The document summarizes the key equipment used for an AS coursework production. A tripod was used to film steady shots and allow for panning and tilting. Vimeo and Blogger were used to upload and share production stages. A Sony Handycam recorded footage and its built-in microphone captured audio. Pinnacle Studio was the primary editing software and enabled adding titles, filters, and adjusting audio levels.

1. Equipment We Used For Our
AS Coursework

2. Tripod

3. • A tripod is a three legged stand which the camera attaches to,
and can film steady, constant shots. This tripod is adjustable
in many ways, and has a very important contribution to
making a film look semi-professional. We couldn't have filmed
our AS Production to the standard we did without this piece of
equipment. The camera was attached to this for the majority
of the shots we filmed, other than one tracking shot; the tripod
isn't necessarily made for filming tracking shots.
• Some useful adjustable features of the tripod were that the
camera was able to spin around on the tripod; this allowed us
to film panning shots. Also, the tripod could be adjusted to
allow the camera to tilt. Tilting can be used with composition
to create different effects. Finally, the tripod had three main
height settings.

4. • When filming we used to the tripod to allowed us to film
stable and steady shots, as it prevents camera movement
this came in particularly handy when filming extreme close
ups and allows smooth panning/tilting as without it we
would have been using our hands which would make for a
rather shaky and unprofessional looking shot. The tripod
was especially useful in terms of convenience/portability as
it was collapsible we were able to move quickly with it from
each location thus allowing us to be more practical and
time efficient. However a drawback of using the tripod, in
relation to long shots we were very limited in terms of how
far we could move the camera once on the tripod.

5. Vimeo
• Vimeo has been of great use to us throughout our AS
coursework. We first came across Vimeo when we had
to upload out preliminary productions onto it. The fact
that it is so easily accessible at both school and home
makes it very appealing and has been efficient in saving
our time. Vimeo is very practical as it's free to use and
allows members to upload enough videos as we
needed to. We used vimeo to post our final
production, vimeo was useful as it was accessible in
school. I found vimeo very easy to use as it offers a
cleaner aesthetic than YouTube. Videos are larger and
there's less clutter around the frame so he primary
focus of the website is on the video, and nothing else.

6. Blogger
Blogger is a blog on Google, to make one you are required to make a
Google account. This was an advantage on its own, this is because by
creating a Google account we got an online drive, where we can save
anything we want to. This came in handy when we needed to store our
final production somewhere we could access on a different area of the
computer.

7. • Blogger has been successful in allowing us to post every stage of our production
and AS coursework in a professional, simple, and efficient way. Like Vimeo, blogger
is also very easily accessible at both home and school; this made it significantly
easier for us to complete work both in and outside of school. Blogger is also
practical as it's free, and allows you to post as many posts as you want to - this is
good because we post a lot of things.
• Blogger allows you to do many things such as; upload and embed videos, insert
pictures, customise your blog, change fonts, size and colours of writing, and edit
existing posts. This was useful as an important part of our blogs is in fact the way it
is presented, my point being blogger and its many key features made it easier for
us to present our blog in an effective way.
• We used blogger to post our blogs for our media production, including planning,
research, videos and evaluations. I found blogger particularly good for creativity,
we were able to design our blog in whichever way we so desired, this was helpful
as our AS production is based around thrillers I was able to customise my blog with
a rain affect which I believe to reflect the brief, another advantage of blogger is it is
easily accessible in and out of school which allowed the group to spend a lot of
time working on our blogs to ensure they are of a high standard. The system was
very easy to use and efficient.

8. Sony Handycam
• The camera we used for our AS production was a Sony
Handycam.
• This was the piece of equipment used the most as it recorded
the whole production. We learnt the basics of how to use this
camera whilst filming our preliminary task earlier on in the
year, this was the mainly the purpose of filming the
preliminary task. Although we knew how to use the camera,
this knowledge proved to be vague, meaning we had to take
half an hour out of our time to refresh our memory, and
enhance our skills.

9. • This camera had a built in microphone which was useful as it
meant we didn’t have to use an external microphone to record
our sound. The sound quality of this built in microphone
wasn’t perfect, however because there was only 2 words
spoken throughout our whole production we didn’t feel it was
important to use this external camera, when other groups
needed it more. The built in microphone picked up a lot of
background noise, including the noise of the stream flowing,
the wind blowing, and an odd car passing. This was
acceptable though as it helped create a more unsettling,
natural background, making our thriller appear more realistic.

10. Pinnacle Ultimate HD15

11. • For editing our final production we used pinnacle ultimate
HD15 which is a video editing program originally developed
by Pinnacle Systems as the consumer-level counterpart to
Pinnacle's former professional-level software, Liquid Edition. It
was acquired by Avid and later by Corel in July 2012.
Pinnacle Studio allowed us to edit our production at a
professional level by utilising all of the software made
available to enhance the overall look of our production, e.g.
titles, dissolve and fade edits, slow motion edits, ellipses edits
and also enabled us to tweak the sound, for example when
looking back at our production we realised Rosie’s lines were
in places a little too quiet and using pinnacle we used a
microphone to voice-over her original line and make her line
louder and clearer.

12. • Pinnacle studios was used for many reasons and was a key
piece of equipment that we used. This allowed us to cut clips
which was essential especially for creating a professional
looking match on action. Also, it allowed us to edit the sound.
This was useful because we used sound from some clips
within our production and placed the sound elsewhere in other
clips to ensure the sound was consistent, and to get rid of
talking.
In addition to this, pinnacle enabled us to put a sort of blue
filter onto our production which created a more sinister and
cold atmosphere by dulling the bright colours of the bushes,
grass and daylight. Pinnacle also allowed us to use transitions
such as dissolve edits and fade to blacks which were
essential in creating a smooth looking production in which
shots changed from one to another in a consistent way.