Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Whilst I was creating this production I learnt many useful techniques that will help me with work that I do in the future. I have learned how much continuity is needed and how to effectively use it, especially with the 180ᵒ rule, Without this rule a scene becomes confusing for the audience, for example in a filmed conversation if the camera keeps switching to the opposite sides of the line it become disorientated. I also learned how to frame a shot to give off a different meaning, like making a certain object look weaker than another (by having the shot look down at it), or to create a claustrophobic effect (using a close up shot). Throughout the whole process I learned how time consuming it is, especially with filming a lot of time and care is needed throughout to ensure that there is more than enough shots to edit with.

To be sure of continuity I had to make sure that the 180ᵒ rule was done whilst filming because as the character was walking to her destination, breaking the rule would make it look as if she was going back on herself, and matching it with another shot of her walking the other way would not have worked. I filmed from the same side throughout the day to make sure of continuity, however in a certain shot I had to film it from the opposite side because I wanted

to have a flower in the shot.  When editing this part of the opening I imported that shot into QuickTime and flipped it so that it faced the other way. Another way that I had to be careful with continuity was with the time of day that I filmed, as I filmed during the winter it became dark very quickly, which would have made it difficult to edit the film together as the lighting would be different and it is difficult to film clearly in darker light. In order to make sure of this I started filming early on in the day and did all of the shots outside (for the journey, the executioners hut and the first title as it was part of the pan shot of the scene so needed to fit). first to make sure that the lighting was similar. After that I moved on to film the feet tapping because as I wanted to film this outside I needed it to be light, but matching the light during the journey and the tapping didn’t matter so much as it was for a cut away shot. The last shots that I filmed were the shots in the bedroom because I was able to use artificial lighting from the bedroom lamps, and also as it was in a completely different environment the continuity of that scene was different. I had to make sure that all of the outside filming was complete that day because if I spread it over two days the continuity could be messed up due to the weather changing, if this did occur I would have filmed what was possible and then continued on another day.
Since planning and creating my product I have been able to extend my knowledge of what types of shots work with different scenes and why they should be used. For example at the start of my film I did a long shot panning across the house and other areas around it, I did this so that the audience were able to see the location that the opening was starting in and allowing the audience to see the surroundings. I did this again with the shots of Mae whilst on her journey, so that the audience could see the change in surroundings. Opposite to this I learned the effects of close up and extreme close ups, so used a lot of these in my opening, this shows the emotion of a character and creates a chlostrephobia and tense feeling.

I learned how to frame a shot in order to show the importance of an object. Throughout my production I framed shots so that the key elements were in the middle, such as when the character walked down the long path, I made sure that she was in the middle of the path. I also applied the golden mean to some shots that I filmed; this is where the objects of importance appear of an invisible diagonal line in a shot.



When filming I didn’t use any hand held shots apart from when filming the shadow of the axe because when using the tripod, that shadow got in the way of the shots, other than that I tried not to use handheld shots because they are unsteady and make the shot look unprofessional. Whilst preparing for my production I thought about using the camera dolly, however when looking at the setting I realised that the floor was quite bumpy and a lot of it was filmed on mud and gravel so the shots would have been unsteady. For filming the majority of the shots I used a tripod to have a steady stand for the camera and an easy and steady way to pan or tilt the shots, for example when I panned across the front of the house. In other shots I used a gorilla tripod because it is a steady way of angling the shots in ways that a tripod cannot, without using handheld, I also wrapped the gorilla tripod around a tree for a high angle shot, however it made the shot look more like a CCTV camera shot so I decided it would not fit the opening or give the correct affect.

In order to edit my opening I used the programme IMovie, on an apple mac. IMovie is one of the best software’s to edit film on, at first I found it confusing but once I worked out how to import my footage off the SD card, and make a “project” it was easy to work out how to use. Through playing around with the software I found out how I could add different transitions such as a cross fade or fade to black/white, These could be used as part of the continuity in order to make the cuts between shots smoother, however I didn’t use any of these in my opening because I wanted them to be straight and jumpy which matched up to the music. In IMovie you can also change the visuals of the footage for example putting a coloured effect on the shot, making them black and white or a grainy effect, I didn’t use any of these either because I didn’t feel that they worked, also they detracted from the colour of the Red in her coat and shoes. I did edit the footage using this software by speeding up sections of it, such as the tapping of her feet in the cut away shots and on the titles, I sped them up as when filmed the paper burned quite slowly and would have been too time consuming and could have made the audience feel bored with watching it rather than excited.

I took all of the sound off of my footage because I wanted the soundtrack to be the main sound feature. Also because there was no speech, the sound that was recorded on the footage was just the wind blowing or me giving instructions to Mae as she acted. The soundtrack tells a story in itself so adding that with the footage makes it even more effective. I imported the soundtrack into ITunes and then through ITunes I uploaded it onto my Project in IMovie. I used the same method when importing the sound effects that I had downloaded from a sound effects website. When playing my opening back some of the sounds from the footage were bleeding through because of a fault when deleting them on the mac. In order to fix this problem I had to export my project (when completed) onto a memory stick, re-import it as a new project onto a different Mac. After doing that I had to separate the sound from the project and then re-import it onto the same project, stopping the unwanted sound bleeding through again.



Drawn copy of my ident

When creating my production ident, my mum (as she is an artist) drew out my idea, and then went over in dark black pen. I took a photograph of it and imported it onto Photoshop. On Photoshop I erased all of the background to make it a more distinct and crisp white, and then went over the black to again make it more distinct and smart. After doing that I zoomed in on different parts of the picture and manipulated it to make certain parts thicker and other parts thinner. However when it came to doing the credits for my opening I didn’t use the credits that came on the IMovie programme, I filmed the credits on the filming day and then edited them into the project on IMovie as cut a way shots.

When I had almost finished editing my film together I exported the “rough cut” of the opening onto my memory stick so that I could upload it onto YouTube and receive feedback from an audience so I knew how I could improve the opening to suit their expectations more. After completing the project I exported it again onto my memory stick so that I could upload it onto YouTube to receive final feedback and to add it to my blog. As I used an HD camera to film  with, I exported the file from IMovie using an HD video file so that it would have the best quality, on the menu when exporting it the box said that the file size would be acceptable to upload to YouTube so I knew that it would be a good option. After doing that I burned the project onto a disk for the use of my teacher I chose the menu design and exported it as an HD film to also give it the best quality. When I completed the preliminary task We also uploaded it onto YouTube so that It could be shared on to my blog and to gain feedback from an audience, the feedback that I gained from the preliminary helped me to notice the areas of improvement for when I did the actual project.

After uploading my final copy my production onto YouTube, I shared it to blogger and onto Facebook so that I could gain more views and feedback on my opening.  I received a wide range of feedback, from friends and family to complete strangers, all of the feedback I received was useful as it showed that the audience understood what I had created and giving their own ideas and questions, which is what I wanted to happen. Some audience members recognised the story and were able to give me personal feedback on how it made them feel. All of the feedback that I received has helped me recognise how I can improve other pieces of work that I do in the future, and has given me a great confidence boost with my work and has encouraged me to do more.



An example of another technology - Prezi

An example page of my blog

Another piece of technology that I used was during my research and planning is ‘Blogger’ by Google, It is where I have created my blog that holds all of the information that I have gained during the research and planning period. Using blogger was good because it allowed me to amend my work whenever I needed to as it was electronic, because it is electronic (rather than having a printed copy of everything)It allowed me to use a variety of media technologies to build up my coursework, I was I able to upload pictures and videos and interactive prezi’s.

Throughout creating my opening, as I was working on my own I relied quite heavily on the feedback of class members and teachers for changes that were necessary. For example, I thought that the journey of the character dragged on a bit too long however I was un sure of how to cut the length down so I worked with my teacher to solve the problem and come up with a way to shorten the length without losing the continuity, which was through using a few more cutaway shots. I think I worked well on my own and did the best that I could with going round any problems that got in the way. 

If I was to do these project over again I think I would look closely at some films that were similar to the narrative of mine, and study their characters a bit more. I filmed and used a variety of shot types throughout the opening so I would keep that the same, as using a variety of shot types is a typical convention of a thriller opening and I managed to convey lots of different effects through them.  I would change the length of the ending as I cut the scene where Stuart turned around a bit too short and didn’t give the audience enough of a chance to see him.