Media evaluation

1. Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from
the process of constructing this product?
Sony HDR Cameras
In order to shoot footage for our film we used a Sony HDR camera accompanied with a
tripod for stabilization. Before filming footage intended for the final
product we did test runs to make sure we could operate and use the
features of this HD camera. To give a movie quality feel we made sure
it was set to record at 24fps which is the standard rate for most feature
films. Most recently “The Hobbit” films director Peter Jackson decided
to defy these conventions by having these films at 48fps. One of these test runs was to
make sure our dolly zoom worked effectively. This is done by
having the camera start
zoomed in, and whilst
moving the camera
forward zooming out at the same pace. This will
make the background look as if it is moving
backwards and is a good way of showing characters
realization. We attempted to mimic the dolly zoom
used in “Jaws.” We ended up doing 8 trials before
perfecting the technique.
Social Media
To organise actors and arrange meeting up times we used social media in order to interact
and communicate. We arranged where to meet up and at what time to shoot the footage
for our film. This kept everyone working on the project up to date and that everyone could
make it. The only problem we faced was finding a printer to print out our missing child
poster. We managed to use one of our group’s printers before we started filming thanks to
social media through the messaging capabilities.

2. iMovie
To edit the footage I used different hardware and software in order to achieve the final
product. I first used an iPad Air to achieve the text and background. On the iMovie app it
came equipped with
templates for different
genres of film. To suit our
movie I chose a “Scary”
template to fit our
supernatural sub-genre.
From my “Possible Fonts”
research it was suited for
“The Haunted Children” as
it had a similar colour
palette and font to other
horror films with similar
themes such as “Sinister” and “The Conjuring.” After I had made all the slides I imported
them to the iMac where I would do the majority of the editing. I also collected the footage
from the cameras by importing these into the iMac as well. I then used the iMovie on the
iMac which is more advanced than the iPad version. Editing the footage, I utilized features
such as “Stabilization” which reduced wobbles and camera shakes. Trimming was also key to
make the clips run smoothly together, with match on action, and to get rid of excess footage
which was not needed. After the visuals were finished music was added to add to the tone.
The music at the start is high pitched and builds tension. This was acquired of YouTube by
extracting the audio through a www.youtube-mp3.org. The music towards the end is scary
chase music at the height of the tension. The audio files could then simply be dragged onto
iMovie where it was required. After the final copy was done the movie could then be
exported to MP4 format where it could be uploaded onto video services such as YouTube.

3. Embedding/Uploading
To upload video files onto YouTube I used the same account used for my Blogger due to
Google merging these services together in order for users to use one account for all. After
uploading the video onto YouTube the embedding code is found by going on the options
and looking for the share button. The code can then be copied onto the Blogger file. This is
similar for other services such as Prezi, Emaze and Mindomo. After the file has been
embedded with a document or video I then published it to my Blog so it would be viewed on
my page.