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

Whilst completing this production, I have learnt many different new techniques that I will be able to implement into future work I complete. I have learnt to frame a shot to include certain objects, and to compose the shot so that certain objects or people appear more powerful, according to their status in the production. I have also learnt to use continuity editing effectively, and I have learnt to film sequences without breaking the 180^o rule, so that the scene makes sense when viewed by the audience.

Whilst out on location, I realise that it is important to keep the shot level and steady, using a tripod to maintain this. I used the spirit levels on the tripod to gain an accurate reading and to ensure that the shot is level. When filming in dull conditions, I now realise that lighting is something that we need to ensure is correct, so that the shot has the correct feel, and can be seen by the audience. There are many methods I could use to ensure this, such as turning lights on in a room, using a torch, or using parcans on a tripod to gain the right effect. If doing a low angle shot, I could also consider lighting a subject from below, to give an extra effect. Fortunately all of our filming was completed outside during daylight hours, so we did not have to take lighting into consideration, although we did have to think about the time of day that we filmed. For instance, if we had filmed at midday, the sun would have been at its brightest, which would not have created suspense as the lighting would be too bright. Films such as Shutter Island filmed shots in dull lighting, which added suspense, as the weather, complete with lashing rain and thunder, typically make people feel very anxious. Therefore, because we filmed most scenes early in the morning, this created a feeling of vulnerability, as everything was still, fresh and calm, giving the impression that nobody else was around and that the station was quiet, before chaos unfolded, and the victim was killed.

To ensure continuity, we had to try and get the weather to be the same during all of our shots. This could have been a problem for us, as we filmed the train shots on a separate day to the train station sequence, but thankfully, the weather was the same on both of our days. If it had been raining on our filming days, we would have had to take health and safety into consideration, trying to ensure that no-body tripped on wet surfaces, which could have ultimately meant that some scenes (such as the one where our killer chases the victim across the grass) would have had to have been cut or filmed on another day. Inclement weather would also have meant that we would have needed to protect our filming equipment, especially the camera, and we did take umbrellas on location with us in case it started raining.

 

I now have an improved knowledge of when to use different shot types. For example, I now know that long shots are best for filming the surroundings to give the audience a sense of location, whilst close up or extreme close up shots are preferred for showing the emotions of a character on the shot.

I also tried to apply the golden mean line to some of our shots, ensuring that the key elements appeared along a diagonal line drawn across the shot. This ensures that the audience’s attention is drawn to these objects, which can include faces, weapons and victims.

Above: the ActionCam Video Dolly

 In addition, I now understand the need to complete steady movements with the camera, such as pan, tilt and track. It is important to keep the tripod freely moving, using oil, so that steady shots can be achieved. We also tried to avoid using handheld shots, as they are usually not very steady. We did try to use the school’s camera dolly to achieve a moving shot, but because the surface of the train station was not very even, the wheels did not roll along very freely, which meant the shot was not very steady. We did, however, manage to use some of the footage in our production.

Above: on location filming our production

We used iMovie, available on the Apple operating system, to edit our video, which is widely considered one of the best video software packages available. I learnt many different techniques with this footage, including how to import footage from the camera’s SD card into an ‘event’, and how to drag and drop sections of footage from the event into the project.

I learnt how to edit sections of continuity filming so that the cuts were tight and accurate, and I also found out how to put transitions, such as the crossfade, into our work, so that the shots change more smoothly.

Furthermore, I managed to put visual effects onto our footage, in order to enhance the shots that we had taken. We used the Vignette effect, as when we filmed, the day was quite light, which we felt was not in-keeping with the thriller genre. The effect therefore made the shot duller, and appears more realistic.

 I also managed to use the software to add non-diegetic music, by importing the music from my memory stick into iTunes before going into iMovie. Furthermore, Annabelle’s scream when she was ran over by the train was not long enough, and so we got a female teacher to record the scream again, and overlaid this with the shot of Annabelle screaming, using another piece of software – GarageBand, to edit the sound effect before exporting it back into the project.

 I used Windows Live Movie Maker to create our production ident. We wanted this to be something that would be strong, simple and powerful, which is why we chose to create the ident that we did. Our credits were shot on our filming day, using a train and some spare railway planks, and we edited this into the main production, instead of just using the credits that come with iMovie.

Once we had completed our project, we had to export it as a movie file. We used the Share menu built into iMovie to do this, optimising the file quality so that it produced a HD video file, whilst still bearing in mind the limitations of file size. Once this process had completed (which took around 20 minutes), we then used Windows DVD Maker to design the DVD menu, and to burn it to the disc. I used this software as I believe it offers more flexibility with design of the menu, and it is a system I am familiar with, so I could achieve the best results. Again, this took around 20 minutes.

 I have also utilised many other pieces of technology whilst completing this project. We uploaded our Preliminary and Final tasks to YouTube and Vimeo, in order to load them onto our blogs. This also had a positive impact on our work, as it allowed people to use the comment features of these social networking sites to send us feedback, which we could then use to improve our work further.

All of our coursework, including our Research & Planning, is uploaded to our blogs hosted by Blogger. This is a great way to complete our work, as it allows us to submit images, videos and presentations as part of our coursework, as well as saving paper. Furthermore, I used Wordle to present key facts in a different and interesting way, and Prezi to create interactive presentations to put onto my blog.

Once I had put our final production piece onto YouTube, I put the link onto Facebook and Twitter, to get more people to watch our production. This also gave us feedback that we could use to make further improvements to work that we complete in the future, also allowing us to implement ideas that worked well into other projects.

There were a few techniques that I needed the help and advice of my group to implement, and our group worked well as a team to resolve certain situations. For example, we had a problem with the ending of our film, as Annabelle’s scream was not long enough and the film ended too abruptly, and so our group worked together to resolve this problem and to come up with a good solution that everyone was happy with.

If we did this differently, I would learn to try and plan the different shot types in more detail before filming, and to try and visit our filming location more times prior to filming, to make sure that any problems are sorted before we arrive, and also to come up with more ideas as to how we could try and adapt and develop our shots, to make the most of the location and the surroundings.