Skills Reflection

Skills

How were you creative last year?

 Last year i believe i as much more creative than ever before in Media Studies such as during GCSE Media Studies, what our overall final idea was combined in groups of three and I didn't have much input into the final idea as the group decided to go with a different idea completely and this changed the whole course of the project such as the locations and setting and even the Mise-en-scene.The overall product very basic and fairly unprofessional from the use of the school being a major plot point in the production of the horror trailer that we made, but in  contrast for AS when we made the BSR I had much more control of what i wanted in my opening sequence and no shots of the school were used for the production of the sequence, we used alleyways and much better props for the setting and location which added to the verisimilitude of the sequence.

What digital technology did you use last year?

Last year I used the provided cameras that were supplied by the school with SD cards where all the digital footage was stored.I also used an iMac in the school to edit the opening sequence on using a software called Final Cut Pro which is where we spent decided and choosing what clips are going to be used and where and when, Adobe Photoshop was also used for the production and creation of some graphics and elements for the BSR which it was then imported and edited again in Final Cut Pro.We also used this technology for Questionnaires and our preliminary task.

What research and planning did you do last year?

For my research and planning for my BSR we looked and news articles and recent events that could inspire our BSR idea such as the recent elections that took plan in late 2016, we also looked and analysed various BSR films which helped us create our sequence and we also collected data  and research from a target audience, the work such as meet my audience and vox pops were heavily influential in our creation of our overall project.For actually planing the opening sequence itself we used location Reccies, call sheets and shooting scripts to plan all the shots and timing of all the filming dates that we wanted to film at.The shooting script had a very detail description of all the shots that were planning to film.

What post production technology did you use last year?

The post production technology was iMacs with Adobe Photoshop and Final Cut Pro as I've mentioned above but they were very useful as the iMac was a very robust and secure system with an easy to use graphical UI which allowed quick and easy workflow on the machine which benefited Final Cut Pro much more, since Final Cut Pro is also designed and created by Apple, the software worked very efficiently and was integrated within the iMac itself allowing for much quicker and faster rendering times which was very helpful for any time restraints.

What conventions did you study and apply to your work?

For our BSR we studied so many techniques and common conventions from the BSR that we mainly included all the conventions that we had analysed such as the Gritty realistic nature of BSR as denoted by the use of our locations and setting.We also wanted to included the themes such as Poverty or abuse as shown by the 'Slave' theme that we had in our opening sequence, we also used the common camera conventions of BSR's such as the use of close ups to reveal conflict and emotion within the character being abused and restricted and domestic violence, we also included the conventions in the editing such as the style and creation of the graphics,  such as the textures used and even the font as a bold concrete hard hitting nature which only improved the verisimilitude of the opening sequence.There was also lots of narrative theory included and pacing of the opening sequence, and this is a very common trait in BSR films to contain all these traits as it appeals to the target audience and demographic that they want to create films for, even the archetypes nad characters used were also based off of existing characters used of BSR films.

I have studied a range of conventions which aided me to shape my BSR sequence. My sequence ‘Maze’ had many themes such as pregnancy, unemployment, poverty and domestic violence. I applied these themes to my work. For instance, I portrayed the theme of domestic violence by having a close up and long shot of my character, Leah exploring the damage done to her face by her boyfriend. It is conventional for British Social films to highlight these issues, as they occur in the real world. Another convention I applied to my work is sound. For the opening sequence, I decided to use minimal sound, in order to emphasise our main character - Leah's emptiness and highlight her isolation. However, when she is attempting to run away for the first time in our opening sequence, we have Leah listening to a song by Camille Andrea named 'O.V.E.R', since the lyrics highlight Leah's situation. Moreover, the narrative is restrictive and focuses on Leah, so by using such emotional and meaningful music, the audience are limited to feel Leah's emotions, as well as going through this journey with her and being able to sympathise, support and understand her situation/ life.