Evaluation task 6

Since starting media I have learnt different skills to help me produce finished media products such as music videos, magazine covers and film openings. To practice different techniques we filmed our preliminary task, our preliminary task involved us demonstrating the 180° rule and continuity. This helped us remember the rule when we filmed our main task and avoid breaking it.

                                 

To film the preliminary we used a Panasonic camera and a tripod. We learnt about the 180° rule, how to frame shots effectively, how to ensure continuity and how important these things were. This helped us when we started filming our film opening because it made filming faster so we could edit more and had more time to re-film if we need to. It also helped because when we filmed we knew if we were breaking the 180° whereas before we wouldn't have realised. 

 To film we used a Panasonic camcorder, it was simple to use because the memory was an SD card so it was easy to delete footage we didn't need and to upload footage. One problem we faced with the camera is that it doesn't adjust to change of lighting very well, when Saira opened the door on the first session of filming we did the camera didn't adjust quick enough so when we uploaded it we noticed the lighting had changed. To resolve this we re-filmed and positioned the camera differently so that when Saira opened the door the light wasn't directly at the camera.At the start of our opening we had a handheld shot so we didn't need a tripod but in the second scene we needed one. The handheld shot went quite well but the footage is very shaky because we were running however the music we chose matches the pace of the running. We used a tripod to make our shots look more professional and of a better quality. The tripod proved difficult to use sometimes because of the width of the base it was limited to where we could put it and for one shot it wasn't tall enough so we had to put it on a table effecting the stability of the tripod.

We tried to stick to our shot list and script but we found that dialogue was hard to do because of the amount of noise the camera picked up also too much dialogue looked forced. We had a bit of dialogue and we cut before Saira could answer so it looks like the film continues.

We used editing machines that were placed around the class, there was 3 groups on each machine so we had to use and develop our time management skills to book a time slot on the editing machine. The editing machines had all the software we would need to edit our films

To edit we used Premier Pro, as a previous media student I knew a little bit about it Premier Pro but i had forgotten a lot of it. As we edited we learnt how to cut bits of clips that we didn't need, how to add effects and how to unlink sound. We had some problems with Premier Pro because we were fairly new to most of the techniques we were using. We learnt how to put titles over our shots in Premier and how to use all the different effects. I learnt how to render work because I didn't know how to do that before and its a useful skill to have for future projects.
We also used Adobe After Effects to create titles and add animation to them, this is useful because we could make our titles interesting and fit with the genre of our film. We used this to create our production company so we already knew a bit about it.

Everything we have used will help us with future projects because we will know skills and be able to develop them further as the course goes on. Knowing how to work the different software means that our future project will be done quicker and it will be easier to learn new things. When it comes to filming we know different techniques that will help us film quicker and more effectively. We also developed our team work and time management skills during the process, this will help with future projects and other lessons.