What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Specific technologies were used for various things throughout the process, and I have learnt a lot about these technologies from actively using them.
SHOOTING:
During the process of shooting, each group member had the opportunity to take on the different roles, as we consistently switched to familiarise ourselves with the equipment. Before shooting began, we had to ensure we had all the necessary equipment, and this consisted of:
The role that was first delegated to me was that of cameraperson, which meant I had to adequately set up the camera equipment at our location, which I did so successfully. This experience meant that I was able to become more confident with setting up the equipment by myself. To set it up, a series of specific steps had to be taken to ensure the camera was stable. These included firstly setting the tripod up by separating the legs and lifting the first level before raising the second to an appropriate shoulder height. This was so that the camera would be at the correct eyesight for me. I had to make sure that the grips placed on the tripod legs that were unlocked when raising it where then twisted back into place to make sure that the tripod was then locked into a secure position. The tripod was used so that we could shoot a range of shots by altering the angles the camera was placed at, so that our opening sequence would be more interesting. Before placing the camera onto the tripod, the spirit level had to be checked so that the camera wouldn't be placed at a tilt, which would affect the shots. In the event that the spirit level wasn't corrected, it was easily ammended by using the handle underneath. The camera had to be slid on to the shoe horn and locked in place. There were numerous functions on the camera, but it was easy to operate as I knew to begin recording the camera had to be on the 'A' (Automatic) setting. The camera was lightweight and portable, which was advantageous for shots where it wasn't possible to use the tripod due to the restrictions of the small room we filmed in. Initially, we had intended to film in a darkened room, however the shots came out too dark and it was hard to distinguish what was occurring in them. So, to counteract this we used a lamp that allowed us to adjust its brightness, so that we could precisely recreate lighting that we felt would be appropriate to our sequnce. We also wanted to use tracks for a more creative shot rather than a pan as it was good to create a smooth movement of the camera, however, because of the room size we were unable to set it up properly.
Because we were going to be using non-diegetic sound, the sound equipment wasn't required until the end of the day when we were going to record our news report voice-overs. We learnt that the microphone was able to pick up unwanted sound, so to ensure that that didn't happen we recorded in a quiet area.
EDITING:
Once we had finished shooting, editing was required to put all the shots together to form a coherent opening sequence. Two of the main softwares we used to construct our opening sequence were:
Having used Adobe Premier for our preliminary task, we were all familiar to its functions and were able to digitise the rushes quickly and efficiently due to our prior experience. The way in which we had to do this was by making a connection between the camera and the computer hard drive with a firewire lead. All the shots we digitised were saved onto a a 80GB LaCie drive, which served the same use as a USB. It was also convenient because it allowed the group members to access all the work at any time. We learnt certain techniques to allow us to edit efficiently. For example, to begin capturing the footage and rendering the clips, once the software was open we had to press F5 to record and digitise the good takes. Each digitised rush was named in accordance to its shot number and take so that it would be easy to distinguish between them and to make the process of creating a assemble edit much more efficient. To begin with, the shots were simply placed in the order that we wanted them before we began to cut up the clips and adjust the speeds and durations of the shots to create the opening sequence. Visual effects and transitions were added in order to create a seamless flow between the shots, for example we used dip to black transition to move from one shot to another as well as a ghost effect to give the impression that the character was undergoing a hallucination. When it came to adding the sound, the voice overs also had effects in between them so that the narration was smooth and the words flowed into one another whenever the speaker changed.
To create the credits and the title of the film, I used Photoshop which was a software I was already accustomed to using. This was a simple process, however the task of collecting suitable newspaper lettering was difficult as it was a mundane task that took more time than I had anticipated due to the letters needed to be cut out separately.
Key lessons learnt whilst using these technologies:
Specific technologies were used for various things throughout the process, and I have learnt a lot about these technologies from actively using them.
SHOOTING:
During the process of shooting, each group member had the opportunity to take on the different roles, as we consistently switched to familiarise ourselves with the equipment. Before shooting began, we had to ensure we had all the necessary equipment, and this consisted of:
- A Canon XAHI Camera - was used to film the footage. It was important to familiarise ourselves with the camera as it was the main piece of equipment we had to use during the production stage, so I managed to learn about the key functions as well as the insertion of batteries and tape.
- Battery
- Libec L82001 Tripod - the tripod ensured that the camera would be stable whilst filming. It was important firstly to avoid the equipment from being damaged, as being on a rigid platform lessened the risk of it falling, as well as the fact that it was important to keep our shots lined steadily, otherwise the shots would have looked unprofessional. I also learnt it was important to use the tripod as it allowed us to film a variety of shots by altering the movement, angle and distance of the camera in order to make our opening sequence more interesting.
- Sennheiser Microphone
- Sennheiser headphones
- Boom pole
- Windshield System
- Clapper board
- Tracks
The role that was first delegated to me was that of cameraperson, which meant I had to adequately set up the camera equipment at our location, which I did so successfully. This experience meant that I was able to become more confident with setting up the equipment by myself. To set it up, a series of specific steps had to be taken to ensure the camera was stable. These included firstly setting the tripod up by separating the legs and lifting the first level before raising the second to an appropriate shoulder height. This was so that the camera would be at the correct eyesight for me. I had to make sure that the grips placed on the tripod legs that were unlocked when raising it where then twisted back into place to make sure that the tripod was then locked into a secure position. The tripod was used so that we could shoot a range of shots by altering the angles the camera was placed at, so that our opening sequence would be more interesting. Before placing the camera onto the tripod, the spirit level had to be checked so that the camera wouldn't be placed at a tilt, which would affect the shots. In the event that the spirit level wasn't corrected, it was easily ammended by using the handle underneath. The camera had to be slid on to the shoe horn and locked in place. There were numerous functions on the camera, but it was easy to operate as I knew to begin recording the camera had to be on the 'A' (Automatic) setting. The camera was lightweight and portable, which was advantageous for shots where it wasn't possible to use the tripod due to the restrictions of the small room we filmed in. Initially, we had intended to film in a darkened room, however the shots came out too dark and it was hard to distinguish what was occurring in them. So, to counteract this we used a lamp that allowed us to adjust its brightness, so that we could precisely recreate lighting that we felt would be appropriate to our sequnce. We also wanted to use tracks for a more creative shot rather than a pan as it was good to create a smooth movement of the camera, however, because of the room size we were unable to set it up properly.Because we were going to be using non-diegetic sound, the sound equipment wasn't required until the end of the day when we were going to record our news report voice-overs. We learnt that the microphone was able to pick up unwanted sound, so to ensure that that didn't happen we recorded in a quiet area.
EDITING:
Once we had finished shooting, editing was required to put all the shots together to form a coherent opening sequence. Two of the main softwares we used to construct our opening sequence were:
- Adobe Premier CS4
- Adobe Photoshop Elements
Having used Adobe Premier for our preliminary task, we were all familiar to its functions and were able to digitise the rushes quickly and efficiently due to our prior experience. The way in which we had to do this was by making a connection between the camera and the computer hard drive with a firewire lead. All the shots we digitised were saved onto a a 80GB LaCie drive, which served the same use as a USB. It was also convenient because it allowed the group members to access all the work at any time. We learnt certain techniques to allow us to edit efficiently. For example, to begin capturing the footage and rendering the clips, once the software was open we had to press F5 to record and digitise the good takes. Each digitised rush was named in accordance to its shot number and take so that it would be easy to distinguish between them and to make the process of creating a assemble edit much more efficient. To begin with, the shots were simply placed in the order that we wanted them before we began to cut up the clips and adjust the speeds and durations of the shots to create the opening sequence. Visual effects and transitions were added in order to create a seamless flow between the shots, for example we used dip to black transition to move from one shot to another as well as a ghost effect to give the impression that the character was undergoing a hallucination. When it came to adding the sound, the voice overs also had effects in between them so that the narration was smooth and the words flowed into one another whenever the speaker changed.
To create the credits and the title of the film, I used Photoshop which was a software I was already accustomed to using. This was a simple process, however the task of collecting suitable newspaper lettering was difficult as it was a mundane task that took more time than I had anticipated due to the letters needed to be cut out separately.
Key lessons learnt whilst using these technologies:
- I managed to advance my camera skills and become more confident with the equipment, as I'm now more aware of various camera shots and the importance of continuity.
- Also developed my skills using the editing software by experimenting with different shots and then editing them in various ways to suit our opening sequence. I became more familiar with the editing software by developing the initial techniques we had learnt and learning how to adjust things like the pace of the shots and placing certain effects over them. This allowed for a creative outcome, despite a limited budget and equipment.
- I also believe being able to use the camera was has improved my technical ability. Lining shots up has become easier as I'm now comfortable with using the equipment whilst shooting.
- To record more takes of a particular shot, as whilst we were digitising the rushes we found that some takes were unusable due to continuity, so in order to have more good shots to choose from we should do at least two or three good takes and would minimise any reshoots.
- To take shots in more interesting camera shots by experimenting with the movements, distances and angles of the camera. This would have made for a more interesting opening sequence had we had even more varying shots, but it was hard to do on location due to our restricted space.
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