Timetoast Timeline

Lesson 2: Timetoast Timeline of Post Production Skills

[Lesson 2]Development of Post Production

[Lesson 1] Skills Development

Reflection back in AS year:
- Using programs such as Final cut pro, sound track pro, blogger
- Embedding and using social networks such as Youtube
- Using presentations like Slideshare, or voice recorders like Voki
- Photoshop used to create logos for thriller

Research for music video:
In AS my researching skills were very basic, in only taking information on Youtube, and Google.
This was simplistic in ways of finding out who theorists were i.e. Goodwin, since AS and now in to A2 I have significantly developed my research skills I went more in depth with the audience, theorists, genre or the conventions of real media products. It was a good transaction from AS to A2, because I was more precise and detailed on who or what I was researching, this helped me to harness the creativity for the music video that was to come as a final production project.
My blogging in AS was also very basic, it lacked details as it only contained print screens, Youtube videos and full text typing. However, in A2 I learned that to get high marks I needed to use more than just images, so by transferring the text to a presentation e.g. Powtoons, I would then convey my use of technology and embed the information to the relevant topic. The A2 blogging, is a lot more detailed and full of analysis as well as conveying a range of technologies.

Planning for music video:
The research on the music video was in depth with the audience, genre, theorists as this was all needed to help myself and the group to create a music video. It was a slow steady start to researching, but then it was more frequent, finding out what to include in the music video was hard because I've never done it before. But the research in to other real artists music videos, helped a lot, due to their inspiration the music video that was created was based around all of the research.

Production of music video:
In relation to AS, the use of Final cut pro was used a whole lot more, on a new level because we needed to know how to change the colour of the scenes, or to create slow motions. Skills such as match cuts, or any other cuts used was developed from a basic match cut or eye line cut in the thriller. Also, the syncing was even better than it was in the Britney music video remake, it was a lot more on the dot and precise, which helped the video seem more realistic.

Lesson 1 Homework: Timetoast Timeline - Development of my Post Production Skills

Timetoast Timeline - Development of my Post Production Skills

Lesson 1: Section A: Skills Developed throughout A-Level

Research Skills:

1. Able to use websites such as Wikipedia.com and Yahoo Answers to gain important informations and a wider explanations on media products, history, theory and conventions. 
2. Used Youtube.com and Vimeo in order to watch videos related to my coursework to gain similarities and stereotypes in music videos. 
3. Researched about the differences between audiences and wider audiences. 
4. Researched which record label our artist could represent. 

Planning Skills:

1. Planned the locations carefully and made sure it was a safe place.
2. Planned what props would be needed
3. Planned the clothes would suit the genre.
4. Chosed our record label where our artist would fit. (Island Records)                                  

Production Skills:

Lesson 1: Skills Development

Skills developed in research:

• Looked at the conventions of music videos and what is stereotypically featured in music videos of certain genres.
• looked at a wider range of media products
• looked at different theories relating to music videos e.g. Laura Mulvey, Andrew Goodwin, Carol Vernalis
• researched more into target audience – looked at it in greater detail (core audience, wider audience)
• looked at what makes a good music video by analysing student music videos and normal music videos
• looked into cross-media and synergy amongst their products
• looked into costume and props in more detail as they are of importance in a music video

Skills developed in planning production work:

• looked into the different aspects of our artist in more depth (name, age, personality, influences)

• looked into songs and chose the best one that suited the person that will be performing
• adapted our video to suit the genre of the song
• planned our locations carefully (where exactly in Richmond)
  
• planned precise outfits that our artist will definitely be wearing
• any specific make up or hair styles
  
• plan what props will be needed and when (guitar diary)
  
• planning in advance of how we want our ancillary to tie in with music video
  
• established our core and wider planned our music video around this
• looked into any scenes or styles of edits that could influence our music video
  
• chose a record label where our artist would fit into by looking at the other artists signed to it
  
• made an animatic to give a basic overview of how our music video will look like

Skills developed in producing the work:

• experimenting and filming with a variety of shot types
  
• useful ways of adding movement to shots
• adding filters to our shots (colour correction)
• adding our own text with our font into our video (editing in Photoshop for a transparent background then importing into Final Cut Pro)
• chopping and screwing and slowing/speeding things up if certain lyrics were out of synch (simply because it was sung in time while filming)
• marking the sound track to establish the beat so we can edit to it

I think my skills have developed greatly over the two years of studying media as I have been able to build on the basic knowledge that I did have. In AS, the research and planning was more or less looking at clips on YouTube and screen grabbing the shots that was relevant for what we needed and googling things. In A2 we looked into things at greater detail and went into it in more depth at made sure we understood why chose certain things. During the production stage, I would say that A2 was more challenging as more things needed to be done in terms of filming and editing. For example in AS we just shot the different shots and just pieced the bits together, added titles and sounds if it was needed. Whereas in A2, we shot PLENTY of base tracks, cut to the beat, established a structure and cut to that, shot any additional shots or cutaways, made sure that the video was in sync to the soundtrack and much more!

Post-Production Development Timeline