Production & Editing Skill Review of All Units

Throughout the year, my production years have definitely improved. At the start of the year, I definitely put off choosing the production options for the final pieces of my units. This was because production hadn’t been my strong point throughout A-levels, and I was quite reluctant to even try to improve. But, when it got to the end of the year and I was left without an option of writing an essay, I had to produce 2 short films.

My level of production skill prior to starting this course was incredibly dire. I was comfortable with the use of Adobe Photoshop, but that was it. I knew the very minimal basics of how to use Premiere Pro, but almost always found myself having to google what to do whenever I used it. I was familiar to using the studio, but I didn’t know so much about how to use the studio lighting. I was also unaware of the health and safety implications. The highest level of production I was able to produce was my photography and Photoshop editing skills, of which can be seen below:

At the time, 2 years ago, I felt my skills for a first year A level Media student was quite good. But as time went on and I didn’t progress, it made production this year quite tough. This was due to the fact that, despite being also an A level Film student, I moved away from the production options of the course and decided to write essays or scripts. I didn’t allow myself to develop my skills within filming and production. And, unfortunately, this course was far more film-production-heavy than photography.

The first short film I made this year was my music video for I Want You (She’s So Heavy) by The Beatles. I was quite lucky that the first film I had to make was a music video, as I am incredibly passionate about music and the visual aesthetics you can create with music. Given the creative freedom, I created a video that I thought that The Beatles would have actually had if they had a music video for this song. I chose a slow-paced, repetitive song because I didn’t want to force a narrative onto my audience as I wanted them to be able to create a meaning of the song for their own experiences.

My visual inspiration for the music video came from the pictures of Yoko Ono taken from around the time that Abbey Road came out. They were all black and white, with her long dark hair being the main focus of the images. I chose her to be my inspiration because the song, written by her husband John Lennon, is about her. I definitely think I achieved the visual aesthetic that Yoko Ono had at the time. I am confident that I achieved this visual aesthetic I was aiming for.

Evidence of my labelling clips

The actual filming and editing for this video was incredibly simple and basic, but that’s what I wanted. I wanted a simple, minimalistic music video to follow the minimalistic trends that John and Yoko used to follow. The physical production aspect of it involved simply setting up a camera directly positioned in front of my face which also would not disturb the lighting setup. The editing I did was cutting the footage and editing to the beat, so it was very simple and easy to complete. This music video allowed me to improve my skills because it allowed me to learn how to edit to the beat of a song and I learned out to use audio transitions. The music video module also allowed me to express myself as an artist, and I think that’s why my work for this module in particular was quite good in comparison to some of the other ones. I chose to make this music video in black and white also because it is genre-specific. Classic rock comes from a time when high-quality cameras weren’t readily available, so I felt that having it in black and white was very appropriate for the song.

Another skill that is displayed in this music video is my use of lighting. I used the correct setup for butterfly lighting, as that was a common choice of lighting use for close-up photography in the 60s. I also did this so that the focus could be on my face, and butterfly lighting was the most flattering way to present it.

With the music video module, I also made a test/back-up music video, prior to filming the Beatles one, just in case something went wrong. This was a music video I filmed with my iPhone in my kitchen at home. Sounds lazy – but I justify it as experimental. Music videos are often over-produced and I wanted to try something that looked like a childhood home video. Personal and homely was the aesthetic I was going for with my backup music video. This music video was recorded in one shot, which was quite difficult to finally get right, but I got it in the end. The video consisted of me singing to Bjork’s 1993 house hit Big Time Sensuality. I chose a song that was so incredibly 90s because it suited to the editing style I wanted to do. With this particular video, the editing that I decided to use was completely aesthetic effects. I had to edit it to look like a VHS home video, which I feel I definitely was able to achieve. I was able to do this by applying lots of noise, a bit of blur and sharpened the image. I also increased and decreased the saturation of certain colours, thus further enhancing the VHS effect.
Outside of Premiere Pro, creating the 90s aesthetic was quite easy. I did this through the mise-en-scene use of my clothing. I specifically chose to wear a Garfield sweater because Garfield items of clothing were so very popular in the 90s in America. Also, my use of an iPhone camera as opposed to a professional DSLR was better I think because the quality of the footage would be too clear.

The editing style I chose to use during this test music video was actually quite reminiscent of the first piece of work I produced for A-level media, which was shown in my introduction.

The final unit that I produced a short film was for the Promotional Video unit. This unit, my video fell a bit shorter in terms of quality in comparison to the previous videos. I feel that this was mainly due to my time in hospital during the unit and my sheer lack of interest in the topic. My interest in the music industry definitely carried me during the unit prior.

Due to my time in hospital, and my initial client letting me down making me waste more time, I was unable to obtain my own footage and I used the footage of my work partner. However, this footage was quite shaky and not the kind of footage I would have chosen to shoot myself. But I was strapped for time so I made do with what I had. Due to this, I had to learn how to stabilise my footage.

Had I not been in hospital I would’ve shot some better footage and I would’ve had a little bit more creative freedom which would have made my quality of work improve.

The editing aspect of this module was similar to my final music video. I edited to the beat with the royalty-free song I chose and used a lot of soft transitions. My demographic was those 35 and over, so having a really fast-paced and upbeat commercial wasn’t really my aim. My client wanted me to have something simple that showcased the club and focussed on the pool aspect of it, and I think I delivered on that. It definitely could have been better if I captured my own footage as it would have been my own work that I would have envisioned myself beforehand and planned properly. It would also have been better if I didn’t feel so strapped for time when it came to editing. I wasn't happy with my video, but my client was, and that's all that really matters in this unit.

Prior to this whole course, my editing skills went as far as applying transitions to videos and cutting clips. Now, I have learned how to add titles to my videos, how to correctly use audio transitions, aesthetic editing such as making films black and white or creating a VHS style effect without a downloaded filter and lots of other tools. I have certainly improved, become more confident and more time-efficient when it comes to media production. I no longer feel as though I should stick to writing essays and essays only as I have proven to myself that I am capable of producing films that I think are to a good standard, especially my music video.­­­­