Evaluation - Question 6

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
From the process of constructing this film opening sequence I have learnt a lot about specific technologies.

Shooting
During our shooting days I furthered my knowledge of the hardware used. We used:

• A Cannon HD mini-dv camera to film the footage. Despite the fact that we shot on a HD camera, we didn’t use HD. Along with the camera, I had to learn about using the batteries and tape.
• The camera could then be attached to the tripod, which I had to learn how to use effectively whilst filming. It gave us a wider range of shots, such as more movement, different angles and distances. This variety of shots enabled us to make our opening sequence more interesting.
• During filming, we also had to use lights if it was too dark. We used a pag light just to add extra light; however we didn’t have much of a problem with lighting as we filmed during the day.
• During the filming process, we used two types of microphones; an external mic and a tie clip mic. We didn’t use the other type of a microphone; a boom mic, as we filmed in a house and didn’t need it for long distances. We started by using an external mic for the dialogue when the character is on the phone to his mum, however as this dialogue turned out unclear, we re-shot using a tie clip mic. This gave much clearer sounding dialogue. I also learnt however that microphones often pick up unwanted sound and camera sound. The camera sound could be decreased during editing; however we had headphones attached to the camera so that the sound technician, allocated to someone in our group, could check the sound whilst filming shots. The other person in our group concentrated on directing and filming the shot. This was done to make the filming process as efficient as possible.

Editing
Once we had finished the filming process, the next step was editing. This meant we had to learn about the technology of software.

• Adobe Premiere Pro was the main programme used to do the editing and we used non linear editing.
• We also used After Effects and Photoshop to design the titles that we placed throughout the sequence. The newspaper articles and images featured in places of our opening were also done on these programmes.
• Fireworks was used to produce our company name and logo, ‘Unplugged.’ We had quite a few problems with this but we finally got it to work and feedback told us that it was a good design.

Overall my skill in the programmes that we used throughout the project developed hugely and I learnt that you can improve a lot of things and solve a lot of problems using these technologies.

We used a lot of techniques with the technology available whilst both shooting and editing.

• During filming, the hardware we were using meant we could record sound effectively without it being unclear.
• We also could include camera movement such as pans and tilts as we had the tripod.
• We could also portray with lighting what we were trying to achieve of 3 point lighting to make it look as professional as possible.
• During editing we could use techniques such as capturing footage, rendering clips, adjusting speed and duration, cutting up clips, adding audio (soundtrack and non-diegetic) and also including visual and audio effects and transitions.

As well as technologies from shooting and editing, I learnt other things such as how to use Blogger as I hadn’t used this before. I learnt a lot about these techniques and realised that these technologies can have a huge positive impact on our final product.

On summary what I have learnt is:

• I have reminded myself of non linear editing on Adobe Premiere Pro. I’ve also advanced my knowledge of it from before as we experimented with more techniques this time such as with sound and the pace of shots. Also how to edit it things that we haven’t filmed such as the newspaper articles and images.
• I have also learnt more shot types and advanced my camera skills such as with movement and continuity.
• I have also learnt that health and safety is an important factor and this must be considered with things such as leaving the lights to cool down after you’ve turned them off as they get hot.
• I am much more comfortable with handling the equipment whilst shooting and my easy of use has improved. Also small issues such as portability of equipment is important and it is most practical to use a car to take the equipment as there is quite a bit of it and it can be quite heavy.
• I have also learnt that there is so much scope for creativity despite our low budget and limited equipment. I learnt that once you’ve understood all the technology it is so easy to use and you can create so many different effects.

In Hindsight...

• To minimize the amount of shoots that we need and reduce the re-shoots, we should watch back footage on location and look out for mistakes that we might not have noticed while filming. (this was a huge problem as when we got to the edit suite and watched it on the computer, we kept noticing small details that caused problems and meant we had to reshoot.)
• ALWAYS think about sound as we had quite a few problems with this and in the end had to reshoot some dialogue with a tie clip mic. Some was done on location but we also did some at school.
• Always consider mise-en-scene as we had to re-shoot for problems such as bed sheet covers being too feminine and therefore unrealistic.
• Sometimes we had a problem with camera focus such as with the feet shot so if we were to do this again we could have tried it on the manual setting.
• Could have used a few more interesting shots such as at the start of the opening not revealing the protagonist’s face until we see his reaction to the news broadcasting. This would have built up tension and made the nightmare sequence more disorientating.
• We could have used more experimental shot types such as more movement or interesting angles. However we struggled with this as it was filmed in quite a small space in a house.

Overall if we were to do the project again, I feel id be a lot more confident to make these improvements and therefore increase the quality of our final product.