2.  We have been using
blogger to share the
progress we have
made during our
media course. I have
found blogger very
simple and easy to
use. I think it is a good
way to showcase our
work, not just in written
word, but in various
different forms of
media.

3.  We mainly used the
software on the
macs to edit our
preliminary and main
tasks. We also used
them to edit any
other videos on our
blogs. I found the
macs very easy and
efficient to use.

4.  We were provided with Arri
300 professional lights to use in
our films. With our initial idea,
we used these lights along
with the white filters to create
a more comfortable home
environment, and also the
blue filters to create a dark,
criminal atmosphere,
however, we changed our
genre to horror and decided
not to use the lights as we
wanted to create slight
realism in our film which would
make it more scary.

5.  We used the Rode mics in order to
pic up the ambient sound in each
shot. These mics were really good
at picking up the footsteps of our
actors but sometimes they picked
up too much of the ‘ringing’
sound in some shots so we had to
play around with the settings of
the mic until we found a setting
that was suitable for the
environment we were in. The mics
were very good with picking up
people’s voices clearly, especially
when we were filming our
interviews for our audience
research. When we were on set
we had to make sure that
everyone who was there was
extremely quiet, to ensure minimal
unwanted noise was heard.

6.  This is the camera we were
provided with and used to film
all of our footage for our films.
The camera was easy to
operate and the process of
getting the footage onto the
macs was extremely simple.
One problem that we had
with the camera whilst filming
was that it kept going out of
focus so we had to pay extra
attention to the focus of the
shot whilst on set.

7.  This is the tripod we used. Even
though most of our shots are
hand held, we did use the
tripod for our pans in order to
get a soft, smooth pan. It was
quite hard to use the tripod for
the other shots as the stairs in
the house were quite narrow
so it was hard to get the tripod
in the correct position to get
the right angle.

8.  We all had to create youtube
accounts in which to upload our
films on. At first I was a bit
sceptical about creating a
youtube account as I didn’t
know how to use it but once I
got the hang of it, it became
easier to use. I was able to
upload our preliminary task and
our audience research for our
main task. I did face some issues
with youtube when I tried to
upload our audience research.
At first it wouldn’t upload, but
then after a while I checked it
and there were three of the
same videos uploaded so I had
to delete two of them.

9.  We used iMovie to edit our
preliminary task and our
audience research as it is quick
and easy to use. It also makes it
easier to share the videos
created on iMovie as it
connects directly to youtube.
 For our main task we used Final
Cut Pro x simply because we
were able to do more on the
program. Seeing as it was a new
program to use we didn’t know
how to use it but after exploring
it for a while we discovered how
to use the effects, transitions,
how to import media and edit
sound.

10.  We tried to use Garage Band to
create our own background
music for our film but we found it
too complicated to use. We did
watch youtube tutorials to help
us but they were rather useless.
Instead we found some
suspense accents which we
thought would work really well
with a particular shot in our film
where the stalker is seen behind
the girl. It worked perfectly
without the music, but once we
found the music to go with our
opening, the suspense accent
seemed out of place and took
away from the dramatic effect
we were going for, so we
decided to remove it.