Final Cut Pro X was used for editing, with additional programs like Adobe After Effects and Photoshop for titles and motion graphics. Careful file organization was important for project management. A Sony a6500 mirrorless camera was used to film in 4K and 1080p at high frame rates, allowing for slow motion effects. Online programs like Blogger, Slideshare, Prezi and Emaze were utilized for project planning, research, and evaluations. YouTube provided genre analysis and tutorials for techniques.

1. QUESTION 4
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?

2. EDITING
!Final Cut Pro X was used as my primary editing program. It has an easy to learn, simplistic and clean workspace. It
also has various advanced tools such as colour grading options, custom transitions, plugin support (such as colour
correction LUTS) and audio mixing built in. On this project I challenged my colour grading ability by using a Picture
Profile on my camera, which essentially takes all of the colour of out the image in camera, giving me endless
possibilities to shape my mood and colour in post using a plugin called a LUT. In my pre-production I
experimented with different LUTS to find one that matched the theme and mood of my video; I was unable to find
a good one, so I ended up making my own LUT in Adobe Lightroom, then transferred this across to my Final Cut
timeline. I learnt about how to produce my own LUT on YouTube tutorials, teaching me about different methods,
and the importance of maintaining the natural look.
!I also learnt a lesson from my Year 12 film opening because halfway through editing my project, the edit file was
corrupted by my computer. This meant that I had to restart my whole project on Sony Vegas including colour
correcting and audio mixing. Therefore this time, I made sure I made two extra copies of the project, so in the event
of file corruption, I was covered; I had one copy on my computer and the other on my external hard drive.
!I found that across the various film production companies, many use Avid and Adobe premiere pro CC to edit their
films, but I like the simplicity of Final Cut, because It allows me to edit efficiently, and create a pleasing end product.

3. EDITING
Final Cut Pro Project How a LUT works
File Organisation

4. FILE ORGANISATION
!As soon as I had finished filming, I transferred the RAW video files onto my computer, organised in
folders for ease of use. I immediately created separate folders for different aspects of
construction of the opening. I learnt this was useful because it firstly keeps everything together in
one place, meaning its easier and quicker to access, and makes my editing workflow more
efficient. Also if a single video or audio file was ever corrupted in the project, it would be easy to
locate it and put it back in the project.

5. FILE ORGANISATION
File Organisation

6. OTHER MEDIA PRODUCTION PROGRAMS
!To create the title text for my music video (and as seen in the bottom right hand corner of the
slide) I used Adobe Photoshop CC and to add motion I used Adobe After Effects CC. I learnt
how to make text prior to the production of my opening. From my Year 12 film opening, i now
knew how to create a thumbnail for the video, as this was new for me back then. I used the
thumbnail when I uploaded the video to my personal YouTube channel. For this, I used
Photoshop, and made sure the theme/feel in the video was transferred across to the thumbnail
so that the two had a connection/linked. To do this, I used a photo that I too in production,
colour graded it using the same LUT and used the same Title, with the same font and same
colour. This meant that the overall product seems connected and ‘together’
! I once again used YouTube tutorials (this time by a channel called ‘BakerTuts’) to create the
‘wiggle’ in the title text. This effect required me to download and install a plugin which then had
to be adapted in After Effects to create the correct amount of ‘wiggle’ in the text. This was a
simple process.

7. OTHER MEDIA PRODUCTION PROGRAMS
Adobe After Effects CC - Text wiggle Thumbnail created on Photoshop

8. FILMING TECHNOLOGY
!Whilst filming my opening I was using a whole array of technological equipment, including a Mirrorless camera, soft box lighting, and
an SD card. To enable me to access the best quality on the camera I had to perform a ‘’recce’’ to play around with the camera and
work out different settings. This allowed me to refine my filming technique such as holding the camera still or creating the handheld
look, and also how to get the camera to be steady when ‘running and gunning’. This was one of the more technical aspects while
making the film, as it required me to hold the camera steady, keeping the camera in focus on the actor, and running backwards at
the same time, avoiding obstacles. I found this hard and took multiple shots to get it perfect as I found it was hard to get the shot
steady because I was running creating enormous camera shake. Luckily, the in built camera stabilisation helped me out because I
was able to increase the stabilisation variability to +5, which made it more steady.
!I also learnt about the best camera settings, as this was a new camera to me that I had just bought myself. I chose to film in 4K at
24fps (which is essentially 4x more resolution than 1080p). 4K resolution is exactly 3840 x 2160 pixels, whilst 1080P consists of 1920 x 1080
pixels. This meant that I was able to obtain more detail and more information in the shot, increasing the overall quality of the video. I
also chose to film a lot of the video in 1080p at 120fps, this was done so I could get slow motion shots. I filmed in such a high frame
rate because it meant that in post I could either have the footage at super slow (120fps) or slow (60fps) by speeding the footage up
by 2x, or get the footage back to normal speed by increasing the footage speed by 4x back to (30/24fps). This gave me great variety
within my shots and lots of versatility in editing.
!The camera I was using (Sony a6500) has a special feature when focus called 4D focus which allowed me to select the zone of focus,
focus rate, and also allowed me to zoom in on my image in camera to check I had the focus accurate. The camera also boasts the
worlds fastest auto focus (0.05-sec) , and therefore was easy to gain focus with the help of the 425 phase detection auto focus points.
!Having a flip up screen in the shoot on the camera helped me see the framing in the awkward positioned shots. If I didn’t have the
flip out screen I wouldn’t have been able to achieve the low angle and high angle shots, or when filming in the back of the car
where the space is tight.

9. FILMING TECHNOLOGY

10. ONLINE TECHNOLOGY
!To upload all of my work so that it could be marked for my exam I used a site called Blogger, which enables me to quickly upload files to share
them to the public. However I found that to upload some files such as word documents, I needed to use a program called Slideshare. This
allowed me to compress the document and produce a HTML code which can then be composed on my blog as the word document. HTML
codes were new to me, however I have found it is the easiest way to upload a document or video to the blog as it is quick and easy.
!To produce my pre production plans I used Apple Pages/Keynote which is the best way to share your ideas in an organised way, quickly. It has
brilliant features such as synonym finder and spell checker which has enabled my pre-production work to be of the highest standard, as nothing
is spelt wrong and the synonym finder allowed me to make my initial ideas and character plans more detailed and easy to understand.
!To produce my evaluation questions I have been using Prezi, which I have learnt that it is one of the most exciting ways to share your ideas. It is
much like Apple Keynote/Microsoft Powerpoint which I also used, however it makes the evaluation more engaging. Prezi was also used
because my evaluation questions must be produced with varied media programs to show a range of knowledge and understanding of media.
I used google searches to help me find information about the genre n the pre production stage, and to help me gather images to produce
visual guides in both my evaluations and in my pre production, such as costumes and props.
!Youtube was used to help me analyse the conventions of the genre because I was able to search for indie-folk music videos, view them, save
the for later, and make notes from them to help me in my pre-production. I was also able to find tutorials to help me with the editing stages
such as including a moving infinity symbol and the application of LUTS to my video to make the colours more vibrant and exciting.
!Emaze was another great tool in my evaluation stage because I used it as one of the 4 media formats that I had to decide upon using, it allows
for a fast and exciting workflow and produces products that look professional, clear, and engaging. I found that using this website tool was
easier than using powerpoint/keynote as I could easily embed codes onto the page, allowing me to put GIF’s onto the slide, enhancing the
overall look of the slide.
!I will also be using my own condenser microphone to record a voice over for one of my evaluation questions. This will be used alongside an
audio interface, and a programme on my MacBook called Logic Pro to record the audio and add some post effects such as equalisation and
reverb. I learnt how to use this technology last year in my year 12 evaluation questions, where I also used a voiceover

11. ONLINE TECHNOLOGY
Blogger
Emaze
YouTube
Logic Pro X