1. Personal Skills Audit
Name: Beth Louise Bage
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?
We used a camcorder to film
our sequence, with also the
help of a tripod. We used
software such as Final Cut HD
to edit our footage in order to
get it the way we wanted it to
be.
The camera’s were used to film
our footage for our video, which
we then later edited the footage
using the Final Cut HD
software. This software allowed
us to cut and crop bits from our
footage, which we didn’t want to
feature in our video.
Me and Vic will be using the
same equipment and software
within our A2 coursework as we
did in our first year. Therefore
we will be familiar with how
things work as we have had
experience using this
equipment previously, so
hopefully this time round things
will be easier for us to film.
Post production
- What software did you
use to create your
production?
- Discuss specific features
of the software.
In terms of software we only
used Final Cut HD. This
allowed us to cut and crop parts
of the scene we didn’t want to
feature in our film. Add text into
the opening scene to present
the title, directors etc. We also
used Garage Band to create
sounds, which related with our
theme.
The software made our final
product look professional,
which is what we were aiming
to do as we wanted our product
to be of a high standard. By
using varied effects and cutting
tools, this avoided the
sequence looking boring.
In A2, me and Vic will develop
the skills which we have learnt
from first year, by using more
advanced software such as,
experimenting various types of
fonts, to make our titles look
more appealing. More varied
effects rather than just
darkening of the scene and
‘fade in fade out’.
2. 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?
For mine and Vic’s research
and planning we started of by
researching the background of
horror films and the
iconography. We then started to
analyse sequences such as
Scream. So we knew what
needed to be incorporated to
make a successful horror film.
Our research and planning
helped us very much and it
allowed us to look at what
major things need to be used
within a horror film such as;
costume, iconography, sounds,
makeup. By creating a
storyboard this made us more
organized also.
Using conventions of real
media texts
- Which texts did you
analyse?
- Did you take any
inspiration from the
conventions found from
your research?
In terms of conventions, Vic
and me analysed specific
scenes from horror movies.
This gave us a great insight on
how to help us make a
successful and high standard
final product. We found out that
props such as knifes, blood ect
are familiar in horrors as they
have a symbolism of death.
By us carrying our specific
research tasks this gave us an
overall idea on what we wanted
our story line to be based upon.
We mainly focused our
research upon selected scenes
‘Scream’ and ‘Physco’. We
decided that our story line was
going to be about someone
stalking a girl.
Creativity
- Were our ideas for your
portfolio imaginative and unique
or did you adhere to
conventions?
We tried to be as creative as
we could within our coursework.
With ‘Stalking’ being our theme
we carried out further research
on how we would create the
atmosphere of the girl being
stalked, without being too
Our sequence was different
from other horrors you see. We
had to focus on mise-en scene
a lot. Quiet hose, music playing,
dark night, girl was alone.
In A2 if we carry out as much
planning as we possibly can
this will give us more ideas for
our final product. As well as us
keeping well organized, we will
also use a storyboard for our
music video as it helped us out
last year, as we will know what
shots and what is going on in
each part of the song.
In A2 we hope to think more
widely. We hope to include
many conventions that are
recognizable to our audience
yet are sophisticated such as;
certain camera angles, costume
and makeup.
In A2 we will also try and be
very creative too. We will take
ideas from other music videos
but add our own personal style
to it.
