From constructing a film opening using Panasonic HD cameras and Final Cut Pro editing software, the student learned:
- Panasonic cameras allow high-quality video and photo recording with a tripod for balanced shots at different heights and angles.
- Final Cut Pro makes editing easy through features like adding transitions, effects, cutting/pasting scenes, and precisely placing sounds.
- Various film techniques like different shot types, lighting adjustments, and effects help make the thriller more interesting and professional.
1. Evaluation - 6
What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
2. Panasonic Cameras HD
To create our film opening, we used Panasonic HD cameras to
record. The camera allowed us to take videos and pictures on the
camera and has a clear quality picture of the shots recorded. the
camera we used came with a tripod which was helpful as it
balanced the camera so there wasn’t any unneeded movement
and the could be adjusted to any height or angle needed to film.
For example, we used various shots when we filmed, one of which
was point of view shots. We filmed these shots because we
thought we should use a variety of shots to make our thriller film
more interesting to watch. We adjusted the camera to my height
sitting down and at an angle that looked like it was from my view
in order to create the shot. When my group and I were filming
the thriller opening, we were thankful that the camera had the
stand as some of the shots would have looked unprofessional.
3. Final Cut Pro – Editing Software
When editing our thriller opening we used Final Cut Pro software.
This piece of software was ideal as it allowed us to add sounds,
transitions and effects to our film in order to make it look more
professional and to make sure the film made sense with the camera
shots in the right place. Also we used this software as it was easier
to cut and paste scenes and put them together. It was quite easy to
put transitions and effects on to our film as you only needed to
choose one and drag it with the mouse to the place where you want
the transition to be. Adding sounds were also easy to add to the film
opening and easy to put them in the right place. Additionally, it was
easy to cut the sounds to the size or length you want them to be
and it was easy to move them around because all you had to do was
drag the sound with the mouse.
Furthermore, there are many things you can do to the scene you
place on the software, such as making them look like close ups,
cropping irrelevant parts of an image out or making the scenes seem
brighter or darker, depending on how you want the scene to look.
The next slide shows some of the effects my group and I used in the
film opening:
4. SOME OF THE EFFECTS WE USED
When we edited the scenes of the woman at the
beginning of the film, we used the ‘dream’ and ‘fun
house’ effects to make the woman look distorted and
create mystery to the woman’s face.
When we filmed the flashback’s of the girl, we used
the ‘aged film’ and ‘memory’ effects to help the
audience understand that these shots are flashback’s
and to help them understand that the girl is the same
person as the woman, just before she was kidnapped.
5. SOME OF THE SOUNDS USED
When we edited our film, we used various sound to make the film seem more
thrilling to watch and to help the audience understand what the thriller is
about. We added a voice recording of the mother of the girl calling the police
when the girl went missing. We added this to help make the audience
understand the girl went missing and to create a thrilling effect to the opening
as it helps illustrate the effect of what happened when she went missing. To
add more of an effect to the police call from the mother, we added a siren
noise to help the audience understand that once the mother had called the
police, the police then went looking for the girl. This helped emphasise what
happened when the girl went missing. In addition, we added a voice recording
of a news report that helped emphasise more that the girl went missing.
We added other sounds to our film opening such as the jewellery box sound to
make a chilling effect and to show the audience the jewellery box is symbolic
in the film and shows that the girl is the same person as the woman, but in a
flashback of before she was kidnapped.
To add better sounds of movements in the thriller opening, we added a
dropping noise of something hitting the floor to create a sound that fitted the
make-up dropping on the floor and we added a door squeaking open to create
a unsettling effect that the door is opening and we added a door slamming
shut sound to create one last piece of suspense at the end of the thriller
opening.
The next slide shows some of the print screens of the sounds we added to our
film opening:
