Sofia's Evaluation Of Skills Development Through The AS Year

Skill area	Your evaluation of your own skills in this area – strengths, weaknesses, and things to work on. Be precise, giving examples or evidence  (eg on camera, discuss particular techniques such as focus pull)	Your teachers’ evaluation
Your use of Digital Technologies: how skilled are you in these areas? This includes your use of camera techniques, your use of blogger, your use of prezi (if you used it), the internet (used for research for example) final cut editing techniques, garageband, photoshop (if you used it), social networking (if you used it)	During the foundation portfolio work I experienced many digital technologies. Firstly, during the filming of my thriller opening, I really improved my skills on camera work. This is because I was able to film many of the shots as I was not acting in the opening. I was able to focus on filming many effective shots as shown in the storyboard. In addition, I thoroughly enjoy using the camera and filming because I believe it is an important role in the creation of any film or any other media types. However, I did find that handheld camera work was a challenge as I naturally have quite shaky hands so I really had to focus because we used a few point of view shots which required a handheld camera. In order to overcome this, I had to use a tripod for some of the shots as it gives a steady, professional look to your work. I really enjoyed using Blogger as it was a different and modern way to set out our work neatly and easily. We chose a simple layout so that our work looked tidy and polished. I found it quite easy to use because when creating a new post it is very straightforward. Also, I downloaded the app to my phone so I could upload photos and videos for evidence. However, when copying and pasting work from Word it was not simple because the images would not show, so I had to save the images and upload them as a file which made things a little difficult. During the research and planning stage, I found that the Internet was a great tool as I used it intensely. Especially at the beginning, I used the Internet nearly every day to research the topic of Domestic Violence. I also used links to YouTube such as the opening to the film “Safe Haven.” In addtion, the use of Final Cut Pro was evident during the end of our portfolio. I had never used the software before this course, so I did not know what to expect. Although, I have always enjoyed editing on iMovie, so I already had a few skills I could bring to the editing stage. My skills really improved when using Final Cut Pro and it was quite straightforward after practicing in our Preliminary task. However, sometimes it did not  work effectively as we had a shot where we had to change the colour of the outside which was very challenging and Sophie has to help us in order to overcome this problem.
Creativity: In what ways did you try to be original? How successfully did you balance the use of standard conventions of thrillers with the aim to be different or original? Eg consider  techniques used, narrative, character, mood, sound, themes, titles etc Research and Planning: How thorough and effective was your research into real media texts? How actively did you use your findings to create your own ideas? How well did you record your findings? How individual was your research? What was your role in planning and what was effective or not so effective?	The idea to our thriller opening was based on Domestic Violence, which is an emotional subject for many which caused it to be very effective and original. We included many different techniques to build the tension and suspense of the opening. Firstly, we used quick paced shots because this is a typical convention of thriller. We did not use any narrative at all because we wanted the focus to be on the actions of the two characters and the eerie non diegetic and diegetic sound. The sound included many different events such as the glass falling, the door closing and the car coming into the drive. Also, we used the theme of power within the two characters with the male holding most power. This tends to be a characteristic of males which is especially shown within our thriller because of the high angle shots. On the other hand, we did not show the males identity to create enigma around the character and to keep the audience questioning. This could show that he did not have much power over the female causing an original and balanced idea. The Research and Planning stage was very interesting as we were able to find out more about the topic of Domestic Violence. I researched different openings to films based on this theme so I could learn what conventions they used throughout to create tension. I took into consideration these ideas and developed them for my own opening. The scene of the glass falling over came from the film "Safe Haven" where the female character got attacked by her male partner for breaking the glass. This was a crucial point of the film because it linked to the other events in the film. I researched many different thriller openings such as Red lights, Rubicon and Are You Afraid Of The Dark. After I watched these openings, I analysed them and explained what I liked about each one and how I could use these ideas in my own opening. During the planning stage I had quite a few roles including creating the Storyboard, Sound Planning, Location, Props, Animatics and the Script. I believe that the Animatic 2 was very useful because we spoke through each shot in the storyboard in detail so we knew what to do when it came to filming.
Post production: This refers to the entire editing process (sound and vision). What specific skills have you individually developed in this area? What do you need to work on? How successfully did you work on sound and vision together?	There were various stages of Post Production which included Editing sound and vision. We decided to use non diegetic music from a site that was suggested to us by Andy. We found the perfect music to build tension throughout. During the editing task I learnt so many skills which will help me for my short film in A2. Final Cut Pro is rather straight forward if you concentrate and take your time. I specifically learnt how to change the brightness, colour and focus of the shots we had filmed to make it look more professional. I think that when we come to editing our short film, I want to take a role in editing, as last year the other two group members took over and did not allow me to really get involved in the editing, which I love to do.
Using conventions from real media texts: Which specific conventions of the thriller genre did you choose to use in your product? How successfully did you use them? What were the reasons for not being able to use them?	We had a great understanding of thriller genre conventions as we did a lot of research into other media texts. Sound was an important part of our opening as we did not use any narrative from the characters so we had to create tension by using sound effects. For example, one scene included the female character accidentally dropping a plate which made a loud, emphasised noise, slow motion was also used here. This created a build in tension which lead to the male character furiously jumping out of his seat, the audience knew that something bad was going to happen. We wanted this mood to be created so the viewer fears the male and feel a sense of sympathy for the female. In addition, we used the idea of a "chase scene" where the female ran away from the male in fear. The non diegetic music emphasised the fright and agitation the audience felt. I believe that these conventions worked really well and created an effective thriller opening which was at quite a high standard.