Evaluating my work Assessment

Looking back at my AS coursework, I think that research and planning went quite well, due to the fact that we research everything that we needed to know, to help us make our video. We started off with the basics for example getting to know all the camera work, editing, mise-en-scene and sound. They were then applied to a film opening; I did Harry Potter and Holes. I found this very useful as it got me used to all the aspects that were needed to make a good film opening. For example there should be enigma to help entice the audience. After I looked at the different types of budgets you can have, which are low and high. Then when think about the movie that I was going to create helped me understand what genre would fir under it, for example mostly Action/Thriller will be a high budget because, of all the explosions and gadgets that will be included. Looking at different theories like Todorov showed me where to start as the movie opening is meant to show the equilibrium.

 From deciding what kind of genre that I wanted to do, my research became more specific as I started to look at action/thriller movie openings like; Jack Reacher, The Matrix, The Dark Knight, and Taken.  This added to my knowledge of what my film opening needed to look like. My first questionnaire was designed to find out my target audience. This was really helpful as it showed me what age group and gender I should focus on and to direct my movie opening to. Once I had my film opening idea my research became more individual as, I now knew what I was going to focus on.

The mood board that I created help me get the sense of what the general atmosphere is going to be like and what I defiantly needed to included, for example the props were great genre signifiers as they showed what the genre was but also didn’t make it obvious. There were three main props that I researched in to having which was a gun, brief case and a IPhone, while the lighting I chose was going to be very dark the second half which would then juxtapose with the first half which had a morning light. The location research showed me that the convention would be to have it in the city, but my story line was different to a normal action/thriller which means that I could set it in the country. The makeup research was a key aspect because, we had a female lead role, which meant that their makeup would add to their appearance and what the audience thought of her.  A piece of research that I found really useful was when I asked people what pictures I should use to put on the wall

Once the research was done the planning really helped me to be organised and ready for the next step. For example I made a timeline for when the different titles were going to come up at what point during the opening. This was really helpful for when I got on to the post production side as it saved me time trying to figure out when they should appear.  I also researched what foley sounds I needed to come up with, so when it was time adding them in    

I think that my strengths from research and planning from last year was that I managed to complete every task that was given to me which meant that I had good knowledge of what the conventions were for my genre of film opening, this all helped me follow the conventions of real media texts as, I did the right amount of research for me to know what I needed to include to make my film opening to fit into its genre. For example I knew the mise-en-scene that I needed to include to make sure it looked like an action/thriller opening. Also the editing used as I could tell what kind of shots were used to like establishing shots and extreme close ups to juxtapose each other. However the weakness of this is that they weren’t really detailed I only covered the basics, which means there was a lot more that I could of found out to add to my video to make it better and more interesting.

Originality was hard for me to come up with for a film opening which means that our idea may looked like or could relate to other ideas for example RED as it is based on retired spies, which was the same as my idea but it was a younger women who left for a different reason. The camerawork and editing were all original because, I came up with all the different shots to use which would help to put the narrative across to the audience. I felt that AS work wasn’t very creative as we had to be confined to a particular genre as show conventions to show it was that type of genre, which means that I couldn’t fully express myself as a director, this is seen as a weakness as I didn’t get to be fully original which is what I would of wanted to be. Strength would be that I was a little bit creative because, I got to explore and come up with ideas and shots that I could include, for example the different angles like the shot outside the house.Comparing that to this year shows me that it is more creative as genres in music are very loose and can be put in to many different categories, and an artist will always want to differentiate themselves from everyone which will give me more freedom to be creative.

From looking back as my AS is has shown me that for my A2 I always need to be on top of my work so I can make it the best and detailed it can be, which will result in me knowing most of the information that I need to know for me to be able to create a music video that will be able to follow conventions of the type of genre but also allow us as the artists to be original and creative with it. Originality in this year is very important which means that I need to spend a lot more time planning and researching in to good ideas on making my artist different from everyone else. Personally I think that this time I need to do more research on my target audience as music will be more specific than a film would be as everyone has different tastes. Creativity is also more important this year than last as it lets us express ourselves more though different shots and locations. The researching will also be very important with mise-en-scene as I will need to know what I need to wear and how to look to make sure I fit in with the genre. Researching editing will become very important as that is what makes a good music video and it is what makes a music video interesting to watch, so this will become very detailed when I get to it. This will hopefully help me get a higher grade in media this year.