Although I was interested in media related topics, Media Studies as a AS subject was completely new and exciting to me and I was able to learn about many terms and throughout I feel that I have been constantly progressing. Within the AS part of the course and especially during the practical the creative side it is one of my strong points for example, the design of my groups blog and the logos of our company were created by me. I think it also was beneficial not just to me but to the rest of my group that I am organised and I was able to really structure the blog keeping it tidy which resulted in lots of detailed blog posts and by writing to do lists for us all it abled us to reach our full potential and succeed in completing all the necessary blog posts and more. I'd say this was one of my best points which I hope to carry forward into the blogs at A2 as by keeping up to date and on top of the quantity and quality of my blog posts I will be able to do well but keep all my ideas and thoughts and planning in one manageable place, this will only benefit my learning. I also have some knowledge of using Photoshop so this was also useful in the upkeep of the blog. I feel that some of my best points during the practical were the setting up and compositions of the shots we were trying to capture as I have some amateur knowledge of Photography the framing of shots came naturally to me and I think I was able to portray some really lovely shots. I feel made adequate input throughout all parts of the group work as being artistic and creative really was beneficial for this part of the course. Throughout planning, filming and editing I was very involved with all aspects so therefore these are some of my best points.
I would say I am quite academic however a bad point of mine is essay writing as I tend to waffle on a lot and if anything I feel that this could let me down grade wise however for the exam I did lots of revision on case study notes which I made sure I kept up to date in order to learn as much as possible about our chosen British film company and after lots of practice essays I felt confident enough that I made all the points necessary. I also made sure I thought about a lot of CEMS in the build up to the British drama essay exam, this was beneficial in the exam as well.
From the two practical tasks I've done for this years course, the digipack for an indie band and a remake of Ben Howard's music video I've learn't various things, mainly how important planning really is. During the remake of the music video I became comfortable using the camera equipment again and remembered how important steady and well composed shots are. The first time I filmed something was for my AS preliminary task and the difference between this and the music video I made is a lot so evidently from the AS prelim video not being very successful, I was able to learn and improve from this. I feel that my groups A2 preliminary video couldn't of come out any better, I know that we did a lot of research and planning not only into the video and artist but into the genre. We also looked around to find the best possible location and made sure we had everything we needed with us on the day of filming, along with the equipment we even brought a laptop which had the original music video downloaded on it and a detailed shot list print out. If we complete all of this preparation and more during our final A2 music video I'm very excited to see the outcome as it has potential to be really great. Again I found doing a lot of research into the indie genre was really crucial when planning our digipack for an indie band and we had some really good ideas and took some great pictures but the decision of our final one was rushed and we forgot to think about all the font being the same and our front and back cover don't necessarily link together that well which is unfortunate as the potential for a really amazing cover was there but as it was only a preliminary task I have learn't to spend more time on the final product choosing what goes well together.
I've learn't a lot about the research and planning aspects of the coursework and especially how vital and important it is to do sufficient amounts as it makes the whole filming process run so much more smoothly and it feels good going to do something you know exactly what you need to do in order to get it done. After not planning much for the AS preliminary task, you could really see that we didn't through the execution of our shots and even editing, this did however give us a lot to work on and evaluate. I learn't a lot from the lack of planning for this and when researching into and planning our thriller I made sure I did a lot of both! This proved to be one of the most helpful things to do as when filming we were not only ore confident using the equipment, we knew exactly what we wanted. The result of planning was apparent in the contrasting quality between the two, During the planning for my groups preliminary task for the start of A2, we all did a lot of research into the indie genre which was really useful and when planning our remake of Ben Howard's music video without all of the planning we did it wouldn't of gone anywhere near as well.
