Friday, 23 January 2015

Question 6

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


 

 
  Throughout the making of my thriller opening title sequence I have learnt many different skills including how to use different pieces of equipment, filming and editing. When filming I learnt how to use a camera and tripod, however when I filmed my thriller the second time I did not use a camera or tripod as the camera wasn’t very good quality instead I used an IPhone to film and therefore I did not need a tripod as I wasn’t using a camera. As we were not using a tripod I needed to make sure that all the shots I filmed were steady therefore I had to make sure that before starting to film I made sure that I could keep a steady hand and then I pressed record. I have also learnt that having a storyboard of your thriller helps you to know what shots to film and in which part of the house. The storyboard for my thriller helped me lot when filming as I checked the storyboard to make sure that I filmed all the shots and if I shot the correct shot types.
When I filmed the shot below the first time it wasn’t as steady and the character didn’t look like she was at home and she didn’t look like she was comfortable in her surroundings, however the second time I filmed this shot it was successful as she looked like she was at home reading a magazine like a normal teenage girl.

I also learnt that we needed to have lots of light when filming in order to make sure all shots were light and you could see what was going on in each shot. Therefore when I filmed my thriller I made sure that there was a lot of light and all the lights were on in the places we were filming in the house. We filmed this shot in the conservatory as it had the most light in the house; we decided that this was the best room to film in as the living room was quite dark even with the main light on. This shot was successful as there was plenty of light as we filmed in the day when it was light, this was also the first shot that we filmed as we knew that if we didn’t film this shot first it would start getting dark and we wouldn’t have had as much light to film in. Although I put a filter on all of the shots, the filter did not make the shots darker, this shot was very successful as even with the filter on it was still light and this was the best shot in terms of lighting that I filmed. The first time I filmed this scene at the other location, it wasn't a successful shot as the camera wasn't steady and it was a really long shot, I have improved this shot the second time I filmed.
I learnt that when you are filming you have to stick to the 180 degree rule; this rule is when you are filming you have to stick to one side of the character either left or right in every shot. The first time I filmed using the camera and tripod it was hard to stick to this rule as we didn’t have much space in the first location that I filmed at. However the second time I filmed using an iPhone, I filmed in a different location and this second location was much easy to film in and I did stick to the 180 degree rule. I found it easy to film each time at the same side as I knew which side I needed to be filming from each time.
 

I also learnt that I had to consider composition and framing when filming, this is where you do a shot that either includes or excludes certain parts of the person, object, surrounding etc. an example from my thriller is: the shot below is from my thriller showing the teenage girl walking up the stairs, I filmed from the top of the stairs and held the camera on the floor of the top step and allowed the actress to walk over the camera and my hand, I did this to create an effective and abstract shot. I framed this shot to only include the bottom half of the actress’s body and the stairs so that you could clearly see the actress walking up the stairs. By positioning the camera at floor level on the top step of the stairs and pointing the camera down, the bottom half of the actress’s body was only in the shot. I did this to create an interesting and abstract type of shot, it also created tension and suspense as she was getting closer to where the noises were coming from. This shot also follows the rule of thirds with the character in the middle of the shot, this shows that  she is the important thing in this shot.
 
I have also learnt about framing including the rule of thirds and the golden mean. The golden mean is where you draw a diagonal line through any shot and along that line are the main points of interest. The rule of thirds is when you draw a three by three grid over any shot and the main points of interest are where the lines cross.
 
 
The shot above is from my thriller and it shows that the rule of thirds has been used; the main points of interest in this shot are the magazine (prop), the character and her facial expression and the background. This prop suggests that this character likes reading magazines and that she is a typical teenage girl. We can tell from the characters facial expression that she hasn’t heard the noises yet as she does not look scared.
 
Above is an example of the rule of thirds layout. The rule of thirds is a three by three grid which is drawn over the shot. The table represents this and the circles represent where the main points of interest are in this layout.
I also learnt about sound, in my thriller I didn’t include any sound from the footage itself an apart from when the teenage girl finds the alter-ego and gasps and the noise of the door creaking. I edited out any other sound from the rest of the clips and added replaced it with the soundtrack I created using Garage Band, I also included an audio recording of the noises that the teenage girl hears and put this where it was needed towards the start of my thriller. The little sounds that were already in the footage were made a little louder so that they blended in with the soundtrack that was playing throughout my thriller. The fact that these sounds were blended in with the soundtrack created suspense and showed off my editing skills and my skills with using Garage Band.
 
I have learnt many new skills when editing my thriller opening title sequence. I have learnt how to use iMovie and how to make footage look effective using this editing software. The screenshot below shows how to import footage from a camera onto iMovie, however sometimes you have to upload the footage to iPhoto and then import them to iMovie. I have learnt how to import footage from a camera onto the mac and then edited using the software.
 
 

After importing the footage from the camera to iMovie, all the footage will appear at the bottom of the screen. When it’s at the bottom like in the screenshot above, you then create a new project and then you drag the footage you want up to the top of the page. The screenshot above shows how to import the footage from a camera. I have obtained this skill and now know how to import footage from a camera.
 
The screenshot below shows how to edit the soundtrack. Double click on the sound, which is shown underneath the footage and is green, then a menu will come onto the screen, click on audio and you can make sound louder or quieter. Once you have edited the sound you then click done. The screenshot below shows that I have obtained this skill and I now know how to edit the volume of the soundtrack, it also shows that I have learnt how to use the mac and the editing software iMovie.
 
 
 
The screenshot below shows how to put a filter onto the footage you have edited. I have learnt how to put a filter on the footage you filmed after you have edited it on the mac using iMovie, double click on the clip that you want to put a filter on and then it comes up with a menu on the screen at the bottom of this menu it says filter, click on this and then it comes up with all the filters it has click on the one you want then click done. If you want all the footage to have the same filter, you have to do this each time for each clip. To check that you have put a filter on play the video and you will see if there is a filter on or not.


  As I have put a filter on all of my footage from my thriller, this screenshot is relevant to what I have learnt from using this software as I have actually used this in my thriller. This screenshot also shows that I have learnt how to use the mac and the editing software iMovie.

This screenshot show how to export the final completed project. First you click on share at the top of the page, and then click on export movie making sure that you have a memory stick plugged into the mac. All the footage then gets copied over onto your memory stick. Once you have exported from iMovie, then you can upload your video to YouTube.
 
 
The screenshot above shows that I know how to export completed projects from the mac, it also shows that I have obtained this skill and that I know how to use the mac.
I edited the soundtrack from my thriller using Garage Band, I looked on YouTube to see if I could find a piece of music that wasn’t in any real films and that also suited my thriller well. I found a piece of music that was called “creepy music box” I thought that this soundtrack suited my thriller really well and I think that it also reflected the genre and theme of my thriller. I then started editing the soundtrack on Garage Band; I made the start of the soundtrack quieter I did this by cutting the end of the music which was the quieter part then moving this to the start. I wanted the soundtrack to build the tension in my thriller so by making the sound quieter at the start and louder at the end, it made my thriller
I have also used other technologies throughout my work, these technologies are; YouTube, Prezi, Scribd and Moovly. These technologies have impacted my work as they have allowed me to use a different form of presentation software other than PowerPoint. I used YouTube to upload my thriller, vox pop and preliminary to blogger, to get these three videos that I edited on the mac onto blogger I had to first upload them to YouTube. I used Prezi instead of PowerPoint when making a presentation or analysing a clip of a thriller opening. I used Scribd to upload my PowerPoint and to make my PowerPoint look neat. I also used Moovly, this site allowed me to make a video/ moving presentation when analysing the opening of the thriller Inception.

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