In the first year of 6th from I took AS media. I already had a good background knowledge of the subject as I took it at GCSE and came out 6 marks under an A*. I knew I still had a lot to learn but the skills I learnt at GSCE would help a lot.
Camera Work
In the practical part of the subject we were asked to make the first two minutes of a film. It was left to us to pick an appropriate genre, research that genre and do any other work necessary. We chose to do a teen comedy. The main thing we had to do was look at what shot types were used and also use the correct equipment for example, tripod or dolly crane. This will help us with year 13 because it will be fresh in our heads and will give us time to experiment with new ideas and techniques.
Analysis
The second part of the AS course was the exam. In this we had to analyse a piece of footage and talk about representation and how producers use different techniques to create moods and atmospheres. In the exam I felt I did well but when I got my grade it was apparent that I needed to work on this aspect of the course.
Time management
Time management was the major downfall of our project last year. With only a few weeks left until the hand in, we as a group had only a few minutes of footage and less than 15 blog posts each. We knew this was a massive mistake and would cost us when it came to marking. However we did what we could in the time we had left. Time management is still a problem but not as much as last year.
Blog Posts
When I was reading through my blog posts from last year I realised that there was massive amount of detail that I had missed out but could have easily included. This small amount of detail could have been the difference between two grades. This year I will include a lot more detail in my blog including pro's and con's of each part of the production.
