Media Skills Development

Media Skills Development

Process:

Over the last two years, I have developed a huge range of skills varying from researching ideas to communication within a crew. The two main projects within the Ð''BTEC' course are Ð''The Television Magazine Show' and Ð''The Final Major Project'. The technique which as a strand we used was a yellow sheet containing each and every skill entailed with this particular course. When I first attended the school, I was required to rate how good I believed myself to be out of ten, in a box next to each skill. Once Ð''The Television Magazine Show' was completed later on in that academic year, I had to fill in a second column which would show how I had improved in the different areas of skills. Finally the third column was filled in shortly after finishing Ð''The Final Major Project' which again showed evidence of some improvement. So between the start of year ten and the end of the course, for the majority of skills, I have improved by at least two or three numbers out of ten.

Development:

To specify some of the skills in more depth that I have improved on over the Ð''BTEC' course, vary from drawing storyboards to setting up equipment. When I first came to the BRIT School, two skills which I had, had no experience of before were, preparing a shooting script (at first 0, most recent 6) and organising and scheduling a shoot (at first 0, most recent 8). The reason for this was that I have never had to be so heavily involved in a shoot before, so as these played such vital roles within the production of making a soap opera, it was required to perform these skills to a high standard. This applies to the majority of skills involved within the two previous major projects. Certainly two very important factors of being a member of not only media, but in fact strand is being able to work on your own and also work well in a team. Therefore looking back at working independently, I awarded myself a three, after doing the Ð''Magazine' show I awarded myself a four and finally as the course has come to an end I have given myself a six. I believe you must be able to work individually and take on all of the necessary responsibilities by yourself, however you must also learn to share the roles equally and work co-operatively with others. Therefore when grading myself on Ð''working as a team', I started with a three and ended with a seven. So you can see signs of improvements within different skills, however it is obvious that the Ð''BTEC National' course will boost me, in terms of the variety of skills entailed in the skills development area.

When it comes to the production of a certain project, whether it was to be Ð''the television magazine show' or Ð''the final major project', there are three parts to producing. The first stage is the pre production, the second stage is production and the third and final stage is post production.

Pre Production

Beginning with the pre production stage, this is when all of the planning is done. For both projects what is usually required to do is; a storyboard (normal & photographic), a plan of action, a script, a synopsis, audience and scheduling, a rational and certainly for Ð''the final major project', a production diary. I contributed towards the storyboards which is a very straight forward method of planning; I have shared the role of creating scripts which at times is easy enough, but when it comes to writing mild comedy, it is the most difficult part of creating a script; and two things which I have done are the synopsis along with a plan of action, this comes naturally as a result of that task being straightforward. Another task which is not always under the planning stages is the process of research. Usually this is set as an individual piece of work, but if it is set as a group effort then we share it all out. At times we use the internet, at other times we use magazines or newspapers and at other times our school library is used as a very helpful source of information.

Production

The production stage is probably the most important part of the overall project because even if the planning has all been completed it is still all down to what the resulting product on the day of filming. During Ð''the television magazine show' I was given the role of sound operator for my group's show, this consisted of playing instrumental/music and gaining the correct microphone levels. This was a very easy task as my main area of expertise is radio, however although this is an easy part of the production (in the gallery), it is still one of the most vital roles for the ending product. I had always with sound desks before joining the course; however I had never worked on a television studio sound desk before.

Post Production

The production involved after the television studio project was done, was simply to analyse our own pieces by watching the three minute shows back. However the Ð''final major project' involved much more work, which was both practical and theory. The post production in this project was just as important as the production, as it involves using Adobe Premiere to capture the footage,

edit and cut the footage down to a three minute soap opera and add sound effects, title sequences and sound clips/music. This was a very time consuming process which did pay off when watching the final version.

There are two essential parts which result in a successful production, no matter what the production is; teamwork and individual work. You must be able to work and perform to a high standard as a team but also on your own so that you can therefore work in whatever situation you are presented with.

Teamwork:

Firstly what probably is the most important factor of a successful production, is teamwork; being able to work with other students on a particular project. For the Ð''television magazine show' some of the teamwork mainly included writing a script, thinking of Ð''fun' competitions and features and insuring that the show appealed to our chosen target audience. For the most recent