Evaluation Questions

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

In the beginning of the media course, I already had a good understanding of certain technologies from ICT and having learnt it in the GCSE course. However, I did not know how a camera would be used specifically to shoot a cut or how it can be positioned. Being able to produce an opening sequence gave me the opportunity to learn how to set up a camera, write a script, to edit using final cut pro and much more that I haven’t experienced beforehand.

The first technology that I first came across to tackle was the camera. I had never used it before to the extent of putting it in a certain position and setting it up on the tripod. During the stages of shooting, we were taught terminology for the camera such as panning, tracking, tilt and the 180 degree rule to use at an advantage so we could actually use those camera techniques and understand it. That terminology was the most basic that I had first learnt of: how to control the camera on a tripod and it gave me the ability to expand on what I had first learnt. After this we came across Final Cut Pro. This application allows us to manipulate the footage that we had taken. Yet again, I had never used this software beforehand since it is mainly used to professionally produce film. We were then taught about how to split the footage to create cuts, which we could then put together to make it look as if it had been shot to make it feel as if it is a continuous shot. After we had a hang of the basics of being able to split parts of footage and put them together, as a group we then started to duplicate the edits that we had and worked on them. The advantage of being in a group of four was that we could split up into two groups and work on it separately. The reason to this was that we were able to see what we would come up with, and how the edits would change the meaning of the footage, or how people would see it. Once we had finished creating separate edits, we were then able to analyse what we had both done in individual groups and then merge our most effective edits together. Once we had all integrated our best edits, we had made it into what we found to be our best edit yet. Instead of having the footage being in order from what we shot it in, we changed it around to have the protagonist rising up in the beginning, to create metric montage, and be able to have a voice-over in the beginning to complement the conventions that coming of age movies have. I was then able to see that by using the software Final Cut Pro, you can turn what footage you had into something much greater, and to enhance the meaning that you are trying to get across to the audience.

Sound was also another technology that I and my group had to overcome. We were hoping to get the rights to a song that we thought would be most appropriate for our opening sequence. However, we would have had to pay a fee of £150, which we did not have. To tackle this problem, we decided to create a cover of the song and change it around. I previously had made my own covers at home and had a good understanding of how to produce music, so I shared my knowledge with my group. We created the song by scratch; this included using a pick-up for the guitar to record that instrument and I connected a preamp to the Mac, which then connected to Garageband. This allowed the sound to be transferred into the computer, as well as voice recordings. I used different software that I personally use at home, so using Garageband gave me the opportunity to learn how to produce on that software and it also helped me learn how to mix music better than I had before. The advantage of being able to create our own music is that we were able to produce it to fit our opening sequence, and creating our own music made it more personal , contributing to the genre of ‘coming of age’.

In the marketing area of the opening sequence, I had created a film poster. The film poster was made on Adobe Photoshop, which I had also previously used. It had been a keen hobby of mine. Although, using Photoshop for media gave me the chance to experiment with more advanced features that is on the software to create the poster. I also got the chance to download different fonts that were similar to the other film posters we had analysed, so we could follow the same conventions. I was also able to come across the film poster credits. It was a challenge to find the right font for that but I worked hours on it to eventually come across it. Using Photoshop for media just gave me a chance to empathise the protagonist through the colours, and mostly the whole photograph in the process of making it to give it that personal touch rather than just having the intention to design without much input into it.

For the production opening, I first used Adobe Flash to experiment with images. I had experience with this software beforehand but it was basic knowledge. I had successfully created a production opening with images that represented each element; fire, earth, water and air. Unfortunately, the work that I had made was later on lost and couldn’t be recovered. I used my initiative and later on used Adobe After Effects, which also has the ability to create film-related videos. This software was new to me and I had no knowledge of how to use it. However, I did make the production opening successfully. I had a chance to be able to get to know the software before I started to create it. I then learnt that After Effects is much more suited for production openings than Flash because it makes the footage smoother and it has a tab that has the effects rather than having to create the effect manually, which took quite a lot of time to do.

In the process of constructing this product, I therefore have learnt a lot about certain technologies and have not only discovered but had had expanded my knowledge in certain areas. Producing the opening sequence with a group helped me share my knowledge with them and get knowledge back in areas I would have not known about.