WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THE PRODUCT.
TECNOLOGIES & EQUIPMENT The technologies I have used during My AS course are Final Cut Pro, Youtube, ISSUU, Prezi, Power point, Word and Tumblr. I had never used Prezi or ISSUU before , therefore learning to use those websites was new to me. I enjoyed, both ISSUU and Prezi, as they are easy to use and the end product looks a lot more professional than a plain power point or word document. TWO EXAMPLES OF AN ISSUU AND PREZI I COMPLETED AS PART OF MY HORROR RESEARCH.
Within my horror film I used a few pieces of equipment I was yet to try. I used the steadi-cam for the first time for the title sequences, the implied POV’s, and enjoyed using it. It provided the desired effect in the end however it took a few practises to achieve what I wanted. For this, I learnt to film any shots when using the steadi-cam two or three times in case the first was a bit shaky. I also used the crane which I had only used once before. I decided to use the crane for the title sequence as the extreme long shots achieved with the crane highlights the protagonist’s isolation and no other piece of equipment available to the school can achieve the same effect. The other piece of equipment I used was a tripod which I have used any times before and used it for any still shots within my horror.
TECHNOLOGY Tumblr caused many problems throughout this course. I would have trouble logging in at school and then when I had managed to log in, pieces of research and videos would not upload. When I tried to upload certain videos, my Tumblr would crash and close down. This resulted in me re-blogging videos from my old group. However, as I was already familiar with Tumblr, I was enable to easily set up and edit my blog. YouTube was also a problem as it was blocked on the schools internet for a month or two. This made it very difficult to find a soundtrack or sound effects for the films we were producing. The final problem I faced was with Final Act Pro as at times it would be extremely slow and crash. Due to this, at the beginning of my editing process, I had to transfer my footage from one computer to other. This caused me to lose out on editing time. However after I had moved to another computer I had next to no problems with Final Cut Pro and was able to continue with my editing. Final Cut Pro did provide some limitations due to the limited range of effects and titles. For my titles I had planned for them to fade on and fade off. However Final Cut only offered one or the other but not title faded both on and off. Although this is only a small change to what I had planned, I still would of preferred to access a widen range of titles.
SCREENSHOTS OF MY TUMBLR BLOG
TECHNOLO GYas IMDB really helpful I found YouTube and movie websites such when researching horror films. I would search a horror film trailer into YouTube, then look to the right hand side for similar horrors. If I found one which I wanted to research further, I would then search the film on IMDB. Websites such as YouTube and imdb helped me gather new ideas for my film. I was easily able to access a wide range of sub-genres. I also looked at the comments left on many of the trailers I viewed which allowed me to receive a general understanding of what works, excites and interests the audience, and what does not. However a problem which arose during my research was that I sometimes found it hard to know what sub genres some trailers fitted into as it was not often stated in the information under the video (on YouTube). Also as I only watched trailers, therefore only limited footage from the horror are shown, it was not always easier to identify the codes and conventions present. This became a problem as I was not always sure the
CHANGES Now that I am familiar with the new media platforms and sites I used in this AS course, there are a couple of things I would do differently. Firstly, through using ISSUU and Prezi I have learnt to save my work every five minutes or so as on a couple of separate occasions my internet closed and I lost some of my work. Also through using a blog as a place to document work, which was new to me as I am only familiar with Tumblr for pleasure, I learnt to keep a backup of work I upload as, again on a few occasions work deleted itself and I had to start again/re-upload. COULD YOU SUGGEST A BETTER PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY OR SOFTWARE? A different blogging site - possibly Blogger.com which is backed by Google, so ‘it’s trustworthy and reliable. It’s incredibly simple to start using Blogger as the site takes you step-by-step through creating your site. There are a lot of customization options and you can purchase templates through outside website as well.’
EDITING As I am working on my own, I have been the only one editing my film. Although I did media at GCSE, my involvement in the editing process was minor and this therefore means that when I started to edit my horror, I was unsure of all the features on Final Cut Pro. After spending time playing around with the features on Final Cut, I became more familiar with it and towards the end, found using this editing program very easy. Final Cut Pro enabled me to take many steps in achieving the horror I wanted, as shown below. HERE IS A LIST OF ALL THE SOUNDS I DOWNLOADED OFF YOUTUBE.
HERE IS A EXAMPLE OF THE DIFFERENT EFFECTS I TRIED OUT. I WANTED TO DARKEN THE SHOTS WHILE EMPHASISING THE EERIE ATMOSPHERE.