G325 Timed Essay

Discuss how far digital technology has enhanced the creative process in your media production work.

Digital technology has enhanced the creative process in my media production work in a number of different ways, through cameras, editing software and the internet.

My technological skills with cameras has vastly improved over both the AS and A2 portfolios. I learnt how to use a variety of different cameras including Mini DV cameras, SD cameras and now high definition cameras. Now during the A2 year, we have updated our cameras and are now using HD cameras. There is a distinct quality different between this years and last years cameras, which allow you to show the video at the largest size on big screens without a distinct loss in quality. The new HD cameras have a number of interesting features, such as an image stabilizer which help reduce shake on handheld footage. They also have better zooming capabilities than last years cameras with no loss in quality when zooming at high levels. This allows us to explore different camera shots making our work differ from others.

The internet has greatly enhanced the research process of my media production work. Video sharing websites such as YouTube allows anyone with an internet connection to upload and share their work and it is also used by professional media organisations such as EMI and BBC. During the research and planning stage, YouTube allows me to search through millions of videos for inspiration, ideas and analysis purposes. As well as enhancing the planning and research stage it also allows amateur filmmakers to make a name for themselves. With the possibility of a worldwide audience, many filmmakers such as ourselves have had millions of video views and become internet hits.

Another useful technological tool which has been very useful during the construction of both my AS and A2 media portfolio is the ability to use blogging to present my work. Websites such as Blogger and Wordpress allow anyone with an internet connection to sign up and create a blog allowing them to share their thoughts with the world. I have found the blogs very easy to work with and useful as I can update them from both school and at home. Blogging also has advantages over traditional paper based work presentation, as it can display a various number of different media types including videos from websites such as YouTube, which can be embedded into the blog and then supported with text or images. Blogs also have a record of when everything was posted showing when students have posted work etc. Blogging has enhanced the creative process during the construction of both my A2 and AS portfolios as they allow me to display a number of different types of media through just one webpage, such as videos, images and text.

Editing software has also enhanced the creative process with new and improving software now becoming available for the masses. Software such as Adobe After Effects allows users to enhance and edit footage, adding special effects, changing colours etc. A video can be completly transformed using this software with a number of different effects available. These effects include adding lightning, explosions and lots more, all in the post filming stage. This means that if a shot is not quite as you hoped, it can easily be changed by experimenting with colours and contrast and adding effects. This software has enhanced the creative process greatly as it allows me to edit footage professionally and add professional looking effects to my videos. After Effects is usually used before the main editing of the footage begins, as the footage can be changed and effects added before you start editing the main video on video editing software. The software which we are going to be using to edit the video together this year, is going to be Adobe Premier Pro. This software is much more advanced than the iMovie software we used last year, and can lead to a more professional looking video. However because the programme is much more advanced than iMovie, it takes a while to learn all of the basic features, whereas iMovie is much simpler and videos can be created much more quickly. However once you have learnt the basic features of Premiere Pro, it can enhance the creative process during the editing phase of production, because there are more options to choose from, such as video transitions and timing can be done more precisely. There are also more exporting options, such as different file formats which the video can be saved in, allowing higher quality videos to be produced.

Overall, digital technology has enhanced the creative process during both the AS and A2 media portfolios greatly. The internet allows us to gather ideas and research, and blogging websites allow us to display our work in a creative and effective way. Camera technology has also improved which means higher quality and better footage can be produced. Video editing software such as Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro also allow us to modify and change videos to suit our needs.