Self Evaluation

At the start of term, i knew a fair about media production from doing gcse media, howver i had little detailed knowleage.
i knew most of the main techniques used in the main elements of film language, such as long shots and close-ups in camerawork, dissolves and fade ins/outs in editing, diegetic and non-diegetic sound and some of the connotations connected to mise-en-scen.

From coursework at GCSE i also learnt some of the techniques involved in making a piece of film that makes sense, such as not changing the scene/ costumes and make-up around between scenes, how to use the camares easily and that most of the time more than one take of somthing is required.
I also knew how to edit a film clips together using imovie so that the finished piece had a fairly clear narrative and a fair bit of continuity.

Since then i have learnt many more of the techniques involved in the main elements of film language such as the rule of thirds, depth of field and canted angles in camerawork; ellipsis, cutaways and parallel editing in editing; sound motif, sound perspective and ambient sound in sound and that i should analyse as deply as possible in mise-scen and in general.

I have also learnt more about establishing continuity in a piece of film, such as the 3 principles of continuity which are: match on actio, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. And that not everything that happens needs to be included, just that the audiance need to be able to assume what has happned.


During the production of my film i have learnt things such as that sometimes you can not follow the storyboard exactly due to certain aspects of the location, so therefore in some situations it maybe good to re-storyboard once the location is established, or at least adapt current storyboards. I have also learnt that it is good to get more shots than you need incase some dont work, and that you need to make sure actors are kept in the same places during scenes as this helps with continuity. Also certain actions such as punches may require more planning than first thought out and that following the 180 degree rule affects the whole shooting of a scene.

During editing i have learnt how to use imovie in a better way than before, for example i learnt how to use the volume levels alot more effectively such as in the scenes with footsteps we decided to turn the volume up so they would be more emphasized. Another I learnt how to use garage band to prduce a soundtrack it was easier than i expected however it was difficult to get a soundtrack that fitted with the timings of the film since that garage band measures in bars rather than actual time.
Finally i learnt that it is extremely to compile a list of things that i have learnt.