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

By enrolling on the media studies course there are many things I have learnt about the process of constructing all types of media products, from a simple video of recreating a scene, a preliminary exercise to learn about continuity in a sequence to creating the final product that is our opening sequence for One Step Ahead.

Juno recreation

Preliminary task

To film each of these we used a Sony camcorder, this itself was new to us as we had never had any experience with this level of filming, with each of us only filming minor things on video phones and webcams. With the use of a Sony camcorder we were able to learn about correct framing of shots and the importance of it. The use of the zoom button was helpful in getting two separate shots in one continuous part of filming which saved time and improved the quality of our film. 

Equipment + Diffuser for lighting

Strengths of using the camera equipment that we had were that with the tripod we were able to film shots that were steady and not wobbling all over the place. This improved the quality of our film by a significant amount, making it look much less amateur and so nothing distracts the audience from the narrative, as a wobbly camera may remove the focus from the plot. Another strength of having a tripod was the ability to attach our means of lighting to it. this meant the lighting throughout our scene was consistent and there was no fluctuations in where the light was coming from or how close and far it is. A final advantage of being able to use the camera equipment we did use was the ability to take tracking shots due to the presence of a dolly. This meant tracking or panning from left to right or forwards and backwards was much easier than if we were to do this free-hand. The diffuser helped to shine the light evenly over the room to create the perfect ambience that we desired.

Dolly

Lighting

Tripod

 However there were several problems with the camera equipment, the dolly spanned too largely at the base, this meant it was heard to negotiate around the small space of the loft. We counteracted upon this by moving furniture around slightly. Also The other group forgot to bring the attachment which connects the camera to the tripod, this was problematic as it meant we were unable to vertical panning shots easily, we resolved this problem by using excessive amounts of blu-tack to stick the camera to the tripod. We also had no way of safely attaching the lights to the tripod and so had to use plenty of tape to do this.

To edit all of our footage we used Final Cut express. We learnt from the very start of the media studies course how to shorten footage and remove parts we do not need as well as great effects and video transitions such as fading in, altering the lighting, overlapping sequences, avoiding jumps and blurring the motion. As the course proceeded we improved on all these skills, gaining the ability to not exactly which frames are needed and which is excess. Using the Apple Macs, we learnt how to import footage from the camera and work on several projects at once. 

All this technology helped us to build our knowledge and we learnt a significant amount throughout the process about creating and editing film. We were able to see the effect of storyboards and shot lists and how when on location it is difficult to execute some shots the way we intended, provoking improvisation. However we learned after that we are also able to manipulate our raw footage to suit us further with effects. For example when we realized we were missing a particular shot, we became aware that we were able to reverse a different shot so that it played backwards and filled the void.

Using Garageband to create our soundtrack proved testing as there is a limited amount of sounds and loops, this would prevent us from creating an original sounding track which reflected the tone of the film, however after looking at other soundtracks for inspiration Carmela was able to create an effective soundtrack. After transferring it to Final Cut we were able to manipulate it further to match the simultaneous images from the film. We were also able to change the format of the soundtrack, changing the volume and frequency to create the perfect sound for our opening sequence