Evaluation 1

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

By enrolling on the media studies course there are many things we have learnt about the process of constructing all types of media products, from a simple preliminary task exercise to learn about continuity in a sequence, to creating the final product that is our opening sequence for 'Ouija'.

Preliminary task

Opening sequence

To film each of these we used a sony camcorder, this itself was new to us as we had never had any experience with this level of filming, with each of us only filming minor things on smart phones or webcams. With the use of a sony camcorder we were able to learn about correct framing of shots and the importance of it. The use of the light on the camera also became very useful when filming some of our dark running shots. This allowed us to film later in the day and gain a better effect from the darkness surrounding the character.

Sony camcorder

Tripod

Strengths of using the camera equipment that we had were that with the tripod we were able to film shots that were steady and not wobbling all over the place. This improved the quality of our film by a significant amount, making it look much less amateur and so nothing distracts the audience from the narrative, as a wobbly camera may remove focus from the plot.

However, there were plenty of problems with using this equipment too. As we were filming in the forest we struggled to get the tripod to stand correctly on the uneven ground, so as a result we had to keep re-adjusting the legs of the tripod. We also struggled with filming in the dark as the light from the camera was inadequate for most of the shots but offered some support. To create better lighting in some of our shots, we used flash lights at a distance to provide a good amount of light without being obvious.

To edit all of our footage we used final cut pro. We learnt from the very start of the media studies course how to edit footage as well as great effects and video transitions such as fading in, altering the lighting, overlapping sequences, avoiding jumps and blurring the motion. As the course proceeded we improved on all these skills, gaining the ability to edit our opening sequence and add in necessary lighting effects to create a better atmosphere to our opening sequence. Using the apple macs, we learnt ho to import footage from the camera and work on several projects at once.

All this technology helped us to build our knowledge and we learnt a significant amount throughout the process about creating and editing film. We were able to see the effect of storyboards and how when on location it is difficult to execute some shots the way we intended, provoking improvisation. However we learned after that we are also able to manipulate our raw footage to suit us further with effects. For example when we realised that our footage was too dark we used the balance colour tool to make the shot lighter and more viewable.