Explain how your skills in the creative use of digital technology has developed over time.

My creative use of digital technology has developed over time. I have used the same sort of technology  in both my AS and A2 coursework but have used them more confidently for different outcomes.

Firstly i have used final cut for both projects. At AS i made a 2 minute thriller opening we edited this on FinalCut pro to make it look scary and give it a particular feel. We was not very creative with our editing skills because it was one of the first products we had made. We stuck to the thriller guidelines, we edited our video and then created a foley to match the visuals on the screen. At A2 we worked the other way around we had to create a music video. We had the song and had to film visuals that would match this. We beat edited so that the video kept to the beat and we also lip synced the words that the actor said to give a sense of hyper reality and making it look as if the artist was singing. This was difficult to do and you can tell that we decided that to show we had developed from AS that we should incorporate lip syncing.

We used websites in both years. In AS we used blogger to embed videos and present all the research and planning. this was helpful because it was a place to keep all of our work and give a clear theme of what we wanted to create. In A2 we used Wix to create a official fan site for our artist. We done this to sell our artist and advertise them, we know that social media sites are important to sell and are a good advertisement method. So instead of using blogger we decided to appeal to a wider audience that we should make a official website for fans including merchandise and links to their social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Soundcloud. 

On final cut we decided in AS that to give a strong sense that it was a thriller that we would edit and put effects on to the video, such as shaking and quick sharp shot types. However in A2 we used slo motion because this kept in with our conceptual theme. We are still following guidelines to a music video like we did in AS for our thriller but we had more scope to e creative and try loads of different things. We wanted to make our music video more original, at AS we just copied the conventions for a thriller and did not mix it up where as in A2 we were more original and although we used a lot of intertextual references we bricolaged them together to create something completely new. We also used slo motion to create a sense of hyper reality and simulation, not being real and being in a virtual world. 

Overall we developed these skills enabling us to create a brand and campaign that would sell to the auidience, it is about style over substance the audience want something that looks good the content of the text could be empty and meaningless. The more that we became aware of Post-Modern theories such as simulation, intertextuality, commodification and bricolage the more creative we could be. We showed this in AS by sticking to the main thriller conventions but were unaware of doing this, in A2 however we knew that we were creating a music video to advertise a campaign and make money. Digital technology allowed us to be creative and experiment.