AS Level Coursework- A Reflection.

For my AS Level Media Studies coursework, I chose to work on the 2 minute film opening project. My film opening, titled “PLAY” had a plot that circled the life of the protagonist, a detective called Dikshitha, and her encounter with a case of a murder that took place during a play performance one night in her tight knit, south-indian neighborhood. The film opening itself depicted the event of the murder and established all the important characters- Mohini, the spirit or ghost that may or may not exist, Dikshitha the detective and Jatayu, the victim. As the plot progresses, audience members would learn that the events displayed in the opening 2 minutes could be either reality or imagination of the protagonist- resulting in the genre of my project being psychological thriller/horror with various conventions broken.

Looking back at my AS Level coursework, I realize there are a few opportunities I missed out on that I plan on taking up this year with my A Level Coursework. While I had performed research on and used the basic tools from a few editing software (Davinci Resolve, Premier pro), I could have delved deeper into the software and used them predominantly instead of choosing iMovie over them due to its familiar and basic interface.

For my A level coursework, I’m hoping to perform more in depth research, practice and develop my skills with equipment (cameras, camera settings, etc) and software used in production and post-production stages.

After experiencing film production during AS Level, my knowledge on a vast variety of subjects as well as my skillsets grew widely. I learnt about formats for scriptwriting and how to write them, shooting or drawing storyboards after learning about their purpose, history of technologies in media and other details about the film industry, organization and communicative skills required for planning and executing shoots, etc.

Without that experience, working on a music video for A Level would be impossible as I would lose out on a lot of time having to learn essential skills found in the media industry while coping with the other tasks such as a website and a digipak. Overall, Last year’s experience has equipped me with some vital skills that will help me play a useful part in film production in the future and to understand the media industry as a whole. It will also allow me to expand my horizons and develop this year when I shoot my A Level coursework.