Integrating uses of different technologies.

1. FULL STOP
C R I T I C A L R E F L E C T I O N 4
V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1
SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE
WRITTEN BY MARYAM HAMED
Software are the programs and other operating information
used by a computer, such as editing software. In contrast,
hardware are the tools and machinery used in creating a
film, such as a DSLR camera or a tripod. It is important to
integrate the use of technologies in film to get the best
possible outcome, for example in terms of quality and
creating special effects that would otherwise be impossible
to create without integrating the use of technologies.
During my preliminary tasks, I was introduced to the editing
software Adobe Premiere Pro. I learnt how to cut, use the
razor tool, import, add effects, make videos slow motion,
synchronise sound and add transitions. By using this Adobe
Premiere Pro, I am now able to carry out specific film
techniques such as match-on-action. In our opening
sequence, we used the match-on-action technique to focus
the attention of the audience on different aspects of Lady G’s
(the lead character) life. For example, the close up shot of
the cup of tea that she drinks would have not possible had
we not learnt how to carry out the match-on-action editing
and filming technique.
INTEGRATING USES OF
DIFFERENT
TECHNOLOGIES
ARTICLE BY MARYAM HAMED

2. SOFTWARE? PREMIERE
PRO?
This allowed us to focus the attention of the
audience on the prominent cup the tea was in, as
well as the phone call that Lady G gets from
‘Unknown’. This meant that we were able to
effectively create enigma codes, as well as present
the wealthiness of Lady G through the details on
the cup that we were able to follow by a shot from
a different angle of her drinking the tea. Moreover,
through learning how to put footage in slow
motion by decreasing the speed duration we were
able to create a heightened sense of mystery.
Many of Lady G’s shots and scenes were edited
into slow motion to increase the tension the
audience feel as they watch the opening
sequence. There were therefore many pros and
cons to using Adobe Premiere Pro. One of the pros
would be that it is simple to use for beginners and
professionals alike. However, there were also many
cons of using Premiere Pro. The cons included
that the software would often crash, lose footage
and did not have enough transitions or effects. It
also made colour grading rather difficult.
One of the ideas we had planned for our
production was having non-diegetic music during
the shot of Lady G’s murder, we were able to
achieve that by downloading the music, importing
into Premiere Pro and then synchronising it with
the shot. Furthermore, on my blog I used a variety
of softwares, including, but not limited to, Prezi,
Canva and Powtoon. They are all unique in the
sense that they provide contrasting, different ways
of presenting ideas. However, a con of using Canva
is that the space can be rather limited and
therefore not much text can usually be added to
some of their templates. A con of using Prezi was
that it was difficult to upload the presentations
into blogger and the space was also quite limited.

3. HARDWARE WAS
SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT..
During the preliminary tasks I was also introduced
to a variety of different hardwares that I had not
used before. Examples would include
microphones, tripods and shoulder mounts. A skill
and learnt and is evident in our production was
the use of shoulder mount for tracking shots and
tilted angle shots. These can be seen clearly in the
pan tilt of Lady G’s death and in the frantic
tracking shot of her running. However, after
filming many scenes and shots using a shoulder
mount we learnt that some of them may have
been better carried out had they been filmed as
steady shots using a tripod, such as the shot of the
tea cup that may have had a clearer effect on the
audience if it were steady. What we also executed
quite well, however, was the use of the tripod for
the steady shots of Lady G at the mall.
Nevertheless, the tripod was fairly time-consuming
to set up and we still face difficulties setting it up,
which is something I still need to work on in order
to save time in future productions.
My use of blogger has developed greatly since I
first used it to now. It was much more challenging
to use Blogger for the first time than it is now; I
can now effectively embed links into blogger and
use it with a higher degree of ease. There are
many pros and cons of using blogger. A pro would
be that it has allowed me to showcase my work all
throughout the production on one platform.
However, blogger does not allow uploads of Word
documents, PowerPoints. Google Slides or PDFs in
the same format. This meant that I had to first
upload any documents that were in the
aforementioned formats to a website called
‘SlideShare’ first to be able to upload them to
Blogger. This was time-consuming as it meant
that I had to create a LinkedIn account to be able
to use the website. It also meant that I had to
upload the documents to the website first, embed
the link into a Blogger post and then post, which
proved fairly inefficient. And though the website
was easy to use, it often did not work as expected,
which then delayed the uploads of some of my
documents. Moreover, Blogger also has limited
themes available for presenting posts. This led to
the layout of my blog almost being ‘untidy’ and
not necessarily appealing.
IT'S NOT EASY TO GET USED TO USING A
WEBSITE LIKE BLOGGER.

4. THE FILM INDUSTRY IS
DIFFERENT
Overall, it has been important to me to integrate
the use of different technologies for a variety of
different reasons. Throughout the whole project,
integrating different technologies allowed me to
learn how to use different softwares and present
my work in ways I normally would not have, such
as through Prezi and Canva, which I learnt how to
use during the pre-production research tasks. The
preliminary tasks made me more confident in my
use of the hardware, as well as the software. I was
able to carry out different types of shots and use
new hardwares and softwares I had not used
before, as previously discussed. Without the
preliminary tasks I would not have been able to
carry out my intentions for the film opening with
as much efficiency or confidence as the
preliminary tasks provided me with the
experience I needed to do so. Through researching
the film industry, I was able to find out how my
use of technologies compared to those used in the
industry. A popular software, ‘Avid’, is used in
countless Blockbuster films for editing. One of the
films that Avid was used in is ‘Inception’,
which is a greatly popular Blockbuster, arguably
made successful by its editing. Avid is used as it
has many features that allow the editors to deliver
the greatest quality possible in post-production. In
contrast, Adobe Premiere Pro is usually used in
editing YouTube videos as it is simple to use and
has just enough features to deliver a high quality
YouTube video. In terms of hardware, DSLR
cameras may be used for YouTube videos as well
as short films as they shoot high quality footage
and work with a variety of sound accessories to
deliver high quality sound. It would be difficult to
find a film recorded with a DSLR camera as they
have low maximum recording times and do not
offer the quality needed for a cinema screen.
Moreover, professional cinematographers also
have much higher capabilities, as well as budgets
and therefore are able to use cameras such
CONFIDENCE IS KEY WHEN IT COMES TO
FILMING AND EDITING A FILM