Evaluation Question 6What have you learnt about technologies from the

process of constructing this product?

Equipment and Software

DSLR Camera• The DSLR camera could be considered our most important

and most valuable (literally) piece of equipment. Without these cameras we would not have been able to record the footage for our opening in high definition quality. The inability to have high quality picture would have meant that the opening would have mot seemed realistic and believable, therefore making it seem much more unprofessional. The use of the cameras was also effective because it enabled us to further our understanding of them practically rather than theoretically. For example when it came to setting white balance in different lighting (e.g. outside the house) we had to set up the white balance to appropriate suit the natural light outside.

Tripod• The tripod was significant in our filming

process as it enabled us to have variations with our filming angles. They enabled us to have quite steady shots when needed. For example when Frank is walking past the camera to go throughout the upstairs hallway and when he walks past the bloody, dangling arm of the bathroom, this steady shot allowed the audience to have a clear view of the hallway and the bloody hand in the bathroom, signifying that he has committed a murder.

The MACs• The Macs themselves were one of our most

important tools as they contains all the software we needed to complete the production of our film.

• Each bit of software within the Mac was useful in completing of our project, for example used iPhoto quite a lot, mainly to obtain audience feedback for different blogposts (e.g. music) and also feedback on our actual opening. This enabled us to see what works in thriller openings and what didn’t and helped us to identify what elements of a thriller we should use in our own opening.

• The main strength of the macs would have to be the availability of applications as well as the ability to store our unfinished project as we went along, including any footage we did not want to lose.

Lighting• The portable LED lights were very effective

when it came to our actual filming mainly because the interior of the house was particularly dark when the lights were turned off. We did not want to keep the actual house lights on as it didn’t give an the ominous feel that we wanted to achieve.

• Therefore the use of the LED lights enabled us to maintain quite a dark and eerie look around the house while keeping visibility of Frank himself and important objects around the house (e.g. The broken picture frame.

• For example when filming the close up of Frank’s face towards the end of our opening we sued the LED lights for both key and fill light to compensate for the darkness of the room and to also create a more sinister appearance.

• The lights were very easy to use and did not make much work to figure out suitable placement of the lights when actually filming

Final Cut Pro • Final cut pro was our most important tool

during post production. This enabled us to piece together our entire thriller opening and it was a very effective and efficient editing software. It helped create a very believable film opening that conformed to conventional thriller opening.

• For example using this software we shortened and edited all our footage together, selected suitable transitions, edit in music and special effects like the negative flashes on screen to indicate something was wrong and increase the tension of the opening, building suspense further.

Prezi, Blogger, SlideShare• Prezi and Slide share were the two most effective

methods for sharing things like evaluation points questions and construction posts to evaluate different aspects of our project e.g. focus groups on thriller openings and what aspects were most effective.

• Both were a bit difficult to work at first but after observing others use slide share, and several attempts at using Prezi for different evaluation questions I became used to both as they became easier to use.

• They proved very convenient as you could simple make a presentation and quickly upload these onto the blogs using (Blogger). Blogger was also very effective as it is the place where all of our posts and information are collated all in one place, creating ease of access and convenience.