1. Throughout the filmmaking process I have used and
experimented with a wide range of different media technologies.
Media technologies can be used in every stage of the filmmaking
process from Digital SLR Cameras for taking draft pictures in
pre-production to Adobe’s Premiere Pro which is used for editing
video and sound in post production. Pictured above are some
examples of the media technologies which I have used during the
creation of my product.
2. Adobe's Premiere Pro is a timeline-based video and sound editing software application. I have used this
program for all of the editing of my video and sound for my film. Premiere Pro allows its users to edit video
and sound simultaneously which means that it is very easy to use and it is very good for synchronising audio
together. I have had previous experience using this software as I used as an editing tool last year while
producing a separate film. Because of this I was already proficient at using this software and I had
knowledge of and an understanding of the basic principles of editing video and sound, however I think that
through using Premiere Pro this year my editing skills and my knowledge of Premiere Pro have improved
massively. For example, when using some of the effects on Premiere Pro such as crossfades, I have learnt
how to customize them so that they fit perfectly into my film, whereas before I would just use the default
settings which would make the effects feel a lot less natural.
3. The Nikon D3300 is a 24.2 megapixel DX format
DSLR Nikon F-mount camera launched by Nikon in
early 2014. This is the first camera which was
used during our filming and was used mostly for
draft shots and draft filming. We decided instead
to use the Canon 750D for all of our actual film
footage because we found that it gave a clearer
and brighter picture, and it has 19 point of auto
focus making it much easier to focus on our
subjects.
4. The Canon 750D is a 24.2 megapixel DSLR Canon EF mount camera.
The Canon 750d is similar to the Nikon D3300 in many ways
however, we chose to use it in our film because we felt that it gave
a clearer and brighter picture. As you can see on the three shots
shown below which were taken on the Canon, the shots are much
more aesthetically pleasing than the shots taking from the Nikon
which is why we chose to use it for the majority of the shots
during the production of our film. Further reasons why we chose
the Canon over the Nikon include its 19 auto focus points and its
very smooth focus puller which made it much easier to focus the
camera onto our subjects.
5. YouTube is a global video-sharing website. The main reason why we use this
website is to use YouTube Audio Library. YouTube Audio Library is a channel
containing a wide range of music which can be downloaded and used in an
independent film without having to play royalties to the producer of the piece. It
is very difficult to download royalty-free music from other places but YouTube
Audio Library gives great accessibility to a wide range of different types of
music which can be used at the discretion of the downloader. The song which we
downloaded for our film was called Gypmnopedie No.1 and can be heard
throughout the duration of our film. The song creates sombre tones which fit in
very well with the mood of our film.
6. Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics and compositing application
which has been developed by Adobe and is used in post-production in films and T.V. When I
started using this application I had already used Adobe Premiere Pro and as Adobe After
Effects has a very similar layout I found that it was quite easy to use and within only half an
hour I was able to make the three different drafts of a single shot by using colour
correction to change the composition of the colours within the shot. The original draft
(bottom left) which we produced had no colour correction or post-production work done to it
at all, it is completely the same as it was when we filmed it. Draft 1 (bottom-middle left) had
been colour corrected in several ways. We increased the brightness slightly, reduced the
saturation to -100% and set the channel mixer effect to monochrome in order to give it a
black and white and slightly aged look. In Daft 2 (bottom-middle right) we tried to create a
sepia style tint. We did this by decreasing the brightness, reducing the saturation to -100%
and then changing the colour contrast, hues and saturation until we had the look which we
desired. For Draft 3 (bottom right) we wanted to create a tint which not only had a ‘dated’
and ‘retro’ aspect to it but we also wanted a tint which was brighter than the ones we had
produced previously. We wanted to do this because we would be using this for the scenes in
which Ada looks back on her life and people often look back at past times with happy
memories thinking that the times that have passed were better than the times that are to
come. We achieved this effect by increasing the brightness, the contrast and the saturation.
Original Draft Draft 1 Draft 2 Draft 3
7. Draft 1 Draft 2 Draft 3
Draft 4
Adobe’s Photoshop is a graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Systems for Windows and OS X.
Since then, it has become the industry standard in graphics editing so much so that editing pictures is
commonly referred to in colloquial language as “photoshopping”. Below I have added several drafts of our
design for our poster. Draft 1 shows an overly simple example with a very basic font for the title of the film
as well as white title credits and a shot from the film of Ada and Arthur walking through a wooded area
together. We used this shot in several of our poster drafts as we thought that it represented the romantic
genre which are film follows quite well. Draft 2 contains a similar shot to Draft 1 but Ada and Arthur are
further away from the camera which we preferred as it didn’t crowd the picture as much. We also used black
and white colouring for Draft 2 as we felt that it put emphasis on the retro aspect of our film. The font
which we used for Draft 2 is much more interesting than the one we used for Draft 1 as it looks a lot like it
could be someone’s handwriting which represents the letter that Arthur sends Ada in the film. The only thing
we didn’t like about the poster we created in Draft 2 was the title credits which we had used because we
found it difficult to put the credits in black or white as they didn’t show up on the black and white shot
resulting in us using a light grey text box with black writing to contrast from the shot. For Draft 3 we used a
different shot than Daft 1 and Draft 2 which shows Arthur and Ada standing together next to the coast in
south east England. We used a computer generating image program on Photoshop to show Arthur and Ada as
more of a silhouette. Draft 4 is the version of our poster which we are using for our final poster. Draft 4 is
identical to Draft 2 excepts from the title credits. In Draft 4 we used a font which had a black outline with
a white fill which made it made it show up on the black and white background as opposed to using a light grey
text box to contrast from the background which we didn’t think looked as aesthetically pleasing.
8. The Røde VideoMic GO is the primary piece of hardware which we used
for recording the majority of the audio however, we did use an iPhone
for some of the audio recording. The Røde VideoMic GO was used for
all of the diegetic sound and the iPhone was used for all of the non-
diegetic sound. The Røde VideoMic GO was very useful for recording all
of the sounds which we took while filming with the camera as it has an
attachment which means that it can be put with the camera.
9. iPhone is a line of smartphones designed and marketed
by Apple Inc. The main reason why we used the iPhone in
our film is because of its ability to produce record
sound. Although we already had a Røde VideoMic GO
which is perfectly capable of recording sound, after
some experimentation we found that at shorter
distances it was better to record using the iPhone’s
microphone as it gave a clearer sound and was easier to
use.
We also used the iPhone for its camera which is very
advanced for a mobile phone and films footage at a very
high resolution. None of the actual shots which are in
our final film were filmed on the iPhone but we did use
it for a lot of draft shots. The iPhone is very useful for
taking draft shots because it is so easy to use and very
mobile.
