Assessment 12/07 SJA

WWW:

• Katie, I have really enjoyed reading through your blog as it's so visual, thoughtful, and contains honest and insightful reflections on your progress and work so far
• Excellent use of range of ideas for creating visual posts - great to see you are so organised in uploading planning docs from your 'Production Manager' role
• You and gemma were outstanding production managers on the video re-shoot - you are developing excellent skill as a competent film maker, I am really excited to learn from your posts that your have been doing some additional reading around the subject of film making, and you are clearly thinking carefully about essential elements such as getting the lighting and mise-en-scene right

EBI:

• Just keep going with the brillant effort Katie! I think it's great that you are really enjoying media and that you are developing and widening your knowledge through your own reading and research - continue to watch and critique a wide variety of music videos and use these as inspiration for your own ideas.

Thank you for your enthusiasm and really hard work in media.

Effort (EX) excellent!

Development from year 12 into year 13

I feel my practical experiences and skills developed in year 12 have definitely evolved into something quite more defined and improved since my transition into year 13 work.

Following my incredible enjoyment of the year 12 Media Studies course I have been reading books and researching more deeply into the art of film and film-making in my spare time to pursue my interest and passion for Media Studies as a subject. These extra-curricular sources and dedication to the subject may have helped to improve my work during the transition between the AS and A2 course.

During the preliminary lip synch task to introduce us to the A2 course, we used our common sense in film-making to ensure we had enough clips to use during editing (for example, we filmed each of us lip synching the whole song in each location rather than filming just parts of the song in different locations so as to allow us to cut clips as needed). These types of skills were gained during the year 12 course though have improved into year 13 as we gain a more critical hindsight of our previous work and develop our skills as film makers.

As you can see from the year 12 introductory task posted above, our shot composition was not as professional or as well thought out as it is now, a lot more effort has been spent in the transition between this introductory task and the introductory task into year 13 perfecting shot composition. It is also clear to see we haven't considered location or costume at an in-depth level which would perhaps improve our work if we were given the opportunity to re-make this video. (WILL POST A CONTACT SHEET OF COMPLETED WHOLE CLASS TASK TO COMPARE THIS TO).

In preparation for the whole group music video remake of 'In the Sun' by She & Him, I spent a lot of free time emailing other members of the team, creating shooting schedules and extended storyboards as well as getting to know the video inside out for my role as a project manager. The intense level of organisation, hard work and effort I put into the production both beforehand and during shooting was very different to that of year 12 - I feel my skills of organisation and extra work have increased since AS along with my even higher passion and drive to succeed in Media Studies A-level. Our year 12 work was nowhere near as organised beforehand, during shoot or in post production as it has been this year so far, I'm really enjoying the increased level of work I have had the opportunity to involve myself in this year and looking forward to using my newly developed skills in my year 13 coursework.

'In The Sun' class task - Final Edit

My personal contribution to the 'In The Sun' whole class music video project

WWW:

- I worked hard before filming in both lesson and free time to ensure all teams were organised which was reflected on production day as all areas including locations, props, costume etc were prepared and on-task.

-On the day of the shoot, I felt my personal contribution as a Production Manager generally overseeing the whole team and project was highly valuable. In many cases I helped those who were directing shots if support was needed, I co-operated with the on-screen dance teams also with their positioning on camera and arrangement behind camera including music and lighting in certain shots. An example of my hands-on work on set is my collaboration with Cameron to eventually find a way of tracking and panning one of our first shots which proved particularly different. We experimented with different positioning, people and wheelie chairs to create a professional tracking effect as similar to the technique used in the original 'In The Sun' music video. As well as this, I did direct several shots on my own as did every individual in the group.

- As a member of the two-part Production Management team, we also put together a highly organised shooting schedule (in accordance and with help from costume and locations departments) and an extended storyboard to further guarantee organisation on the day of filming. On production day, the class stuck directly to the shooting schedule and additional storyboard which allowed better time management and general organisation of the whole team. (Below is a photograph of the PM team, Myself and Gemma, using these documents on the day of the shoot).

EBI:

- If we had a proper camera tracking device which would have given some of our shots even more professionalism and speeded up some of the shots which were particularly troublesome due to this.

- If the group had more time for shooting, we did struggle toward the end to fit every shot in within our time slot although we worked hard to ensure we did manage it.

- Had the library been slightly larger to accomodate the large dance team a little more comfortably.

Whole Class Music Video Task: My Role

My role for the whole class music video project was to be the Production Manager.
I was excited to take on the role because I enjoy being able to have an overview and control on projects as I'm somewhat a perfectionist and like to make sure that everything is going according to plans.

As one of a two member Production Manager team, in the weeks running up to our final filming of the music video we were expected to keep a grip on the overall organisation in all areas of production including locations, props, costumes, music and dance teams. This meant ensuring everybody was sure of what they were doing at all times, helping out anybody that wasn't and creating organised plans for the whole team to stick to in their roles. In each session that the class were together as a team, Gemma and I would speak to each individual group to find out what they had achieved, what they still hadn't achieved and what they were striving to achieve by the end of that session - we noted down what had been done, what each group's goals were and checked these at the end of the session. If goals weren't achieved we set up provisions to ensure they were by the next session and chased these issues up during our free time using e-mails to gain perspective on how groups had progressed towards their goals during time in between lessons. Below are two examples of emails I sent to my classmates regarding the production.

During our time as production managers we also produced extended storyboards and in-depth shooting schedules to ensure everybody knew which shots they'd be directing, in which location and at what time in accordance with the storyboard (part one of the shooting schedule is attached below)... 

I found that the role is highly important in a production as they are a general overview of all areas and provide full organisation to the team as well as support during planning stages, filming and post production. Being a production manager was a lot of work (including in free time) but I enjoyed the responsibility and having a vision which I could see coming together as all teams put in the effort to make sure the finished product was our very best. Although such high control and responsibility is a daunting prospect, the workload was manageable with high organisational skills gained during the project and ended with a sense of pride when we saw the project coming to life with the hard work of the whole team.