My use of software has shown a large improvement since AS level in both skill and general softwares used. Software which has been continuously used across both year includes Final Cut Pro, where last year I had learnt basic skills, whereas this year have been able to work with speed and more precision due to the previously learnt sills and foundations. Where a AS level I learnt how to use the trim tool, as well some simple transitions. This developed at A2 where I have developed my skills within Final Cut Pro, as I used the blade tool, cross dissolves, colour match, remove background noise, masques, and clipping masks. At AS level my general understanding of the program was decent, but improved vastly at A2 allowing me to create an all round more finished product.
As well as using editing software to create the trailer, this year we were also required to create a poster and magazine cover. For this I used Photoshop CS6, a program which I had experience in prior to this year. I had already learnt the basic skills required, but found the ancillary task as a great way to learn and develop these skills further. Before I had used the brush tool, some filters from the filter gallery and crop tools, whereas this year I learnt how to use clipping masques, colour corrections, cloning stamp as well as varying layer opacity to create contrasts in colours and softness, something particularly seen on my poster as I created a double exposure of two pictures. Developing my skills on photoshop has been a particularly enjoyable experience.
As well as Photoshop and Final Cut Pro, I used other software in my ancillary task such as Adobe Illustrator as well as Adobe In Design. These were the applications I used less, however I had past experience using them, allowing me to work quickly to complete the task quicker. I used Illustrator for the text, as it works on a no pixel board, allowing for clarity in text no matter what size. As well as this, I used In design for layout designs, and general assembly of the poster and magazine cover.
Improvement in hardware was also important, as at AS level, I was limited to very basic lighting, such as the LED's, and the use of the panasonic camera and tripod. This allowed an experimentation of shots and angles to create my AS level product, whilst using limited lighting and sound. This year we had access to a larger amount of technology, as well as employing a larger range of lighting and sound equipment. We used varied colours of lighting on both LED and mains lights, this allowed us to generate different tones in contrasting day and night shots. As well as this we experimented with day-to-night camera settings, which allowed us to shoot in the day time and have the footage look like night time. This use of technology has been developed over the two year coarse, as we learnt to use low angle shots and high angle shots to suggest the inferiority or dominance within the frame and certain moments. At AS, we used a sound recorder, along with pre-made foley sounds to create all the sound heard in the opening. This year we used a range of mics, such as a directional mic and a stereo mic, allowing for clearer sound, in both dialogue as well as all the foley sound we recorded our selves.
There has also been a clear development to be found within our research and planning, especially regarding the convergence of software while using blogger. I embedded YouTube videos, slideshares, prezzi's and images, allowing for greater visual representations of the planning for our trailer. An example of which was our animatic, where we used YouTube to visually represent an early idea of our finished product, making an interesting insight for our audience, as well as allowing ease of access for when creating the end product.
Below is a presentation of our development in technologies as we compare our development from last year, as well as discussing how varied our development had been. We talk about both software and hardware, as well as focusing in on specific software examples which we used in new ways.
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