Technology What does it do?

How was it used?

Problems? Solutions? Lessons learned?

Blogger.com Allows me to keep a record of all work done throughout lessons building up to the final piece and publish research and planning, showing how I have graduated up to get to making the film opening.

It was used by typing up all work done throughout the year and publish it. Pages were created to put all work into different topics and made it easy to view how we have built up to a final piece.

Took a while to understand how to use it properly and work sometimes disappeared off our blogs.

Spending a lot of time using blogger meant we eventually learnt how to use it to its full potential and researching how to use different tools on it allowed us to learn more. All work that I put on my blog was copied into a word document meaning that if any work went missing off my blog I had it saved onto a document.

I have learnt that this website is extremely useful for keeping a record of all work that we have done building up to the final piece. It also allows us to put many different formats of work such as prezi and emaze presentations and all word and PowerPoint documents that can be embedded into the blog post. Refering back to the research on blogger such as camera shots and angles and mise-en-scene elements allowed me to constantly be reminded on how I could create a more professional film using the research and it helped me learn what shots would be best for our film. The effect of referring back to this was an improved film in terms of filming elements and using inspiration from researched films to enhance our own.

Camera To film shots and footage for the preliminary task and the main task of filming an opening for a thriller.

The camera we used as a group was a large camera and was therefore hard to handle so we used it on a tripod mostly to

The camera was very large and was difficult to hold and get a smooth, non-shaken shot.

To stop the shots being shaken we used the tripod which allowed us to keep a smooth movement when moving

The lesson I learnt from using the camera is that more footage than what you need must be filmed and more than once. This means that you have

create professional still and smooth shots. We used the camera to film many shots for example, long shots and short shots, to focus on important parts of the scene. We also used another smaller camera when re- filming our opening as we felt it was easier to carry around and move on the tripod. It also turned out that it filmed better quality shots that were clearer.

the camera and all on one level.

more footage to work with and some may be better than others, which is what we found when we re-filmed our opening for the second and third time. We also learnt that the microphone on the camera is not very effective and so next time we film we will use an external microphone to pick up all sound clearly. From using a camera, I learnt how much lighting and focus plays a part in creating a high quality film. Without good lighting and focus, the shot would be dark, grainy and blurry.

Tripod Safely supports and holds the camera in place and allows you to create smooth shots when filming.

The camera was attached to the tripod and was easily moved and panned. The tripod was used on our main task to create professional shots for our opening.

The only problem with the tripod is that it was a bit difficult to create a tilting movement that was smooth as our particular tripod was stiff to move upwards.

As the tripod wouldn’t allow us to tilt the camera smoothly, we came over this by using the camera handheld and filming some shots without the tripod.

The tripod allowed us to learn that it is extremely better than creating a film using a handheld camera as you can get smooth shots that look a lot more professional. The movements done with the tripod are a lot less shaken. The effect of this was better shots which could be cut and edited to make a high quality film.

Windows computer

Allowed us to access websites and

The windows computers have certain

These computers do not have

As we couldn’t use the windows

From using the windows computers, I

documents that we could then use for our blogs.The windows computers were used to do research and planning for our main task as they have easy access to the internet and documents.

tools that the Macs didn’t have, for example word and PowerPoint documents. This meant we could type up essays and create power points to put onto our blogs. The windows computers were used to create our emaze and prezi presentations and access websites such as freesound.org to download sound effects for our opening film.

software that we could edit our films on professionally. The computers were also sometimes very slow and the connection to the internet was bad.

computers to edit our footage, we used the MACs. This allowed us to use the programmes installed onto them which would make our film easy to edit and cut. Research not done on the windows computers at school was done at home as we felt we could complete this faster on our home computers. The MACs were also used to research if the windows computers were slow.

learnt that there is a big difference between them and MAC computers which were a lot more complex. I learnt that the windows computers were better for typing up work onto work documents and my blog, where the MAC was better for editing our films.

iMovie Allows us to import footage from the camera and edit it, adding sound effects and cutting clips.

We used iMovie in our preliminary task to edit our first ever footage. It was used as it was simple to get the hang of and gave us basic skills which we could then use in Final cut. iMovie was used to briefly edit our preliminary into a short film and put all the shots together.

The problems with iMovie is that is isn’t highly professional and doesn’t allow as many features and tools as other programmes to improve our film.iMovie didn’t allow us to blade shots, easily put an effect on, put slow motion or fast motion on the shots or create a film as

Instead of using iMovie for our film opening, we used final cut which is a lot more detailed and allowed us to create a more professional film.Using iMovie for our final film, we used every tool on there to ensure we could create a smooth running, high quality film which credits and a title and a tense score with sound

From using iMovie in the preliminary task I learnt how to use software to edit film footage and improve it by adding effects and cutting clips to create a smooth running film which affects the shots by enhancing them. I learnt basic editing skills such as cutting, adding credits and putting shots together in a smooth running film-which could then be used in Final cut.We learnt that iMovie would not

professional looking as we could.

effects in the background.

be substantial enough to create a film to the best of our ability.

Final cut Pro Final cut pro is software on the MAC computers that allows you to cut, edit, and add sound, credits and many other tools.

Final Cut was used to create our main task of a film opening. All of the tools on the software allowed us to create a professional and smooth running film opening. The tools such as ‘blade’ cut the footage to exact timing that we wanted with in milliseconds, allowing us to create a match on action, smooth running film.

Final cut is very complex and took a long time to understand how to use it. We also had the problem that our footage had to be converted into a different format to allow final cut to use it- this took a very long time as each clip had to be done one at a time.

We had help with understanding how to use the software and by researching on the internet on how to use certain aspects of it we eventually knew how to use it effectively to create a good film opening. We also found a way to convert all of our footage in one which took less time.

Using final cut allowed me to learn that all film footage can be improved in some way and that the way the movie is cut and put together is extremely important as it must look like an ongoing movement/ action. Final cut also taught me the importance of the blade tool which was used to put the film all together in an ongoing sequence. The blade tool was used to cut shots shorter and edit the footage to the right timing. IT allowed us to cut the shots down to less than a second long and from this we learnt that the shorter shots were more effective in creating a fast and tense pace. The effect of final cut was a very professional looking film that was edited using transitions, cutting, effects, sound effects and background score/ music. From this we saw a clear difference from the preliminary using iMovie and we

learnt that a lot of editing needs to be done in order to create a high standard film and Final Cut proved to be extremely useful in doing this.

Freesound.org

This is a website that allows you to download sound effects which can be put onto video footage.

We used this website for our first attempt of our film opening. We downloaded sounds such as footsteps, pen on paper and door slamming and put these over the film footage that they would fit with. This created a more realistic film with enhanced sound.In our final film opening we did not use this website as we recorded our own sounds.

The sounds would not always fit exactly with the video they were put with, for example the sound of footsteps didn’t always fit with the footsteps shown on the screen.

This had to be amended by cutting the sound so that it fit exactly with the footage and this was done by using the blade tool on final cut.

From freesound.org I learnt that it is very helpful to find a suitable sound to fit with video footage. There was also a wide variety of sounds which meant I could choose the most appropriate one. When using the sounds on our first opening from freesound.org, we learnt that putting sound effects over the footage affected the mood and atmosphere of the shots and also allowed the audience to recognise all aspects of the film and enhanced the mise en scene.

Emaze Emaze was used to create a professional looking slide show of my ‘Sin City’ essay.

It was used by typing up my essay onto slides and then adding in a transition between each slide. This created a simple but effective way of presenting my work.

The problem with emaze is that my work didn’t save the first time I typed up my essay and this was a problem as it meant I had to re-write it all.

This problem was overcome by writing a new essay up onto emaze and also saving it in a word document so if I lost the work again I had it saved.

The lesson I have learned from emaze is that there is many ways of presenting work instead of using one format all the time. The effect of this is that it is more interesting for the viewer.

Prezi Prezi is a professional presentation website. It

I used prezi to present research done on the film

The problems I came across when using

To tackle these problems I got help and

From prezi I have learnt that there is many ways of presenting work

creates a presentation that looks good and also entertains the reader. The presentation can be viewed online by the public and embedded onto blogger.com.

industry and classification of films, especially thriller films. I used prezi to create a smooth running presentation that looks effective. The pathways that are available on the presentations allow it to look a lot more professional and exciting.

prezi was that it was at first hard to use as I had never used it before. As it was an online website I also found it hard to use when internet connection was bad, meaning that sometimes work didn’t save.

researched how to use prezi easily and found it was an effective way of creating presentations. When I had a bad internet connection, I would save work on prezi and then finish it at home, or on a MAC computer where the connection was better and the chance of me losing work was less.

and this is an extremely effective and professional way of doing so. The effect of using prezi was that I could present my work simply and embed it onto my blog.

MAC computer

Apple MAC computers were used to edit footage for our main task using iMovie and Final Cut. Having access to the internet allowed us to do research on them

The MAC computers were used to edit film footage and do research based up on our main task. I also used Photoshop on the MACS when creating examples for our production company logo. Including programmes such as iMovie, Final Cut and Photoshop we were able to professionally create and edit our film.

The problem I found with the MACs is that they are very difficult to get used to as they are so different to windows computers. The keyboard for MAC computers is different and I found this hard to use at first.

With support from the teachers and students who had used the MACs before, we finally came to grips with how to use them properly and after some time the process of editing came easier and easier and we were able to confidently use the tools in the editing programmes to improve our film.

I have confidently learnt how to use the MAC computers now and feel like they have helped to improve our film by using the software and programmes available. For example, it was particularly hard to get used to the different keyboard and programmes such as final cut. The outcome of becoming familiar with the MACs was a better ability to use programmes such as final cut to improve our film.

YouTube YouTube is an internet sites which allows you to access and view millions of videos. You can view

YouTube was used to view examples of other thriller film openings and also to upload our final main

On some school windows computers, YouTube was blocked which meant we could not

To get past this problem we had to use the MACs to access YouTube as it was not filtered on

From using YouTube I have learnt that it is a good way of publishing our work and showing people how we have

videos people have posted or upload your own video for the public to see.

task. access our main task or view other ones. When uploading our main task to YouTube it took an extremely long time to finalise and upload.

these.There was no way of speeding up the process of uploading the video to YouTube so we had to wait for it to upload.

created our film opening. It also is free to use and is therefore a good way of viewing and uploading videos for people to see. As YouTube is used worldwide is allowed our video to be seen by many people and also allowed us to view many people’s media main task videos too.We used YouTube to watch Bourne Identity scenes, Kill Bill opening, Face Off opening and a Casino Royale scene which helped us when writing essays on them or using them to refer back to when researching conventions and codes of thrillers that were present in these films which we could use in our own. Overall, this impacted on our media product as it allowed us to widen our knowledge on other thrillers which could be applied to our own.