4. Planning and research -
Within my planning and research I used the internet as my
resource – this was obviously fairly easy to use as I use the
internet and different websites on a daily basis.
I used the UK Film Council’s website in order to find
statistics of the UK’s favourite genres and films and related
this to my chosen genre.
I also used the website Box Office Mojo and IMDB to
research further into my chosen genre to understand my
target audience.
Before constructing my product, I also watched many DVDs
from my genre to understand what to include within my
opening.
I also uploaded all my research onto my blog.This was new
to me as I had never used this site before, however, this
soon became easy for me to use.
5. Planning and research – What helped
and hindered?
The internet was my most useful source during research
and planning and was the one I felt most reliant on.This
source generally didn’t cause many problems, however,
sometimes the internet/computer systems at school failed,
meaning I had to complete a lot of my research at home.
I found the UK Film Councils website to be extremely
helpful and easy to use – I faced no problems when finding
the information I needed using this website. (I found this
again when using Box Office Mojo and IMDB).
When watching DVD’s I found I understood the genre a lot
more, however, I didn’t find this to be the most effective
way to research into my genre as it used a lot of my time up
through watching the films and making notes afterwards –
therefore I found the film websites to be a much more
useful and effective way to research into my genre.
8. Construction -
During the construction of the film, I firstly had to get to grips
with the digital camera we used to film.At first this was fairly
difficult for me as I had never properly used one before, however,
after several attempts and practices I found this easier to use.
I then used Movie Studio Platinum to edit and create the video.
Because I had never edited anything before, this was extremely
new to me and I often found it difficult to use.
Our group also had to use a sound recorder and microphone to
create a Foley sound of the body being dragged to overlay onto
the video.This was reasonably simple and easy to use – we just
had to make sure we turned it on!
We then again used movie studio platinum to add this sound to
our product.
Throughout we also used multiple websites to search for music to
overlay onto the film.This was easy for us as we knew which sites
to look for and how to use them.
We also had to continuously update our blogs during the making
of our film.
9. Construction – What helped and
hindered?
When first using the digital camera I felt it was
overcomplicated and difficult to use, however, nearer the
end of our filming I found that it was much easier than I had
anticipated and was the best resource to film our opening.
Again, when I began to experiment with Movie Studio
Platinum, I found it very difficult. However, I think that
through creating our preliminary tasks, this gave me more
confidence and I eventually became used to the aspects
involved within the software.
Creating the foley sound to overlap onto our piece was
reasonably simple.The most difficult aspect that we faced
when doing this was matching up the sound to the action
on screen. During our first attempt, the movement and
sound didn’t match – making it poor quality.This meant
that we had to re-record the sound after perfecting the
pace of the footsteps and dragging.
12. Evaluation - & What helped and
hindered?
During each evaluation, I have used several different software's and hardware’s.
Prezi is a website used to create animated presentations. I used this for evaluation one and found it fairly easy to
use, however, at times found the website to be slightly temperamental when inserting images and videos. On the
other hand, I really liked the fact that the site automatically saved your work.
Powtoon is a website again to create presentations. I found this difficult to use at first as the layout of the site was
confusing. However, I eventually got to grips with the features.
I also used Microsoft word for one of my evaluations.This was extremely easy for me as I had used this software
many times before – however, sometimes as school this software ‘stopped responding’ which meant that I lost my
work several times.
I have also used PowerPoint for one of my evaluations. Again, this was very simple for me to use as I have used
this software a lot.This software was also very reliable as it never crashed or lost my work.
For one of my evaluations I also chose to write a script (using word– this was very simple and easy to use) and
record my voice for this. (I used the sound recorder to do this which was also very simple.) I then uploaded this
onto movie studio platinum and used the snipping tool to take screenshots from my opening - overlapping this
with my voice recording. This was fairly easy for me to do– however, I found that it took a lot of time as I couldn’t
upload all the images at once.
I also simply used blogger to upload one of my evaluations straight onto my blog.This was probably the easiest
software to use as I simple typed straight onto my blog.
To upload some of these onto my blog, I had to useSlideshare.This was an easy software to use, however, in
school the filtering system stopped me from using this– the embed code would never show. However, using this
site at home was quick and easy to use.
14. Technical aspects -
Lighting –Within our group, we didn’t have to create
the lighting used, we simply chose which time of the
day.This made it much easier for us whilst filming
and also created a more realistic atmosphere.
Sound – we used Foley sound for the majority of our
opening. Although this may have been more difficult
than simply using the sound from the filming,
however, I believe the end result was much better.
Editing – Movie Studio Platinum was probably the
best software we could have used.After getting to
grips with the setting, it was simple, fast and
effective for me to use.
15. Technical aspects – What helped and
hindered?
Lighting –Although I was pleased with the final outcome of the lighting within
the piece, I found that when filming (due to the time of year and weather) it
often became reasonably foggy. At first I thought that this may effect our
opening in a negative way, it actually improved the mise-en-scene and it made
the setting appear as more spooky and secluded.
Sound – Firstly finding the right song that we could actually use within our
opening was very difficult. Because we wanted an upbeat, classical song to add
to the eccentric tone of the protagonist, it was difficult to find a song that wasn’t
overly comical. However, we eventually found two songs that we believe suit the
tone and the main character of the film and they were easy to upload and add to
the piece using Movie Studio Platinum.
-We also used foley sound.This was difficult as we had to ensure the movement
on screen matched the sound, however, we eventually found the correct
time to add this sound in.
Editing – Editing was reasonably easy once I had gotten used to the software
(Movie Studio Platinum).We faced no major problems when editing our piece
and I also liked the fact that this software allowed you to see where you had to
cut on each clip – very helpful!
