AS Media

1. Question 6 – What have
you learnt about
technologies from the
process of constructing
this product?

2. Strengths
I used blogger throughout the entire production process of my film and although I was initially unconfident while using it due
to lack of past experience I quickly learned how. This allowed me to publicise the entire process online including my pre-
production steps such as storyboarding and the evaluation of my film. Slide Share helped with this by allowing me to present
documents in a concise fashion, for example I could show an entire PowerPoint without taking up more than a page’s worth
of space. Before this I had no experience using Slide Share also. I found YouTube to be of great use as it allowed me to upload
my film to my blog quickly and efficiently through the use of an embed code which I could add to the html of a blog post. This
means that anyone on my blog can access my film without having to leave the page which is more professional.
According to most of my audience research the most effective element of my film was the practical effects. These were made
possible by the use of Adobe Premiere Pro which allowed me to edit my shots together smoothly and maintain match on
action giving the illusion that he was actually amputated. Although I already had a small amount of experience using
Premiere Pro from the production of my preliminary task I leant a lot about editing through the production of Whisk Boy.
One of these new skills is colour grading through the fast colour corrector tool which I had never attempted previously but
was able to learn through video tutorials on YouTube. I think that colour grading my work made Whisk Boy look a lot more
professional than the original raw footage had allowed.
Other technologies I successfully used during my production includes Microsoft Word (writing documents for my blog),
Photoshop (creating montages for my evaluation), Microsoft Paint (for creating my for plans), a mobile phone camera (while
performing my recce), a photocopier to scan in my storyboards and Microsoft Powerpoint… all of which I had plenty of
previous experience using through other subjects such as AS Photography so didn’t struggle with incorporating them in to my
project. I also made heavy use of the internet with websites such as Wikipedia for researching genre and google images to
collect photographs for my target audience.

3. Weaknesses
One weakness during my production was lack of knowledge creating titles in Adobe Premiere or After Effects
as I had no prior experience. I found myself overwhelmed with the user interface due to lack of previous
experience and didn’t have enough time to research tutorials on YouTube so instead I used Adobe Photoshop
to produce them and then import into my film. Although this wasn’t a major setback I feel like the titles
produced are not of professional quality which effects the viewing experience – this is mostly due to the
unrealistic gore dripping from the top of the screen. This was created by chroma keying free stock footage I
found on YouTube using Premiere Pro however due to lack of time the effect was rushed and looks very
unrealistic.
Another weakness of my video was the sound which although was intended to be over the top and unrealistic
(to add to the splatter comedic style) sometimes took away from the action on screen. This was partly to do
with my lack of experience with the technology involved as I didn’t think it necessary to use a microphone
during filming which led to audio samples being made unusable by the wind. I had also never previously used
garage band until it came to making the sound track meaning I felt unconfident during the process. This meant
the track I made wasn’t entirely suited to my film which showed in the audience feedback although from this I
have learnt the importance of creating a soundtrack which suits the genre of the film. Next time I will make
sure to use a microphone during filming to collect higher quality sound samples and would have more
confidence with garage band meaning hopefully the track I made would be more suited to the footage.

4. Opportunities
One way that I feel I could have improved my film would be through the use of a
microphone during filming. This would have given me sound clips of more useable quality
and hence the vocals wouldn’t have had to of been overdubbed. Taking this even further, if I
had used a boom mic than the sound would be even cleared as the majority of background
noise would be removed.
Although I made use of a tripod and dolly during the production many of my shots are very
shaky. If I was to re-film my introduction I would have made use of a Steadicam and glide
track in order to keep my shots smooth which would in turn make my film introduction look
more professional and complete. These pieces of equipment are used in the production of
professional horror films such as ‘The Shining’. Another method I could have used if I had
had more time would be to learn how to stabilise video with Adobe after effects which
would mean no footage would have to be reshot (although this may have effected the
quality of the footage collected).
I could have also improved my film with Adobe After Effects by using it to create the titles
rather than Photoshop. This would have taken more time but would have allowed me to
create more animated and cinematic titles which I think would have made Whisk Boy
appear more professional.
The Shining
steadicam
operator

5. Threats
I found the lack of time to be the most pressing issue during the production of my film opening and I
was largely unable to keep to my production schedule. This meant that the editing was rushed and
although all of the match on action was correct I feel like the pace at the beginning of the video is
slow and looses the audiences attention. Another consequence of the time pressure was that all of
the filming occurred in one day when my two actors were free and we had transport to the location.
This meant there was no time for any reshoots which was a problem as I was unhappy with a large
number of the shots when reviewing them on the computer as they were too shaky or poorly
framed (because I had very little prior camera experience). On top of this the actual filming was
rushed as I only had one battery for the camera and no way of charging it meaning the number of
shots I could make were limited. In order to change this next time I would choose actors with plenty
of free time and bring multiple batteries for the camera.
Another element which slowed me down was my use of technology during my pre-production and
evaluation. I found technologies such as Prezi and PowToon to be very time consuming and less
professional than more classically used technology such as Microsoft Word or Powerpoint as they
required more work and I was less experienced. Although I am now more experience and could
probably use them more effectively I think that I would avoid them if possible as they are less
efficient.