This document discusses what the author has learned from their preliminary task to their full media product. They discuss planning being essential before filming, including determining location, genre, characters, and shots needed. They also learned to use Google Calendar to plan and organize their time. Technically, they learned how to use camera equipment like a mini DV camera and tripod. They became familiar with film conventions and editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro. Overall, they felt planning, organization, and learning technical skills were most important.

1. “Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?” Question 7

2. The first thing you have to do before setting out to film anything is to plan ahead. This is critical if you want your film to be any good. You need to ask yourself and fulfil the questions seen below: What’s going to happen in it?; Where’s the location going to be?; What genre is my film going to be based upon?; Who’s my target audience?; How many characters do I need, and who’s going to fulfil these roles? Planning is an essential because it’s ‘planning’ for what is going to happen in the future. I did all the research before going out and filming because then, at least I would know what we need exactly, e.g. The types of shots, and the location. Not just heading out and shooting the title sequence anywhere. Planning and Preparation

4. The calendar to the left is the one I used for doing my final product. It’s online using Google Calendar, you can access it via your phone, and receive e-mail updates and texts telling you what you should be doing on that day.I hadn’t used Google's calendar until I used it for this project. After using it, and seeing it’s advantages, I would certainly use it again for the next project in the future.

6. Camera Tripod

7. Blank Tape

8. Fire-wire

9. ComputerCertainly learnt a lot of different technical terms and meanings over the course. Because most of them I had never heard of, or heard of but never actually knew the true meaning or applied it to my writing. I’m now confident to book equipment out, and can set-up the equipment with ease. We received lessons and how to set the equipment up and what not to do, safety issues etc, like folding the tripod away when moving to another location. Camera Skills

10. Conventions of film was a topic I Knew nothing about before joining the course. But it’s quite simple to understand and didn’t take long for me to get used to the ‘typical’ features in genres of film. The typical conventions of other films title sequences totally depends on what type of genre of film you’re doing. As for me, I was doing Crime/Gangster. So I simply searched IMDB.com by genre and selected and found films that fulfilled what I wanted my title sequence to be like. Steve Neale declares that 'genres are instances of repetition and difference‘ From watching trailers and film title sequences you can tell that there are dominant features that appear in that genre of film. For example, in crime/gangster films the location is always based in the city, and gangsters gain power by taking out other gangsters. Conventions of Film Title Sequences

11. Before starting the media course, I’d not fully used Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 to it’s advantages. I’d only used it to make little clips at home, but this was more demanding and again before starting I hadn’t used tapes to import films. I was only used to using HD/SD content via SD cards. There isn’t a lot of difference in how the film is imported, just you have to have the camera plugged in and setup, instead of putting an SD card into the card reader and import via Adobe OnLocation CS5. Post-Production Skills

13. Alternative Representation - A representation of a social group that is uncommon or unusual in a given context/genre.

14. Absent Representation - A social group that is missing from particular contexts/genre.Dominant Male Representation

15. I’ve learnt that even if the footage isn’t amazing, as long as you spend time doing the editing, and doing it right you can use the footage. Loads of new technical terms: framing, rule of thirds, diegetic/non-diegetic, continuity/montage editing, eye-line match, action match, graphic match, canted angle etc. But most importantly, I’ve used how to navigate around Premiere Pro and OnLocationwith ease, and use the tools such as the Razor tool which slices the recordings into chosen length, or the ability to create titles within the film itself. I never endeavoured in this stuff before, and overall I enjoyed working with the program, I’d certainly be more confident and more creative with Premiere Pro when I come to use it again. What’s The Biggest Thing I’ve Learnt?