6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the project, we have used many different technologies. In this project, we used hardware (a camera, tripod, shotgun mic, headphones and a lighting kit) as well as software (Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Audition and LiveType.)

HARDWARE:

Camera: Canon HV30 (with headphones (Sennheiser) and Shotgun Mic)

This shot in particular was difficult to get because of the slow auto focus

The shotgun mic and headphones were useful as they:

• Were easily attached to the camera
• Helped us to ensure good sound quality
• Fit easily into the camera bag

However, the shotgun mic did pick up background noise during the conversation shots, which makes the audio in our opening sound quite jumpy and unpleasant. 

Tripod:

This match-on-action was helped by the stability offered by the tripod

Also, the tripod allowed us to take shots from high angles much more easily than when we tried it handheld, for example in the shot below:

The tripod was placed on the bed, with both myself and Audrey holding it to stabilise it

Lighting Kit: ARRILITE, 650Watt

We learnt how to set up three-point lighting, and were taught how to adjust light levels to make the shot look both natural, and clear.

The lighting kit was useful because:

• It helped to remove the shadows on Christopher's face, and make it seem less amateur
• It reduced the amount of colour correction we needed to do in post-production

However:

• It was difficult to transport to and from school
• They became hot very quickly, creating a health and safety hazard
• There were a lot of wires because of the lighting kit, also presenting a safety hazard
• As there were only two of us in the group, it was difficult to simultaneously check what the shot looked like and try to change the lighting, as either I had to go out of shot to fix it, or Audrey had to go away from the camera

Test shoot footage of the first few shots (without lighting)

First few shots (with lighting)

SOFTWARE:

Adobe Premiere Pro:

We used this to edit together our animatic, test edit, and final opening. 

While using Adobe Premiere Pro, we were taught how to: 

• Create bins
• Select and capture clips
• Adjust sound levels
• Colour grade using ProcAmp and Three-Way-Colour-Corrector

Adobe Premiere Pro interface

Advantages:

• Multiple video tracks, so getting match-on-actions was far easier than if we'd only had a single video track
• Multiple audio tracks: allowed us to add voice-over and soundtrack easily
• Lots of transitions/effects already set up and ready to use - We trialled a few before selecting the fade
• Instant ability to preview the sequence - helped us to make adjustments easily
• Easy to use once you're used to it

Disadvantages:

Colour correction was difficult, as we had no previous experience and the interface was slightly confusing

Three-Way-Colour Corrector

Video had to be rendered to see it in full quality, so with after-effects added to the pan, the sequence had to be completely rendered before it showed properly in the window

Panning transition - partly sped up in Premiere Pro, and in After Effects

Adobe Audition:

We used Adobe Audition to record the voice-over for our film opening. We learnt how to:

• Set up the microphone input
• Select what file type we wanted to save it as
• Import the file into Premiere Pro

Advantages:

Adobe Audition (left monitor), alongside our sequence

• Simple controls, just press record to start and stop the recording
• Able to playback immediately
• Allows noise reduction
• As it only took up one screen, we could watch the sequence at the same time as recording the voice-over

Disadvantages:

• Slightly confusing to set up what file type you want at first
• Noise reduction ended up making clips sound mechanical and had to be cut from the sequence and re-done

TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNICATION:

In order to communicate with Audrey, we used texting, and also communicated via her sister's Facebook.
This was useful as it meant we could constantly update each other on progress, what needed doing, and any issues or problems that either of use encountered.

Example of our use of technology to communicate (texting)

OTHER TECHNOLOGY USED:

Other technology used includes:

How this post looks while editing it in Blogger. This was originally meant to be below the point about Blogger, but when I tried to move it, it began to change the formatting of the whole post. However, it is still very easy to update, with the bugs being very minor in comparison.

• Blogger: Used to post information about our film, and it's progress. Often encountered difficulties such as gimp coding, but easily up-datable and allows labels for posts, meaning simple navigation.
  
  
  
• YouTube: Research into film openings, and also to post our own. This was good because it has a lot of video clips for us to look at, but this was also inhibiting as it was often cluttered with irrelevant videos.

  

  Using YouTube allowed our film opening to be put in a playlist with the other film openings, and also allows the public to easily view it.

• Freeplaymusic.com: Used to research and select a soundtrack, helpful as you could search for keywords as well as by genre and tone.

We searched Freeplaymusic.com using words like happy, upbeat, and acoustic until we finally stumbled upon Building Blocks (used as our soundtrack)