Question 6

Question 6

• 1.
  We have learnta lot of different technologies whilst making this film. There have been many different apps, equipment, websites etc that we have had to use to construct our piece together and the research to go with it. Finding Information We realised that we have skills that we didn’t even know of. For example, finding information online. Through making this product we knew what we had to research and how to find it. So it made it easier and more proficient when doing research as we knew what to type in to ‘Google’ to find what we needed. Google had a positive impact on our research and production as it helped us decide how to put our film sequence together. It allowed us to look at other horror film sequences and it gave us an idea what ours should look like. We also used google to do a lot of our research. For example, how a title, sound, lighting etc should be in a horror film opening. It enabled us to look at different fonts on different websites, such as ‘Cool Text’ and ‘Bright Ideas’ What have we learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Equipment When we were filming our film we learnt about how to use the equipment in different ways. For example, at first we were unsure on how to move the tripod around, how to take the camera off the tripod, do a pan on it etc, but after doing our preliminary task we knew how to do these. In the ghost scene we did a zoom on the face but at first we were unsure on the pace we were going to zoom in at, but after messing around and help from others we got the correct speed. Until we were told and given a tripod, we didn’t know how to use one, how to position it and how it stands up. But during our preliminary task and film making we got the hang of it. After using it quite a lot we knew how high and how wide the legs had to be. The tripod allowed us to have better and more clear shots as it helped keep a still shot in the windy conditions like when we were filming on the promenade.
• 2.
  Adobe Premier Pro Afterwe filmed our sequence we then had to do a lot of editing to produce a whole film. We used Adobe Premier Pro to do this. At first it was quite difficult as we had never used it before so we were unsure what was for what. The more editing we did the more effects we learnt about and knew how to use. For example, the black and white effect on the ghost scene. We also used a ghosting and threshold effect on this scene to give it the sudden flash and distortion effect. After filming our sequences I then downloaded the Premier Pro app at home. This allowed me to become more familiar with this app and figure out better and more effects. Prezi Whilst we were constructing our film we uploaded some of our research using Prezi. This gave our blog a better presentation. Prezi helped keep everything in chronological order because we could change the order of the paths to what we want our audience to see first. Blogger Whilst we was planning and making our film we blogged everything that we did: ideas, audience responses, research on other films etc. Blogger helped us keep track of what we did as we had a post list which showed us what we had posted so we knew if there was anything that needed doing. We also had a draft folder where we hadn’t finished some of our posts, so this helped us see what needed finishing. We briefly used blogger at GCSE so we knew the basics of it but after experimenting we learnt how to publish posts in different ways. For example, by Prezi, Emaze, Slide Share, YouTube and other apps. YouTube YouTube helped us upload our sequences onto our blog. We took ideas from YouTube, such as premier effects, opening sequences, credit ideas, etc, but we also contributed to it by uploading our film sequences onto it which then allowed us to blog them. YouTube had a positive impact on our research and production as it helped us with ideas. For example, it gave us ideas of the type of iconography in a horror film; symbols such as water, empty chair, lamps, darkness. So this helped us with our flashbacks and our clips for our monologue as we filmed/photographed objects which connote death, loneliness etc.
• 3.
  Photoshop We used Photoshopwhen we were editing some of the pictures for our flashbacks. This helped us as we could change the headline of a newspaper without making it look obvious and it give the newspaper an old, stained effect. Photoshop enabled us to make our flashes more realistic and it also helped us create our title of our film ‘Reflection’. Using Photoshop we were able to delete backgrounds, fonts, colour or anything else we didn’t want on the image. For example, our title. This software allowed us to delete the white background and replace it with a dusky grey so get the impression it is the horror genre. Slide Share We found out about a new website as well. This is ‘slide share’. It is basically a website where you upload your power points on to them and you can change your presentation or keep it the same. This was very helpful when we were doing our research as it meant that our blogger didn’t look the same. It was also handy as it is easy and a more formal way to upload PowerPoints onto our blog. Using slideshare meant we didn’t have to mess around with blogger trying to arrange our text and images in a certain way. So this website helped a lot as we could do a presentation on PowerPoint; adding text boxes, moving images, changing the style of the fonts, and change colours. Art Of The Title We was told about the website ‘Art of the Title’ and this helped with the opening of our film. Art of the Title is a website showing different film opening of different genres. Using this website we did some of our research with some clips on here. For example, ‘Halloween’ and ‘The Conjuring’. Analysing these film openings gave us an idea of what horror films look like. It helped us with the conventions, stereotypes, colour, mise-en- scene, camera work etc. Looking into other horror films allowed us to fit the conventions of horror. Lighting When we were deciding on the images for the flashbacks we also had to decide on the kind of lighting we would be using. For example, when we was taking a photo of a door handle we had to dim the lights and put the blinds down to give it a dull and dark effect as this is what you would expect in the horror genre. We then had a highlight of a flash on the door handle to emphasise the shot. The lighting in these flashes and in our videos were important because we had to make the audience’s mood and atmosphere suspense so the darkness of these images and quite lighting of the flashes creates tension and attracts them at the same time.
• 4.
  Through the makingof our film opening our relationship with these different hardware and software technologies has changed. To be able to produce our film opening we had to do research and planning before filming it. For us to do that we had to create different accounts on different software's. For example, ‘YouTube’. After producing our film we then contributed to YouTube and uploaded our videos on to it so this allowed us to share our sequence onto Blogger. We also created accounts on Emaze, Prezi, SlideShare, Blogger etc. Creating an account on these websites allowed us to make our research and planning look more presentable. It allowed us to rearrange text boxes, images, titles and more which meant we could organise our work the way we wanted to. After completing our research and planning we then contributed towards these websites by uploading our work on to them. After we did this we could then upload them on to our blog. Our access to cameras, tripods and premier pro also led us to become media producers. The use of the cameras and tripods meant we were able to film our sequence. The tripods allowed us to avoid shaky and unsteady shots as it helped keep the filming still and smooth. Because of the tripods we had access to it made our film look like other horror films. The use of the cameras also made us media producers because using these different cameras we were able to film our sequence. Without these we would have no film due to having no camera to use. Using the cameras and tripods we were able to film our different sequences which meant we could then use premier pro to put it together. Premier pro gave us the availability to put our film together and edit any parts that needed changing or that we thought needed effects added onto them. Using these made us into media producers because we were capable of filming our sequences, editing them and then putting it all together to produce our own opening to a film.