Evaluation Question 6 Essay

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

Throughout the process of constructing my product I have learnt to use a wide range of technologies which have been beneficial in a variety of ways. Certain technologies have allowed me to improve my research, planning, shooting and editing more film. Without these technologies the planning, production and editing stages would have been seemingly difficult as I would not have had the helpful platforms to do so.

Firstly, from the very first lesson of the project I had to begin to learn and understand how to operate the software on the iMacs. The iMac is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its début in August 1998. The iMacs were a vital technology for us as it allowed us to plan, research and edit all on the same device. The iMacs have a substancial storage, allowing us to save documents and files on our college account or even the computer itself. However, there are a couple of risks with saving work to the computer. One being that anyone who logs into the same computer will have access to my work and could be accidentally removed or deleted. Also if the computer was damaged or broken, then all the files would be lost. Despite these setbacks the iMacs provide us with a range of important software and services. As we had access to the internet I had to create an account on Blogger.com where every other individual in the group had their own blog. We then had a link to the college blog which provided constant help and support, specifically in the construction of my product. Also links for the blogs of other members in the class were available on the college blog, meaning that everyone could view each others work and provide instant feedback. This service provided me with the ability to create posts consisting of a variety of media and also allowing to present my work in many different ways. I could embed videos from other websites, such as youtube, and could also present my work through as a Prezi or Powerpoint. These proved vital for research and planning of my product as it supplied a platform to present and share my findings clearly and effectively.

Social Networking was also influencial in the research and planning of our product. Me and the other two members in my group created a Facebook page where interaction and feedback from the audience was vital. We posted an interactive online poll, which we created through Pole-Maker.com, to allow the audience to give there opinion of what our film opening should be, choosing from 5 options. The result of this was that we identified the evident favourite of Captive. In the research aspect for our product Youtube and IMDB were very helpful and influencial. When carrying oout research Youtube was very effective as it allowed me and my peers to find other worldwide film openings. We were able to find film openings specifically of the horror genre and were able to identify conventions and stereotypes that are used in the horror genre. We were then able to once again convert our findings onto a powerpoint, uploading it to a webite names Slideshare.com and then embedding the link to it into a blog post. IMDB, Internet Movie Database, was also evidently useful in the researching stage of our project. It allowed me to identify successful and unsuccessful films, specifically of the horror genre, and discover the reviews from audiences. This website also gave me the opportunity to acknowledge the ratings of the films and even specific ages brackets of the audience who rated the film as what. This also provided me with an insight to the age of the audience in which horror films are most popular with, therefore helping us to plan our target audience.

During the production of our product, we used three separate digital cameras which allowed us to capture each scene from three different angles and perspectives, producing a significant amount of footage. We all learned ourselves how to operate our cameras by self experimentation and also by looking at tutorials on Youtube. Two of the cameras were Canon 600D's whereas the other was a Canon 70D. Before shooting we had to alter the settings on all the cameras to ensure that they all had the same settings. This ensured that settings such as colour balance, white balance, brightness and contrast were all the same and therefore producing footage from three separate cameras, yet still having the same outcome. Tripods were also used to provide us with the most stability when filming, allowing us to produce good quality, steady film. Tripods also provided the opportunity to experiment with camera movement by using tilts, pans and tracks. When filming we used our previously gained knowledge through our preliminary task where we experimented with camera shots and angles which would be useful in our film. Our cameras where very important to our success as we were able to view footage back after filming a shot and decide whether it is useful of not, if not we then re-shot the scene. Me and my group also used an external boom mic in order to record sounds of a much higher quality than our cameras. We recorded the main sounds during scenes and also recorded sound effects in between scenes such as water dripping.

Furthermore, during the editing stage we all used the Adobe Premier Pro software rather than iMovie which we used for the preliminary task. This is because Premier Pro is considerably advanced, offering a great variation of effects including a colour correction system which allowed our product to look consistent. We were also able to habit a certain colour scheme through editing with a three way colour wheel system which allowed us to alter the highlights, mid-tones and shadows. Making the product have a colour scheme stereotypical of the horror genre which we found through our research of looking at films on Youtube. For the flashback scenes in our product we applied a brightness and contrast effect which increased the brightness of the clips signifcantly and also supplied a strange dreamy effect. These sequences of flashbacks stood out from the other footage through the superior change in brightness. We also used a vignette effect which gave us the opportunity to make lighter clips darker and therefore match the other clips more effectively and create an eerie atmosphere. This atmosphere was also further enhanced through a soundtrack we used, found from RoyaltyFreeMusic.com, which was once again stereotypical of the genre. In our product we included two CCTV sequences which were made up of four on going clips separated equally by a border on screen, with timings running over in the corners of the shots. Previously we did not know how to create this effect but due to step by step tutorials on Youtube we were able to learn this technique. After doing this we also enhanced the graininess of the clips in order to make these sequences replicate CCTV footage as successful as possible. Towards the end of editing we posted our products onto our blog where the class would watch it together as it was shown on a smartboard via a projector. They then gave us feedback from it, suggesting ways of improvement. One thing that was suggested was that we had a lack of camera movement. So, then we discovered that we could include zooms, pans and tilts in the editing stage of construction. By once again looking tutorials on Youtube we found out how to do this and therefore improved the element of camera movement.

Ultimately, I have used a range of technologies throughout the course of construction. Youtube has been a pivital service for my project as it allowed me to research other films as well as letting me find tutorials to aid me when editing. In doing so, I have learned how to use the Adobe Premier Pro software on the iMacs, gaining the full potential of the service. Social networking and my blog have also been very influencial as it has allowed me to get effective feedback in order to improve my film.