SECTION A - Essay Question (Digital Technology)

'Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time'

Over the last two years I have used a variety of digital technologies to to aid and improve my products, contributing largely to the development and success of my products. In first year (AS) I used technologies to create an opening sequence for a film noire film, while in second year (A2) I created a music video to a song of my choice. In this essay I will refer to pre-production, production and post-production separately; referring to AS and A2 separately under each subheading, underpinned by examples. 

During the pre-production of my AS project I made extensive use of the website 'Blogger', a part of web 2.0 which allowed me to edit, upload, design and record the research that I made during the research and planning of my product. Blogger allowed me to upload video's recorded through the likes of the Sony Handycam and documents uploaded through another web 2.0 website such as Slideshare, which allowed me to upload and transfer my research documents to 'cloud storage', which could then later be embedded into my Blogger. When creating the animatic, I used images captured and transferred via USB using a Nikon D80, to upload to the Imovie application available on my Emac desktop computer. The Imovie application allowed me to import images and clips easily, then using tools such as trimming and stretching I was able to match inputted audio accurately with images. To gather this audio for the animatic I used a Flash Microphone, which allowed multiple simple recordings which once finished allowed me to easily and quickly transfer to the Emac via a USB cable. Once uploaded, these audio clips could be reviewed and edited to be most fitting to the task at hand.

In A2 I still made extensive use of Blogger (Web 2.0), but now incorporating skills I have gathered in using the features available to me. Some of these features being the ability to apply templates and ordering to my blog, so that the overall representation of the blog was more fitting to the subject matter and more extensively evident of the technologies available being used to create an ever better overall pre-production. I also began using Final Cut instead of Imovie, which allowed much more technical features, such as effects (slow-mo) and transitions (dissolve), to be available in the pre-production. Final Cut allowed much more freedom in the creation of my product, using features such as the separated viewer window to see the final product without the product being finalised and saved. Within Final cut i also also able to adjust volume levels of audio much more freely, using the 'timeline' feature to edit monitoring levels. The 'Marker's' feature was also extensively used in A2, allowing clips imported and reviewed in the viewer window to be cut and sectioned through the simple use markers placed upon the separated timeline of the imported clip. These cut/edited clips could then be transferred to the overall timeline through simple drag and dropping. 

In the production of AS I used a Sony Handycam 80GB to record my footage for my main product, using its touchscreen interface to review on-the-spot clips and watch-back all recordings made. This therefore reducing the need to pause shooting just to review clips recorded. Once finished, these clips were then imported into suitable software, such as Imovie, via USB to be transferred into Digital Video (DV) which is the most suitable format for Final Cut. During production I moved onto using Final Cut as my video editing software, which allowed more detailed editing and a much more professional feel to the product, as the use of conversion (such as bit rate) and fades were used effectively to create a desired product. The basic features of Photoshop were also used, such as crop, magnetic loop and colouring tools were used to create the image logo that was suitable to the film genre. This therefore creating a more professional feel to the product.

During the product for A2 I replaced the Sony Handycam with a Canon XL2, allowing for a much more clearer quality of clips and much more versatility with options; such as adjustable focus and shoulder rest for handheld shots. All clips recorded were placed onto a tape, which then, through firewire, was placed onto the desktop computer to be processed and converted for Final Cut (DV). Within Final Cut more extensive, complicated features were used such as more effective use of the markers tool and multiple layers of the timeline, allowing easy control of specific clips and smooth transitions between separate clips. During production for A2 I also upgraded from Emacs to Imacs, allowing extensive use of the improved hardware such as increased RAM and processor. Thus allowing quicker rendering times and multiple tasks to be completed at once (ie. rendering while blogging).

During post-production