Evaluation Question 6 – What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

Hardware

I used a Canon PowerShot SX510 camera to shoot my final piece and on a whole it was a very effective and easy piece of technology to use. It was small and compact, meaning that I could film pieces of my media easily without having to distribute bulky equipment around and the buttons and shooting options on the camera were all very clear and easy to use. Furthermore the quality of the shots I got with this camera were overall very good and I was very happy with them. The shots were clear and focused and captured everything I wanted to be captured in the shot; I was very impressed with the camera’s ability to capture colour and it made everything in my piece stand out and look very professional. The only issue I had was that the camera is not particularly good at picking up images in low light and considering the genre of my piece, it was important to connote a foreboding atmosphere and to do this I had to make the lighting on set quite dim. This was a problem initially because I didn’t realise that the cameras didn’t work well under low light until after I filmed this scene the first time; I had to arrange a reshoot as the shots I got initially were completely unusable. To fix this issue I made the room slightly lighter for my second shoot and I altered shots that ended up being too light in editing.

Overall I was really pleased with how the shots turned out and despite the lighting problem, this camera enabled me to get some very clear, focused and useful shots for my final piece.

I also had to use a tripod for certain shots and admittedly it was an absolute nightmare. The tripod itself was broken so whenever I tried to extend it so I could get a high angle shot, it wouldn’t stay up which meant I had to physically hold the tripod up to film these shots; this meant some of the shots are slightly shaking and wobbly. This proved

to be a major issue as a lot of my shots were meant to be high angle shots and Kieran is quite a tall person so having to hold up the tripod every time wasn’t very practical however I think I managed quite well. Furthermore the tripod itself was quite large and I was filming in a very small space so there were often times during filming that it would cause an obstruction and also in editing when I was going through the shots, there would be shots where you could see the tripod leg sticking out in the shot. If I were to do this again, I think I’d get a smaller, working tripod as this would mean that there would be less chance of the tripod obstructing a shot (or an actor!) and I would’ve been able to put it on the desk to film shots, meaning they would’ve been less wobbly. When it came to editing, I had to cut out all of the extremely unstable shots which was a shame because some of the shots I really liked were ruined and cut because of this. Another problem I had was that the lever you’d use for panning shots was really stiff and jerky, meaning a smooth pan was almost completely impossible without it jerking upwards or downwards at some point during the shot. Luckily I only needed a few panning shots in my piece and the jerkiness was mostly at the end of the shot so I was able to fix this in editing with the use of some cross fades and cutting.

Kieran also had some trouble with the tripod as sometimes he’d have to move in a certain way to pick something up or at the end when he collapses to the floor, the tripod would end up getting knocked or it would wobble; you can actually see in the final shot the camera jerks ever so slightly as Kieran hits the floor. Most of these problems however were easily fixed through editing and didn’t drastically affect the overall piece.

Software

The software I used to create my final piece was Adobe Premiere Pro CS6; this software is used by professional filmmakers, music video producers and the professionals of media. Because of this software, editing quickly became one of my favourite aspects of media as this software was so simple, quick and fun to use. There were so many different things you could do to one single shot yet despite all these options, it was never confusing or overcomplicated; I was really happy using Premiere to create my piece. I learnt the ins and outs of the software very early on and developed my skills the more I used it; I learnt how to change the brightness and contrast with my second physical piece of media and I learned how to deal with audio with my preliminary task ‘Haematemasis’, both of which came in handy with my final piece as I needed to change the brightness of some of my shots and also the audio was too long for my piece and I had to cut it down. Despite all of the effects, I didn’t utilise all of them as I felt many wouldn’t fit or be appropriate for my piece; I stuck mainly to effects I knew would work well such as ghosting, brightness and contrast, crossfade and Gaussian blur. One of the main parts of my editing experience was having to change or fix mistakes that had been made earlier in the shooting process; a lot of these mistakes were centred around the fact that the lighting was too dark or too light in certain shots so I had to use brightness and contrast to alter these shots so they fit in to the flow of my piece and they created the atmosphere I wanted. Other mistakes that needed fixing through

editing were things like camera wobbles, tripod knocks or movement from Kieran or myself that messed up the shot. These things were easily fixable with a handy crossfade here and a simple footage cut there. However there were some mistakes in my piece that I couldn’t actually fix through editing. One of these mistakes was on my Blumhouse productions credit. I wrote ‘A Blumhouse Productions’ instead of ‘A Blumhouse Productions Production’ and because I’d handwritten all of my credits and I wasn’t sure where that particular credit was, I was puzzled as to how to fix this. I didn’t want to revert to using text for all of them because the credits made up around 80% of my actual footage, meaning without them I’d have barely any footage. Mr Earl suggested I try and find a font that looked similar to my handwriting and use that however once we tried that, we both agreed that it just looked messy and didn’t fit in so eventually we had to just leave that shot in. Overall however the editing seemed to go pretty well and the software made it a very easy, simple and effective process to go through.

Did you realise so much work went into creating similar media products?

I had no idea so much work went into creating a 3 minute piece of media. It makes me admire the people that spend hours, days, weeks and months (in some cases years!) creating feature films as now I’ve had a small taste of what that’s like. It’s also made me realise why films have such a large team of producers, technicians, editors, directors, writers, screenplay adapters etc, because it requires so much work for one person to produce 3 minutes of a film, it’d be impossible for one person to do an entire film on their own so they have to have large teams of people! This has also made me appreciate the importance of time-keeping in film production and if I were to do my piece again, I’d definitely work on my time keeping skills as keeping to a schedule is extremely important when creating a piece of media and I’d make myself stick to deadlines more strictly. Saying that, I didn’t feel like I had to rush to complete my media product and I do feel I completed it to a very high standard; I also feel like it is what I envisioned it to be in the beginning and I was completely in control of my own project.

Which shots were you particularly proud of?

These are four of my favourite shots as I think they represent the different techniques I used successfully and also they convey exactly what I wanted them to convey. For the shot of Kieran’s character looking down, his face is very dark and his expression is stern and menacing; I did this to show how his obsession for finding his sister and the dark, brutal thoughts that come along

with that are starting to gain control over him. The darkness on his face and his expression are both physical manifestations of how his obsession is overtaking him. I have several shots like this in my piece.

This is in direct contrast with the shot on the other page where once again he is looking down, however his face is brightly lit and although his expression is still quite serious and stony, it’s slightly softer than the

previous one. This shot is used to convey the other side to my character, the side of him that is this very caring, protective brother who is desperate to find his missing sister. I have several shots like this in my piece.

The other two shots I like because I think they were both well shot and the effects I used worked really well. The POV shot worked much better than I anticipated and the ghosting effect on the word ‘WHO’ really established my character’s mental instability and it was actually this shot that led me to use ghosting on several other shots throughout my piece.

What would I do differently?

I would use a smaller tripod as this would enable me to get steadier shots in the small area I was filming in. I also wish I’d had another character in my scene so I could’ve added some dialogue and I think this would’ve really added to my character and given him even more depth. I would also stick to the deadlines more strictly as I’ve often found myself having to rush with certain documents or pieces for my blog; I’ve learnt that time keeping is a massively important thing in media.

Limitations

Time was a massive limitation as our piece could only be 3 minutes long so I couldn’t do everything I wanted to do with it; I actually filmed a completely separate scene with Laura in it that I really wanted to use however my piece would’ve been at least ten minutes long with that extra scene, even though it would’ve added to the overall piece. Location was also a limitation as I was limited to the small confines of my brother’s bedroom which didn’t give me much room to explore or experiment with the set. If I were to do it again, I’d try and find a bigger more suitable space to film in. I wish I’d had more images and photographs and maybe even some fake blood to scatter around however I couldn’t afford to keep buying ink and paper for our printer and I’d already used the fake blood to film the scene we didn’t use.