Digital technology essay for A2 media

1. Question 1 (a) Digital Technology Essay
"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 have developed over time."
In the first year of the course my main product was a 2-minute filmopening for a teen
drama film, "Baited". Then in the second year I created a teaser trailer, filmposter and
magazine cover to promote the thriller film "Depth". During the course I have developed my
digital and technology skills.
At the beginning of the course I had a basic knowledge on digital technologies, we devised a
prelium task, this was the first time I used final cut pro and used camera and editing to
achieve a match on action of a girl opening a door and walking into a room. Starting the
course I had very little knowledge on digital technologies so by doing this prelium task I was
able to demonstrate editing skills (match on action, shot reverse shot, the 180° rule) and a
range of camera shots (including long shot, mid shot, close up, extreme shot and over the
shoulder shot).
In AS media I produced a film opening for the teen drama film, "Baited". From doing this
product I learnt how to create music using loop in garage band, we gathered copyright free
music and looped it with other sounds in garage band. This enabled us to have an upbeat
song in the film opening. I developed my skills by having many different soundtracks for
different scenes in the film opening. In the main task for the first year of the course I also
was able to create voice overs and upload them to final cut pro, I have developed this skill a
lot as when I have used voice overs in the latest media products they are more professional.
In the film opening I composed a split screen, the screen was split into thirds where each of
the three girls were walking to college. I developed my skills of using a split screen later on
in my second year. Within this task I also made simple titles of the filmname, production
team names and actors. I developed the film title by changing the font of the text (to a
white fill colour, with a light pink outline glow) and I increased the size so it dominated the
screen. The production team names and the actors names were a simple white bold text
were layered on top of the visuals, I development my skills here by being able to have the
titles moving why the clips of the film opening were playing.
In my latest project of the Depth teaser trailer, I developed my digital technologies skills on
Adobe Photoshop and illustrator as prior to this year I had never used these applications
before. By the end of the task I had constructed both a conventional Film poster and
Magazine cover promoting the filmDepth. I used photoshop to upload a photo of our main
character and remove the background using the eraser tool, this enables me to move this
photo onto illustrator where I learnt how important it was to add layers so things can be
moved and positioned differently without move every other element to the page. I
developed my skills here by becoming much quicker in both Photoshop and illustrator.
Another major development to my knowledge of digital technologies is evident from the
depth teaser trailer where I devised a three way split screen of three individual extreme

2. close up shots of the three main characters, I added blue colour tones to all three of these
shots. Furthermore, I made added darker and colder blue tones to the top close up of
Sophie's eyes in the split screen, then I added a lighter blue colour correction to the middle
shot and an even lighter blue to the bottom shot. By having these developed skills in the
teaser trailer it enabled me to be more creative and the audience were able to feel the cold
atmosphere and be drawn into watching the thriller film in the cinema.
In conclusion I have made major advances in development digital technologies during the
two yeas which is seen in the different level of professionalismand quality between the AS
film opening and A2 teaser trailer.
18 marks
How to improve this essay:
 Add in more key terminology
 Expand the elaborations points more