media exam mock monday

1.A) Describe how your skills developed in digital technology over the whole course. Also evaluate how these skills contributed to your creativity

I have been doing media studies for two years now and i have learnt new ways of creating and using text within media. Along the progress i have used different technologies to help me in creating and editing these texts and this has expanded my skills with digital technology.

In the first year of Media studies (As) i was set a task to create a preliminary video and this included four shots that we had been told to incorporate and they are; long shot, close up, mid shot and a shot reverse shot. The narrative to this video was; person opens door sits down and conversation happens so there was no relevance to any conventions within this narrative. In the creation of the preliminary task i used the schools cameras that were dated and used old technology so this meant that i had to learn how to use them and this was done by us receiving a step by step talk by Mrs Sutton on how to use the cameras. This prelim set a bench mark for me on how well my camera skills were and they were proved to be quite good. Once i had all of the required filming i had to edit the clips using the schools Macs and this proved difficult as they lacked some of the required features that i needed to apply into the preliminary task, such as the internet connection so i could not download any new title sequences onto iTunes. i then went onto creating my film opening for the Media studies As level and for this i decided to use my own laptop with its own movie editing software on called SONY Vegas Pro 9, i have also used my own digital camera as i knew how to use all of its features and i could also apply all of the clips onto my laptop without having to change or edit the format of the clips. Because i used a different types of technology for my film opening than from my preliminary task my skills needed to be developed on using all of the new technology so i decided to record some clips with my camera such as filming cars passing by and then i experimented in many creative ways to edit the clips and i also used YouTube instruction clips to help me edit the video clips and this improved my skills for when i did my final version of my film opening.

In the second year of Media studies (A2) i was set the task to create a music video and then to create a digipak and a poster for the music video. I started off by selecting the same equipment that i used for my draft and final version of my film opening sequence in AS level, which were my laptop and computer with SONY Vegas Pro 9 on and also my own digital video camera and this meant that i had an advantage over all of the other students as i did not need to borrow any of the schools equipment and i could practice and improve my skills in my own time. In the music video that i have created my editing skills have improved by using shorter and faster clips to suite all of the conventions, all of the camera angles and shots were more advanced and more thought through such as the high angle shot of Rhys on the drums and there was a section of the drums on the right and bottom of the clip, i have used some of the transitions at the beginning of the video limiting it so the video looks more professional and suites the genre of the song more and i have met the editing with the tempo of the music. The digipak and poster that i have made also show how my skills have improved through the year as in As level i made a preliminary poster and i have used paint shop pro X2 and my laptop to edit the prelim poster, and i have followed all of this experience and knowledge through to my A2 digipak and poster, but i have also improved in many ways by using the technology by applying more special effects to the digipak and poster such as making the pictures taken look like the street artist Banksie’s work and colouring in some of the bricks in the picture to emphasise the effect of a derelict location and finally i have improved my lasso cropping by making the lines of the cut out image much more smoother and closer to the line than in my As Prelim.

1.B) Analyse one of your media products in relation to media language

In my A2 level music video i have followed all of the conventions for the rock genre of music videos and this is because my music video is of the rock genre. In the music video there is only a performance based and the member of the band that i play is the lead singer and we have amplified this member of the band by using a close up of my face singing them lyrics and showing the facial expressions of anger and regret which also follows the lyrics in the song, then there is Rhys on the drums and all of the camera shots of his band member are all mainly high angled close ups, this is to show that he is playing the most important instrument in the video. Next the shots of Nick on the guitar are mainly close-ups of him fingering the guitar or strumming it and there are also lots of mid shots showing him playing the guitar. Finally all of the shots of Tom are mainly concentrated on the keyboard and him pushing down on the keys, this is because the piano is not normally the main instrument in a rock band and it is therefore not important.

A theory that could be applied into our music video could be the reverse male gaze as we have been given feedback that suggests that Tom is wearing leather, fingerless gloves that suite the stereotype of fetish desires and being camp, although he was not wearing leather gloves they looked like they were leather in the video as the resolution of the video was not perfect, so this theory could be applied to the video depending on the audiences thoughts.

The editing that was used in the music video was all fast paced and the continuity was perfect as all of the