Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

For our production we learnt how to use Cameras, Tripods(glide cam), Apple Mac computers, editing software such as Final Cut Pro and music software such as Garage Band.

For the video shooting skills we firstly learnt how to film a steady shot using a tripod, then developed onto pans and then using different angles. There are many things I have learnt when shooting our production. One of the things I have learnt how to use is the cameras; in this task I had more chance to use the cameras as I was not acting in the production. We had two cameras set up for use when we was shooting our production at Nocton Hall, the camera I was operating was a Canon 550D. The other camera that we had set up to also shoot our footage in full HD was a Sony Handy cam HDR. We used these cameras as we they are both able to shoot in full HD, this gave us the quality we were looking for, they are also easy to use. I learnt how to use mainly the Canon 550D but also had basic knowledge on how to use the Sony Handy cam. Some of the things I have learnt are how to change the different zoom lengths. I also learnt how to use the manual focus on the Canon 550D, we used the manual focus when we wanted to change the focus from one thing to another. We used these cameras because of the high definition they deliver and the convenience of interchangeable lenses.

When we shot our preliminary task we did a few tracking shots, we did these by holding the tripod, they were effective for this task. But we thought that we could use them again but in a more professional manner. We were able to get hold of a glide cam for the day of our shoot, this allowed us to do these shots but a lot smoother.

The software we used to edit on was Final Cut Pro; Kieran Hill and I both had to learn how to use Final Cut Pro quickly and to a high standard. I feel we achieved this and our production turned out to have an extremely professional feel about it. I feel that I learnt how to cut the footage to select the pieces we wanted. It took us a long time to make sure the cuts were smooth and that we got the footage we wanted. An example of this would be where we wanted the video and soundtrack to match up. As Jake came down the rubble to proceed down the corridor, the music built up and was a false sense of tension as he appeared from the dark. This took us time to make sure each part was correct and meant cutting and re-cutting meticulously. As shown below.

Something else that I feel we mastered on Final Cut Pro was the ability to change the saturation in the clips. This means we were able to make our footage look darker to enhance the mysterious feel of the production. We also used different effects such as orange and teal to get the look we wanted. We used this effect on all of the clips throughout our production, we tried it with and without it and feel that it looked much better with it on all of the clips instead of just a few.

 

When creating our production we could not find a single soundtrack that would suit what we wanted. This meant that we had to combine many different sound effects and different tracks to get the feel we was going for. We used a few tracks such as Tiny Tim – Tiptoe Through The Tulips. Tiny Tim – Daddy. We mainly used Tiptoe Through The Tulips as it is a spooky childlike song and incorporated ‘Daddy’.

I also think that I was able to use different transitions to make the production run smoother. In a conventional thriller there are many straight cuts to keep the fast pace of the production; we did this along with some fades to black towards the end of our production. We did this so that it ran onto our titles effectively and smoothly.

When considering lighting, as our location had old shelters underground, and the room we used has only one old window which is mostly covered in overgrowth from outside, we had to rely on non-natural lighting, we used three 800 watt redhead lights, using these lights will benefit what we want to do as we can increase or decrease lighting in certain areas to helps us manipulate the audiences focus as you can see in this shot of Jake.

Also if it was to get dark we would be fine as we could increase the intensity of light. This was our intention but unfortunately the power source we had could not run these lights. This meant us having to use a different room, with more natural lighting. It caused us a few problems because as the day went on, it being a typical day in England (overcast) it began to get darker and darker, leaving us to use different lighting techniques from our mobile phones and any other lighting we could use at the time.

One idea that we really wanted to pursue was to do with our production ident, we felt that it would only right to stick with the name that we created for our prelim, which was ‘#ashtag productions’. Although since our prelim we have created an ident shown below for our thriller opening. We wanted to do something that  is a little different and creative with the way we want it to come into the production. We ideally would like the ‘ashtag’ or ‘production’ to come in fist, one after each other. Followed by the four lines of the hash tag ‘#’ with some sound effects. We put our production ident at the beginning of the thriller opening and the name of the thriller at the end. To do this meant that we would have to spend a lot of time on Final Cut Pro, being patient, to make our vision come alive.

Below is a screen grab of how we produced our production ident, we produced it by  inserting different text, using different shapes to resemble the #

 

Another website that I have had to come to grips with now is Blogger, we use blogger to make sure that we are recording all the different things we are doing. Its main use is to document our research and planning for our thriller. A successful blog contains all kinds of different media, this can include videos, images, wordles and prezzies. Which brings me on onto learning how to create a prezzi and wordles.

Another piece of software of software that we have to use is Idvd. We use this software to put our production onto dvds. This piece of software also enables us to put different menus and titles on it. You only use this software when u have finished it and have exported it. I did not have to know how to use this software extremely well, just know the basics so that I can make a professional looking DVD.

Another website that I have already had basic knowledge on how to use is Youtube. We are using this website for more than one reason, we are using it to both research different ideas from actual movies we like, to take inspiration and put into our thriller opening. We are also going to be using it to upload our video and hopefully gain some feedback. This would help us evaluate how successful other people feel our production was.