Personal Skills Audit Name: Rebecca Hamilton

Skills acquired How did these skills contribute to the creation of

your product?

How will you develop these skills during the A2 project?

Digital technology- What

equipment/software packages did you use to produce your production?

• Cameras• Blogger• Garage Band • Photoshop • Prezi • Slideshare

The cameras allowed us to film our opening sequences to a good quality. We were able to use equipment with the camera’s such as he tripod, this allowed us to record good footage and use different camera angles. When using Garage Band we created our own sound that would go over our opening sequence. We experimented with lots of the instruments that were available on the software. We had a few issues with the music being louder than the dialogue on the recording so we had to change the dynamics of the soundtrack we created. We used Photoshop to enable us to make a logo for our production company; we used different layers to create the final piece.

Developing my camera skills would include having a better idea of the camera and be more confident using them. To have a better understanding of how to used the camera to create different angles and effects. To become more confident using Photoshop as this wasn’t my main role last year. I didn’t really use the software a lot, so to develop my skills on this is an aim for A2

Post production- What software did you

use to create your production?

- Discuss specific features of the software.

Final Cut The final Cut programme allowed us to edit the film sequence together. It gave us options to edit in transitions, to make the cuts smoother and look more professional. We also used filters to make the sequence black and white, which made the film more suited to a film noir.

Final Cut I would have to be more confident using the different effects and being more effective in making the edits smoother and look more professional.

Research and Planning- What tasks did you

complete when preparing to film your sequence?

- How did your planning help the smooth progression of your film?

Storyboard Looked at other films and gained inspiration from them

The storyboard wasn’t overly detailed but it gave us a few ideas before we went to film of what camera angles we would use and how we would set the scene up. We found that although it helped we changed a lot of things we had planned. When we looked at other films we mainly focused on the camera angles they used and how that made an audience member feel. We thought we could take inspiration from this and use some in our own sequence.

Although the storyboard helped I think that in A2, planning certain camera shots and doing a more detailed storyboard will give a clearer idea of what we can use when filming our music video. I felt that watching the film sequences really helped us develop our production, so I think in A2 I will look at a lot more examples of music videos to get a real idea of what are conventions of certain genres. Also what camera angles work better than others.

Using conventions of real We looked at opening Having watched several In A2 I think that my analytical

media texts- Which texts did you

analyse?- Did you take any

inspiration from the conventions found from your research?

sequences of different film noir’s to get a more detailed idea of the conventions of a film noir and also how professional films have used camera, mise en scene etc to create their production. The main inspiration we took was the use of black and white and smoke. We found these were the more common conventions.

sequences already, it influenced our production quite a lot as we took used a few of the conventions. It also gave us more of an idea as to how our storyline would go. I would say the sequences we analysed influenced how we approached the production. We had a lot of ideas that stemmed originally from the sequences we saw.

skills will have improved so I can be more efficient and pick out details that will help with my production. However I would like my skills to be a bit more developed and to be confident in analysing things independently.

Creativity - were our ideas for your portfolio imaginative and unique or did you adhere to conventions?

I think our ideas combined creativity and conventions. We had to make sure the audience knew the film was a film noir, so the conventions such as; detective, femme fatale etc were present in our production. However in the sequences we watched I didn’t see a storyline that was similar to ours, so this is where I think that our creativity came into play. Making the film sequence quite original and creative in terms of the storyline.

I think the creativity of the group helped in the making of the film opening sequence a lot, because if you didn’t have an imaginative story an audience wouldn’t be interested. Also I felt that sticking to the conventions meant that we were being true to the genre and the audience could understand what the genre was.

I think that the creativity in terms of the storyline was good however in A2 I would like to develop my creativity while using a camera. I felt that the opening sequence we stuck to using the same camera angles a lot, which felt repetitive. This is something I hope to work on in A2 .