Question 6:
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?
I have learnt lots of new skills during the making of my
production, and because I worked on my own I feel this actually allowed me to
learn more skills as I had to do everything pretty much myself. So although I
asked for help of older students I actually picked up the skills they showed me
during editing and filming and managed to complete my work with little help
towards the end. I learnt skills such as how to use a camera and how to set up
as camera shoot and how to edit them effectively and which transitions look
good where. I used specific editing skills such as cutting and cropping,
rearranging the sequence, jump cutting from shot to shot, editing continuity
correctly and how to cover up not quite perfect shot matches. For the
transitions I used fade to black mainly because when they are really short they
make the screen flash which can be quite jumpy and it is an easy and effective
way to go between the shots as it doesn't look 'unnaturally' jumpy. I also had
to spend a lot of time colour matching the shots as they were filmed on two
different types of cameras. I struggled a bit to get every single shot exactly
the same but I think that the majority of the shots look pretty similar to each
other.
On the actual day of shooting I didn't really use the tripod
as much as I thought I would, this is because I found it easier to actually
free hand with the camera as I was able to move with the actions of my main
character, i.e. if she moved the book I was able to focus the camera more
effectively on the book as it was an important prop in my opening and putting
the focus on this allowed the audience to realise this. Because my location was
under roof I didn't have to worry too much about the weather outside as it
wouldn't have really effected the filming.
I did have to cut filming slightly short due to the late start (which
couldn't be helped) and the short days. Although I cut the film day short I
don't think it was too much of a problem, as I didn't feel I'd run out of
footage but towards the end I did struggle to find shots that I hadn't already
used. So if I could do it again I would make sure I had even more footage just
to be extra safe.
Another skill I had to use was continuity and making sure
that my opening was well paced. I think I managed this quite well as when my
character moves and walks I cut and edited her actions well (screen shot of
girl picking up glass and then another one of the cut to her crossing out the man’s face to show I edited them together well) However after I
had pretty much finished editing I was watching my opening and I noticed a
small error, when the girl put the book down she closes it and places it on the
floor, a few shots later when she walks away the book is open on the floor (so
that she can stand on it and smudge the blood) although I noticed this error it
was too late to change and it wasn't particularly noticeable as no one else had
spotted it even after telling them there was an error.
I think that the error went unnoticed because of the jumpy
back and forth cut between each shot. As well as the continuity error I also
noticed that in one shot at the begging because it wasn't filmed with a tri pod
at one point you can actually see myself and someone who helped me film that
day in the corner of the screen for about 1 or 2 seconds.
Luckily this too is very discrete, although looking here it
may seem obvious when you watch it it’s so brief
and barely noticeable. No one saw it even after being told about it, I think
this is because the viewer’s eyes are focused on the girl and
what she is doing not on the setting. Again there wasn't anything I could do
about this.
When it came to camera work I didn't actually use much of the
footage I filmed because it as good of
a quality whereas the other camera was,
so I chose to use the higher quality camera.
I did however tell the other person on the camera what I
wanted in each shot and showed him what I wanted in each shot and what angle to
use before we filmed each shot. Because the setting I used was old there was
quite a lot of rubbish in the corner of the barn, so I needed to brief the
other camera worker not to get that in the shot as I was worried that the food
and drink litter would make the setting seem like it was set in a place where
the public could access. But then I wanted the old looking walls and trees to
be in the shots so I had to angle my camera shots to include them without
breaking the 180 rule.
I struggled with importing my footage at first as I was
having to do it off two cameras and then onto memory sticks to then put them
both onto the mac for editing. This was very time consuming so I had to spend a
lot of my own time doing this and figuring out how to do this. I also struggled
with creating the DVD menus so I had to ask for help of a student who had
already done theirs. They showed me how to do this so next time I have to do it
I think I am confident enough to do it myself.
I did add filters to my shots, but only to make them all match,
I didn't add the filters to create a specific effect. I struggled to do this as
the two camera’s qualities weren’t the same.
When it comes to other technologies I made a few Prezis and
wordles to express my ideas and thoughts. I found the wordles easy to use as I
had done them before but learning to use the Prezis was a new experience for me
as I hadn't done them before nor had I heard what they are. I struggled to
embed them onto my blog so after looking on the internet I quickly picked it up
and even had to show other class mates how to do it. I think adding these Prezis
and wordle's made my blog different and more interesting to look at. I really
wanted to put up videos of my presentation and my prelim task, but because of
the filters on school computers I was unable to do this at school and my laptop
at home is broken so having to do my work on my iPad has set me back quite a
lot as it has meant I'm unable to upload videos to the blog which will have
lost me marks.
Doing this project on my
own has allowed me to learn lots of new skills and has really let me make my
own decisions, but having said this I think next time I would prefer to work in
a group or with someone else so that I can have alternative
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