Evaluation of Progress from AS to A2

Media was a completely new subject for me, something in which I have been interested in for many years yet rather knowledgeable in the subject; therefore I took the subject in order to expand my knowledge and gain more depth into what is media.
Preliminary AS
My first task was the preliminary task where we had to shoot a short proportion of a thriller opening which I would have to go to film later on. The preliminary was a great opportunity to practice some of the basic yet common shots which we would later on use in our real thriller opening. These shots included; matched cut, high/low angle shot, pan shot and close up. These shots made up the bases of the majority of our shots in the actual thriller opening. Below is my preliminary task from A2:

During this task I learnt not only how to perform certain shots but that location or setting is incredibly important when filming a film as it sets the mood and tone, adds to the tension as, for example, a forest has connotations of vulnerability and being alone. As you can see in my preliminary, location was something that I did not fully take into account when planning.
Another thing I learnt from the preliminary was that Mise En Scene also helps the audience empathise with a character (or not) and have a personal relationship with them (if the characters face is revealed and shown to the audience this would build a relationship whereas if they have a hood, as shown in the preliminary video, this relationship is harder to build).
However, overall, this preliminary, being my first time filming something like this, I thought it went well and opened my eyes to how hard and how much preparation and research goes into filming a thriller opening.
Preliminary A2
Being almost a year on since I filmed my first preliminary task, I have learnt valuable skills and sufficiently developed my technical side when dealing with; the camera and performing various camera shots; research and planning into location/ setting, time of day and weather; Mise En Scene within the shot which includes costume, props as well as lighting; and editing which is almost as important as the filming of the video as it, in my eyes, shows the true potential of the video. Below is my A2 preliminary task where we had to recreate a music video and we chose to do Ben Howard's Keep Your Head Up:


Personally, I thought my group and I did I really good job when filming this video as we put so much time into researching our chosen genre of indie and what the conventions of this entails such as an artistic approach to each video, being independent from other artists, heavy reliance on the instruments being used which are mainly a acoustic guitar and drums. We also researched various locations in our surrounding area to find the perfect and most like the original video. Furthermore we prepared for the video a lot more efficiently as we created a shot list which allowed us to follow the timing of the shots, the shot type used for example close up, pan or over the shoulder etc, and the Mise En Scene used in each shot all in comparison to the original video. Below is a picture of that sheet:
In comparison to my AS preliminary video, I felt that the execution in the shots performed was a lot sharper, precise and they were the perfect shots for the action going on and captured the actor and his actions clearly. Personally, I felt that each shot we did was the best shot and also, it matched the shots used in the original video. When doing the shots as well, they came out a lot more steady as I learnt that an unsteady shot not only loses marks but it just looks unprofessional. Time of day was an important factor to take into account in the filming of the video as the sun had to be setting whilst we filmed certain parts and I felt we caught the rays perfectly  in our shots.
However, I've learnt that for when we film the real music video, I would want to use less shots and hopefully get more block and longer shots as editing proved to take a rather long time as we had to editing each shot individually and they were very short shots indeed. Therefore, it was very time consuming when editing.


My Best and Worst Points
So far, in both my videos I have acted and been filmed; therefore I think that one of my strong points is the ability to act on camera. Another thing I think is my best quality is, is editing. I have always taken a lead role within editing the videos my group and I have produced and I feel like I have done a good job in doing so. Due to taking a leadership or captain style role in sports or other extra curriculum activities, I personally feel that I have used that skill whilst planning for the videos, editing and when we go out and actually film the videos.
However, as nobody's perfect I do have some bad points. What I've learnt from AS is that, despite me knowing many technical terms I fail to put them into my research and planning. Another bad point is that I need to be open various ideas when filming as I can be quite narrow minded whilst planning for an idea and therefore not take an idea and look at it from multiple different ideas.

What Have I learnt From Research and Planning
During AS I did not think research and planning was as important as my teachers made it out to be, however after doing it thoroughly for my A2 preliminary task I have found out just how useful it is. By researching my chosen genre of indie, I have found out that there is so much to be learnt and that it can seriously aid me when planning for filming videos as I know so much about the indie genre and that there is so many different angles in which I can approach the filming of a video that it is not that hard to be independent and unique.