Evaluation - Question 6

Q6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Before the actual day of shooting the film I went to a camera master class to brush up on camera skills and practice on them, I learnt how to use the tracks and I rehearsed some tricky camera movements, like tracking, and slow but steady panning whilst keeping the same pace.
Using the camera
• I used a Canon XHAI camera. As well as learning to use this camera I learnt the simple things of inserting the portable battery and the wall charger battery, although the wall charger was not needed on the day of filming and using the tape.
• Using the tripod allowed the camera to do a variety of movements and techniques. It allowed me to do panning camera movements, angles. It also evens out and keeps balance in the frame, using the spirit level. This came to use for the main camera movement of panning which is used in most shots.
• The camera itself has useful techniques like the zoom, I could change the pace of zooms to fast or slow, whichever was appropriate. To have back up shots just in case we didn’t like the type of movement or shot we done. The director in my group suggested we shoot many shots, of many angles, and different camera movements with different paces of zooms too in order to give us a wide selection to choose from and to avoid having to re-shoot. We done a zoom of the door, a tracking through the door and a still shot of the door as a back up for extra and variety shots.
• Another useful camera technique was using the focus. Although I had no experience using it with this video camera I knew from my own knowledge how to use a focus from a SLR camera which is exactly the same way with this video camera. We did shots with and without focus in order to see which suited better.
• There was one shot I had to shoot using tracks. Before the filming day I had practice using it for the first time, I learnt how to use it and set it up and the effect it has on shots. Using tracks was a very good technique; it also looked very professional, smooth and blended in well with the other following shots. However, I did not practice using the tracks at the same setting of where I was filming. This became a problem as there was only little space for the tracks to come through as we were tracking through the door, so it got stuck a lot while tracking through it and this caused problems as it ruined the shots, causing it to look rough and not soft and smooth. We then tried positioning the tracks differently and practiced which way worked best. We then shot it and in the end got some good and smooth shots.
• Before filming we found it pointless to use a Sennheiser micro phone as our opening sequence has no diegetic sounds needed instead it has a non diegetic soundtrack played throughout the opening sequence. However, we did not want to take a risk in limiting all the things we could do so we used the sound equipment just in case we changed our mind, or to give us more options and choice when it came to editing.

Editing

The process after shooting was editing.
From previous practices of using the programme for editing, Adobe Premiere Pro, I knew what to expect when it came to editing our sequence and how to edit it, using effects and titles etc.

• When it came to editing it was quite easy. I have previous knowledge on using the software therefore I found it easier to use; the editing task went very well. I learnt something new during this task, I already knew how to create the titles but before I was not familiar with changing the background colour, changing gradients, creating shadows and glows on fonts, I learnt this through the process and improved on them skills very well. Although I gained skills of making titles I did not use all of them in the main task. We decided not to use the glow as we felt it didn’t suit the frame. A shadow was on the title automatically and we removed it making it settle into the frame, looking professional.
• Before constructing the opening sequence I had practice in digitizing, putting shots into the timeline, adding effects and titles and changing the speed and duration of them. The more I practiced this the more It became easier and quicker to use.
• During the task I developed on decorating the titles, through gradients and changing colours and I also learnt how to import soundtracks onto the timeline which I previously never had experience doing but when I did do it, there was no problems.
• Before the task we deciding on using one type of transition effect, the cross dissolve, we stuck to that idea for all the shots as we tried out a variety of others but in the end the original idea to use the cross dissolve was the best. However, when making the titles we did not know that we would need effects for them and so in the making of the titles we realised it looked tacky with no transition effects. We then decided to use the same cross dissolve effect for the titles, though it took too long to dissolve in the frame and too quick to dissolve out. We then looked at other similar dissolves and decided on the additive dissolve which blended in well with the sequence and the other transitions on the other shots. These effects

Summary
• In summary I have improved my skills of using the camera and techniques such as the focus, the zoom and the changing the pace of the zoom to make it faster or slower whilst filming the shot. This was used in the back up shots but was not used in the actual sequence because we preferred the tracks more.
• I was confident in the use of using the tripod and improved skills in using the tracks. The shot where the camera tracks through the door was used with tracks.
• I became more confident in using Adobe Premiere Pro when it came to digitizing, aligning shots in sequence in the timeline and adding on transitions. I improved and learnt how to customize titles and import soundtracks, changing speed and duration of effects and shots. The duration of the last title was extended, and the titles during the moving images were shortened.
• I have improved a lot in camera movements like panning and tracking by making them steady and smooth and consistent in continuity. This is shown from the the establishing shot of the room, then showing a pan of the room, it then cross dissolves into close ups of the elements in the room, giving us a closer look.
• the soundtrack was appropriate for it’s use, it went really well with the shots, it started soft and subtle with a reasonably slow pace which went well with the slow shots and soft dissolves in them.
• When filming the shot of the frame, we should have used a pan instead of a still shot which caused disruption when it came to editing because we only had the still shots to choose from and no other variety
• We imported a font Adobe Premiere Pro but it wouldn’t work. The letters would not show up. So we had to choose the fonts already on the adobe premiere pro software.
• When it came to shooting different angles, some were difficult, although we used a spacious setting, when it came to certain shots we had to corner the camera in small places making it a difficult to position and film in tight spaces.• When using the tracks it was hard to get it through the door, whilst moving the camera around and keeping the pace steady all at the same time, we spent some time repositioning the tracks so it wouldn’t get stuck.
• We realised the filming needed to be done in a certain time. As it gets dark quickly and we used natural daytime lighting coming from the window. We had to make sure we finished all our shots before it got dark.
• Our opening sequence was longer then the soundtrack so we had to edit the soundtrack by repeating the last sounds. It was difficult at first to make the sound sound un-edited, by using the razor tool it cut out small stubbles in the sound which helped the repeated sounds we added on the end blend in.