Garage band

Garage band is a software which has allowed us to create and use  sound and music. Garage band provided us with instruments and songs that were pre-set. However the programme does not offer a wide range of sounds limiting you when you try and create a piece. In order to add to the sincerity of one of our characters we first used garage band to create a mellow non- Diagetic sound.  In order to create this we used two different types of pianos and a shaker. We created this to use in the background of the internal thoughts and to catch the mood of the scene.  We also used a another non- Diagetic song from garage band but this was much more upbeat and implied the action in the film. We used this at the end of the text in the flashback as the two hit men were getting ready for a job. We felt this added to the drama of the scene and would help make the audience feel enticed by the film.

This is an image of the programme garage band and Ed Robinson our music man in the process of creating our sounds.

Camera

In order to film our piece we had to use specific equipment such as a camera in order to film all of our scenes. This was crucial for obvious reasons such as the fact that we could not film without out. For a good part of the film I was the camera man and through this I got a good idea of how to use it. A pro for using this was that once we filmed we could straight away watch what we had just filmed on the camera giving us the opportunity to re-film any poor scenes. However a problem we had with the camera was that it proved difficult to film a few scenes due to the fact that it picks up any sounds near by, for example a main road. This was no major cause for concern as all we needed to do was edit the sounds out.

This is an image of me testing out the camera making sure that it is charged and working in the correct manor.

Tripod

In order to keep the camera dead straight and still we used a three legged device called a tripod. This allowed us to connect our camera to the top and be able to rotate it whilst keeping it still and constantly in line. This helped us with many of our shots as it helped our opening look more professional. However for some shots it was not needed, for example the P.O.V shots we had as it would not have looked very convincing if it was dead still and may have been hard for the audience to interpret.

This image shows me making sure that the tripod is not stiff and rotates smoothly. The camera is attached to make sure it will stay level when filming.

Lighting

In our filming we thought it was essential that we used a light in order to make sure that each character was visible in every scene. Without the light the audience would not be able to see a few scenes due to be filmed in dark locations. Although it seemed as if it solved our problem it generated another which was the fact that the light was so clear that if it was shining from the wrong direction it would appear unnatural and be obvious that there is in fact a light in front of our characters. As well as this the shear brightness of the light was to powerful to look towards making it difficult to position the light and we could only really put it behind the characters. Due to all of the down falls we avoided using the light and we even changed the location of one of our scenes in order to not use it.

This is an image of the light we attempted to use in our opening. This is the light when at it’s full brightness. As you can see it is also fairly large making it difficult to transport to our locations.

Microphones

A main piece of technology we needed for our piece was the microphone due to the fact that throughout most of it internal thoughts are being played in the background. In order to do this we had to pre-record Andre reading the script into a microphone and then later on inserted it into our opening. A cause of concern however with the microphone was the fact that every little noise was picked up on it making it hard to clearly hear him. To prevent the noises being heard in our piece we had to cut them out using the editing software. We used another type of microphone which was used in the filming part, it allowed the characters voices to be heard more clearly on the camera. It was a small microphone clipped onto the characters clothing and was hidden from the camera to avoid confusion amongst the audience.

Editing software

In order to be able to fit our scenes together and cut out the incorrect parts we had to use a piece of editing software called adobe premiere. This is where all the pieces of technology we used came together and created our piece. We inputted our camera footage, music, internal thoughts and then fit it all together in order to create our opening sequence to ‘the betrayal’.

These are the

microphones we used in our opening ‘the betrayal’