[RESEARCH] Skills Audit

As an individual I have developed my editing skills through the use of Photoshop, Final cut pro or soundtrack pro. As I haven't edited in such detail before AS, it has helped me edit by learning it and now using it for A2. Through these editing skills, communication is needed to complete each task for satisfaction through the group, thus enhancing my communication skills of a team. 

Also, learning how to use the equipment provided needed teamwork which helped me use the camera and agree with the team in aspects of camera angles. The development from AS to A2 was quite a big jump as coming from every unclear background of Media, to knowing how to analyse and evaluate critically about Mise en scene. My analysis and evaluation has developed my writing skills, helping me analyse in detail about every aspect of the media product. 

Thus transferring this to A2, I am better at writing in detail and critical thinking is an aspect that has also developed in terms of writing essays or answering long questions. 

RESEARCH - Skill Audit

From AS Media, individually, I have developed both my editing techniques on Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Soundtrack Pro and the MP4 converter and now have a wider knowledge on how to use the four programs
Since I was one of the two editors in my AS Media group, my editing skills have improved vastly from what I had learned of editing at GCSE so I can now edit both the continuity of film and the disjoint-ness  of music videos, how to create my own soundtracks or edit existing base-tracks to my own liking in Soundtrack Pro, edit images in photoshop and convert exported Final Cut Pro files into a MPEG to upload onto the blog.

I learned how to use professional filming equipment how to set it up and how to handle it with care. I also learned different filming angles and movements such as tracking and establishing shots. Memorising all this shot types made it easier to think of what shot types my AS group actually wanted to use in our film opening. 

My communication skills also improved in AS, I improved on listening to my team mates ideas and sharing my own so we come to a mutual agreement on what we would do rather than dictating what I thought we should do, I think this is a skill trait that will be needed in the A2 course so no feuds happen between my group members and I.

I think it will be easier to analyse media products now because of the knowledge I gained in AS, it's easier to single out aspects of a media product and it's purpose and/or effect. It has also helped me improved my analysis when writing, I now know how to write clearly and precisely about a media project unlike previously. This will come in useful when it comes to practise exam questions.

Unlike AS, I can improve on planning as a whole, in AS we planned about half of our opening scene with various camera angles and shots but when it came to the actual filming we strayed from the plan we set out for ourselves and sometimes it was difficult to carry on filming because we were so lost when our plan ended or props that we used in a previous filming went missing so we had to improvise. So I hope we are better organised and planned this time round.

RESEARCH: Looking back at AS Video

Base-Tracks and Editing 

Previous Music Video: http://candistudentsummerwork.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/set-3-marisadan.html

Please click on the link below to hear how I used base tracks and markers

http://chirb.it/b6OsmM

RESEARCH: Skills Audit

Skills Audit

At the start of the AS year I was not very familiar with many products I would be using over the year. I had not used Final Cut Pro or a Camera before. However after filming the thriller and rough cuts, I had picked up many key skills which will be very beneficial for me this year. The only experience I had with media products I would be using was blogger, youtube and photoshop. Some new applications and websites were particularly easy to get used to such as Prezi or MPEG Streamclip whilst getting to know around all the tricks of Final Cut Pro took me a couple of attempts. 

I have also learnt many key aspects of Camera work I did not know before such as the Rule Of Thirds and how lighting looks on camera (which we will have to perfect in our music video. By the end of the AS year I was very confident with using the camera and felt I had significantly improved in using many applications on a Mac. However I still may need to brush up on my editing skills as I believe there is still a lot more to learn with Final Cut Pro. 

PLANNING - Costume, Props, Location and Setting

Setting
Bermondsey (George Row and Abbey Street)/
Kensington
Since two of the other settings for our base tracks are more urban, we decided as a group that we would also have some 'posher' locations to balance it out.

Gallions Hill in Greenwich 
Will be used as the basetrack where it is just Leon Cross singing surrounded by nature.

Gabriel's Wharf 
This will be used as a basetrack where Leon Cross and the female lead star.

Bishop's Park in Putney (Skate Park)
Basetrack for the scene where the female lead teaches our artist how to skateboard

Costume
We want our artist to have the maximum of four costume changes since the norm in music videos is to have under four costume changes.

Male
Costume One : Braces, buttoned up shirt or shirt with cross design, comfortable casual trousers

Costume Two: Panama hat, chinos, braces and blazer?

Costume Three: skater clothing

Costume Four: smart button up shirt, bowtie and chinos


Female
Costume One: Hipster-ish, Vans, comfy shirt, shorts?

Costume Two: Stylish casual, Vans, Girly clothing

Costume Three:  Flare dress with vans/converses/

Props
(We don't need that much props because everything we need whilst filming is either located at the our chosen locations of is just a part of the characters clothing)
Skateboard

RESEARCH - Audience

The audience is a vital part of an artists career. Through them, they increase in popularity, coverage and sales of the artists merchandise and concerts.
The artist of our chosen songs main audience is teenage females manly because he is a male and the opposite gender are usually attracted to the male artist. But he also opened his audience segmentation from being on the talent show X Factor since the show is viewed by both females and males of all ages and sexuality.

Similarly to Olly Murs, through our various media products we want to have the main/target audience of females aged between 12 and 19 since that age group seems to be the trend main audience with male pop artists.

To attract our target audience we would use social networking and YouTube as well as MySpace to promote Leon Cross to them since social networking such as Facebook and Twitter  are used by the majority of our target audience and it allows them to build a 'relationship' with the artist since they can post/tweet the artist.
We would use YouTube since it's the main platform alongside Vimeo where Music Videos are put onto since they are the sites consumers usually go onto to view videos.
Lastly, we would make a MySpace since MySpace is known for being the site for musicians.

With TV, we would screen our teasers of our artists songs on channels mainly waited by our age range such as E4, ITV and so on.

PLANNING - Location Scouting

Before we decided on locations as a group during the next lesson, I went and did research into different locations and looked back at previous locations I had used for various photo shoots I had done.

Only two of the locations stood out to me and seemed to fit the genre of our song. Duchy Street and Gabriels Wharf. Duchy Street for it's plain but contrasting colours and Gabriels Wharf for it's colourful-ness and liveliness