Charlie Lewin describes the development of his research and creative skills from his Foundation Portfolio to his Advanced Portfolio. He improved his research methods by establishing a target audience and creating mood boards to inform his creative work. For his Advanced Portfolio, he conducted further research into music video conventions and styles by analyzing real media products. This extensive research allowed him to make more creative decisions and improved the quality of his ancillary products for his Advanced Portfolio compared to his Foundation Portfolio.

1. Charlie Lewin
Q.1 A Describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of
your production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio.
In relation to research / creative
From AS to A2 my skills have developed in both areas of research and post-
production, which have made my A2 Advanced Portfolio more advanced. In my
initial stages of research my purpose was to establish our target audience for our
music video “One More Year”. I achieved this through a survey where I learnt our
target audience was primarily young adults from the ages of 16-24, with the
majority being male. I presented my target audience research on a YUDU and
posted it on my blog as a guide to how I was going to further improve my
research stage. Now aware that I was targeting young adults, I wanted to
improve my research skills from AS, where instead I rushed into post-
production, but instead learn more about the genre. I wanted “One More Year” to
mirror real media products from the Indie/ Genre band, so to achieve this I
looked into the style of the genre and created a couple mood boards and
consumer profile’s as a starting point before production.
This shows a development in my research skills, since in, AS I didn’t establish a
mood I wanted to create in my film. Therefore, as a result of the mood boards
shaped the locations of our shooting and the styling of lead singer Jonny in order

2. to be continually fitting with the genre, making it a more successful product. My
research skills were again developed when I made a slide share, which explored
Directors label. Directors Label gave us a platform on which we could learn
about code and conventions of music videos and apply them to our own. For
example, our group took on aspects of Mark Romanek’s production of the Red
Hot Chili Peppers “Can’t stop” music video.The video builds a picture of the
performers as a group of friends larking around, having fun, play fighting at
times, experimenting and getting things wrong. There is a laddish feel to the
video, which compliments their unconventional star image. We liked the boyish
and playful aspect of the video, which we thought would similarly appeal to our
target audience of young adults. Through research of real media products
through Directors Label our group showed an advancement of research skills,
which effectively improved the outcome of our Advanced Portfolio.
In addition, our group engaged in advance research of Album Covers in order to
have our own be fitting with the code and conventions of a Digi-Pack. We found
often album Covers will often focus on the artists star image and portray
qualities of their genre. Many album covers have close up of the artists
themselves which creates a personal relationship between the star and the
buyer. Albums are also promoted through direct address where they simply have
their name across the album, to be recognized more simply. We applied these
code and conventions to our album cover by having a close up of lead singer
Jonny and having the bands name FIJ emphasized through bold and large font.
However we retained qualities of our genre, which we learnt in our research
stages and through the use of red-wash over coffee ring stains we were able to
achieve a carefree and young feel that, would appeal to our target audience. This
year having ancillary products, we recognized that more research was necessary
opposed to AS where we produced a single product. This shows advancement in
our research skills and as a result all products of our advanced portfolio were
effectively linked in and complimentary.
Our creative skills were improved as a result of our extensive research stages
since having the knowledge our ability to make creative decisions were
increased. This was limited for us in AS, were having not done as such extensive
research our creativity in area’s of editing and shooting were lacking. We wanted
this year to develop our creativeness with shot angles, which we effectively
achieved through skateboarding shots. The fast-pace of the teenage board
skateboarding allowed us to have fast-cut continuity editing, which we had not
explored in our AS film production. We also showed a development in creativity
in editing with our use of long-cross dissolves. This becomes a common feature
throughout our music video “One More Year” which think is effective with the
cross divisions of shots being visually interesting. Therefore, as a result of our
research our advanced portfolio creativity was improved as well. This shows a
development in skills in all area’s of production from AS.