Throughout creating a horror film opening sequence, the student learned about several technologies. They discovered using an older camera allowed for better focus pulls, but resulted in lower quality video requiring re-filming. Editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro helped smoothly edit transitions and add sound/music. Creating surveys and researching other films aided the development of ideas and plot. Photoshop assisted with logos and posters while Blogger organized work and Prezi offered a creative presentation alternative to PowerPoint. Overall, hands-on experience with these technologies improved the quality of the student's media product.

1. EVALUATION QUESTION 6:
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES
FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS
PRODUCT?

2. Throughout the process of creating my media
product, an opening sequence to a horror
film, I’ve learnt a lot about technologies which
has helped me to vastly improve and develop
my media product to the best of my ability.

3. CAMERA AND LIGHTING
We were given a new HD camera from college which we were supposed to film with. However, we
discovered that using an older camera allowed us to create a more effective pull-focus so we
decided to use this one instead. Although a drawback of this was that it didn’t have a higher
quality than the newer cameras from college. Because of this, we had to make sure that the video
was clear and that every detail was shown when filming to ensure we didn’t have to go back later
to re-film. Even though we took precautions, when we exported our videos we had filmed to
adobe final cut, we found that the clips were too pixelated and fuzzy, which was caused by the lack
of lighting throughout the setting. This affected the whole filming process because we had to re-
film all of the first scenes during the party because they were too messy and unprofessional to use.
Instead of keeping the setting towards the evening when it was getting dark, we decided to move
it to the afternoon so that the lighting was bright and consistent; giving us better video quality.
The camera was very successful in capturing high-definition clips and we were able to keep it
steady when filming without the tri-pod as it was so light-weight.

4. COMPUTER AND EDITING
We used Adobe Premiere Pro in order to put together and edit our final film. I didn’t
have much experience in using this programme as I had only ever edited a few things
before using different editing programmes. Adobe Premiere Pro enabled us to
accurately edit our film by making sure the transitions between each frame flowed
smoothly and that all of shots that were fit together had continuity. Throughout making
our film, I have learnt how to properly use all of the tools that are provided in Premiere
Pro and how to use them most effectively when editing a film. It allowed it to crop and
cut the clips which we wanted to use and also enabled us to cut the sound and change
the volume of the sounds in the clips. This helped us to dim any background noise that
was in the footage and add the music over the top. We had to use the crop tool to cut
one of the over-the-shoulder shots, as the shoulder was taking up too much of the
screen, taking away the main focus which was one of the other characters.

5. IDEAS & SURVEYS
To construct the idea for my film I had to research many different horror movies in
order to ensure that our film was fitting for the horror genre we were aiming for. I
watched many different opening sequences to horror movies beforehand, which
helped me gain some ideas of the storyline of our film, which we then incorporated
into the plotline.
In order to get feedback for our storyline, we constructed a survey on Survey
monkey. Before the process of this product, I had never made a survey online so it
was quite helpful as it is a great way to get feedback from an audience and also
allows you to see if your film is fitting in with the right target audience. We could
then use this feedback to improve our film to meet the consumers’ needs and
expectations.

6. ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
We used adobe photoshop in order to
create our production logo for our film. I
had never really used adobe photoshop
before so this was helpful as it helped me to
familiarize myself with all the tools whilst
working on a project for the film. We ended
up making two logos which look very
different, which allowed us to use a variety
of tools.

7. BLOGGER
Blogging is a trendy technology is todays society. I
had never used blogger and never had written a
blog before the creation of my product. Using
blogger helped me to organise all of my media
work as I could easily find it by searching and be
able to preview my posts before posting them. It
also helped to bring out my creative spark as we
customised the blog in order to make it fit within
the horror theme. Although this was time
consuming and stressful, as I didn’t know what all
the tools were for, I finally figured it out and
decorated the blog.

8. PHOTOSHOP
I also used photoshop to create a
banner for our blog, which we also
decided would be the poster for our
film. This was a great way to keep
practicing with my photoshop skills. I
used a blank template of a Ouija
board and used the text tool to write
on the name of our production
company, the film title, and the
producers names at the bottom of
the Ouija This gives a strong
indication that it is a horror movie.

9. PREZI
Prezi was first introduced to me when
starting this project, I had never heart of it
before and I had no idea how to use it. I
used Prezi to present one of my evaluation
questions. Prezi allows me to put more
creative ideas to use and I feel that is a
great alternative to PowerPoint as it feels
more like a presentation and includes
many different sections instead of just
clicking through slides. I became more
familiar through using Prezi by creating
many different presentations of the same
question in order to find a professional and
creative background.