AS media

1. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT
TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE
PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING
THIS PRODUCT?

2. INTRODUCTION
Throughout the process of creating out film opening, we have use a
variety of different software, programmes and equipment to help us.
Using them has enabled us to make the best quality film possible,
and we have had to learn how to use them along the way.

3. BLOGGER
In order to store and publish all of our course work in order and present the
planning, initial planning and post production work that we had carried out,
we used a website called Blogger.
Having never used a blog site before, it took me a while to get used to how it
worked, and I picked this up within the first few blog posts that I created.
Writing the blog was quite time consuming as they had to be planned out
before they were written.
However there was an element of the blog that I found difficult; this was
embedding a slideshare into a blog. It was hard to work out that the blog
had to be on the HTML setting when inserting a link for the website, and
although this took some time to work out, I found the answer in the end.
Blogger allowed us to publish our independent work so that the other
member of my group was able to see it so we could correlate out answers
and work.

4. FACEBOOK
We used the social media site Facebook to communicate between myself and
Megan, as well as to communicate information to our actors Lauren, Miah
and Luke.
We felt that this was the best way as it was efficient and it ensured that
everybody received the same information and knew what they had to do or
bring. Equally we all have access to the internet so we could converse back
and forth quickly in case any thing changed. Everybody in the group was
familiar with Facebook messenger and use it on a regular basis, so there
were no issues regarding use of the website/app or missing any messages
sent.
We did have to use Facebook as an emergency when the time of filming
changed due to the weather and how quickly it got dark, and everyone
received the message swiftly and replied, so the problem was solved.
If I was in this situation again, I would use Facebook as a method of
communication as it worked for what we needed and delivered messages
quickly.

5. CAMERA
The camera that we used was the Panasonic HDC - SD700 and it was
a camera that I had only used once before, when filming our
preliminary material for the draft film.
We had to be shown how to use the camera before we started filming
as we didn’t want to be left to work it out on our own as we may not
have been able to do it. Once we knew the basics, we found it easy to
use as we kept the settings the same to keep continuity throughout
our shots.
The compactness of the camera allowed us to film a variety of shots
with ease as it was so easy to manoeuvre. The only issue that we had
with the camera was that the sound quality wasn’t very good so we
were unable to use most of the clips with saund and we had to
remove it from the footage.

6. TRIPOD
We used the Velbon CX 888 tripod in our filming to ensure that the
shots were stable and of a good quality.
None of us had ever used anything like this so we had to be shown
how to set it up, change the height and angle, as well as how to take
it down again and store it correctly. Once we knew how to use it, it
was easy to create shots that were steady and even.
By having the tripod we could shoot a variety of angles with ease due
to the diversity of the tripod, and it has benefited our film from this.
I would use this piece equipment again as it helped us to create shots
that were professional looking.

7. LIVETYPE
LiveType is a software that we used to create our credits and title for our film
‘The Hunted’.
Neither of us had ever heard of the programme before, and wasn’t sure on what
it was, so we had to research it before we used it. The layout of the programme
was very professional and looked as though it would create high quality credits,
however we found it really difficult to use and took us a long time to learn how
to use it. We had to search for tutorials on YouTube in order to help us as we
couldn’t understand the written instructions. Having learned however, we picked
it quite quickly and were able to create the title and credits to how we wanted
them, by downloading specific fonts and inserting them into the programme.
They had a big variety of transitions and animations for when the credits
entered/exited the screen, so we could choose the most appropriate for our film.
Despite originally finding it hard to use, we were able to make expert titles and
credits to make the film look professional, and if I were to have another project
like this, I would use LiveType again as it was quick once we understood it and
gave us a quality finish.

8. IMOVIE
iMovie is an editing software that we used to edit our film, and it was pre
installed on to the computers that we used. Neither of us had used this
software before the preliminary task so had no experience with how to
properly use it.
The programme was very clearly laid out so we had no difficulties locating
specific elements of iMovie, however we didn’t know what we had to do in
order to put the clips together and actually create our film in a professional
way. We worked it out on our own and eventually found it extremely easy to
use.
Given that the sound quality was so bad on most of the clips that we had, we
needed to remove them from the footage, and we were able to do this as
iMovie allowed us to detach the audio completely.
I would definatley use this software again as it was easily accessible and
simple to use.

9. APPLE MACS
We used the 21.5 inch Apple iMacs that were located in the room that we
were working in, and they are the single desktop computers that had all of
the software that we needed to make our film already downloaded.
Having used these computers before, we were able to efficiently use the
Macs and locate where all the programmes were that we needed.
We used the Macs because they had specific elements that the non Apple
computers didn’t have, so it helped us to make our film to look professional.
There were a few issues however, for example the Film was only able to be
saved to one computer and couldn’t be accessed on any of the other Macs,
but we ensured that we worked at the same PC each time we edited the film
so that this problem could be avoided.
I would use these computers again because they were easy to use and had
all the appropriate software that we needed.

10. YOUTUBE
To publish our film we used a website called YouTube, which is a site
that allows you to post videos where other people can view, like and
comment on them.
YouTube is globally known website, and both Megan and I had past
experience with watching and uploading videos onto the site through
our own profiles, so we found it easy to use and navigate. In the
uploading process, we were able to give our film an official title that
it would be searched by as well as a description of our video; there
was also an option to keep our video private, but doing this would
have made it impossible for the video to be linked to our blog so we
kept the video public for others to see.
We found the website extremely easy to use and we would use it
again in another project due to the amount of people that it can
reach.