G321 Evaluation Question 6 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
■ From opening my blog to uploading my final pieces of work, I managed to use a variety of different programmes in order to keep my work interesting and express my creativity. The concept of starting a blog was very exciting to me as I knew it would give me a chance to work with a number of new programmes and would give me an alternate way to present work in ways that I had never before. ■ To begin with and in order for me to know my presentation options, I tried a number of ways of blogging to practice and see what would work best for me. For example, I used Powerpoint, Prezi, PowToon, Word Documents etc. I found straight away that Word Documents were a very dull way of presenting my work so I decided that I would have no Word Documents on my blog, so I re-uploaded my work in a different format. I also decided I was not able to work well with PowToon so also did not use that programme throughout my blogging. Instead, I decided I would use Powerpoint, Prezi, YouTube and uploading well-written blogposts (usually containing pictures) as ways of presenting my work. I thought that by using a small range of programmes I would give myself a chance of being able to make my blog look exciting and professional. ■ For the first stage of planning my preliminary task I needed to understand camera angles and how they could be used. To do this, I decided I would try and be creative and create a video. I recorded my friend through the use of different camera angles, labelled each angle and edited it altogether. For this I used Windows Moviemaker and then uploaded the video onto YouTube. Making this video enabled me to have a depth of understanding in different camera angles and meant I was fully prepared for filming my preliminary task when it came to it. ■ I used PowerPoint when presenting case studies on thrillers as I found it was a very simple programme to use and meant my work was clearly laid out and easy to refer back to when I needed to. I found that from using this programme I could use a similar layout for each case study which helped a lot when comparing thrillers with each other. These also looked good on my blog as they were easily identifiable since they had the same layout/colour scheme for each.
â– The main source of technology used to research my thriller production was the internet. This was essential as it gave me a way of viewing clips (YouTube) which then meant I was able to take screenshots and analyse certain bits in depth. This is a more effective way than having to watch it on DVD for example, as on DVD you would have to keep rewinding to replay bits however, YouTube allows you to just click back to the point you want to be at. When creating my case studies on certain films I was able to use the internet as my point of clarity for example, I used it to clarify the dates of when the films were made and the actors the films contained. This meant my work was accurate. I also looked at critics reviews from websites such as the Guardian and Rotten Tomatoes, which I also included in my case studies so to include more detail. â– Technology was a very important part of planning my final thriller, it was used for every part of the planning process. For example, the scanner was used to upload my storyboards, tables were created on Microsoft Publisher to give clear plans of the filming schedule etc. Technology also helped us plan the soundtrack that we would use in our production. This was a very important part and without the internet it would have been a lot more difficult to find a piece of music that fitted our film. The use of technology made it very easy for us to search for, listen to and try out different soundtracks to see which one would work the best. I was able to use technology to create a photographic storyboard including screenshots from my film, this was useful as it meant I could compare this with my handwritten storyboard and see how well each shot worked fitted in comparison to what we had planned. This meant we were able to change any features that we needed to, for example, if a shot was too dark we were able to reshoot it to make it better quality.
â– My group all take different subjects in sixth form and live in different locations so the only time we had together (unplanned) was during our media class time. This meant it was crucial for us to have other ways of communicating in order for us to be successful and be able to get stuff done. The main way of our group communicating was on Facebook. We created a group chat on Facebook which contained the whole of our group on it. Since we all have smartphones and were generally quite active on Facebook, we decided it was the most convenient place for us to communicate. This group chat was used to share ideas, make plans of meeting, get advice and ask questions. This was very important to us as it meant we could all be sure we understood everything that was happening at all times. â– Another way of communicating was through text messages. This was mainly for when we were planning on meeting up outside of media lessons. We made sure that we all contacted each other through text so we could all confirm where people were and what time people would be arriving to our meetings. These two forms of communication meant that we made the best use of our time and were able to cover things in our free time rather than taking up crucial time in our media lessons that could have been used to be doing something else. A final way of communicating was through email. Again, this was a very important form of communication since we used it to send each other work. Since we divided up the planning it meant we were constantly sending each other work for others to check over but also for others to use. This allowed people to have a place where all of their work was stored and meant we were able to put the work up on our blogs.
â– The main use of technology during the shoot of my production was the digital camera that we filmed on. We filmed our whole production on a __ camera which was very high quality. The camera we used also had a lot of different features that we were able to adjust to make the video just how we wanted it. For example, we were able to change the brightness of the video. â– The camera we used had a touchscreen display which had a feature of a pen on it which allows people to draw on/over what is being filmed. This was one setback since when we clicked the display to focus the camera we found that instead, we had accidentally drawn on a few different clips. This was quickly solved since we realised after playing them back and meant we were able to quickly reshoot them and therefore we did not waste too much time.
■ I used a variety of editing techniques to enhance the quality and creativity of my final product. The editing programme I used was called Adobe Premiere Pro, I found that this programme was very effective in making my film look good. A timeline appears along the bottom of the page which allowed me to crop and alter the length of my video clips. This meant we could easily adjust clips to make our film the correct length of time and edit out any bits of film that we did not need. ■ The colour of my footage was also changed so I could portray a certain message. For example, I changed all of the videos of Rhiannon sending the text messages into black and white. This helped portray the idea of a flashback. Meanwhile, I left the real-time clips in colour. This helps the audience get a better understanding of what is happening. The use of black and white also reinforces the generic noir convention of the film and therefore added a small amount of tension and menace. The real-time clips of Lilly lying dead on the bed next to the black and white clips of Rhiannon show a contrast that Lilly has emotion and colour whilst Rhiannon has none. This highlights Lilly’s role as the victim. ■ One clip in my thriller opening was filmed however, we noticed later on in the day that it was a very unclear and dark shot. Due to noticing late it meant that we were unable to re-film and therefore had to work with the clip we had. We were able to adjust the brightness and contrast to make it clearer and better than it previously did. ■ We found that dissolving the clips was the most effective transition. Since we wanted a faced paced edit, we wanted to make sure that each clip did not just cut to the next one as this would be boring for the audience. We found that ‘dip-toblack’ and ‘cross-fade’ were the best transitions as it makes it more dramatic. The cross-fade transition was used mostly towards the end of the production in order to get Rhiannon’s panic across to the audience. This worked effectively as it meant there were times when the clips overlapped which I believe looked good. ■ The font used for the opening titles of my thriller production were carefully chosen to make it look like a font that would realistically be used in a real thriller film. Other editing effects were used to create the effect we were hoping for, I believe the edit was successful and looks relatively professional.