There are many things that I have improved on from the start of the year until now.
In units 1 and 2, I learnt more about the different angle/camera shots that I should be using for example the 180 degree rule and the eye line match is one of the most important shots in filming as it helps the audience see everything in one scene and who is having a conversation with their different facial expressions. I also understood more about why it is important to use specific lighting during filming or even taking photographs, I learnt that high key lighting makes the scene bright and shows everything clearly, low key lighting is used mainly in dark scenes and horror movies as it seems more effective and dramatic. There are also other lights that I have more knowledge of for example, key lights, back lights and full lights. These have been useful as I will now try and use them in my Netflix series to make it unique, effective and interesting to watch. Moreover, I also learnt about the white balance, this is a setting on the camera that helps change the lighting on the camera and makes it look either foggy, bright or even adds colour to it. I will also be using this in my Netflix series to create a mood and add effect to it. I also learnt more about editing and sound, we created our own about me video which is a short video that gets straight to the point and shows some facts about me and my family. This improved my creativity skills and shooting skills as I came up with the ideas myself and shot every scene myself with the help of the things we learnt in class.
For unit 3, this was mainly focused on what I wanted to do in the future and a task that included job roles. The reflective journal helped me look back and see what I wanted to do in my future career as a kid and how it changed as I grew up, it made me understand how different I was before taking media lessons in secondary school and what I was interested in studying before that. I now want to become a photographer or anything related to the media industry that include filming or photography, to achieve this I learnt that I need to understand the basics for example, camera work, camera angles and shots, I need to have confidence and good communicaiton skills in order to tell the model what to do to make the photograph good enough, I practiced this in my media lessons especially in this unit as there was a lot practical work done.
Furthermore, unit 4 was about stereotypes and female representation in films etc. We watched a few different stereotypes in class and then we got in groups and remade our own one, me and Melisa made one about Arab stereotypes and how people view them as rich. This helped me as when I used to watch movies I never realized the stereotypes that are sometimes used and how badly it effects some people, after studying about it I now know that stereotypes are wrong and can make a specific person and their race seem bad when it’s really not.
Moreover, unit 5 was about music videos, I made a music video with my group with a song that the teacher chose for each group. Before making my own, I thought music videos were easy to make as you just lip sync to a song and move around however it is much more than that, the camera angles have to be perfect and the lighting has to match the mood of the scene and what type of song it is either sad, happy or an upbeat song. The way you dress also matters as it also needs to match the song and the story line of it and it needs a lot of team work communication and agreement.
Unit 6 was about documentaries, before producing my own I thought it was mainly about interviews and people talking. However, it is more about the information that is being said and everything has to be 100% true. I also didn’t know some types of documentaries like a privacy one, this is when the person chooses to not show their face so while editing you have to blur their face and maybe even deepen their voice so the person can be anonymous.
For unit 7 I created my own website, before making one I didn’t know that planning it is an important role by planning things like the layout, color scheme and the demographics. It showed me that planning is an important role before doing anything not only making websites, as it will help me know what I am doing and what to include in it.
The last unit which is unit 8 is about the Netflix series, this is more based on planning for it and writing proposals and practicing 25 word pitches to help me create my own story line. This unit helped me be more creative by making such an effective and interesting story by only using 25 words. I also improved my presentation skills as we practiced making our own one in a pair then actually presenting it to the class.
Overall, all these units have helped me in different types of ways and have made me learn more things about the media subject and what I need to improve before going into photography in the future.
1. Pre-production informs and improves the process of creating a media production by helping you know what you are doing and it also saves time as you will already know what to do.
2. The importance cohesive of teamwork in producing a smooth work flow is by everyone working together and helping each other out by setting everyone individual tasks which also saves time and gets your work done quicker.
3. The units that has benefited me the most in terms of my development is units 1&2, and unit 7. This is because I now know more about camera work and the settings of it which helped me create my music video by using some of the things I learnt from units 1&2 about camera angles and lighting.
4. My strengths within creative media production is controlling the camera and knowing all the effective shots that should be used.
5. The weaknesses that are yet to be developed are my editing skills, this is because I don’t always edit videos so I don’t have a good understanding in how to make it seem effective and unique, therefore I will need to improve on my editing skills.
Caren Lamaa 