Media

1. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED
ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES
FROM THE PROCESS OF
CONSTRUCTING THIS
PRODUCT ?
EVALUATION QUESTION 6

2. Once we had finished the filming process of creating our title sequence we
used software known as Final Cut Pro to edit the shots together creating
scenes by adding transitions as well as adding non diegetic sound to align
with the plot, which was the ticking noise, and to help create suspense,
anticipation and tension we added two slightly different royalty free music
soundtracks from http://www.purple-planet.com. We also used the editing
software to add some more refined ambient sound which help with
continuity as it matched the actions happening in shot. I have learned a lot
about this specific editing software and editing as a whole. I now know how
to change lighting problems in post, dissect the audio from a shot, add
multiple different sounds and control the default volume of each, cut down
parts of a shot that are not wanted and position titles so that they do not
distract or hinder the view of the audience. The transitions are well needed
and placed so that there isn’t just an abrupt change from one scene to
another without the viewers knowledge, making the sequence easier to
follow and more professional.

3. The internet has been extremely important throughout the production process as
we have had to blog everything that we have done to aid with the production of our
title sequence. This means things like group & individual primary or secondary
research, an up to date entry of the filming process day by date on who did what
and an account of what we accomplished in each editing session. The website I
used to do this is known as Blogger. Since I have never had a blog before I was
new to this and at first did not know what blog posts consisted of, but after using it
for such a long time I am now familiar with it and see it is a very effective way of
keeping track of progress on a project and sharing detailed information on progress
with other interested users. Blogger allows you to include other forms of media in
your posts such as videos, sound and images to help assist the readers of your
blog. Examples of just a few posts I have made are as follows: Feedback from a
questionnaire, unsuccessful high budgeted films and successful low budgeted films
with trailers and box art images with it, sound research using royalty free YouTube
videos and font research using screen shots of different types of horror fonts.

4. To make my blog posts stand out more to the viewer and be more attractive I
used Slideshare to compact large amounts of information down into smaller
junks so that people would be more likely to read them and follow along with my
journey in the production process of our films title sequence. This website also
provided me with the ability to post documents I had typed up using other forms
of software. It helped me access the information I needed on the horror genre,
and more importantly the conventions of which we needed to meet in order to
classify our films as horror, by having lots of presentations created by other
users surrounding the topic. There were also a few slideshows made instructing
beginners on how to make a shot film, with low budget methods. This site was
useful as I previously did not know of any other way to get different types of
documents onto my blog and now I do. Moreover, I used the popular website
called YouTube to post videos on my blog such as the preliminary task, the pitch,
the finished title sequence, other horror film title sequences, sound ideas and an
answer to an evaluation question. This was another thing I had to learn because,
although I was familiar with the site I had never posted a video before and luckily
the interface was easy to use so I faced no problems when uploading footage.

5. I have learnt to use many different items of hardware, to ensure that that the title
sequence I and my group created was of a good standard and reasonably high
quality for amateur producers. The three main pieces of hardware I used are a
digital camera, a tripod, and an Apple Mac with the added use of a computer,
microphone and smart phone. The camera was used along with the tripod to
capture the still shots and pans that we planned to get in each scene on our shot
lists, or any improvised shots or movements we came up with on set. The camera
was also used individually to film the tracking shot of Max walking up stairs and the
POV shot when Max turns around on the bridge. The Apple Macs were used since
they had the available, free of use, professional software we needed to help edit our
raw footage into a title sequence of high quality and without the availability of the
Apple Macs my groups title sequence would be of a lower standard than it is at, non
of the members of my group, including myself, have any semi professional video
editing software on our computers such as Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas pro
which can require a monthly fee depending on the version. Using the Apple Macs at
school was also more convenient as we new that we would all be at the place at the
same time and one person did not have to commute very far to someone else's
house to edit.

6. I used a computer frequently to access the internet and update my blog with new
posts about research I had done or progress me and my group had made in filming
or editing. Finally, we used a makeshift lapel microphone from a set of multi
purpose earphones with a built in microphone and tape to record the dialogue
between the two characters in the title sequence, on application software, on the
phone of which the microphone was plugged into. We then transferred the audio we
captured using the phones USB cable adaptor.

7. What have I learnt ?
During the production of my groups title sequence I have learnt how to work
effectively in a group, through job delegation changes on each shoot to ensure we all
got at chance and gained experience doing different tasks in production, as well as
compromise for ideas that another member of the group may not have agreed with. I
have also learnt how stay on direction when working in a group and not let myself be
distracted by many different ideas I had since we only had a limited time to complete
the filming process. Another skill I have learned is how to edit footage using video
editing software, by just playing around with the many different features and getting
used to the layout of all the tools. I have learnt how upload soundtracks, manipulate
the volume and change how long the sound occurs for along with the footage. I now
know how to change the lighting of a shot in post, by using colour correction sliders
on a pallet as well as adding filters to give a different effect to a shot. I have learnt
how to achieve the many different camera shots and movements and how they have
different effects on the audience. For example, a high angle shot makes someone
look small, weak or inferior, whereas a low angle shot makes someone look large,
strong and superior. I have gained experience in directing other members of my
group on what the set should look like, how the characters should be positioned, how
the actors should react to a certain action to communicate their emotion to the
audience.

8. CONCLUSION
Overall, I believe the production of our title sequence was somewhat successful
as we managed to create a high quality product, for amateurs, on a low budget,
using limited resources on a strict time limit. One shot in particular I am
impressed with my editing on is the scene where Max first runs away from the
cloaked figure, because initially it was too dark and through trial and error I
managed to make what was happening on screen more visible. I we had the
money to purchase more professional lighting technology, instead of using our
phone lights, this would not have been needed for any of the shots that had to
be edited due to insufficient lighting. One memorable technical difficulty we faced
at the begging of filming our title sequence was the corruption of our saved raw
footage on a USB flash drive. Luckily is was only a few simple shot, however it
was still a waste of time to reshoot them. Another technical difficulty we faced
and solved was around the same time as the loss of data, we were originally
going to record the dialogue audio using a boom microphone connected to the
digital camera, however it was not compatible with the digital camera we were
using and so we recorded the audio for the dialogue scene using a different
device. We also could not add any filter lenses to the end of our camera due to
the model and make, though this could be done in post during editing and was
not imperatively needed. In conclusion, despite some of the troubles we faced
the production process of our title sequence was quite successful.