Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have

learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

By Esme Roberts

What didn’t I know? • So when I first starting the product, I had literally no knowledge of

how an opening of a film was produced and made. I had no idea about any of the software used, the editing techniques and I also hadn’t ever filmed anything before with a professional camera, and so even setting up a tripod was a new experience! This is probably due to me not taking media at GCSE. (Which I regret now !)

What have I learnt?Software and Research• I feel that I have now learnt how to successfully use iMovie, which was the software we

used. This will now allow me to use the software in the future and throughout the rest of the media course. When creating a mini-brief for practice before creating our main brief, we used Adobe Premiere Pro. Even though we didn’t use this particular software for our main brief, I still have gained some knowledge on how to also use this software. Therefore for the rest of the media course I now have an option on two different software's to use. • Before creating our main brief, during lessons we researched many different horror

films and their conventions. We also created textual analysis's on those films, something I've never done before. Learning about the conventions of a horror movie itself and the horror genre, has expanded my knowledge of different genres and how you interoperate the genre into the product.

Editing!• The exam has allowed me to know how to do many editing

techniques that I have always wanted to know! I now know how to add audio into a product on the two software's, iMovie and Adobe Premiere Pro. I also can now cut clips and edit the sound within it. This allowed our main brief to contain tense and scary non diegetic and diegetic sound, which reinforced the horror genre. I also learnt how to add effects like flashing white and also to add a colour effect to the clip to portray a particular atmosphere. Overall, all the editing skills that are needed to create a scary opening, I learnt due to the task that was set by the exam board!

Blog!• Before the task, I had never made or produced a blog before, even

though it was something I've always been interested in constructing. This course has allowed me to make my very own blog for the first time! The blog includes all the researched that I needed to learn to make my opening of a horror film. It also includes the process of making our opening, which allows me to look back on my blog to see how far I have come!

Filming!• As I said previously, before the task I had never filmed anything on a professional

camera before. This task has allowed me to experiment with filming, it had also allowed me to explore different camera angles which were used in our opening. Also, the research I done about different camera angles expanded my knowledge of filming, so by the time I began to film, I had an idea of what I was doing. Also, the mini brief that was done in practice for the main brief, also helped me to understand how much effort is needed in making an opening successful.

Group work!• This task has gained me skills that may not be as obviously

in this particular task. The fact that I was working with another person, allowed me to gain group work skills that weren't as good previously. I also gained a very close friend thanks to the task! Me and Izzy are now really good friends, because we work so well as a team that it allowed a friendship to blossom! Due to us both having a passion for media, it made us very driven and determined throughout the whole duration of making the opening called Inside!

Overall!• Overall, the task that the exam board set was a very fun experience! I

enjoy it so much because it provided a new experience and allowed everyone involved in the task to gain a new understanding of making a horror film opening. The task has left me with new skills that I didn’t have previously, I am very excited to start the new projects to come at A2 Level!