The document discusses the technologies used by the author in making a thriller film for a course project. It describes the various software, equipment, and online tools used for research, communication, filming, editing, presenting, and distributing the project. The author reflects on what was learned from using these technologies and discusses some of the limitations experienced.
1. Evaluation Question 6
{ By Andrew Roth
Contents: Chapter 1- Technologies
2- Own contribution and methodology
3- Health and Safety
4- Limitations of technology
5- Conclusion
2. I have divided the
technologies I used into 4
sections
Chapter 1
3. Section 1- Research and Communication
In terms of working as a group, Facebook was extremely important because it acted
as a central communication HUB as well as being a library for all our resources.
We created a group on Facebook where we designated roles to each other as well as
posting any research or evidence of work we did, like photos and web links and
videos.
It was also very useful in our audience research task because after completing the
survey, we simply shared it on Facebook and so immediately found ourselves a
target audience which we also used for the post-production feedback.
4.
5. Survey Monkey played an integral role in our pre-production research because it gave
us a clear idea of what kind of thriller film our target audience are most likely to enjoy
and which cinematic elements stand out most to them.
In particular, I learnt how to go about making a survey because I had never used this
website before, so asking the appropriate questions was something I feel I have learnt,
e.g. asking mostly closed questions to avoid irrelevant answers.
6. Section 2- Production
Using this kind of high-end equipment was virtually alien to me, especially when I compare
this camera to my DSLR. The main thing I learnt about using this camera was all the
different settings you could use because with HD, there are only two settings which are
1920x1080 or 1280x720, whereas when working with SD, there are many different settings to
use and I found it quite difficult to understand at first.
Overall though, I feel much more confident about using cameras and using this older model
has enabled me to be more versatile because now I can cope with both SD and HD.
7. Section 3- Post-Production
I have talked about the editing process in more detail in an earlier post, but without mentioning
what I had learnt.
In terms of using After Effects for the title sequence, I am very happy with the company logo
because I don’t really consider myself as a graphics designer or very confident in designing logos
and such, but this exercise gave me more confidence in my abilities.
Premiere pro is a program that I had never used prior to this course and it is something that I
have also become more confident in using. For example when I initially started editing the clips I
was very slow in cutting and stitching etc. but as the week progressed, I was able to do the
process much more efficiently, as well as picking up some extra techniques like keyframing,
lighting and colour grading.
8. Video converting
This was a program that I had to learn how to use due to technical difficulties. Frustratingly,
the computers at school which we edited on were Windows and because I work on a Mac,
the video files were never compatible i.e. I couldn't’t import my logos or the texts which I
had animated, so I had to convert them all to WMV files.
I’m glad I had to go through this program because in the process I have learnt loads about
video codecs and which ones are or aren’t compatible with windows or mac. Although at
times this was frustrating, this was more of a general inconvenience in the editing process.
9. Adobe Media encoder
This was more of an extra step I took once the final product had been rendered. Due to my
internet at home being incredibly slow, I always use this program in order to condense the file
size so it is more manageable to upload to YouTube or Vimeo.
In the end I went from the original file of 900mb down to 100mb whilst still retaining most of
the quality, so in this sense, this program was very useful for me.
10. Section 4- Presentational devices
I had never used this program before, but I can happily say on reflection I will be using it a whole
lot more as it was by far the easiest and most fun tool to use whilst doing this course.
I did have some initial difficulty with this programme and I found it to be quite fiddly at first.
However after some perseverance, I started to work out how the animating engine worked and I
quickly realised with a bit of creativity, that you could create some great looking presentations
with this programme.
On top of this, the interface is very user-friendly and it allows you to import videos straight from
YouTube as well as being able to add voiceovers and soundtracks in the background. Once
finished, I was able to easily embed the presentation into my blog and it helped make my blog
look much more professional. The vibrant colours and animations help entice the viewer and
hopefully hold their attention more than a regular PowerPoint. (apart from this one of course...)
11. Conversely, I found Kizoa the most frustrating programme to use, nor did I think the final
product it creates looks particularly professional, however it is important to use a wide variety
of presentational devices.
In particular, I thought it was very basic and you were extremely limited in what you could do
with it, hence why I generally used it to display pictures as opposed to text because it is
certainly not a presentational device in my opinion but more a programme that is used to
display pictures in the background of an event or conference.
That said, it is good to learn how to use a different presentational device other than Prezi
otherwise my blog would end up looking quite repetitive.
12. Both of these devices are similar in the sense that they allow you to work offline and upload
documents and files into an online domain, and this proved to be very useful because it
allowed me to work in my regular programmes like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, both
of which I have been using from a very early age.
Once I had finished making the document, I simply uploaded it to either one of these
programmes and embedded the code into my blog, just like the one you are currently
reading.
Again, I had never used either of these websites so it was a good learning curve and now I
have another presentational device which I can use to add variety to my blog.
13. iMovie
I used this programme to complete my first evaluation question and it was very useful
because it has a built in voiceover system which I learnt how to use in the process. It allowed
me to easily talk over the on-screen footage as it was playing and a nice, professional feature
it had was whenever I spoke the footage automatically lowered in volume so I didn’t have to
speak any louder.
14. Screenflow
I used this programme in order to record my screen as I was making the company logo, and
this is an extremely useful programme because it is very simple to use because all you have to
do is click record and cut the clip or speed it up as I did in order to make it viewable. For
example the 5 minute clip on my blog was sped up from 2 hours of footage.
15. Both of these sites were incredibly useful throughout the entire process of making the thriller film. In
terms of research, I would simply search in the relevant information I wanted to find and it would
appear instantly; this is how I stumbled upon the short film ‘Tell’, where I managed to find the
music for our film, so in this sense, these sites are great for inspiration.
Secondly, this is where we uploaded the final product with incredible ease, and now anyone who
wants to see can with the click of a button, so it makes the distribution process really simple.
Another great thing about both these sites is that people can give feedback on your video by
commenting on it. In particular, Vimeo is considered to be a more professional site which many
indie filmmakers use to upload their work because the quality is much better than Youtube. This
means that filmmakers can give each other direct advice on a site like Vimeo, which brings the
filmmaking community together.
Also with Vimeo, I learnt that you have to be very specific when uploading a video to the site
because unlike Youtube, Vimeo can understand many different formats and codecs. I initially had
trouble getting the footage to look widescreen but I learnt how to combat the problem by watching a
video on it.
16. Finally and most importantly, without blogger I would not have been able to have collated my research and
evidence with any sort of efficiency which is what makes this programme so great. This website is perfect
for any indie filmmaker who wants to document their work and try and get some exposure.
Any post you make in blogger is immediately filed and put into order on your blog which can be made to
look very professional if you code things in the correct resolution. This was something that caused me some
initial problems because I didn’t understand why some of my links didn’t fit on the page correctly and it
didn’t look very polished. I then worked out that if you switch to HTML, you could alter the height and
width of videos and photos to fit in the margins properly.
Another problem I then discovered was that because I do my work on a 21 inch screen the margins were not
the same as on a standard monitor so when I viewed my work at school, everything was off the screen. I
then realised I had to work on my screen in a standard monitor size because most people will view my blog
on a regular sized screen. I found the right resolution which worked universally.
Apart from these minor problems, I found blogger to be incredibly easy to use and if I were to ever go into
filmmaking I would definitely look to use something like this site to document my work and research.
18. Filming
I think it was fair to say I took a leading role, being director of photography and this was principally
because I felt my knowledge of camerawork and working with the camera enabled me to convey more
interesting shots. That being said, Zack also filmed a large portion of the film with some of his own ideas as
well as Sam’s. Overall I would say we all contributed equally in terms of coming up with the idea of the
shot but I was the lead camera operator.
19. Methodology and evaluation
My favourite shot which I worked on was the final act where we dolly past Ollie’s dead body and up to
Sean’s face. This was very much a team effort; Sam came up with the initial idea when he found the
skateboard; I filmed the dolly and then handed the camera to Zack who takes it up towards Sean’s face.
I think it looks pretty good, my only regret is that the dolly could have been smoother but of course we
were only using a skateboard so considering our limited equipment this almost looks perfect, and I was
very happy when we got this shot done because it took us about 10 takes.
20. Editing
Likewise with Filming, my previous experience in editing meant that I naturally took quite a prominent role
because I found getting to grips with Premiere Pro quite easy, though since my group members are not in the
same class as me, they would often make changes to things I had done during break and we would see if it
was any good.
For the vast majority of the time, we were all in the editing suite together all contributing many hours during
and after school. Both Zack and Sam would give me loads of suggestions for certain shots and I would try
and recreate their vision if they didn’t know how to.
21. Methodology and evaluation
For the most part my role in editing was to do the initial sequencing and cutting of clips, the
title and company logo design and the colour grading.
Overall, I think I did a good job, particularly with the colour grade and the title sequence.
Perhaps the pacing of the film could have been improved, particularly with the screenshots
which were not on the screen for long enough as I found out after render. However pacing
is one of the hardest things to master in film production and only the best films have cuts in
the correct places all the time.
I also played a part in sound design and I thought I did a good job of taking Daniel James’
score and decomposing it to fit into our film. In order to this, we as a group would listen
through the entire score several times whilst watching particular scenes and we would
come to a decision on what section of the score would work best with the on-screen action.
We would then cut the part we wanted and adjust the volume to the appropriate level.
Whenever the score changed we added a volume gain transition which made the change
between sounds a lot smoother. This was something I had never previously worked with
before so for a first attempt it came out quite well. There was only one point after the main
title came up which wasn’t done smoothly.
23. RISK ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE
Potential Who is at risk? Existing Control Risk Preventative
Hazard Measures Rating Measures
Group members could slip on Anyone on location The car warehouse was already tidy with High Everyone has been careful to ensure a tidy
floor nothing on ground level. working area with cables neatly compiled and
have avoided any spillages.
Damage to Cars Group members Signed a contract preventing group from High Making sure not to keep a reasonable distance
liability. away from cars and made sure that equipment
was stable.
Damage to equipment Group members N/A High To prevent damage to the equipment, we made
sure everything was being set up properly e.g
making sure camera was properly fixed on
tripod and lights were secured on tripods.
Redhead lights catching flame Group members Fire extinguishers present on location as well Medium Made sure that the light was not on for extended
as fire alarm. periods of time, turning it on intermittently and
ensuring is was not close to a material which
could potentially catch alight.
Damage from Golf Club (prop) Anyone on location N/A Medium Made sure to be extremely careful with prop
when shooting by having the actors stand at a
safe distance.
Damage from cars Anyone on location The manager ensured us that when we were Low When cars were moving we made sure to stand
and equipment ready to start shooting he would stop cars from well clear whilst moving the equipment to a safe
coming in and out of the warehouse and that location
all drivers are well-trained.
Working on stairs Group members Stability of stairs were ensured Medium Ensured taking extra care when walking up and
downstairs and the transfer of equipment was
carried out carefully.
Manual handling of equipment Group members Briefed on how to use and handle equipment Medium Made sure that when carrying the camera
appropriately to prevent injuries suitcase and other heavy equipment, that two
people were carrying at all times to ensure
safety
In order to prevent any health and safety issues we made this risk assessment in order to plan
ahead for most eventualities. In the end we didn’t actually experience any issues whilst
filming because we made sure to be especially careful when carrying the equipment from
shot to shot and in the warehouse, we asked the manager to stop cars from coming in and out
of the garage whilst we were filming to avoid any damages.
25. Equipment
The main problem I experienced with the camera was its general lack of mobility. Being such
a big unit, it is was often very awkward to move from place to place and there were also
certain shots that we didn’t think to take because the camera wouldn’t fit in the correct place.
Also, even with the fig-rig I still felt shaky because the camera was pretty heavy; this would
not have happened with a DSLR.
Another issue I had with the camera was understanding how Standard definition works
because there are so many different forms of SD with different resolutions and aspect ratios.
I needed to learn how they all worked so I could get the best quality when uploading the
final version to Vimeo and YouTube.
26. Editing
The main limitation of using Adobe Premiere was that the version we have at school is about
6 years old so it is nowhere near as powerful as the current version, nor do you have the
same amount of access to different effects. Overall, this wasn’t a major issue as I didn’t really
need to add any fancy effects because we wanted to create a realistic looking film.
Also another inconvenience is that in order to preview what you have done In After Effects
and Premiere, you have to RAM preview and with a slow computer this can take a
considerably long time.
27. Presentational devices
One device which was particularly frustrating to use was Kizoa because for the most part it
was very unresponsive, slow and extremely limited with what you could do.
Another device which was slightly less frustrating was Vimeo. When uploading to Vimeo in
Standard Definition (Widescreen) you have to do it in 640x360 which is the American
version of SD also known as NTSC. Because we had filmed in 720x576 PAL, the only way I
could upload to Vimeo was to compress the file, so although it looks widescreen the quality
has dropped significantly which is incredibly annoying because retaining the quality is
something I tried very hard to do because the overall feel of the film is ruined in my view if
the quality isn’t good.
28. In Conclusion
On reflection, I feel that without the technology used throughout this course, the final product
would never have looked as professional nor would my blog look as polished.
The high-end cameras used really helped to create the filmic look that many indie filmmakers
struggle to achieve.
The presentational devices helped me convey my research in a far more interesting and
dynamic way and now I have many programmes which I will now be able to use in future
projects of mine.
