Post Production

Describe how you developed your skills in the use of post production for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time. The use of post production has significantly improved the style, form and professionalism of both my AS and A2 coursework.

Digital software has allowed me to create both immaculate images for my AS magazine and footage for my A2 music video. The use of hardware such as the cameras, Canon 600D, allowed me to take professional pictures which I could then use within my AS magazine. I was able to change the settings to a 1/100 shutter to ensure I could take pictures with movement without them becoming blurred. This worked effectively as I could easily produce photos of my model moving her hair and body to create more life within the images.

I also increased the ISO on the camera so my photos were very bright and vivid to stand out more as I believed that high key lighting was essential for this particular photo shoot and style of magazine. My initial skills that I acquired during AS were then developed when it got to A2 as I was required to now create a moving image text rather than print. I used the same camera of a Canon 600D as I was familiar with this camera however, I had to adjust the settings once again to fit the style and tone of my music video. As my video has quite a mellow, calming tone to it, I decided to use low key lighting therefore meaning I had to have a lower ISO. I also had to experiment with the movement of a camera compared to just taking pictures- in order to do so I used a SteadiCam.

When it comes to editing, the software I used was essential. For my AS coursework I used Adobe InDesign CS6 which allowed me to have a clear structure and layout for easy navigation and creation. One essential feature for my magazine was the ‘Master page’ in which I can add anything such as text or an image and this will then be repeated on every page- for this I added in a strip at the bottom of each page illustrating the magazine name and issue number. InDesign also allowed me to easily move between pages to ensure it all flows.