Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to your full product?

From my preliminary task to now, I have learnt a lot of skills and techniques which have helped me to progress through AS Media studies, resulting in my final product, Red Run. Firstly, I have gained a better understanding of shot diversity and shot types such as the long shot, dutch angle or low angle and I have learnt this through trying out different shots which I would never have thought to have tried before and by imitating what I gathered from the clips I was given to work with for my preliminary task. I have also learnt the improtance of not having a shaky camera and background noise when not necessesary as I have realised the dramatically negative effects that these factors can have on your final product and how they can influence the film's overall standard and quality. Another dramatic effect that I have come to terms with is fast pace editing and the overall effect that this can have on your video, showing both a good skill for editing and understanding of how to portray your product to the audience as fast pace editing can represent several different things such as the character being in trouble or action occuring and this wears off on to the audience. With learning these things, on the whole I have become a lot better at using software such as Final Cut and other technlogies (refer to evaluation question 6 to see these) and i'm very pleased with the way I have progressed using Final Cut as my final product involves a lot more tools and features than my preliminary task and although at the time I was happy with my preliminary task and thought that I had used the Final Cut software efficiently and to the best of my standard, now I look back on it and see a major difference from then and now. Now, I am a lot more confident with the software and enjoy using it a lot more as I have a better understanding of it and can do a lot more.

Since my preliminary task, not only have my skills on computers progressed but I also feel as if i've got a better knowledge of Media as a whole, for example semiotics and the media language; I have been able to apply this to my product and blog, demonstrating this through mise en scene and manipulating the mise en scene to give information on the surroudings and the characters, trying to portray their personalities. Also, since my preliminary task I have gained a better understanding on how to organise myself both in lessons and in terms of filming and planning when Sam and I will re-film shots that we're not happy with and when we will discuss what to chance in order to improve our product. Since my preliminary task, around the time Sam and I would have been creating our story boards and discussing the plan for our media product, I was very disorganised and seemed to put things off until the last minute and then not getting our tasks done very well. Now howoever I feel that through the process, I have imrpoved on my organisation dramatically and now, when Sam and I hand in a rough cut and gain feedback, I will take notes on the feedback, advising what it is that we need to do in order to imrpove and then we will both organise when we are both free to re-film and edit and we will stick to that date.

Also, since my preliminary task I have learnt to take a lot more care for detail and not to rush things. Looking back at my preliminary task it is clear to me that I didn't pay a lot of attention to detail but now I have learnt how much even small details can effect your overall product and I have learnt to take more care, focusing on little details and to have more pateince when it comes to having to re-film and edit again because something wasn't quite right and during the process I have also learnt to be able to give and recieve feedback, learning that someone isn't neccessarily criticising something, only suggesting how it can be improved. Another thing that I feel I have learnt is to be able to analyse other people's media products and relate them to existing media products or my own and state what links in with existing products and what stands out, making it unique.