What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?

Online ProgrammesDuring the post production process of our thriller opening, we

used many different forms of technologies. I learnt a lot that I didn’t know before ranging from cameras and equipment to computer software's and editing processes.

The one main form of technology that I enjoyed using and didn’t know of before is Blogger. I have enjoyed using it as it is a different way of presenting my work and it has tracked my journey since the beginning. It allowed me to post videos, images and write about my work and findings which is like a log of my work. I also used online programmes such as Prezi to make visual and interactive presentations rather than having a huge chunk of writing.

Camera EquipmentMe and my partner George used a Sony HD camera for our thriller opening as

well as a dolly and tripod. We didn’t use the dolly for the scenes in Piccadilly Circus because the camera would have been really shaky due to the uneven floor. Not having a dolly did make filming difficult because we had to try and track each other as steadily as possible. Even though we were going for a shaky look from our inspirations, we wanted to keep it at an even level where it was shaky yet visible. It took us a long time to try and get the tracking shots at an even level but, we resolved it by placing the camera on the tripod and holding it against our chest to keep it steady in comparison to holding it by hand. The tripod came to great use with pans, tilts and keeping the camera still which we learnt prom our preliminary task.

In addition to this, while we were filming, there were a few shots that were insufficient and had factors such as camera reflections in the watches and the tripod/other equipment being seen in some of the shots ( Blooper-equipment in the shot )

This alarmed us to be more careful about our shots and check if it was a good shot and what was actually in it before we carried on recording. We also began watching the shots over after recording and deleting any that were not useable/unneeded to keep our data more organised.

Preliminary

Some images of us during shooting indoors

However, we couldn’t get the room dark enough and without the light, it was harder to see the footage since our character was wearing black too and had a black watch. We then tried to make the room as light as possible so we could later on edit it on after effects or final cut. Despite this idea, we still found it really difficult to edit the clips so the room is dark and so that the character can still be seen.

I tried to edit this one shot to see if changing the colours to the darkest shade possible worked effectively. I feel as though it gave the shot a creepy and mysterious feel but I would have to apply to all the indoor shots which initially wouldn't end up matching the outdoor wintery atmosphere we were going for, so I had to leave the shots how they were with a very slight use of colour correction.

We planned on using a flood light to enhance the characters both inside and out but decided not to as it made no significant difference and the outdoor shots looked natural which wasn’t a problem.

to track towards the male character. The camera was steadier than without a dolly but was still shaky because of the carpet. However, we used it as an opportunity to use our inspirations from ‘The Enemy of State’ by making it look as though he was being watched. This would also suggest more about the role of the character which became a strength. While we were shooting in the room, we wanted to get it as dark as possible with a small amount of light on the character.

When we filmed the start indoors, we used a dolly

Editing For the editing part of the production process, I used final cut express. I had never used it or heard of

it before my preliminary task and Juno recreation which gave me the basic knowledge, skills and confidence to use it. My preliminary task taught me rules and techniques that I had to know while putting them into practice which really helped me remember simple factors. For example, character placements, shot angles and 180 degrees rule. Some of our shots were badly framed so I had to fix them using the wireframe to change the scale and reposition it.

My journey from the beginning to the end constantly allowed me to find new effects/ways of editing on final cut such as filters, generators, effects and action commands. I found the pen toolreally useful when trying to create atmosphere with the sound track and fade in and out ofshots. I also found CMD+J useful when speeding up shots and when I made the characters rewind quickly after the brief case exchanged. I thought the mise en scene was interesting at this point because we, as the audience are only shown a mid shot of them but it shows a closer view of what was done slyly. It involves the characters crossing over in front of the tree with the prop (brief case). We didn’t place anything in a specific third of the shot for this part as we wanted toshow huge significance and importanceto the switch. The lighting and colour of the shots in Piccadilly were kept natural looking to show a dullwintery atmosphere. Our shots were already quite blue but I used the colour corrector to enhance the blue slightly to create an interesting mise en scene of colour and lighting.

In addition to this, I used AfterEffects to create my titles. My Juno recreation helped me with my titles and learn more about the order in which they go. I used live type on the Apple Macs for the titles of it but was not comfortable using it and felt limited to my choices which could also be because I didn’t know a lot about the software.

For my thriller opening, me and George experimented with getting astyle of text that was similar to the style of Cargo and Seven. I preferred using after effect because it allowed more creativity and allowed me to do many different things, not just create text.It was a challenge to use but I still carried on to get my tiles. It was a lot more simple once I had the main font and effect. I also used after effect to create the camera shots of the male character right at the beginning.

I found this the most challenging part of the task because I had to create two black rectangles that open and shut by timing it along with a flash. I had to keep playing around with it to get the timings for the camera shots precise and then take those sections and import them into my final cut sequence. I used Youtube to search for tutorials on how to do certain things and where to find certain tools which really helped me overcome issues.

To create my soundtrack, I used garage band and played around with different loops to make one sound completely different yet with a thriller feel. I started off making one with lots of loops to make it sound different. However, I relaised that it sounded overpowering and didn’t reflect what inspired my originally. I changed the sound track by keeping some of the loops and keeping it really simple with that constant pulse I wanted.

Here is a screen grab of my garage band. Below shows where I imported the sound into Soundbooth to convert itI also used

it to create diegetic sounds such as the police car and barking dogs.