The document discusses technologies used to create an opening film sequence for a project called "Omitted". It describes: 1) Using different cameras - originally a Sony camera was used but quality wasn't good, so a Canon DSLR was used which had smoother zoom. 2) Editing the footage using Final Cut Express - clips were cut and transitions like dissolves were added to make the clips flow together. Sound was edited to enhance the sequence. Credits and titles were also added. 3) Other software used - a blog on Blogspot was created to document the process. YouTube was used to upload the final video. Prezi, Scribd, and Slideshare were used to

1. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?
Cameras
 We originally used a camera supplied by the
school. This camera was a SonyHDR-CX210.
However, after playing around and using test
shots we felt that the quality and zoom
in/zoom out feature wasn’t as smooth as we
would’ve liked.
 This lead to us using a Canon 1100D SLR
camera for our filming of ‘Omitted’. This
camera had a much smoother zoom in and
out feature, which was a key element in our
opening.
 The camera was very clear and showed
images on the investigation board very clearly, but also had a manual
focus. This meant that in some images when we wanted background
images to be slightly blurred we could focus on closer shots and give an
element of narrative enigma in the background as parts were unclear.
 We used two different lenses through the filming process, one was for
focus on close up shots, with a further zoom and the other was for wider
shots. We used the smaller lense for the forest walking shots as we didn’t
want that much zoom for this. Whereas, most of the missing poster
shots and the investigation board shots we used the bigger lense.
Final Cut Express
 Final Cut Express was the software in which our opening sequence was
edited on to. The software allowed us to add effects, transitions, credits
and sound onto out initially filmed footage. We started with uploading
the clips from the SLR camera to the MAC in which we would be working
on. We began by cutting parts of the clips that we liked, this involved
missing the start or end of a video and was often due to untidy camera
movement or shaking.
 After this, we experimented with using some of the video transitions in
order to make the clips flow into one another better as a posed to lots of
short little clips put in a row. This made a huge effect as the clips began
to look much more put together and logical at this point. We decided to
use mostly the dissolve transitions as we felt they captured the right
movements to emphasise and tie in
with the plot. ‘Additive Dissolve’ adds
the two clips so that the first clip fades
out and the second fades in and ‘Fade

2. in, Fade out’ fades in the incoming clip as the outgoing clip fades
out. Reveals the track below the current track in a transition. These
were often used in our piece to show a link between scenes and to
emphasize the continuity editing/ invisible editing. We also used a ‘Non-
Additive Dissolve’ transition that compares the pixels in the two clips and
displays the lighter of the two as the first clip fades out and the second
fades in. This was used to enhance the montage when a missing poster is
shown as being more destroyed as time passes. We used a mixture of
short take and long take(s) in our opening sequence as we felt that this
would constantly keep the audience on edge and engaged. We did this
by changing the speed of the clips. For example- our opening shot of
clouds moving was sped up to imply that time was passing, whereas
another shot panning from a photograph of Molly to her name on the
investigation board was slowed down in order for the audience to
consider any deeper meanings behind her disappearance.
 We used sound in order to further enhance our opening sequence. On
Final Cut Express we could change the volume of the soundtracks we had
selected by dragging the red line up and down at different points. This
allowed us to make Molly’s footsteps louder and quieter as she walked
further and further away.
 On Final Cut Express we put in the text: credits, film title and Production
Company name/logo. Most of our credits we used a fade in, fade out
effect for them to appear on the screen at different times. However, for
the title ‘Omitted’ at the end of the opening, we wanted to have a
typewriter effect in which letters appear on the screen one at a time. We
felt this built anticipation as to what the film is called until the very last
letter is shown in the last few seconds of the entire video.
 Overall, I feel that my knowledge of final cut express has increased
drastically as I can now edit video footage recorded on cameras to add
credits, transitions, effects, sound and
much more. One negative of Final Cut
Express was that after each clip was
edited in any way, we had to render that
clip. This was a very time consuming
process, but did enable us to get high
quality clips. I really enjoyed discovering
many new methods in which films can be
edited and developed through Final Cut
Express.
Blogger
 Before this, I had never used any blogging websites at all. Overall,
I really enjoyed using blogspot to record my research,

3. developments, filming, editing and evalution process. I found that using a
varity of different multi-media softwares and sites to present my work
online as a posed to basic essay writing without images was much more
exciting to complete. I found that adding images, prezi presentations and
videos to my work enhances it and makes points more relevant and easy
to follow.
YouTube
 I had a small amount of experience with uploading
to YouTube prior to this, however never from Final
Cut Express. We had to ensure that the settings
were correct before uploading the video as without
this, it would not have worked. We had to change
the file formal to MPEG-4/ MP4 and make the
image size 1920 x 1080. This allowed the video to be
exported in a compressed high quality version.
 I learnt that in order to put YouTube videos onto our blogs, you have to
copied an emedded code of this and paste into the HTML on our blogs.
This is done by pressing ‘share’ just below the video on YouTube and
pressing the blogger icon. This is a great way of making lots of different
social media sites link together.
Prezi/Scribd/Slideshare
 I did not realise that you could import powerpoint and word documents
in this way onto blogs. Using Scribd/ Slideshare enabled me to upload
these files to my blog easily and quickly, again through copying HTML
codes and pasting them into my blog.
 I also used ‘Prezi’ which is an online presentation site. I initially felt that
this would be extremely difficult to use, but after paying around with the
site, found that it was a clever way to present information in a
chronological order with images and videos to reinforce points. The site
helpfully gives you templates which you can select and imput and images
and text you would like.
 This was a great way to demonstrate the wide variety of multi-media
ways in which text can be presented.