters drop in a dysfunctional way as well so I have moved each letter slightly down at each frame and like in stop motion they looked like they were dropping. Concluding, I have used FinalCut Pro to create appropriate and effective editing for my thriller and it made the thriller look scary. 

Most of these skills will help me to create a good music video, especially the editing skills, since music videos use really obvious editing. However, in the beginning of the A2 year I have had to learn some new editing skills that are more useful to the music video than they would be for the thriller, as for example how to edit using base tracks and how to match the lip-syncing using markers. I am also looking forward to experiment with some new options of editing provided by FinalCut Pro which I think will help the editing fit the rhythm. 

As for my research skills I believe the AS research was different from the A2 in a lot of ways. We did not have to do a lot of independent research as the teachers would often present us with most of the information we needed to know about thrillers and its conventions, types of title sequences, etc. In addition, the blogs did not have to contain so much in depth detail. Now, after doing my research and planning for the music video I can clearly see the difference between my skills at AS and my skills at A2. At AS I used only films/film openings as a way of research for my thriller, I have very poorly carried further research. For example, I haven't really researched my audience enough and what they would expect/like to see in a psychological thriller. I also feel that I have only researched the genre quite briefly and I have not looked at the film industry close enough. Maybe if I had looked closely into those areas I could have improved my thriller opening and made it more appealing. I haven't looked at any theories neither, which may have helped to structure my thriller opening better, since I have definitely had some problems with finding an ideal structure. My A2 research is much deeper and I have done research into different areas of media, including theories, genre, promotion, the music industry, representation, camera, mise en scene and editing, and I have carried this research through different means. For example, I used YouTube a lot to watch music videos, but I also used Carol Vernallis book Experiencing Music Video to look at her theory, I have looked at different social networking websites to research audience and promotion, I have asked people who I thought could be part of my audience about what they expected to see in our music video, I have used Last.fm to find related artists and research genre, I have referred back to some of the sheets I have form last year's exam in which we have learned about the Music Industry, I have looked at the real artist's website to see how he promotes himself, etc. I believe that these made me more selective of relevant information and also more realistic about the real music video world. I have also improved my research presentation by using a wide range of different technologies. I have used mostly embedded videos and screen shots/pictures to present my research, whereas with the A2  research I have developed skills in using other technologies like Prezi, Photobucket, Camtasia, ClipGrab, Slideshare together with embedded videos and pictures/screen shots as well which make my research look much more interesting and it makes me much more conscious of which pieces of information I should include. I believe that the use of technologies also give a visual effect to the research, which keeps me inspired and keeps reminding me of all the many things that can influence my music video.