Main Task Final

February feedback

Your web-log looks impressive.  Ensure that creative technologies have been used to present your evaluation.

Complete the evaluation thoroughly

Put the preliminary task and your production as last posts then the questions

Add any extra elements to the research and planning.

Set targets for what you need to do over half-term to fully complete the coursework

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My Main task was of a higher standard to my preliminary, due to the increased length of time we were given to create it. The preliminary task was filmed during one lesson and we were given a story board to copy, instead of being given the opportunity to create our own. I had no knowledge of the camera and the editing software when I filmed my preliminary task, so practicing with this footage enabled me to make my main task more professional.

From the Preliminary task, I learned how to create a storyboard and a script and how to use the 180 degree rule whilst filming two people having a conversation. I also briefly learned how to use Premiere Pro to edit footage and continuity editing, however whilst transferring these skills to the main product, I developed them all and learned how to use them to make them look professional. 

Although I had edited short videos on the MAC's before , I'd never actually made something that required so much detail and I had never made sound bridges or transitions before. This is probably why our preliminary task didn't look as professional as our final product because we were very inexperienced and didn't include sound editing or any technical edits, we simply put the different clips together in a chronological order and had the help of our teacher to create a match on action and the green screen explosion at the end. We didn't really consider the way the lighting looked or how the camera should be positioned, but in our final task we prioritised the small elements like this and doing so made it look more professional. 

The camera shots we had to use in the preliminary task were given to us on a story board and due to our lack of knowledge of continuity editing, the video did not flow particularly smoothly. However in our final project, we were given a lot of independence and time to consider which shots to use in what order to make the film opening appear to play smoothly and continually. Due to this every shot was really thought out and this allowed us to think about what shots would suit the situation and cause the audience to have the feelings we wanted them to have. For example, we used close up shots to emphasise what the characters were thinking and feeling and therefore reflect those same feelings on to our audience. For example, we did an extreme close up on Poppy's face in order to emphasise the fact that she was afraid, therefore foreshadowing to the audience that there was something to be afraid of. In our Preliminary task, we used a close up of the protagonist using the phone several times in order to build tension. However in our preliminary task the shots were not as clear at conveying a message as they were in our final task.

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

Part 1 of After Effects Tutorial

To begin with, I learnt how to use 'After Effects' animation software to create an animated logo for the production company. I had never used this program before and therefore had no knowledge of how to use it. So to learn, we watched a YouTube tutorial which taught us how to create a logo that looked more professional than just creating one on Photoshop.
 
Doing this involved creating a number of different compositions and solids and applying different effects and pre-sets to them to create our desired effect. Due to the length of time it would have taken to write out 'Paranormal Productions' in this animated font, we had to abbreviate it to P.P.

Interface of After Effects Animation Software.

The most important technology we used whilst creating our film was Premiere Pro editing software. By using this software I have learned how to import footage and audio to the sequence, edit footage and audio and how to use different editing tools for example:
The Track Select Tool moves all the clips at the same time so you don't have to move them individually which would have caused a problem for us due to the sound bridges we had made.
The Rate Stretch Tool changes the duration of clips and stretches them out and speeds them up or slows them down. I have also learnt how to move clips around on the timeline to put them in the right place.

The Razor Tool is used to cut clips to get rid of any unwanted footage from the clip whilst keeping the relevant, useful bits.

We also learnt how to create sound bridges using the tools to break up all of the continuous speech in the film. Without them, the dialogue was overpowering and a sense of continuity was not created. So we used sound bridges to introduce the speech from one clip underneath another clip to stop the film from having blocked images with speech and make it more interesting to watch. We also used them to show other character's reactions to what is being said, this was very useful when our character Effie was giving her long, scary speech. Sound bridges broke it up so it was not in one large chunk and showing the other characters reactions helped to build tension.  

Rendering is another technique which was useful to learn. It takes your footage and makes it run smoothly and adjusts it to make it a better quality. Premiere Pro informs you that your footage needs to be rendered by putting a red line above the clips in the sequence. Once you render the footage by going into 'Sequence' and clicking 'Render entire work area' the bar above the clips turn green to let you know it has worked successfully. This was one of the most important things to learn whilst editing together our film as without this, the footage and sound would be poor quality and wouldn't have smooth transitions making the overall film appear unprofessional. 

We also used a website called incompetech to find royalty free music and sound effects that would not raise copy right issues. We used this for the music at the beginning of the film opening and learned how to import and overlap the sound.

When filming our product, we used a JVC camera with a lens that allowed us to alter the focus and depth of field. We learnt how to use the camera efficiently to create effects and which camera angles and shots would be the most effective to use. For example, using over the shoulder shots and two shots to film conversations and close ups to create tension. We originally filmed the footage using a DSLR camera, but when we came to import the footage to a MAC the files became corrupted due to compatibility issues. Due to this, we had to re film everything on the new camera and to ensure that the same problem did not occur again, we did a test to check if the files would be compatible with the computer. Whilst constructing this product, we faced several problems involving corruption and compatibility which taught us that you should always test the cameras before filming the entire product to eliminate the risks.

To create the presentations for the film and the evaluation we used creative technologies like Prezi, slide share and voice overs to make them more interesting and interactive.

Finally, we used a audio voice recorder to record the sound of a child giggling from a website. We originally tried to clip convert the video to an Mp3 file, but due to the schools internet rules, it was blocked and we could not use it and due to the young age of the antagonist we could not convincingly create the sound ourselves. We used the same technologies to record a voice over for this evaluation.