Moving Image is a part of the course that I had never really touched on before I came here. It was something I was interested in due to it being practical. The first few months consisted of us being shown the basics of film making, like using different types of sound, camera shots and analysing other pieces of moving image work. Shot types was a phrase used a lot throughout the course, they are basically different ways of shooting something. One type of shot type is a long shot, this allows the audience to see many things on the screen at once that deem to be important. Behind the shoulder shot is another, this allows the audience to be put right in the moment and feel like the character is having a conversation with them. I felt like I had learnt a lot in these first few months and it set me up for the project we had later in the year. It allowed me to get a clear understanding on how to use equipment effectively and how to use software efficiently. We also looked at directional styles these are basically the ways people direct, an example of this can be a creative director, creative directors allow everyone to contribute ideas forward but the director has the last say in what happens. This can mean that films can be more adventurous and out there. The next project was all about creating our own mini film, this was the first time I had ever had to make my own production and I felt like I had learnt a lot from some of the mistakes I had made and from the good things that had happened throughout it. I had to make sure that I did an extensive amount of research before I even started filming this involved creating; a script, shot list, treatment, location scouting and developing characters for my film. Doing a massive amount of research meant that I could deliver a piece of work that was to a high standard. After doing all of this research I feel pretty confident with doing it again and I feel like I can conduct my own research effectively. When before I had no idea on what some of these media terms even meant and how I could carry them out.
Interactive was a part of the course that I had very limited skills in. The first few months was focused on developing our skills in publishing and the learning about the laws that we had to stick to, when publishing our work to the public. One thing we looked at was Copyright, this is a very important part of development and media in general because if the Copyright law is breached you can be sued and would have to go through a lot of legal actions. This also helped us to think about our own original content and what actions we can take if it is stolen from us. I thought that this was a very important and useful part of media to learn about and I am very grateful I learnt this at the start of the year instead halfway through. We also learnt about graphic designs in publishing and how to show data in an attractive and effective way, I now feel confident when it comes to creating my own infographic. Then for a few months we learnt how to create animations like the shape one that you can see above and how to use flash, this was my first time using flash. However I picked up the skills on how to use it very quickly and ended up making a very good animation at the end of the project that was all about showing the audience how my construction toy worked, it ran very smooth and featured barely any errors. The improvement is very visible when looking at my first and last animation. The next segment of Interactive involved creating my own app all about the creation and functions or Popcorn and Steam. Also during the animation segment we started a toy project, we had to start from the ground up producing a advertising campaign for the toy. At the start I found this to be quite challenging but I ended up making some high quality work at the end of it. I would have had no idea how to ever begin this at the start of the academic year, however now I feel like I can do it with confidence.
Theory is probably the aspect of this course that I had the most experience in before I started. We started the year off with surveys for this we had to do primary and secondary research on other surveys so that we had a better understanding on how our surveys should ask questions. This was something that I had done before, however I felt like I had learnt a bit more about how audiences react to certain things. We then moved onto advertisement for the remainder of the year this involved looking at print, broadcast and web advertisements and how they are effective and not effective. Advertisements are something that I also covered a lot in Secondary school however like the surveys I learnt things that we did not cover well or at all in my past school. Throughout the whole academic year we looked at media theories and their meanings. I found this to be very useful when writing up blog posts and when trying to portray a point to someone.
Publishing is the subject that I have enjoyed the most throughout the year. I had very limited skills in the software we used in this subject however now I feel like I can use all of the software we have covered very effectively and can create some high quality pieces of work. I enjoy doing this because there is almost no limits when it comes to digital publishing and I enjoy learning something new about the software every lesson. We also had to create our own typefaces, rules and colour scheme to a game board we had to make and how this builds our product and makes it our own. I found this project to be very fun but challenging having no limits on how the board could look and play was very interesting and allowed me to make my own product that I had put my heart and soul into. I also had to make my own website from scratch to promote a product, again like the board I had 100% control on how it could look and interact. We used our skills learned from the board game part of the project so that we could make sure that we fully understood what they mean and what they can offer. If I were set this at the start of the year without the training for the software I don't think I could have made anything as impressive with the time I had.
Audio Production was a part of the course that we started midway throughout the year. This was solely to improve our skills in Moving Image. Even though we had not had much time with this section of media I felt like I learnt a lot and I now know a lot more about how audio works and also when to use the right equipment in different environments. We also looked at the different types of Copyright for audio, for example royalty free music this is where the content is free to the public and the creator does not need to be contacted to gain access to the content. Going into the course with no idea on how to use sound effectively I can now say that I can use sound to create some impressive pieces of work.
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