Question 6

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

Whilst using a digital camera I have learnt mainly how to maintain a steady shot and how to position the camera to make sure that everything need is in the frame and nothing is cut so you can't see the full object.
We also used the 180-degree rule and stuck to it by making sure that the camera wouldn’t view certain things. If the camera had different bits of graffiti on the wall, we’d know that the camera had been moved to far round and it needed to be moved back. This was handy and reassured us that we weren’t breaking the rule.
We also used a tripod with a ball head throughout the production (even for the low and high shots) for steady shots. The advantage of using a ball headed tripod is that the camera can be moved more steadily when panning. This meant that we could film smooth panning shots in the production.

I also learnt how to make sure that the lighting is effective. This was handy because it meant that when we were shooting, I wasn't in any snookered if the light had changed and was creating a lens flair, which I cannot control. I therefore knew how to order the filming of the shots to make sure that the changing light didn't affect the shot.

Throughout the editing task I used iMovie, which is, an editing program made for novices and is created and licensed by Apple for Apple computers only. I was the one who was in main control of the mac and ended up having the role of editor. This was mainly because i had the resources at home, which made editing very easy. I learnt many things such as how to create flashes in iMovie and how to create good opening credits. I used tutorials online to learn how to do this and not just clicked around the program, hoping I’d find how to do it.
For iMovie, I firstly imported all of my footage from the SD card. Unlike another movie editing software that is the industry standard (Final cut pro) I didn’t need to change the format my clips were in. From there I started a new project and ordered the clips in the project area. I then cut down the clips so they fitted together and didn’t jump. I then added in the music and the sound effects I needed and cut them down. We decided to edit in the quote through credits at the beginning of the opening because it meant that the quote wasn’t in some messy handwriting that one of us did, it was professional text.
We also used a lot of flashes in the production and edited in the flashes for just over 0.2 seconds, so they were lightning quick.

The biggest learning curve experience I had was probably the planning. I felt that the planning, even though it was a long and gruelling task, it benefitted on set when i needed to tell the actors what to do and I had a rough idea of where the camera needed to be.  It also benefited in the editing because I then knew what we wanted the opening scene to look like and how it was going to go.

To put all of my planning and notes for marking and for sharing with my team, I used Blogger, a blogging site run by Google. It allows anyone with a Google account to start a blog and upload pictures, videos, links to specific items and bits of text. The site is really easy to navigate and has very good feedback insights. This allows you to see who is visiting your page (country, browser, Operating System), which gives you a sense of how popular your blog is worldwide. I used the blog to mainly upload my plans and information to update not just my group, but also my teacher.

To upload the videos, I used YouTube, the biggest video sharing website in the world. YouTube is the most used video sharing website in the world and is visited by millions of people each day worldwide. It’s a good way to share videos and short films and get noticed. We thought that even though we wish to publish our film through Paramount, it’s also a good way to show other media institutions what EVS productions are capable of.