Evaluation Of AS Media Foundation Portfolio

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
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)	From analysing the foundation portfolio, it is now clear to me were the positives and negatives lay on a personal level. I feel my skill set in relation to digital technology is fairly strong in comparison to the other listed criteria’s. This is based on prior knowledge of resources such as Photoshop, social networking sites and garage band etc. Camera techniques and editing techniques I believe are the strongest skills, in the opening sequence there is a good combination of both cut shots and camera angles to portray a POV shot from a moving vehicle. My inspiration for this idea transpired from two successful films; The Zodiac and Gone Baby Gone, both films captured urban surrounding and the livelihood that existed around them. Progressing further into the sequence the editing technique ‘cross cutting’ assisted me in creating a tense climax and with a series of high frequency cut shots I was able to construct suspense successfully. One of the areas I believe could have improved on is the blog. Blogging is an unfamiliar concept and one I have had little experience with. Although there is reasonable quantity, quality is inadequate and it is an area I will improve on for the A2 advanced portfolio. Another positive skill set was soundtrack research and application. Entering the production stages of the sequence I knew sound was an important commodity to its success, I looked at successful thrillers such as; ‘Se7en’, ’Luther’ and ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and True Detective-season 1. True detective is where I got my context for my sequence; the dramatic soundtrack and sinister emotions created really caught my eye.
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?	My deep love for film and cinematography throughout my childhood has helped my creativity throughout the production. We strived to be as original as possible when storyboarding and brainstorming a synopsis. However I found observing unsuccessful and successful already established films made it a lot easier to invent ideas. The plot isn’t completely original as there are elements to It that seem to have a pattern amongst other thriller sequences, however it is predominantly original. For example our main protagonist was developed around a typical police detective with a prestigious profession which in turn meant he was also financially stable, these characteristics are fairly common in mystery/thriller however the originality came from his situation in the film and his personality and attitude. When researching for sound I had to compare the different types of thriller sequences to find similarities and differences, the research showed me that although they are in the same genre and have traditional iconography they were all unique in non-diegetic application. As a group we wanted to introduce a non-diegetic soundtrack that would provoke suspense and tension so we focused on thriller tittles that were more sinister. For example Silence Of The Lambs, a film based around a fictional serial killer with a demonic personality. Our other source of inspiration and influence was ‘True Detective’. From a personal point of view the post-production for sound and the non-diegetic soundtrack was gripping and extremely entertaining to watch. In turn our primary aim was to combine sound used from ‘Silence Of The Lambs’ and ‘True Detective’ and produce our own interpretation.
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?	From analysing the post production, it’s clear where my personal skills lie and where I need improvement. Editing was a tool I found to be smooth on a whole, factors such as; cutting, manipulating image colour and tone and sound all proved to be reasonably straight forward. For example in the opening scene the observer can see a character and a phone ringing also accompanied by a non-diegetic sound track to help create suspense and anticipation. From looking at other AS opening sequences there seemed to be a pattern in bad sound quality, which is down to using the microphone on the camera they used to record the sequence, I wanted to use a sound recorder for dialogue in order to get a clear and audible result. The final result I believe was successful and helped to add to the impact of the sequence.
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?	One of the differences between horror and thriller is iconic use of guns-as opposed to knifes- as props. Observing acclaimed thrillers such as Se7en or No Country For Old Men helped me to grasp the convention thriller. In the final scenes of our sequence we have the protagonist aiming a rifle at the antagonist, with a series of fast cut shots and elevation in the soundtrack pace, the viewer starts to anticipate the tense climax. This kind of interpretation was from the thriller film Bourne Identity. One elements very popular amongst thrillers that we didn’t manage to apply was the use of blood. Many thriller sequences contain blood effects, however due to time management we could not filter it in and I believe it could have added to the suspense and drama of the sequence.