Personal Skills Audit Name: Bronte Rose Ainsley

Skills acquired How did these skills contribute to the creation of

your product?

How will you develop these skills during the A2 project?

Digital technology- What

equipment/software packages did you use to produce your production?

I learnt editing skills to use Final Cut and Photoshop. I had to learn how to set up and use the camera and I learn what worked well and what didn’t. I learnt how to use the crane, tripod and the Dolly. I used Garage Band to edit the music and I used sound effects from YouTube and converted them into our film.

The editing skills ensured our film ran smoothly and made sense, it made it look more professional. The equipment used when filming enabled us to get the best shots to help tell the story. The sound we used added an extra aspect to portray traditional ‘film noir’ and helped ‘tell’ the audience how to feel and when.

I will continue to use software such as Final Cut but will hopefully also use new technology to help with this years task. Having already had some experience from last year I hope the skills I have learnt will be easily transferable to this year and that I will develop these further through practice and learning new and better things.

Post production- What software did you

use to create your production?

- Discuss specific features of the software.

I used Final Cut to put the whole production together. It had a time line so we could drop different sounds/clips in where we wanted. We used the layers to create a more professional looking picture. Garage Band helped me make the soundtrack, it had different instruments that you could add to the bars so you could make it

Final Cut was used to do the full production. Photoshop was used for the logos. Garage Band was used for the soundtrack. LiveType was used to make the last title.

I may use the same software so I will hopefully develop my understanding further.

sound exactly how you wanted. I used LiveType to create the final title. It had different background effect options and different fonts and styles to try out.

Research and Planning- What tasks did you

complete when preparing to film your sequence?

- How did your planning help the smooth progression of your film?

We researched by looking at clips from real film noirs and by getting ideas from the internet and YouTube eg. Hair styles and makeup. We then made a storyboard so we knew the sequence and wrote a script and shot table so we knew what was happening when.

It enabled us to get straight on with filming and to run through the filming process quickly and smoothly.

I will carry on with thorough planning so that the actual filming runs without any hicks.

Using conventions of real media texts

- Which texts did you analyse?

- Did you take any inspiration from the conventions found from your research?

Black Dahlia, Taxi Driver, Seven, Laura etc. helped us to analyse the conventions of film noir such as: black and white, cigarettes, fancy 40s clothing, red lipstick, ‘slinky’ music.

It gave us the basic ideas to build our production on, without the research our film wouldn’t have seemed very conventional.

I will continue to look into the genre I am studying so I have full understanding of what I have to create.

Creativity- were our ideas for your

We stuck to a lot of the film noir conventions like having the

It ensured that our production was different to other film noirs

I will continue to be creative so all my work is original and

portfolio imaginative and unique or did you adhere to conventions?

femme fatale, the flirty detective, the old styled streets and alleys, however we would sometimes subvert it eg. We had a female criminal, and also a female ‘wing woman’ as the detective’s sidekick.

and that it stood out and was interesting to watch.

unique and will gain a good mark.