Whilst creating their opening sequence, the student and their group learned about different camera, editing, and audio technologies. They gained experience using camera equipment like tracks to capture more professional shots. In editing with Final Cut, they learned skills like cutting clips, smooth transitions, and effects like black and white to emulate the film noir genre. GarageBand was found to have limited instruments and mixing capabilities for their desired jazzy noir soundtrack, so they used Cubase 6 instead which allowed them to successfully produce their soundtrack.

1. 6. 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?
- Garageband – was it a useful programme for creating your
soundtrack? What challenges did you face during this
process?
Whilst creating our opening sequence me and the rest of my group learnt
a lot about different technologies from the process of constructing our
product. When working with the camera equipment we have learnt a lot
of new techniques that we have included in our opening sequence. When
looking back to our preliminary task we had to use a shot reverse shot,
match on action and 180 degree rule. After studying different camera
movements, techniques and composition we were able to incorporate
more interesting techniques into our opening sequence. Some of these
include a graphic match, multitake, eyeline match, tracking shot, tilts, and
various lengths of shots. Also when filming the opening which we took
influence from Sunset Boulevard from we used the track to have a steady
camera. It was really worthwhile using the track as we gained experience
with our camera skills and it worked really well in our opening sequence.
A slight problem we had was that the track was visible in some of our
shots after tilting the camera down and around. We resolved this by doing
many takes until we got the shot right. Using the track did enhance our
film as it gave us access to more professional like shots that are not as
easily done. When editing we used a programme called Final Cut. After
the process of editing we have gained skills and have an understanding on
how to use this software. For example, cutting our clips to shorten it
when putting it together, making sure that the editing is not jumpy when
putting our shots together. Also using the effects to put our film in black
and white. This incorporates the classic conventions of film noir and ages
our film despite it being a neo-noir. Also, where our shots were dark in
some places, we were able to adjust the colourings, shadows and

2. highlights on Final Cut to enhance the exposure and lighten them to
improve the opening sequence. Another effect we found useful was being
able to add in a transition to represent our flashback in the film.
Flashbacks are also very present in noir style films so that was another
way we used editing to incorporate the genre. Also when editing we were
able to slow down some shots. The opening shot where Jonny walks in,
we slowed that down so that his walk suits our soundtrack and so that our
opening sequence flowed better. When we created our soundtrack we
found using GarageBand extremely difficult. This was because we
wanted a classic noir soundtrack and found that GarageBand had very
limited samples of instruments that we wanted to use for a jazzy
soundtrack such as piano, double bass, drums, synthesiser. Also the
software was not very good and it had limited mixing capabilities.
Therefore we used a programme called Cubace 6 as one of our group
members studies music technology and was able to produce our
soundtrack using that.