Reflection on My AS Media Coursework

In the text below, I will give an in-depth analysis on my strengths and weaknesses to certain aspects of my AS Media coursework last year, highlighting and emphasizing on my ability in the attributes; using conventions from real media texts and digital technology:

Using conventions from real media texts

I believe I possessed a great level of skill in this aspect, as I felt I produced a very unique opening 2 minutes of a horror film. I achieved this through avoidingthe tedious stereotypes within the horror industry i.e. by not including a femme fatale character (scantily dressed females unaware of their situation as seen in films such as Scream or The Descent) and by not producing a film consistently relying on the ‘gore’trait (as seen in the more modern horror productions The Saw movies and films such as The Hostel and also the Final Destination series). Because Ievaded in constructing a clichéd horror movie, I considered taking a more unique approach, and I therefore decided on producing a psychological horror involving a psychiatrist and a mysterious antagonist. This choice became fairly simple, as I realise that a more intellectual character such as a psychiatrist is rarely used within the horror industryand would therefore be an excellent trait to draw the audience. I also chose the psychological genre, as I believe these to be the more successful than any other horror genre with extremely rare films such as The Sixth Sense, Donnie Darko and The Others etc. There are very few movies that can convey a great level of psychology into a horror movie, but I do believe that films within this category do produce a very anxious and suspense-filled horror that the audience can be entertained by the ability of story-direction, which is the primary reason I chose this genre. Overall I believe I achieved in carryingthe appropriate conventions from a unique class of relevant existent Horror films.

Digital Technology

When reflecting back on my capabilities to effectively use digital technology (consisted of operating the Sanyo Flip Camera and operating the Adobe Premier Pro CS5 to film and editmy opening 2 minutes), I believe that although the technological equipment took up a frustrating amount of time to become familiarized with; the time spent into ‘perfecting’ my opening 2 minute Horror Film did compensate and I was overall satisfied with my final product. The first feature I noticed when exploring the Sanyo Flip Camera, was that it was waterproof; therefore I used my creativity and decided to produce a scene involving the camera to be underwater to utilize its technological advantages. I also operated the camera with the tripod in specific occasions (still camera movement shots); however I did have difficulties with the speed of the zoom in and zoom out on the camera and was therefore forced to transfer back to handheld. This resulted in the huge ramification of certain shots being completed through unstable camera movements. As well as these problems, I also had difficulties when using the Adobe Premier Pro CS5, as I was extremely naïve to the new software and consequently found it highly complicated to use. However after many attempts to adapt myself to this system, I believe I did acquaint myself in almost every aspect by spending 3-4 hours on the software to familiarize myself within every system feature which I did utilize in my opening2 minute horror film. Overall I did have irritating problemswith both the Sanyo Flip Camera and the Adobe Premier Pro CS5, but by using my initiative I managed to produce the best possible solution for every difficulty I encountered.