Peter Hennigan's Digital Portfolio for the Manchester Metropolitan University

Below is the requested Digital Portfolio for the Manchester Metropolitan University, I would like to also express my thanks to the Manchester Metropolitan University for considering my application, even if it fails its intentions:

Productions:

The first of the productions I will share with you in my digital portfolio is one I created in my first year, looking back at it is a bit embarrassing, reason for this is the difference of skills I had back then to the ones I have now, a variety of mistakes can be seen/heard throughout the whole video, one being the shoddy car screeching, however, it was the first production which I was proud of, and depicts itself as a great example to the changing of my production skills, my involvement in it was an actor and screenwriter.

This particular production was created last summer as part of a special project for Preston’s College where visitors from Kalisz in Poland took part in a videoed debate on the EU’s current unemployment scale, in which I filmed using a multi-camera production studio camera, this video however, is depicting the creation of the studios TV set, it remains the first time I have created a time-lapsed video, as well as solidifying itself as (in my view) one of my most successful productions, which is echoed on YouTube, as it is the most viewed of all my productions.

A more recent production, featuring myself, Preston’s College approached me and my production team, and asked us create a video which would promote the college to the general public, the department we focused upon was that of the I.C.T. department, this video is successful to me as it proves the growth of my production skills from the Road Safety advert to now, it is also the first time I have combined both single-camera and multi-camera shooting, within the production I acted, edited, scripted and participated in the multi-camerawork.

This video is actually the latest production in which I participated in, it's a music video for one of the music tutors (seen in video) songs, named God Only knows, due to me being ill for a majority of the pre-production and production process, I didn't have that much input on the production itself, however, this video is the first music video I have produced to this day, and is in my point of view, one of, if not the best production i have created, it also depicts the growth of my production skills, when compared to my early work.

Assignments:


When it comes to assignments I like to believe that I produce detailed, high-grade standard pieces of work, solidified more recently in my Film Studies unit of assignments, where I gained Merit-Distinction grades on first-try with all assignments thus far, examples of my best work can be viewed here:

Figure 1 - Page 1of 19 from Unit 64: Motion Graphics and Compositing Video, assignment P1, M1 and D1.

A more recent assignment which I received a high grade is the first assignment for P1, M1 and D1 (that's Pass 1, Merit 1 and Distinction 1) of Unit 64: Motion Graphics and Compositing Video, the whole completed assignment featured 19 detailed and illustrated pages of work, the first of which is shown in Figure 1 (above), which introduces the assignment and talks about Title Sequences.

Figure 2 - Page 2 of 19 from Unit 64: Motion Graphics and Compositing Video, assignment P1, M1 and D1.

Page 2 is the first page that talks about motion graphics with Catch Me If You Can as an example and a talking-point, within the page I go through the aspects of the title sequence, linking it's similarities to other films, for example, the fact that the CMIYC title sequence is a brief storyline of the actual movie, similar to the way James Bond movies recap their feature films.

Figure 3 - A magazine article for my Film Studies Unit, which gained a distinction grade.

Figure 3 is a recent piece of work for my Film Studies unit, it talks about the audiences of Skyfall, how men and women are portrayed both on and off the film, exploring the male and female gaze, as well as the general audience attraction, whether it's men going to see an all out action-blockbuster, or women for the eye-candy of James Bond himself. This particular article earned me a distinction grade.

Figure 4 - Another Distinction graded assignment for Film Studies, this time for my research into David Fincher being an Auteur.

Figure 4 is another example of detailed, distinction graded Film Studies assignment, this time exploring the theory of whether or not David Fincher is considered an auteur, within this assignment, I had to focus two examples of David Fincher's work, I chose his classic Seven (stylised as Se7en) and his recent The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In this page, I breakdown the first 10-12 minutes of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, picking up on traditional Fincher aspects, which include dark(ish) lighting and the mysterious depictions of characters, similar to that of Seven.

Figure 5 - The follow-up from the previous page, which delves into David Fincher's portrayal as an auteur.

Figure 5 follows the page from Figure 4, like Figure 4, Figure 5 again breakdowns the introduction to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, especially the characters of Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander, I also continue to talk about the lighting, and how it remains, dark, gloomy and mysterious an aspect that is continued throughout Fincher's filmography.


Thank you for viewing my Digital Portfolio, I hope it's successful in it's intentions and I hopefully look forward to participating in your course and University.

Peter C. Hennigan, 2014.