Creativity: Post Production

In my AS I created a music magazine for my chosen genre, which was rock/indie rock genre. For this I followed templates of other music magazines and used InDesign to create a layout and add the image I used taken on a Cannon camera. In A2 me and my production group are making horror trailer for one of are chosen concepts. We chose a slasher film about a group of teenagers exploring land and a manor house who are being stalked by a killer.  A key factor in helping make my products successful is the use of digital technology and the development of skills learnt throughput the years.

During my preliminary task I had limited skills in editing software’s like Photoshop. The task we had to do was create a college magazine, I took a picture of someone in my class and took it in school. For the post production of this I used photoshop and just cut the picture from the background using the crop and lasso tool, as a result of this and my lack of knowledge wit Photoshop the edges of the image were jagged, the impact of this is that the final result look poor as my lack of magazine knowledge also meant the angle of the shot was not right for it’s purpose and it should typically be a close up. To and audience this would present as not meeting the expectations of what a college magazine should look like, however shows the improvement made from AS to A2. 

My skills developed a lot from the preliminary task to my AS music magazine. By using digital technology and the internet I had gained a lot more knowledge of conventions and were able to apply them for example using the magazine Q which presented me with the layout and colour scheme for a rock magazine. While in post production for my music magazine I again was using Photoshop as well as using the lasso tool I used spot healer, blur and layers. As well as this I did colour grading to help create more of a low key red atmosphere that is conventional of rock. Using these skills I was able to create a more air brushed and professional look that helps the audience identify it as a music magazine, therefore making it more successful, my creativity is impacted on the skills I develop as lack of knowledge meant I didn’t have a wide range of tools to use in order to create a good piece of work.

My creativity also further developed for my A2 trailer as I was furthering my photoshop skills for the poster and magazine but also in Final cut which I had never used for the trailer itself. For my A2 poster and magazine I used layers, blending and eraser tool to create a background texture for my dominant image to go over the top. Whereas in my preliminary I simply cut out the image and put it onto a block colour in InDesign. With the trailer in Final cut I used the blade tool, transitions like fade and cut to black. Digital technology helped a lot with learning how to use Final Cut as I was able to find tutorials on YouTube. The reason I used transitions like cut to black was because of the research I did prior to post production, not only by looking at past trailers but also using social media to ask people about the conventions they want from a trailer and how it should turn out therefore the purpose of including them is so the audience can identify them. The impact of my development of skills in A2 is that because I know what I have to convey and include it creates a limit of how original me and my group can make the trailer however also makes the trailer successful because we are able to give the audience what they expect from a horror trailer, like fast paced montage scenes and jump scares.

I have a greater understanding of what’s needed in order to present the audience with something that is successful for the type of media I’m doing. But also how digital technology plays a key role in being able to develop the skills needed to advance my work. Creativity can be limited with development of skills as I am limited in how original I can make something, however despite the technical skills being conventional with the use of an audience the work I make can be interpreted in many different forms by whoever’s seeing it and the signifier and signified meaning is different.