2. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product? Strengths and weaknesses of the camera equipment Talk about the filming process, are there any problems you faced, how did you resolve these issues? Did you get to use new equipment to enhance your film? For example the TV studio, track and jib etc. Editing software - what have you learnt about editing, were there particular effects that you found useful for creating your overall mise en scene? Garage band – was it a useful program for creating your soundtrack? What challenges did you face during the process?
3. Strengths and weaknesses We had many strengths and weaknesses with the camera equipment. One weakness was the fact that the cameras we had chosen too use were fixed on moving tripods, this meant that it was really hard to achieve a quality over the shoulder shot. The cameras we used where however fully HD Sony cameras, they where linked up to a piece of equipment called the tri caster which allowed us to easily record our project. The colors where superb and the darkness which is included right the way through our product does not look blurry and fuzzy like it would with any other cheaper camera. We where able to achieve some really steady moving shots due to the fixed tripod on the Sony HD cameras, this made the shots look far more professional because there was no shaking involved. The HD quality allowed us too pick up shadows very well, this meant that the light that shined through the curtain allowed the camera too pick up the figures behind it. There where no real problems that we faced in the filming process, however, the editing process was quite awkward, after we lined up all the clips we began editing on a regular emac, we then changed to a macbook, this messed with the clips and didn’t allow us too then access the project file. We had too restart the project and add the effects, audio and titles again. We got too use the full TV studio and included the Sony HD cameras, the curtain and also the spotlights which allowed us too create a good isolated effect.
4. Filming process We started by setting up a curtain and shooting the first few seconds of our product using a song HD camera, we used spotlights to create a good isolated effect, the cameras where able to pick up the shadows of the characters pretty well as well as being able to see the characters behind the curtain. We used the Sony Cameras on a tripod to shoot steady shots, we started by shooting the victim behind the curtain and went on to shooting the murderer tearing the curtain down. We also shot other victims to make it look like the murderer is a sick man who films his victims. We used elliptical editing to add to the effect of the movie. We faced no problem with the filming we simply just filmed the whole sequence and deleted what we didn’t want and what we did want we used in final cut to create a good product. Overall the filming went well and I believe if we where too do it again we wouldn’t really need to make any changes in order for our product to be of the best quality possible.
5. New equipment for film We used Sony HD cameras too provide a much better quality video, this meant that the dark shots didn’t look bad and blurry. The color was good due to the HD and this meant that our product was off the best quality that it could be. The tripods allowed us to create steady shots which meant that the movie was shakey and un professional. We filmed the whole product in the TV studio, because it is not that big of a space our film was already getting the fell of isolation. We did not use things such as the track and jib as we didn’t think we needed them for our movie. The TV studio was equipped with spotlights which meant that the lighting was perfect for the type of movie we wanted. The lights allowed us to place people behind the curtain we used and the cameras still picked up the shadow of the character also known as the silhouette. We where quite happy with the way this worked, as now the audience will know from the beginning that someone is tied up and has been kidnapped by a bad guy. We used props such as rope to make the movie more realistic, the victims where tied up during the movie to show how helpless they where, this also adds to the isolation idea, as they are portrayed as lost, helpless and in trouble. The basic props such as chairs where also used, we also included a TV screen to give the audience the idea that the murders where being broadcasted, we got all these ideas from the movie ‘untraceable’ and we also tried to include the conventions from the movie ‘saw’ in too. Overall we used this equipment to provide the best quality movie, not only in quality of the picture but also the whole the whole plot fitted together better due to the ability to use the best equipment that the college had too offer.
6. Editing Software We used Final cut to edit all of our product. We thought that it was the best software to use to add that extra detail. This allowed us to add effect such as blood, static and sounds which would be harder to apply to an iMovie project. We had to include effects such as static TVs to show the audience that the murders were in fact being watched, this links well with untraceable, a movie we looked at quite well. We included elliptical editing to show the audience what has and what Is happening, this shows a overall good view around the whole plot. Final cut allowed us to fade in and out the clips quite well as well as adding blank parts to show the darkness and helplessness of the room and the victims. We included titles which where a must, and we created these on a program called live type. This program is great for creating professional titles, we used an effect which we thought looked the most like a static TV effect. As you can see the titles look like this, a static type effect created on the program I was talking about named livetype. I believe that our editing is off a good quality due to the added effect and the audio included, the titles as well add a good effect which links to the main theme of our product. The lighting and the color was also messed with on final cut, we used effect such as black and white, and night vision to show the victims in more than one time of the day.
7. Garage band Garage band played a big role in the audio of our product, the movies audio is dark and intense, the sounds where gathered of the garage band loop library, this allowed us to create a tense atmosphere in order to scare the audience and put them on the edge of there seat. We did however experience some problems, the sounds where used quite a lot throughout the other movies we had watched, this meant that all the sounds where quite common, in order for the best sounds we would have to either change the key of the sounds or look elsewhere. We infact did both, we looked around on the web for specific short sounds such as punches, slams and gunshots. The sounds we found where far better than the ones of garage band. We also looked around for intense sounds which we thought would work well with the movie we had created, low key sounds were the best, they created a slow tense feeling which would shock the audience. We wanted to include strings into the movie because we thought that they would provide a creeping effect which was better than other instruments such as percussion and bass. The program was a good program to create a soundtrack and we did use some sounds, however the sounds are quite boring and they are used a lot in other peoples projects too. For this reason we decided to look elsewhere as well, this aloud of to create a soundtrack which Is far more interesting and tense than the stock sounds on garage band.
