1. Progress from AS to
A2

2. Digital Technology
From our coursework task in AS I developed my knowledge and understanding of digital
technology. As the whole task required the use of technology I knew that I would have to
learn how to use certain technologies that I hadn’t used before, such as video cameras,
voice recorders and the Mac’s and the software on them. I found that the camera was
rather easy to use and as I had many opportunities to film with my group it became a lot
easier every time we filmed. When it came to filming our last re-shoot I found it a lot
easier to set up the camera and film everything.
Something which I didn’t find very easy was using Adobe Premiere Pro. Although we did
practice editing before we actually edited our own film I didn’t find that the practice helped
me much and therefore when it came to editing the final film I found myself relying a lot of
other group members to help me or to do the editing myself. This is something that I
really hope to improve before the next time I have to edit, to make sure that I do improve I
will practice editing and using Premiere so that I am more familiar with the software and
am able to confidently use it.

3. Creativity
As we were in a group for the AS coursework we were able to discuss all of our ideas and
collaboratively make decisions using parts of everyone’s ideas. I found this very helpful
as I don’t think that the idea we came up with would have been as successful if it was
only myself who had to think of an idea. When discussing ideas it took us several days to
agree on the final idea; this meant that we wasted quite a lot of time on deciding when we
could have begun planning for our film. When deciding on ideas for the A2 coursework I
think that it will be useful as it’s only my ideas that I will need to consider, meaning
deciding on ideas will be quicker and there won’t need to be any compromises.
When it came to our final filming I had to be creative as there were some props missing
and we couldn’t film where we had previously filmed which meant we had to choose a
completely new location. Designing the set and the costumes showed how I could be
creative last minute. Additionally we decided to have some last minute changes to the
storyboard and shot list so we added in some more interesting shots. Changing things
like this means that when it comes to filming for A2 I wont be as scared to make bold
decisions or change some things last minute. We were influenced by many films, mainly
horror, thrillers. One in particular was ‘Saw’. The scene where the torture victim wakes up
was inspired by scenes in ‘Saw’ when the characters wake up after being kidnapped.

4. Research and Planning
The research and planning took a lot of time for my AS coursework as I had to research into the
whole thriller genre. The fact that the work for research was shared between 4 people meant that
it was less pressure on everyone individually. However for the A2 coursework I will have to be
doing all of the research alone which means I will have to make sure I focus on researching
everything I need for the task. As I am now familiar with researching from last year I think I will
find it a lot easier this time round as I know which kind of things I need to be researching and how
I am going to carry out my research and present it. The research into genre helped me with
production as I could recognise the codes and conventions of thriller films which then meant our
film was clearly a thriller and was realistic for a thriller. The research into audience meant that we
were able to establish the target audience for horror, thrillers and we were then able to create our
film with the target audience in mind.
The planning stage took up a lot of time when it came to designing the storyboard, shot list,
anamatic and deciding on the ideas for our film. There were a few times where we had to change
our story board and our shot list completely which meant that we basically had to start the
planning again. Although this seemed like a big deal at the time, reflecting back I can see that we
made the right decisions. This has taught me that it’s ok to change ideas and edit some things
during the planning. I also think that next time I am planning I will need to spend less time
discussing ideas and get into actually starting the work faster. We used the feedback that we
received from the audience before we began planning to make important decisions, for example
we wanted the audience to relate to the characters therefore we chose the female protagonist to
be a young teen/adult because this was the average age of people who watched horror, thrillers.

5. Post Production
After we had filmed we began editing straight away. The editing did take quite a lot of time as
we needed to cut some clips, arrange the order and add in sound effects and effects. I found
the editing the hardest out of all the work that I did for the coursework as I don’t have much
experience with it. Apart from editing the only other thing that we changed post-production was
some sound clips; we added a clip of the child speaking at the very end which we needed to
re-record. The fact that we didn’t have a lot else to do but edit meant that we were able to fully
focus on the editing meaning that the editing was very strong in the end and helped the film
become more engaging and realistic.
We needed to use conventions of thriller films in our own film, which meant that we had to
research the codes and conventions. My research helped me a lot as I found out the types of
characters, settings and story’s that were typically used in thrillers. I think that the research
and use of codes and conventions made my film very successful as it was clear that the genre
was a thriller. However we did decide to break some codes and conventions, for example the
stereotype of a father being loving, caring and innocent was broken as we decided to have the
father figure as a villain who was secretive and evil. Furthermore we broke some conventions
of religious films as Christians are represented as evil and manipulative. This has taught me
that it’s ok to break some conventions as long as you follow others so that it’s clear what the
genre of the film is and so that the audience understand.

6. Conventions of real media
We needed to use conventions of thriller films in our own film, which meant that we had
to research the codes and conventions. My research helped me a lot as I found out the
types of characters, settings and story’s that were typically used in thrillers. I think that
the research and use of codes and conventions made my film very successful as it was
clear that the genre was a thriller. However we did decide to break some codes and
conventions, for example the stereotype of a father being loving, caring and innocent was
broken as we decided to have the father figure as a villain who was secretive and evil.
Furthermore we broke some conventions of religious films as Christians are represented
as evil and manipulative. This has taught me that it’s ok to break some conventions as
long as you follow others so that it’s clear what the genre of the film is and so that the
audience understand.

7. Conventions of real media
We needed to use conventions of thriller films in our own film, which meant that we had
to research the codes and conventions. My research helped me a lot as I found out the
types of characters, settings and story’s that were typically used in thrillers. I think that
the research and use of codes and conventions made my film very successful as it was
clear that the genre was a thriller. However we did decide to break some codes and
conventions, for example the stereotype of a father being loving, caring and innocent was
broken as we decided to have the father figure as a villain who was secretive and evil.
Furthermore we broke some conventions of religious films as Christians are represented
as evil and manipulative. This has taught me that it’s ok to break some conventions as
long as you follow others so that it’s clear what the genre of the film is and so that the
audience understand.