1. Q6. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT
ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE
PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS
PRODUCT?
2. How did you use a blog to work
collaboratively?
The use of blog work to complete assignments for
coursework helped me greatly. This is because I
could always access my other group members work
as well as my own to either take influence from or
give me an idea of how we could improve, helping me
to make adjustments to my own work to reach level 4
as well as allowing me to both receive and give
feedback on the blog at any given time, which can
then be taken into consideration and adjustments can
be made. These adjustments could be made quickly
and without having to change each piece of work,
which, when doing written work can be very difficult.
In addition to this, the blog allowed
me to add imagery and exemplar
material in my assignments such as
videos from YouTube and images
from production studios. This is
helpful as I could give visual evidence
throughout all my work to make it
both more understandable and of
higher quality.
The blog allowed our entire group to
work on and develop our assignments all
at the same time, helping communication
through the group as well as saving us a
substantial amount of time as we did not
have to work individually at different
times.
An example of helpful visual evidence
3. Our main online tool was the use of
YouTube, both to post videos of our research
on the blog for visual evidence as well as
uploading videos of our own quickly, easily
and so they could also be posted to the blog.
YouTube helped considerably during our
research and planning stage, such as the
technical analysis post, giving us the timings
of each shot to be analysed. From this we
could also take screenshots to include on the
blog as well as creating storyboard ideas in
addition.
Finally, through the use of Freesound.org
I was able to download potential sound
effects/tracks extremely quickly and for
free which enhanced our overall
production posted on the blog as well as
allowing them to be embedded onto the
blog during research for audience testing.
This made post-production less time
consuming as we did not have to record
our own sound whilst still creating the
effect we wanted.
Youtube videos helped
me to complete various
research tasks, including
opening sequence
analysis in which I chose
Halloween (Carpenter,
1978)
4. How our film worked
Using a variety of equipment to help us, we filmed
our opening within two shoots. This equipment
included a Canon 600D camera with a 16GB SD
card. This cameras very high definition allowed our
piece to look a lot more professional as the picture
was of such high quality, the camera also allowed
us to use more complex shots such as the pull
focus shots used towards the beginning of the
sequence. (embed video). Overall this camera was
very beneficial mainly due to the screen being split
into thirds on screen, meaning our group could
follow the rule of thirds to the best of our ability. In
addition to this, the camera allowed control on
brightness and contrast, making our shots look
more conventional of a horror film; this also helped
when trying to achieve the same lighting in the
caravan as from our first shoot.
Additionally, we also made frequent use of a track and
dolly mainly to show movement of our protagonist on
screen- this made shots look very professional as it
looked smooth and more conventional of actual film.
An example of
one of our pull
focus shots
Our chosen camera- Canon EOS
600D
5. Despite looking very professional after post-
production, there were various problems I
encountered with the track, the main problem
being that the tracking shots used in the
external location looked very shaky due to the
bumpy ground we used it on. This meant a
substantial amount of time was spent trying to
repair the look of these shots to make it more
smooth moving, meaning post-production was
prolonged because of this. I also had problems
with connecting the track at times and making
the wheels of the dolly move smoothly when
filming as they often became stuck. Again this
impacted the time in which we had to shoot all
the shots we needed, making the process more
difficult and rushed which could have made
other shots of less quality as we had expected
as we didn’t have enough time.
The main limitation of using this camera
was the battery, I had to make sure two
batteries were fully charged before the
second shoot because the battery ran
out very quickly during our first shoot,
wasting a lot of our filming time.
A video of one of our shaky tracking shots
6. How our film worked
(Continued)
Another piece of equipment we used for
nearly every shot was a tripod. The tripod
was extremely helpful in capturing pan
and angled shots, such as both canted
and low angle shots.(embed video).
Additionally, the tripod was needed for the
track and dolly to be used as it is placed
onto the dolly. The tripod was used for the
majority of camera movements shown in
the opening.
In order to resolve issues raised from the track and
dolly, our group came up with the idea of holding
the track steady whilst operating so no random,
unneeded movements were made whilst shooting.
We also came up with the idea of placing the
camera on top of something that will slide along a
surface easily with force, giving the illusion of a
tracking shot without the actual need of its use, an
example of this is the shot shown below.
The limitations of using the tripod were minimal. However, I often had
problems with making pan shots completely smooth and making the
movement stay at the same speed throughout. This was noticed by
some people when we started to conduct audience research and
people thought it did not look as good as it could. In order to resolve
this, on our next shoot I placed my hand below the camera to make a
much more steady movement, making the pan shots look of higher
quality.
Below are some clips I watched for advice on how to operate the
equipment to the best of my ability to capture the shots we needed:
7. How did you edit your final piece?
One of my major roles in editing was uploading any clips
we had shot to the D drive of our computer to upload
them into Adobe Premiere Elements 9.0. Using the shots,
my role was to position them into a timeline, in the correct
order to create a continuous, smooth cut of the opening.
My main method of editing was continuity editing, making
all the clips flow into one another to construct a piece that
looked genuine and without mistakes.
Furthermore, another of my major roles was to add effects to the
flashbacks in the opening. I experimented with various different
effects until my group were satisfied with the colour composition and
the brightness and contrast with a dirty, green look of the clips as
they played (shown below). I also added blank white screen frames
which show extremely quickly at the beginning and end of the
flashbacks, additionally using fades to make the start and end of
each clip look like an actual flash.
Additionally, my initial idea was to have the
soundtrack at the start of the clip with the song
‘When I Paint My Masterpiece’ by ‘The Band’, I
edited this song by cutting down its build up,
meaning at the start of the opening the song
would start in order to match with the visuals so
the soundtrack would not seem out of place or
unneeded. Moreover, I browsed Freesound.org
to find appropriate sounds we could add to
create an effective sound mix, this included the
uncomforting, discordant sounds of the
flashbacks as well as the gradual built up
crescendo inside the caravan, this meant cutting
the sounds to the exact point where they
sounded most appropriate and adding them to
the timeline was another of my editing roles.
Our timeline when editing our opening: shots (blue), soundtrack (green)
8. I also had a role in editing with typography, including both adding titles to the visuals
in areas that followed the rule of thirds on screen. I additionally added fades to
these titles to make them less obvious to the audience, so that it would not take
attention away from what is happening on screen too much.
I edited the titles to follow the common opening credits order, with the larger production roles appearing as they progress.
As you can see, the titles appear in positions in the thirds on the screen, however not right in the middle.
The only title placed in the middle third of the screen
is our film title ‘The Premonition’, I edited it this way
as it would draw audience attention- our method of
making the audience know this is our title. I we had
shot and edited the clips intending on positioning
them in certain parts of each opening shot, meaning
we would lengthen each shots duration so there
was enough time to display these titles.
Title appeared
at 0:27 seconds
Larger role- director
appearing later at
0:52
