Q6 – what have you learned about technologies?

Jordan Crookell Media Evaluation

Q6 – What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Before we started to make our product, I did not know how to edit a piece of film using technologies as I hadn’t had any experience with any editing software before. However, over the process of filming editing and finalising our product I can now edit a piece of film confidently. As well as this, I had never used a digital video camera before we shot our thriller opening.

The creation of the preliminary task gave me a chance to learn some of the basic skills for filming and editing footage. I learned the basic skills of filming and how to handle the camera whilst shooting. It gave me good confidence going into the production of the final media product.

As we filmed each shot three times this gave us all a chance to practice and help with a little bit of filming. When I was not needed in the shot, I had a go at filming to get familiar with how to use all of the different elements to the digital video camera. This helped me develop my recording skills.

First of all, I had to learn the basics. These included learning how to mount the camera on the tripod properly, how to zoom with the camera and how to pan the camera whilst recording. Another thing that I learned about was the camera’s movement and we had to think about the composition of each shot before we shot it. After I had practiced this, we were able to start recording. For the majority of the shots used in our opening, close-ups were used. For this the camera has to either be zoomed in or very close to the actor. To get a professional shot, we had to make sure that the camera was focussed onto the character’s face making sure that it was not blurry of fuzzy.

However, there was a downside to filming close-ups. To get a professional close-up shot we could not use the tripod whilst filming these close-ups. This is because it wasn’t letting us get the right angle and distance to the face of the victim as we wanted. To combat this, we had to manually film some of the shots with hand. This meant that the steadiness of the camera was a little shaky. Consequently, this meant that we had to film the close-up shots a number of times more than other shots because we wanted to make sure that the quality and steadiness of the camera was the best and most professional it could be.


In the whole of our filming, we only used one tracking shot. This was tricky to do as we were trying to track the actor’s feet whilst he is walking. As the tripod obviously doesn’t sit on the floor we had to manually track the shot with hand. As well as this, we had no track to run the camera alone. This made it more challenging to get the camera still as the cameraman had to walk alongside the victim as he walked.

Another factor that made it difficult to keep the camera straight was that the road was very narrow and the cameraman had to walk on the back where the ground was uneven. From this I learned that if you are going to do a tracking shot and have no track to run the camera alone, the cameraman should check the ground that they have to walk along and plan where they will step to make sure that they do not jolt the camera when walking. Another thing that I learned was that if the camera is jolty and not steady then the quality and flow of the footage is lost and it looks very amateurish highlighting the importance of getting the tracking steady.

Near to the end of our filming, the camera was low on charge so we had to charge it whilst recording. This meant that we couldn’t use the tripod and the filming had to be done from hand to capture the close and extreme close-ups. Consequently, we had to shoot a few shots again to make sure that the camerawork was steady. This used up a bit more time but it allowed us to have the best recording that we could. Also, it gave us good experience with the camera and we could practice focusing and getting good close-up shots. It also taught us that you have to be extremely prepared when it comes to shooting footage and you have to make sure that you are aware of the camera at all times.

Lighting was important when thinking about the positioning of the camera. We wanted the room to be dark enough that we could create a good sense of mystery and suspense. However, if the room is too dark then patches and spots of light will appear on the screen. This is very unprofessional and looks very amateurish. We had to make sure that the light was bright enough so that the film would look professional and still create tension for the audience. We had to avoid creating camera exposure.


Because we were filming a few shots outside, we had to be aware of the weather was doing. Fortunately, we were lucky and the weather was good for filming. One of the positives of the weather being sunny was that we did not get any rain drops on the camera whilst filming. This would have been very tricky to film if it was raining as the camera would have gotten wet because the water droplets would get onto the lens and ruin the shot.

Another upside to the weather being nice was that it gave the audience a sense of normality and peace. This is a big contrast when the opening unfolds and this is effective for the audience. Adding to this, another factor that can effect the quality of the recording is the wind. If it is too windy then the sound may just be muffled wind. Consequently, this would mean that you might not get some of the diegetic sounds such as a footprint or the crinkling of the paper sign meaning that you would eliminate the sense of realism, making a wild track.

Whilst filming our opening, we tried to stick to the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is when the screen is divided up into nine equal sections. The idea of the rule of thirds is that the main focal point of the shot is always in the centre of the screen. On the right is a good example of the rule of thirds. This rule is made so that an audience member is fully engaged with the film as they are drawn to the middle of the screen and are not distracted by less important things nearer to the side of the screen or above or above.

To edit our thriller, instead of using iMovie we used Pinnacle. This is a professional piece of editing software that our group was able to use through one of the members in the group. Before we started to edit the footage, I had had absolutely no experience with not just pinnacle but any type of editing software. Through the process of constructing our final media product, I have learned how to use Pinnacle well and know many of the elements to it. Some of the skill that we focussed on include transitions and effects, adding and editing sound (diegetic and non-diegetic) and adding and editing titles.

Transitions and effects


This is a screenshot of the transitions menu. Transitions are the bits in between shots for example, fades, blackouts, zooms and whitewashes. They are used in editing to add to the effect of the film. If there were not any transitions between shots, then there would be no smoothness to the scene. It would be extremely jumpy as shots would go straight from one shot to the next if transitions are not used throughout the opening (This is called a straight cut).

To bring up the transitions menu, we clicked on the ‘T’ above the footage bar at the bottom. From there we could decide which transitions we wanted and which ones would be appropriate at the right time in the thriller. There were a very large range of transitions that were available on Pinnacle and it took some time to get the right transitions for the filming. Once we had found the right transitions for the right shot it made a huge different. It looked a lot more visually effective and allowed audience members to engage with the film more.

To test this, we added a lot of different transitions in the same place in the footage and tested the ones we thought were most effective. From there we could choose the one that we wanted to insert into a certain shot. Two of the transitions that I personally think were most effective for the thriller opening were the flicker and flashback effect. Another effect that I thought we used well was the zoom effect. We used this as the victim walked over the no trespassing sign to let the audience see what the sign said.


One of the transitions that we used in our thriller opening that I feel has massively benefitted our thriller was the use of the flashback transition. Instead of using the traditional whitewash flashback we used a flicker. This was because we thought that using a whitewash would be too cliché for our thriller.

As well as this, using the flicker effect helped to create a lot more of a build up of tension in the scene. This is because a whitewash is very slow and calm. We wanted to have a succession of rapid shots to create a more suspense mood for the audience. Using the flicker was a way in which we could maintain the pace of the montage of shots.

Soundtrack

Before we could start moving all the different shots around on the editing bar, we had to add the non-diegetic soundtrack. When we had decided on which soundtrack that the whole group liked we imported it to an mp3 file. After this we imported the track it onto Logic Pro X. This is a piece of music software that is used to create and edit music and sounds.


The track that we chose is called ‘Day of Chaos’ by Kevin MacLeod. It is a royalty free track so we were fine to use it. Now that we had got the soundtrack, we listened to it as a group. We noticed that there were a few really high pitched spike notes throughout the piece that we didn’t want as they did not sound effective for the sub-genre of our opening. There were also some other pitched sounds that we did not want as we thought they were ineffective.

To help resolve this, we used ‘EQ’ on the track to take out the notes that we didn’t want. ‘EQ’ is the effect of targeting a frequency region or a specific frequency and either boosting or reducing its gain. This took out all of the high pitch twinkles from the soundtrack. As well as using ‘EQ’ on the track, we also bended the pitch of the track using pitch bend.

We used pitch bend because we didn’t think that the normal track sounded like it suited the genre. We bent the pitch so that there was a sort of distortion and a creepy sense to the sound. This was really effective and it made the track sound a lot creepier adding to the effect of the suspense atmosphere. The picture on the right is of the Audio Track Editor that we used to pitch bend the track. Each individual note in the Audio Track Editor contains ‘hotspots’ which can be used to edit the pitch.

After we had finished editing the soundtrack on Logic, it was then imported onto Pinnacle as an audio file. We could then start re-arranging the shots to fit in with the music. A good example of this is where the torturer pulls the chains. When this happens there is a sharp noise in the soundtrack that is really effective with the visual on screen. The two images below show this. Fitting the shots in with the music and putting specific shots of action in with the crescendos of the soundtrack worked really well and this was very effective and engaging.


The two yellow bars are the sound bars on Pinnacle. It is where the soundtrack has been imported to for editing alongside the footage which is just above it. The yellow bar on the top is the edited soundtrack whilst the bar on the bottom is a detached audio clip. This is a diegetic sound and is the sound of the knife being sharpened. To make sure we could hear the soundtrack as clear as possible, we muted the footage audio so that just the soundtrack was playing and we could pick out key points we wanted to edit or change. As well as this, we detached an audio clip (bottom yellow bar) so that we could hear the diegetic sound separately and then with the other recordings. This is so that we can see if they fit in at any specific point of the soundtrack and the footage.

This

screenshot shows Pinnacle’s main face. This is where we edited all of the transitions and sound for the thriller. On the left hand side of the screen at the top we can see where al of our shots go. Before this, there is a shot screen with all of the shots we took, from there we can delete the ones we don’t want and select the shots that we want. Then they come to this screen where you can click/drag a shot onto a line. This acts as the shot library in a way.


We used the gentle fade in effect for the very start of the opening when the production company is being shown. This is because it is a nice gentle way of starting the opening which then contrasts with the harshness of the scene when we first see the victim.

Education

Q6 – what have you learned about technologies?