Evaluation 6

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

During the process of creating my media product, I managed to gain experience and knowledge of what goes into the production of  a film by using the many different technologies. The main tools I used consisted of the Macs and the software programme Final Cut Exppress and Garage Band. Unfortunately for me, the last time I used the Mac was in year 9 so I started of a tad rusty in terms of using Garage Band and I was a complete novice to Final Cut, however, I started to feel really comfortable after using the different tools and software in the many different tasks. Nonetheless, there were times when I got stuck and wasn't sure what to do, but thankfully I was able to turn to the How-to-guides on youtube to figure it out. The programme Final Cut was vital for the creation of my media product because without it, my film wouldn't have looked half as good nor professional.

From using Final Cut I was able to edit my footage by adding special effects to it; such as the light rays I used when my main character was enduring a flashback, to show the that she was transcending into a dream-like state. I also used After Effects to create the credits, this was sometimes frustrating as I had a few difficulties with this as I kept changing my mind on whether I wanted the credits to overlay the film or be placed on a black page, to be more abstract.



The left shot shows the original clip and the right one shows it after I used the colour correction tool.







 There was a limited amount of editing involved in my preliminary. In contrary to my final thriller opening as I had many different editing techniques involved such as, zooms, fade in fade out, cross fades etc. I felt far more confident using the equipment, software's and websites  this time around as I was fully informed about what they are, what they did and how to use it.

Tripod: The tripod was useful and essential to the filming of my production, preliminary and thriller opening because it helped to stabilise shots that needed to be static, helping to make it look more professional. My skills with the tripod definitely improved because the first time I used it, I didn't realise that i could have extend the legs therefore I was carrying the tripod when I wasn't to get a higher angle


Camera: I used a Sony Handycam camera to film all my preliminary videos and my final thriller. Due to this being a fairly simplistic camera I didn't have to worry much about how to use it as it was fairly straight forward. However a disadvantage of this camera was the focussing, as other cameras you're able to change your focus by twisting the lens, this camera didn't have this feature and during the editing phase of my production I noticed that there was a part of my film that lost focus. Another issue I had with the cameras was that the batteries kept dying which interrupted the filming process and delayed the schedule.

Blogger: I had used Blogger fairly briefly before starting my media course but nowhere near in as much depth. I enjoyed changing the layouts and I learnt very quickly how to embed different features such as pictures and videos on my blog which once I knew how to do allowed me to become more creative and productive with it.






Google: I used Google for all of my research on genre and sub-genres, theorists, and conventions. I did a lot of in-depth research to find out about thrillers that have been released, producers and distributors.


Final Cut Express: Final Cut Express is the software I used to edit my thriller opening. I was a compete novice with using this particular software, however through the many different tasks we did, I soon become accustomed to it.

Youtube: This website was definitely important in the upcoming stages of planning for my thriller; as I used it to research other thrillers from the same genre as my film. This site was also helpful for the publication of my thriller as I tried to upload my thriller straight onto Blogger and it just wasn't working so I quickly resolved the issue and uploaded it to Youtube then embedded the code to my blog.

After Effects: I used After Effects to create my titles for my opening. I found it fairly simple to use as I wanted to make my titles simplistic. I only added an animation on the movie title because I wanted to make it stand out, I downloaded the font from Dafont.com it was called "28 Days Later" and then added the emotion of "Office lights" onto it.


Art of The Title: Art of the Title was used in the planing and research stage; I used this site to get a better understanding on how professional film openings begin. This site helped with the placement of the titles and also an idea of font styles as I watched film openings from films from the psychological genre as I wanted to see what effects they used. This was really beneficial for me as it inspired me to create my credits in a similar fashion.

Was my opening successful?

My thriller was successful because I believe that I have fulfilled the task, to the best of my ability. My thriller is clearly a psychological thriller through the conventions I used such as the abstract storyline and intense start which builds up suspense. I think the soundtrack worked well with the video as it wasn't to cliche and over exaggerated, it was fairly subtle as it allowed the visual to narrate the story, rather than the other way round. Moreover, through the array of different shots I've used to engage my audience and present my narrative with the use of match on action to ensure the continuity of the film was spot on and flowed well, making it easier for the audience to follow. In preparation for my thriller, I watched many film opening to ensure my titles were correct, I made sure they were bold and clear for the audience to see. I truly believe that I have improved massively since my preliminary project in every way from filming and using different angles and shots to editing and using different softwares and effects. I also think I have a better appreciation for the producers and editors of films as I now know that this is isn't as easy as I'd originally though, I also think this has made me view media and its institutions in a different light. As an actress myself, I've only looked at the actors and directors of films and programmes and never really thought about the all the people behind the scenes and how important they really are to the production of a film. I have gained a lot of confidence in using editing software like Final Cut and using different sites and programmes, I believe that I'm far more knowledgeable in the media of films and I think this project has really opened my eyes to the vast array of film genres out there. I'm happy to say that I really have dramatically improved over this course and I hope to keep learning and improving.