What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?Group 6: Patrycja Martyniak (6105) David Shaaya (4397)

Equipment and technologies used:

Filming

– Canon DSLR 650D EOS

– Camera lens

– Lighting (key, fill and back)

– Microphone

Canon DSLR 65OD EOS

– Strength – On the camera, the ability to set the focus manually we

were able to get a much clearer shot and adjust the white balance, exposure etc to suit our opening

– The Canon DSLR had easily accessible settings and menus which were easy to work, therefore it allowed a better quality of image with very little work.

– The camera is relatively small therefore it was convenient to carry around as we moved locations

– Weakness– The battery life only last around 2-3 hours which put us

under time pressure

Camera lens

– Strength – The camera lens allowed us to create shots with

great detail due to the zoom and focus option, for example the wounds on the flashback.

– Weakness– Despite our efforts to focus the lens as much as

possible, some of the shots were still slightly blurry as the lens wasn’t able to focus any more

Lighting (key, fill and back)

– Strength – The lighting worked very well as it brought out the

subjects, our actors, and created a very dim but sharp atmosphere

– The lighting also allowed us to make the antagonist appear more mysterious and creepy

– The small lights were useful as they weren’t too bright yet provided the right amount of lighting

– Weakness– Due to the lighting bringing out the sharpness, it also

brought out shadows which made it difficult in continuity editing and sometimes the shadows would alter their position.

Microphone

– Strength – The microphone enabled us to record sound of a

better quality and get rid of most background noise – Using the microphone has generally improved our

audio for example the sound of water running from the tap was very clear and therefore we didn’t need to enhance it

– Weakness– The microphone did not completely get rid of

prevalent background noises, and this led to us having to edit it out

How we overcame filming problems:

– One of the problems we experience was during filming an extreme close up of the eye. When we place the camera on the tripod the camera wouldn’t zoom in as much as we wanted to therefore we had to use a hand held camera and keep steady in order to minimise shaking

– In certain scenes the key lighting was too bright therefore we had to put a filter over it to make it dimmer. We also made sure that the lighting in each shot was matching the lighting in the rest of the shots from that scene

What we learnt about filming technologies

From the use of these technologies, we were able to decipher how to utilise certain configurations and settings on the cameras to achieve what we wanted. For example, in order to enhance the natural colours of our scene we manually set the White Balance through the manual settings.

We also learned how camera lenses could zoom in, and then focus which allowed us to take more detailed close-up shots and extreme close-ups without losing the verisimilitude and quality of the footage.

In addition to this, we learned how a microphone can make all the difference to the sound quality as it allowed us to remove background noise while filming.

Equipment and technologies used:

Editing:

– iMac

– Final Cut Pro

– Firework

– Dream Maker

iMac

– Strength– The iMac has autosave which means that all of our work

wasn’t lost when the computer crashed– All of us have found the software easy to use and therefore

it allowed us to produce work more successfully – The iMac has provided us with various programmes and

softwares enabling us not only to edit our opening but also access your blogs, the Internet and Youtube in HD

– Weakness– The iMacs would sometimes crash therefore there was a

risk of losing all our work

Final Cut Pro

– Strength– Final Cut Pro allowed us to edit our opening in a professional

way which meant we could reduce and enhance any sound we had filmed, add credits and add any extra effects

– Every shot could be precisely edited – Despite some of us not having much experience with the

software, we were still able to quickly learn the necessary skills to edit our opening

– Weakness– Within Final Cut Pro, we found out it was difficult to edit or

fade our current soundtrack- meaning we were not able alter the music to fit in with certain scenes at ease. This led to us splicing the soundtrack.

Firework

– Strength

– The software allowed us to construct our own image for the title

– The software was relatively easy to use yet produces professional work

– Images could be resized without creating a loss of quality, therefore allowing us to both design a logo and the opening credits.

– Weakness

– The menus are different to Photoshop and so were harder to use, it is not simple but rather slightly more complex

Dream Maker (BYOND)

– Strength

– Easy to use and allows the editing of an image using pixels, therefore allowing us to edit the title sequence

– Easy access to the image, and tools

– Weakness

– Images could not surpass 256x256 and so we had to resize the image continuously

– It was hard to maintain the quality within the transfers between Dream Maker and Fireworks

How we overcame editing problems:

– Edited out any background noise through the editing software– We were able to adjust the light sources to prevent shadows

from taking over the scene, any shadows still present were then edited to fit the current scene

– When our iMac deleted some of our raw footage, we used our backup files and this allowed us to regain the work we had done

– We had originally created a title using a found image, but after being told this wasn’t allowed we were able to construct a new image via the use of Fireworks and Dreamweaver

– One of the shots we used in our opening was very unsteady which meant that we had to stabilise the shot on the Final Cut Pro software

What we learnt about editing technologies

During the editing process, one of the key things our group has noticed and learnt is the effect that post production has on a text. Editing i.e. post production is essentially where the product in shaped. Our raw footage was quite different from what the final shots are like. This is because during editing we were able to change things like saturation and add filters to shot in order to change the mise-en-scene making the opening appear more dull and mysterious than it originally was.

Furthermore this process has taught us how to add in the audio line effectively because we realised that if you just add a soundtrack the rhythm may not necessarily match the shots. It is important to wait until the tension builds up before the sound dramatically drops as this will appeal more to the audience and create the tension expected from a thriller.

We learned that Final Cut Pro is a professional and sophisticated way to piece together raw footage in order to create a final product.

Documenting Tools used:

Editing:

– YouTube

– Blogger

– Prezi

YouTube

– Strength

– Allows you to share any content you have created.

– It is free.

– Useful for receiving feedback and keeping a track on what the audience like.

– You can contact other users easily, for example if you are requesting use of any found images or media files such as audio effects or soundtracks

– Allows embedding tools

– Weakness

– There are limits for new accounts, for example the limit of length and quality for new accounts.

– YouTube servers may crash which means videos become unaccessible

Blogger

– Strength

– Users are able to change the style and format of their information

– Great for documenting progress throughout the production of a media text and allows collaboration with other people

– Easy to embed videos, powerpoints, photos and gifs which made the presentation of information more accessible

– Weakness

– The blogs may crash often, causing scares and perhaps the loss of data as experienced by us twice.

Prezi

– Strength

– Not only is it free but it is a unique way to present information

– Simple to use and movement becomes a part of technology

– It saves backups online and can be embedded anywhere

– Allows you to zoom in and out of information and so makes the format more accessible

– Offers a more engaging audience experience

– Weakness

– Trying to access it with bad internet is an issue, it does not load properly

– Some data can be lost if it crashes before having been saved

– Audio can not be added easily to a Prezi

– Can cause dizziness if not created carefully, motion sickness has been reported

What we learnt about documenting technologiesAs a group, we were able to detail and document all of our pre-production and research in several different formats. We also discovered how to use labels and tag our posts, allowing us to make it more efficient when looking through our posts and seeing who needed to do what as well as any progress made.

We learned how to use several different documentation tools such as Powtoons, Slideshare, Prezi, YouTube and many others. This meant that our work could be both informative and interesting without the two being mutually exclusive.