How has my creativity developed through using digital technology to complete my coursework productions?

Throughout my coursework production I had to become familiar with a number of pieces of digital technology some of which I had not encountered before. Through this my creativity was developed in a number of mainly practical ways which went towards the successful completion of my coursework. This began from the very beginning of planning by way of the use of basic computer software such as ‘Word’ which allowed for good organisation. Having all the plans in digital form allowed copies to be sent to all group members and it also allowed me to e-mail them home. These actions allowed development of the project to occur out of college and to be monitored and developed by all group members as required.

Web 2.0 helped the production process in a number of ways such as the advantages of e-mail which was mentioned previously. It also helped in the research stage of planning greatly. I used sites such as ‘You Tube’ in order to watch clips of films of a similar genre such as ‘Die Hard’ for the first production and ‘Seven Pounds’ for the main production. By being able to access the trailers and some sections of these movies straight from the internet quickly and free, my ability to accurately inform my production particularly by way of technical codes was greatly enhanced. I was researching the codes and conventions of the genre (i.e. Drama for second piece). I looked at mise-en-scene issues such as lighting, location and costume which helped me to choose actors and location. The camerawork in, for example, our hostage piece was informed by research as it gave me a better understanding of how point-of-view shots are often used to heighten tension as the audience is watching from a subjective standpoint rather than objective which allows them to identify with the characters. The style of dialogue and music was also informed, more so for the drama piece as this allowed more scope for creativity in this area. Editing was the final technical code that was researched. The speed of cuts, style of transition and the appearance of titles were all informed by this research.


We also posted the final piece on You Tube so that digital evaluation could occur. Creating a You Tube account and learning how to upload a video has since compelled me to look into creating and adding videos externally from college. Distributing it to essentially a mass audience through You Tube also made me think hard about the audience I was trying to relate to. Putting the evaluations on You Tube also allowed people to comment externally, though this didn’t happen so much on this piece it did occur when I re-uploaded the video on my own account and allowed for further critical evaluation.


The part of the coursework in which my creativity was really developed through the use of digital technology was the production period itself. I had never used the equipment and had never shot a planned film before. Being able to turn these ideas into a real product was a very interesting experience and it made me understand why the planning stages were so important which is something I will definitely take on board for the advanced production this year. During the first production I learnt how to set up and use all the equipment and also made sure the shots and their framing was correct. This practical creativity of being able to turn the idea into a real product was made possible by the college’s cameras and the fact that they were fairly simple to use.


The editing stage was also very productive in terms of my creativity. This was the point at which sound effects, music, titles etc. became of interest. We could find the sound effects from various online databases and had music readily available in the college library both of which were valuable resources that would not have been so easily accessible without digital technology. I scanned through the CDs for some appropriate music and then e-mailed them to Mike who was our editor. Learning how to save the work onto an external hard drive was also of great use as I found out fairly early on in the editing stage. There were many editions of the film with sound, transitions and titles being added plus having to choose the best shots and fit them together accordingly. Along the way a number of editions went missing and the computer froze a few times leading to us losing the work, but because it was saved at various points we were not set back too far. The post-production stage was an area I didn’t know a great deal about so my new understanding of how the film can be adapted at this stage has definitely informed my ideas for the advanced production. This is in terms of sound effects and transitions mainly but other areas have been developed also.