I have learnt a lot about the different types of technologies that are involved in creating a film opening.
Camera:
For our film opening we used a Canon EOS 550D, which we borrowed from the school. As a group we hadn't had much experience using the camera apart from filming our preliminary task, but we did not get a lot of time to fully understand all the features of the camera. So when we came to shoot our film, we allocated some time before shooting where we could play around with the camera and test out different shots and experiment with shots we hadn't tried. For example, we were experimenting with the camera and Georgia managed to film my fairy lights going from blurry to focus whilst panning down, which we ended up using when we came to editing. From this I have learnt that by experimenting with the camera, trying different shots and getting used to the camera and its features you can have a wider range of shots available for you to use. This then can improve the quality and standard of a film opening.
When we came to shoot our film, we allocated some time before shooting where we could play around with the camera and test out different shots and experiment with shots we hadn't tried. For example, we were experimenting with the camera and Georgia managed to film my fairy lights going from blurry to focus whilst panning down, which we ended up using when we came to editing.
From this I have learnt that by experimenting with the camera, trying different shots and getting used to the camera and its features you can have a wider range of shots available for you to use. This then can improve the quality and standard of a film opening. We also found that the 50mm lens was most suitable for filming mid shots, 75mm for long shots and the 35mm lens for wide shots, this allowed us to use the camera lenses effectively. However looking back at our final product there are shots that I can pick out that we could have improved upon by using a different lens or using a different technique. From this I have learnt new skills that I can use in future projects.
Final Cut Pro:
To edit our film opening we used the software, Final Cut Pro. Again we had used this prior to doing our main task, however that had not been since our preliminary task, meaning we were all out of practise and had forgotten how to use some of the features of the software. This meant that on our first few days of editing we spent finding all the features and getting used to using the software, as there was lots to take in and understand. I have had previous experience with editing software such as iMovie which is a simpler version of final cut pro, so I was able to get used to using final cut pro quite quickly. There are many features with in final cut pro, we had a selection of tools that we had found, for example we used a tool which allowed us to change the pace of some shots making them faster or slower. To slow down or speed up a clip, I used the short cut pressing 'Command J' then typing in how much faster or slower we wanted the clip to be.
We used this a lot as we found that some of our shots looked better in slow motion, we slowed down the shot of the fairy lights and the diary, we wanted the pace of our film opening to be slow as that follows the conventions of a traditional film opening to a psychological thriller.Our shots were filmed with low key lighting but the lighting changes throughout our shots, due to the time of day they were each filmed at so we used the contrast tool too make sure each shot had the same low key lighting. The colour of the shots can help to convey the emotions and themes we were trying to portray, the darker purple/blue hue of each shot connotes, sadness and coldness, which are our characters emotions.
Once we had finished editing, we needed to convert all our footage and put it onto Youtube. To do this you need to click on 'Edit' then 'Export' and chose 'Using quicktime conversion', this then lead you a page to choose where to save the film and settings which can be changed.
Sound
We had to find music from a royalty free source, this took some time to find music that we felt portrayed the emotions of our character but also the genre of the film. Once we has found a piece of music that we felt fit our criteria we needed to edit the music so that it fit with the film opening. For example we made it quite and louder at different points in the opening, such as when Callie runs out the door a wind chime plays as the door is opened. To hear the white noise we quietened the music, we did this by using a tool that looked like a fountain pen for the tool bar and select parts of the soundtrack that we wished to change the volume of. We could then drag the points we had made in the track allowing us to change the decibels of the music.
In our draft we did not have any white noise, this was picked up by A2 students that we asked to analyse our film. This was because our background noise had been deleted, this meant we had to reinsert all of the white noise back into the draft and under the right shot. This caused us problems as we had to find the correct sound clips, but we worked out a way to systematically go through each clip and find the correct sound clip. Once we had down this we altered the volume of the white noise so that it sounded realistic. This all helps the film opening to flow.
Blogger:
We have had to use blogger throughout our pre- production, production and post-production, which then contributes to our final product. Blogger was quite easy to use, however I did have to research how to insert some videos from my computer, this is because they would not work in the blog port. However by researching and using Youtube I found ways around this problem and was able to upload my videos.
Prezi
I have used Prezi within my blog to present some of my blog posts. I had originally had no previous experience with using Prezi, but after researching about it I found that it was an interactive presentation. Making a Prezi was quite easy to understand as it works like any other presentation software, however I came across a problem when I needed to put it into my blog. I had seen my peers using it, but had taking screenshots of their presentations. I wanted to be able to view my Prezi in my blog post so that it was still interactive, so I researched 'how to embed a Prezi on blogger'. After researching I found the solution seeing that it was very simple to embed the Prezi, there is a button which allows you to copy the html and paste it into my blog post.
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