Evaluation AS 6

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Q6) What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the process of developing my group and I’s ideas to create a final product, I learned a various amounts of skills regarding constructing the product using different technologies. For example, in order to plan and evaluate our opening sequence as well as research what makes a successful thriller, I used blogger. Using blogger allowed me to document each of my processes on what I needed to do and give me a clear understanding of where I was up to, and how to go about certain key elements that are needed within a thriller. Having done so, I was able to document my progress with regards to the skills that I have learned and the skills of which I have now applied to my opening sequence. I researched into conventions of a thriller and what made thrillers successful so I would then be able to produce a successful final product. Blogger also allowed me to keep all of my work organised and clear for myself and others to read, this was important throughout because lack of organisation would delay the process of making the thriller as I wouldn’t have known how to carry out the planning of my opening sequence clearly. Another technology I used was the camera and tripod. The camera enabled me to do the filming and with the opportunity to film various scenes from different camera shots meant that we were able to, when editing, find it easier to piece it together smoothly and successfully. Alongside with the camera that I used came a tripod, the tripod helped my group and I to accomplish the necessary camera shots on an even and stable level so that our filming looks more professional such as high angle. Having handheld camera shots in thrillers is very successful, but by having it too much can make our final product look unprofessional and amateur which is something my group and I do not want to achieve, therefore using the tripod allowed us to experiment with how to handle our camera shots too. Moving onto the technology that helped my group and me to develop our final product further, is an editing programme called Final Cut Pro X. This programme allowed my group and I to view all of our recordings together and enabled us to see what pace our final product would be at, as well as viewing it with the ability to add in special effects so that when our audience finally views our final product, they will be more engaged with it. With regards to the sound and credits, that was also put together on Final Cut Pro X, but this part of our final product was under control with my group member; George Moore. He had the ability and understanding to present to Vasil and me certain sounds and style of opening credits that he felt would be successful within our opening sequence. He was able to pick the sounds that complimented our opening sequence very much and helped to develop our opening sequence even further so that it was finished. 

When editing my thriller I was able to edit sound into the opening sequence by using freesound.org which helped me to include sound in order to help create tensions and allow shock, surprise and suspense within my opening sequence.When it came to recording, my group and I worked well together in order to achieve the camera shots that required during the process of filming. For example, when we used a high angle during the filming in the bathroom, we found it difficult because we had to find the point at which would appeal to the audience and make the characters look vulnerable creating the necessary atmosphere. We over-came this difficulty by lifting the camera onto the tripod and tilting the camera slightly and holding the tripod firmly so the camera angle looks stable. Another difficulty that we came across was getting the camera from POV. This was first used through the killers eyes, it was challenging to film with because we had to make it seem that the audience is looking through the killers eyes and so if the camera is too far forward or out of sync with how the killer is walking, it would arouse suspicion and make the final product look amateur which isn’t something that my group and I want to accomplish. However, we were able to get over this obstacle by getting the killer to hold the camera as close to his eyes as possible whilst he walks so that there is a clear link between the camera angle and the killer so the audience are able to see this. 

During the process of editing, I noticed some of the strengths and weaknesses of mine that I feel helped towards making my opening sequence. A strength of mine was being able to look at the opening sequence and see if the timing of the frames were accurate in the sense of being able to create the wanted atmosphere that we wanted our audience to feel and notice. For example, at the beginning of the opening sequence I have the male character ‘Dave’ driving home from work, and if this shot was too long the audience would get bored of this very quickly, however if the frame was too short then it would be unclear to audience as to what’s going on. Therefore I felt that by finding the balance between the two would allow the audience to get an understanding of what’s going on, and also to keep a consistency of change throughout the opening sequence in order to make it more interesting and therefore our audience would engage more. I felt that another one of my strengths was my ability to help towards how smoothly our final product run. It was a joint group effort of which we all excelled at and so it was a group decision on how to run things, I feel that this was a lot of my strength because if my other group members missed something out, I would pick up on it and give them feedback so we would be able to progress our final product even further and more successful. Something that I felt was my weakness was my inability to decide on the correct sound used, and therefore my group and I decided upon George doing this role in picking the sound as he’s work and efforts with this section of our opening sequence meant that it would be successful. Though I am not bad at putting appropriate sound in within our opening sequence, I felt I couldn’t do this to its full potential so as a result of this I chose not to take control of sound.

One area in our film that reflects my editing skills is during the last four frames. This is because this part of the opening sequence shows the most eventful parts where successful editing is heavily required. I believe this to be my most successful editing throughout the whole opening sequence, as despite this being an equally shared group effort; I was able to make sophisticated decisions based upon how certain shots should happen and what pace. For example, in the twenty first frame there is a close up of our male character finding the now dead female victim. From this point onwards, there is a fast pace which I suggested as it represents panic and being unstable. This would make the audience feel unsteady and fearful of the ongoing events, Vasil and George agreed that this would be good to include in the opening sequence so therefore I felt that this was a very successful element to use. Reflecting on my efforts during the process of editing I feel this was my most successful piece of editing as without my direction as to how fast or slow the frames are, we may not have created the tension to the correct standard of creating tension and engaging the audience.

In order to create my evaluation I first used Microsoft Word but as I came to finish I converted each section into different parts onto blogger and prezi. Blogger allowed me to display my different sections and answers clearly and then allowed me to convert my work on to Prezi which is a modern power point and allows me to show an advance and smart way of displaying my work and show my understanding further.