Question 6 PowerPoint ScriptThroughout the production of my main task I had the opportunity to develop my skills, using a variety of technologies. This includes software (like Adobe Premier Pro) and hardware (like the GoPro Hero 4).

This is the camera I used to film the entirety of my title sequence. I chose it because of it capability to shoot at 120fps. This would allow me to get the slow motion that I’d planned to achieve in my film.

As I’d be using the camera frequently, I needed to familiarise myself with its utilities in order to get the best result. For every take, I left the camera in 720p at 120fps but I commonly changed the shooting mode from “wide”, “medium” and “narrow”, though I discovered that “narrow” is still very wide.

Other than this, the only option I would change was the Bluetooth connectivity, in order to connect with my phone. One of the most useful things about using the GoPro Hero 4 Silver, is that it has the ability to connect to a Bluetooth phone with the GoPro application. This app allows you to control almost any setting on the GoPro from your phone. It also gives you a live feed from the GoPro and so you can frame you shot perfectly before filming.

The only let down was that, at times I wouldn’t be able to connect to the GoPro very quickly and with limited amounts of light while shooting, it was quite frustrating. I got over this problem by connected both devices far prior to when I needed to shoot, this saved time and reduced the chance of issues arising.

I used a variety of Adobe programs to help me in post, although not all of them contributed to the final film. Over my editing period I used Premier Pro, After Effects and Photoshop. Thought the work I did in Photoshop wasn’t used in the end. I also used Flash, but that was in Production.

Premier Pro is the program I used the most in post-production. It’s what I edited the whole film on including audio, video, and titles. I already had an extensive knowledge of the program because I’d used it to edit films for my YouTube channel, but I still managed to learn new things about it. One example being how to use a sixteen-point garbage matte. This is an effect that allows parts of one video show through another, like in this frame from the film (show screenshot).

The only thing I used After Effects for, was to create the rain effect that accompanies the main title. I thought it was important to have some kind of animation along with the title that relates to themes within the rest of the film. I made the rain using a particle generator within After Effects that I’d never used before. Though it wasn’t in the final film I also tried to track the camera of the sleeping bag shot, in order to attach a title to the background on the scene but after some difficulty with computer speed I decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

I originally used Flash to create my film production logo, but when it came to editing the main task, I decided that, to better suit conventions of production logos, I needed to make it more colourful and interesting and so that is what I did. I did this by adding colours were I thought it appropriate. I’d already learnt how to do this kind of animation on flash from doing GCSE Core ICT and so didn’t learn and extra skills from this program.

The tripod I used was the Hama Star 61 which is my personal tripod that costs around £20. Unfortunately it’s not very smooth when being used for panning and other movement; fortunately there are only two shot which needed movement and also I learnt that slow motion lessens the staggering effect that the tripod creates.

I used a couple of website for various different stages of production. Most importantly I used YouTube to upload the video, making it public. I’ve done this many times before and so it was fairly easy to do. In terms of using Tumblr, I was not so familiar with it and I found embedding Prezis and Slideshares difficult to begin with but over time I learnt how to utilise most of Tumblr’s functions.

Overall, whilst doing this main task, it has been quite an event split between using skills I had before and learning and using new knowledge. I think that is great in some ways, as my efficiency isn’t effected by what I don’t know but I still pick up tricks along the way.