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

Introduction

During the creation of my product, as a group, we experimented with a range of different technologies in each stage of the production process. These technologies ranged from components that had a direct result on the visuals of the product, such as the DSLR camera, as well as ones that aided the pre-production process, such as the use of a blog and social networking sites. Throughout the entire process, our technical knowledge improved, allowing us to endeavor with more complex devices, in turn giving us a more desirable finished product.

DSLR Camera• When carrying out our preliminary tasks, we practised with compact Handy-cam style video

cameras. From extensive practise and experimentation, we eventually found this technology to be restricting, as it was heavily reliant upon it's 'automatic function', which meant that the settings within the camera could not be altered to suit our preferences and the demands and variables in the shooting environment, such as the light levels. In order to combat this, we began to experiment with DSLR cameras, such as the Canon 70D, which was the main camera that we used for the shoot. This was a much more versatile option, as it allowed us to utilise the 'manual mode', where we could change adjust:

• White balance - to find an appropriate colour mix• Aperture - allowing us to experiment with depth of field • Rate of ‘Frames per second’ - making for a more professional and smooth cinematic feel• ISO – allowing us to adapt to an outdoor film set where the light levels deteriorated at around

5pmThese settings were learnt prior to the final shoot, through video tutorials on sites such as Youtube, as well as through personal experimentation.

LensesAlso, the versatility of the DSLR camera allowed us to exchange lenses on our cameras to enhance particular settings, enabling us to obtain the specific shots that we desired. We used: • a 50mm prime lens, which allowed us to use apertures of around f/1.8, letting more light into the

camera whilst also providing us with a deep depth of field. • a 70-300mm telephoto lens, which allowed us to video from distance or alternatively get very

close up detailed shot types, due to its zooming ability. • a 24-105mm USM lens, which was particularly useful, as the ultrasonic motor within the

lens allowed us to gain a smooth tracking autofocus. • more specialist filters to, such as the hexagon filter, which was used for shots such as at 0:53, and

allowed us to create an abstract POV shot, illustrating the character's disorientation.

If we were to use the Handy-cam style video camera, as we did in our preliminary task, we would have been unable to access shots such as these, due to it's non-interchangeable lens.

Using Multiple CamerasDuring the shoot, we had access to four cameras: three SLR's (Canon 70D and two Canon 600D's) and one compact sports camera, a GoPro. Through further practise and experimentation after our preliminary tasks, we managed to gain an insight into how to most effectively use the cameras simultaneously. I feel that this was a large contributing factor to the success of our product, as firstly, it gave us an extensive range of shots to choose from to use in our final edit, but also, allowed us to cut between different shots from different cameras in the editing process, which in turn gave our product a less static aesthetic. Again, this would not have been possible, if we were to only employ single camera techniques, as we would have most likely done prior to the production stage. A constraint of using three cameras however, was that we had to replicate the settings across each camera in order to receive consistency. Unfortunately, we did not do this to a suitable degree of accuracy prior to the shoot, which was a hindrance, although we acquired a knowledge after this of the best way for it to be done.

Audio Recording Another factor that we had to consider on the shoot of the film, was the diegetic audio, as our product contained dialogue from the main character. Previous to this project, as a group, we considered the use of the internal microphone within the camera to be the most practical way to record our audio on set. However, we then decided to try using methods that would allow us to get more clarity within our recording, so we began to experiment with an external boom microphone with a dead cat extension, as would be used industrially. We decided to record our audio with this device and then compared it to the audio from the camera, and found that it offered a much more precise, better quality, versatile audio product, that could more easily be enhanced in post-production. We learnt the best ways to do this practically, by investigating how different gains and distances away from the audio source affected the volume and clarity of the audio, until we found an ideal setting that we eventually used on set.

Web 2.0 Software

In addition to the hardware, there was also a variety of softwares that we learnt and then made use of, beginning with the pre-production process. In order for us to create the best product possible, it was imperative that we gained feedback from our audience. The technologies that best allowed us to do this, were social media platforms, such as Facebook, and an online blog, accessed through web 2.0. Although we each had prior knowledge of how to use these networks, it was not until the pre-production stage when we realised that we had to take a different approach in order to engage with our audience. For example, we had to learn how to set up and manage a Facebook page, whereas we only had prior knowledge of how to run a personal account. We learnt the best way to do this by observing existing marketing pages of exemplar film products, such as Ill Manors, and also by using other websites to gauge a further understanding of how to best approach this. Eventually however, we got to grips with these, and used both the Blog and Facebook as a way of keeping the audience in touch with the progression of our product, whilst also gauging specific feedback from them, through a variety of posts and polls.

Animation SoftwareWe also relied upon a variety of softwares post-production. From the preliminary task stage to the final shoot, we advanced from using free default apple programmes to an industry standard software package, the Adobe Creative Suite. The first of these programmes was Adobe After Effects, which we used to create our animated ident for our production company, Blood Orange. This was a significant step up from programmes such as iMovie, as it is specifically for creating animations, whereas in iMovie this feature is compromised, as the software is multi-purpose and is simplified significantly for ease of use. However, using After Effects was a much more complicated process and required a substantial amount of learning of the software followed by practise. The most significant aspect of the software that I learnt during this stage was how to use 'Keying' to animate my text at specific points in the animation, in order to ensure complete accuracy and the method of importing new fonts into the application that were downloaded from dafont.com, which were more suitable for the horror genre.

Editing SoftwareThe main software that was responsible for the post-production aspect of our product was Premiere Pro, which is also a constituent of the Adobe Creative Suite. Again, this is a huge advancement on Apple's iMovie, as again, it is an industrial product, so is more capable of allowing the user to edit accurately and adopt a range of specific effects to their video sequence. For example, it hosts a colour correction facility. Due to this, it was the main editing programme that we used. Using iMovie for our preliminary tasks allowed us to gauge a fundamental understanding of the editing procedure and taught us a multitude of skills that were transferrable into Premiere Pro, such as how to use the trimming and snipping tools, as well as how to apply basic video transitions. However, once again there were many other aspects of the software that were more difficult to grasp, such as the general layout of the programme's interface and how to adjust and enhance audio using volume controls and effects such as reverbs, however once again, this issue was overcome through extensive practise and by viewing online step-by-step tutorials