What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
When using the camera equipment to film our film opening there were strengths and weaknesses. The main strength about using the camera that we used is that it was quite easy to use. This was good because I do not have much experience using cameras and by using this one I could use it handheld, attach it to a dolly or a tripod which made it easily accessible to use because it was quite small and easy to transport between our different locations of places to film.
Unfortunately the weakness of the camera that we used is that when we filmed in a dark location it struggled to film the shot clear. Some of the shots came up slightly pixelated and of not good quality which unfortunately did not show on the camera when filming but only once uploaded to the editing program did it show the pixilation. The problems we encountered whilst filming was getting shot two where the camera is very close to the floor and tilts up so it looks up at Agent Thomas's face. This is because the tripod does not go down this low so then we had to do a handheld shot. When we tried to get a handheld shot it took quite a few attempts to get a shot that did not wobble that started low and tilted up to look at Agent Thomas's face. However, it was worth doing this shot as it was a good shot that looked good in our film opening and we did manage to get a shot where the camera did not wobble.
The main problem when filming was trying to get good lighting for the shots filmed in a dark location. Each time we wanted to film a dark scene the shot looked lighter in the camera and therefore we kept making the room darker and darker which once shots were put on the editing program IMovie they appeared even darker which made the quality of the shots not as good. To overcome this problem when we wanted a shot to be dark but to make sure someone's face was highly visible for example then we used lighting to highlight what needed to be seen in the shot.
In our film opening we used a dolly to track Agent Thomas into a boardroom where she receives her mission statement. However, originally in the storyboard we wrote that we were going to film one long shot tracking her into the boardroom until she sat down at the table. When we came to actually filming this shot it turned out that the dolly would not fit through the door of the boardroom. Therefore we had to change the shot to a match on action so that the dolly never had to go through the doorway whilst it was set up (we had to put the dolly down into compact size to then set up again once we were in the room). Once we did the match on action and edited these shots together on IMovie, we are happy that we used a match on action because this went smoothly and there are no jumps in the editing, so the shots look realistic, the dolly did not wobble so the dolly ran smoothly along the floor in the building we used.
The editing software that me and my group decided to use was IMovie. The good outcome that came from using IMovie is that I have now learnt how to add titles to a clip, how to add non diegetic sound e.g. background music, how to cut and edit clips and add transitions so that shots move on from one another smoothly and that there are not jumps between shots, I have also learnt how to add sound effects, to use the picture on picture setting for example when we did the scene of Grant and Agent Wilson talking on the phone that one person is shown in the corner of the screen so you can see from both sides the conversation happening between characters. I have also learnt how to adjust how loud the sound is for example when the phone rings in the background of where Agent Wilson is, the next shot of the close up of the phone ringing we needed to turn the sound down slightly so that the shots linked up well with a transition in between them also.
The main problem that we encountered when using IMovie was getting a full split screen when Grant and Agent Thomas were on the phone to one another that we originally stated we were going to use on our storyboard. Although, when this did not work we learnt how to use the picture on picture tool and then we could still see both characters when on the phone together. In the end we liked that the split screen did not show the same amount of each character and that Grant was in a small box in the corner as it allowed us to see Agent Wilsons facial expressions more clearly so that the audience can see that he is actually happy that Agent Thomas has escaped even though Grant thinks that Agent Wilson is one of his men and that he will help kidnap her again, even though he will not as he is an under cover MI5 agent.
Next time if I were to do another film opening I would ensure the sound and lighting is good on the camera by testing the camera in our location first and uploading it to the editing program to look at and listen to each shot to see whether it is how we want it to be before doing the actual filming for our film opening. I would also ensure that the editing program can carry out the function of what we put on our storyboard e.g. split screen even though luckily in this case we prefer what we did with our film with picture on picture. I would also make sure that we can fit a dolly through a doorway if we want to track something. Generally my group worked well together, by splitting the amount of group blog work between us and ensuring that we could edit and film together most of the time.
By using blogger to log my work it allowed me to be organised before filming to ensure that our costumes, props, locations, scripts, shot lists etc were all put together in preparation to the filming. It also meant that any research into the genre of our film could be posted in order to help us with the generic conventions we would use in our film and title sequence order, font, size and positioning etc. However, I did not like that on blogger I could not crop photos which made it difficult to import some photos that I wanted.
Overall I have learned how to use different hardware and software technologies including Cameras, Macs, Blogger and IMovie. This has all been beneficial when creating my media product 'The Escape'.
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